My Brother's Friend Wasn't a Guy - Chapter 33

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

33.

Lee Jin’s gown fell open, exposing her bare skin. Kang Hyun pressed into the space between them.
“So you did want this after all?”
His words, breathed against her most intimate places, were shamelessly explicit.
“No, I… mmh…”
Lee Jin had no protest left in her as she surrendered to the pleasure his touch bestowed.
By now he knew all her vulnerabilities—exactly where to touch and precisely how she would respond.
“If we hadn’t done this, you’d have regretted it forever. Wouldn’t you?”
As he nibbled at her earlobe, her body grew increasingly feverish. He was right, and there was nothing she could say against it.
After all, it was she who had ambiguously provoked him just as he’d been drifting to sleep.
Their ragged breathing tangled together in the dark, and the world tilted and swayed. As they crossed and recrossed the threshold of pleasure, a dizzying euphoria claimed her.
Lee Jin exhaled in sharp, shallow gasps before watching him tear open a second condom wrapper—she froze.
“What—what is this?”
Kang Hyun’s expression remained perfectly composed despite her shock.
“Weren’t you curious how many times you could go?”
“No, I… I wasn’t…”
Lee Jin shook her head quickly. Some instinct told her that if she didn’t, something she couldn’t handle would unfold.
Yet Kang Hyun proceeded undeterred. Once he’d finished preparing himself, he smiled wickedly and spoke.
“You know you can still go further?”
The moment he touched her already sensitized flesh, her vision flashed white.
“Ahh…”
“See?”
He chuckled and drew her into him far more intensely than before. Every nerve in her body seemed to blur and melt away.
“Brother… please…”
She pleaded with him, but his intensity only deepened.
He licked the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, then began to move slowly, deeply.
“Ah, ah…”
His body—sculpted like that of a warrior—glistened with sweat in a way that was profoundly erotic.
Lee Jin’s fingers traced the lines of his muscles, an almost instinctive gesture.
But her touch only spurred him on. He moved with an abandon as though he’d lost all restraint.
The sound of ragged breathing and wet friction filled the air relentlessly, and they crested once more into bliss.
This time, utterly exhausted, Lee Jin finally succumbed to sleep.
Kang Hyun gazed at her sleeping form in alarm, then gave a rueful laugh as he recognized his own excess.
Though his mouth exhaled in silence, his hands moved of their own accord to brush the strands of hair clinging to her cheek.
He returned with a damp towel and gently wiped away the tears streaking her face and the evidence of their passion from her body.
Even as he cleansed her, the heat that had risen in him showed no signs of cooling. It was almost like madness.
‘I’ve lost my mind.’
Kang Hyun muttered darkly as he rinsed his face with cold water. If she hadn’t exhausted herself into sleep, he might not have stopped.
He looked at her body, marked and flushed from one end to the other, and sighed before pulling the blanket over her.
It was an act almost like shutting her away from himself.
He wanted to be her safest, most secure refuge. He wanted to shield her from every hardship in the world.
Yet now she seemed thrust into danger from all sides—not merely physical, but in countless other ways.
Kang Hyun suddenly craved the cigarettes he’d quit long ago, but he pushed the temptation away and forced his eyes shut.
It took him a considerable time before he finally managed to fall asleep.

***

For the past week, Kang Hyun had been consumed with delaying any information about Lee Jin from reaching his mother—so consumed, in fact, that he’d overlooked something crucial.
He’d managed to block his mother’s associates from approaching Lee Jin, but he couldn’t account for everyone else.
Though in truth, short of being divine, it was impossible to seal off all information and all people anyway.
Which was how Cha Ji Hoon managed to secure a private meeting with Lee Jin after so long. He’d chosen a meeting place deliberately, knowing he might run into Kang Hyun if he went to the Workshop—then summoned her.
Light poured through the cafe’s broad windows, and bathed in that radiance, Lee Jin looked unusually beautiful.
She possessed a fresh, innocent quality like a flower in full bloom, and Cha Ji Hoon felt his heart quicken. But he concealed it, adopting the demeanor of an overbearing senior, and spoke.
“It’s been forever since we’ve met alone like this.”
“Yeah, it really has.”
Lee Jin smiled at him as she always did, yet something about him felt awkward to her.
Being around him was uncomfortable somehow, though she couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly what made her feel that way—which only frustrated her more.
When he reached out, I considered turning him down, but I changed my mind just as quickly. He’d done so much for me back in university.
It wasn’t that I’d received something expensive from him—it was that I owed him a debt of gratitude.
Throughout our university years, Cha Ji Hoon had looked after me and been considerate of my needs, and my appreciation for that was genuine.
We sat over coffee, trading gossip. Who’d gotten married among our club’s seniors and juniors, who’d landed jobs where, whose work had won some contest—the conversation drifted along those familiar lines.
Then Cha Ji Hoon asked, almost offhandedly.
“How are you doing these days?”
Lee Jin treated it as nothing more than casual inquiry and answered lightly.
“I’m doing fine.”
But Cha Ji Hoon’s expression hardened, and the air between them shifted.
“Hey, Lee Jin. Listen to me without misunderstanding. I’ve wrestled with whether to say this, but I’m telling you because I care about you.”
Why was he suddenly making everything so heavy? Lee Jin nodded, waiting.
Whatever else she might’ve wondered, one thing was clear: he’d called her here today specifically to say this.
“It’s about the man you’re seeing……”
“Why are you bringing up Kang Hyun?”
Lee Jin’s eyes widened. She never would have expected Cha Ji Hoon to know anything about Kang Hyun—the two of them had no connection whatsoever.
“Is he really just an architect?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Something in his tone made Lee Jin’s nerves sharpen. This didn’t sound like it would be anything good.
“He’s not just an architect. He’s with the Munseong Group. He’s their third son.”
“What do you mean, suddenly bringing up the Munseong Group?”
“So you didn’t know. I thought something was off about the whole thing.”
Cha Ji Hoon clicked his tongue, as if this confirmed his suspicion. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out several photographs, sliding them across the table.
Lee Jin’s hands trembled as she examined them.
In one photograph, surrounded by a crowd of people, was Kang Hyun—photographed with the Munseong Group’s owner.
Though she didn’t recognize the current chairman’s face, she knew Moon Hee Chan’s well enough. He’d been in the media so often when he was the previous chairman.

“Man, they say Kang Hyun’s family is huge. You heard about that?”
“What I heard was that the Munseong Group……”
“Right? The Munseong Group—they’re on a whole different level among chaebols.”
“But why would a chaebol ever go out with someone like Seo Hwan?”
“Right? That part’s definitely strange.”

A memory echoed in her ears—voices chattering carelessly one day in the past.
There had been a rumor circulating that Kang Hyun was the third-generation heir to the Munseong Group.
But soon after, it all died down as people dismissed it as baseless gossip. So she’d simply let it go as nothing but rumor.
‘It was true all along?’
Lee Jin stared at the photographs with a hollow expression. She saw Cheon Eun Jung’s face among them—standing next to Kang Hyun, smiling warmly beside him.
“You know most chaebol families do arranged marriages, right? The woman in the photo is the second daughter of the Osong Group. There’s been constant talk of marriage between her and your boyfriend.”
“……”
When Lee Jin said nothing, Cha Ji Hoon exhaled a frustrated sigh.
“I know this is a shock for you. But think about it, Lee Jin. Why would he hide who he really is from you? Why wouldn’t he say a word when marriage talks were happening?”
Lee Jin couldn’t tear her eyes from Kang Hyun in the photograph. His image felt like that of a stranger—or someone entirely different from the man she knew.
That’s right. Why did he hide it from me?
His deception seeped through her heart like a drop of ink falling into water, darkening everything.
He’d said he and Cheon Eun Jung could never become close. But if they couldn’t become close, could they still manage an arranged marriage?
Once suspicion took hold, it wouldn’t let go. Her chest tightened; she could barely breathe.
So what am I supposed to do? What does he expect from me?
Lost in confusion, Lee Jin questioned herself, trying desperately to escape the shock.
And Cha Ji Hoon spoke as if he understood exactly what she was struggling with.
“Lee Jin, don’t even look at a tree you can’t climb. You’ll only get hurt. That’s what worries me.”
“……”
When she still didn’t respond, Cha Ji Hoon made his final move.
“Come to me instead. I’ll make you a hundred times, a thousand times happier than he ever could.”

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