🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 06
“…Tell me your name.”
Swish.
The man’s hand suddenly reached out.
His familiar gesture of brushing my side hair behind my ear startled me so much that I froze as if I had been electrocuted.
I had never even shared this kind of physical contact with Jinho…
The ear his fingers had brushed felt as hot as if it had been burned.
I considered giving him any fake name when he asked, but Mary, Sarah…
Only the names of Jinkyung’s cats kept circling around my lips.
I needed to say a normal human name, but for some reason, nothing came to mind.
With the man’s hand still lingering near my ear, my head felt like someone had set off a bomb inside it.
“I’m Ren. Call me Ren.”
There was no hint of malice in the man’s voice as he looked straight into my eyes and spoke gently.
He didn’t seem like a dangerous person…
Besides, the name Harin wasn’t unique to me in this world.
I thought that a name wasn’t really such a big deal.
Maybe I had already been hypnotized by him.
“Ha-rin… Min Harin.”
After saying it, I suddenly felt embarrassed, as if I had eagerly answered like someone who had been waiting for him to ask about me.
Every dating book said that playing hard to get was essential when dealing with the opposite sex, but apparently applying theory to reality was difficult.
Wait…
What am I thinking right now…?
Do I actually want this man to like me?
I felt pathetic for myself, getting helplessly excited over a man I met at a club at my age.
Get a grip…
What am I expecting from a man who hangs out in places like this?
He might be even worse than Jinho, so why am I getting butterflies over him?
“Min Harin. Min. Ha. Rin… So your name is Harin.”
Unaware of my complicated feelings, the man named Ren was carefully pronouncing my name.
The way he repeated each syllable clearly, as if engraving it into his memory, was strangely cute.
Then, apparently after memorizing it, he picked up his phone and made a call.
I couldn’t hear the contents of the conversation, but even while talking, he kept looking at me as if he didn’t want to leave me alone for even a moment.
I was embarrassed and awkward because I had never received such sweet treatment before.
The attention of a man who never took his eyes off me…
I didn’t dislike it.
I suppose I had to admit it…
My heart kept leaning toward this man against my own will.
A handsome man who looked like he had stepped out of a magazine wanted to fall for me. There was no reason to build a wall against him.
Even if I considered it a little rebellion.
I wanted to have some kind of flirtation with a man like this, even if it was only for one day!
“Harin. Your friend will be here soon. Don’t worry too much.”
Ren said as he put down his phone, apparently having finished his call.
When he mentioned that Jinkyung would come here, I was about to ask if he knew my friend…
“Let go! I said let go of me! Do you know who I am? How dare you stop me? Ren! Where is Ren? Tell Ren to come out!”
A woman’s angry scream suddenly echoed through the room.
But she just said “Ren,” didn’t she…?
I looked at the man in front of me.
He was calmly drinking iced water with an indifferent expression.
If someone was screaming that loudly and calling his name, he wouldn’t be this peaceful if it concerned him.
The woman shouting was difficult to see clearly, but she had pale skin.
Despite her small frame, she had an incredible amount of energy. She continued screaming at the top of her lungs while being stopped by a large male guard standing at the entrance to the third-floor stairs.
As the disturbance continued, the attention of other customers turned toward the woman.
Only Ren acted as if he couldn’t hear anything.
There was something strange about him.
Was he simply the type of person who had no interest in other people’s affairs?
Well… with a face like his, living as if the world revolved around him probably made sense.
Under the soft lighting here, Ren’s face looked different from when I saw him under the flashy lights on the first floor.
The strong masculine lines of his face stood out, making him look almost dangerously attractive.
He really shines anywhere…
He really has everything.
He’s seriously handsome.
Before I realized it, I was already staring at him absentmindedly.
“What? Where are you touching me?! I said where are you touching me! Let go!”
While I was admiring Ren’s face, the argument between the woman and the guards continued.
When the guards grabbed her arm while trying to calm her down—
Slap!
The woman struck the male guard who was holding her.
I was shocked by what I saw, and the guards trying to stop her looked equally stunned.
Then one of the people in the group quickly approached Ren and spoke in a low voice.
“I’m sorry. Miss Satomi…”
Unable to understand what was happening, I unconsciously focused on their conversation.
Then, perhaps noticing my gaze fixed on them, Ren glanced at me.
Realizing I had become someone eavesdropping on another person’s conversation, I quickly turned my head away.
It was only for a moment, but Ren’s gaze had been cold and chilling…
This man seemed to have quite a temper too.
After listening to the guard with an expressionless face, he said only one word.
“Send her away.”
Coldly, without even the slightest reaction, as if responding was a waste of effort.
For a moment, he looked frightening.
His expression and tone reminded me of someone I hated.
When I was young, I once went to my father’s company with my mother.
That was the first and last time in my life I ever visited my father’s workplace.
At the time, my father ran a small-to-medium-sized company.
I was so happy when my father saw me at the office and hugged me.
I was overjoyed simply because I got to see my father there, since he never came home.
That was the only good memory I had with my father.
Because after that, there were no more days like that.
My father sat me on his lap, took out a thick wallet from his pocket, opened it, and pulled out one of the many crisp white checks inside.
He placed it in my hand.
“Ask your mother to buy you something delicious.”
Even as a child, I understood the value of that one check.
If there were lots of these white papers, Mom—who always sighed because of money problems—could buy me snacks without worrying…
Why did Dad have so much money but never give any to Mom?
Even at my young age, I could sense that my mother struggled because of money.
So my father, who refused to share with us, seemed selfish.
While I was thinking that with my small mind, my mother entered the office.
As soon as she arrived, my father put me down and went into his private office.
“Huh…? Dad…?”
I looked for my father, who had suddenly disappeared, but the closed office door never opened again.
The only thing I heard was my father’s voice coming from the secretary’s desk phone, which had been left on speaker.
[Send her away.]
Those words meant he didn’t want to see my mother and wanted her gone immediately.
My father, who had always been obsessed with women, eventually stopped even making phone calls to me, let alone sending living expenses.
When my mother refused to divorce him, he threatened that he would stop paying child support.
After this happened repeatedly, even my paternal grandmother couldn’t stand by anymore and started sending us living expenses herself.
Thanks to that, I was able to grow up as a relatively privileged child.
My mother endured living with a husband who thought his own behavior was natural, yet treated his wife like trash if she tried to work outside because she had no money.
Looking back now, I felt disgusted by how cruel and irresponsible the man I called my father truly was.
But now…
A woman desperately searching for a man, and a cold man ordering someone else to send her away.
It wasn’t déjà vu, but how could this situation be so similar…?
This man…
Not only his appearance, but even his actions resembled my father.
All the affection I had briefly felt toward the man named Ren disappeared.
