“…What do you think she said?”
Rather than answering him outright, I tried to gauge what he was already guessing.
“The obvious stuff. She probably just droned on with the same old boring lines.”
“I don’t know what obvious stuff you’re thinking of… but I think you’re probably right.”
Han Jinheon chuckled and turned his gaze from me. After a moment of thoughtful silence, he murmured in a voice tinged with weariness, “She sure is good at showing up at someone else’s house uninvited and stirring up trouble for a person who’s doing just fine.”
"It doesn’t matter what your mother said. Han Sol, you just listen to me.”
“……”
“Just listen to my words, and believe only my words. I guarantee you, I’m the only one in this family who actually thinks of you.”
“…Really?”
I wasn’t questioning him out of suspicion, but out of pure curiosity. Was Han Jinheon really the only person in this family who cared about Han Sol? I was already starting to think so myself, but I wondered if he saw it that way too.
Han Jinheon covered my hand, which was resting on the table, with his own. His fingers naturally intertwined with mine. The tattoos on our middle and ring fingers blended together, making it impossible to tell whose was whose.
It was the first time we’d had this kind of tingling skinship, and I could only stare at our joined hands.
“If you can’t believe anything else, just remember this hand. Believe in the warmth this hand gives you.”
His calm voice rippled across the surface of the silence. Intoxicated by its smooth, serene resonance, I couldn’t say a word. I simply let my gaze travel from our hands to his face.
Only when our deep-set eyes met did the breath I’d been holding unconsciously burst out. The moment the heavy air I’d held in escaped and new air rushed in, a strange feeling, as if a new and unknown sense had awakened, dominated my entire body.
The fine hairs on my skin stood on end as they accepted this new sensation. Heat rose to my cheeks, and my fragile heart began a subtle, rapid beat.
I knew. His eyes and voice were as impassive as ever, but I was the one feeling uncharacteristically flustered. I was the only one attaching excessive meaning to it.
Even though my heart always beat because of this man, it had never beaten in this specific way. Even when I felt fluttery because I was a sucker for good looks, because he was my type, it was always in the context of an ideal type. It had never beaten with feelings that absolutely shouldn't be directed at my brother.
I shouldn't like this man. I shouldn't like my brother. This is wrong.
I definitely needed to go on that blind date. Spending over a month constantly seeing a man who was exactly my type had made me strange.
I was losing my discernment and developing feelings. That wouldn't do, it was time for a change.
I pulled my hand away from Han Jin-heon’s and subtly stated,
“I’m telling you this because I trust you, Hyung… I’ve decided to go on the blind dates…”
***
There were reasons why I had to go on a blind date: Han Jinheon and money.
After living for over a month seeing only Han Jinheon’s face, my mind was being consumed by him. From the moment I opened my eyes until I closed them, I saw only Han Jinheon. I waited in his mansion for him to come home from work. It was at a point where it would be stranger not to like him.
That’s why I had blurted out to Han Jinheon that I would go on the dates, even before I had properly looked at who was in the profiles.
I hadn’t even given Lee Geumyoung a definitive answer yet. I spoke before I could think, afraid I would go from strange to utterly bizarre.
And then there was the money. A week ago, when I told Lee Geumyoung I would go on the dates, she told me to wait a moment and then wired money to my account. This was the same woman who’d slapped my back and asked if this was any time to be demanding money.
[11/03 Lee Geumyoung 10,000,000 KRW (Balance: 10,000,189 KRW)]
Ten million won had appeared in my account in an instant. While I had been thinking on a smaller scale—a few hundred thousand, maybe a few million at most—Lee Geumyoung started with a base of ten million and enticed me further by saying she could give me more depending on how wisely I acted from now on.
I'll never forget the moment the corners of my mouth shot upwards as I counted the zeros. Ten million won just for agreeing to a blind date. An amount of money I might or might not earn even after several months of work, all at once. And she said she could give me more? How much more?
Perhaps she'd give me more if I managed to secure a second date?
But contrary to my expectations, it seemed a second date wouldn’t be happening. I had gone to all the trouble of getting Han Jinheon’s permission and coming to the date, only to be utterly humiliated by my counterpart. He had literally thrown water in my face.
‘This is why I agreed to this date. When you were riding high, you treated people like trash. Now that you have nothing, you want to go on a date with me? HANQ has no shame, putting forward garbage like you.’
Starting with "trash," he hurled all sorts of insults, telling a Beta like me not to snoop around in their world. I was so busy wiping the water from my face that I didn't catch everything. By the time I tried to listen properly, my blind date had already left.
To think I’d live to have water thrown in my face. It was a fresh reminder of just whose body I had possessed.
“Ah, thank you.”
A staff member brought the coffee I had ordered, along with a towel to wipe my face. They hovered hesitantly, so I thanked them first. The employee gave me a kind smile, told me to let them know if I needed anything else, and left.
If you were going to throw water, you should have done it before I ordered. Did you order just so you’d have an excuse to ask for some water? I was about to leave, embarrassed at being a public spectacle, but on second thought, it felt unfair. I was going to at least drink my share of the coffee.
“What is this, on a weekend afternoon…”
If I’d known, I would have scheduled it for a weekday. He was the one who insisted on the weekend, and I’d accommodated him, only to be left alone within five minutes of meeting. I had even turned down Han Jinheon’s tempting offer to go out for a meal for this.
Suddenly, I remembered Han Jinheon’s reaction. When I told him I had a blind date today, he said he’d forgotten and wished me well, an encouragement that held not a shred of sincerity. Looking back now, it feels like he knew I’d end up in this state.
Of course he knew. Who would have a better grasp of Han Sol’s image and position than Han Jinheon?
I was staring at the tabletop, just lifting my mug, when someone took the empty seat in front of me. The protagonist of an entrance similar to the one on Jeju Island was Han Jinheon.
“Didn’t you say you had a blind date?”
“…!”
I jumped, my whole body jolting in shock at Han Jinheon’s sudden appearance. I froze, my wide eyes blinking rapidly. What, where did you come from?
"To say your date didn’t show up… well, looking at the state of you, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
"Hy-hyung, how did you…”
He could have guessed the time, since he knew when I left the house, but I hadn’t told him the location. I had intentionally hidden it, but I also figured that if he really wanted to know, he would find out with the location tracker, so I didn't bother mentioning it.
It seemed my guess was right, but what surprised me more was that he had come all this way.
Was he worried about my date? If so, that’s embarrassing.
“How did I get here? Explaining that would be boring.”
“……”
"So why did you bother coming out only to be humiliated like this? I told you, other than the degenerates on the list your father sent, no one would accept you as a blind date partner right now.”
He was right. The day I told Han Jinheon I was going on the dates, he had demanded to see the profiles Lee Geumyoung had given me.
I was reluctant for some reason, but I had no reason to refuse, so I showed him. After studying them as if they were business proposals, he had said the exact same thing.
‘Half of the guys in here wouldn’t accept you as a date. Your mother is chasing a mirage.’
‘No way, you don't think so...’
He was right. If the person I had chosen as a safe bet from the start was like this, the others were all bound to be the same.
Han Jinheon picked up the cup that the date had ordered but had not consumed. He raised an eyebrow as if it was quite drinkable, and then crossed his legs. He smirked at me as I stared at him blankly.
“This one was the third son of the Hankyo Daily, wasn’t he? An Alpha, a year older than you, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right…”
“He’s someone you used and threw away after one time. Did you really think it would go well?”
“……”
"He went to great lengths to woo you, so did you think he would embrace the current you as well?”
No. Not at all. I never even imagined there was that kind of backstory.
The reason I had chosen this person was because he was close to my age. And while he wasn't handsome enough to trigger my star-struck tendencies, I had figured that if the date went well, we could have a friendship-like romance, and if not, we could at least remain friends.
If I had known about this past, I never would have picked him. Even if I didn’t know, Han Jinheon did. The fact that he kept his mouth shut until I left and is only telling me now is infuriating.
"If you were an Omega, he might have embraced you. He would have thrown flower petals, not water.”
“I doubt it. It seemed like he was disgusted with me as a person…”
"Who knows. In this world, there’s no animal as steadfast as an Alpha.”
Do Alphas automatically embrace any Omega? Would he really forgive someone who treated him like dirt just because they became an Omega? I knew he was just trying to tempt me, so I let his words slide.
“But did you come to pick me up? Did you know my date would end early like this?”
“I don’t revolve around you. I came here because I have an appointment, and I just happened to find you. Believe it or not, I was hoping your date would end safely, one way or another.”
I just pouted at his teasing words. It wasn’t that I thought he revolved around me. It was just that the situation made it impossible not to think that way. It was just like on Jeju Island. I had unconsciously assumed he would take me away again.
But he has an appointment?
“Go home carefully, just like you came. And don’t even think about getting into any other trouble just because you got dumped. You’d be better to go straight home.”
Huh? Hyung, you’re leaving just like that?
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