My Brother's Friend Wasn't a Guy - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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11.

“I’m telling you, there’s no getting around Grandfather’s perception.”
Kang Hyun broke into a soft laugh. Sculpted and radiant as carved marble—he’d clearly inherited someone’s sharp features—but Moon Hee-chan clicked his tongue.
“This boy doesn’t even bother with polite denials.”
“Why dance around it? I know exactly what I want to say anyway.”
Moon Hee-chan stopped mid-step, arrested by the eager light in his grandson’s eyes—that fresh, unguarded quality of youth.
Since his son’s death, Kang Hyun had grown up far too quickly. But today he looked like a man his own age should look. Moon Hee-chan’s perceptiveness kicked in at once; he understood what kind of lobbying was coming.
“She’s a good one, I’d wager.”
“Absolutely virtuous.”
“Pretty face, and an even prettier heart?”
“No point asking twice.”
He’d tossed out flattery on purpose, and the boy had run with it, doubling down.
It irritated him slightly, but Kang Hyun’s expression was so bright that Moon Hee-chan chose wisely to stay silent.
Standing beside his grandfather, Kang Hyun gazed out through the glass toward the Garden.
His eyes followed the manicured landscape, but his mind wandered to moments shared with Lee Jin.
They stood in silence for a while, looking out, until Kang Hyun spoke first.
“Mother’s going to oppose this.”
“Yes, she will.”
Moon Hee-chan understood his grandson’s meaning without difficulty and nodded slowly.
A pretty face and an even prettier heart—but she might lack something. Money, perhaps.
The Moon family, who had built the Moon Sung Group, had bred generations of people with the bearing of tigers—bold, unmoved by petty emotion, sometimes fierce, sometimes valiant.
But Jin Ae-ran was closer to a fox.
Sharp, meticulous, opportunistic to her core, she was infinitely tender with those within her chosen circle, yet ruthless and pitiless toward those beyond it.
Her standards for a daughter-in-law would be equally precise. Moon Hee-chan knew Jin Ae-ran’s nature well, and so he understood why Kang Hyun felt the weight he did.
“What can your grandfather do for you?”
Kang Hyun answered with a bitter smile.
“Come to my wedding.”
“That should be obvious.”
“Even if the whole family opposes it and no one else shows up—please come, Grandfather.”
It was less a request than a declaration of war: he would push through no matter what opposition arose. Moon Hee-chan let out a hollow laugh and nodded.
“All right, I’ve accepted such an extraordinary bribe. I have no choice but to oblige.”
“I can’t give it to you right away—maybe in a few months? Around six months from now? Besides, you would’ve come anyway, even without this bribe.”
“You rascal, and yet here you are, arranging all this.”
The two of them faced each other and laughed once. Then, as something occurred to him, Moon Hee-chan asked.
“But have you and that girl settled everything about the marriage?”
“Not yet. I still have work to do.”
“What?”
Moon Hee-chan’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer.
He’d assumed that if Kang Hyun was determined to go through with marriage despite family opposition, the preparations would already be underway.
“That pretty girl with the prettier heart—her standards are rather high.”
“You mean… you haven’t actually won her heart yet?”
Moon Hee-chan was utterly flummoxed, exhaling helplessly several times over.
“Exactly. But with such a talented grandson working at it, she should agree soon enough.”
His grandson was solid and well-proportioned; he’d shown an unusual quality even as a child.
Different somehow, you might say. Or perhaps slightly bent from the path of righteousness.
Call it extraordinary if you’re generous, or call it unconventional if you’re not.
Moon Hee-chan caught a glimpse of that quality now and found himself smiling awkwardly.
“All right. Your grandfather will root for you.”
Moon Hee-chan had become desperately curious about the young woman his grandson was so eager for.

***

The next afternoon.
The studio door at Serenitas chimed softly. A man with an unmistakable presence entered, emanating the aura of a predator.
“Hi.”
Kang Hyun greeted her as though they were meeting for the first time, remaining leaned against the entrance without stepping further inside, his gaze fixed on Lee Jin.
“Oh, um, you’re here?”
Lee Jin received him awkwardly, her response stilted.
Kang Hyun was the same as he’d always been—just Kang Hyun—yet the moment they’d agreed to date, he felt utterly transformed, a stranger wearing a familiar face. It was deeply unsettling.
That discomfort must have been written all over her expression. Which was why he was looking at her now with that insufferable grin, clearly delighted by her confusion.
Knowing this didn’t help. Lee Jin’s racing heartbeat left her scattered, unable to marshal any composure.
“C-come in. Why are you just standing there?”
She busied herself examining pottery materials, deliberately avoiding his gaze—yet her senses betrayed her, flowing toward him with heightened awareness.
A soft laugh, the corners of his mouth quirking upward, his posture casual with one hand in his pocket yet somehow perfectly composed. Even the air around him seemed to shift, densifying with presence.
She didn’t need to look. His image materialized unbidden before her mind’s eye. And with each passing second, her awareness of him grew sharper, more acute.
Cute. Kang Hyun watched her faltering movements and let out a quiet laugh. He’d known the day after they agreed to date, she’d be exactly like this.
The fact that she remained adorable despite being entirely predictable meant the blindfold was on tight. Though admittedly, he’d been wearing it since long before.
He felt the patience he’d cultivated to an almost ascetic degree draining away like an ebbing tide.
Looking at the flushed tips of Seo Lee Jin’s ears and her shoulders flinching with forced restraint, he couldn’t remain unmoved—doing so would be a betrayal of his very nature. The result was inevitable.
He would become a torrential downpour crashing down upon her, and in the end, he would sweep her away in a deluge.
With deliberate steps, he closed the distance and wrapped one arm around her waist from behind. Clearly unprepared for such direct contact, her entire body went rigid.
“Looks like you’re busy.”
“Y-yeah. A little.”
Her little head was working overtime—he could see it plainly. She was probably wondering whether this was normal for people in a relationship.
Knowing this, Kang Hyun betrayed nothing, simply squinting as he smiled.
“The weather was beautiful on my way here. Is there anywhere you’d like to go? Doesn’t have to be today.”
“Anywhere I’d like to go?”
Lee Jin turned to face him, trying to think of an answer—but he was too close, and her mind offered nothing but vague hesitation.
“The Ceramic Biennale?”
“Well, that’s… unexpected. I didn’t think you’d suggest the Ceramic Biennale.”
Kang Hyun grumbled about how there were flowers blooming everywhere.
“What’s wrong with the Ceramic Biennale?”
A spark of defiance flared in Lee Jin, and she protested in a small voice. He gave her nose a gentle pinch before releasing it.
“The Ceramic Biennale is something we’re definitely going to—but that feels more like work. So think of somewhere else. Somewhere more fitting for a date.”
The word “date” pierced her consciousness suddenly. Ah. He’d been asking about date locations. The belated realization embarrassed her.
“I’ll think about it. A date location.”
Nothing came to mind at this moment. She’d need him to disappear from her field of vision before she could think clearly.
He laughed again—that quiet, pleased sound—and nodded.
“Good. Think about it. I think we should alternate between places you want to go and places I want to go.”
Not just once, then. Lee Jin blinked rapidly at this fresh realization.
She understood what romance was in theory, but introducing Kang Hyun into the equation had somehow wiped the slate clean.
“Okay.”
She nodded readily enough. After all, dating came with dates as a matter of course.
Kang Hyun gazed at her face for a moment, then a question seemed to occur to him.
“By the way—remember what you said before? That you’d never thought of me as a man. How is that possible?”
“What?”
“My face doesn’t read as masculine? That’s strange.”
Lee Jin faltered at his shameless confidence, but she pushed past it and answered seriously.
“Well… it’s probably because Lee Hwan is so good-looking too.”
Her brother’s handsome face, seen every day, had normalized handsomeness itself—making this friend’s looks easy to overlook.
Kang Hyun exhaled at that response.
The best friend who’d worked so hard to keep him away from Lee Jin had inadvertently done the opposite—his very existence had been the obstacle all along. It was, frankly, a bitter irony.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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