Even If It’s Not Love - Chapter 52-2

If Woo-hyun was terribly cold, Kim was extremely hot. Perhaps it was wrong to try to carry them both in one embrace. Now he had to choose between the two.

However, the answer was already set.

Between the guy who had already betrayed him, for whatever reason it was, and the guy who didn’t betray him, there was only one answer.

***

“I’m really scared to go to work these days.”

“Oh my, isn’t that so? Me too. I’m scared to death.”

“At first, I thought the company president had some private loan debt.”

“Exactly. Those people wearing black suits must be gangsters, right? I’ve only seen it in the movies. I didn’t expect to see it in real life.”

The two female employees who came to investigate the volume of deliveries and check the remaining stock chatted away. One of them trembled as if she was scared to death as she thought about it again.

Yoo-hwa, who had been silently listening to their conversation, turned her eyes to the people standing outside the window. Today, there were eleven people. The number of people had increased by one in just a few days, as if they were going to protest. The situation at home was the same.

In the houses where only one person was living, at some point, there were two. She couldn’t tell if things were going badly or if it was for her to see.

“Aah, I’m exhausted.”

At the same time Yi-seul sighed, the door opened.

“Oh, Dong-min!”

Yi-seul pretended to be delighted.

“Hello. The wrapping paper is here. It was delivered upstairs again.”

“Thank you for always. Don’t the other employees say anything? Even though they said something to us the other time…”

“Don’t worry about it. We can help each other like this.”

“Oh my, I wish all the employees upstairs were like you, Dong-min.”

Yi-seul clasped her hands together and made an emotionally moved expression. Dong-min, who was smiling pleasantly, turned his gaze to Yoo-hwa, who was sitting by the window. Seeing that, Yi-seul smiled strangely.

“Ah, I’m going upstairs to get a cup of coffee. Yoo-hwa, do you want me to bring you one too?”

“I’m fine.”

“Okay. Alright!”

Yi-seul waved her hand at Dong-min, deliberately escaping from there. After Yi-seul left, an awkward atmosphere flowed between Dong-min and Yoo-hwa.

“Are you alright, Miss Yoo-hwa?”

At Dong-min’s carefully picked words, she nodded without even looking up.

“Yes. As you can see.”

“I’m asking if you’re really okay.”

Although she answered indifferently to stop his interest, whether he had no sense or was worried, Dong-min spoke.

“…”

“The people out there, they’re here because of Miss Yoo-hwa, right? Do you owe them? Or… Is it because of that person? Why are you going through this?”

Unlike at first when he spoke carefully, when he finished speaking, Dong-min’s face had turned red with excitement. Yoo-hwa looked up at Dong-min’s face.

It wasn’t difficult to see that Dong-min was genuinely concerned. However, unfortunately, it didn’t touch her heart. The people who sympathized with her were also sincere at first.

But it was always for a shorter time than her wishes. The end was the same every time. A parting that started with a word of apology. Yoo-hwa, who was now so tired of it to the point it made her uncomfortable, looked at him indifferently at his sincere sympathy.

“Mr. Dong-min.”

“Yes.”

As Yoo-hwa calmly called him, he replied as if he had been waiting.

“Did you tell the other employees? About what you just said.”

“I didn’t.”

“Then… Can you pretend you don’t know, like now?”

“…”

“I want to work here for a long time. My house is close, the working hours are just right, and I can walk back and forth, so I don’t have to pay for transportation.”

“…”

“So if it’s not too much trouble, please don’t say anything. And those people that look like gangsters, it’s true that they’re here because of me, but they’re not dangerous.”

“How can I believe that! And how are they not dangerous? The fact that they’re here is threatening in itself!”

“You’re right. But if you don’t get close to them, they won’t attack you. Probably. So if you’re really worried about me, please pretend you don’t know.”

Because that’s the only thing you can do for me.

Yoo-hwa silently conveyed that meaning. Even though he knew Yoo-hwa had drawn a straight line, Dong-min couldn’t step back easily.

“… That’s what I’m saying. Ahh. Miss Yoo-hwa, you can clearly tell that they’re dangerous people. I don’t know what’s going on between those black-suited gangsters and you, but…”

“What are you talking about? The gangsters outside have something to do with Yoo-hwa?”

Yi-seul slammed the door open and came inside, asking with her eyes wide open. Two office employees stood behind Yi-seul and whispered. The old door was not thick enough to stop the conversation between Dong-min and Yoo-hwa from being heard. Yoo-hwa’s face, which held a faint hope, went completely expressionless.

“I asked what you were talking about.”

As she heard Yi-seul ask in a pressing voice, Yoo-hwa realized that she had crossed a line that shouldn’t have been crossed.

“That…”

Dong-min tried to sort it out with an embarrassed face, but Yi-seul walked past him as if saying she hadn’t asked him, and stood in front of Yoo-hwa.

“Yoo-hwa, what is he talking about? Explain it yourself. Do the gangsters outside have anything to do with you?”

“…”

The silent Yoo-hwa gripped the wrapping paper tightly instead of answering. Although she was tired of it and went through it frequently, this much was something that she couldn’t get used to. However, Yoo-hwa got up from her seat with a casual expression.