Chapter 18
‘Why am I like this?’
Moyong Hye was born with an exceptional drinking capacity.
She didn’t usually enjoy drinking that much. For her, alcohol was merely a vile-tasting beverage.
She would have to drink until she felt bloated just to get a slight buzz, and she didn’t see the point in enduring that kind of ordeal just to cloud her mind.
‘This has never happened before.’
But tonight was different.
Driving her father away and boldly challenging Lee Se-woong to a drinking contest was all fine and good—up to that point.
Moyong Hye didn’t know how to keep the conversation going.
‘What if he tells me to leave again?’
What happened at the training ground kept holding her back.
Lee Se-woong, who had coldly rejected her. She didn’t want to experience failure again.
So Moyong Hye kept drinking.
Because that was all she could do.
Didn’t Jegal Yeong say that if you get someone drunk enough, everything would go smoothly?
‘The intoxication is setting in too quickly.’
She hadn’t even drunk that much, but a hot flush was spreading across her cheeks.
For Moyong Hye, who had always prided herself on her drinking capacity, this was a rather disconcerting experience. In reality, there is no such thing as an “absolute” limit when it comes to drinking.
‘I’m dizzy.’
Moyong Hye was not in her right mind.
Even when she was sober, she often rambled on because she didn’t know what to say.
Now that she was getting intoxicated at an unprecedented speed, there was no way she could keep the conversation coherent.
In the midst of her wavering consciousness, all she could rely on was Jegal Yeong’s advice.
“Just get him drunk. No matter how stone-hearted a man is, alcohol will make them all the same. Intoxication suppresses reason and brings them closer to their true nature, understand? What happens then? It’s a meal served on a platter.”
‘Yes, I have no one else to believe but you, Sister.’
Jegal Yeong was as famous for her cunning as she was for her strategies.
She was known as an enchanting woman who always got the man she set her sights on.
Because of this, many people sought to learn her ‘skills.’
‘It must have been because I was clumsy last time.’
How would I have known?
You can’t expect to succeed on your first try.
With renewed resolve, Moyong Hye put her whole being into seducing Lee Se-woong.
She used every secret technique Jegal Yeong had taught her.
‘Why isn’t he reacting?’
But the effect was minimal!
Lee Se-woong was more than just a stone; he was practically a Buddha-like fortress.
Wasn’t this supposed to make him flutter?
Instead, it was Moyong Hye’s own heart that was pounding from the tricks she attempted.
It felt like she had fallen into the trap she herself had set.
The longer their gazes remained locked, the more Moyong Hye found herself struggling to breathe.
‘Is Namgung Yeon-hee really that amazing?’
She even went as far as doing some rather shameless things, braving through the embarrassment.
Why was there still no reaction?
Lee Se-woong’s lack of response, as if he didn’t see her as a woman at all, was an overwhelming shock to her.
Moyong Hye had never once been ‘rejected’ by a man in her entire life.
“If nothing works, there’s only one option left. Just jump him.”
Ordinarily, she would have dismissed such a suggestion as nonsense.
But Moyong Hye was not herself.
An unprecedented level of intoxication.
Lee Se-woong, who had walked away without even listening to her.
The courage unique to a drunken person urged her on.
“Just crawl into his bed. That’s all you need to do.”
That was how Moyong Hye ended up storming into Lee Se-woong’s bedroom.
***
After being reincarnated into Murim, I thought my imagination had developed quite a bit.
I prided myself on having adapted to a society governed by martial arts, which was nothing more than a fantasy in my previous life.
But there were more bizarre people in this world than I had imagined.
“What are you doing right now?”
“I heard men like… things like this.”
What is this?
I couldn’t follow her train of thought at all.
“What did you say?”
“Uh, isn’t that right?”
When I pressed her, baffled, Moyong Hye widened her eyes in response.
“Ha, young lady. Don’t you understand what it means for a grown woman to enter a strange man’s bedroom?”
“I-I suppose it means… that?”
No matter how she tried to gloss over it, it wouldn’t work.
I needed an answer.
“To be honest, I suspected it from the moment we first met. How you felt about me.”
“Pardon?”
“Let’s not play around like we don’t know what’s going on. I absolutely hate beating around the bush.”
“You… knew all along?”
Moyong Hye’s beautiful face contorted in shock.
Of course, she’d be bewildered.
I had seen through all of her schemes!
“Of course. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice when you made it so obvious?”
“That’s…”
She lowered her head, blushing.
So, she wasn’t completely shameless after all, huh, Moyong Hye?
If you answer honestly, I might consider being lenient.
“You approached me in the first place to get revenge on Moyong Chun, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb. The very fact that you spoke ill of your own brother to an outsider doesn’t make any sense. You pretended to hate Moyong Chun, right?”
“?”
“Lee Se-woong, even though he has a fiancée, is a beast who went after the Moyong Family’s daughter. You spread that rumour on purpose, didn’t you?”
It was a pinpoint accusation.
Moyong Hye couldn’t even muster a reply.
“I was willing to endure some resentment. But barging into my bedroom? Are you trying to destroy me socially? Was that the only way to satisfy yourself?”
Maybe I was being too harsh.
All she could do was tremble.
But I had to say what needed to be said.
“It’s not… like that.”
“?”
“It’s really not like that!”
Moyong Hye shouted, almost in a scream.
Her face was full of resentment.
This is what they call blaming the victim, huh.
“What on earth did you think of me, Sir? I hate Moyong Chun! Should I go outside and shout it on the streets right now? I’ll even write a statement if you want!”
“What?”
“You think I was trying to slander you? Ha, what nonsense. You don’t even know how I feel!”
Moyong Hye cried out in exasperation.
“Then why did you come into my bedroom?”
“That’s…”
“See? You can’t answer, can you?”
“What’s the point of acting like you’re angry?
It won’t work, it just won’t work.”
Given the situation, the only way left was to provoke her into revealing her true feelings.
“Or what, are you saying you fell for me at first sight? After only meeting me for one day? What exactly did you see in me?”
“!”
“Honestly, you entered a man’s bedroom to seduce him because you fell in love at first sight? Do you really think that makes sense? Young Lady, have you read too many novels? I wouldn’t have thought you’d come up with something that wouldn’t even pass as a third-rate entertainer’s story.”
To some, these words might have sounded insulting.
It was rude, but if I wanted to get her to reveal her true feelings, I had to spout some absurd nonsense!
But her reaction was strange.
“Hic, hic…”
Moyong Hye’s shoulders started shaking as she began to sob.
‘She suddenly started crying?’
I expected her to get mad.
Why is she crying?
“…I don’t know why I’m like this either.”
“What?”
“This is the first time I’ve ever felt this way. What do you expect me to do?”
Her unexpected response momentarily halted my thoughts.
“I’ve never felt butterflies before. I’ve never even held a man’s hand. This is my first time acting coquettishly like my older sisters do.”
“?”
“Is that such a bad thing? Wanting to talk to you, wanting to know more and more about you?”
What am I listening to right now?
“Not knowing anything, I just did what my older sisters told me to do. If that bothered you so much, I’m sorry.”
I had tried to provoke her by irritating her, but instead, she ended up making a confession.
I was left grappling at thin air, unsure of how to comfort the sobbing woman.
***
It took quite some time before Moyong Hye finally stopped crying.
The air felt heavy.
The atmosphere was difficult for either the one who confessed or the one who heard it to break with words.
Lee Se-woong, who had mistaken a woman who’d fallen in love for the first time as a scheming villain.
And Moyong Hye, who realized her feelings were deeper than she had thought when she tried to break through his unyielding demeanour, thinking it was just a whim.
Even in this spacious room, it felt suffocating.
“Young Lady.”
The one who managed to endure the heat burning his face and spoke up first was Lee Se-woong.
“I apologize for misunderstanding. I never thought of it that way at all… I’m sorry for judging you so rashly.”
He had to choose his words very carefully.
After all, Moyong Hye seemed to have no immunity to this kind of situation.
“However, I can’t accept your feelings. You know that, don’t you? I have a fiancée, and it seems… I care about her more than I thought.”
She already knew.
There was no need to speculate when his face remained unchanged no matter what she did.
Moyong Hye faced the reality she had been trying to ignore.
Even so, why did her heart feel so cold and hollow?
“I don’t know.”
“Pardon?”
“Take responsibility.”
Responsibility.
There’s no word more terrifying for a man than those two syllables.
“What…?”
“You’re the first person who’s ever treated me like this, do you know that?”
It was true.
“Do I look so unappealing to you?”
“No, it’s not that, Young Lady. This isn’t that kind of issue—”
“That’s good enough.”
Where did her sobbing self from earlier go?
Moyong Hye now declared with a strange sense of resolve.
“I heard that you haven’t held the wedding yet.”
“We’ll have it as soon as I return.”
“In any case, doesn’t that mean I still have a chance?”
Moyong Hye seemed as if she had let something go.
Having already shown everything there was to see, what did she have to lose now?
That hopeless brazenness felt like an ominous sign to Lee Se-woong.
“Be prepared. As long as I’m here, if I find even the slightest crack, I’ll break my way in.”
It was a kind of awakening.
Moyong Hye, who had lived her life hiding her true feelings even from her own family.
Having had all of her innermost thoughts exposed and utterly destroyed, she felt something shift within her.
‘Just wait and see. I’ll make you cling to me.’
A declaration driven by emotions.
Feeling a belated sense of embarrassment, Moyong Hye hastily left her seat.
“Just you wait!”
Leaving behind Lee Se-woong, who stood there dazed as if his soul had left his body.
As her steps quickened, Moyong Hye recalled the last thing Jegal Yeong had said to her.
“Hye, if there’s ever a man who doesn’t even lay a finger on you, even when you’re throwing yourself at him…”
She was with me, but it felt like she was staring off into the distance.
“Make sure to hold onto him. I’ve never met a man like that.”
In my memory, she had the loneliest eyes.
—
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