Chapter 39: Childish Ghost and Fool

"Why is your face so red?"
"I told you, it's really hot. Aren't you hot?"
"If you're hot, you should take off your jacket."
Lim Soo-ha stood beside the girl, looking with some concern at her flushed face. What on earth was wrong with her?
Yoo Ji-min tried to fan herself with her hand to cool down, but unfortunately, it wasn't much use. Left with no other choice, she took off her jacket, keeping her head down and darting her eyes everywhere, simply not daring to meet the man's gaze.
Lim Yeong-ro was neither a reliable sister nor a reliable friend.
Clearly knowing nothing at all about her own younger brother, she had fed her a whole bunch of false information.
No, she definitely had to beat her up next time they met just to vent her frustration.
Lim Soo-ha noticed the girl's small movements, but he couldn't guess what was going on in her mind. He scratched his head, feeling a bit lost.
She had been fine just a moment ago; now... was she throwing a tantrum?
Had he hugged her too tightly just then?
Was she squeezed too hard, or... did that embrace make her realize what was in his heart?
This time, it was Yoo Ji-min's turn to march ahead in a hustle.
Having taken off her jacket, the girl didn't care at all about staying in disguise; she just wanted to walk faster, walk further away, and ideally vanish from Lim Soo-ha's field of vision as quickly as possible.
Seeing Yoo Ji-min walking further and further away, Lim Soo-ha had no choice but to follow her silently. The two of them weren't far apart, yet they were harboring completely different thoughts.
"Is she... annoyed with me?" Lim Soo-ha touched his head, remembering the voice he had heard backstage that day.
Because she didn't want his desire to be more than just a younger brother to be exposed, was that why she deliberately avoided walking with him, refusing to do anything that might cause misunderstandings?
"Why isn't he chasing after me yet?" Yoo Ji-min also harbored her own little secrets.
While walking quickly forward, she would also carefully steal glances at the man behind her. She clearly wanted to put distance between them, yet she desperately hoped he would catch up and wrap his large hand around hers.
Noticing that he was slowing down his pace more and more, the girl marching ahead deliberately stopped. Seeing the crowd gathering larger and larger before her, she blinked, seeming to have an idea.
First, she took several sharp steps backward, and then, as if she had been startled, she trotted all the way back into Lim Soo-ha's embrace.
"What's wrong?" The distracted man was startled by the girl suddenly crashing into him, but after looking down and recognizing her face, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder and held her in his arms.
"Someone's there." Yoo Ji-min shrank her neck, feigning a panicked expression.
"Someone else?"
The man stretched out his neck to take a peek, only to have Little Mountain Bamboo swat his head and force it back down.
"What's wrong?" Lim Soo-ha looked innocently at the girl in his arms. This one pack a surprisingly painful punch.
"You're a celebrity too, aren't you afraid of being recognized?"
Yoo Ji-min was left speechless, her tone laced with a faint sense of guilt.
How could anyone be this foolish?
Even though she considered herself a Hallyu star who had performed at Gayo Daejeon, he was still trying to test the observation skills of ordinary passersby like some regular citizen.
Besides... if he stretched his neck out like that, wouldn't her little hidden secret be discovered by others?
"Then what should we do?"
"I don't know." Yoo Ji-min answered very flatly. She buried her face in the man's chest, feeling his strong, steady heartbeat and a strange, unexplainable sense of security.
She wanted to be held like this forever.
Even though her heart was beating fast, even though her face was scorching hot, she just wanted to be held by him like this forever.
"How about we stay here for a while? Those people will probably leave soon."
"That wouldn't be good..." While saying it wasn't good, her face honestly betrayed a smile.
To keep the boy from guessing her little thoughts, the girl cleared her throat and continued, "There are so many people gathered over there. They definitely aren't just passing by; they might stay for a long time."
"Then..."
Lim Soo-ha was momentarily at a loss.
What Yoo Ji-min said seemed quite right. With so many people ahead, if the two of them walked through, there was no guarantee they wouldn't run into someone whose eyes happened to be wandering everywhere.
"How about..."
"What?"
"We split up and walk separately?"
"No way!"
"We agreed to go shopping together, why would we split up?"
Yoo Ji-min would never agree to such a foolish idea. The whole white lie was told just for the sake of an embrace; if they separated because of this lie, wouldn't the losses outweigh the gains?
Moreover... Lim Soo-ha was simply too foolish.
The grievance she suffered today, she would definitely have to exact revenge on Lim Yeong-ro someday.
"Then..." The man's attention began to be drawn to some commotion not far away. Taking advantage of the moment when everyone's attention around them was scattered, he forcefully placed a knit cap on the girl's head, released his embrace, and took hold of Yoo Ji-min's small hand.
In the blink of an eye, the person who had just been plotting her little secrets was grabbed by the palm and found herself running involuntarily.
Holding hands as they threaded through the dense crowd, walking past the riverside, and then pulling open the car door together to sit inside, Yoo Ji-min panted heavily. She gave a very indignant side-eye to the man who hadn't said a single word.
What was he doing?
He had dragged her away without a peep, and she hadn't even properly enjoyed her journey of freedom yet.
"Did I do something wrong?"
Seeing the expression on the girl's face, Lim Soo-ha panicked slightly. As a novice in romance, he couldn't understand why she had suddenly turned all huffy and puffy out of nowhere.
A girl's anger actually comes in many forms.
For instance, resentment, embarrassment, playful and teasing annoyance, or like now—out of shyness, out of regret, and not knowing what to say, choosing simply to close her mouth in a huff.
"What do you think?" The girl raised an eyebrow.
"I..." The man was momentarily speechless, not knowing what to say.
He remembered the girl's earlier move to quickly distance herself from him, recalled the voice lingering in his ears, licked his lips, and simply kept his mouth shut.
The more you say, the more you err; better to stay quiet and keep silent.
"You..."
Seeming not to expect the man's sudden silent treatment, Yoo Ji-min pouted, her palm curling into a fist as she wanted to hit him.
Fool!
Her sister was a fool, and her younger brother was a fool too. Why did she have such a foolish good friend, and why had she fallen for such a silly idiot?
"Such a childish ghost."
"Why aren't you talking?"
"You seemed angry, and I was afraid I'd say the wrong thing..."
What does it mean to like someone?
It probably means being afraid of seeing her angry, worrying about seeing her sad, and desperately wanting to hold her close when the time comes to part ways.
He had chosen to stay silent out of fear of seeing Yoo Ji-min's angry expression, but... because of his silence, the girl's expression only grew uglier.
"Childish ghost, stingy ghost, give me my jacket back. I'm cold."