Park Minwoo greeted Beomyeong first.

“I was too busy last time to greet you properly. I’m Jaei’s boyfriend.”

Park Minwoo slipped out a business card and held it out. Beomyeong didn’t even glance at the business card Park Minwoo had slid onto the table, and replied with a smile.

“Yes. Park Minwoo-ssi.”

I was surprised that Beomyeong said Park Minwoo’s name without even looking at the card, but Park Minwoo himself nodded as if he had expected that.

“I heard you’re Jaei’s ex-husband.”

“Ha ha.”

Beomyeong laughed as if he found that amusing.

“Oh, yes. Well.”

Beomyeong didn’t look remotely displeased, just as he hadn’t when I had called him out to refuse remarriage. If anything, he looked pleased. He even looked like he was anticipating what exactly Park Minwoo was going to say.

Park Minwoo started talking in earnest.

“Our honey... Jaei told me. She said she’d been married before. But I don’t care about that kind of thing. It’s not really a flaw these days.”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Beomyeong nodded seriously. But his answer was closer to “yeh,” so it sounded a little odd.

Park Minwoo kept going without caring in the slightest.

“As you may or may not know, Jaei had a really hard time back then. I was the one who held her up beside her. I don’t know why you suddenly showed up and did this, but I hope you forget the past and don’t torment someone who’s starting over.”

Park Minwoo brought his shoulder closer and looked at me.

I clenched my hand tightly under the table at that greasy tone and voice. Even though Park Minwoo was the one talking and I was only listening, I felt so ashamed I thought I’d go crazy. It was hard to endure sober, and my tongue curled up.

It was definitely grateful... he was helping me... but I wasn’t grateful at all...

I glanced at Beomyeong out of the corner of my eye. He was watching my expression closely with a calm smile on his face. I hurriedly forced open the hand that had curled in on itself and leaned against Park Minwoo’s arm.

“Honey...”

Trying my best to act moved, Park Minwoo wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close.

“We’re getting married soon!”

Park Minwoo’s acting was reaching its climax.

“So don’t come near our honey from now on!”

Park Minwoo’s lines echoed and scattered through the closed private room like an afterimage. Soon, the air became so still it felt cold.

“...”

Beomyeong, with not a single flaw in his demeanor, cast his gaze far away and seemed to fall into thought for a moment. Then he rolled only his eyes and looked at me.

I jerked, a chill creeping down my spine. Right before he had tried to stab someone at the cafe terrace, Beomyeong had worn exactly that expression.

“Park Minwoo-ssi.”

Beomyeong called to Minwoo while keeping his gaze on me. The hand that was around my shoulder tightened.

“Yes?”

“You’re a good actor.”

“...Pardon?”

“I’m really glad Jaei has a friend like you... As far as I know, you work at a securities firm, but how about changing careers? I think you’d fit better in acting or games.”

As I said, Beomyeong hadn’t once looked at the business card Park Minwoo had offered. And games. That was the kind of thing that could only come from knowing Park Minwoo inside and out.

Park Minwoo’s mouth, which had been pouring out his lines with fervor, closed tight. I pressed myself even closer to him and jabbed his side hard from an angle Beomyeong couldn’t see.

While exchanging looks with Beomyeong in silence, Park Minwoo finally took his hand off my shoulder without lingering and pushed me away.

“Ha, busted.”

“...Hey, Park Minwoo!”

You can’t give up already! You said you’d handle it yourself!

Park Minwoo ignored my pleading look and batted away the hand I used to pinch his side. He took off the glasses he only used in public and set them down. His eyes, which had just been overflowing with energy, had lost it all and turned into the familiar dead-fish stare.

“It looks like he already came knowing everything, so what am I supposed to do?”

Beomyeong added with sickening politeness.

“Ah, don’t misunderstand. I didn’t look into Park Minwoo-ssi or anything. I just found out naturally while keeping an eye on hyung’s surroundings. As you know, there are things that ‘make it hard’ for hyung, aren’t there?”

What’s making it the hardest for me right now is you.

Beomyeong grinned obnoxiously. Park Minwoo, after wetting his throat with tea that had cooled somewhat, leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“No, well. Since everyone in this neighborhood knows about that stuff, it doesn’t matter. But bluntly speaking, whether I’m Joo Jaeyi’s boyfriend or not isn’t important. What matters more is that this guy doesn’t want to meet you again to that extent.”

“Wow, Park Minwoo.”

A minute ago I had been shaking with betrayal, but now I was impressed by that line. Beomyeong had neatly brought the fuzzy issue back into place. Hearing that made me think it wasn’t entirely a bad thing that the lie had been exposed right here.

I focused my eyes and looked Beomyeong straight in the face.

“You heard me, right? That’s how I feel. I really have not even the tiniest bit of interest in whatever happens with you again.”

Beomyeong tilted his head.

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why do you have no intention of trying again with me?”

“You’re asking that because you don’t know?”

Beomyeong linked his fingers and set his hands comfortably on the table. I had to force myself to look away from those long, pretty fingers.

“I don’t know. Tell me. I might be able to fix it.”

“There isn’t just one or two things. Your family...”

I stopped speaking and glanced at Park Minwoo. He let out a sigh after receiving my look, then picked up his glasses and stood up.

“I’m out. It doesn’t look like I’d be much help anyway.”

Beomyeong brightened and saw Park Minwoo off.

“Park Minwoo-ssi. I’ll have the game console hyung promised sent to your house.”

The hopeless game addict’s expression changed at the mention of a game console, and he looked at me with serious encouragement.

“He seems like a good guy. Talk it out properly.”

“Hah, what the hell. Wow, fuck

After Park Minwoo, who patted my shoulder twice and disappeared, left, I was finally alone with Beomyeong in the private room.

Beomyeong looked at me, bewildered and speechless, and held back a laugh while opening the menu. Watching him read the menu so casually, I snapped at him.

“Beomyeong, do you even have any pride?”

Beomyeong answered with his eyes.

“If it were me, I wouldn’t cling to someone who says they hate me this much. Bluntly speaking, what do you lack? Good family, young, yeah, and good-looking too. Someone like you, with that level of dominant trait, could meet a family that suits you just fine. Why me, specifically?”

I didn’t mean to demean myself, but other than being a dominant, I had nothing to offer.

The one thing I had that could be called family was trash that couldn’t even be sorted for recycling, and I didn’t have any notable talents either. I was enough to live on my own, but not enough to marry into a house like that twice.

So of course Madam Yi had no choice but to kidnap me and threaten me.

“Maybe the old days are some huge memory to you, but they’re not to me. I did it once, so why would I marry you again? Stop wasting time for no reason and please let me go.”

Beomyeong snapped the menu shut.

“Do I look like I’m wasting time right now?”

“Don’t you?”

“To answer your first question, yes. That’s right. I have no pride. I’m begging without pride.”

Even while saying he was begging, Beomyeong’s face was utterly confident. If anything, I was the one who looked more shabby sitting in front of him.

“Since family came up, do I look lacking to you? I already have everything, so there’s no need to sell myself off through marriage too.”

The corner of Beomyeong’s mouth twisted for a very brief moment as if in mockery, then returned to its place.

“And what I want is something only hyung has.”

“...What is it?”

“Let’s talk about that later.”

Beomyeong stretched out his long arm and pressed the bell.

“Since we met in a restaurant, at least eat before you go. Leaving without eating would be rude.”

That was where any memorable conversation ended.

Beomyeong called the server and ordered all kinds of dishes from the menu he had picked earlier.

It would have been cruel to make him eat all that alone, so I sat across from Beomyeong and forced myself to share the dishes he ordered.

Since it was an expensive restaurant, of course the food was flashy to look at and excellent to taste, but because Beomyeong’s gaze clung so persistently the entire time I ate, there wasn’t a single dish I actually remembered.

* * *

Beep, beep, beep!

The alarm set to a siren hit my ears.

“Ugh, my head...”

I slapped the drunken pain in my head with my palm and crawled across the bed to find my phone. After chugging three bottles of soju without any side dishes, I had no memory at all of where I had put my phone.

With my puffed-up eyes unable to open properly, I crawled around the bed on all fours and found the phone at my feet. It was a miracle the battery hadn’t died overnight.

I turned off the alarm, which was ringing loud enough to shake the building, found the charging cable and plugged it in, then sat on the bed in a lotus position like I was meditating, without even wiping away the eye crust.

I dozed while sitting there until the next alarm rang, then got up reluctantly and washed myself. After standing under warm water for a while, the smell of alcohol and the hangover had mostly faded, and I was able to move pretty well.