My Brother's Friend Wasn't a Guy - Chapter 34

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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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34.

Lee Jin’s gaze lifted then.
Only then did Cha Ji-hoon see her eyes settle on his face, and he drove his point home again.
“Come to me, Lee Jin.”
Her pupils wavered as she weighed the meaning behind those words. So Cha Ji-hoon laid himself bare.
“I like you. Not as a junior—as a woman.”
Yet oddly, over his earnest confession, Lee Jin heard Moon Kang-hyun’s voice overlaid in her ears.

“You’re a woman to me. Have been for quite some time.”

Her mind churned in confusion, and her mouth twisted. After drawing a long breath, Lee Jin spoke to Cha Ji-hoon.
“First, thank you for liking me. But how did you find out about this? How did you get this?”
As Lee Jin pointed to the photograph, Cha Ji-hoon explained smoothly.
“Our university’s chairman knew Moon Kang-hyun. That’s how I found out about him too. I got the photograph to explain things to you.”
“Oh, I see.”
Lee Jin lowered her gaze back to the photograph.
Cha Ji-hoon had thought she might go into shock and panic, but her mind remained clear—more composed and rational, even.
Enough so that she knew something Cha Ji-hoon had obtained wasn’t something just anyone could possess.
“Then I can take this with me?”
When Lee Jin asked with an expression he couldn’t read, Cha Ji-hoon stumbled, caught off guard.
“Er, y-yes.”
Lee Jin bore no resemblance to any of the scenarios he’d envisioned.
He’d expected that learning Moon Kang-hyun had deceived her would make her confess everything to him. But it didn’t.
He’d prepared to comfort her if she trembled with betrayal and wept—yet instead of tears, she only grew more composed.
“I’m sorry, but my head’s so muddled right now that I can’t talk anymore. Would it be all right if I left?”
Cha Ji-hoon, the very source of her confusion, couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
“O-okay.”
Lee Jin gathered the photograph and rose from her seat.
“I’ll call you once I’ve sorted things out.”
Cha Ji-hoon couldn’t simply let her go, so he quickly added a parting word.
“Right, I’m leaving.”
She said she understood, but it felt more like a perfunctory courtesy than genuine acknowledgment.
Anxiety gnawed at Cha Ji-hoon, and though his body tensed to follow, the bomb of his confession kept him rooted to his seat.
After she left the café, Cha Ji-hoon alone finally grasped that his confession had petered out unresolved.
“Damn, what a mess…”
Why didn’t Lee Jin waver? Did that man mean so much to her? Jealousy clouded his judgment before—
“No, wait. She did react.”
He convinced himself that the shock had simply stolen her words.
“Lee Jin, no matter how much you care for him, some things just aren’t allowed.”
So in the end, you’ll come to me, he assured himself.

***

After leaving the café, Lee Jin walked toward the subway station in a daze before her legs gave out and she stopped.
Exhaling a long breath, she barely steadied herself and stood again.
Outwardly composed, but there was no way she truly was. After all, he had deceived her.
Lee Jin grasped easily enough what Cha Ji-hoon had meant to say.
Moon Kang-hyun, who even has a woman picked out for marriage, is toying with you—so stop now. Before you’re wounded deeper, end it here.
No one but a fool could fail to understand.
Nausea churned in her stomach as if she were seasick. The consistently gentle face of Kang-hyun and Cha Ji-hoon’s voice swirled dizzily in her head.
Another long breath escaped her, and Lee Jin dragged her leaden feet forward.
Since Kang-hyun might drop by the workshop, she headed straight home instead.
Ordinarily, she despised going home and would linger at the workshop as long as possible, but today—today the stifling, suffocating confines of her apartment seemed preferable to a workshop where Kang-hyun might appear.
And so she arrived before a convenience store near her building.
“Lee Jin! Lee Jin, right?”
A man she’d never seen before greeted her as if they were old acquaintances.
Who on earth is this? With suspicion in full bloom, Lee Jin asked sharply.
“Who are you?”
At that, the man smiled oilily and handed over a business card.

―Do Hyun-su, Head of Strategic Planning, HS Group

Do Hyun-su? The name and face were unfamiliar. When Lee Jin’s expression made it clear she didn’t recognize him, he smiled and introduced himself.
“I’m a friend of your brother Lee Hwan. So we’re seniors and juniors from the same high school.”
Even so, nothing came to mind. Unlike when Cheon Eun-jung had described her former self and something had suddenly clicked into place, now there was truly nothing. Nothing at all.
Which meant she and Lee Hwan hadn’t been particularly close.
“A friend of my brother’s?”
When Lee Jin asked with obvious skepticism, Do Hyun-su’s mouth twitched unnaturally as he spoke.
“Everyone from high school is a friend, right? Isn’t that so?”
Clearly he was nothing more than a classmate, not someone who’d been close to her.
Lee Jin wasn’t in a frame of mind to engage in warm conversation with a stranger, so she found him quite bothersome.
“What is this about?”
Her tone carried that irritation, so Do Hyun-su’s eyes narrowed slightly.
She’d grown far more beautiful than she’d been in school. If he’d passed her on the street, he would have stopped to look. She was exactly his type.
Though back then she seemed docile and composed, but hardship had made her sharp-edged. Well, that has its own charm.
Do Hyun-su withdrew his appraising gaze and organized his thoughts. These were words he’d carefully rehearsed and planned.
“Your brother cherished you, you know. Knowing that, I couldn’t just ignore that you’re in a bind. Do you understand who Moon Kang-hyun is?”
She never expected him to say such a thing. Lee Jin looked at Do Hyun-su with cold, frigid eyes.
That gaze was exactly like Cha Ji-hoon’s just a moment ago. The look of someone trying to tear down another and seize some opportunity.
The anger she’d barely managed to suppress came bubbling back up.
“What are you trying to say? That Kang-hyun is from the Moonseong Group wealth?”
“What? You already knew that?”
Do Hyun-su was flustered. He’d been told that Lee Jin—no, that Lee Jin, was meeting Moon Kang-hyun without knowing that fact.
“Is that all? I also know there’s a woman he’s being arranged to meet with.”
“What, what? You know that too?”
Do Hyun-su’s carefully rehearsed simulation crumbled to pieces. What? You’re not supposed to say that right now.
He made creaking sounds like a broken doll as he watched Lee Jin glare at him with sharp, piercing eyes.
He’d thought winning over a woman like Lee Jin would be easy. He believed that if he spouted the prepared lines of a set script, she would fall for it.
True, he had the disadvantage of never matching Moon Kang-hyun’s wealth and looks, but even so, that bastard had deceived and toyed with Lee Jin, so he’d believed he could win her heart without much difficulty.
But Lee Jin had known all his flaws? And was still meeting Moon Kang-hyun despite knowing?
Did that mean she didn’t care if she was being played with, or if she became his second choice? His imagination spiraled into increasingly twisted directions.
“What, so you’re seeing Moon Kang-hyun for money while knowing all this?”
Do Hyun-su’s demeanor shifted abruptly to something crude and threatening. And in that same instant, Lee Jin’s patience—which she’d been holding back all day long—finally broke.
“Money? Why would that be? Are you trying to seduce me with money too? How much are you offering? How much can you offer?”
When Lee Jin raised her voice, Do Hyun-su flinched involuntarily.
Every woman he’d ever known had been motivated by his lavish spending, and they’d flirted and acted cute for him.
This was his first time facing a woman who mentioned money while glaring at him as if she could kill him.
“More than Moon Kang-hyun, right? Much, much more?”
When he answered that way, Lee Jin let out a hollow breath. Then, opening her eyes wide, she looked up at him directly.
“If you want to see me, even if you brought every last penny of your entire fortune, it wouldn’t be enough. So stop wasting time and leave.”
Then she spun around and walked away.
Do Hyun-su could have grabbed her right then, but overwhelmed by her sheer presence, he could only stare dumbly at her retreating figure.
“Damn, exactly how much did that bastard promise her?”
He’d long known Moon Kang-hyun had lost his mind, but the fact that he’d given such an enormous sum to keep Lee Jin tucked away in the back was staggering.
“And why did she grow up to be such a wild one?”
Do Hyun-su despised strong-willed women. That gave him a chance to reconsider Lee Jin.

When Lee Jin got home, she rushed into her room as if someone were chasing her.
After steadying her breathing and checking her phone, she saw a message Kang-hyun had sent earlier.

―Where are you?

Lee Jin pressed down gently on her chest, where a storm of emotions was churning, and composed a calm response.
After she hit send, she raised her knees and buried her face between them.

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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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