WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Malfoid

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Dynamics of Pure Love and Overprotection ◈

Chapter 1

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1. Blind Devotion

I like Kang Uihyeon.

My affection has been built up over a lifetime, forming an imposing fortress that would not so much as tremble at someone’s careless words.

The first time I met Kang Uihyeon, he immediately became the center of my world. Rather than pushing him away, I personally gave him more and more room inside me. In the end, he swallowed up every part of my daily life, but I did not struggle. Instead, I searched wide-eyed for anything else I could give him.

It was only natural that I followed Kang Uihyeon everywhere. To me, to Kang Uihyeon, and to everyone else who had watched us.

Let me say it again. I like Kang Uihyeon. A lot. So much. Too much. Fucking much. No amount of modifiers can fully express how I feel.

But it seemed time to give up this endless unrequited love.

* * *

The star of the birthday party did not arrive on time. He was normally punctual to the minute, so it was strange. I texted to ask where he was, but it did not even show as read.

I let the conversations around the table go in one ear and out the other, alternating my gaze between my phone and the entrance. No one paid attention to me. Everyone knew I was blindly hung up on the man who had yet to appear.

“Oh? Uihyeon’s here!”

About thirty minutes later, Kang Uihyeon’s handsome face entered the bar’s dim light. The corners of my mouth immediately lifted into a wide smile. The phone I had been staring at until a moment ago was pushed out of my mind as soon as our eyes met.

But my smile did not last long. An unfamiliar woman stood beside Kang Uihyeon.

“Who is that...?”

The others stared at her with confused expressions too.

Seeing an unfamiliar face was one thing. The problem was that the atmosphere between Kang Uihyeon and the woman did not make them look like simple companions or ordinary acquaintances. Even though they were not holding hands, anyone could notice the tense awkwardness between a man and a woman.

Kang Uihyeon passed me and headed toward the seat at the back of the table, where the guest of honor sat. I could not take my eyes off his hand as he gently held the woman’s elbow and led her along.

“Hello.”

The woman who took the seat beside Kang Uihyeon smiled and greeted us. Then she turned to him, as if asking him to introduce her.

“This is Jeong Sujin. She goes to Baegyeong Women’s University. She’s twenty-four.”

Kang Uihyeon gave us the woman’s basic information.

“We went on a blind date yesterday.”

My phone slipped from my hand and crashed loudly to the floor. Everyone turned to look at me. I bent over and picked up my phone, whose screen had gained a tiny crack.

“A blind date? Kang Uihyeon went on a blind date?”

“Who set it up? You never listened whenever I said I’d introduce you to someone.”

“So are you two dating now?”

While I slowly straightened up, excited voices rang out from every direction. I pretended to inspect my dropped phone rather than look over at Kang Uihyeon. I could not be sure what expression I was making.

“We’re not dating yet.”

It was an answer that made it painfully clear they could start dating at any time.

Kang Uihyeon’s composed voice was no different from usual. Still, I could not return to reality. Seeing him walk hand in hand with another woman or kiss her was a classic part of my nightmares, and now that scene was unfolding before my eyes. It felt like a dream.

“I heard it was Uihyeon oppa’s birthday, so I wanted to come congratulate him too.”

Jeong Sujin’s clear voice carried across the table.

“That’s okay, right?”

It was not okay. If I had not bitten my lip, my true feelings would have spilled out exactly as they were: petty, pathetic, utterly miserable jealousy.

At the edge of my vision, Kang Uihyeon poured beer into Jeong Sujin’s glass.

“Ooh!”

Playful cheers rose around us, then abruptly stopped. Someone must have seen my expression and signaled the others.

I raised my head and looked straight at Jeong Sujin. Her features were soft against her slim face. If there were different kinds of beauty, Jeong Sujin was the same kind as Kang Uihyeon. They said people were drawn to those who resembled them. Was that the case for those two as well? Was that why, after knowing each other for only a day, they were close enough for him to bring her to his birthday party and keep her tucked at his side?

The fact that I had waited in the same place for over ten years would mean nothing to Kang Uihyeon. Even though he had known my feelings for a long time, he gave me no place other than that of his close friend’s younger sibling. Yet in a single day, Jeong Sujin had risen to a position where she could sit beside him.

That was the difference between Jeong Sujin and me.

Jeong Sujin seemed uncomfortable under my openly appraising gaze. She glanced at me, then angled her body toward Kang Uihyeon to avoid my eyes. While talking to someone else, Kang Uihyeon pushed some food toward Jeong Sujin and whispered something in her ear.

I wanted to run away right then. But I kept my butt firmly planted in my chair. That way, I could watch Kang Uihyeon. I could take in everything: the expression he wore when he faced a woman he liked, how he looked after her, how closely he sat beside her.

A whipped cream cake was placed on the table. Kang Uihyeon put on the pointed party hat his friends offered without hesitation. Jeong Sujin laughed and said he was cute as she took out her phone to photograph him, while I drained the rest of my beer.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!”

Kang Uihyeon’s friends began to sing. I forced my voice louder. In the noisy bar, amid the clapping that matched the beat, my voice rang out the loudest.

“Happy birthday, dear Kang Uihyeon...”

At that moment, Kang Uihyeon and I met eyes. But he soon looked away from me and gazed at the woman he had gone on a blind date with yesterday. My eyes stubbornly clung to his profile under the yellow light.

“Happy birthday.”

After the noisy song ended, I handed Kang Uihyeon a paper bag containing a letter and perfume. His fingertips brushed mine lightly as he took the gift. The warmth of his hand and the indifferent eyes with which he looked at me were no different from yesterday. The only thing that had changed was that he had a new first priority.

So the perfume I had carefully chosen over the past month, and the letter I had written at length about how precious he was to me, would mean nothing to Kang Uihyeon.

I drank a lot, but I was not drunk. I gave the people checking on me a bright smile and pretended to be fine. I knew the more I overdid it, the more ridiculous I would look, but I could not stop the clumsy act.

It was Kang Uihyeon’s birthday. I did not want to ruin his day by crying my eyes out here. What was his mattered more than my feelings.

Kang Uihyeon, who had been talking with Jeong Sujin, finally walked over to me. Until then, I was still smiling like an idiot, my eyes curving at the corners.

“Take a taxi home.”

Kang Uihyeon called me a taxi on his phone. He used to take me home himself when gatherings like this ended, but now he was sending me back alone. There would be another woman to ride in his car from now on. Today, I had been pushed outside Kang Uihyeon’s boundaries several times.

“Fuck off.”

I muttered through my teeth, my mouth still stretched into a wide smile. Kang Uihyeon had been looking only at his phone while waiting for a taxi to become available, but he raised his eyes. His brows drew together slightly, as though he doubted what he had heard.

“Stop worrying about me and fuck off.”

My voice was too quiet for anyone else to hear, but it reached Kang Uihyeon clearly. His composed face stiffened ever so slightly. Only someone like me, who had watched him for a long time, could have noticed the change. The thought that I had affected him in some way made my chest swell with satisfaction.

Without saying goodbye to Kang Uihyeon, I turned away. Then I joined the people walking toward the subway station and laughed again like a cheerful fool. By then, people seemed to believe that I was fine.

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