.

In this situation, I couldn’t say ‘No! Jiho has nothing to do with his!’ as it would look the same as a good girl in a TV drama crying out, ‘This is all my fault!’

What should I do?

When I just laughed ambiguously for quite a while, the Kim twins then narrowed their eyes. That was when I came up with a good idea.

Lowering my head, I took a vertically folded paper out of my clutch. The Kim twins changed the look on their faces and watched me while wondering, ‘What is she doing right now?’ Meanwhile, I waved the paper swiftly.

I said, “No, that’s not what it is… As I had a lot on my head about my future career, Eun Jiho told me that he would let me experience a job.”

“A job? What kind of a job?” Hye Hill asked me while looking bewildered.

I replied with a look of satisfaction, “A chaebol heiress.”

“Pffft.”

A sound of laughter burst out from beside me. Sinking his head on his chest, Kim Hye Woo then laughed out loud with his neck leaned back. Kim Hye Hill, on the other hand, was gnawing her lips in silence, but it looked as though the corners of her lips were shaking up and down.

I sent a confident glance at the two while signaling, ‘What’s the problem?’ Kim Hye Woo, who soon stopped laughing, stretched out his hand and tapped my shoulder.

He then uttered, “Yeah, that sounds good, a chaebol heiress.”

“Are you teasing me? Come on, I will be one day… probably…”

Lowering my voice at the end, I added, “My dad is playing the lottery these days.”

It was true. My father had a hobby of buying a lottery ticket when he was drunk.

As if she also couldn’t help herself from keeping a straight face, Kim Hye Hill also began to giggle. I said those things to just amuse them, so I laughed, too, while facing the twins.

A few people paused their steps and stared at our direction in astonished faces. As I expected, the Kim twins seemed to be popular everywhere for their cool images.

When they finally stopped laughing, the twins then returned to their calm attitude. After a moment, what Kim Hye Hill murmured with her arms crossed struck me a little dumb.

“Hmm, true. My future career… that is indeed difficult to choose. I also didn’t write it down yet.”

“Oh, really?” I asked with my eyes open wide.

“Uh-huh, I think Kim Hye Woo left it blank too.”

Kim Hye Hill then pointed at Kim Hye Woo with her chin. When our eyes met, Kim Hye Woo responded with a shrug.

“Well, there is something that I actually want to be, but I may be kicked out of the house if writing that down straightforwardly.”

“What is it?”

“A pro gamer.”

“Oh…!” I exclaimed quietly; however, I soon thought, ‘But, aren’t you and Yoon Jung In quite bad at playing games…?’

As if he grasped what I was thinking just by the look in my eyes, Kim Hye Woo, who put his palms together, responded shyly.

“Well, honestly, I’d say I’m still figuring out what I want to do or what I am good at.”

Hmm, tilting my head to the side, I asked, “But you’re good at studying and have a good GPA, aren’t you?”

“No, GPA is just a GPA. It’s just broadening my options; besides, I’m too busy studying to spend enough time searching for what I really want to do.”

Kim Hye Hill, beside him, then struck a retort, “Don’t be ridiculous. All you do is just playing games.”

“Dude, do you want to keep spreading false rumors?”

“Why don’t you have a bit of conscience, oppa? It’s me who’s too busy studying to find out what I want to do.”

Not even Kim Hye Woo but also Kim Hye Hill?

I stared at her in surprise. When our eyes met, she lifted her hand to sweep her blue-black hair behind her ear. She then continued with a nod.

“Yeah, I also didn’t find out what I want to do yet. Well, oppa couldn’t because he was busy playing games.”

“Oh, come on. I said no.”

“If you have a whit of conscience, please shut up. I was the one busy studying.”

Kim Hye Hill clearly cut in and completed her remark before Kim Hye Woo intervened in her words.

Listening to their conversation, I nodded my head. Kim Hye Hill was one of the most hard-working students in our class. Although we all hung out together, she went back to her seat alone to study, which made her receive our applause and respect for how committed and diligent she was. That Kim Hye Hill continued her remark nonchalantly.

“Well, isn’t it natural that we aren’t supposed to know that yet? All we did until now is just studying as a student. Not only don’t we know what we are capable of but also what we really want to do, therefore.”

As far as I know, Kim Hye Hill wasn’t an exhibitionist nor an overmodest person. She always enunciated what she could do and could not as honestly as possible; therefore, the sincerest and the most relentless person I knew, who could say such a thing, was Kim Hye Hill.

In this regard, what she said would have come out from the bottom of her heart. I quietly nodded. Kim Hye Woo’s voice then echoed around me, who was in a daze.

“I agree. It’s weird to tell us to decide what we want to be after all we’ve done is study. If we can’t answer that, they treat us like a dreamless person, which is so hilarious.”

“I see,” I replied, still listening to their remarks silently until then.

I added in a low voice, “So no one really knows what they want to be for their future careers… it wasn’t just me who had no idea.”

“Of course. Was that what you were concerned about?”

What Kim Hye Hill asked me in a sweet voice while patting my hair nonchalantly slightly imbued a part of me with a heartwarming tinge. Flickering my eyes, I raised my head. The twins smiling tenderly under the bright chandelier light sparkled like a gem.

Looking at their smiles I fell into thought.

It was quite good to know that I wasn’t the only one wandering aimlessly around. That didn’t mean that others should also run about in confusion. I just felt so lucky to have these kids as my friends who told me something like, ‘It wasn’t strange for me at all to have a hard time thinking about my future career.’

Having that thought in mind with downcast eyes, I heard Kim Hye Woo speaking with a hint of laughter in his voice.

“Geez, but the chaebol heiress thing was quite original. Now I got something to talk about in class after the break.”

Holy Christ!

Throwing out the feeling that tugged at my heartstrings just until now, I grumbled with a frown.

“Don’t you ever attempt to do so.”

“Donnie, don’t be ashamed of your dream.”

“Gosh, I said don’t!”

As I gave him a playful jab with a giggle, Kim Hye Woo snatched it right away.

That was when we exchanged jokes about taking the hand off each other first. Kim Hye Hill, who stared at the entrance of the banquet hall while touching her chin, blurted a question.

“So, how far did Yoon Jung In go with Eun Jiho?”

“Maybe they got so close and fled away while holding each other’s hands, huh?”

Kim Hye Woo’s unexpected remark made me burst into a fit of giggles.

Eun Jiho running away somewhere while holding Yoon Jung In’s hands… that was so unimaginable, but Yoon Jung In’s sociability could make that happen somehow. As if the Kim twins also thought the same, we giggled while looking at each other.

The large square duplex banquet hall was surrounded by thick marble columns; no chairs and no other structures were inside except for the tables with finger foods or drinks.

Near the center of the banquet hall, there was a white marble staircase with a red carpet on that allowed people to go up to the mezzanine. Leaning against the upper floor balustrade, some were sharing conversations with their eyes gazing downward at the hall full of crowds. The long, suspicious-looking hallway inside the second floor was, however, guarded by some uniformed staff. I couldn’t even assume where the hallway was connected to at all.

However, someone just now went upstairs across the red-carpet stairs. It was a person I have known for a long time who also accompanied someone else.

Blinking swiftly, I soon furrowed my eyes.

I mean, why would she be here? Especially, with that look…

Standing on tiptoes, I observed the sight faraway; however, the shadows near the entrance to the stairs were already gone.

At that moment, I heard Kim Hye Hill flinging a question from beside me.

“What’s up?”

“Um, no… I must have mistaken someone.”

“Really? Who was it?”

I couldn’t reply to Kim Hye Woo’s question but just smiled with my lips tightly closed.

I could answer, I could but…

The person I saw was none other than Yi Ruda. Pulling a gentleman’s arm affectionately, she went upstairs across the hallway.