Chapter 40

“Lee, Lee JiKyung?” I grabbed Lee JiHan’s arm unable to believe the sight in front of me. I shook it in haste as I asked him. “That, that’s JiKyung, do you see him too?”

“He must have hopped on his personal jet once he hung up with us yesterday,” Lee JiHan said with little reaction.

Lee JiKyung walked toward us. His gaze was locked on me. “Na AhJung, you better explain what’s going on here,” he asked in disbelief.

Before I could answer, Lee JiHan’s back blocked my view. “As you can see, we were having an intimate moment. Didn’t I tell you? Na AhJung and I are dating.”

“JiHan, we can talk later,” Lee JiKyung replied. “I have to talk to AhJung alone. You can go up to the house.”

“I’m angry at you,” Lee JiHan said. “Don’t make me angrier by bothering my AhJung. Go back to your business trip.”

“What? My AhJung? Are you serious right now? And what is up with your hair?” Lee JiKyung asked.

“You shouldn’t go criticizing other people’s preferences. Did I go criticizing you about your preferences?” Lee JiHan pointed out shrewdly.

He turned back to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and moved me back down from the car. I was on pins and needles as I watched them.

Lee JiHan patted my head and reassured me in a calm voice. “Let’s go up and rest. Do you think you can walk? You must be tired from doing so much today and being frightened on top of that.”

“I, I can walk,” I said. “Of course. I’m OK but...”

Lee JiHan’s sweetness in front of me melted my heart, but when I thought about Lee JiKyung behind me, I got chills.

Oh... This temperature difference from the front and back. What do I do...

“But, I should talk with JiKyung,” I said. “I was going to talk to him over the phone, but given the circumstances, it might be better to do this face to face...”

Lee JiHan’s face hardened at my words. “What more do you have to discuss? If he has any decency, he should be waving his white flag in surrender by now.”

“Decency? A white flag?” Lee JiKyung pushed his way between us scornfully.

Lee JiHan’s expression turned to ice and retorted. “If you’re even remotely sorry for lying to me, then shouldn’t you be congratulating me and getting out of my way?”

“Congratulate? What exactly am I supposed to congratulate you on?” Lee JiKyung asked with a frown.

Lee JiHan replied back confidently, “That your only brother has got himself a girlfriend.”

“What? Are you insane?” Lee JiKyung asked. “I may have lied to you, but with the girl I was going to marry... Your what? Girlfriend? You can’t do this!”

“Why not?” Lee JiHan asked. “The marriage wasn’t real anyway.”

“It may not be real but there are people who believe it is real!” JiKyung’s answer made me flinch.

Not a real wedding, but there are people who believe it is real. Thinking of those people suddenly made me scared.

Lee JiHan continued to argue with JiKyung coldly. “So, why did you even plan such a wedding?”

“That...” JiKyung stared at Lee JiHan with desperate eyes. He was unable to continue.

“I know, you must have wanted to hide what type of person you are with this marriage,” Lee JiHan smugly said. “You’re an important person to a lot of people. The secret you want to hide will not be easily accepted by those people.”

Lee JiKyung stood rooted to his spot.

“Still, you should have at least told me,” Lee JiHan simply said. “What you are trying to hide is your identity not a fault. I’m able to accept that. At least to me, you should have been truthful about yourself.”

“You can accept this?” JiKyung looked at Lee JiHan with shaking eyes at this unexpected realization.

Lee JiHan’s eyes flashed red in anger. “Yes. But you never gave me that chance, did you? You knew how much I looked up to you and liked you and all you thought about was fooling me!”

Lee JiHan’s loud echoing voice caught me off guard. I looked around my surroundings. There were probably a lot of eyes there, and they were talking so loudly in public.

I interrupted the two to break up the tension. “Uh, we, we should go up to the house to do this...”

“How low did you think of me?” Lee JiHan yelled without even letting me finish. “What kind of scum did you think I was that you would plan a fake wedding like this to fool me for the rest of my life? Did you even love me as your brother?”

“What?” Lee JiKyung asked.

“I asked if you loved me,” Lee JiHan said.

“What are you talking about?” Lee JiKyung asked.

I wanted to ask that question too. Do you love me... Isn’t that what you ask your significant other when you break up? Why is he asking this to his brother right now?

I stared blankly at Lee JiHan lost for words.

“If you liked me even a sliver of how much I like you, you would have never thought to lie to me,” Lee JiHan said. “You would feel guilty for doing it!”

“Hey!” This time, JiKyung’s voice rang so loudly I jumped. “I couldn’t tell you because I loved you!”

“What?!” I uttered at the ridiculousness of what he said.

JiKyung continued talking, only looking at Lee JiHan. “You’re my brother, and you are the most important person to me in this family. I couldn’t just tell you. I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to treat me the same as before if I did. That you would be disgusted by me. That I would lose my one and only brother. That’s why I did it. Not because I didn’t love you, but because I love you too much.”

“Is that true?” Lee JiHan glared at JiKyung not believing him.

JiKyung slowly nodded.

OK, I hope the two of you have a lovely life together... I’ll just stay out of your way...

Lee JiHan crossed his arms and became lost in thought. He lifted his head and said, “OK. Then you lying to me, I’ll forgive you a hundred times and be understanding. In return, you can’t disprove of me dating Na AhJung.”

Oh, that’s right. I’m dating this man. I’m his girlfriend.

I nodded realizing my part in all this. This time, I turned to Lee JiKyung and nodded with pleading eyes to just do as Lee JiHan requested so we could continue dating.

Unlike me, JiKyung turned to Lee JiHan instead. “That’s a different situation.”

“What?”

“What?”

Lee JiHan and I both asked simultaneously. Flabbergasted by our mutual surprise, JiKyung took turns looking at Lee JiHan and me.

With a shaking voice, JiKyung yelled, “The both of you were complaining about each other to me just a few days ago!”

“Hate is just one small step from love, didn’t you know?” Lee JiHan stated in a matter-of- fact-tone to his brother with an expression that said, “How could you not know that?”

Wow...You can’t fight this guy. He makes it really hard to argue with him.

Remembering the past times when Lee JiHan had been my enemy, I became grateful for the present. I was glad he was on my side.

Not want to lose to Lee JiHan, Lee JiKyung quickly came back with a retort. “Yea, I didn’t know. I also didn’t know that my friend Na AhJung was the kind of person to just disregard a promise like that.”

JiKyung glared at me upon saying this. Feeling guilty, I lowered my head, but Lee JiHan moved in front of me to block me from JiKyung.

Lee JiHan argued back, “Don’t threaten her with your friendship. My love is much stronger.”

“What?” Lee JiKyung asked.

“You as a friend, me as a boyfriend,” Lee JiHan said. “Don’t you even dare threaten her to choose between the two. Either way, she will definitely pick me, so you will just look like a pathetic loser.”

“Pathetic? Loser?”

Lee JiHan turned around and held my hand. He turned back to JiKyung. “If you’re going to disprove of this relationship, go right ahead.”

“What?” Lee JiKyung asked.

“We all only live once, so we have to live the way we want,” Lee JiHan said. “We’ll continue dating, and you will disapprove. We’ll just live like that.”

After abruptly ending the conversation, Lee JiHan moved toward the elevator. I was feeling apologetic, so I kept turning back to glance at JiKyung.

Lee JiKyung was frozen for a moment but came back to his senses and started to follow us. “You, Lee JiHan!”