Painful, but Desirable

Chapter 9

“What?!”

Understandably, Woojin let out a shout of surprise. Hayeon somehow felt just as startled as him. Her body was trembling under Doyun’s arm. As if it weren’t enough to suddenly hold her close, he’d announced them as a couple! She was dumbfounded.

He could have just said yes when Woojin asked if they were here on business—why did he say they were on a date? They’d have to tell everyone eventually anyway, of course, but he didn’t have to hug her like this! His hand wrapped firmly around her body.

On the night she was drunk, she had boldly pressed her lips to his. But that was with the power of alcohol to fortify her. Here, now, with her shoulder pressed against his chest in the middle of the day for all to see—she didn’t think her heart could take it. It was pounding as if it would explode at any minute. Doyun, on the other hand, was cool as a cucumber.

“Why are you so surprised?” Doyun asked.

“Of course, I’m surprised. Why wouldn’t I be? You and Shin Hayeon? A couple? Wow. Is this a dream? What is happening?” Woojin exclaimed. Not knowing what to do, he just kept looking back and forth between them. People passing by were starting to stare. When Woojin didn’t show any signs of recovering from the shock, Doyun suggested they go on into the store.

“Why don’t we go upstairs and talk some more.”

“Oh, okay. Right. Should we go to a cafe? Or... have you already eaten?” Woojin asked.

“Let’s go to a cafe,” Doyun said, “The one we went to last time.”

The three of them headed to the terrace cafe on the top floor. They found a place to sit before ordering at the counter.

“I got it,” Doyun said. He got up from his seat to go order, but Woojin stopped him.

“Sit,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re guests at my store. I should treat you. What would you like?”

“I’ll have an iced americano. Hayeon wants a latte, hot,” Doyun answered. Woojin nodded and left the table. Hayeon was impressed that Doyun already knew her order. She almost always drank lattes. She liked to feel the soft milk on the tip of her tongue. If she was at a specialty cafe, she might order whatever they were famous for. But other than that, she always ordered the same thing. And always hot. But she had never discussed anything so routine with Doyun. She could count on one hand the number of times they’d had a regular conversation, and she knew each of them by heart. There’s no way he could already know her tastes so well.

“How did you know I was going to order a latte?” she asked.

“Don’t be so surprised. I haven’t been watching you from a distance all these years or anything creepy like that,” he said as he crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair. Lifting one eyebrow as he spoke again, “I did take some time to learn about the woman I’m going to marry, though. I guess it was a bit cowardly of me.”

He smiled a self-deprecating smile. “It felt like the Shin Hayeon I knew was less than one percent of who you really are. So, I started trying to piece you together,” he said.

How had he looked into her? Did he hire someone? Did he just ask around? Their lives did overlap quite a bit. He could have asked their friends or her coworkers at the company. It wouldn’t have been too difficult.

“Well? What did you discover about this Shin Hayeon?” she asked.

“Oh, she isn’t so different from the version of you I already know,” he said. “She’s kind and hardworking...”

And boring... Hayeon thought to herself. But Doyun didn’t say anything like that. On the contrary, he leaned forward in his chair as if he found the conversation quite interesting.

“She always drinks lattes and eats sandwiches for lunch. Sometimes she might get a salad from the convenience store instead. But she never gets a proper meal, so... she must not like the rice at the office cafeteria?” he ventured.

“No, it’s just that my stomach feels funny if I eat rice in the middle of the day,” she said.

“So, she has a sensitive stomach.”

“Yes...”

Every time she got nervous, she felt sick. If she had an important meeting, she couldn’t even handle a sandwich, so she would eat a salad or porridge. He must have heard from her coworkers. As she pondered who his informants were, he spoke again.

“For me, it’s respiratory issues. Dry, dusty air is my Achilles heel,” he said.

Oh, so he has sensitive lungs. She’d noticed him cough lightly in the chill air when he got out of the car earlier. But why was he bringing that up now? Doyun continued when he saw her confusion.

“You told me something about you, so I told you something about me. This is fun. It’s nice to learn more about you,” he said. For a piece of information about herself, she could get a piece of information about him. She wanted to know more about him, but she didn’t feel that there was anything worth telling about herself.

While they talked, Woojin came back to the table holding a tray with three cups. Hayeon jumped up from her seat.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Woojin. I should have helped you carry it,” she said.

“No, no, it’s fine. You came all the way here. It’s the least I could do,” he said, “But...”

Woojin set the tray down on the table and looked at the two of them as if he still couldn’t believe it. Hayeon watched him look back and forth, still confounded, and a bitter smile crossed her face. She would have to get used to this. She’d be seeing a lot of it from now on. Woojin was a good person, but even he couldn’t keep from staring at them. They were a shocking couple.

Doyun was a strikingly handsome company executive from a chaebol family, and Hayeon was average at best. They were bound to turn some heads. If even Woojin—someone without prejudices—was startled at the sight of them, who knew what lay ahead. They would have to endure a lot of gawking. Somehow, Hayeon wasn’t afraid.

She let her gaze hover over Doyun. They were supposed to be a couple, so it wouldn’t seem strange for her to be caught looking at him anymore. His sharp nose, his soft lips, his eyes flashing back at her. It felt so good to be able to look at him to her heart’s content. She took a sip from her latte. The warm, soft scent floated up to her nose.

Woojin couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer. “Okay, when did you two start dating?” he asked.

“It hasn’t been long,” Doyun said.

“Were you hiding it from us? Why didn’t you say something? I almost had a heart attack. You could have at least dropped a hint before you came,” Woojin said.

“You all are so talkative. If you knew, you’d have spoiled it,” Doyun said.

“Who else knows?” Woojin asked, “Do any of the club members know? Your coworkers? Did you have to inform the company?”

“You’re the first. Consider it an honor,” Doyun said. He answered Woojin’s endless string of questions effortlessly.

Sunbae, you have sensitive lungs. And you’re good at lying. Two facts she had learned about him today. Seeing that Doyun was quite forthcoming, Woojin leaned over in excitement and continued with his questions.

“Did you get to know each other at work? Did you ask her out first, Doyun? Wow, I had no idea you had feelings for Hayeon.”

He couldn’t stop talking. He was always talkative, but today he wasn’t even giving them time to answer. There were just too many things to wonder about. The questions were getting more difficult to answer. Doyun was starting to struggle, so Hayeon stepped in.

“No, actually I asked him out first,” she said. When it came to expressing her feelings about him, she was completely confident. “I confessed my feelings and told him that I liked him.”

She never imagined she’d be able to speak these words. She liked him so much, but she’d always been afraid that he’d look down on her. But now, the words came so easily. This contractual marriage was turning out to be the perfect situation for Hayeon. The knowledge that no one would think it was strange for her to say such things gave her words conviction. Her voice bubbled up excitedly in a way it never had before.

“I told him that I’d had a crush on him for a long time and asked him to go out with me,” she said. It wasn’t even a lie. Doyun raised his eyebrows at her response. Woojin was stunned again.

“You’re lying! Really?” he said. “You? Hayeon, you liked Cha Doyun this whole time?”

“Yes,” she said.

Her cheeks prickled under Doyun’s gaze. It looked like he was trying to guess whether there was some truth in the part she was playing. She could feel his eyes without looking at him.

“Wow, I had no idea... I’d never have known. Since when?” Woojin asked.

“A long time ago,” Hayeon said. She had liked him for longer than she could remember. Woojin pressed for more like he still couldn’t believe it.

“How long ago? Did you like him from the first moment you saw him? As a freshman? Did you follow him to PQ Chemical? Or something like that?” Woojin’s questions made Hayeon recall the first time she met him. She didn’t like him back then. Actually, she’d disliked him. She hated him so much she couldn’t stand it.