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Chapter 10
Overstepping Fake Lover
Today was a day with no schedule for Siyeon.
Haeyun went to work at the company.
Even though she’d been temporarily moved to the management team, she was there to help the team that was busiest with Siyeon’s affairs.
“Good morning.”
As soon as Haeyun sat down, sharp gazes clung to her.
Since the PR team had handled the damage control, it was only natural that Yoon Haeyun had become hot topic overnight because of Siyeon’s dating scandal.
“Haeyun-ssi, is it real?”
One employee, unable to contain their curiosity, pulled their chair over and stopped next to Haeyun.
She smiled awkwardly and nodded.
“Yes, it’s real.”
“Really, that DY Group Executive Director?”
“Yes.”
“How did you even know someone like that?”
“Ah, my late grandfather had a connection with Chairman Do Giseop.”
If they were complete strangers, people would have been suspicious for sure.
But fortunately, there was a deep connection between Haeyun and Inhyuk through their grandfathers.
After hearing the circumstances, the employees’ eyes sparkled with curiosity.
Haeyun felt as if she had become a celebrity herself.
Celebrities… must be really tired.
She swallowed a sigh internally and turned on her computer.
“I’ll organize the articles to be used for Actress Siyeon’s movie promotion.”
As they say, every crisis is an opportunity.
Just yesterday, Siyeon had been crying as if the world was ending, but now things were different.
As the dating rumor died down as a passing incident, it actually sparked more interest in the movie set to release in a few months.
It worked out well.
The morning passed quickly.
“Should we go eat lunch?”
Everyone was busy choosing menus, complaining of hunger.
In the meantime, Haeyun picked up her phone, which she’d turned face down.
“Haa…”
“Why, Haeyun-ssi? What’s wrong?”
“Ah… well…”
Haeyun showed her phone screen to her colleague with an awkward expression.
“The reporters are going crazy.”
“Oh my…”
“Even the ones not from the entertainment division.”
Her number had already become public property.
It wasn’t that she minded working at an entertainment company.
The problem was that even economic reporters—people she’d normally never deal with—were contacting her.
“Haeyun-ssi’s boyfriend isn’t exactly an ordinary person, after all.”
Her colleague glanced at Haeyun cautiously.
In fact, it wasn’t just her—Line Entertainment employees had been receiving endless calls since yesterday too.
“Don’t worry. You know, it’s just interest that’ll die down soon.”
“Yes, I know, but…”
The biggest problem was that there were people who wouldn’t let it die down.
[Let’s have dinner tonight.]
It was a number Haeyun had deliberately not saved.
A pointless stubbornness.
But even that was useless—she knew instantly who the message was from.
Do Inhyuk.
The man who had become a person of interest in Haeyun’s life overnight.
“Haeyun-ssi, let’s go eat lunch.”
“Ah, yes.”
Haeyun deliberately didn’t reply and put her phone in her pocket.
Her greater desire was to avoid this headache for now.
She had no idea how the day had passed.
Haeyun, who had even gone out for a brief external meeting in the middle of the day before returning to the office, was exhausted.
She even declined her colleagues’ suggestion to grab a quick beer.
Right now, she just wanted to rest.
Dragging her tired body, she finally made it back to her neighborhood.
Haeyun pressed on her tired eyelid as she stepped into the apartment entrance.
“Haeyun-ah.”
But she couldn’t go straight inside.
Mingyu, who had been waiting for her, hurried over.
“What is it?”
“What do you mean, what is it? You didn’t answer my calls, and you didn’t reply to my texts either.”
Of course she hadn’t. She’d blocked him.
Haeyun didn’t answer and walked past him.
But Mingyu quickly chased after her and blocked her path.
“My mom said she wants to meet you!”
He urgently grabbed Haeyun’s hand.
“I went home yesterday and even knelt down. I asked her to allow our marriage.”
“Even my mom was surprised I’d go that far. She asked if I was that serious about you.”
“She said she’s curious about the woman who’s captured her son’s heart. So it’s all resolved now!”
Mingyu’s expression looked genuinely relieved.
As if the problem that had existed until now had finally disappeared.
Haeyun wondered if she’d always been this terrible at reading people.
When she first met Choi Mingyu through a blind date, she really hadn’t known he was this kind of person.
Even while dating, she hadn’t noticed anything particularly strange about him.
It seemed he’d been wearing a thick mask all along, pretending to be normal.
“We broke up yesterday. You know that.”
Haeyun pulled her hand away and stepped back from Mingyu.
“Stop it. Don’t come looking for me like this anymore. It’s burdensome.”
“…What? Burdensome?”
Mingyu’s eyebrows crumpled mercilessly.
“I disagree. I didn’t break up with you. How can we just…”
“You said you’d do better. You said to give you one more chance. You even brought up marriage, and the result was you going on a blind date behind my back.”
“I explained all that!”
“So I’m just supposed to accept it?”
“Ha… Yoon Haeyun. Why are you so frustrating? Why are you so inflexible?”
Mingyu ended up blaming everything on Haeyun again.
He didn’t hide his annoyed expression and his eyes that looked like he was at his wit’s end.
Finally, he started running his hands through his hair and throwing a tantrum.
“I really intended to marry you. You know that! How much I…”
Mingyu’s eyes turned fierce. His body tensed as if he might lunge at her any moment.
Haeyun instinctively flinched.
“Yoon Haeyun-ssi.”
It was a voice that had become familiar by now.
Even before she turned her head to confirm the face of the person who called her name, Haeyun knew it was Inhyuk.
After spotting Mingyu, Inhyuk immediately moved Haeyun behind him and stood in front.
“Whether you can’t understand what’s being said, or you just don’t want to.”
Inhyuk’s gaze scanned Mingyu up and down.
“You even came to her house.”
“What the hell, Yoon Haeyun. Why is this bastard at your house!”
Mingyu had only been allowed to walk Haeyun to her front door after they’d been dating for over six months.
Because the cautious Haeyun hadn’t permitted it before that.
And even then, Taesu always came out to the main road to meet her, so Mingyu had rarely ever come all the way to the apartment.
So how did Inhyuk know to come here?
“Hey! Yoon Haeyun!”
Mingyu’s face flushed red as he shouted angrily.
“Fuck… Hey! So you were the one cheating? Huh? Is that it? That’s it, right?”
Mingyu kept painting Haeyun as the unfaithful one.
It was getting to the point where she worried that the residents who’d lived in the same apartment building with her for so long might misunderstand.
Just as Haeyun couldn’t hold back any longer and tried to step forward, Inhyuk extended his arm to stop her.
“Thanks to you, actually.”
Mingyu huffed and glared at Inhyuk.
“Because I got the opportunity.”
“…What?”
“I was rejected because she had a boyfriend.”
Inhyuk grabbed Haeyun’s hand from behind and brought her to his side.
“Thanks to the mess you made, I was able to catch a woman like Yoon Haeyun-ssi.”
Mingyu’s pupils shook.
The words “thanks to you” triggered him completely.
“No way… you’re really with this bastard…”
Haeyun let go of Inhyuk’s hand.
Just as Mingyu’s face brightened and Inhyuk’s eyes narrowed—
She looped her arm through Inhyuk’s and stood closer to him.
“That’s right. I’ve decided to see this person. At least he doesn’t seem like he’d hurt me the way you did.”
Haeyun gripped his arm tighter and pulled.
She felt like she needed to drive the point home.
“Let’s go inside, Inhyuk-ssi.”
“What? Go inside? Hey, Yoon Haeyun. Where are you going! Where!”
This was the same home of Haeyun’s that Mingyu had never been allowed to enter.
Because Taesu, her grandfather, had repeatedly refused him.
And now Inhyuk was going inside?
Mingyu’s eyes practically rolled back in his head.
Just then, the security guard on patrol came rushing over.
“Is there a problem?”
Haeyun had lived in this apartment building with Taesu for so long that she’d built a good relationship with the security office.
So when the guard recognized Haeyun’s face, he quickly called for backup.
“Outsiders can’t come in and cause this kind of disturbance!”
“Ah! I’m her boyfriend!”
“Tsk, young people these days, lying so easily.”
Anyone could see that Inhyuk, who was clinging close to Haeyun, was her boyfriend.
As Mingyu struggled while being held back by the guards, Haeyun quickly tugged on Inhyuk’s arm.
“Let’s go inside quickly.”
The two left Mingyu behind as he continued to resist.
His shouts could be heard ceaselessly.
Haeyun led the way and quickly climbed to the fourth floor.
She was a little out of breath, but her mind was more worried that the guards might let Mingyu go and he’d follow.
Her fingertips trembled slightly as she entered the password.
What if Inhyuk noticed?
“Ah. Thank you.”
Fortunately, he’d turned his head away from Haeyun as she entered the password.
The door opened, and the two entered the house together.
*Thud.*
The old front door closed loudly, making quite a noise.
“Ah.”
Only then did Haeyun realize she’d let a man into her house so defenselessly.
