GGAS 6

The man looked as if he had seen a ghost.

“…What are you doing here?”

Eun Sanho spoke. It was a question, but it was not really a question.

“Uh…, that is….”

The man trailed off, unable to find the words.

“Are you a friend of Junghoon’s?”

The woman linked arm in arm with the man smiled kindly as she asked Eun Sanho.

“Hello, I’m Junghoon’s girlfriend…”

“I am…”

Eun Sanho cut off the woman’s words.

“I’m his boyfriend.”

“…What?”

“I’m the one who’s dating Choi Junghoon.”

“Haha, that’s a good jo…”

The woman had been about to say, “That’s a good joke,” but after glancing back and forth between the faces of the man and Eun Sanho, she realized the truth. Her expression soon became similar to Eun Sanho’s.

“Hey.”

The woman spoke. At the fierce atmosphere, the man stumbled backward step by step.

“W-wait, honey, just a minute…”

Without listening to any further words, she swung her handbag at the man.

“Argh!”

“Argh? Argh? Who do you think you are to scream? The one who should be screaming is me, you crazy XXxXX0Xxx!”

The woman skillfully used the kind of phrases one might throw at someone caught cheating, then took off her wretched high heels and hurled them at the man.

“You like high heels? Then you wear them yourself, you xxxxxxxxx!!”

Shouting furiously, the woman kicked the man once, then took a deep breath. She opened her handbag, pulled out her phone, and spoke into it.

“Hey, Minjeong. Let’s hang out. Yeah, boyfriend? We broke up.”

“Honey…”

The man, sprawled on the floor, clutched at the woman’s leg as she was about to leave. The woman kicked him once more, frowned as if she had seen something disgusting, and went on her way.

By then, the group of tourists who had gathered in front of the elevator were whispering as they watched the man.

“Isn’t that guy crazy…?”

“Did he cheat?”

“Seems like it….”

The man, embarrassed, slowly got up. Then he hesitated and turned toward Eun Sanho.

“Sanho….”

“Don’t call my name.”

Eun Sanho spoke coldly.

“Hey… what’s wrong….”

What’s wrong? Eun Sanho found it absurd.

“You really don’t know why?”

“That is….”

The man gauged Eun Sanho’s expression.

“Hey, Sanho, but….”

“What.”

“I mean, honestly… if not for me, who else would even date someone as frustrating as you?”

Eun Sanho doubted his own ears.

“What?”

He asked back. But the man, seemingly convinced that Eun Sanho would not hit or curse him like a woman might, continued speaking with a rather shameless attitude.

“Well~, I just got a little bored, hit a slump, so I met her… let’s just call it dating experience and move on nicely, yeah? Who else would you even date if not me? Yeah?”

The man grabbed Eun Sanho’s arm. Eun Sanho bit his lip, stared fixedly at the arm being held, then suddenly lowered his head.

“Hey, Sanho…. are you crying?”

“…….”

Eun Sanho’s shoulders trembled slightly.

“Sanho, why are you crying….”

“…….”

“Don’t cry, I love you so mu…”

“…Shut the fuck up.”

“W-what?”

Startled, the man stammered, it was the first time he heard Eun Sanho curse. Eun Sanho snapped his head up. He was not crying. Instead, his face was red with anger. Eun Sanho felt something snap inside his head as he saw the dumb, vacant look on the man’s face.

“Hey.”

Eun Sanho spoke.

“You said I’m frustrating? What else? That you got bored, hit a slump? I treated you well… so to you, I was just some pushover?”

Eun Sanho gnashed his teeth.

“If I’m a pushover, then what makes you so great? Huh? Tell me. Tell me what’s worth looking at in someone who looks like a half-chewed green onion!”

The man stood dumbfounded, unable to say a word.

“Choi Junghoon, I don’t like you anymore. Even if you begged, I wouldn’t take you back.”

Eun Sanho pulled the ring from his finger and threw it to the floor. With dozens of tourists watching the scene without even breathing, the only sound echoing in the lobby was the clatter of the ring.

“You asked who would even date me? You know what? I’m done with dating just because someone chose me. From now on, I’ll choose who I date! And I’ll never, ever date an ugly bastard like you again!”

At that moment, the elevator doors opened with a cheerful ding. Inside stood the stunningly handsome Kim Gwanggong. Consumed with anger, Eun Sanho pointed his finger at Kim Gwanggong. Every gaze in the lobby followed the line of that finger to Kim Gwanggong.

“Yes, someone like him! I’ll date someone like him!”

Eun Sanho shouted. His eyes blazing, he strode into the elevator, grabbed Kim Gwanggong’s hand and raised it high in the air.

“Everyone, isn’t this man handsome!”

When Eun Sanho asked, the tourists nodded. Eun Sanho nodded too.

“That’s right. This man is handsome! And not only that, he’s rich, and even if you spill a whole cup of juice on his chest, he just lets it go like a big-hearted man. But!”

Eun Sanho pointed sharply at the man.

“That bastard over there! After cheating, he’s now picking up the couple ring I threw away!”

With everyone’s eyes on him, the man froze in place, bent over with the ring in his hand.

“N-no… it’s expensive… it would be wasteful to throw it away….”

The man mumbled an excuse while awkwardly hunched over.

“I could still use it again….”

The people around were momentarily speechless. Reusing a couple ring was an idea unheard of.

“Who would you even reuse that with?”

One of the tourists asked in disbelief.

“With… with him?”

The man tried to point at Eun Sanho, but under Eun Sanho’s cold glare, he quietly withdrew his finger.

“We call that nonsense.”

Eun Sanho spoke through clenched teeth. The tourists murmured in agreement. Eun Sanho raised the hand joined with Kim Gwanggong’s once more.

“I, Eun Sanho, will date not a pathetic guy like that, but a solid man like this one! And not just date— I will absolutely make him my husband!”

Eun Sanho declared, raising his other hand in a clenched fist like a campaign speech.

“That’s right!”

“Correct!”

The tourists gave thunderous applause and cheers for Eun Sanho’s wise family plan.

“Be happy!”

One of the tourists shouted.

“Yes, I’ll be happy!”

As soon as Eun Sanho shouted back in reply, the elevator doors slid shut with perfect timing.

“Gwanggong-ssi, which floor are you staying on?”

Looking refreshed, Eun Sanho reached toward the buttons and asked with a slightly cheerful tone.

“…Go to the 32nd floor.”

“32nd floor… huh? Is it broken? Why won’t it press?”

Muttering as the button would not light up no matter how many times he pressed it, Eun Sanho tried again.

“Are the others broken too?”

He randomly pressed other buttons. Fifth floor, tenth floor, eleventh floor, none of them worked, but when he pressed the twenty-ninth, the light came on and the elevator began to move.

“Ah, it worked. Three floors difference, we can just walk up, right?”

Eun Sanho said. Kim Gwanggong, instead of answering, simply looked at him. He was trying to figure out what to figure out what to say first, while Eun Sanho himself seemed calm and at ease.

“…Eun Sanho-ssi, what was that just now?”

Kim Gwanggong asked.

“What was what? Ah, do you dislike walking?”

“Not that. I mean the things you said just now in the lobby.”

“……?”

“Marriage. Dating.”

“Ah, that? That was a life resolution.”

Eun Sanho answered with a smile. Kim Gwanggong stared at that carefree face for a moment before speaking.

“So then, your life resolution is to marry me, Eun Sanho-ssi?”

Eun Sanho blinked twice, then suddenly blushed.

“What? N-no, not that I’d marry you. I just meant it as a figure of speech….”

He waved his left hand furiously as if it had never crossed his mind. Kim Gwanggong glanced at his right hand. Eun Sanho’s right hand was still holding Kim Gwanggong’s left, but flustered as he was, Eun Sanho seemed unaware of that fact.

“I-I really just meant it as a saying, I never thought that way about you, Gwanggong-ssi!”

“…I don’t quite understand. A saying, you said, what exactly do you mean by that?”

That was a lie. Kim Gwanggong was not stupid, merely preoccupied, and he fully understood what Eun Sanho had meant. He simply wanted to keep throwing needless questions to distract Eun Sanho. The hand clasped with his was too soft and warm, he didn’t want to let go.

Perhaps the tactic worked, for Eun Sanho’s pupils began to shake uncontrollably.

“Yes.”

“That… that, it was just… you were too fitting an example, so I used you without thinking… I absolutely, absolutely never thought of it that way! I only meant, it would be nice if it were with someone like you, Gwanggong-ssi! Someone similarly cool, that’s all!”

Even with his vocabulary collapsing, Eun Sanho tried his best to explain.

“So then, when you said you would marry ‘someone like me,’ you meant not me, but someone else?”

“Yes, that’s what I meant.”

When Kim Gwanggong seemed to understand, Eun Sanho felt a little relieved. But Kim Gwanggong had no intention of letting him rest easy. He raised one eyebrow leisurely.

“So, Eun Sanho-ssi, you plan to marry my doppelgänger then.”

“What?!”

Eun Sanho’s voice cracked in fluster.

“That’s unfortunate. If that happens, when I attend your wedding, either I or the groom will certainly have to die.”

Kim Gwanggong said, recalling one of the scraps of trivia he had picked up from Kim Abang. In Kim Gwanggong’s experience, nothing was more effective at throwing someone off balance than Kim Abang-style knowledge and manner of speech.

“D-die?”

“Yes, die. But even so, it would not be proper for me to just send congratulatory money through Secretary Ha’s hand. Because that would be heartless.”

Kim Gwanggong spoke, recalling the documentary  that Kim Abang had half-forced him to watch not long ago. Eun Sanho shook his head desperately.

“No, Gwanggong-ssi, you’re not heartless. You’re far too kind.”

“Am I kind?”

“Of course! I mean, um, even if you only send Secretary Ha with congratulatory money, I wouldn’t think it was heartless! Absolutely not! No, wait, not even that, you don’t even need to do that! I-I’m not trying to get money from you!”

Even in his fluster, Eun Sanho emphasized again so he wouldn’t be misunderstood.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, what I mean is, it would be fine even if you gave nothing at all! Just the thought alone, I’d be truly grateful, really.”

Eun Sanho rambled incoherently while trying to make his stance clear.

“Well. I don’t think so. If you’re not marrying me, then how could my thoughts be of any help to your married life, Eun Sanho-ssi? And if you don’t accept congratulatory money, then how will you prepare your household goods?”

“H-household goods?”

“Will you not buy a kimchi refrigerator? A dishwasher?”

“I-it’s fine.”

“What is fine?”

“That’s… I mean….”

“So?”

“Uh… I mean… I-I have a lot of money…!”

With his head spinning in knots, Eun Sanho blurted out anything he could. Well, since he was the grandson of SQ Group, saying he had a lot of money was not a lie. The problem was that when it came to bank balances, Kim Gwanggong was in no way inferior.

“I have plenty too. That is why I want to give as much congratulatory money as possible. If possible, directly.”

As the conversation circled back to the starting point, Eun Sanho felt he might cry.

“…But… wouldn’t it be better for you to save more money….”

“Better, sure. Then I would become an even wealthier and kind.”

When Kim Gwanggong quoted his own words back at him, Eun Sanho turned so red he could not get any redder. He sneaked a glance at the elevator’s floor display.

‘Why is it so slow!?’

“Eun Sanho-ssi, what do you think? If I save more money, do you think I would match the spouse image you are hoping for?”

Kim Gwanggong asked, meeting Eun Sanho’s eyes.

‘Why is this person so close again?’

With Kim Gwanggong’s handsome face right in front of him, Eun Sanho felt as if his brain had frozen. It was a completely different sensation from his mind going blank earlier when his blood pressure had spiked because of his ex.