My Brother's Friend Wasn't a Guy - Chapter 12

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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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12.

“Well, Seo I-hwan is handsome. Handsome, sure, but his kind of handsome is different from mine, isn’t it?”
Lee Jin caught the unmistakable pride in Mun Gang-hyeon’s words about his own looks and burst out laughing at the sheer audacity.
“Most people keep thoughts like that to themselves, don’t they?”
“True enough, but I’m the type whose inside matches his outside.”
Gang-hyeon shrugged with shameless confidence.
If Seo I-hwan was the kind of handsome that felt bright and open-hearted, Mun Gang-hyeon was the kind that carried something dark and dangerous. No wonder people called the two of them inseparable friends “light and shadow.”
Yet Lee Jin had never bothered to think deeply about that distinction. What younger sister spends time analyzing her brother’s face?
She simply felt grateful that he was handsome enough not to embarrass her when they went places together. Since Seo I-hwan was like that, the way she looked at Mun Gang-hyeon—her brother’s friend—was much the same.
“I had no idea you were so confident about your looks.”
“With a face like this, of course I should be. What about you?”
“Huh?”
The returned question didn’t click immediately, and Lee Jin’s eyes flickered in confusion.
The playful laughter evaporated, replaced by air so dense it seemed to press down on them both.
“You, too. You’re pretty.”
She could have laughed off his confidence in his own appearance, but hearing him call her pretty so effortlessly was another matter entirely. She had no immunity to that—her face flushed hot.
“Me? Me…?”
The thoughtless protest that spilled out drew his gaze sharper, darker, fixed directly on her face.
“You’re pretty.”
The way he said it while holding her eyes—with such absolute certainty. It was bad for her heart.
“Me?”
Even as another meaningless protest tumbled out, instinct screamed a warning. This man—the energy he carried, the look in his eyes—was dangerous.
As if to prove it, Gang-hyeon traced her eyebrow with one long, thick-knuckled finger, gentle but deliberate.
“Your eyebrows are pretty, and your eyes are pretty…”
His finger moved with each feature he named.
“Your nose is pretty, and your lips are pretty.”
The finger slid down along the bridge of her nose and came to rest on her lower lip. His gaze darkened, hunger pooling deep and intent in his eyes as they fixed on that soft, trembling lip.
The shift in atmosphere happened in a heartbeat.
“Brother… please…”
The protest that escaped her backfired. The tremor in her voice and the flutter of her eyes only stirred his restrained nature further.
“If you call me that, I won’t let you go, Lee Jin.”
He stepped closer, his finger still resting on her lip. Lee Jin’s shoulders trembled finely, like prey before a predator.
Tension reached its peak, and heat rose between their bodies as they drew so close that breath mingled with breath.
“If only you were just a little less pretty. Then maybe my eyes wouldn’t go crazy.”
Murmuring that, he caught her lip between his teeth. Why did each time he kissed her only intensify a thirst that never seemed to quench?
With each moment his lips claimed hers, Gang-hyeon’s throat dried, his patience burned, his hunger deepened. To fill that ravenous void, he swallowed every shallow breath she took.
One hand curved around her waist, the other cradled the delicate nape of her neck, leaving no room to retreat as he ravished and invaded her mouth.
“Ah, mmph…”
A small, breathy sound escaped from her. The kind of sound that drives an already-frenzied man even wilder.
“Our Lee Jin—even your sighs are pretty. What am I supposed to do?”
He wanted to draw out more of these pretty sounds. He wanted to make her look up at him with reddened eyes, pleading. He wanted to hear her call his name until her voice broke and tears fell.
His mind spiraled instantly into a tangle of forbidden imaginings.
If this continued, he’d sweep everything off the Workshop table and lay her down on it without a second thought.
Well, that would happen eventually. Just not today. Today was only their second day together.
On a day like this, he’d have to scrape together whatever conscience existed and pretend it was real. That gossamer thread of reason was all that held him back.
He forced himself to pull away, studying her still-dazed face.
Her chest rose and fell with quickened breath, the sight far too tempting to bear.
‘Damn it.’
He tore his gaze away—it had been fixed as if pinned—and forced himself to meet her eyes again.
“Let’s go on a date this weekend.”
Lee Jin, her cheeks flushed pink, nodded slowly.
“Anywhere you’d like to go?”
He meant somewhere other than the Ceramic Biennale. The exhibition this year wouldn’t open until fall, after all.
Lee Jin blinked slowly, her thoughts still scattered. That whirlwind of a kiss had swept away even her capacity to think clearly.
“On Gallery.”
It was the only place that came to mind. There was an artist she’d been following who was holding her first solo exhibition there, and she’d been wanting to go.
“Ah, so this time it’s the gallery?”
Mun Gang-hyeon laughed softly and brushed his hand across Lee Jin’s cheek in a gesture of endearment.
“If I leave the date planning to you, we’ll just end up museum-hopping and gallery-crawling all day. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but—”
He smiled and tidied her hair and clothes with his hands. The way it tumbled loose only to be set right again by his touch stirred something unnamed in her—a feeling she couldn’t quite name.
Lee Jin, unable to pinpoint exactly what that feeling was, proceeded to discuss the date schedule with him.

***

Jin Ae-ran fixed her gaze on the mobile phone, as if it had wronged her personally.
The call log glowed on the screen, but the name of her youngest son—the one she wanted to see there—was absent. It seemed unlikely he would call first.
Better I die than suffer like this. After a sigh, Jin Ae-ran bypassed her difficult son in favor of Cheon Eun-jeong, who was far easier and more manageable to deal with, and placed a call.
[Hello, Madam.]
Cheon Eun-jeong picked up the phone, her voice warm and careful.
“Ah, yes. How have you been?”
Jin Ae-ran made pleasant small talk before asking, as if the thought had just occurred to her in passing:
“So you and Gang-hyeon are planning to see each other again?”
Cheon Eun-jeong’s brow twitched slightly.
‘A Contract Relationship, they said—and she still hasn’t told her mother anything?’
How on earth does that man handle his affairs! Though she fumed inwardly, Cheon Eun-jeong kept her tone measured and kind.
[Yes, well, we’re both busy on weekdays. We’ve decided to meet on weekends.]
“Is that so? Did Gang-hyeon suggest meeting up first?”
[That is, yes… Madam.]
Fine, whatever. Let Mun Gang-hyeon clean up his own mess afterward. With a fatalistic shrug, Cheon Eun-jeong fabricated her answer.
After all, Mun Gang-hyeon had extended his hand first. He should be the one to sweep up the debris. With a brazenness born of necessity, she reshaped the narrative: he had shown interest in her at their first meeting.
As she spoke, she could hear Jin Ae-ran’s voice growing brighter.
How much must I have troubled her for her to sound this pleased. Gang-hyeon, show your mother some respect. Cheon Eun-jeong clicked her tongue inwardly, then summoned all her reserves and poured forth words designed to delight the older woman.
“I’m so happy that your son and I have begun this wonderful connection. I took a liking to you the moment we first met.”
[You’re too kind. And please, speak comfortably.]
“Of course. We’ll be seeing each other often from now on, won’t we?”
Laughter flowed back and forth—warm, cordial, perfectly harmonious.
[I’ll visit you next time, Mother.]
“Yes, let’s do that.”
By the end of the call, the honorific had shifted to “Mother.”
[Yes, yes, then I’ll go now.]
Cheon Eun-jeong ended the farewell with an affectionate, coquettish nasal laugh, but the moment she hit the end call button, her expression hardened and she exhaled a long, weary breath.
“Wow, your acting’s gotten even better. Look at the goosebumps I’ve got.”
Cheon Woo-jae, her younger brother, sat across from her on the sofa and shuddered in mock horror, rubbing his forearm.
“Shut up. I’m busy, so either be quiet or get out. Pick one.”
Cheon Woo-jae couldn’t be bothered to move, so he merely pouted but said nothing more.
And it was hardly surprising—as the only male among three siblings and the youngest, Woo-jae held the lowest rank in the Cheon household. Years of being bullied by his nimble-minded older sisters had long ago sealed his lips.
Cheon Eun-jeong, worried that Jin Ae-ran might contact Gang-hyeon before she had a chance to, quickly sent him a message.

―Hey, emergency! We have to meet this weekend.

A moment later, Gang-hyeon’s reply arrived.

―I’m busy this weekend. I have a date.

“What? Seriously, this is ridiculous.”
Unable to contain her exasperation, she let out a curse aloud, and Cheon Woo-jae, sitting across from her, shook his head in sympathy.
“So he gets to enjoy the honey while I’m stuck doing all the hard labor?”
Cheon Woo-jae watched his sister glare at her mobile phone, fuming, and eventually rose quietly from his seat.
“Whether it’s melodrama or a mess, please just pick one and stick with it.”
Cheon Woo-jae clicked his tongue and, with perfect timing, slipped away just before his sister’s fury could redirect itself toward him.

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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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