Chapter 18: Their Little Secret (3)

Kang Ra-Eun’s blood started boiling as soon as she saw Kim Han-Gyo, her archnemesis who not only had framed her past self, Park Geon-Woo, for all of his crimes but even took his life. Ra-Eun felt like she was about to lose herself just from coming face to face with him.

With her skills, Ra-Eun could easily make her way through those bodyguards and end Kim Han-Gyo’s life right this instant. However, that was not the form of revenge that she wanted. She would topple the tower that he would build with his achievements, at the peak of his success... with her own hands!

Hence, she needed to keep her cool here. However, it was much easier said than done. She wanted nothing more than to charge at Kim Han-Gyo, screaming all sorts of curses at him.

“Hey, Yi-Jun.”

Ra-Eun grabbed Seo Yi-Jun’s hand without notice. He momentarily blushed.

“N-Noona? What are you...?”

“Shut up and stay still.”

After holding hands, Yi-Jun had realized that Ra-Eun was slightly trembling. Ra-Eun quickly put on her sunglasses, but Yi-Jun could tell that she was staring daggers at Kim Han-Gyo. He didn’t know why, but he decided to do as Ra-Eun said for now.

“Don’t you dare let go of my hand. I don’t know what I might do if you let go,” Ra-Eun declared.

Yi-Jun had no idea what Ra-Eun would do, but one thing he knew for sure was that right now, Ra-Eun needed his help.

“Don’t worry, noona. Just trust me.”

He held the hand that was far smaller than his with all his might. Meanwhile, Kim Han-Gyo and his bodyguards walked past Ra-Eun. Naturally, he had no idea that Ra-Eun was Geon-Woo.

Ra-Eun’s trembling had lessened as Kim Han-Gyo and his group disappeared. Her legs were staggering as if she would collapse at any moment, possibly due to the aftereffects of extreme panic. However, Yi-Jun wrapped his arm around her shoulder before she could collapse.

“Should we take a break somewhere?” he asked.

There just happened to be a cafe right next to the optical store. Ra-Eun slowly nodded.

***

Ra-Eun had finally regained her composure after drinking three glasses of iced americanos.

“I feel much better now,” she said.

“Noona, don’t you get full after drinking that much?”

It hadn’t even been that long since they had lunch, so Yi-Jun was worried if it was okay for her to drink so much coffee that quickly.

“I’m fine, so mind your own business,” Ra-Eun replied.

“If you say so. But why were you acting like that before?”

Yi-Jun had wanted to ask her about it even before entering the cafe. As soon as he asked, Ra-Eun ordered yet another iced americano.

“No reason,” she answered.

In other words, she didn’t want to tell him.

“You sure are full of secrets, noona.”

“What, does that bother you?”

“Not really.”

Everyone had at least a secret or two, Yi-Jun included.

“Anyway...”

Thud!

Ra-Eun raised the empty glass and slammed it down on the table.

“Don’t tell anyone about how I acted today, understood?” Ra-Eun warned.

“Even the fact that you and I held hands?” Yi-Jun asked jokingly.

“You call that a question?”

Ra-Eun’s fourth iced americano had just arrived, which she began gulping down through a straw. Meanwhile, Yi-Jun stealthily looked at his right hand. It was the first time that the unreserved and upright Ra-Eun had depended on him.

Smirk.

He unconsciously smiled, which stirred Ra-Eun up.

“You didn’t just have strange thoughts about me, did you?” she questioned.

“No, I was just thinking about how there are more sides to you than I expected.”

Ra-Eun glared at Yi-Jun, likely in anger or embarrassment.

“I should’ve kicked you on the shin back at the restaurant,” she mentioned.

She felt it was a pity that she had missed the opportunity.

***

There were two more weeks left until school reopened. Ra-Eun had experienced many things during the summer break that had felt short at times and long at others. The most memorable moment was the drama shoot... or it would have been nice if it had been, but that was unfortunately destroyed last week when she went to go eat lunch with Yi-Jun.

She had come face to face with Congressman Kim Han-Gyo, which had irritated her for quite some time. Her irritability had Kang Ra-Hyuk thinking that she was at that magical time of the month.

Ra-Hyuk said to Ra-Eun as soon as the stock market closed, “Ra-Eun, when did you say you’ll be going back to school?”

“In two weeks.”

“Really? Then we have some time. Why don’t we all go on a family trip together?”

“Out of the blue? Why?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Well, because you seemed down for the last few days.”

As an older brother, he was naturally worried for his little sister. Ra-Eun understood how he felt, but...

“It’s fine. It’ll fade away on its own with time,” she expressed.

She had only acted like that because it was her first time seeing Kim Han-Gyo again after the betrayal. She would get used to it soon enough.

Even so, Ra-Hyuk was still worried about her.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. You don’t have to be so bothered by it. Rather, go review what stocks you need to buy and sell tomorrow.”

“Well... Okay.”

Ra-Eun laid down on her bed as soon as Ra-Hyuk left her room. At that moment, her phone rang. It was from Seo Yi-Seo.

“Hello?” Ra-Eun answered.

- Hey, Ra-Eun. Are you free to talk?

“Yeah, what is it?”

Ra-Eun had frequently exchanged calls with Yi-Seo before, so she had gotten used to getting calls from her. However, Yi-Seo had brought up a different topic compared to the usual.

- I’m gonna be hanging out with Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi the day after tomorrow, and was wondering if you wanted to come along?

Na Gyu-Rin and Choi Ro-Mi were both high school girls like herself.

“Out of the blue?” Ra-Eun asked.

- It’s not out of the blue. We’d been talking about hanging out together at least once before summer break ended, so I thought I’d try asking if you wanted to come along. If you’re there, well... I’d feel safe.

Ra-Eun beat up delinquents with her bare hands, so Yi-Seo would certainly feel safe with her there. Ra-Eun had never been the type to be interested in hanging out with people, but that was not the case today.

‘I’ll go and cool my head off.’

She just happened to have been in a terrible mood because of her encounter with Kim Han-Gyo, to the point that Ra-Hyuk even suggested they go on a family trip.

“Okay, I’ll go,” Ra-Eun said.

She decided to go enjoy her final summer break with Yi-Seo and her friends as a change of pace.

“But where, though? Have you decided yet?”

- Yeah, it’s the perfect place to go in the summer.

Ra-Eun could more or less tell where as soon as she heard that.

- The water park. What do you think?

It wasn’t bad, but there was just one problem.

“Don’t you have to wear a swimsuit there?” Ra-Eun asked.

- Yeah, of course.

It was obvious.

***

Ra-Eun had never worn a female swimsuit before.

‘I’ve worn lingerie tons of times, though.’

However, there was a clear difference between a swimsuit and underwear. Since they decided to go to the water park by train the day after tomorrow, she had to acquire a swimsuit by then.

‘The time seems a little late to head out to buy one now.’

It was also a huge hassle. She decided to search Kang Ra-Eun’s room.

‘She must have a swimsuit somewhere.’

She searched through her wardrobe with the hopes of finding one.

‘Found one.’

She found one deep in the bottom left drawer of the wardrobe, but there was a problem. Ra-Eun’s face turned deathly pale as soon as she laid eyes on the swimsuit.

‘I should’ve just gone out to buy one.’

Waves of regret had hit her too late.

***

After arriving at the water park, Yi-Seo, Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi had changed into their swimsuits first, and were waiting for Ra-Eun to come out in front of the women’s changing room.

Gyu-Rin talked quietly, still unable to believe this was really happening.

“I never thought we’d be able to hang out with Ra-Eun.”

“I know,” said Ro-Mi.

Ra-Eun used to only hang out with the popular kids, so Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi doubted their ears when they heard that Yi-Seo had become friends with her. Yi-Seo also used to have an unfavorable impression of Ra-Eun just like her two friends, but it slowly turned favorable as time passed.

“You’ll see that Ra-Eun’s a nice girl once you get to know her. She has her aggressive sides, but I found out that she has tons of good sides as I got to know her better. She’s also considerate toward women,” Yi-Seo gushed.

“Really? I don’t believe you.”

Gyu-Rin still hadn’t been able to lower her caution toward Ra-Eun, but Ro-Mi was different.

“Ra-Eun is nice. I saw her saving a boy in my class who was being bullied by the popular kids. They ran away with just a glare from her.”

“Ra-Eun did? Interesting,” Gyu-Rin expressed.

Ra-Eun had now become a natural enemy of the school bullies. Speaking of the devil, she came out of the changing room as the three girls were talking about her.

“...”

Ra-Eun slowly walked out with her face flushed red. Yi-Seo and her two friends couldn’t hide their embarrassment as soon as they saw her.

“R-Ra-Eun, you...”

“Y-You wore a bikini?”

“Not only does she have good sides, but she apparently also has a bold side.”

The bikini had only enhanced her already-glamorous figure. The gazes of men walking by naturally shifted to her.

Ra-Eun exclaimed, unable to take it any longer, “You think I wore this because I wanted to? This was the only swimsuit I had, dammit!”

She immediately put on the outerwear that she had brought with her just in case and zipped it up all the way up to directly below her chin. She had tried putting in the courage, but...

‘I’m never taking this off!’

The embarrassment and humiliation had only hardened her guard even more.

1. She is a second-year, but she is calling it her final summer break because she would be spending her third-year summer break studying for university entrance exams.