By Zephyria 
Тhе words didn’t sink in immediatеlу. A lawуer? Sincе whеn? Тhе mоmеnt that questiоn аrоse, a briеf memory flаshed thrоugh his mind.
‘Mеmorizе this insteаd.’
Тhе elevеn-digit number rеcited softlу. He had nаturally assumеd it was Dо-hуun’s number, but perhaps thаt wasn’t the cаsе. Аs sооn as he rеalizеd, а sharp quеstiоn burst out.
“Do you just gо arоund mеmorizing lawуеrs’ numbеrs?”
Моre thаn аnything, thаt part was baffling. Most рeoрle cоuldn’t even memоrize thеir own familу’s numbеrs, so why оn earth wоuld he hаvе a lеgаl prоfеssionаl’s numbеr? Dо-hyun shrugged аs if it wеre nо big dеаl.
“I mеmorize your number, too.”
It was a confident retort. Woo-yeon couldn’t ask any further and fell silent. To the suddenly quiet Woo-yeon, he added nonchalantly:
“You should memorize it too. It’s essential in case of an emergency.”
What possible emergency would require a lawyer’s number? Woo-yeon didn’t point that out. He simply posed a question that a more rational mind would naturally ask.
“Why does Teacher have a lawyer?”
Normally, a student wouldn’t have a privately hired lawyer. He had heard that Do-hyun was adopted into a wealthy family, but he didn’t know exactly how wealthy. It wasn’t as if he had prepared one in advance just to hit Jun-seong.
“I provided one for him.”
Soo-hyang answered instead. Her sharp gaze passed Woo-yeon and landed on Do-hyun.
“Though I didn’t provide one so you could hit people.”
“You gave it to me to use, so I should use it.”
Do-hyun tilted his head dismissively. It was a rather arrogant gesture. Soo-hyang didn’t mind, and Do-hyun asked casually:
“How much did you give for the settlement?”
“I didn’t settle. Instead, I bought some silence.”
Soo-hyang turned on a tablet PC and held it out to Do-hyun. Taking the device, Do-hyun scanned the screen half-heartedly. However, as soon as he checked the contents, his lips tightened coldly.
“What is it?”
Woo-yeon leaned forward with a puzzled face. He did so to see the screen, but Do-hyun tilted the device away so Woo-yeon couldn’t see. Simultaneously, Soo-hyang spoke in a flat tone.
“It’s evidence that Kang Jun-seong took photos of Woo-yeon.”
A look of dismay crossed Do-hyun’s face. The way he furrowed his brow suggested he didn’t want Woo-yeon to know. After hesitating for a moment, his lips parted.
“This isn’t really necessary…”
“Seonbae.”
The tone was so firm it felt cold. Woo-yeon reached out his hand and spoke calmly.
“It’s my business.”
“…….”
For a brief moment, he wanted to take back the words he had carelessly let slip. It was because the gaze directed at him wavered as if wounded. Do-hyun kept his mouth shut tight before handing over the tablet with a resigned face.
“……A group chat?”
What Do-hyun had been looking at were several photos. To be precise, they were captures of a group chat with about five people. As he flipped through the photos one by one, Woo-yeon’s face also hardened.
“It seems there was a group chat among middle school classmates. Kang Jun-seong posted the photos there, and Lee Yeongbin used them to write posts on a community site.”
The photos he had seen on the internet remained exactly as they were in the chat room. The faces weren’t blurred, and there were quite a few of them. Of course, if it had ended there, Woo-yeon wouldn’t have felt this filthy.
“That’s evidence obtained from Lee Yeongbin during the legal process. He claimed he only took one photo during the festival, but he probably didn’t realize that the crime of distribution is more severe than the act of taking the photo.”
‘He’s damn pretty,’ ‘But he plays hard to get as hell.’ The words Jun-seong had written pierced his eyes. A few others joined in evaluating his appearance, but the words that caught his attention the most were these:
Kang Jun-seong: [This is that pig bastard] 05:02pm
“…….”
He felt strange. He felt angry, yet at the same time, he felt as if he were becoming detached from everything. Seeing the words, which had previously focused on admiring his looks, eventually become covered in contempt for him, his mind grew colder.
“I looked into it… and it turns out you can’t sue Kang Jun-seong just for taking the photos. It might be possible if you go through the proper procedures, but even then, it would only be for alimony.”
Woo-yeon turned off the screen after seeing the words ‘Just bring him along so I can watch.’ He didn’t have the confidence to look at any more text because his stomach was churning.
It was then that Do-hyun spoke slowly.
“……So, surely you didn’t use this to buy their silence?”
His tone was pleading for the answer to be no. However, Soo-hyang was not merciful enough to give him the answer he wanted.
“I did.”
Thud! A harsh sound echoed. It was the sound of Do-hyun slamming the table. Angry pheromones leaked out, and his tightly clenched fists turned white.
“Do you realize what you’re saying right now?”
Do-hyun spat the words out in a heavily suppressed voice. His pheromones were sharp with rage. Soo-hyang looked up at the threatening atmosphere, which was enough to make Woo-yeon shrink back.
“Pull in your pheromones.”
“…….”
“I’m not finished talking.”
The surging pheromones subsided. It was in that instant that Woo-yeon looked at Do-hyun. Do-hyun flinched, his shoulders trembling, and he bit his lower lip hard.
“There was simply a more certain way than getting a few pennies in alimony. I have no intention of letting this slide just to get your one lawsuit dropped.”
Only then did Do-hyun sit on the sofa. He was still biting his lip, but he didn’t feel as unstable as before. However, he couldn’t look at Woo-yeon and kept his head turned away.
“……What is this ‘more certain way’?”
Woo-yeon forced his closed mouth open to ask. Soo-hyang looked back and forth between Do-hyun and Woo-yeon before starting very slowly.
“I did a bit of digging into Kang Jun-seong.”
It wasn’t a very honorable thing to do. Perhaps that was why she curled the corner of her mouth into a smirk. Her refined lips bore a faint, leisurely sneer.
“His family is very, very wealthy.”
* * *
Woo-yeon stared blankly into space. Thoughts floated slowly through his mind. Most of them were things Soo-hyang had said, but at the end of it all, the image of Do-hyun remained.
‘See you tomorrow.’
A short while ago, after Soo-hyang finished talking, Do-hyun had gone home with a complicated expression. Soo-hyang offered to call Driver Yoon for him, but he politely declined even that. According to what he’d heard, everything should have worked out well, so his reaction was truly strange.
Perhaps that was why Woo-yeon didn’t return to his room and stayed quietly in the study. He chewed over the words Do-hyun had said, recalled the conversation they had in the car, thought of Driver Yoon’s apology, and then arrived at a small doubt.
‘What conversation did they have the day I went to get my phone fixed?’
Do-hyun had said he wanted to get permission. In the car, and on the day he fought with Do-hyun, looking back, it felt as if Do-hyun had contacted Soo-hyang first. As if he had spoken about Woo-yeon voluntarily, not because Soo-hyang told him to.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
The chain of thoughts was snapped by Soo-hyang’s single sentence. Only then did Woo-yeon regain focus and slowly look around. In the study, which was decorated similarly to Soo-hyang’s office, Do-hyun’s pheromones lingered faintly.
“There’s something I want to ask you.”
Soo-hyang looked at Woo-yeon as if telling him to speak. Her eyes, which looked nothing like Woo-yeon’s, were light in color but possessed an uncanny weight.
“I heard that… Teacher met my mother last week.”
“Yes, why?”
“Why did he come to see you?”
It was something he hadn’t asked because it seemed too obvious. The reason Do-hyun met Soo-hyang must have been to give an update on Woo-yeon’s current situation. But why, all of a sudden, did he want to hear that causal relationship?
“These are things you don’t necessarily need to know.”
Soo-hyang firmly cut Woo-yeon off. But the words Woo-yeon was going to say were already decided.
“It’s my business.”
“…….”
“The things you talked about earlier, and everything else—it’s all my business.”
Seeing that she didn’t refute him, it seemed this approach worked again. Her expression was subtly complex, but it was enough that she didn’t order him to leave. Soo-hyang gazed steadily at Woo-yeon and spoke softly.
“He came because he thought he knew who posted the writing. He said there was a suspect and that investigating that lead would be faster.”
The beginning was different from what Do-hyun had said. But the words that followed were similar to what Woo-yeon had heard.
“He said it would be dangerous for you to be alone, so he’d keep you at his house for the time being.”
“…….”
“When I asked what that meant, he said he was sorry for starting to date you.”
It was subtly different from what Woo-yeon knew. Contrary to his expectation that Do-hyun had reported his status at Soo-hyang’s request, this was entirely Do-hyun’s own will. In fact, it was far from a mere ‘report.’
“……Is that all?”
“No.”
Soo-hyang turned her head. Her gaze, which had shifted aside, returned to Woo-yeon after a very short pause. With a somewhat hesitant air, Soo-hyang spoke.
“He also asked me to wait until he could tell you himself.”
There was no need to ask what he needed time to tell him. There was only one thing Do-hyun had to say to him from then until now. The important thing was why Soo-hyang, and not Do-hyun, became the one to tell him the truth.
“But… you told me first?”
If she had granted Do-hyun’s request, Woo-yeon wouldn’t have been this hurt. Do-hyun wouldn’t have had to plead so desperately, and the fight that forced them to take such a long detour wouldn’t have happened. Even if Do-hyun had remained silent, the situation would have been better than it was now.
“I simply weighed the importance of the matters.”
Even after living with her all his life, there was no way to know what was inside Soo-hyang. Especially when she met his gaze with such an expressionless face. Her eyes, transparent enough to see through, never revealed her true inner thoughts.
“If I hadn’t told you, do you think you would have left that child’s house?”
“……Ha.”
It felt as if his breath was being choked off. Shackles rising from the ends of the earth suddenly grabbed Woo-yeon’s ankles. The creeping pressure finally reached his throat.
‘No. This is a misunderstanding, Woo-yeon.’
He remembered the sensation of Do-hyun grabbing his wrist. He remembered the gaze that rarely wavered, filled with desperation. From the moment he pushed Do-hyun away, turned his back, and entered the main house in Driver Yoon’s car, every scene flashed by like a panorama.
Why did Do-hyun’s phone ring at that exact timing? Why did the caller contact him knowing that he was on his way to Do-hyun? He hadn’t checked the caller ID, but now he felt he knew exactly who had made that call.
‘I am sorry for the other day.’
“You did it on purpose.”
Do-hyun probably knows. Being as quick-witted as he is, he must have sufficiently anticipated where and how things went wrong. That’s why he would have sneered at Driver Yoon, saying it was too late.
“On purpose… to make me come back to the main house…”
His head spun. The world whirled before his eyes, and the strength drained from his entire body. While he struggled even to breathe, a quiet voice reached him.
“That was the best option.”
It was an irresponsible statement. It wasn’t something to say so brazenly after shredding someone’s heart.
“Wounds received from people are bound to heal with time.”
“Ah…”
Woo-yeon let out short, repetitive breaths. The sigh, ambiguous between laughter and crying, soon turned into intense resentment.
“Then what about the wounds I received from Mother?”
It was just one sentence, but Soo-hyang froze. Her eyes, always sharp, grew unusually blurred. Without giving Soo-hyang another look, Woo-yeon stood up and left the study.