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Chapter 9
“I thought you abandoned me and went back to Korea.”
Ren’s low, deep voice echoed near my ear, and every nerve in my body focused on it.
Was a man’s voice always supposed to sound this good?
I couldn’t believe it myself…
But I didn’t want to leave Ren’s embrace.
I was the kind of person who refused even free hugs because hugging strangers felt uncomfortable.
And now…
What was this uncontrollable maternal instinct rising inside me when I didn’t even have a child?
It felt like picking up a tiny puppy trembling alone in the rain.
Something pitiful…
Something that made me want to take care of it.
Still held in Ren’s arms, I lifted my head and examined his face.
“Did you… eat?”
“…Eat?”
Ren repeated my words as if they surprised him.
I nodded brightly.
Yes. Eat.
I know, I know…
Right in front of a hotel room where just one touch could cause a romance explosion…
In a situation where a man overflowing with pheromones was holding me like he might crush me…
Saying “eat” was completely ruining the mood.
But the thing I felt most guilty about today was that I had left someone hungry and stood them up.
Even if it hadn’t been Ren, I would have felt the same guilt.
“…Let’s go.”
For the first time, I grabbed Ren’s arm first.
His body looked slim, but the arm I held felt thick and firm…
He truly felt like a man.
When I grabbed his arm, he couldn’t hide his happiness and looked down at me affectionately.
“Even though I was looking at you like this… I missed you so much that I wanted to see you even more.”
Ugh…
Were we really at the point where we said things like that?
Ren was incredibly good at saying lines that made my arms and legs disappear from embarrassment.
I took Ren to the hotel restaurant area.
Men with bodies like Ren’s could probably skip a meal or two without caring.
But with my ordinary, common sense mindset—the mindset of someone who gets sad after missing even one meal and survives on the strength of food—I couldn’t leave him hungry like this.
I hadn’t understood it before because I had never experienced extreme hardship.
But when you have no money…
Skipping meals really does make you cry.
I once survived for two months with only one container of gochujang as my side dish.
And I learned that simply being able to eat rice could itself become a source of happiness.
Because I knew the value of one meal…
I hated that I had caused someone else to miss one today.
The hotel restaurants were crowded at lunchtime.
Not only hotel guests but also nearby office workers filled the area.
Suddenly, people started looking toward me and whispering, so I became tense, wondering if it was some kind of anti-Korean harassment I had heard about in the news.
But then I heard…
“That person is so handsome!”
“Oh my gosh, is he a celebrity?”
Of course.
Whenever he appeared, women’s attention followed him.
He was just walking, yet he was parting the crowded restaurant area like Moses dividing the Red Sea…
I never thought something like this was possible for someone who wasn’t even a celebrity.
Ah…
Standing next to someone as perfect as Ren, I probably looked like a flat, plain pancake.
Wanting to escape quickly, I looked around for a nearby restaurant.
“Ren, what do you want to eat?”
“Anything. Whatever Harin wants.”
I had heard that the answer women gave that men hated most when dating was “anything.”
I think I understood why now.
Could it be that the few times I answered “anything” to Jinho had contributed to our breakup?
If I date someone in the future, I should clearly say things like:
Tteokbokki, samgyeopsal, sundubu stew, spicy monkfish, potato pizza…
I’ll be specific!
“Then I’ll choose. Since you haven’t eaten for a long time, let’s eat something gentle.”
Finally, Ren’s steaming hot dish arrived.
Eat a lot.
Forgive me…
I’m sorry about this morning.
Watching Ren eat felt like it would lessen my guilt.
“Ren, hurry and eat.”
“Aren’t you eating, Harin?”
My stomach was still completely full from the sea bowl.
Let’s just be honest.
I wasn’t trying to impress him anyway.
Still, actually saying it out loud was strangely difficult.
If Ren found out that while he had been waiting for me, I had gone out early in the morning and eaten a huge feast by the sea…
He would probably lose interest completely.
“I mean… while you were waiting for me, I stood you up and went all the way to the sea and ate an amazing meal. You hate me now, right? You don’t understand, right? You must think, ‘What kind of woman does this?’”
“Next time, go with me. I’ll buy you an even better feast.”
“Are you… not upset?”
Again, he only gave a small laugh.
Does this man laugh when he’s angry?
If that’s the case, I’d rather he just got angry.
Don’t make me worry and guess.
“Since Harin ordered it for me, I’ll eat well.”
Just as I was seriously wondering whether I should suspect something strange about Ren’s personality, he started eating.
Seeing that, I suddenly felt sorry again.
Maybe he had felt awkward eating alone.
But…
How could a man’s eating habits be so elegant?
Even using chopsticks wasn’t just using chopsticks.
The angle of his fingers when picking up side dishes looked neat and strangely sexy.
Until now, I thought the ideal male virtue at the dinner table was the “Dolswe” type—the kind of man who eats whatever a woman gives him without complaining.
But watching Ren…
Those men weren’t admirable.
They were just starving beasts.
Bzzzz— Bzzzz—
I had forgotten that staring at someone while they ate was rude and was completely absorbed watching Ren like a fan watching an idol.
Then I felt my phone vibrating loudly in my pocket.
When I checked it…
Jihyun unnie!
What a disaster!
I had forgotten my precious sister.
Ren had only just started eating.
I couldn’t leave him, but I also couldn’t send my sister away after she had come all the way here.
What should I do?
As I hesitated, Ren unfortunately stopped his beautiful chopstick movements.
“Who.”
His voice was cold, without even a question mark.
“That man?”
Honestly, if this call had been from Jinho, it would have been easier.
I could just block him.
I had enough complicated feelings today with Ren alone.
I didn’t want any more entanglements.
“My cousin sister. I was supposed to meet her today.”
“Unnie… this is Watanabe Ren.”
“Ren, this is my cousin sister, Lee Jihyun.”
It was the kind of sudden meeting you only hear about in stories.
Like a person arranging a blind date, I awkwardly introduced Ren and Jihyun unnie between them.
Ten minutes earlier, I had asked Ren for understanding, gone to meet my sister, briefly explained the situation, and decided that the three of us would have lunch together.
I was exhausted.
Why did unexpected things keep happening?
This trip really felt cursed.
Me.
My sister.
Ren.
I never imagined I would eat a meal with this combination.
Completely unaware of my thoughts…
Ren seemed satisfied that the caller wasn’t Jinho, but my family.
And my sister looked delighted at the chance to eat with such a high-quality handsome man she never expected to meet.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Watanabe.”
“Please just call me Ren.”
“Then, shall I?”
Seriously…
What are you two so happy about?
The two of them were getting along incredibly well.
“You’re as beautiful as Harin.”
“Ren, I thought you were an actor! Are you really not a celebrity? Or maybe a trainee?”
“I modeled briefly in the past, but no. It wasn’t for me. It was too glamorous of a world.”
I only listened to their conversation while fully utilizing my incredible stomach capacity and eating.
So Ren really had modeled before.
No wonder…
That aura couldn’t be hidden anywhere.
But if even Ren thought the modeling world was glamorous…
How amazing was that world?
Listening to them, I realized something.
I knew almost nothing about Ren.
“Harin, I’ll be leaving now. And it was an honor meeting you today.”
After the meal, Ren showed my sister a captivating smile and, surprisingly, turned away in a very cool and clean manner.
It was the first time he had acted like this since I met him.
I wasn’t used to it.
Right.
Ren didn’t know this was our last meeting.
Ren, goodbye…
I hope you don’t come on so strongly to the next woman…!
I know direct men are popular these days, but you scared me a little.
I quietly said goodbye to him while watching his back.
Even though I suggested going somewhere nice since we finally met after so long, Jihyun unnie insisted we shouldn’t waste money and said seeing me was enough.
So we returned to the hotel room.
But apparently, she had another reason for coming up here.
“Harin, are you perhaps staying at the hotel with Ren…?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“The fact that you deny it so strongly makes it even more suspicious. Still, be careful meeting someone at a hotel. The atmosphere can change in an instant…”
“Unnie, seriously, no. Actually… I broke up with my boyfriend two days ago. Do you think I’m in the mood for that right now?”
My sister had been about to give me a warning about adult matters with a boyfriend.
But my confession poured cold water on her and shocked her instead.
“Two days?”
“Yes. If someone says they don’t want me, I should let them go. What else can I do?”
The feelings I couldn’t tell Jinkyung or anyone else poured out naturally to my sister.
“What kind of person does that? Seriously…”
After hearing my story, my sister looked at me with sympathy.
“That’s why I became scared too. You know what kind of person our father was. I thought I had carefully chosen someone different. But he treated me like I was worthless and told me to leave… Now I don’t even trust my own judgment. I don’t know what’s right anymore.”
When I brought up the father I hated most, the anger in my sister’s eyes burned fiercely.
“That bastard doesn’t deserve to be forgiven! You already suffered so much, and someone with no manners dares to stab my little sister in the heart? If I had been in Korea, I would have… Harin! This is not your fault. How could you know someone was pretending to be kind on purpose? Even without you, he’s the type who would do the same thing elsewhere. If that’s the case, meet someone handsome like Ren!”
“Unnie?”
My sister, who had suddenly turned everything into a discussion about Ren, continued.
“Right now, I’m raising two sons at home and trying to stay calm, but my eyes still work. That man named Ren… Do you know how much everything he’s wearing costs? That suit was Armani. His watch was a limited-edition Rolex, and his shoes too. And most importantly, that face! If I were you, I’d pay money just to meet someone like that. A man like that is waiting for you because he likes you, so what are you hesitating for? Follow your instincts.”
I was sure that just moments ago she had been warning me strictly not to enter Ren’s hotel room.
Where exactly did the sudden “follow your instincts” reversal begin…?
My sister had become surprisingly open-minded without me noticing.
“I’ve lived married life now, and I realized something. There’s money, and there’s love. Your brother-in-law… He’s a good and kind person, but because he had so little, we had to start from nothing after marriage. But recently, he got an investment from someone he knows and finally opened his own shop. I couldn’t tell you before, but I struggled too. People say happiness comes after hardship… Now that we can finally breathe, I keep thinking how nice it would have been if things had been like this from the beginning. Your mother’s store is apparently going to be sold to a new building owner too, and she was worried the rent would increase. If your brother-in-law does well, I’ll finally be able to help Mom too. So listen to your sister. Finding a good person is wonderful, but when you can’t find one, you should at least consider conditions.”
Everything she said was true.
If there was no good person…
Maybe finding a man with good conditions was the answer.
But, unnie…
I’m going to find that good person.
So don’t worry.
I silently smiled at my sister.
