My Brother's Friend Wasn't a Guy - Chapter 9

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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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9.

Moon Kang-hyun had been popular throughout his school years. But for some reason, Cheon Eun-jeong found him unsettling—he didn’t seem like someone their age at all.
The way he concealed his true self and manipulated others with such natural ease made her perceive him as something other than human.
That arrogance of his, letting only people he approved into his circle and treating everyone else like they were invisible—it had always rankled her.
Moon Kang-hyun hadn’t changed one bit.
“If I’d known you were the blind date today, I wouldn’t have come. I’ll pretend I don’t know who you are—let’s forget this ever happened.”
Cheon Eun-jeong smoothed her expression with effort, waving her hand, and though she was visibly straining not to furrow her brow, Kang-hyun exhaled sharply.
He said nothing, merely tapping one crossed leg idly against the floor.
At his dismissive gesture, Cheon Eun-jeong finally lost her grip on composure, her brow deepening into a scowl.
After a stretch of silence, Kang-hyun spoke.
“Have you heard about Seo Yi-hwan?”
At the question, Cheon Eun-jeong’s face drained of color in an instant.
“Yes, I’ve heard. Why?”
Her sharp response carried an odd, melancholy undertone. Kang-hyun smiled bitterly, then gestured to a staff member and ordered coffee.
Turning to Cheon Eun-jeong, he tilted his chin—an expression that said you can order or not, as you like.
“Same for me, please.”
Cheon Eun-jeong muttered a curse under her breath, forcing her lips upward into something resembling a smile.
The more she thought about it, the more ironic it seemed—that Seo Yi-hwan and Moon Kang-hyun were best friends.
Once the staff member had withdrawn, Kang-hyun spoke in his characteristically cold and detached manner.
“I know you had feelings for Seo Yi-hwan.”
“So what?”
This bastard clearly had no grace whatsoever—no tact, no mercy.
Cheon Eun-jeong glared at him now, all pretense of composure abandoned.
“That’s why I wondered if you were just grabbing onto anyone to get married.”
He shrugged indifferently, and his apparent concern for her welfare struck her as decidedly suspicious.
Cheon Eun-jeong breathed out slowly, steadying herself. It was true—she had cared for Seo Yi-hwan.
Her taste had always leaned toward someone like him—bright and straightforward—rather than Moon Kang-hyun with his arrogance and cold demeanor.
But that didn’t mean she’d been plotting anything with him.
Born as the second daughter of a chaebol family, she’d always known her marriage would be a strictly business arrangement.
Yes, her heart had shattered when she heard the news of his death, and yes, she’d locked herself in her room for days afterward.
But his death hadn’t ruined her life.
“I appreciate you thinking of me as someone so pure-hearted about love, but you’re wrong. This meeting is purely a business decision. Tying the Munseong Group to our family through marriage connection—it benefits us on every front.”
Kang-hyun answered with casual indifference, sipping the coffee the staff member had brought.
These days, just looking at that refined face made her blood boil. Rather than drink her coffee, Cheon Eun-jeong crunched through the ice.
“Then we should get along perfectly.”
Kang-hyun set down his cup. The restrained precision of his gesture, the length of his fingers—they naturally drew the eye.
Any woman who saw only his surface would fall for him in a heartbeat.
But Cheon Eun-jeong, who knew what lay beneath, found herself grimacing and wrinkling her nose.
“What are you getting at?”
“Pretend to date me for just a few months.”
“What?”
She narrowed her eyes, wondering what scheme was brewing in his head.
“If this blind date falls through, my mother won’t give up. Just go along with it for a few months. In the meantime, use the Munseong Group’s name however you need to.”
“Why just a few months?”
The proposal seemed plausible on the surface, but the arbitrary time limit didn’t sit right with her.
It sounded like he had another way to break off the unwanted marriage after a few months.
“You don’t need to know the details. I just need some time.”
Kang-hyun needed time to fully win Lee Jin’s heart and strike a deal with his grandfather. But he had no intention of explaining that to Cheon Eun-jeong.
How irritating. Cheon Eun-jeong smirked inwardly, her brow furrowed in thought. Still, the proposal wasn’t entirely unfavorable for her either.
An engagement with the Munseong Group would give her family’s trust and restore her reputation—which had been crumbling—in one stroke.
“Fine. Pretending to date is easy enough.”
After settling the bill, Cheon Eun-jeong nodded her assent.
Moon Kang-hyun was infuriating, but a business partnership born of necessity was hardly insurmountable.
“Good thing you’re not short on sense.”
“Hey!”
Though that resolve wavered in less than a minute, an odd business arrangement had nonetheless come into being.

***

Lee Jin was shaping clay in the Workshop with a restless, unsettled heart.
After spending a night at Cheongjuk-je and returning home, the distance between her and her mother had grown even wider.
They tried to carry on as if nothing had happened, but the awkwardness kept creeping in no matter how hard they tried to suppress it. So Lee Jin had barricaded herself in the Workshop all weekend long.
She reasoned that if she exhausted her body, she could silence her racing thoughts—so she created more work and pushed herself relentlessly.
Yet even so, waves of sorrow would ambush her unexpectedly, and worse still, the memory of that kiss with Moon Kang-hyun would surface, causing her considerable distress.
“How ridiculous. Truly.”
She exhaled a deep sigh. She’d never even been interested in a celebrity during her adolescence, and now here she was in her twenties, shaken by Moon Kang-hyun. It was absurd.
“This is all his fault.”
She muttered, conjuring up Seo Yi-hwan’s face for no particular reason.
Despite the mere four-year age gap, he’d behaved as if he were her father, strictly monitoring her romantic life.
During her school years, he’d blocked her from dating men with countless objections—saying she was too young and naive, that boys only had one thing on their minds, that they were all mindless idiots. And so, even now at twenty-seven, a single kiss had left her this thoroughly undone. Because she had no experience.

And she was appalled at her own defenselessness—how she’d carelessly placed Moon Kang-hyun in the space her brother had left.
Unconsciously, she’d begun thinking of her brother’s friend as a brother too. But he was looking at her with entirely different eyes.
How was she supposed to face Moon Kang-hyun now? Unable to settle her turbulent feelings, Lee Jin crushed the clay she’d been shaping.
The twisted, misshapen vessel mirrored the tangle of her thoughts so perfectly that she despised the sight of it.
Just then, the doorbell chimed. Lee Jin headed toward the Entrance out of habit.
Even if her scheduled appointments had dried up, occasionally someone would simply walk in off the street.
She assumed this was another such customer.
“Are you working through lunch without eating?”
Moon Kang-hyun appeared with an expression of perfect composure.
“Moon Kang-hyun…….”
Lee Jin hadn’t expected him to show up looking so unruffled, so for a moment her expression betrayed her.
“I brought you your favorite dessert.”
He set the package down on the table. The emblem on the bag was from the Scone shop she loved most.
“Oh, just a moment. Let me wash my hands first.”
Lee Jin glanced at her clay-covered hands and hurried inside. She’d come out in the middle of working on the pottery, so her hands were filthy.
She used washing her hands as an excuse to try to organize her turbulent thoughts.
Only then could she face him without her wavering heart showing through.
But he followed her into the work space. As she washed, she felt the sharp burn of his gaze on her back, and instead of settling, her mind tangled itself tighter.
She deliberately washed slowly, but she couldn’t wash her hands forever.
Lee Jin dried her hands slowly and turned around. The moment their eyes met, she flinched without meaning to.
That keen gaze seemed to pierce through her turmoil with absolute certainty, and at the same time, it felt as though it might consume her—heat radiating from it.
“Lee Jin.”
The deep resonance of her name made her heart leap, but she forced herself to respond with studied indifference.
“What?”
“Are you angry because I kissed you without asking? Or do you find me revolting?”
She hadn’t expected him to be so direct, so for a moment she faltered, her brows drawn together.
“No, I’m not angry. I don’t find you revolting either, it’s just…….”
“Just?”
He took a step toward her. One step—but his stride was long, and suddenly he was right in front of her. The scent that drifted from him made her head swim for a moment.
“Just, I’ve never thought of you as a man before. So I was caught off guard, I suppose. I’ve always seen you like a real brother.”
Moon Kang-hyun listened to her somewhat disjointed explanation, then bent his waist, lowering his gaze close to her face.
“I see. You have every reason to be surprised. I did something sudden like that.”
His words seemed to understand her heart, and Lee Jin felt her tension ease for a moment, her shoulders dropping.
But only for a moment. Moon Kang-hyun reached out and traced her lips with his thumb as he spoke.
“But you wouldn’t do this with a real brother, would you? You wouldn’t feel anything either.”
Feel? Lee Jin stared at him in objection, and Moon Kang-hyun smiled smoothly as he asked.
“Did you really not feel anything?”

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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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