TIN 99

The secretly shared news meant nothing to me. I just thought, That’s what Joo Do-hwa wanted all along. That was my only reaction.

“You’re quite skilled. How did you do it?”

Lee Yuna asked playfully, her eyes sparkling like two large jewels. As expected, she clearly didn’t believe I was real. Her bright smile resembled when she had laughed it off saying, “This is completely crazy.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“But you know…”

She tilted her head to one side. Her tied hair flowed over her round shoulder.

“All the others tried so hard before. They tried so desperately that sometimes their fakeness showed through their over-the-top acting.”

Lee Yuna wiggled her finger, saying they sometimes asked her for advice. Asking her to teach them how to imitate the hyung—apparently she was speaking from experience.

“But you seem more real by doing nothing at all. If I didn’t know he was dead, I might have been fooled.”

I seem real because I am real. I didn’t answer that way because I was tired of pretending to be real. They wouldn’t believe me anyway. It was nearly impossible to break their conviction that the person was dead.

“Especially with Joo Do-hwa’s pheromones all over you…”

Lee Yuna narrowed her eyes and looked me up and down carefully. As she said, Joo Do-hwa’s pheromones lingered heavily on me. Anyone with special traits would notice at first glance.

“You know, it really seems like that bastard treasures you.”

A corner of my heart felt uncomfortable. Did I need to know that? My feelings were already complicated enough as it is.

“…Hasn’t it been 5 minutes yet?”

So I slowly spoke to change the topic. The given time was almost up anyway.

“You said you had something to tell me.”

“Ah.”

Lee Yuna wrinkled her face with a small exclamation. Her expression said, “Oh right, that.”

“It’s nothing much.”

She seemed in a hurry too, quickly starting to speak. However, even after opening her mouth, she couldn’t get to the real point for a while. She seemed to hesitate and feel somewhat awkward, but what followed was quite unexpected.

“Tell me if there’s anything you want. Money, things, anything I can give.”

“…Why this all of a sudden?”

I’ve been hearing that a lot lately. Why is everyone so desperate to give me things? Joo Do-hwa aside, Lee Yuna had no reason to pay me.

“Well, last time…”

This time Lee Yuna was the one avoiding eye contact. She played with her hair that had fallen over her shoulder while averting her gaze. Glancing at me, she awkwardly added, “You took the hit instead of me.”

“…”

I stared at her blankly. I was so shocked I couldn’t think to lower my head or eyes. It took quite a while just to recall the memory, as I hadn’t expected this topic to come up at all.

“Debts should be paid properly.”

Despite her hesitant start, those words were quite firm. Lee Yuna finally looked at me directly with a small sigh.

“I was grateful then.”

“…Ah.”

It was an indescribable feeling. The belated thanks weren’t particularly moving, instead bringing an inexplicable emptiness flooding in. Along with what Joo Do-hwa had said back then.

“I heard it wasn’t to help you, but to help Wang Wei.”

Lee Yuna frowned at my sudden words. I let out a small laugh and muttered, “That I stole the excuse to let you get hit once and be trampled.”

“Joo Do-hwa said that?”

Lee Yuna immediately guessed who had said those words. Though I didn’t answer, she probably understood well enough. She wrinkled her nose for a moment, snorted, and twisted her lips.

“I really think I’m going to win…”

It was an incomprehensible response, but Lee Yuna didn’t explain any further. She just affirmed my words with that fresh smile of hers.

“You’re not wrong. Though there was no need to say it so rudely.”

I agreed, so I wasn’t particularly offended. Though I understood it intellectually, I couldn’t help but gett angry at his bastardly way of speaking.

“Anyway, tell me if you need anything. There might be things you want that Joo Do-hwa can’t give.”

That offer sounded very secretive. Which was probably why she wanted to say this when we were alone without Joo Do-hwa around.

The problem was that Joo Do-hwa couldn’t give me anything I wanted and  Lee Yuna couldn’t either.

Joo Do-hwa was an alpha born with everything in his hands, destined to own South Korea. With more money and possessions than Lee Yuna by far, how could she give what he couldn’t?

“You can also ask for things he won’t give, not just what he can’t.”

“…”

I looked at Lee Yuna sharply. Though I had to lower my head as soon as our eyes met, I clearly saw the knowing look on her face.

“What he gives is obvious. Clothes, watches, jewelry, perfume, books, dolls. Things to wear or keep at home.”

Lee Yuna counted on her fingers, wiggling her pinky last. The ring on her right ring finger sparkled in the light.

“He’ll give you a car but not a license, a card but not cash. Phone? Obviously, you won’t have that.”

Her words were surprisingly accurate. The gifts Joo Do-hwa showered me with when I arrived lacked exactly what Lee Yuna had mentioned. He gave me everything but  means for external contact, anything that could be used to leave this house.

“I can give you everything. Without Joo Do-hwa knowing about it.”

My throat tightened. Whether from anticipation or tension, my solar plexus felt constricted as well. Everything she said sounded like she could help me escape this house.

“…Why would you give me that?”

However, alongside my racing heart, I felt wary. Even when Kei suggested escape, hadn’t I felt more uncomfortable than pleased? Let alone Lee Yuna suggesting such a thing, whom I’d barely gotten to know. She had no reason to take such risks to repay me.

“Didn’t you say you don’t want to die by Joo Do-hwa’s hands?”

“Hmm.”

Lee Yuna’s lips curved into a gentle arc. Though I expected similar words about gratitude or repayment like before, she unexpectedly asked lightly, “Want me to be honest with you?”

I didn’t need to nod. She continued immediately, “I thought it might be a chance to mess with him.”

“…Mess with him?”

It was an odd statement. Lee Yuna spoke softly with a long sigh, “Ah…seeing how much that bastard dotes on you makes my blood boil.”

I didn’t remember him doting…Though he had been somewhat kind, Joo Do-hwa was still Joo Do-hwa.

“I never liked it. Getting random people to pretend to be dead people, calling them stand-ins or whatever. But it wasn’t this bad before…”

Her voice turned cold. Shaking her head as if disgusted by the whole thing, Lee Yuna clicked her tongue openly.

“How long is he going to play with dolls, unable to forget his hyung or whatever? He’s a grown man.”

Her sharp tone seemed both a criticism of Joo Do-hwa and a warning to me. I didn’t think she was wrong, but her next words made me feel strange.

“Dead people don’t come back.”

“…”

“How can others fill that void?”

‘She’s jealous.’

Why did Joo Do-hwa’s words cross my mind then?

Perhaps because her overly rational tone felt like self-hypnosis, or because her sudden irritation seemed emotional in contrast.

“You can’t possibly be real.”

‘How jealous must she be. While her loved one can never return…to hear that a hyung thought dead has come back.’

Maybe Lee Yuna didn’t disbelieve me but rather hoped I wasn’t real. Because her beloved crossed a river of no return, she couldn’t accept that the hyung Joo Do-hwa sought had returned.

“Joo Do-hwa needs to know this performance is fake.”

So show him, she meant to say. That I wasn’t really “hyung” and could betray Joo Do-hwa anytime. That Joo Do-hwa’s method was wrong and this was all just a stupid fantasy. If I didn’t prove this, her own efforts to forget would seem too worthless.

“Don’t do something you’ll regret later on.”

My answer came without hesitation. This person was so stubborn too. This new impression wasn’t particularly negative. I just felt sick to my stomach knowing Lee Yuna’s sense of deprivation.

“You told me to seduce Do-hwa because you want to break off the engagement.”

“…”

“But now you’re telling me to betray him?”

Though I didn’t get to see Lee Yuna often, I had learned something from our encounters. That even she, who seemed to lack nothing, had something she yearned for. And while sympathizing with Joo Do-hwa, she was also jealous of him.

“Don’t drag me into your personal grudge.”

No matter how many times I was asked this, my answer remained the absolute same. When Kei offered his hand then, and now with Lee Yuna’s decent proposal, I didn’t want anyone’s help.

Besides, I couldn’t let anything hold me back now.

“I won’t accept anything.”

I touched my neck deliberately while answering firmly. The buttoned collar felt suffocating. I swallowed dryly and awkwardly added, “…What Do-hwa gives me is enough.”

So…how much of our conversation did Joo Do-hwa hear?