CHAPTER 5
However, Hong Yumin shook her head firmly.
Back in college, they had feelings for each other, but she and Seol Jaejun never developed into a deeper relationship.
After that, they had no contact for five years, so they were practically strangers.
So thinking of him in such a desperate moment was not only pointless but also disrespectful to him.
Click—!
It was then.
The doorknob turned and the door burst open roughly.
“How dare you lock the door when you’re just freeloading here, you brat?!”
Yumin’s Aunt entered, pointing her finger with her brows sharply raised.
“You ruined the blind date—how did that happen—”
“How did it happen?! Didn’t you properly attend the blind date?!”
Hong Suji pushed past her mother and quickly approached, grabbing Hong Yumin by the hair.
“……!”
As Hong Yumin clenched her lips and said nothing, Hong Suji shook her head violently in frustration.
Even as her head throbbed and her hair felt like it was being torn out, her anger only grew stronger.
She felt wronged, unable to understand why she had to be treated like this.
Filled with fury, Hong Yumin grabbed Hong Suji’s wrist tightly and twisted it.
Hong Suji screamed in pain and staggered backward.
“Ah! Y-you bitch…!”
Hong Suji frowned and turned her head sharply toward her mother.
Yumin’s Aunt, who had lost her turn to intervene, stood a couple of steps away, staring seriously at her phone.
“Mom! Do something about her! And did Dad or the shaman contact you?”
Yumin’s Aunt, still staring at her phone, muttered coldly.
“I just got a message from your father.”
Then she lifted her gaze and glared at Hong Yumin.
“You really…”
Seeing Yumin’s Aunt glaring at her with such anger, Hong Yumin was dumbfounded.
“What did I do so wrong that you’re looking at me like I should die? And what do you mean by being a scapegoat?”
At Hong Yumin’s clear question, Yumin’s Aunt flinched slightly.
But soon, she put on an indifferent expression as if it were nothing.
“A scapegoat? Did you have some kind of dream?”
At the way Yumin’s Aunt casually made her out to be a fool, Hong Yumin let out a hollow laugh.
“I heard everything Hong Suji said. That I’m a scapegoat. And that if I don’t go on the blind date, Hong Suji will die.”
Yumin’s Aunt’s eyes wavered.
But unlike her shaken gaze, she forced a wide smile.
“Haha, this is ridiculous. Why would our Suji die just because you didn’t go on a blind date? Stop talking nonsense.”
“Then why is Shaman Yoon involved in this blind date? Earlier, even Kim Byungtae kept mentioning Shaman Yoon. Didn’t you hear something strange from Shaman Yoon and transfer Hong Suji’s bad luck onto me? That’s why you sent me in her place, right?”
As if struck at the core, Yumin’s Aunt bit her lip with a twisted expression.
Then she poked Hong Yumin’s chest with her finger and spoke in a threatening tone.
“Bullshit.”
“…….”
“Stop it, you bitch. If your uncle finds out about this, you’ll end up locked in a mental hospital. Got it?”
A mental hospital?
Her strength seemed to drain away.
There was a limit to how much someone could treat another like a fool.
These people treated her as worse than a stone on the street.
Even if two people gathered, they could easily make one person out to be crazy.
No matter how much she spoke of their wrongdoing, she would only be labeled the strange one.
“Besides, we kindly arranged a valuable blind date for you to repay the debt you and your father owe us. And you ruined it? By bringing a man?!”
Hong Yumin flinched.
In her confusion, she hadn’t even considered that Kim Byungtae might have mentioned Seol Jaejun.
“What?! A man?! What man?!”
Before Hong Yumin could even respond, Hong Suji rushed over and grabbed her mother’s arm.
“What man?! Are you saying Hong Yumin brought a man and ruined the blind date?!”
Yumin’s Aunt did not answer and glared at Hong Yumin again.
“You explain it. What exactly did you do at the blind date?”
Hong Yumin shut her eyes tightly.
How much had Kim Byungtae told her uncle?
That she and Seol Jaejun seemed to know each other? That she brought a man and ruined the blind date?
Then how much had her uncle told Yumin’s Aunt?
It was then.
Smack—!
A dull sound rang as her head throbbed.
Hong Suji had struck Hong Yumin’s head hard with her phone.
Hong Yumin clutched the spot and glared at her.
“Answer me! Do you want to drive someone crazy?! Do you have a man you’re seeing? You don’t even know any men!”
Suppressing her boiling anger toward Hong Suji, who often resorted to violence, Hong Yumin ignored her question.
She looked only at Yumin’s Aunt and explained.
“At the blind date with Kim Byungtae, I just happened to run into a senior I briefly knew in college. Kim Byungtae misunderstood after seeing that.”
The air turned cold.
Hong Yumin continued speaking anyway.
“And the blind date wasn’t ruined because of that senior. It was because of Kim Byungtae. He said he just needed a wife who was good in bed and tried to force me to go to a hotel!”
As she spoke, her voice rose with anger.
At her plea, Yumin’s Aunt let out a scoff of disbelief.
“This is absurd. As if your body is worth that much.”
“……What did you say?”
“If you live together anyway, you’ll have marital relations, right? Just think of it as practicing in advance.”
“Aunt!”
“What! Am I wrong? If I were you, I’d use my body a hundred, a thousand times to repay this family’s kindness! If you ruined it for such a reason, I’ll arrange another meeting with Kim Byungtae, so go apologize and win him back somehow!”
Yumin’s Aunt said things she would never say to her own daughter and left the room.
Left alone, Hong Yumin could only gape like a fish, too stunned to close her mouth.
Then Hong Suji, who hadn’t left yet, grabbed Hong Yumin’s wrist roughly and asked.
“Which senior from college? Huh?! Don’t tell me it’s Seol Jaejun?!”
“……What?”
“……It is, isn’t it?! You met Seol Jaejun? Are you in contact with him? Since when? Didn’t things already end?!”
Hong Yumin narrowed her eyes and quietly stared at Hong Suji, who was pressing her for answers.
Why was Hong Suji so obsessed with Seol Jaejun?
“Answer me!”
“Hong Suji. Why are you so obsessed with Seol Jaejun?”
“What? Obsessed? I-I’m not!”
The Hong Suji who had been violent and abusive just moments ago was gone, and she now looked flustered.
“Come to think of it, it is strange. I met Seol Jaejun in a liberal arts class in my freshman year second semester, but you were on a leave of absence then.”
“That’s because you were always with Seol Jaejun, who was famous at school for being ridiculously handsome!”
“Fine, that explains how you knew. But why are you so obsessed every time he’s mentioned? Even before, whenever I came back from school, you’d keep asking if I met him until my ears hurt.”
Hong Suji always wanted Hong Yumin to be alone, both at home and outside.
So whenever she tried to get close to classmates or seniors, Hong Suji would interfere and sabotage her.
Hong Yumin thought Seol Jaejun was no different.
But now it seemed he was different. Perhaps she had feelings for him.
“Did you like Seol Jaejun?”
At the question, Hong Suji sneered and leaned in close enough for their foreheads to touch, whispering.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I just didn’t want to see someone like you getting even slightly involved with a rich heir you don’t deserve to look at.”
Ah. So that was the reason.
Because Seol Jaejun was from a wealthy family.
Was he really that rich?
Thinking back, there had been many rumors about him at school.
That he was the son of a construction company chairman, or the grandson of a hospital foundation director, and so on.
But Hong Yumin had never been curious about his background.
She simply liked Seol Jaejun as a person, someone who gave her the warmth she never felt at home.
Before she could get to know him deeply, she had been forced to go to Germany.
“Oh. If that’s the reason, don’t worry. There’s no chance of us getting involved again.”
At Hong Yumin’s words, Hong Suji seemed relieved and responded in a softer tone.
“……Yeah. There’s no way someone like you would get involved with Seol Jaejun again. Anyway, don’t mess up the marriage with Kim Byungtae and fix things properly.”
As Hong Suji tried to leave, Hong Yumin hurriedly grabbed her.
“Hong Suji!”
“What now?!”
“You said I’m a scapegoat and that I’d die in your place. Explain that before you go. I heard everything you said on the phone.”
“What are you talking about? Did you dream it? You psycho.”
Bang—!
Hong Suji left, slamming the door.
Left alone, Hong Yumin laughed like a madwoman.
Did I really dream it?
Why were these abnormal people calling her insane?
She stood there in emptiness for a while.
Unable to bear the suffocating feeling in her chest, she ran downstairs.
She felt like she needed fresh air, even for a few hours, to survive.
“Wait? Hey, are you leaving the house?”
At that moment, Yumin’s Aunt, who was on the phone on the sofa, pulled the phone slightly away from her ear and asked.
“No. Where would I dare go when my father is being used as a hostage?”
Ignoring Yumin’s Aunt’s anger at her retort, Hong Yumin slammed the front door and left.
After exiting the gate, she walked aimlessly through the alley.
“……What?”
At some point, a black car began closely following behind her.
