Cold City Romance Chapter 14.3

“You have something to say to me, don’t you….”

“…….”

With his left arm held by Hyun Kangwoo and his right arm by Hyun Jaehwi, Cha Dokyung was at a loss for where to put his body in embarrassment, hesitating, and then, as people’s gazes concentrated, he shook off both men’s hands completely with both of his hands.

Hyun Kangwoo seized the moment without missing it and cut in front of Cha Dokyung’s body while saying.

“Jaehwi, why don’t you pay attention to that lady next to you.”

“…….”

“Today is the last day. Since I am the closest to Dokyung, I go first, so you draw a number tag and wait behind.”

“Kangwoo, sorry, but let me talk with Jaehwi for a bit….”

As Cha Dokyung, who had been hesitating, seemed to have made up his mind and pushed Hyun Kangwoo’s arm away hard to approach Hyun Jaehwi, Hyun Kangwoo grabbed his arm again and pressed his body close, whispering in his ear.

“Dokyung. It’s me or Hyun Jaehwi?”

“……What?”

Hyun Kangwoo whispered in a very small voice so that only Cha Dokyung could hear.

“Did you forget the promise we made in Thailand? Choose right here.”

The body of Hyun Jaehwi, who had been looking fiercely angry, turned completely toward the two whispering in each other’s ears.

Cha Dokyung suddenly looked at the embarrassed face of Kang Seoyeon, who was excluded from Hyun Jaehwi’s side and giving an awkward wry smile. It was something he could not do to her. In this case, it would be better to finish talking with Kangwoo and come back….

“Sorry, Jaehwi…. Just a moment, I will talk with Kangwoo and come back.”

Hyun Jaehwi glared coldly at the two with a frigid and hollow expression, as if he had expected that.

As Hyun Kangwoo tightly put his arm around Cha Dokyung’s shoulder and moved away from the spot, Hyun Jaehwi sneered from behind and muttered curses in a low voice.

“Ha, fuck….”

Cha Dokyung’s eyes widened in surprise.

He had spat out vulgar curses right in front of Kang Seoyeon. Cha Dokyung’s mind was completely blank. His head was dizzy from just two glasses of champagne.

Cha Dokyung simply followed absentmindedly as Hyun Kangwoo led the way.

Along the beautifully manicured splendid garden, at the large bench set up on the left side of the banquet hall, Hyun Kangwoo ranted at Cha Dokyung in a resentful manner about this and that.

Cha Dokyung did not take in a single word of what he was saying. He kept looking only toward Hyun Jaehwi and Kang Seoyeon standing at the central fountain of this banquet hall.

As soon as Hyun Serin disappeared, those two tilted new glasses of alcohol they received from the server and continued their conversation. The refined beauty with a kind impression nodded her head and smiled kindly at Hyun Jaehwi.

“Cha Dokyung. You punk, are you listening to me?”

“Huh? Yeah, I am listening….”

“I will go to Taebaek Mountain from time to time. For sea fishing there as well.”

“It will be hard to see your face because of the filming. The filming always has long and irregular waits, so I cannot make separate time either.”

Hyun Kangwoo roughly turned Cha Dokyung’s head, which had completely turned toward the fountain, back toward himself and said.

“Forget about that bastard!”

“…….”

“He is going back to America in a few days anyway. You may not know well, but Jaehwi has heavy responsibilities over there. That is not a simple duty like ordinary people. Probably, once he goes back this time, he will root himself there and settle down and never return to Korea.”

The transparent pupils shook precariously.

“Kangwoo, it is not like that.”

“What is not…. Do you know what kind of face you are making right now?”

“…….”

“A face dripping with lingering attachment, like a dog in heat desperate and full of shit, you have been staring only at that guy since earlier.”

“…….”

“The daughter of Minister Kang Kio next to you will think you are suspicious too. That is why I dragged you here by force, do you get what I mean?”

The calm facade he had been pretending cracked, and his clear face twisted irritably.

“Ha, fuck…, I told you it is not like that!”

“Yeah, let’s say it is not! You stay here with me. Do not interfere with those two.”

“…….”

“When I came in after greeting father earlier, Minister Kang Kio and father were hitting it off so well that they were in an uproar about becoming in-laws…. In America, they were even drinking kimchi soup about where to set up the newlyweds’ home. Since both have ties to America, it is not an impossible story. Those two getting married in America and building a family.”

Cha Dokyung’s body was attached to Hyun Kangwoo, but his head was still turned toward the central fountain. His head turned on its own and did not listen to him.

She was a friend whose smile was flawlessly pretty when she laughed like Jaehwi. It was the first time he had seen the boy talking so much with another person as if enjoying it. She was not an indifferent and cold partner like him. She was not someone who acted haughty or prim.

She was kind and had rich expressions. She seemed to have a warm temperament that knew how to give love because she had received a lot of love growing up. She was a pretty female friend of the boy’s age who was sociable and kind.

“Young and youthful twenty-six-year-olds of the same age, they are so fresh.”

“…….”

“Do the two not match very well? There is no reason for father to refuse the youngest daughter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.”

At those words, his heart, which had barely healed, ached again. Cha Dokyung murmured in a low voice with a very rational and calm face, as if he had resigned to everything.

“……Yeah, the two really match well.”

When dawn breaks, Cha Dokyung departs for a very deep mountain valley filming site at Taebaek Mountain. Hyun Jaehwi also leaves forever for America in a few days. There are no variables. Now everything is over.

What can he do by being jealous and dragging his lingering attachment like a pathetic guy. Get a grip. He had decided to give a final farewell greeting and wish for the boy’s happiness even from afar.

“Cha Dokyung, stop looking over there.”

“It is not like that…. I was just looking because the two match too well.”

Jaehwi, I hope you meet someone much better than me. Not someone like me, but a good person who matches your level. I hope you meet that warm person who can love you, who grew up in a similar age, similar background, similar level, similar world.

Meet someone around your age who is similar to you, not a blocked-up materialist like me who is over thirty. You must never get involved with a vulgar and promiscuous slut who spits out cold and harsh words casually and then fucks you like a sex toy and discards you without a care.

Because you are too precious.

Do not match anymore with a mean and cowardly materialist who only gives wounds to a wonderful and good man like you. You have wasted enough time in Korea so far.

“I hope Jaehwi meets a good person.”

At those words, Hyun Kangwoo put his arm around Cha Dokyung’s shoulder and whispered soothingly, as if he knew everything but had turned a blind eye and permitted it.

“Yeah, you thought well.”

At the same time, Hyun Jaehwi was looking at Cha Dokyung, who was leaning affectionately on Hyun Kangwoo’s shoulder from afar, for a long while without a word. Was he giving a farewell greeting or something. That sight of him leaning unusually on Hyun Kangwoo and receiving comfort was heartbreaking to the point of tears.

Hyun Jaehwi, standing in front of Kang Seoyeon, let out another wounded and hollow sneer from disillusionment with Cha Dokyung.

That sneer scattered coldly into the air along with a mutter to himself.

“To the end, he is really true to Cha Dokyung.”

The splendid celebration banquet had completely ended. After seeing off the invited guests, a simple tea time with dessert was given to the remaining family members.

In the guest room of the lakeside villa where the banquet was held, a beautiful and leisurely lake could be seen looking down.

The clear lake, after the sun set, was covered in thick water mist as if immortals would frolic in it. The mysterious and serene scenery of the lake changed in diverse ways every moment. The lake presented a new magnificent view with the changes of time at every position where the sun rose.

The reason the current Chairman had particularly liked this lakeside villa since the past was because he owned and monopolized this magnificent view of the lake, which was his private property, through his wealth and power.

The reason he deliberately invited VIPs to this lakeside villa called the Lake Immortal Land was to show off to them the fact that he alone monopolized this beautiful magnificent view.

For the first time, the family of the Minister of Foreign Affairs joined intimately among the direct family members seated modestly in the guest room and Cha Dokyung’s family.

Hyun Serin pointed at Kang Seoyeon, who was sitting side by side next to Hyun Jaehwi, as if saying it for her father and the minister to hear, and said.

“Jaehwi, this is the first time I have seen you converse so long with another person….”

The current Chairman’s gaze concentrated on those two.

“You two have known each other since childhood?”

As Hyun Jaehwi remained silent, Kang Seoyeon reported politely to the current Chairman in a courteous voice.

“We were classmates in the same class throughout all three years of middle school.”

This time, Minister Kang asked toward Hyun Jaehwi.

“Then, you must know better than anyone what kind of child our Seoyeon is. She is a child who is unanimously praised by everyone she meets for her upright character, is that not so.”

From the opposite table, Cha Dokyung looked at the fine pair of man and woman sitting side by side with a stiff face, with difficulty. Just seeing the two sitting side by side in front of both families’ parents and answering made him feel like falling into a bottomless abyss.

Hyun Jaehwi, who had been keeping his mouth shut, gave a dignified answer, unable to withstand the minister’s urging.

“She was a kind and gentle friend to the point where she could not pass by someone who was struggling or in difficulty….”

To the father who was desperate to boast about his daughter, he politely returned the answer the minister wanted to hear.

“I heard that even now in America, she steadily participates in social service with the university community, so I thought it was impressive.”

Minister Kang shrugged his shoulders proudly.

“This is truly a remarkable connection between you two.”

This place felt just like a meeting between the parents of the fine pair of man and woman, and Cha Dokyung silently held his teacup and looked at them with an expressionless cold face. Cruel anxiety dwelled on his shadowed beautiful face.

Kang Seoyeon spoke amiably to the current Chairman.

“Looking down from here, the lake is really beautiful. It is famous as the filming location of that movie that was specially permitted by you, Chairman. It is called the Lake Immortal Land because it seems like immortals would come out…. I heard that this lake cannot be seen by just anyone. Unless one is the owner of this villa.”

This Lake Immortal Land, trapped inside a unique terrain surrounded on all sides, was the current Chairman’s private property, and access was strictly controlled to ordinary people. The only way to see or enter the Lake Immortal Land up close was through this villa with thorough security. The current Chairman had intentionally made it that way.

The current Chairman twitched his thick eyebrows streaked with gray and subtly urged his youngest son.

“It is less than five minutes away, so how about you, Jaehwi, show the lake to Seoyeon and come back now.”

Cha Dokyung, who had been looking with precarious eyes, clashed gazes with Hyun Jaehwi as if colliding. Before he could even open his mouth, he averted his gaze and cast down his shaking pupils, and Hyun Jaehwi paused for a long while with a cold gaze before answering.

“…Me?”

“Yes, do not mind here and you two go together.”

Kang Seoyeon approached closer to Hyun Jaehwi sitting side by side with sparkling eyes full of curiosity. She smiled kindly and politely requested as a cultured lady.

“Jaehwi, will you not show me around the lake?”

The woman armed with loveliness had an attitude that had never once been rejected by others. However, Hyun Jaehwi checked his heavy wristwatch with an indifferent and composed face.