Chapter 35

A small frame, dark brown hair, and delicately upturned eyes. At the place Yu-jin pointed to stood a complete stranger. The one who had spread the rumor was Naru, but that person didn’t resemble Naru in the slightest.

Gyu-yeon thought Yu-jin had the wrong person. There was no way Naru would be somewhere like this.

“That’s not them.”

“How would you know? I’m telling you it’s them. Song Naun.”

“What?”

“Song Naun is the rich kid who spread bad rumors about you.”

Song Naun. The name was certainly similar to Naru. Yu-jin answered with a confident look. Gyu-yeon’s mind was turning white. He had even used a errand agency to bring Song Naru and had lived with them for almost two months, and he looked utterly confused as to what this could possibly mean.

Yu-jin was equally flustered. She had clearly seen Song Naun’s face at that party, and she couldn’t understand why Gyu-yeon kept insisting it wasn’t them.

Gyu-yeon slowly retraced the situation from two months ago. He’d been angry and had ordered a background check through an errand agency, and there the name was clearly—

Song Naun. It had said Song Naun.

Gyu-yeon had trusted Naru’s words over the errand agency’s sloppy work: that I am not Song Naun but Song Naru.

For a moment his vision swam. Gyu-yeon wanted to ignore the situation to the end. What if, as Choi Yu-jin said, that person was indeed the ‘rich kid’ he had been looking for?

Then who was Song Naru, and why had they seemed so unfazed even after being picked up and brought here?

“I’m going first.”

“Huh? Hey, Yu Gyu-yeon!”

Gyu-yeon stood up and hurriedly left the place. Yu-jin called his name several times from behind, but he only walked on as if he hadn’t heard. Watching his gloomy back, Yu-jin tilted her head and went back to her meal.

Gyu-yeon didn’t go after the man Yu-jin had pointed out. He just wanted to leave the hotel and go home. If he went home he could confirm the facts with Naru, and then go back to the way things were—

Could he live like before? Could he really live like before, even if it was all true?

Outside the hotel, Gyu-yeon pulled out a cigarette. His hands trembled slightly from the turmoil in his chest. He lit it with a lighter, inhaled deeply on the filter, and let the smoke drift away slowly.

If he went back now and grabbed that man, he’d know everything. There would be no need to go home and confirm things with Naru. But his feet wouldn’t move easily. Just a small step and he’d know the truth. Why was that?

After stubbing out his cigarette in the communal ashtray, a car had already arrived. The staff who had driven the car up to Gyu-yeon handed over the keys and bowed politely.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, Gyu-yeon didn’t start the car. He just sat there, burying his head in the steering wheel, lost in thought.

Right, go home for now. Step on the gas, Yu Gyu-yeon. Ask—ask Song Naru when you get there.

Finally, Gyu-yeon who had been sitting still started the car. The wheels rolled smoothly, and as he passed the hotel building and approached the exit—

Screech!

The car came to a sudden stop after not going far.

Cursing softly, Gyu-yeon opened the door and got out. He quickly approached the hotel entrance, handed the car keys back to the staff, and went up to the floor where the wedding was taking place. In his head he was recalling the man’s exact location from earlier.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Gyu-yeon rushed out and gradually increased his pace. Because it was a wedding, people crowded around, making it quite difficult to find the man.

“What’s this, Yu Gyu-yeon. Weren’t you going?”

“Where did that guy go earlier?”

“Huh?”

Yu-jin, who had just finished eating, spotted Gyu-yeon and came over. Gyu-yeon, whose complexion had gone pale in an instant, grabbed Yu-jin’s shoulder and searched for the man. After understanding the situation, Yu-jin pointed to the back with her fingertip.

“I think he went that way.”

As soon as Yu-jin finished speaking, Gyu-yeon turned and moved off. Weaving through the crowd and scanning around, he spotted an unfamiliar back and stopped.

Dark brown hair. It was the same hair he’d seen earlier. Gyu-yeon slowed his pace and slowly followed the man from behind. Holding a champagne glass in one hand and chatting with people his age, the man was finishing his goodbyes as if about to move to another spot with a woman.

“Well then, I’m off.”

“See you next time, Song Naun.”

See you next time, Song Naun. Song Naun, Song Naun…

It was faint, but he heard it clearly—the name ‘Song Naun.’

Gyu-yeon’s expression darkened rapidly. Picking up his pace a bit, he followed the man around a corner and immediately let out a hollow laugh.

The man who had slipped away with the woman immediately started kissing her as soon as they found a quiet spot. While one person’s heart was pounding in distress, seeing such a carefree sight made his blood boil.

Stepping forward boldly, Gyu-yeon pushed between them and pulled the man away. The woman, surprised by his roughness, glared at him with an annoyed expression and, realizing who he was, darted off.

“Ah, who the hell—”

“….”

Only the man and Gyu-yeon remained. The man who habitually swore fell silent upon seeing Gyu-yeon. It was unclear whether he shut his mouth because the other was simply superior to him or because he’d done something wrong.

Gyu-yeon gripped the man’s shoulder hard. As his hand tightened, the man who had been pretending to be tough let out a painful whimper through his teeth.

“Ugh…!”

“Name.”

“Huh?”

“Tell me your name.”

The low, subdued voice was threatening. The man looked around nervously and muttered his name. His pronunciation was slurred and his voice so quiet that it was impossible to make out what he was saying.

Gyu-yeon tightened his grip on the shoulder. The man who had been screaming out let out a squeal and quickly blurted his full name.

“Ugh! Song Naun, it’s Song Naun.”

“….”

What Yu-jin had said was increasingly becoming reality. Could this bastard really have been the one who spread the rumor at the DK Airlines youngest daughter’s birthday party? He had even grabbed a man named ‘Song Naun’—one question and he’d know.

But strangely he couldn’t bring himself to speak. Gyu-yeon wasn’t ready to accept this absurd reality.

Staring silently downward, Gyu-yeon scanned Song Naun’s appearance with his eyes. Dark brown hair, a sharp yet pretty face, an image that screamed early twenties. Even up close there were no similarities to Song Naru.

It was then. As Gyu-yeon hesitated and said nothing, a suddenly guilty Song Naun began to babble out his mistakes.

“I-I’m sorry. Back then at the party I drank way, way too much and wasn’t in my right mind. Words just came out weirdly, and then that suddenly spread as a rumor, so I was really embarrassed too. P-please, just once—I’m sorry.”

A party. Words came out oddly. That spread as a rumor. …He’s sorry.

Confronted unexpectedly with the truth, Gyu-yeon released Song Naun with a hollow look. With this, it was certain that the Song Naru at home was a fake.

“Where are you lying from. If you apologize to me here…!”

“I-I’m really sorry, yes?”

It would have been easier to never know. He hadn’t even suspected it; he had even been opening his heart. But the reality that hit him unexpectedly in this moment was so disorienting and cruel.

Begging as if he would kneel, Song Naun sensed Gyu-yeon’s odd state and pulled back. He’d already heard rumors that the youngest son of YK Electronics had been raised so freely he seemed crazy, so he needed to be cautious before suffering a worse fate.

In fact, Gyu-yeon couldn’t even bring himself to lash out. His state was exactly like the calm before a disaster—quiet and still.

“Get lost.”

“W-well, uh—”

“I said get lost.”

He didn’t want to look at that face any longer. At Gyu-yeon’s command to get lost, Song Naun fled like a shot, staring at him as if he were a ghost before disappearing. Left alone, Gyu-yeon sat down weakly and repeatedly splashed his face with water.

Then who was the person waiting for me at my home, and where did he come from? Why didn’t he resist when I brought him home? Did he stay by my side even though he knew?

Before that—what had I done? I brought a complete stranger home on a whim, hurled abusive words at them.

“Ha, fuck…”

Thinking back, everything had been strange. The oddly off conversations, Naru’s somehow peculiar behavior.

What kind of rich kid doesn’t know how to use a phone, gets lost in a department store, and can’t even understand simple words? He should have noticed the strangeness sooner. He felt like an idiot for not noticing.

He had just assumed they’d grown up unloved by their parents and lacked even basic upbringing. At first he felt only pity, and as time passed he wanted to give them all kinds of experiences.

He fed Naru delicious food, dressed him in fine clothes, and let him act as they wished.

But it had all been a lie. It was hard to tell where things had gone wrong, but in any case, the two months he had spent with Naru were all a delusion.

“What the hell have I been doing until now…”

He hated feeling this way, but Gyu-yeon felt betrayed by Naru. Not only that—he was suspicious.

That they had stayed by Gyu-yeon’s side without any resistance. That they hadn’t told the truth even though they knew Gyu-yeon wasn’t the one they were looking for. All of it was suspicious.

Of course, the latter was just Gyu-yeon’s own assumption. Naru had only believed they’d been sold to a new owner. The problem was that Gyu-yeon couldn’t have guessed that.

Vrrr. Vrrr.

Amid the confusion, his phone rang. Gyu-yeon took it out and checked the screen, then let his hand drop.