CH 13.5

Jae Hyun walked hurriedly into the cafeteria. Jung Won, who was taking care of the coupons, bowed to greet him politely. However, he didn’t seem to be in the mood for greetings at the moment.

Without caring about the line of students walking step by step while carrying their trays of food, Jae Hyun came up to Jung Won and snatched the coupons out of her hands. At times like this, this person really suited being Kim Geon Hyeong’s younger brother.

“Let’s talk for a minute.”

“Go ahead.”

“Here? Are you sure? What exactly were you thinking?”

“Hm, wait a minute.”

As soon as Jae Hyun raised his voice, the students’ gazes now focused on Jung Won and Jae Hyun. A while ago, a handsome man pulled the hand of the not-so-beautiful nutritionist Unnie. And, now the prince of the horticulture faculty came to her. The faces of the female students looked astonished and clueless, while the male students looked confused and panicked.

There would definitely be more gossip for a while, even though Jung Won didn’t really care about it now.

“This is my job. It’s just like Sonsaengnim who still can’t ignore those roses no matter how busy he is. I’m the same way.”

Jae Hyun was finally patient and waited while standing next to Jung Won until the line of students was over.

Jung Won stood next to her prince, but people’s eyes began to focus on Jung Won. Starting from the students, the aunt who got the rice, to the prince also looked at Jung Won. Until finally, Jung Won gave up and turned her body to Jae Hyun.

“Is everything done now?”

“Not everything.”

Jung Won muttered under her breath, while Jae Hyun kept walking with big steps like when he entered the cafeteria earlier. He was sure that Jung Won would follow him. The two siblings really do look alike. That thought crossed Jung Won’s head again.

“Sit down.”

Jae Hyun pulled out a chair for Jung Won. They were in the horticulture faculty’s research room, not the Hwaniwon they usually went to when they were tired or had free time. Jae Hyun immediately asked Jung Won without giving her a chance to catch her breath.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I thought carefully before deciding on this.”

“You like this university. You like working as a nutritionist, and you also like Hwaniwon and the greenhouse. But why did you suddenly want to quit working here?”

“Because I should have quit a long time ago.”

Long ago. She should have settled everything when she got the offer from Geon Hyeong. At that time, she had intended to do just that. Therefore, she had sent her job applications to other places and had gotten some recommendations.

She shouldn’t have granted Geon Hyeong’s request back then, she should have ignored his sympathy.

“Did someone force you? What did the dean say?”

Jae Hyun, who couldn’t read Jung Won’s heart at all, asked her again as if he remembered something. Jae Hyun seemed ready to hit the dean if he dared to threaten or force Jung Won. Seeing his attitude, Jung Won was surprised and immediately shook her head.

“How could the dean take care of a cafeteria nutritionist at all?”

“You’re not just a nutritionist. Have you forgotten? You’re the future of this Goryo Group family.”

“No, I’m not. You know that I’m not going to be like that.”

Jung Won was again surprised to hear Jae Hyun’s confident words.

“You’re acting like this because of Shin Hee noona? You don’t have to worry about their family’s marriage proposal.”

“I’m not worried about it.”

Jung Won shook her head softly. She was reminded of her position through Jae Hyun’s explanation. Although it looked like she was smiling from the outside, she was lying when she said she wasn’t worried about it.

That was true too. It turned out that the marriage proposal had really been officially submitted by Shin Hee’s family. Apparently, such a rich family had to submit such an inter-family marriage proposal. Actually, this was not a surprise after seeing the gazes of Shin Hee and Geon Hyeong who met at Hwaniwon at that time.

Have those two finally made up? If Shin Hee had made up her mind, if both families had given their permission, there was obviously nothing that could stand in the way of their marriage.

Even though Jung Won knew all that, she still felt like her heart was broken and empty.

“Then, why are you acting like that?”

“You know how we first met.”

“Does that matter?”

“From the beginning, my meeting with Geon Hyeong was a mistake. And, there’s one more thing you don’t know about our relationship.”

Their agreement. Their agreement to give each other trust and money until Shin Hee’s wedding. Now Jung Won was so ashamed of their agreement that she couldn’t tell anyone about it.

“What?”

“Our relationship is not real. Although others don’t know, Geon Hyeong and I do.”

“I don’t know about you, but Geon Hyeong really means it. Believe me.”

Jae Hyun shook his head confidently. He knew exactly what his brother’s gaze meant to Jung Won. A sense of belonging, which was mixed with affection. Somehow this woman didn’t realize that.

“You lied to me once too, right.”

“Oh, that… Jung Won ssi, I’m really sorry.”

“I was just joking. But, this time I was right.”

As Jae Hyun hurriedly apologized to her in a panic, Jung Won gave him a small smile. It turned out that her prince wasn’t as shameless as his brother. Also, his demeanor was still warm and he still looked radiant.

She used to be very fascinated by her prince’s smile, but somehow now she gave her heart to another man.

“Then, wait until hyung comes back.”

“I can’t. If I want to work at that hospital, I have a lot of things to prepare.”

On the day Geon Hyeong left for America, a letter came from a small sanatorium stating that she was accepted to work there. At that moment, Jung Won thought that this was her mother’s answer.

Even though there was still a month left, she couldn’t bear to see Hwaniwon on this campus again right now.

“Then, what about this campus? You’re such an irresponsible person, aren’t you?”

“My job will be transferred to a substitute nutritionist who works in the staff cafeteria. Then, starting next semester, it will be transferred to an outsourcing company, so there won’t be any problems. The timing just happened to be perfect.”

Jae Hyun was now persuading her in other ways, but Jung Won didn’t seem to be changing her mind at all.

It seemed like it was too late to persuade her in any way.

Hyung, what exactly have you done?

“Then, can you grant me one request?”

“What request…”

“I hope you’ll grant it, even if it’s for the sake of our friendship.”

“Just say it. If I can do it, I will.”

Actually, the word ‘friendship’ spoken by Jae Hyun was originally just Jung Won’s secret wish and envy every time she saw her prince. However, now Jae Hyun was using it as an excuse to ask her for help.

These two siblings were really similar. Because she was reminded of Geon Hyeong, Jung Won unconsciously nodded slowly, while Jae Hyun couldn’t take his eyes off Jung Won.+