When Your Pain Becomes Mine

"Where? Where are you going?"

Over the phone, Chaekyeong's voice was heard, not Ojae's.

Gyeonhui was a little surprised and checked the phone number on the screen before sighing deeply.

"Hah. Don't call me."

"Have you ever seen me doing what you asked me to do? By the way, where are you now?"

"You don't need to know."

He hung up the phone, bothered.

Then he got another call, but he turned it on silent.

"So many things to take care of at once…"

He was annoyed and began walking. He didn't go to the front door but instead headed to the back door. He opened the door, looked around, and carefully stepped inside.

He looked up and saw Sun and the people from the Kids' Fans meeting with their customers.

"Come here please."

In one corner of the café, Ojae called him with a small voice.

He lowered his upper body and plunked down on a chair.

"Really… Are you sure this is the only way?"

He asked, as if he were dissatisfied.

"We have to protect her. There is no better way than following her."

Ojae said, eating a piece of chocolate cake.

"But it's… Never mind."

He was dissatisfied with his own actions, but there were no other ways around it.

"Have some. Aren't you hungry?"

Ojae pointed to the coffee and cakes that he ordered.

Gyeonhui was still annoyed and stared at Ojae.

"Can you please eat it quietly? Wipe your mouth while you're eating."

Ojae inevitably had to give in and eat the cake with his mouth shut.

Ojae's appearance and behaviors made Gyeonhui more annoyed.

"... Huwmm."

With his arms crossed, he barely endured the anger that was welling up in his mind.

He turned his head and saw Sun meeting with her customers through the window.

"Don't you drink coffee?"

"My stomach doesn't feel good."

"That's no good. Ah, the hangover. Then I'll drink your coffee instead."

As if Ojae had been waiting eagerly, he took Gyeonhui's coffee and slurped it loudly.

"Arghh..."

He barely fought back the anger.

"But does she feel your hangover?"

"What?"

"You said, you feel her pain, but does she also feel your pain, too?"

Gyeonhui remembered the memory of last night.

"... No, I don't think so."

"... Not sure? Would you like to check it out?"

"How?"

Gyeonhui wondered and asked in a low voice

"Then promise me you won't get mad."

"Mad? Why?"

"Just promise me anyway. Then I'll check it out for you."

Gyeonhui, who still didn't understand what Ojae was trying to do, looked at him with a suspicious gaze and then nodded quickly.

As soon as Gyeonhui nodded, Ojae then picked up the fork as if he had waited so long to do this and stabbed him in the forearm.

"Oh! Oh, Ouch!"

Gyeonhui distorted his face without even making a loud noise.

"... Are you crazy?" Struggling with pain, he spoke in a low voice.

"Hmm. It seems she does not feel your pain."

Ojae said, pretending not to listen to Gyeonhui.

He turned his head and looked at the Sun.

In her face at the meeting, there was no pain from the fork.

"That's unfair… Huh…"

He still scowled even though the pain had vanished.

Ojae glanced at Gyeonhui's face as if he had deserved the pain, and then he quickly changed his expression.

"Did you hurt me on purpose?"

"What are you talking about? It was definitely only out of necessity. Huh? She is looking at us!"

Ojae quickly bowed his head and whimpered.

As if Gyeonhui was lying on his chair, he leaned back to avoid her gaze.

She turned, and fortunately, she didn't see the two of them.

"Oh, seriously."

He mumbled to himself in dissatisfaction. No matter how deeply he thought about ways to protect her, following her didn't seem right.

Then a familiar woman entered the café entrance.

He blinked his eyes several times and looked at her.

"Hey Chaekyeong?"

He said to himself as if he were surprised by Chakyeong's unexpected visit to the cafe.

However, Gyeonhui soon realized what had just happened and looked at Ojae.

"I'm, I'm really innocent. Just... she asked me where you'd be, so I told her you're going to be here...I really didn't know she was going to come."

"Huh? Hey, Gyeonhui!"

She looked around the cafe and quickly found him and shouted.

Gyeonhui's name echoed through the café.

Because of the familiar name, Sun's gaze eventually turned to Gyeonhui, too.

He quickly turned his head and avoided her gaze

"Did she see me? Did she?" he looked at Ojae sitting on the other side and asked.

"Um? I'm not sure if she did..."

Ojae also turned his head, so there was no way to confirm it.

Gyeonhui frowned and checked on her through the window where she was.

The rest of the people were still there, but only her seat was empty.

'Where did she go?'

He looked around the café, which was reflected by the windows.

Then she could see Sun coming toward him from behind.

"This is c... crazy."

Cold sweat spilled from Gyeonhui's's back.

He felt his spine go cold.

22. To Forget about The Man

In a fairly large café, a long wooden table sat in the middle of a group from Kids Fans and Mr. Song

'Tack, Tack, Tack.'

Mr. Song tapped the table with a fountain pen, frowning.

Mr. Song looked through the proposal many times, but his expression did not change.

"Mr. Song."

A member of staff next to him handed out a note to Mr. Song.

After confirming the message, Mr. Song nodded and started talking, "Definitely a weak concept."

Mr. Song's response was certainly more negative than expected.

"If you look at it here, it's a character great enough to draw attention."

Eunyoung once again showed the cute animal character in her palm to him, and said.

"But the concept of 'lover' is pretty childish. I'd rather see a 'healing' concept than a 'lover'."

Mr. Song was covering the fountain pen with its cap as if he had already decided.

"You don't have more to show me, do you?"

No one answered Mr. Song's question.

"If you have a different concept, please send it to me by the weekend. We're leaving now for other scheduled appointments."

Mr. Song's team rose from their seats.

Only three members of Kids Fan were left in the spacious group meeting room.

"Oh. It was they who requested the meeting."

Ari drank water while fighting down her anger.

"... It's not over yet. Let's produce something by the end of the weekend."

Eunyoung tried to encourage the staff to pretend this didn't affect them.

However, Sun knew that Eunyoung was more frustrated than anyone else.

As long as we lost the business with Consencio, we had to make sure that we retained the business with the W department store.

"Let's go. Staying here doesn't solve anything."

"Why didn't they at least clear the table? This is outrageous."

Ari, clearing the table, complained as her lips were pouting.

Sun helped Ari to clean the table as if she felt sorry for the meeting, too.

Then she noticed a crumpled note on the table.

It was the memo that one of the staff from the W department store gave to Mr. Song in the meeting. The memo contained a shocking comment when Sun opened it without much thought.

'Any company that has business with Kids Fan will be excluded from doing business with Consencio.'

The shocking message struck Sun.

"Hey, Sun. What's wrong? What's up?"

Ari looked up and tried to see the message.

"Oh, this is nothing."

She hid her hands with the memo behind her back.

"What is it?"

Ari quickly put off her interest and cleaned the remaining drinks from the table.

"Huhm…"

A long sigh leaked from Sun's mouth. It was a moment of realization. She clutched the memo in her hand while silently clenching her teeth.

Then, with the appearance of a woman, the café stirred alive.

"Heh? Gyeonhui!"

A familiar stranger's cry was heard as Sun involuntarily turned her head.

As she followed the short-haired woman's gaze, she was able to see him sitting in the corner of the café.

He quickly turned his head not to be noticed, but she could still recognize him from behind.

"Why is he here?"

Eunyoung asked, disgusted.

But instead of answering, Sun was already stepping toward him.

***

'This is crazy...'

With nowhere to run away from the corner, Gyeonhui was perplexed, biting his lower lip. Sun's reflection in the window suddenly approached the front of the table.

"Mr. Gyeonhui."

As Sun began to speak, Chaekyeong sat next to him.

"Hey! Did you wait for me because you missed me so badly?" She held his arm tightly and spoke in a cute voice.

"Go, go away."

He panicked and pushed her away, but it was not easy to remove her hand as it stuck to him like a gum.

Sun looked at her doing this silently and then moved her gaze to Gyeonhui.

"... I see you often these days."

When Sun spoke, he turned his head and looked up at her.

"What is this tone of voice? Are you accusing me of following you?"

He raised his voice to ask if he were guilty.

"I didn't say that, and I don't think so. I'm not supposed to say such things to you."

He glanced at her as if it were uncomfortable to see her.

"I have something to say."

"Something to say?"

"... I hope you don't get involved in my life anymore."

Her unbelievable proclamation widened his eyes.

Chaekyeong was also curious as she watched them from the side.

"... Does this look familiar?"

Sun dropped the crumpled note she held in front of him, and turned herself around and stepped toward her group.

"You, you."

He rose from his seat, seemingly angry. Then Chaekyeong blocked his way

"What are you doing? Get out of the way."

"Just send her away now."

"What?"

"I don't want to see my man being swayed. So listen to me for now."

He spoke with a serious expression as usual.

"Hah...."

He exhaled with a sigh of frustration.

"But what the hell is this?"

Chaekyeong opened up and read the memo left by Sun.

'Any company that has business with Kids Fan will be excluded from doing business with Consencio?'

At the moment, Gyeonhui immediately scowled. At the same time, he understood the meaning of what she had said.

"What's going on..."

Ojae had noticed the situation and expressed himself in disgust.

"This is all because of you! Is this the only way? Get out of the way!"

He pushed Ojae out of the way and left the café.

After a while, Chaekyeong saw Gyeonhui's car peeled out from the parking lot loudly.

"Hmm, he's still spectacular."

Looking at Gyeonhui's car, she glanced to the seat where Sun had sat just a bit ago.

"Number sixteen is still pretty as well."

A curious smile enveloped her face.