Chapter 28

“Woo Seo-ya, earlier…”

He opened his mouth, but he didn’t seem to know where to start. Watching him agonize for a long time in fear of making a slip of the tongue, the whirlwind of intense emotions from earlier gradually became calmer and diminished.

That’s why I found myself letting out a chuckle. It felt like the Kang Ji Seok who always used to grumble like that whenever he had problems from high school was brought back.

“I’m sorry I didn’t contact you. I was drunk, so I didn’t think to reply or anything. When I woke up, the battery was dead.”

I apologized first. Although my mixed feelings1 hadn’t been sorted out yet, it was impossible to continue to resent Kang Ji Seok, who didn’t know anything. Most of all, I didn’t have the confidence to do that.

Kang Ji Seok’s face glowed with a flush. To the point where I thought he was too close, Kang Ji Seok stuck close to me and his eyes twinkled.

“Why are you sorry, It’s me who’s sorry. I was so worried all night long… No, that’s not it…I’m sorry for shouting earlier and I’m sorry for using force… um, and I’m sorry I made you cry earlier…!”

“That’s enough. Enough.”

Things kept coming out one after another, so I slapped his chest to shut his mouth. He even had to bring up the crying part.

Kang Ji Seok suddenly grabbed my hand that was hitting his chest and looked down at my wrist, which was still red, with a tearful face.

“Oh no, it still looked red. I think it’s a bit swollen…This won’t do, let’s go to the hospital.”

“Don’t make a fuss. It doesn’t hurt that much anymore, so it’s better to leave it alone.”

When I tried to pull my hand away, Kang Ji Seok wouldn’t let go.

“If you make food with this wrist, it’ll get worse. No, I’d rather do it.”

With a serious face, he dragged and tried to push me into my room.

“What are you going to do? I’ll do it, so help me, then.”

“No! Absolutely no way!”

When he shouted with a stern face, the door where Ji Geon-hyung was burst open.

“Kang Ji Seok, I told you not to yell at Woo Seo.”

He quickly approached me, sharply raised his eyes, and pulled my hand out of Ji Seok’s.

“Are you forcing him again?”

“No, Woo Seo’s wrist must hurt but he said he’s going to cook.”

Then, Ji Geon-hyung’s gaze fell on my wrist. He was holding the upper part of my wrist with one hand and holding my hand with the other, turning it gently and checking my reaction. There was nothing to check and it didn’t really hurt, so I made a casual face.

“It doesn’t look like anything is wrong, but you have to be careful. When this guy2 gets worked up, he can’t control his strength.”

Hyung let go of my hand and joined forces with Ji Seok, pushing me into the bedroom.

“We’ll cook, so rest inside.”

“But neither of you can cook…”

Although today’s menu is a common curry with a simple recipe, it was very worrisome to leave it to those two. I’ve heard so many times that even very easy dishes were made to the point of wrecking it, so even if it’s just curry, I couldn’t be relieved.

Ji Geon-hyung lightly stroked my anxious head.

“There are even instructions on the back of the curry package. We can look at it and follow along.”

“That’s right. So don’t worry and rest.”

Ji Seok smiled, and as soon as his brother’s hand fell away, he patted me confidently on the head. As I was feeling good when he stroked my head, I thought that Kang Ji Seok was treating me like a child. I stared at his hand, and Kang Ji Seok figured out the mood, quickly stepped back, and closed the door behind him.

“I’ll call for you when we’re done.”

After smiling brightly, the door closed with a small sound.

I stared at the door and looked down at my wrist.

To suddenly be kicked out of the kitchen after apologizing to each other wasn’t enough, it was also time to eat lunch without knowing what kind of bizarre things will come out. Nevertheless, I didn’t feel bad. Rather, a small chuckle flowed out because I felt like I had returned to the past.

At that time, when the three of us met almost every day while being tutored by Ji Geon-hyung, there were no big worries or concerns other than college. Even though hyung was busy with his business preparations, he had enough time to spare us quite a bit of time, and his personality was brighter compared to now, that I thought he was a different person. Even then, the three of us would say we would make something to eat but we almost destroyed all the cooking utensils in the house. But since it’s been a few years, wouldn’t it be okay now?

I was nervous, but thinking that I should trust them I took out a chair and sat down.

After being kicked out of the room, there was nothing to do. I couldn’t focus on studying because I was worried about [what was going on] outside, however, if I went out somehow, I might get trapped in here again or actually taken to the hospital.

In the end, I decided to surf the internet.

[ring insomnia]

[ring sleep]

[ring physical contact]

[ring effect]

[ring remove]

[single ring]

As I looked for similar things almost every day, all I found in the search index were things about the ring. I knew there wouldn’t be much to gather but just in case I searched for ‘ring removal’.

‘I have to remove the ring for hyung’s sake.’

In the past, I just wanted the ring to disappear because of my guilt and the sense of immorality I felt, and I thought that I had to get rid of all the unwanted connections of the ring as soon as possible. Moreover, to fall in love with someone other than Kang Ji Seok was impossible, even for someone like hyung who resembled him, so I had no choice but to desperately find a way to remove it.

Selfish me, I was only looking for a way out for myself. But now, I wish I could remove the ring for Ji Geon-hyung rather than myself. It was hard to believe a talented and caring person like him had to be led around by a much younger college student and pretend to be his younger brother to sleep, I couldn’t help but feel sorry. Even though I thought like that, I was still seeing Kang Ji Seok in hyung, so I didn’t really have a solution.

‘Let’s go back to the old days.’

Thanks to the effects of the ring, I was able to spend time with hyung like before, but the advantages were just the same. I can still remember the time before the ring formed, the comfortable sleep, or the addictive touch of the other person that I had never experienced. However, due to the huge drawback of not being able to sleep without a partner, there was a need to cause inconvenience or drag the other person around.

I didn’t know if that’s what he was doing, but I didn’t want to do that. It was a big problem for a representative of a company to be fascinated by a mere college student.

That’s what happened at the last drinking party. Hyung had to sleep for a meeting the next day, so he had no other choice but to wait for me. Then, he bought me expensive drinks and spent money again to rent a hotel to listen to my stubbornness. Not only that, but for me, who was thinking of Kang Ji Seok, he pretended to be his younger brother again and even kissed me.

When I thought of the kiss, my cheeks became hot again, and I pressed the back of my relatively cool hand to it to suppress the heat.3

‘I’ll definitely find a way to remove it for you.’

There must be a way to get rid of it somewhere. Isn’t it too illogical if there wasn’t? I couldn’t believe that I had to spend my whole life together with someone I didn’t want because of a ring engraved against my will.

Thinking there would be a way, I didn’t stop searching. However, most of the new posts were shitposts and some were trying to instill dreams in people by appealing to the romance part of the ring, let alone removing it.

“The ring isn’t very romantic,” I muttered and moved the mouse cursor to enter an internet cafe4 this time. In the process, it was confirmed that there was a number one floating in the section marked ‘message’. Since I joined a few ring-related cafes and app development information cafes, I guessed that it was a notice from them and opened the message box.

[Sender – C(chel*****)]5

[Hello, are you Smile-nim who was desperately looking for how to remove the ring on the internet cafes ‘Knowledge Win’ and ‘Ring-verse’, ‘Ring Protector’, ‘Ring Love’, ‘Ring of Destiny’? I am…]6

When I skimmed through the preview of the contents of the message, it didn’t seem like it was a notice sent from an internet cafe. The sender was also not a cafe moderator.7

‘Did someone read what I posted?’

As stated in the preview, I wrote a long post looking for someone in various ring-related cafes, including ‘Knowledge Win’, where you can exchange various expertise questions and answers. That’s what I did on the internet as soon as the ring was formed, and whenever the post was pushed back, I wrote it again and again and repeatedly posted it. So, sometimes there were comments criticizing that “this person came again” but I didn’t care, and posted a new post every day. That’s how desperate I was.

They were the one who contacted me when they saw such a post, so I thought I should read what they had to say. Perhaps they know? I wondered if they knew how to remove the ring.

With a slightly trembling heart, when I checked the contents [of the message] it was longer than I expected.