episode_0115

On the taxi ride home, no words were exchanged.

Titi Titi – Tiririk –

The suffocating silence continued until the front door was opened, but Hyeji did not dare to open her mouth first.

Looking at my brother’s serious expression, I felt like I had done something wrong, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was…

Above all, because this was the first time I had made a mistake as a ‘human Jeong Hye-ji’, I had no idea how to apologize or what to say first.

If this were ‘mingming’, if that were the case…

I could have just lied down on the floor and licked my brother’s feet. It would have been enough to just scream that I was wrong and beg for punishment…

Hyeji felt like her blood was drying up as the atmosphere changed 180 degrees from the wedding photo shoot in the morning. It felt like my body was slowly freezing from the tips of my feet to the coldness that Hyunwoo was giving off.

and.

Heeju’s advice, which she had pondered over all the way back, kept repeating in her anxious mind.

“Hehe… What did that woman say earlier? In the bathroom.”

“Huh?”

The suffocating silence was finally broken by a clanging sound.

However, the broken fragment became another sharp dagger and stabbed her in the chest.

“You said that when you got off the elevator. Please think carefully about what I said.”

Hyun-woo urges Hye-ji to answer with an indifferent expression and indifferent voice.

He knew that a low voice would aggravate her more than a loud voice, so he lowered his voice tone noticeably.

Hyeji barely opened her mouth, recalling the conversation in the bathroom.

“He… he looked at my brother and called him a snake…”

“Snake?”

A snake. Hyunwoo tilted his head and asked back as an unexpected word came out of her mouth.

Why, why?

He called the man “brother” and bowed down to him, but he did not become servile. I wanted to fuck that bitch, but I didn’t show any signs of being impatient.

No matter how much you think about it, there was nothing wrong with your performance today, and yet you are a snake…

Hyunwoo, who had been suppressing his anger, appeared in his eyes instead of annoyance.

There was no way he didn’t know that he had just openly eaten ppaenjji.

A man who refused to give me his number, making lame excuses. A woman who went to the bathroom and felt a cold breeze blowing.

His pride was severely crushed by the treatment he had never experienced since getting plastic surgery.

He was no longer a person who would be ignored wherever he went.

With looks and money. There was no one anymore who could so carelessly ignore him.

Even though it was clearly like that, it was ignored.

At first, I thought Hye-ji was the cause and planned to kill her. Because of her immature behavior, I was upset because I felt like I was suddenly being treated as a lackey.

However, listening to Hyeji’s words just now, it seemed like she was somehow responsible for the situation.

“Tell me in detail. What did you say?”

“Ah, my sister…”

“What about you? Don’t you know what the situation is? We were treated like complete idiots.”

“Huh?”

“Whew, that’s it. I’ll explain everything later, so let’s start by listening to what she said.”

Hyeji carefully watched Hyunwoo’s thoughts and recalled the conversation in the bathroom.

I don’t know why, but I could feel my brother’s vivid hostility, so I chose my words carefully.

“That woman…”

*

At that moment, Hyeji was looking around, amazed that even the bathrooms in the hotel were different.

After confirming that the bathroom was empty, Heeju got straight to the point.

“Are you happy meeting that man?”

“Yes?”

“You say you love me every day, right? You say you’re getting married. And then you order all sorts of things, right?”

Hyeji, who was smiling innocently, could not hide her embarrassment.

I don’t know why he suddenly did this, but I could clearly feel the other person’s dissatisfaction in his harsh tone.

The smile gradually faded from her face.

“… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Were you happy while playing? I’m asking if you did it because it felt good or because you wanted to.”

The question of whether you are happy pops up again. I wondered why I was asking this question, but for now I nodded.

Because the happiness she felt the day before yesterday was undoubtedly real.

“I was happy. It felt good, and I did it because I wanted to.”

“Ha, me. This is your first relationship, right?”

“It’s not the first time, it’s the second time.”

Hyeji’s lips came forward slightly in a pout.

I just told you to feel free to call me sister, so why are you suddenly saying this?

The way he was lashing out as if he had done something wrong reminded him of the mean manager who had been harassing him not long ago.

Is this person, like the manager, a bad person on the outside and inside?

I thought he was definitely a good person… he seemed that way… but I couldn’t understand why he was so angry.

“Whew, the second… Well, that’s not important right now. Do you think you will marry that man? I’m sure he said he wanted to get married. No?”

“… That’s true… But it’s a bit harsh to say that you are that guy.”

“I’m thinking about something from the past, so I’ll tell you something off-topic to Hyeji. It goes without saying, but snakes don’t marry frogs, they just eat them.”

Heeju gave heartfelt advice to the unfortunate woman in front of her.

Although I wasn’t the kind of person who would bother to meddle in a fleeting relationship, I couldn’t stay still as I looked at Hyeji, who looked exactly like my past self.

“I remember. Snakes just like frogs, they don’t love them. No snake loves a frog that just eats it deliciously.”

“… What are you talking about?”

“And marriage is not that easy and simple. There are so many couples in the world who end up breaking up even though they act like they’ll be together forever when they’re dating. Even after marriage, relationships between men and women break up!”

As the conversation continued, Heeju’s voice grew louder. At the end, she seemed to be excited as well and spoke informally.

Hye-ji, whose biggest goal, marriage, was attacked, could not hold back and raised her voice.

“That’s… my sister… she’s saying it because she doesn’t know! My brother and I felt like we were destined for each other from the first time we met… we had the same pain and trauma… and…”

“Trauma?”

“Yes! trauma! My brother and I had no family, so we were all alone in the world. So now I am the only woman who can understand my brother. So… So, my brother and I will definitely get married later.”

Fate, trauma, and the ridiculousness of being each other’s only mate.

A baby’s love. It is the love of a child. No, that’s not a baby’s love. I wouldn’t know if it were a young child playing around with a child’s ugly desires.

Hee-ju sensed that there would no longer be a conversation with Hye-ji, who was holding on to a futile dream.

Nevertheless.

I wanted to say one last thing to her. As a senior who has already walked the same path.

“Hehe… There was a time when I was just like you. A time when I believed I had met my fateful partner. But of course, the love that I believed would last forever was not eternal and was not even love.”

Heeju closed her eyes and opened her mouth with difficulty, recalling the past she wanted to forget.

Is it because my emotions have become more sensitive due to pregnancy? I didn’t know why I was so upset.

Saying that you don’t have a family, that you have trauma. Maybe it was because those words bothered me.

“… To become a loved ‘me’, there must be ‘myself’ first. Before you get hung up on love, take care of yourself first. Next, think about whether your current love is really love.”

If someone had given me this advice at the time, would I have listened to it?

I wasn’t sure that was the case. However, I hoped that the Hyeji in front of me would be different from my foolish self.

“I remember. That snake named Hyun-woo doesn’t love Hye-ji. You’re playing with a woman who doesn’t even know she’s a frog. I’ll go back first, so come in slowly.”

Hee-ju poured out all she had to say to Hye-ji, who was speechless, and then turned away first.

Although he was a bit emotional and impulsive, he said everything he wanted to say and everything he needed to say.

Ttogak – Ttogak –

As she walked away leaving Hyeji behind, her back was confident and without the slightest wavering.

*

“So, my brother… said he was a snake, and he said I was a frog. My brother is playing with me…”

As Hyeji finished speaking, her face was full of confusion. My voice and hands were shaking.

When she heard the story, it was so shocking that she didn’t have the time to understand it properly, but the dozens of minutes of silence that followed during the taxi ride made her head become a mess.

My brother loves himself. I love my brother too. That was an immutable truth that should never be shaken.

But… but…

A woman I met on a week-long outing had a very confident attitude and poignantly shook the truth without even trying to change her words.

“Ha, that woman… something like that happened.”

Hyunwoo, who had all his questions answered, looked straight into Hyeji’s eyes.

The black eyes flashed with the power to pierce her soul.

“So, what did you answer?”

“No answer, no answer.”

“Then… what do you want to say now?”

It was a short period of time, but complete silence passed over the two, not even the sound of breathing.

“… Oppa, you love me, right? If I… do better, will you really marry me? I… will make you happy forever, right?”

I really didn’t want to ask this question. But I couldn’t help but ask. It was not enough for her to shake off the current confusion on her own.

“Whoa… Are you shaking? What does it look like to you?”

Hyeji had no answer to this question.

Her eyes were trembling as if she would burst into tears at any moment, but her tightly closed mouth showed no sign of opening.

Just like that, the suffocating silence that had disappeared for a while fell between the two again.