Chapter 11
Kang Yoon looked down into Bora’s large, clear eyes, shimmering a brilliant shade of violet, and felt a strange sense of calm settle over him.
It was the first time in his life he had ever heard words like those.
Words telling him to have what he wanted.
Words promising to help him get anything he desired.
For a moment, Kang Yoon’s eyes burned red as emotion surged up his throat. Bora panicked, fussing as she hurriedly slipped the mask off his wrist and handed it to him.
“Ah—pollen! Pollen! Hurry, put your mask on!”
It wasn’t because of pollen, but thankfully, Kang Yoon was spared from letting Bora see his weakness. He hooked the mask over his ears.
“Should we… hold hands? Everyone else is walking hand in hand.”
As she said that, Bora held out her small, white hand.
Kang Yoon stared at it for a moment before gently wrapping his large hand around hers.
They walked forward, hands barely clasped, stiff and awkward, eyes fixed straight ahead.
His heart was pounding so hard, his entire body tingling so strangely, that he didn’t dare look at her face.
Kang Yoon thought that this cherry blossom path—his first time ever walking down one—would remain in his memory for a very long time.
The sweet cherry blossom ice cream he tasted for the first time, and this beautiful woman who promised to help him have what he wanted.
Both of them.
As soon as Kang Yoon returned home and stepped onto the second floor, a whiskey glass came flying straight at his face. He reacted instantly, dodging it with a quick flick of his body.
“You’re being awfully rough right off the bat.”
“Hey. Get over here.”
Kang Moon, sitting on the sofa with a deep scowl carved into his face, slammed the beer can he’d been drinking onto the table and beckoned Kang Yoon over.
It looked like he had already vented his anger thoroughly—shards of broken objects were scattered across the tabletop.
Kang Yoon watched Kang Moon curl his finger as if calling a dog, then narrowed his brows and walked over.
“So the guy who can’t stand flowers went crazy over a woman and went to a flower festival?”
“Says the guy who’s so crazy over a woman he stalks people.”
“Hey, Han Kang Yoon. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I picked Yoon Bora first. I marked her first. She’s mine.”
“When did you ever ‘mark’ her? Quit talking bullshit.”
“Bullshit? That’s how you talk to your older brother?”
“I’m being serious. Don’t ever bother Bora again. We’ve already decided to get married, so at least have the decency to treat her like your sister-in-law.”
“Hah! Sister-in-law, my ass. That’s not happening.”
Kang Moon glared at Kang Yoon, his face flushed red, eyes full of contempt.
“Hey, Han Kang Yoon. Get a grip. Huh?”
Normally, Kang Moon wore an easy smile and played the good guy, but when it came to something he wanted, he was relentless.
Born with blood that could grasp anything it desired, he couldn’t stand being rejected or denied. When that happened, his blood boiled in reverse.
“Yoon Bora is mine. She’s mine. Not yours. You don’t get to have her. Why? Because I, Han Kang Moon, decided I would.”
Spittle flew from Kang Moon’s mouth as he shouted, his face turning crimson.
Kang Yoon simply stared at him in silence.
That calm gaze seemed to scream, You’ll never have her, and Kang Moon shot up from the sofa and stormed right up to him.
“No answer?”
“To answer, you’d have to say something worth answering.”
“Fuck. You can’t have her. If Bora’s family finds out, who do you think they’ll choose? Me—the future heir of Kangsan Group? Or you, an illegitimate bastard born from some woman no one even knows?”
Kang Yoon’s fist clenched tightly as he glared at Kang Moon’s sneering face.
Should I hit him?
Should I knock some sense into this rat-sized bastard once and for all?
“Kang Moon, that’s enough.”
Before he could decide, Jin Hyun-sook came up to the second floor and stepped between them.
“Mother, I told you clearly. Yoon Bora and this bastard—no. I said I’d arrange a meeting with her!”
“Kang Moon. That matter is already settled. Your grandfather has approved of Kang Yoon marrying that young lady. The formal family meeting is next week, and you’ll attend too. Get yourself together and stop throwing tantrums.”
“What? A family meeting? Are you kidding me? What is this? Is there something going on that I don’t know? Why are Grandpa and you both telling me to hand over the woman I like to him?”
Kang Moon was completely unhinged now, his eyes unfocused as he raged.
Jin Hyun-sook frowned as she glanced at the liquor bottles and beer cans littering the table.
“How long are you going to keep drinking like this? Do you think your grandfather would trust you and give you what you want when you behave this way?”
“Then why does he get what he wants? It was never like that before! That’s not how it’s supposed to be!”
“Han Kang Moon! Go to your room. Stop causing a scene and sleep it off.”
“A scene? If you’d listened to me from the start, this never would’ve happened!”
Drunk and unsteady, Kang Moon shoved Jin Hyun-sook’s shoulder.
“Stop it!”
As she stumbled backward, Kang Yoon rushed to catch her, shouting at Kang Moon.
“What do you think you’re doing? Even drunk, you shove Mother?”
“What? She your mom? Is she? She’s my mom!”
Like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, Kang Moon flailed his arms, knocking bottles to the floor.
Glass shattered and scattered everywhere. Kang Yoon turned Jin Hyun-sook toward the stairs and gently pushed her away.
“Please go downstairs. I’ll calm him down and clean this up.”
“…Good grief. Honestly… I can’t live because of that boy.”
She pressed a hand to her forehead and slowly went downstairs, her deep sigh echoing painfully in Kang Yoon’s ears.
“You crazy bastard. Enough already.”
Kang Yoon nudged Kang Moon’s shoulder with his foot as he lay sprawled on the floor.
Grabbing him by the collar, he dragged him down the hallway, shoved his limp body into the room, and slammed the door shut.
“Unbelievable. Makes me want to punch you.”
Suppressing the anger surging through his body, Kang Yoon returned to the living room.
He picked up the larger shards and tossed them into the trash, then brought out the cordless vacuum to carefully clean up the smaller pieces.
After finishing, he went straight to his room, stripped off his clothes, and took a shower.
He was lucky he’d taken plenty of allergy medicine, but as time passed, his whole body started to itch.
Earlier, being with Bora had kept him so tense he hadn’t even noticed—but now his skin was flushed red with allergic reactions.
“Should we… hold hands? Everyone else is holding hands.”
Bora’s hand, the one she’d offered first, was small, soft, and warm.
Kang Yoon slowly rubbed his palm, as if he could still feel her touch.
“That crazy bastard Han Kang Moon. He should know his place.”
The more he saw Bora, the more he got to know her, the softer Kang Yoon’s heart became.
The woman who shattered his resolve to just kill time and come back, like every other blind date.
The woman who said she’d work hard to help him achieve his goals, even if it was a contract marriage.
The woman who made him decide to go to a place overflowing with flowers, despite hating them.
And above all—the adorable, resolute woman who declared she would marry him, right in front of Han Kang Moon.
“She’s pretty, kind… and cute.”
Bora was the kind of woman who deserved every delicate, lovely adjective he could think of.
“…I miss her.”
He’d spent the entire day with her, yet somehow, after parting ways, he already wanted to see her again.
“Am I… liking her? Bora…?”
No way. They’d only met a few times.
They hadn’t even signed the contract yet.
Sure, he’d thought she was so beautiful under the cherry blossoms today that his heart nearly stopped.
And sure, when he walked her home and she smiled, thanking him for spending time with her despite his allergies, his lower body had reacted completely out of nowhere.
“…Does that mean something?”
Having taken such a long break from dating—and from love itself—Kang Yoon couldn’t even tell what his own heart was doing.
Maybe agreeing to marriage, even a contract one, had loosened something inside him.
Still, he felt grateful that it wasn’t just anyone, but Yoon Bora who had leapt into his barren life.
If Bora had boldly jumped into his desert-dry existence, then it was his role to provide her with a cool, overflowing oasis in return.
Standing beneath the stream of the shower, Kang Yoon’s lips curled upward, unable to stop twitching.
“I’m screwed. Completely… I’ve fallen hard.”
