Flower Fiancé Chapter 33

He had thought he would never have to have a conversation with this person again. So even when he received his mother’s call saying she was coming to Korea, and even when he was told not to be surprised if he ran into him, he had thought nothing of it.

Professionally or in terms of social radius, there was not a single point of contact between Lee Hyunjoon and Ji Yeonwoo. Calculated simply, they were the kind of relationship where they could go their whole lives without knowing each other, as long as they didn’t contact each other.

So, why was someone who hadn’t contacted him in 2 years reaching out now?

No matter how much he thought about it, it was incomprehensible. Moreover, the number that had called wasn’t even Lee Hyunjoon’s mobile phone, which Ji Yeonwoo had blocked. The Lee Hyunjoon that Ji Yeonwoo remembered wasn’t a person who paid attention to trivial things like saving a number he didn’t even contact anyway. Had he, like me who changed over the span of 2 years, changed as well?

Even if that guess was right, this was not something that could be easily accepted.

“When you threw me away so completely, and now you… “

Whatever the reason, he was a person who shouldn’t be contacting Ji Yeonwoo first. If he had even a minimum sense of shame, that would be the right thing.

He still vividly remembered the end with Lee Hyunjoon.

That day when it rained so much, appearing before Ji Yeonwoo, who was in despair after being diagnosed with pheromone deficiency, and holding out a bouquet of French marigolds—that image was so vivid it often gave him nightmares on rainy days.

‘I want you to be hurt and unhappy. You know that? You’re the prettiest in the world when you cry. Now you’ll cry a lot thinking of me, our Yeonwoo.’

The person who spouted such nonsensical words didn’t even consider treating the pheromones lost because of him, but instead chose to throw him away.

In that one-sided breakup, Ji Yeonwoo fell into an emotional abyss and spent sleepless nights shedding more tears than he had cried in the 4 years he had lived enduring it.

Living seemed absurd. What kept him holding on and living through it was, in a way, perhaps sheer obstinacy. He didn’t want to receive disapproving looks from others, being told he lived a failed life, having married and divorced at a young age when others worried about such things.

Wouldn’t it get better if I try harder? Wouldn’t it get numb if I endure it?

The end of a life spent only with the thought that he didn’t want to ruin with his own hands what he had protected for so long was too miserable.

How futilely and simply the efforts he had struggled with to somehow survive turned into bubbles. Just one word, one action was enough.

“I, how I endured it all… “

After spending the whole day in tears, he belatedly resolved to steel his heart. It was because he resented his past self for being deceived by calculated kindness, but he had realized that nothing changes just by spending nights in tears.

The first thing Ji Yeonwoo did after pulling himself together was to get a medical certificate. Even that wasn’t easy. The one who knew the entire process of how he came to suffer from pheromone deficiency was his primary physician, but he was thoroughly a person of that household.

At first, he went to see him blindly even though the doctor wouldn’t meet him, and begged for help. He appealed to his emotions, pleaded with tears. At the end of it, on the medical certificate he barely managed to obtain, regrettably, something slightly different from what Ji Yeonwoo wanted was written.

‘Acquired Pheromone Deficiency due to Unspecified Drugs’

The medical certificate didn’t clearly state what, how much, or how he had taken to become that way. Still, thinking it might be better than doing nothing, he went to that family’s house, presented the medical certificate, and told them in detail everything their son had done.

At first, the family members, who had tried to kick him out without giving alimony under the pretext of an uncontested divorce, were appalled when they saw the medical certificate Ji Yeonwoo presented.

Ji Yeonwoo also initially had no desire to take their money, but in order to live on his own without asking his family for help, he unavoidably needed minimal living funds.

With the alimony he fought tooth and nail to receive, he got a jeonse house, leased a shop to start a flower shop, and donated the remaining money to an orphanage.

Twenty-six was a young age to become independent both socially and economically, but he wanted to earn money quickly and get rid of this money that felt like a debt. Though it was alimony he had desperately secured in order to live, he didn’t want to live tied down to this money for the rest of his life.

The reason he didn’t set a separate day off for the shop, and the reason he tried to earn money without missing a single day no matter how exhausted and difficult his body felt, were all because of that.

Living relentlessly to achieve his goal, the memories and pain gradually dulled. He still had nightmares on rainy days, but even that, as time passed, he could accept calmly, treating it like a cold he occasionally suffered from.

After that, it was just a continuation of ordinary and monotonous days.

Today had been the same.

Contacting Choi Moohyuk, spending the day waiting for his contact—it had been happier than he could wish for.

He couldn’t let the end of a day, which now felt a little more special because of Choi Moohyuk, finish so emptily like this.

Ji Yeonwoo, who had been standing with his fists clenched, picked up the phone. The call had already ended, and instead, one message had been left on the number that had called.

— From now on, answer this phone. If you don’t want to see my face.

“Ha… “

So dumbfounded, a hollow laugh came out. Seeing him threaten like this, it seemed he himself was well aware that Ji Yeonwoo didn’t want to see his face.

But now, there was no reason to listen to him. He had been surprised because the call came suddenly, but that was all. He and Ji Yeonwoo had become strangers and were nothing to each other anymore.

Ji Yeonwoo ignored his words, blocked the number that had called, and deleted the message. Perhaps because the impact from the fall was severe, the touch function on the cracked screen didn’t work well, so even a single action took a long time.

Without even having dried his hair, he held the phone with both hands and struggled for a long time, when the phone vibrated again in his hands. Perhaps because of the anxiety that hadn’t yet fully subsided, Ji Yeonwoo, startled by even the small vibration, looked at the phone with wavering eyes.

Whether it was broken or not, only after it had vibrated for a long while did the flickering screen show who was calling.

[ Managing Director Choi Moohyuk ]

That was what was written on the screen of the phone vibrating in his hands.

Even as he frantically touched the screen, afraid the call might disconnect, something welled up from beyond his throat. There was a fine tremor at the tips of his fingers touching the screen.

“I can’t let the call drop.”

Since it had already been ringing for a long time, he wanted to answer quickly, but because of the cracked screen, it wouldn’t operate as he wanted. With none of it going his way, Ji Yeonwoo, who had been staring at the screen with tears brimming in his eyes from frustration, sniffled and swallowed his tears.

“Uh, hello, Managing Director.”

After pressing the screen this way and that for a long time, he barely managed to answer the call and hastily brought it to his ear.

“Managing Director, have you left work?”

[ … ]

No voice could be heard from the other end of the phone. Could the speaker be broken too? But since he had heard Lee Hyunjoon’s voice through the phone even after it fell, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Ji Yeonwoo switched the phone to his other ear.

“Managing Director, can you hear me?”

[ Did something happen? ]

The voice that finally came through after a long wait was deeply subdued. Was it just his imagination? It was slightly different from his usual voice. The low, forceful voice seemed sharply on edge as well.

At Choi Moohyuk’s words, which sounded as if he knew something, a part of his heart sank with a thud. He knew it wasn’t good to drag this out. He also knew that he would have to confess this fact—which was perhaps Ji Yeonwoo’s greatest weakness and shame—to Choi Moohyuk sooner rather than later.

But how? By what means was he supposed to tell him?

He couldn’t think of another way to explain it. Because he couldn’t just blurt out, ‘My ex-husband who cut me off abruptly called me after 2 years.’

In the end, after hesitating and hesitating, he opened his mouth to say nothing had happened…

[ Your voice is hoarse. ]