I Only Like You

Chapter 15: Passing By In Your Life

Subsequently, because of this incident, her High School arranged a commendation ceremony for her. During the ceremony, the Principal invited both the male student and her on stage and allowed her to hand the male student the "kind donation" in front of the entire school. She felt extremely proud as she thought she had done a good deed. However, that male student hated her from that point onwards and told other students that when she handed the money to him, he felt as though he had been publicly slapped. At that time, our Eun-Yeong was still a carefree and thoughtless little princess, and with her carefree works she brings justification to her name, which means, "the petal of flower that is full of kindness". She was unable to understand the male student's humiliation and rage.

When she and Jeon Jeongguk first got together, all of us were rather pessimistic about their future as a couple, as we always felt that Jeongguk was a wolf in bunny's clothing who would break our Eun-Yeong's heart after taking advantage of her. Subsequently, when the two of them had a huge quarrel and broke up, our Eun-Yeong left for her home in anger. Jeon Jeongguk went all the way to her home in order to coax Eun-Yeong out of her anger and admitted his fault in front of Eun-Yeong's dad. When we heard about what Jeongguk had done, our jaws dropped to the floor in shock. After all, this was Jeon Jeongguk! Since when did Jeongguk take the initiative to coax other people?! It was only then that we realized that the two of them were truly serious about each other.

Once we got used to seeing the two of them together, we started to feel that the two of them were truly compatible – after all, no one could be more suited for each other in terms of family status and wealth. At that time, we even fantasized about their offspring. Their son would definitely be like the male leads who appear in Kdramas: his dad was a wealthy chaebol, whereas his mom was a renowned socialite. Their family fortunes, when added together, would allow them to travel around the world five times.

However, just as we were waiting to attend the most extravagant wedding of the century, Eun-Yeong's family was struck by disaster. We remain unclear about the extent of the problem, but after the entire ordeal, she simply summed it up lightly by saying, "Our assets and properties were confiscated." We later learned that her dad had escaped to Thailand in an attempt to avoid his creditors whilst her mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. When university reopened that term, she didn't return. She only called us when she became desperate, sobbing whilst requesting to borrow money from us. Coincidentally, I was helping others with some translation work at that point in time and had managed to earn my very first paycheck. When I received the money, I didn't touch a single cent and transferred the entire sum to Eun-Yeong. Somehow, our entire dorm managed to raise 50,0000 ₩ – all of us were only students at that point in time, and 50,0000 ₩ wasn't a small sum for us. In order to raise that amount, we even contributed the money we would have used to purchase sanitary napkins.

When Eun-Yeong received the money, she only said a single sentence, "I'll write out a debt acknowledgment document, and return the money as soon as possible."

Enraged, I told her not to be disgusting.

"I will definitely return this sum of money." Eun-Yeong, our dorm leader continued, "After my dad got into trouble, I saw relatives and friends turn on each other over money issues. No matter how close we are, the nature of the relationship changes once money is involved." Although what she said was true, my heart nevertheless ached for her when I heard what she said.

Not long after, it was Jeon Jeongguk's birthday. Eun-Yeong attended the party with another middle-aged male in tow and introduced him as the marriage partner whom her family had arranged for her. All of us were stunned whilst Jeongguk flew into a rage and nearly thrashed the entire Karaoke TV. When I subsequently asked Eun-Yeong the reason for her actions, she kept her silence, and only spoke up after I continuously pushed her for an answer, "We're no longer suited for each other."