Chapter 9 – Secret Temptation – Part 2

Chapter 9 – Secret Temptation – Part 2

Hyerim smiled as if she had expected it.

“I haven’t eaten yet, want to go get something to eat?”

Woojin slowly nodded his head.

I thought that was just like her personality.

“Okay.”

Woojin moved his steps as if matching her actions.

Woojin was the one placing both the black and white stones on the Go board.

Lee Hyerim, who had come outside, looked at Woojin’s face again and said,

“Since you’re not going to school, are you an idol trainee or something?”

She knew many people like that.

She actually hung out with idols occasionally, but she thought Woojin, who was next to her right now, had a much better face.

“No.”

“Then what do you do?”

“Study.”

“Study?”

“Like for the GED?”

“Why are you here at this hour?”

“I left school early that day.”

“That day?”

“Yeah, that day.”

Woojin was lost in thought for a moment. Then, as if he suddenly remembered, he said,

Not pregnant.

“The phenomenon where the endometrium reacts to hormone secretion, sheds, and is expelled.”

Through stories I haven’t really heard before, I unconsciously imprint on them what kind of person I am.

Gradually, that is.

“What are you talking about?”

Lee Hyerim, who had been narrowing her brows, soon pointed to a store.

“Let’s go there.”

It was a restaurant.

Woojin, who had never been to a restaurant before, looked at the scene through the glass.

One by one, scenes of people eating with forks and knives, or spoons, caught Woojin’s eye.

Lee Hyerim chuckled at Woojin standing stiffly.

“Hey, I’m not asking you to pay. Let’s go in.”

Woojin followed Hyerim into the restaurant.

Her way of speaking and her behavior.

She was rude. Ill-mannered, and so on; people would try to keep their distance.

But Woojin was very different.

Because he only needed to get what he wanted and what he sought to know.

They both sat down and Lee Hyerim ordered the food.

“Two of these, please.”

Woojin had no choice in the matter.

He felt that her inconsiderate behavior was natural.

Because she was very much like a sociopath or a narcissist who tried to dominate others.

“What’s your name?”

“Woojin, Shin Woojin.”

“That’s a nice name.”

Looking at her cellphone, she crossed her legs and wiggled her foot.

There was no conversation between them.

However, Lee Hyerim just occasionally looked at Woojin while keeping her eyes fixed on her cellphone.

“Are you always this quiet?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you’d be interesting. You’re a boring kid.”

She said the exact opposite of what she was thinking.

I was curious about Woojin, about whom I had no information.

“What did you say you were studying?”

At that moment, the waiter carrying the soup almost made a mistake.

“Oh dear, it’s an expensive room, it would have been a disaster…”

“It’s fine.”

“Ah… I apologize.”

Once the waiter left, Woojin spoke.

“You’re sensitive.”

“I told you, that day.”

Woojin realized she was lying.

Even about leaving early.

But he didn’t say it out loud.

He was truly observing from the perspective of a thorough observer.

If anyone knew this, they would have gotten goosebumps.

Because he was observing people and consciously trying to manipulate them like puppets.

“Something bad must have happened.”

At Woojin’s sudden voice, Hyerim, who was looking at her cellphone, turned her eyes to Woojin.

She made a surprised expression, but quickly hid it.

“No? Why are you acting like you know something?”

“Just, your face looks a little tired.”

“You worry about yourself. Your face is so pale it’s almost white.”

Woojin, who had briefly scrutinized her face, took a spoonful of soup.

“It’s delicious.”

“The soup is good, isn’t it? But it’s nothing compared to K Restaurant in Haeundae.”

Gotcha.

Just like a fish that eagerly bites the bait.

Woojin began backtracking.

“K Restaurant? Who did you go with?”

“With an older sister I know, Kim Yena, you know her, right?”

“Kim Yena? I don’t know who that is.”

“You don’t know Actor Kim Yena?”

“Actor? I’ve never heard of her.”

She said, making an incredulous face.

“Well, that can happen.”

“That must’ve been nice. Seeing the sea too?”

The regression continued.

It was about reviving past dormant memories through questions, allowing her to feel the happy emotions of that time once again.

She glanced at her cellphone and slightly lifted her back from the sofa.

“Oh. It was incredible. Looking down from the hotel…”

She began to talk about what she had seen and eaten, as if boasting.

Her words quickened and her smile grew rapidly.

Dopamine and norepinephrine would be secreting in her brain as she recalled the enjoyable experience.

“The night view must have been great too.”

“Of course. The lights were…”

He was doing the same backtracking and regression with Lee Hyerim as he had with Bomi.

But the purpose was completely different.

For his younger sister, it was to bring joy, and for Lee Hyerim in front of him, it was to set up a plan.

Does it seem like wordplay?

You’ll know if you try it.

The other person will soon be smiling and excitedly talking to you.

Then, the other person’s brain considers me a beneficial and pleasant companion.

Woojin continued to draw out Hyerim’s happy memories with questions and backtracking.

-A trip abroad?

-Even first place in the whole school?

-That must have been awesome.

Of course, he thoroughly enjoyed the course meal.

Woojin merely empathized and asked questions.

Even after Woojin had neatly finished his dessert, Lee Hyerim showed no sign of stopping her story, barely eating.

“It’s a bar on Holbox Island, and it’s amazing. The stars in the sky are so dense they look like the aurora. The incoming waves sparkle like fluorescent lights. You should have seen that view…”

“I should go now.”

Lee Hyerim’s eyes, which had been happily chatting, turned like a rabbit’s.

It was a look that asked where he was going when they were having such a good time.

“I have to study.”

“Hey, what about studying… What are you studying?”

“It’s something like that.”

Woojin deliberately didn’t say, so she could think whatever she wanted about him.

She, who felt I was a pleasant companion, would make me a positive person.

Because self-rationalization would be happening in her brain, just as the unconscious serves the self-consciousness like a king.

As Woojin got up from his seat, Lee Hyerim also stood up.

“Hey! You have to give me your phone number before you go.”

Woojin turned around.

After silently staring at Lee Hyerim for a few moments, her blinking eyes quickly darted around the room.

“Oh? I still have more to tell you. That’s right! You haven’t been there, so I’ll tell you more later. It might help when you go visit later, right?”

Woojin slowly nodded and held out his cellphone, and Lee Hyerim typed in her number.

“You don’t even have a password. My name is…”

“I know. It’s Hyerim.”

Woojin remembered Munjin-mister saying her name in the elevator.

But she didn’t remember.

“How did you know?”

“I’m leaving.”

Woojin walked out like a heartless person.

Lee Hyerim, who was sitting, watched Woojin standing in front of the crosswalk.

She didn’t know why, but she wanted to talk more.

She wanted to go out and stand next to him, but her pride wouldn’t allow it.

***

Woojin returned home and started solving his workbook.

And by the time he closed the last page, it was 10 PM.

Next to the bookshelf, the workbooks Woojin had solved were piled high.

Woojin suddenly thought of Lee Hyerim.

She must have heard many compliments about her wealthy background and appearance.

Things like, ‘You’re pretty,’ ‘You look good together,’ and so on…

But today, she must have had a unique experience.

An ordinary person cannot interpret why they feel good.

They are simply happy.

Joy after joy.

And he discovered something very important.

Her family was not included in the places where she was happy.

She said she was with friends or acquaintances in all of them.

Buzz-

His cellphone vibrated briefly, indicating a message.

[Hyerim]

-Are you asleep?

She has a deficit.

If I provide enjoyment and fill the deficit she unconsciously desires.

-No.

After a short reply, a message arrived with a photo a few moments later.

-The place I told you about.

The photo was magnificent.

The stars were densely embedded in the night sky like jewels, and the waves crashing with foam glowed unbelievably in the night.

But Woojin, unlike others, was unimpressed.

He merely thought it was glowing plankton.

Ira, the daughter of the Shinhwa General Trading CEO…

Another goal emerged.

It was temptation.

Everything she has seen and learned could all become mine.