The Cutting Edge

035

The words that left Hyunwon's lips were still echoing in Hyejin's mind even after he finally got rid of Kara (read: left her standing helplessly out on the corridor) and they were back in his car on the way to the salon.

"Because I like her."

What was that supposed to mean? Hyejin couldn't quite believe her ears.

After that, her mind collapsed into a huge pile of goo that could no longer comprehend any form of logical thought. She sat quietly in the passenger seat, hands wringing the sides of Hyunwon's shirt, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened.

Whatever she had just witnessed was far from anything she had previously imagined. After all, Hyunwon and Kara were supposed to be engaged—or at least that was what the media reported. Now that she thought about things a little more carefully, something seemed off. Even when they had attended the gala dinner together, there had been minimal interaction between the two of them and Hyunwon seemed as standoffish as he always was. There was no sign of the smile that she had seen in the photo frame lying on his bedside table.

"I'm sorry," Hyunwon suddenly said.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry for what just happened. I didn't expect her to show up like that."

Hyejin tried her best to squeeze out an awkward smile. "It's alright," was all she could muster. There were a dozen questions she wanted to ask him but all the words were stuck down her throat. Glancing at his stormy countenance out of the corner of her eye, she decided to swallow all her questions altogether.

"Kara and I... It's all an act. We're not actually engaged," Hyunwon said, as if predicting the questions in her mind. "It ended between us the moment she got on that plane to America."

Is he explaining himself to me right now? Hyejin wondered, although her heart skipped a beat when she heard what he had to say. She waited with bated breath for him to continue.

"Kara was dropped from her Hollywood film so she needed a reason to account for why she was returning to Seoul. I just happened to be that convenient excuse."

There was a bitterness in his tone of voice that made Hyejin wonder if he was still upset about what Kara was doing because he still cared—and once again he anticipated the thought that was running through her mind.

"I don't feel anything for her anymore, in case you were wondering," he said. "If I still did then I must be the biggest idiot on this planet. Which I'm not."

"I wasn't wondering," Hyejin replied, a little unconvincingly. "Why are you telling me all of this? Aren't you afraid that I'll spill all of this to someone?" All these revelations about Kara, her failed attempt at breaking into Hollywood and the cover-up engagement would be more than enough to spark off yet another media frenzy—yet Hyunwon was openly telling her the entire truth. A part of her wondered what she had done to deserve this.

"To who? Ares?" Hyunwon snorted. The thought of Ares just made his mood even worse for no good reason. "Forget everything that happened back there. If I said things that... Well just forget everything. I was just pissed off with Kara and wanted to get her out of my hair. I'm sorry you had to get involved."

"Oh," Hyejin said, turning to look out the window so that Hyunwon wouldn't notice the disappointment in her eyes. So he didn't mean what he said after all. He just wanted to get Kara to back off. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone about what happened. It's none of my business anyway."

They spent the rest of the journey in silence—him thinking about how he should end this charade once and for all, and her thinking about how silly she was for even entertaining the thought that what he said back at the apartment could have been real. Hyunwon had enough emotional baggage to clean up without needing to add a schoolgirl crush into the fray. And even if there was no Kara Jung around, there were plenty of women with far better qualities that were waiting in line to throw themselves at him.