Chapter 51 Part 2

Chaeheon readily raised Haein’s hand. Haein stared at Chaeheon, finding his neat answer surprising, as she had only heard stories a few times and merely exchanged greetings with him last time.

“But my brother… you gave him a ride?”

“Yes. I do that every weekend.”

“I knew it, you two really are dating.”

Haein slapped the table as if to say “I knew it,” then glanced around, realizing the sound was louder than she intended. Thankfully, no one paid attention to them, so Haein slowly lowered her hand and dropped her voice.

“I kept asking my brother if you two were dating, but he never answered me.”

Haein sighed as if a great weight had been lifted.

“Does Lee Jun hyung usually not talk much?”

“No, that’s not it. When he dated before, I knew right away…”

Haein started to say something but then caught Chaeheon’s eye and closed her mouth.

“It’s okay, you can tell me.”

“I don’t know if ‘it’s okay’ truly means it’s okay, but I was rooting for my brother to date again.”

Haein closed her mouth, as if that was all she could say. Just like with Lee Jun, Chaeheon hid his thoughts with a smile, sensing there was something more.

Since Lee Jun wasn’t telling him anything, he wanted to hear it through Haein. But seeing both of them keep silent…

“We are dating, but it’s not perfect.”

“Not perfect?”

“Yeah. He’s not opening his heart as freely as he did when we dated before. That’s why I came to find out.”

“Ah…”

Haein nodded in understanding and looked elsewhere. She was organizing her thoughts without making eye contact with Chaeheon.

She had wished for Lee Jun to get back together with Chaeheon, but it felt as if she was the reason they broke up.

“It’s because of me.”

Turning back to Chaeheon, Haein spoke honestly with a faint smile.

“I’m causing my brother a lot of hardship.”

My brother must have struggled a lot because I gave birth to Hae Sol.

“Even though we lived in poverty until now, we weren’t unhappy. As you can see, my brother is handsome and good at studying. Perhaps that’s why he was so popular.”

“That’s still true today. Everyone wants Lee Jun hyung’s contact information.”

“I thought so too. But… well, since I ended up in the same situation as Mom, my brother seems to be worrying a lot.”

Haein finished with an awkward smile. There was nothing more she could say. She couldn’t tell Chaeheon about how, when she was little, their father had left home, then reappeared and tried to take only her and her brother. She didn’t remember it clearly because she was very young, but the shock of that day, when her brother almost lost their mother, still lingered for him, and the fact that she had repeated that very situation was not something she could easily bring up.

She believed that if that story were to be told, it should come from her brother, not her.

“Even so, if you keep my working here a secret, I’ll try my best to get established.”

That was Haein’s hope: that Lee Jun might then feel comfortable dating Chaeheon.

“If it gets hard, tell me. I’ll find you another position.”

“Thank you. Oh, by the way,”

Haein made eye contact with Chaeheon and naturally changed the subject.

“Why do you keep calling him Lee Jun hyung?”

Don’t couples usually use more affectionate terms when they’re dating?