Bring It On! - Chapter 73

Chapter 73.

“Ah….”

I pressed a hand over my mouth, unable to believe what I was seeing. Five… whole years older? Something had clearly gone horribly wrong here. 

Damn it, this is exactly why you’re not supposed to blindly trust information you find online.

Even lies can be boring and dangerous. My heart was racing! But could Naver’s official profile really have false info? Not some Namu Wiki? Hah. My head spun for a moment.

Who am I? A person whose favorite food is kimchi stew, proudly Korean to the bone, putting up the national flag every Liberation Day, living with respect for hierarchy ingrained in my life. 

I could be ruthless to a few inhuman types, but even with them, I maintained a certain politeness at first.

But with Jay… what had I done? A panorama of my actions flashed through my mind. Elbowing him in the gut, mocking him as trash, looking at him with disdain… Yet I couldn’t deny feeling a little unfair. He had acted like trash first!

“What’s with that expression?”

He approached me from the doorway. Woken from sleep, Jay was a little sensitive. I froze as the soft friction of his slippers on the floor grew closer, instinctively taking a step back.

“What are you trying to do?”

His low, raspy voice carried raw irritation. I had no mental space to gauge his mood. I could feel his gaze piercing me from barely an inch away, yet I couldn’t meet his eyes and instead kept my glance slightly downward.

Jay bent at the waist. Startled at first, my blood rushed as I saw what he held. My phone.

“W-wait! That’s mine!”

I suddenly remembered that I had zoomed in madly on his profile screen. I couldn’t let him realize the age difference between us! For over half a year, we’d been casually joking and teasing each other—“Hey, trash, kid, brat”—and now I was supposed to change my way of addressing him? 

Absolutely not. Just imagining it made my skin crawl. Since it started this way, why change it? Hell no, I refused.

“Ah, it’s yours.”

“Give it back. I need it for urgent calls.”

“Who?”

“A friend.”

“Who?”

“……”

As I reached for the phone, a heavy arm wrapped around my shoulder, pinning me close. Jay turned his head to the side and scrutinized the small screen.

“What are you looking at…”

His muttered voice abruptly cut off. I tugged on his shirt. From my angle, the phone’s screen was clearly visible. I was screwed. 

Of course, he had zoomed in on the date of birth, so there was no way he wouldn’t notice what had shocked me. Jay seemed to realize something and pressed the hold button on the phone.

“I heard my memory wasn’t stable even when I drifted on that island.”

He stuffed my phone into his back pocket. I let go of his shirt and dropped my gaze. I instinctively knew it was over.

“…Give me the phone back.”

“I always wondered why you called me by that shitty name instead of my proper one.”

“It’s not a shitty name…”

I lifted my head involuntarily as I muttered back at him. Our gazes met. His intense eyes pierced through my disheveled hair, locking on mine.

“Shall we introduce ourselves properly?”

He smiled, folding his eyes slightly. I had no words and just puckered my lips.

While I froze, he gently guided me to the desk and had me sit. A massive shadow fell over me. Glancing up, his face was uncomfortably close.

Has Jay ever wanted to avoid this? His fiercely handsome face bore a faint smile, but his eyes weren’t smiling. He looked like a predator, scheming how to devour a delicious prey. 

I rubbed my stiff fingers across the hard tabletop, feigning a sore neck as I turned my head to look behind me. The door was open. If I bolted now…

“Ugh…!”

A large hand grabbed both my neck and the back of my head, pinning me in place.

“Why think about running away? Guilty conscience, perhaps?”

That’s scary. How did he know? I awkwardly let out a laugh.

“Impossible.”

“You looked up my profile, so you’d know.”

“……”

“How old do you think I am?”

It had come. His eyes locked firmly on my lips.

“I… I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Answer me and I’ll let you go.”

“It’s urgent. If I don’t go now, it could be a big mistake.”

“Do it then. Make your mistake.”

“Are you really okay with this? This looks like an expensive table…”

“You can endure it by the time we’re done talking, right?”

Jay cornered me as if compromise didn’t exist. Gulp. My dry throat protested. He tilted his chin, urging me to answer. I licked my lips and said,

“About thirty-four?”

“‘About’? Can’t you give me a straight answer?”

“Just around there.”

“Alright.”

I expected him to scold me for lying, but surprisingly, Jay simply nodded. I relaxed for a brief moment, thinking he might let it slide, only for him to pull out his phone and call someone.

“Director Park, how old is Sun Woori?”

“……”

That crazy bastard! Of course, he would double-check. I shuddered at the meticulousness. He even called Park Jong-hoo. It’s just an age!

“Yeah, I’m twenty-six! What? Is being older some kind of honor?”

Jay’s eyebrows shot up.

“Twenty-six?”

He asked as if he didn’t know. Why act like he was hearing it for the first time, moments after calling Park Jong-hoo? Then Jay turned his phone toward me. The city skyline at night filled the screen, and the time was displayed. I blinked stupidly.

“……”

And then it hit me a moment too late. He hadn’t called Park Jong-hoo at all. He had self-sabotaged, like a thief caught in his own trap.

“Aish.”

I lowered my head, covering my face with one hand. I heard a low laugh from above. Got me again.

“You’re even more of a baby than I thought.”

“……”

“Say something.”

“……”

“Hey, kid.”

Finding amusement in teasing me, Jay continued babbling nonsense about how I was too young to sleep alone at night, how scary it must be. Even though he himself couldn’t sleep alone.

Jay deliberately patted my head like I was a child, then started fiddling with my earlobe.

“Let’s get the titles straight from now on, okay?”

“……”

“Stop calling me that shitty name.”

Shitty name? My irritation spiked. I lowered my hand from my face and met Jay’s smug expression.

“Phone.”

I held out my hand.

“Not before titles.”

Titles, my ass. I knew exactly what he wanted to hear, and it infuriated me. No way was I going to call him by any name he wanted. To me, Jay was simply Jay. But he seemed determined not to let me go until he got what he wanted.

Finally, I let out a long sigh in defeat.

“Fine.”

“If you know, call me.”

“……”

“Use polite language properly.”

He wanted to hear it, so I had no choice.

“Give me the phone, sir. And while you’re at it, the card too.”

***

In the end, I won.

Without ever saying a single “oppa,” I got both the phone and the card. Jay seemed shaken by the “sir” title, whining about whether I’d ever seen such a sleek ‘sir’ before. 

He handed over both items on the condition that I shut my mouth.

I hadn’t intended to take the card, but realizing, in that moment, that the man before me was an older man with more money than I could imagine, I couldn’t help but blurt out.

Thanks to that, everything was resolved, and I safely got into a taxi to return to the hospital where Suho was.

It had been a week since I got the card, but Jay’s card was still in my possession. The reason was I had to commute daily between Suho’s hospital and Jay’s house. He openly disliked me going to the hospital.

He’d say it was unnecessary since Director Park or others were taking care of Suho. Sometimes, I wondered if his veins carried molten iron instead of blood. How could someone be so dry and unfeeling?

Jay had even offered to assign a car for me, but I refused. It felt burdensome and awkward to have someone waiting just for me.

Brrring.

The phone on the table buzzed. There was only one person it could be.

[Jay: Arrive at 9]

“It’s only 8:30 now.”

Lately, I’d stay at the hospital while Jay was at work, returning home just in time for his arrival.

“Is it Hyung?”

Suho, absorbed in a tablet game, asked.

“Yeah.”

“What time tomorrow?”

“Same as today, before lunch.”

Suho had tried to hold me back, but since I started staying at Jay’s house, he hadn’t whined once. Maybe it was because the people Jay sent spent the night with Suho, or because of the tablet PC Park Jong-hoo had gifted him. 

Either way, I was glad Suho seemed to be managing nights without me.

The phone buzzed again in the taxi. This time, longer. I leaned my head against the window, not even checking the screen, and answered.

“Yeah.”

– Where are you?

“In the taxi. On my way.”

– When did you get in?

“About ten minutes ago?”

Over the past week at Jay’s house, I’d learned how much his condition depended on proper sleep. He had to fulfill his eight-hour quota daily, and losing even an hour made him irritable.

When I first met Jay after escaping the deserted island, his cold demeanor made sense now. He had suffered a month of insomnia. Normally impatient and reckless, he must have been unbearable then.

– If you see a tall building, get off.

“Why?”

– I’ll come get you.