A Night Soaked With You - Chapter 48
Once Chae-young had left, only Yeong-won and Tae-geon remained. An uncomfortable silence hung heavily between them.
After a long pause, Yeong-won finally spoke, her voice hesitant.
“……Thank you. It was awkward, but thanks to you, it all worked out.”
Had Tae-geon not stepped in, things might have escalated to the point of pulling hair with Chae-young. With so many reporters around, the thought of how the story would have been spun was terrifying.
After a long silence, Tae-geon suddenly broke the quiet with a question.
“Why did you just sit there and listen to that nonsense?”
“……?”
Yeong-won was startled by the lingering anger in his dark eyes.
“Why did you let her say such ridiculous things? Was it because all of it was true?”
Tae-geon was clearly angry now. His gaze was colder than ever before.
So, should she have slapped Chae-young in front of everyone at such a gathering? After all, it was Tae-geon who had insisted on making the ‘Distress’ film set a success.
“That’s because you—”
Yeong-won began to counter, but Tae-geon immediately cut her off, silencing her words.
“Behave properly and keep your words in check.”
At that moment, Yeong-won’s heart sank.
“Behave…… properly?”
The word seemed so unbelievable that Yeong-won had to mull over its meaning several times.
Her face was drained of color.
Only then did she begin to understand why Tae-geon was angry.
Chae-young had pretended to be cool in front of everyone, but in the end, she had used Tae-geon’s name to her advantage, which displeased him.
He hated having his name thrown around by others. Yeong-won had heard this from Yuna and knew it well.
Yet, that didn’t make his words any easier to accept. Yeong-won’s emotions plunged to the lowest depths.
Stammering, Yeong-won spoke in a trembling voice.
“I-I’m sorry for exaggerating the story about the dress you bought for me.”
As much as she was angry, she felt genuinely embarrassed. She regretted talking so freely about the dress to Chae-young.
“But…….”
She paused, unable to continue. Tae-geon was watching her intently, as if waiting for her to say more.
Yeong-won looked Tae-geon straight in the eye and spoke firmly.
“That’s not the case, so don’t talk like that again.”
“……What?”
“I’ve never behaved inappropriately, so don’t talk about me that way.”
Tae-geon seemed taken aback by Yeong-won’s defiance, narrowing his brows.
“I’m sorry for speaking to Chae-young like that. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. Well, I’ll be going now.”
Yeong-won bowed slightly and quickly turned to leave. She left Tae-geon, who was watching her in disbelief, behind and hurriedly exited the scene.
Her legs and fingers were trembling, caught between anger and confusion.
She didn’t think he had any special feelings for her—buying her a meal and getting her a dress didn’t mean anything like that. But still, treating her like one of his investments was too much.
‘What was I even expecting from him?’
She could feel Tae-geon’s piercing gaze on her back, but Yeong-won didn’t look back even once and continued walking away.
◇ ◆ ◇
The party was a success.
Except for a few things.
As the party came to a close, the cast of ‘Distress’ gathered on the stage for a photo.
However, no matter how hard they searched, Chae-young couldn’t be found. After her encounter with Yeong-won, she had simply vanished.
Director Choi tried to reach her multiple times, but she didn’t answer her phone.
Eventually, he received a short reply from Chae-young’s temporary manager, apologizing and saying that Chae-young had suddenly felt unwell and had to leave.
“I didn’t think Chae-young was like that, she’s really terrible.”
Director Choi, usually kind-hearted, spoke bitterly.
“What kind of junior leaves without even greeting their senior? Is she out of her mind?”
Ju-hyun, the highest-ranking and most senior member of ‘Distress’, shouted in frustration.
It wasn’t hard to understand why—after a long search and multiple attempts to contact her, all they got was an indifferent response from Chae-young.
Everyone who had been concerned about her now felt anger bubbling up.
Amidst all of this, Yeong-won’s thoughts were floating on the surface like oil on water.
Lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t have the time or energy to care about Chae-young.
‘That bastard. A spineless jerk.’
If he didn’t want it to be known that he bought the dress, he should have at least given a heads-up.
She never intended to flaunt it, and in fact, it was something she did out of frustration. She had no intention of bragging to anyone.
‘Why did I do it, knowing he’s the type of guy who hates that sort of thing? Why was I even there?’
Regret and resentment mixed together in her mind. Then, darker thoughts began to take over.
‘Could it be…… that he was interested in Chae-young?’
That could explain why he was so angry about her mentioning the dress to Chae-young.
Maybe the whole “I don’t know her name” thing was part of a strategy, to play it off like, “You’re the first guy who doesn’t know my name,” and run with it.
Her chest tightened for no reason.
While Yeong-won absentmindedly replayed everything that had happened earlier, In-woo approached her with a cocktail in hand.
