Flower Fiancé Chapter 11

‘Crazy, Ji Yeonwoo, what on earth have you done.’

Ji Yeonwoo stared at the silent message window again with wavering eyes.

He was doomed. Alcohol was his enemy. They say you get braver when you drink, but why did he have to say things he couldn’t even take back?

On the screen, the number 1 in front of Ji Yeonwoo’s last message had disappeared, but there was no reply. Sweat gradually beaded in his hand gripping the phone. Just as his anxiety was exceeding its limit, a new message from Choi Moohyuk appeared.

With a blank gaze, Ji Yeonwoo stared at the message now sitting at the very bottom of the chat.

[ Managing Director Choi Moohyuk : I will wait. ]

“…!”

Choi Moohyuk had a knack for flustering him with unexpected words every time. But that feeling wasn’t necessarily a bad one. Today, along with the fluster, a fluttering excitement coexisted as well.

After that, Ji Yeonwoo couldn’t really remember how he drank the remaining pork belly and soju, or what conversations he had with Eungyeom. All his nerves had been focused on his phone and on home.

Right when a call came from Seo Eungyeom’s Mister, the atmosphere naturally flowed toward wrapping up. Not long after, that person came to pick up Eungyeom. As soon as Ji Yeonwoo saw Eungyeom leaving, he immediately got into a taxi and headed home.

Ji Yeonwoo practically rushed in the moment he opened the front door. Without even thinking of washing up, he sat on the sofa and quietly steadied his breathing. A faint smell of alcohol could be felt in his exhaled breath. He repeated small, deep breaths, waiting for his breathing to calm.

He didn’t want to look like someone who had hurried home for nothing. Because then it would seem like he was someone who had been waiting for Choi Moohyuk’s contact.

As leisurely as possible, as if he hadn’t run here, and as if he hadn’t been waiting for his contact.

Placing one hand on his chest and steadying his breath, Ji Yeonwoo searched for the ‘Managing Director Choi Moohyuk’ number and pressed call. The words Managing Director Choi Moohyuk engraved themselves on the now-dark screen as the dial tone rang.

[ This is Choi Moohyuk. ]

Before long, a familiar voice came through the phone. Was it just his imagination? The voice sounded stiff and business-like too. Ji Yeonwoo found himself at a complete loss for what to say.

Just as Ji Yeonwoo was hesitating in fluster, Choi Moohyuk’s voice came from the other end of the phone.

[ Did you get home okay? ]

His voice had become considerably softer. The moment he heard that languid voice, Ji Yeonwoo felt his face flush and heat up for no reason.

“Yes. I just got in.”

[ Do you have a car? ]

“No. I came by taxi.”

[ Then you should have warmed yourself up first before calling. The weather is cold. ]

“It’s okay. I don’t really feel the cold.”

As he spoke, Ji Yeonwoo lowered his gaze and only then realized that he hadn’t even taken off his jumper. No wonder, he felt hot. He had thought the flush was from the tipsiness rising, but it must have been because he hadn’t taken off his clothes. Only then, with his phone wedged between one shoulder and ear, did he start to take off the jumper starting with the opposite arm.

Maybe because his surroundings were quiet, the rustling sound of the jumper seemed especially loud. He cautiously pulled his arm out of the jumper, worried the sound might be heard, when Choi Moohyuk’s voice came through the silence of the phone.

[ Anyway, we’re finally talking on the phone now. ]

“…!”

[ Have you been well? ]

With those words, which might have been nothing more than a simple greeting, Ji Yeonwoo swayed like a reed before the wind. With that one question asking if he had been well, he felt the uncomfortable feelings that had been festering inside him all this time untangle all at once.

The languid voice tickling his ear was pleasant to hear. This is too much, this is just cheating. Ji Yeonwoo, who had been frozen still, ran one hand down his face. His earlobe, revealed through his hair, had flushed red.

“Yes. I’ve been well. What about you, Managing Director?”

[ I’ve been a bit busy. ]

“Because of work?”

[ Work… yes. That too, and there were some personal matters. ]

“Ah.”

Repeating what Choi Moohyuk had said, Ji Yeonwoo felt relieved without even realizing it.

Until he received this contact, he had been drawing his own conclusions about why Choi Moohyuk hadn’t come. He thought that the actions and words shown on the day he bought flowers were not interest but simple curiosity, and that someone named Ji Yeonwoo had naturally been forgotten in the passage of time. But the moment he heard the explanation that there had been circumstances preventing him from coming, relief washed over him.

He had said he didn’t wait for his contact, but he knew better than anyone that it was forced. Just as Seo Eungyeom had said, he had actually been waiting so much that his gaze automatically turned every time the door opened, every time his phone rang.

As if knowing that very heart, Choi Moohyuk carefully explained the circumstances.

[ I had to go somewhere. Because I angered someone. ]

“Ah, so you went somewhere.”

Hearing this, he felt unfairly upset for no reason.

‘Even so, didn’t he have time to leave even one message? If he went as far as to pretend to have forgotten his phone, called on purpose, and even left his number, couldn’t he have at least done that?’

Perhaps that one message wasn’t such an important thing to Choi Moohyuk after all. When he thought about it, since their relationship hadn’t even properly started yet, he understood.

Was it because of the tipsiness? Following that thought, a feeling of disappointment washed over him like a wave.

“You must have gone somewhere far. With no contact at all.”

His moderate tipsiness interlocked with his sulky feelings, and words like a petulant complaint slipped out.

A small laugh came from the other end of the phone.

[ Did you wait? ]

Ji Yeonwoo shot up from his seat before the voice tinged with laughter even ended. Standing alone in the living room where a faint darkness had settled, Ji Yeonwoo’s face was filled with a flustered look.

“N, no?”

[ It sounded like a disappointed voice. ]

Ch 6

The more Choi Moohyuk’s voice came through the phone, the redder Ji Yeonwoo’s face became.

“No, it’s not. Wh, who was disappointed? Absolutely not.”

Even though no one was watching, he waved his hands too, desperately making excuses. Was someone watching him from somewhere? Otherwise, there was no way he could pinpoint it and say it so precisely.

[ Mm. ]

Seeing Choi Moohyuk’s reaction, he clearly didn’t believe him.

[ That’s a relief. Because I was actually feeling a bit upset myself, thinking you hadn’t thought about me at all. ]

“M, me? I never said I waited for you, Managing Director.”

Ji Yeonwoo made his excuses desperately. Even if it was an excuse plainly visible to anyone, he couldn’t admit it like this. No matter how much he had waited for Choi Moohyuk, he didn’t want his true feelings to be found out so helplessly.

Just as he was about to say something else, Choi Moohyuk’s voice was a little faster.

[ Mr. Ji Yeonwoo, you’re not very good at lying. ]

“Huh? What do you mean….”

[ If you were going to lie, you shouldn’t have stammered. ]

Ji Yeonwoo, who had opened his mouth, faltered and closed it. The more they talked, the more he felt like he was getting swept up in Choi Moohyuk’s pace. He felt like he was saying what Choi Moohyuk wanted rather than what he himself wanted to say.

Choi Moohyuk was a person skilled in words and expressions. He had felt that from the very first time they met. He was drawn to his handsome looks that naturally stole the gaze, but the absolute peak was the face he made while saying with a cynical expression that giving flowers was meant to hurt someone.

Imagining him saying these things with that face from back then, it was hard to picture. That also probably meant they weren’t that close yet.

When he thought about it, they had only met barely twice. By count, it was three times, but two of those had happened on the same day. In such a short time, expressing feelings of disappointment might be something that didn’t even make sense.

The desire to know more about Choi Moohyuk and the fear coexisted. What if he’s a worse man than I thought? Just when he thought he could never like anyone again, the person who brought a good feeling to Ji Yeonwoo for the first time in two years had also given him a gift of scarlet pimpernel for the same reason as Lee Hyunjun, and he was just as unreserved in his expressions. Could this be called a coincidence? Or is this just my type?

When he reached the end of the thoughts that continued endlessly, linking one after another, he felt somehow depressed.

“Managing Director, please tell me honestly.”

Ji Yeonwoo’s voice, sunk in dejection, echoed softly through the living room.

“How many fish like me are in Managing Director’s fishing net? Two? Or three?”