CHAPTER 46: EMBARRASSING PAST

WONHEE let out a sigh of relief when Yejun fell asleep as soon as his back hit the mattress.

She pulled the duvet up to his neck carefully.

Then she sat on the chair next to the bed.

"Tannie?"

Tangerine Fairy turned to Wonhee. "Are you changing my name, Chu Wonhee?"

Wonhee smiled awkwardly while scratching her cheek. "I just realized that ’Tangerine Fairy’ is too long. Can I call you ’Tannie’ as a pet name?"

"That sounds cute."

"You like it?"

"I’ll change my name to ’Tannie’ in the System’s database."

Wonhee smiled and nodded, relieved that Tangerine Fairy liked the pet name she came up with. "Alright, Tannie."

"Oh, I asked the System about my gender and it said I’m a boy."

"I see. Thank you for telling me, Tannie."

"And we’re the same age."

"Then can I speak informally with you?"

"Go ahead."

Wonhee smiled because she could tell that Tannie was proud that he finally introduced himself to her properly.

[He feels more like a dongsaeng1 than a friend of the same age.]

"Tannie, am I allowed to leave the Sleeping Salon while Yejun is asleep here?"

"You can’t," Tannie said firmly. "The Sleeping Salon will automatically shut down when you leave the space. Moreover, Hwang Yejun would wake up. We cannot interrupt his eight hours of sleep."

"Ah. So, I’m stuck here for eight hours."

"Why don’t you sleep? Hwang Yejun signed a contract, so he can’t touch you even if he tried. This is your safe place, Chu Wonhee. The System will protect you here, so go ahead and rest."

"It’s not that I’m worried Yejun would attack me in my sleep," Wonhee said carefully. "I just can’t sleep since I have many things on my mind at the moment. Do you mind if I work until I get sleepy?"

"Of course not," Tannie said, then he bounced in the air and dropped himself on top of Yejun’s forehead. "I’ll sleep here. Wake me up if you have a question."

Pfft.

It was cute how Yejun didn’t wake up even after Tannie hit him on the forehead.

[Yejun did frown a little, though.]

"Good night, Tannie," Wonhee said, smiling. "Sweet dreams."

Tannie just huffed before he closed his eyes.

As soon as the administrator fell asleep, she pulled out her smartphone and checked the news.

Wonhee looked herself up in the internet, of course.

Naturally, she found herself browsing through the most popular news/gossip site in the country. And she wasn’t disappointed because the #1 trending/viral topic was about her.

"Chu Wonhee is a chaebol?"

"she’s Yeon Soobin’s sister???"

"No! I heard she’s Jang Semi’s sister?"

"both are correct."

"BOTH?!"

"i heard from my sister who works in a news station that, apparently, chu wonhee is the daughter of yeon soobin’s mother and jang semi’s father."

"Chu Wonhee is an illegitimate child?!"

"no, stupid. soobin’s parents and semi’s parents were already divorced a few years before soobin’s mom and semi’s dad got together. then soobin’s mom and semi’s dad got married and gave birth to chu wonhee."

"Ah, that explains the huge age gap~ Chu Wonhee is only in her mid-twenties, while Yeon Soobin is in his late thirties and Jang Semi is in her early forties."

Wonhee took a deep breath.

Some of the people leaving comments about her family were people hired by her older siblings to spread her real identity.

In fact, it was their side who "leaked" her real identity as Soobin and Semi’s baby sister.

[Soobin Oppa sneakily "leaked" the information to the socialites who love to gossip, then to the reporters who keep an eye on said socialites. That’s how the news of her background eventually reached the public.]

Wonhee agreed to reveal the truth of her "origin" for Soobin and Semi’s sake.

"so, that must be why soobin oppa and semi unnie saved wonhee unnie!!!"

"Of course they will save their sister from APA."

"Right?! I never believed it when the news implied that Hunter Soobin and Hunter Semi betrayed the country out of greed!"

Wonhee was relieved to see that most people’s faith in Soobin and Semi was restored.

[Thank god our plan worked– the public opinion on Soobin Oppa and Semi Unnie has finally turned positive again.]

That was the point of revealing the fact that Wonhee was Soobin and Semi’s baby sister.

And now that her older siblings’ names were cleared...

"But is Chu Wonhee really innocent? Should we forgive a potential druggie just because of her high-profile older siblings?"

That was the second trending topic in every news portal– people were debating whether Wonhee was innocent or not.

"APA somehow confirmed that Chu Wonhee awakened as a Guide, and they claimed that Chu Wonhee didn’t take Forced Awakening drugs. But can we believe APA when Yeon Soobin is the Vice President there?"

"agreed. it would be easy for someone in hunter soobin’s position to change the result of his sister’s drug test. plus, there’s hunter semi, too. she has the money to bribe anyone."

"APA said they can’t release the details of the investigation yet. But why can’t they just show us Choi Sumin? She’s the one who accused Chu Wonhee of taking drugs anyway, so they should punish her if she really lied about Chu Wonhee being a druggie."

"maybe the rumors about choi sumin missing are true...?"

Wonhee knitted her eyebrows, surprised and confused. "Choi Sumin is missing? But Soobin Oppa said APA is probably hiding her..."

She decided to trust her older brother.

But, for some reason, she still felt weird.

Wonhee only stopped thinking about Choi Sumin when her phone rang and it showed the caller ID of the person trying to call her.

Lee Seorin Unnie

Ah, it was Seodam’s older sister.

Wonhee smiled bitterly because her ex-boyfriend’s family members had never called her this many times when she was still dating Seodam.

She knew why Seorin was calling her again and again, though.

[It’s probably because of her wedding that I painstakingly organized only for Seorin Unnie to "uninvite" me after Seodam broke up with me.]

She knew she had to deal with her former "in-laws" soon.

But not today.

[I have better things to do with my time.]

Wonhee rejected Seorin’s call, then she called her secretary– the one helping her manage her finances. "Please cancel every reservation I made for Lee Seorin’s wedding."

Im Hani, Wonhee’s secretary-slash-financial advisor, let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness you finally opened your eyes, Miss Chu! I couldn’t bear seeing you spend your hard-earned money on those ungrateful people anymore."

She could only smile while shaking her head.

[It’s embarrassing how I let Seodam’s family walk all over me.]

"What about the house the Lee Family is renting out, Miss Chu?"

"Hmm? What about their house?"

"Miss Chu, have you forgotten?" Im Hani asked in disbelief. "You bought that house and rented it out to Lee Seodam’s family ANONYMOUSLY for a very, VERY low price– and you never raised their rent even though the property value of that house increases every year!"

Oh, right.

Wonhee forgot that she bought a house for Seodam and his family, and then she rented it out to them without telling the Lees that she was the real landlord and not the person she sent as her representative during the lease signing process.

[I’m a fool...]

***

SEORIN was anxious.

Her wedding day was approaching, and yet every reservation for her big day was getting canceled one after the other.

First, her wedding dress.

Then the hotel where the wedding ceremony was supposed to take place also canceled her reservation for her big day.

And, just now, the wedding cake shop called and said they wouldn’t be making her wedding cake anymore.

As if that wasn’t enough, the team of stylists that Wonhee hired to do her hair and make-up for her wedding day backed out. The same thing happened with the photographer and even the artist that she commissioned to do a live painting for the wedding ceremony.

"Wonhee, why aren’t you picking up my calls?" Seorin, who was in her car, whispered to herself while biting her nail. "You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?"

When Wonhee’s phone couldn’t be reached anymore, she screamed her heart out.

She was alone in her car anyway, and her car was parked in an abandoned lot.

[Chu Wonhee, are you finally showing your true colors?]

If that was the case, then...

Seorin took a deep breath, then she called her trump card. "Seodam-ah, please help me or I’ll die!"

***

[LEE SEODAM?]

Hmm.

Yejun woke up to Wonhee’s phone ringing loudly on the bedside table.

On the other hand, the owner of the phone was asleep on the couch.

He wanted to carry Wonhee and put her on the bed so she could sleep more comfortably, but he stopped when the talking orange glared at him.

[Right, I can’t touch Wonhee carelessly here.]

And, so, he just focused on the name that sounded familiar to him.

"Lee Seodam," Yejun wondered out loud while massaging his temples. "Where did I hear that name again?"

The talking orange answered him unexpectedly. "Hunter Lee Seodam, A-Class Hunter, Chu Wonhee’s ex-boyfriend."

Ah, right.

"The dude whose sex life was broadcasted live on national TV."

The talking orange bounced in the air as if nodding. "Hunter Lee Seodam and Guide Park Ruda are very popular among shippers."

Aha.

Yejun raised an eyebrow while looking at Wonhee’s phone. "Should I pick up the call, then make fun of him for letting a national treasure slip away from his hands?"

***

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dongsaeng = younger sibling