Lie Again! Chapter 79

<Chapter 79. Love, Set, Match (6)>

 

Miss Bell was an elderly woman who lived at 3 Bay Street. She had never married, had lived here for fifteen years with a poodle she raised like a child.

 

Her daily routine with her old dog was rather simple. Beast the poodle did not like every part of Miss Bell’s meticulous and detailed routine, but when it came to the 6 p.m. activity, the two old companions were always in complete agreement.

 

“What is he looking for so desperately? That’s already the fifth time I’ve seen him, isn’t it?”

 

At Miss Bell’s remark, Beast, who had been lying across her lap, lifted his head and sniffed.

 

Feeling the gentle hand scratching under his chin, Beast busily sniffed the air with his dry little nose before quickly spotting a familiar face.

 

Or perhaps it was better to say somewhat familiar now. While Miss Bell and Beast sat on the park bench enjoying the breeze, that brown-haired man had already circled this large park five times.

 

Miss Bell could not take her eyes off the handsome young man she had never once seen during her daily walks here. Watching him search for something in such a hurry made her feel strangely sorry for him, and she kept murmuring little exclamations like “Oh dear,” and “What should he do?”

 

His chest rose and fell roughly, breath bursting from him, sweat dripping down along his jaw.

 

The tall boy, who would stop to grip his knees in exhaustion only to straighten up and resume his circling of the path, naturally drew eyes. Besides Miss Bell, other familiar faces frequently seen here were stealing glances at him. 

 

However, Beast, having little interest in human affairs, soon lost interest and dropped his head back onto Miss Bell’s lap. It was more important to fully enjoy the 6:00 PM routine. Some time passed. 

 

“I suppose it’s time to go. I hope he finds whatever he’s looking for.”

 

At Miss Bell’s mutter, one of the dog’s ears twitched though its eyes remained closed. Only for a moment. As a faint breeze brushed through his faded brown fur, Beast drifted into a hazy sleep.

 

Sniff. A long breath slipped from the dog’s nose.

 

‘She might have already gone somewhere else.’

 

A sudden anxiety brushed through his chest, and Evan, who had been circling the walking path, turned toward the entrance.

 

Unable to abandon even the slightest possibility until the very end, he checked the faces of the park visitors—people he had already examined several times—once more before finally turning his back.

 

Leaving Youth Square Garden, he quickened his pace, glancing sideways at the watch hanging from his wrist. It wasn’t long before the hurried walk toward the shopping district turned into an impatient run.

 

His brown hair fluttered in the wind. The movement was so fast that passersby turned around in surprise.

 

New beads of sweat rolled over places where the previous layer had barely cooled, and the back of his navy shirt had long since turned damp. His lungs felt beyond the point of bursting; his ribs actually ached. 

 

His legs, which had been running continuously since arriving at Bay Street, trembled incessantly as if signaling they had reached their limit, and he had already lost sensation in his feet inside his loafers. 

 

The urge to stop now surged up his throat in waves. Yet despite the alarms ringing from every part of his body, his eyes and legs, still checking the faces of passing people, showed no intention of stopping.

 

What on earth was he trusting?

 

Evan knew. The message from the private account with the default gray profile. An account named ‘joyful_CUPID,’ seemingly mocking him. He knew that rather than believing any message sent by this moron, even the time spent checking them was a waste.

 

What had made Evan’s hand pause—as he was about to ignore and block it as usual—was a single photo sent by the “Cupid.” In the low-quality image, there were a man and a woman with their faces close together. 

 

In the low-quality photo were a man and a woman standing close together.

 

And Evan recognized at a glance who the owner of the half-hidden face behind the long black hair was.

 

The moment he recognized Jin, the identity of the guy beside her came to mind automatically. That guy who had been grinning beside Jin during lunch one day.

 

James Wood.

 

Before he began traveling the world tour in earnest as a tennis player during his rapid rise, it was a name he used to hear fairly often from girls.

 

Wood or whatever—Evan had not the slightest interest in that man. What he couldn’t understand was why a face he hardly even saw at school was standing comfortably beside Jin, why the girl looked so relaxed beside him, and why…

 

Cough, hack.

 

Recalling the sight of Jin turning her back and walking away by the lake, Evan stopped and bent over, exhaling ragged breaths.

 

His throat, which had been taking the cool air directly, was parched and dry. It felt as if someone were gripping his neck tight and shaking him. 

 

After exhaling dry breaths for a while, Evan swallowed hard down his parched throat and barely managed to steady his breathing.

 

Straightening his back, he frowned as a throbbing headache pulsed. The pounding that had been beating at his temples now surged across his entire head, thudding past his forehead.

 

Stop it now. 

 

A mocking voice sounded from somewhere deep inside.

 

Inaccurate information sent from an account with not a shred of credibility, the girl nowhere in sight all this time, a body already pushed to its limit.

 

There were no reasons to keep going, and far too many reasons to stop. Evan’s mind warned sharply.

 

It told him that wandering around like this trying to find a girl he had already let go of with his own hands was strange.

 

All this just to find a girl he had barely known for half a year.

 

Evan stared down at the pale sidewalk block beneath his feet. Among the countless blocks making up the road, only the one under his foot had its top corner broken off, a piece missing.

 

He glared at that oddly lowered spot like a crude trap for a moment before lifting his head and brushing the hair that had fallen over his forehead aside, then began moving again.

 

That ridiculous Cupid, the damnable James Wood, the shitty imagination that wouldn’t leave his head.

 

Why he couldn’t let go of one girl and was acting like this—he didn’t know either.

 

He just felt unbearably anxious if he stopped moving.

 

His parents’ fights, his uncle’s severity, the future he had let slip from his hands, the sense that he could step onto the wrong path at any time.

 

There were countless things that made him anxious, but right now, Evan was dominated by a single fear: that he might lose the girl. 

 

He didn’t know when this feeling would end, but for now he would let himself be swept along by it.

 

If he couldn’t find her here, then that would truly be the moment he gave up—he muttered it like a spell to himself.

 

His green eyes, which had caught sight of the fountain at the center of the shopping district in the distance, flashed as they spotted a figure sitting beside it.

 

The legs that had slowed began moving faster.

 

Like a racehorse running blindly forward, his field of vision narrowed instantly, and he ran without even remembering the breath caught at the tip of his jaw.

 

Twenty steps, ten steps, three steps.

 

Finally, his hand reached out and touched the shoulder of the slender silhouette.

 

* * *

 

In the darkening night, the girl stepped out of the car as the door opened with a thud.

 

“Thanks for dropping me off.”

 

“It’s nothing. You helped pick the gift, after all.”

 

At Jin’s thanks, James leaned back and grabbed the rabbit doll placed on the back seat, shaking it lightly. The white rabbit plush was wrapped in purple plastic.

 

“…But are you really sure about this? You said she doesn’t like things like this.”

 

Jin’s eyes became uncertain as she saw the rabbit shaking in his large hand. 

 

The two had failed to pick an appropriate gift until 8:00 PM, when all the shops closed. What James had hurriedly chosen—at a time when the sun had already set and a blue dusk was settling in—was the rabbit plushie that had been rejected at the very beginning. 

 

It was a result that made all the long hours spent wandering in search of a present feel rather futile. The one thing they had finally chosen was an item the recipient had already complained about last year.

 

A slight embarrassment rose at the thought that she had been no help at all in today’s gift-finding journey. But James simply shrugged.

 

“She acts coy, but she cuddles the one I gave her last time every night in bed. Doesn’t that mean she likes it?”

 

“Really? I hope she likes this one too.”

 

Jin found herself sincerely hoping that Abigail—the sister she had never even seen—would like the rabbit. After nearly three hours of wandering in search of a gift while constantly imagining her, she had grown oddly fond of her.

 

At Jin’s quiet remark, James’s eyes curved with a smile.

 

“And we didn’t really have much time to find a present anyway. Abby will understand.”

 

“Ah… right.”

 

Jin nodded slowly at his words, recalling what had happened near the fountain.