AIM 77

AIM | Chapter 77

Chapter 77. Fresh Rice Cake

Haeyoung froze for a moment at the sincerity Taeseong pushed forward like a bulldozer.

Finding her reaction cute, Taeseong chuckled softly, turned his head again, and started walking.

“Let’s go home quickly, you might catch a cold.”

Unlike the calm Taeseong, Haeyoung’s heart was pounding like crazy—explosively, like she had just run a hundred meters.

At that moment, Haeyoung realized.

The feelings she had suspected might just be lingering attachment, that her first love was just a memory, her feelings for Joo Taeseong—

They were actually still alive in the present.

She just hadn’t realized it. Her time and heart had been flowing together, growing deeper and deeper.

Morning came.

Her eyes wouldn’t open, like they were glued shut, but she forced them open and checked the clock.

“…S-six fifty?”

At this time, she should have been busy preparing to open the café.

Sure enough, there were several missed calls and messages from Dohyun.

Noona, I’ll open alone so come slowly. Make sure to cure your hangover. You can’t smell like alcohol in front of customers.

“This punk…”

Gives the disease, then gives the cure.

Muttering softly, Haeyoung checked another message below.

It was a link to some website. The title read: January Stock Market Gossip.

Dohyun had never sent her something like this before, so Haeyoung tilted her head.

“Did he send this to the wrong person instead of a friend?”

Every time she muttered, her breath smelled like alcohol, so she clamped her mouth shut. Just then, another message came from Dohyun.

Noona, did you see it? This is about Taeseong hyung, right?

Haeyoung was about to type What are you talking about? but stopped and clicked the link.

The site was exactly as the title said—a collection of stock market gossip. Scrolling down, the third story seemed to be about Taeseong.

#3. Shocking, C Group Executive Can’t Perform?

Even the title was weird.

Recently, there are rumors inside the group that Executive Director J of C Group, who just had his abilities recognized properly, has problems with his sexual function. He secured a big contract for a struggling C Group subsidiary and is considered the top groom candidate in the business world. But recently, he allegedly confessed to an actress who made a move on him, saying, “I’m impotent.” If this is true, he won’t be able to carry on the C Group family line in the future…

As she read, Haeyoung’s eyebrows bent like seagulls, looking ready to fly to the Busan seaside.

“What is this?”

Feeling her brain might break if she read more, she closed the page.

Haeyoung fell into thought for a moment, muttering to herself.

“No, but… I’m sure…”

Just recently, when Taeseong was on top of her on the sofa, what she felt on her thigh was… definitely… maybe…

“…Ha.”

Realizing where her thoughts were going, she shook her head hard.

“Are you crazy? What are you thinking?!”

She pressed her fists to her temples and shook her head. Her stomach churned as if what she ate yesterday might come up, but she couldn’t help the dirty, shameless thoughts popping into her mind.

Just as she was shaking her head again, nearly about to gag, Taeseong’s voice came from outside.

“Cha Haeyoung, you awake?”

Haeyoung, covering her mouth, didn’t answer. Finding it strange, Taeseong carefully opened the door.

“It’s past time for you to—”
“Ugh!”

The moment he opened the door, Haeyoung leapt from the bed and ran to the bathroom inside her room.

As she vomited up everything from yesterday, she thought—

If I drink again, I’m not Cha Haeyoung, I’m Dog Haeyoung.

Haeyoung cautiously lifted her spoon, watching Taeseong.

Then, his sharp gaze and pointed voice cut across the table.

“You’re really too much.”
“…”
“Of all times, why’d you have to throw up exactly when I walked in?”

Feeling guilty at his half-complaint, half-whine, Haeyoung still stuck out her lips.

“That’s not something you can just control, okay? And also—”

She got worked up but quickly covered her mouth.

“Also what.”
“…”
“Also. What.”

He asked twice, but Haeyoung just rolled her eyes.

No way she could say, I shook my head and threw up after hearing you’re impotent this morning.

“Making someone curious is really petty, you know?”

But Taeseong was persistent, his eyes fixed on her until she answered.

Her gaze involuntarily dropped—toward the reason her head spun worse and her hangover felt heavier.

“Where are you looking?”
“You… are you really…?”

The first syllables were muffled.

“What?”
“…Impotent?”
“Rich?”

Unlike Haeyoung’s slowly reddening face, Taeseong’s stayed smooth—calm like someone playing with the situation.

Unable to stand his deliberate game, Haeyoung burst out—

“I said, are you impotent?!”

Realizing she’d actually spoken the embarrassing word, she froze.

Then she held out her palm.

“Hey, no. Wait. Just pretend you didn’t hear that. I must have gone crazy.”
“You saw it? The gossip?”
“…Huh?”

At his calm voice, Haeyoung lowered her hand and blinked.

“You… saw it?”

She asked carefully.

What man would be happy about rumors saying he was impotent? Even if it wasn’t true.

Trying to comfort him, Haeyoung began loudly—

“I-I don’t know where those rumors came from, but—”

Looking at her clumsy attempt at comfort, Taeseong’s lips twitched.

“Don’t lose confidence! Modern medicine is so good, okay?”

While she caught her breath from speaking nonstop, he explained.

“I’m not impotent.”
“Huh?”
“I said, I’m not.”
“Ah, that’s a relief. Still, having that rumor is upsetting—”
“I’m not upset.”
“Huh?”

Her voice rose an octave with each question.

But the doubt shooting up in her was cleared with one sentence.

“I’m the one who leaked that gossip. Myself.”

His sly voice came with a seductive smile.

“Because you said you’re scared another woman might take me.”
“…When did I—”
“Yesterday, drunk, crying into my back—”
“Shut up.”

Haeyoung clamped a hand over his mouth.

Her desperate, firm eyes told him to stop. He adjusted his tone and continued.

“Now no one else will be interested in me. No matter how good rice cake looks, no one eats it if it’s spoiled.”
“…You’re really crazy. Why?”
“Because it only needs to be fresh rice cake for you.”

Her glare tightened, but Taeseong ignored it and pushed forward again like a bulldozer.

“Now that rumor’s out, I can’t get married to anyone else, so Cha Haeyoung, you have to take responsibility. Got it?”
“Crazy man.”

And she didn’t dislike it.

It seemed her feelings yesterday hadn’t just been drunken emotions.

She liked this crazy man—ten years ago and now.

Late in the evening, a luxury sedan stopped in a quiet residential area on a hill.

Kijun got out and looked up at Haeyoung’s house.

He had come straight here after returning from a business trip, but had no plans to call her out.

He touched the ring case in his pocket. The velvet surface clung to his palm with a strange sense of security.

But the security came not from the softness, but from his certainty.

He had waited for Haeyoung for ten years, staying by her side. At the same time, he had kept her from stepping outside the fence.

He planned to become her savior, so she would come to him without resistance.

A crescent-shaped smile curved on Kijun’s lips.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed.

When the cold made his hands numb, he reached for the car door to get back inside.

Just then, a man and woman were walking toward Haeyoung’s house.

“Good thing our Komi wanted tangerines. If she’d asked for peaches, we wouldn’t have been able to get them.”
“Right, oppa. She’s such a good daughter.”

Kijun stared blankly at the two entering Haeyoung’s building.

It was a multi-family home, with a structure where the entrance to the second floor could be seen from the front.