Who Is The Liar?

Chapter 43. Lee Jaeheon (23)

The voice was a bit high-pitched, unmistakably cheerful—the kind that automatically brightens the mood.

When Eunkyo turned reflexively, she instantly recognized the girl calling out to Jaeheon.

It was the same girl who had tapped Jaeheon’s shoulder at the club after the film screening party.

With her fresh, doll-like beauty typical of someone in their early twenties, she looked like a famous idol—so strikingly pretty that it was hard to forget.

Wearing a cropped shirt that revealed her belly and loose-fitting jeans, the girl ran up and casually grabbed both of Jaeheon’s arms.

“Oppa, why is it so hard to see you lately? Did you quit the club? Haksoo oppa didn’t say anything like that.”

“I’ve been busy.”

There it was again. The same thing.

As always, people quickly swarmed around Jaeheon. The girl’s friends, who followed behind, gave Eunkyo a polite nod before tilting their heads, trying to place her.

They probably felt she looked familiar. She felt the same.

“I’ll head out first.”

“Let’s go together.”

A hand suddenly reached out to grab her arm, but Eunkyo smoothly slipped away from Jaeheon’s grasp again. His expression grew visibly cold.

But she didn’t want to be part of that world.

She knew the second she stepped into that bright, energetic circle, her presence would cast a shadow over it all.

“It’s peak hour at the café. You should catch up with your friends.”

She offered the most generic excuse possible—and immediately, the students’ expressions changed.

“Oh! I remember now! You’re the unnie who works at Haeda! Are you out doing deliveries? Wow, that’s gotta be rough.”

One of them clapped her hands and beamed. Eunkyo simply smiled and told them to drop by the café sometime, then turned to leave.

As she walked down the hill, their chatter faded into the distance. She picked up her pace.

Conflicting emotions simmered inside her—one part of her insisted this was the real Lee Jaeheon, exactly where he belonged.

But another part whispered: even so…

The problem was that both feelings—jealousy and resignation—were unfamiliar and deeply uncomfortable.

‘Was this… jealousy?’

She had thought the same thing before. That a guy like Jaeheon was better suited to girls like that—young, bright, soft as new buds.

Not someone like her, weighed down by reality, someone too exhausted to chase passionate love and just trying to get through the day.

After walking for quite a while, Eunkyo let out a bitter laugh and stopped.

She’d gotten lost in thought and taken the wrong path.

She’d already passed the exit and ended up near the student union, close to the main stage being set up for the festival.

Tents were being erected with department and club banners everywhere.

“Ugh… get it together.”

She glanced around and began to turn back when a girl from a nearby group of students ran up to her.

“Excuse me!”

The girl stopped Eunkyo with a flushed face and pointed toward the group.

“We’re the mystery club, and we’re testing out the difficulty level of our quiz. We really need feedback from someone outside the club. Could you help us out? Just once? Please, unnie?”

“Uh, it’s a mystery quiz?”

“Yes! It’s for an on-site event—we’re giving out prizes to anyone who solves the riddles and escapes the maze in one go. But we can’t tell how hard it is, since we all made it ourselves.”

Eunkyo took the flyer the girl handed her. It had a few quiz questions and a maze to solve.

Eventually, worn down by the girl’s eager pleading, she headed to their table.

“Wow! Thank you, noona!”

“Thank you so much, unnie!”

“But this might be too hard. Can regular people actually solve this?”

“Noona, do you like mystery stuff?”

Questions flew at her from every direction.

She set the paper down and picked up a red marker. To their surprise, she breezed through the quiz answers.

Eyes widened, and muttering broke out—“See? Told you it was easy.”

But her pen stopped at the maze. Compared to the earlier questions, this part was tricky.

It was supposed to be solved with a single stroke, but it didn’t seem doable.

“Looks like the difficulty scaling’s off…”

She muttered to herself.

Just then, a large shadow loomed over her, and someone gently wrapped their hand around hers, the one holding the pen.

Eunkyo instinctively held her breath.

Jaeheon leaned over her, arm draped across her shoulders, cheek brushing hers as he effortlessly guided the marker.

“You’re calling this a puzzle?”

His scent—faint cologne, soap, and a trace of smoke—brushed against her neck and back.

Eunkyo kept her eyes fixed on the paper, watching the bold red line trace a perfect route through the maze.

“It’s too easy.”

“Ugh! That’s cheating, Jaeheon-hyung! You’re not allowed to play!”

“You’re gonna run out of prizes at this rate. Bump up the difficulty.”

He straightened just as she inhaled, and her eyes followed him upward. Curious eyes bore down on them from all sides.

When she shrugged off the hand on her shoulder, Jaeheon clicked his tongue and suddenly grabbed her hand.

“Let’s go, sunbae. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

She tried again to shake him off, but froze when he muttered:

“If I let go, where are you gonna run off to this time?”

“No, I just—”

“Ah… is it because you want that?”

The sky was clear, the sun blazing, and the attention around them burned hotter.

Eunkyo shot him a glare that clearly said: what the hell is wrong with you? and smacked his arm.

He chuckled, then turned her head gently by the chin.

Her eyes landed on an absurdly huge dog plushie—the top prize from the mystery club’s booth.

To be honest, she couldn’t even tell if it was a dog or a bear, but it was massive, nearly her height, and looked ridiculously heavy.

“Song Jihoon, raise the difficulty. Also, how do we win that?”

“You have to solve the fastest out of everyone. We’re timing it. Whoever finishes first gets it. We’ll call the winner before the festival ends—if they don’t pick up, it goes to the runner-up.”

“What if we want it now?”

“Ugh, seriously!”

Apparently, they were close. Their playful banter made it obvious.

‘This is unreal…’

Eunkyo covered her mouth with the back of her hand to hide her smile.

Jihoon, with his comically large eyes, sighed and pulled out a regular-sized bear plush, pointing to the updated quiz sheet.

“This one’s the harder version. Solve this and I’ll give you the bear. Personally.”

At that, Jaeheon glanced down at Eunkyo and asked:

“Would this one be okay? I wanted to win the big one for you.”

“No, I really don’t need it. I’m fine—”

“Hmm.”

Jaeheon gave a casual shrug, then pulled her into his arms again—this time from behind, gently wrapping himself around her as he placed the pen back in her hand.

His eyes sparkled with mischief.

Eunkyo took a deep breath and bit her lip.

“Ready!”

At the signal, Jaeheon began solving the quiz with her hand in his.

Cheers erupted around them, mixed with bursts of laughter from the students nearby.

But Eunkyo couldn’t focus on any of it.

The feel of his cheek against hers, the warmth of his palm enveloping hers, the heat radiating through his chest—her heart thudded, almost painfully.

“Oh!”

Jihoon gasped.

“Ah, no! You messed up!”

Eunkyo snapped out of it and looked down, only to find a bold red line veering off in the wrong direction at the end of the maze.

‘What…?’