An Unreasonable Proposition

Buzz. Buzz. The incessant vibration woke Yehi from her sleep.

Her swollen eyes reduced her field of vision to half its usual size. She couldn’t even remember with what shred of sanity she had managed to return home yesterday. It seemed that the moment she stepped out of Yusin’s apartment, she had collapsed onto the street to cry out her remaining tears, sniffled through a taxi ride she barely managed to hail, and finally realized she was back in her own home.

Through her blurred vision, she checked her vibrating phone. A direct message from Chickenhead was arriving. Out of habit, Yehi scrolled down to read the messages, and her eyes instantly flew wide open.

Chickenhead: Hey, hey, Gu-Chicken! Chickenhead: Did you see the video of the new type of villain on Line 2 yesterday?? Chickenhead: This is it lmao click the link and watch it. Chickenhead: The reason the title calls them a new villain: it’s not because they’re trying to get on first out of fear of missing it, but because they’re trying to get off. Chickenhead: Did someone unleash a toxic fart inside or something? It feels like the doors absolutely had to be opened. Chickenhead: If I saw that in real life, I would’ve thought they were filming a zombie movie. At that level, seriously, isn’t there a hidden camera somewhere?? Chickenhead: Sigh, I miss Gye Yusin…

When she accessed the URL sent by Chickenhead, a short, edited video immediately started playing. Looking at the video, Yehi’s heart plummeted. The protagonist in the video was none other than herself.

It seemed someone had filmed her when she was making a scene to get off the subway yesterday and uploaded it to the internet. Fortunately, because she had her hat pressed down low, her face wasn’t clearly visible.

Surely no one recognized me. While Yehi was anxiously biting her nails, the sound of a password being entered suddenly echoed from the front door.

Someone was attempting to open the door to Yehi’s officetel—a door that no one had entered for six whole years.

There was only one person who knew the password to this place.

“Hogu~ I heard you went outside?”

It was Yeoun.

The moment Yeoun stepped into the room, she marched straight over to pull back the blackout curtains and fling the window wide open. The spring breeze and ivory sunlight poured into the room. Yehi let out a sound akin to a shriek as she burrowed deeper under her blanket.

“What time do you think it is that you’re still acting like that under the covers? Get up.”

“I-It’s only 1 o’clock…”

“That’s what people call ‘the sun being high in the sky.’ Hurry up, get up, and wash your face.”

Elongated, cat-like eyes, a high nasal bridge, and lips that rarely smiled. Wearing a blouse with clean, elegant shoulder lines as she surveyed the room, Yeoun was as beautiful as ever. Unlike Yehi, who had frequently been told since childhood that she looked like an ill-tempered cat, Yeoun was often told she looked like a cute cat, a pretty cat, or that she ought to become a celebrity.

“Look at how filthy this room is.”

Despite it being their first reunion in six years, Yeoun nagged Yehi as if they had just met yesterday, and her unchanging demeanor made Yehi completely lower her guard. Light brown eyes—the only feature Yehi shared with her—gazed quietly at Yehi through the dust floating in the room.

Yehi suddenly worried that the toll of crying for hours on end yesterday would show, so she hurriedly cast her eyes to the floor.

Yeoun let out a soft chuckle and said, “You slept way too much, so your eyes are incredibly swollen and you look ugly.”

“Ah…”

Relieved, Yehi inadvertently smiled along and scratched her cheek.

“I-I did sleep quite a bit.”

“Wash your face and come out. It’s time to leave.”

“…Where am I going?”

“Where do you think? The family found out that you went outside yesterday. They look ready to storm this place any minute now. You need to move.”

The fleeting, youthful smile vanished from Yehi’s face, which gradually grew pale with dismay.

“Honestly, it would have been nice if you had just gone and come back quietly. I heard Grandfather even requested a video analysis just to confirm if it was really you. I had a terrible time dealing with everyone’s phone calls since morning.”

As Yeoun grumbled and reached out to touch a naked acrylic standee of Yusin, Yehi hurriedly stepped in to block her.

Since she had been caught hiding tightly not in America but in South Korea—and in Gwangmyeong, which wasn’t even that far from Gumyeong Hospital—a confrontation was inevitable. Before long, Yehi was bound to be dragged to a family gathering to face all sorts of severe censure.

But there was a massive problem with that. It meant she would have to face her eldest uncle, Gu Sanghwan.

Panicking, Yehi dashed to the wardrobe and pulled out a box she had kept hidden away in the deepest recesses, cradling it in her arms. Then, she looked at Yeoun with pleading eyes.

Yeoun nodded and made a request to Secretary Yoon, who was standing behind her like a shadow.

“Even if all the Gye Yusin merchandise here burns to a crisp, make sure you move that box securely. It’s a keepsake from her parents.”

“P-Please make sure to move Player Yusin’s merchandise together with it too. I beg of you, don’t leave a single thing out… I need the acrylic standees and the p-poster on the front door too…”

She repeatedly emphasized her requests to ensure nothing was omitted, but she couldn’t entirely rest easy. This was because Secretary Yoon merely wore a dull expression and muttered something ominous about the severity of the global garbage crisis.

Growing anxious, Yehi bypassed washing her face and set out to pack her most precious belongings herself.

If she had to move to a new house this very instant, the first thing to pack would undoubtedly be Yusin’s plush doll. However, while their priorities differed slightly, every single item was indispensable to her survival. Armed with extraordinary determination, Yehi utilized her own body to its full capacity to secure her merchandise.

Unconcerned by the comical sight she made by draping a Red Roosters sports towel around her neck and layering multiple player jerseys over herself, she even tightly grasped her cheering lightstick.

Unable to hide her judgmental expression, Yeoun asked, “Are you really planning to go looking like that?”

“Yes… A-Aren’t we going to the house I’m moving into?”

“We are, but I feel like your cohabitant might find it unpleasant.”

Cohabitant. At that unfamiliar word, Yehi stopped packing her merchandise and widened her eyes into circles.

“Huh…?”

“Don’t worry. That person is tall and strong, so I think they’ll be able to protect our Yehi well in my place.”

“I-I’m going to… l-live together with that person?”

“Yes.”

Smiling radiantly, Yeoun took hold of Yehi’s hands and said, “Go get married for a bit.”

Throughout the entire car ride, Yehi thrashed about like a fish freshly hauled out of the water.

She wept and pleaded, arguing that marriage was something people did because they wanted to be together for a lifetime, so telling her to do it ‘for a bit’ made absolutely no sense. She insisted that this wasn’t right, that it truly wasn’t right, but Yeoun didn’t even budge.

“It’s basically an arranged marriage, so don’t let it bother you. Ah, actually, it is an arranged marriage. It’s a marriage that was pushed forward because that side’s interests and my interests aligned perfectly.”

“W-What kind of interests could there be to make me—”

“Even so, don’t worry about it. Isn’t marriage originally a business anyway? You’re just doing it a bit early, but since you haven’t conducted a single other business transaction all this time, just consider it as doing them all at once this time around.”

“Sister…!”

Marriage. Marriage was something you did with the person you loved. I don’t want to do it if it’s not Player Yusin… Of course, she had never even dared to entertain the presumption of imagining a marriage with Yusin.

The place they arrived at was an apartment complex in Seoul.

The atmosphere was distinct right from the entrance of the complex. In front of the vehicle access road, a heavy steel gate stood like a wall instead of a low barrier arm, and CCTV cameras were rotating in real-time. Visiting vehicles had to roll down their windows and receive verification from the security guard. The moment the license plate was recognized by the camera, the vehicle number and the visiting building briefly flashed across an electronic display board before vanishing.

It was no different once they entered. Dozens of cameras mounted everywhere turned their heads this way and that, scanning the faces of the people passing by. Even a brief look around made it clear that there were absolutely no blind spots.

The entrances leading into each building were even stricter. A communal entrance intercom occupied an entire wall. Visitors had to dial the unit number, stand before the camera, and the door would only open once verification was granted from the inside.

The elevator wasn’t structured for free usage either. Because an internal card reader was installed, the floor buttons would only activate once a card was scanned. It was a restricted system where even if an outsider managed to get in, they could only press the specific floor they had been called to.

A small dome camera was also attached to the ceiling of the elevator, making her feel needlessly tense. Having trespassed into someone else’s home a mere twenty-four hours ago, Yehi rolled her eyes anxiously.

To think an apartment with such airtight security was her new shelter. While it brought a sense of relief, living with someone else was bound to be quite uncomfortable after all.

Who could it be? Is it a personal bodyguard? If it’s something like that, there’s no need to go as far as marriage, is there?

The hallway was quiet and pristine. The solitary door on the floor was equipped with a digital door lock. It appeared a motion detection sensor was even installed on the floor. A notice sticker stating that an alert would be sent to the security office if someone stood on the corresponding floor beyond a certain duration caught her eye.

Yeoun stood before the door with a familiar air and pressed the bell.

Realizing that she had nowhere left to run, Yehi protested as if clinging to a rotten rope.

“Sister… y-you haven’t gone crazy, right? You’re okay, right?”

“Our Yehi has really grown up.”

“I… I’ll go change my clothes first.”

“Are you going to keep throwing a tantrum?”

“I-I won’t run away… How can I face the person I’m marrying dressed like this…”

“Originally, when you get married, you end up seeing all sorts of unsightly states. Everyone overcomes it through the power of love.”

“You said it was a business…!”

Where on earth was there a person who conducted business while layered in multiple jerseys of Gye Yusin and with a Red Roosters team towel draped around their neck? Even the public relations manager of the Red Roosters team wouldn’t go that far.

Yet, to meet her marriage partner in this state, exchange greetings, and immediately move in together—to call that a business—it made absolutely no sense no matter how much she thought about it, but Yeoun was unyielding.

However, the moment the front door swung open, Yehi had no choice but to stop her thrashing.