Tomb Raider King Chapter 392: Side Story 6

The rope coiled around Ju-Heon's body as it crawled up to his face.

An anxious Ju-Heon tried to get his body out out of reflex, but…

“Ugh!”

[#$&#*!]
What is he talking about? What is he talking about?

Its nonexistent eyes flashed and grabbed Ju-Heon to stop him from running.

It wasn't being rough with him, but it wasn't easy to get out of it.

Ju-Heon could feel an odd power coming from the rope. He couldn't get out of it despite using Hercules's power.

Ju-Heon had no choice but to gently coddle the rope.

“Hold on. Hey little rope? You should let go. You know you'll be in trouble if you bind your beloved master like this, right?”

He had experienced something similar to this in the past. It was when he was bathing in an open air bath.

He had struggled so hard to get the berserk rope to release him.

But the rope's eyes seemed to be glowing as it brought something in front of Ju-Heon's face.

It was the ring!

[#$&!]
What is this? What?

'What else? It's an engagement ring.'

Ju-Heon could now understand about 70% of the rope's speech, potentially because it got promoted to an Heirloom, but he didn't know how to respond.

'Damn it. It's just a rope in front of me. It's a rope, so why… Why do I feel like I got caught cheating? More importantly, does this thing know about the meaning of an engagement ring?'

Of course it knew. The rope had been forced to watch a ton of TV dramas thanks to the now obese doggies.

Weddings, rings, and these things were all part of the human culture it could not understand, however…

It knew that the male lead putting a ring on the female lead's finger meant a hundred year long contract that was called a 'wedding'!

It also knew what it meant!

Because of that…

[#$&$!]
What is this? What is it?

The rope was holding the ring and slamming the ground with its tail.

It seemed to be protesting. However, the rope was not Ju-Heon's only problem right now.

“Captain, do tell why you've been seeing Molly in secret.”

Julian was holding the photo with shaking hands.

The photo was a picture of Ju-Heon chatting affectionately with a beautiful woman at a table.

“R, right! We're complete strangers in this life so I'm not trying to be petty! B, but still, why were you meeting her?”
"Why else? Do I need a reason to meet a pretty girl?”
“#$#&?!”

Jaeha burst into the conversation at this moment.

"See! He's trying to marry her! This beach is famous for being a honeymoon destination! And look at the ring case! It even has Molly's name on it. See, see!”
“?!”

Julian almost turned to ashes after seeing the engraving on the case. Jaeha wickedly smiled.

"See Kongming, this is no time for you to be on the same team as the Captain-nim!”

Julian's mind was telling him to be calm but he couldn't help but shout.

"Seo Ju-Heon, you terrible son of a bitch! Not only did you steal my fiancée in our past life, you're doing it again…?! I want to never see you again every time I think about that moment already!'”

Ju-Heon scoffed.

Jaeha's obvious plan was not the issue right now.

“What? You want nothing to do with me?

Hey, you went a few years without talking to me because of it.

Are you really going to be that petty because your fiancée ran off? Since we're talking about it anyway, I felt wronged too!”
“W, what?! What the hell did you just say?!”
"Anyway, that is a problem! You damn petty bastard!”
“#$#&!”

Julian really felt wronged.

This guy had destroyed his perfectly fine relationship!

“My name is Molly Laurence. Nice to meet you.”

Molly was the only daughter of a CEO of a European corporation. Most importantly, she was one of TKBM's important business partners.

Basically, she was Chairman Kwon's guest.

Her family's wealth was pretty trivial compared to the Holtens, but they still ran a global corporation.

Chairman Kwon really wanted them as his allies.

'She is an important guest so take good care of her.'

Originally, Ju-Heon had been tasked to escort Molly. But Ju-Heon claimed he was busy and completely ignored the order.

'Is he crazy? Why would I do that?'

Julian was forced to be his substitute and escorted Molly around for a month.

“You guys fell for each other in that month? Wow, that's no joke. Kongming's got moves…ugh!”

Ju-Heon smacked Jaeha on the head before commenting.

"Anyway, that's how you met and now you are engaged. Congratulations. You'll be the second married man on the team.”
“Now I see why you went to work in an international branch for a year. Did you get any work done or were you just there to see your lady?”
“Ha, haha.”

Either way, Julian was congratulated by everyone as he prepared for the big day.

Ju-Heon was happy for Julian's wedding as well.

Molly wasn't as beautiful as Irene who was famous as the Monarch of Destitution or the two girls on the team, Seol-A and Chloe, but she was still a pretty lady. She was kind-hearted, gentle, and talented.

“I liked her after I chatted with her.”

The team members were in disbelief because Ju-Heon rarely praised people like that.

Anyway, it seemed as if the plan to let this old virgin (?) get married in peace seemed to be going well.

The problem was the cruel bachelor/bachelorette parties that took place before the wedding.

“Hey, hey! Are you guys really going to act like this?!”

They had gathered a bunch of babes for Julian.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Molly got the hunks. Furthermore, Ju-Heon was the main attraction.

“I'm going to try to seduce your fiancée for real today. Be prepared.”
“W, what did you say? Hey!”

Ju-Heon, who had dressed up to look good compared to his usual sickly appearance, laughed out loud.

“It's a bet. If your fiancée does not fall for my seduction, I will buy you the newest refrigerator for your newly wed home!”
“H, hold on! A fridge sounds nice, but……you! You prepared way too much for this! Eek! Stop being nice unlike your usual self. You damn bastard!”

Well, Ju-Heon had done this as an event to give them a gift and to chat with Molly since he knew that she was not the type to fall for such things.

But what?

Ju-Heon must have tried too hard.

[Julian-nim, I am not qualified to marry you after falling for another man.]

His fiancée had run away on the day of the engagement ceremony. The woman's side said that she was in the wrong and apologized quite a bit and paid some compensation, but it didn't matter.

The two friends, Ju-Heon and Julian, were shocked and in despair.

Ju-Heon and Julian became inconsolable worst enemies after that.

Ju-Heon felt really sorry and tried to apologize to Julian, but the now fiancée-less Julian tried to kill him.

Seol-A struggled the most to keep the team together.

Returning back to the present…

“Hey, be honest. What the hell did you do to Molly that she fell for you?”

Jaeha tried to remember it too.

He remembered that there were some rumors at the time. One of them said that Ju-Heon seduced Molly and spent the night with her.

Nobody believed it because they all knew about Ju-Heon's character.

Ju-Heon said the same thing.

“Hey. You know what happened. I didn't do anything. And Molly didn't fall for me. Your fiancée just had a misunderstanding.”
“What?”
“I didn't know it at the time, but the two of you spent the night at the hotel, right?”
“Yes, we did. Molly was very drunk, but…”
“Molly thought she made a mistake. She believed that she spent the night with me. That is why she felt guilt for cheating on you.”
“What?! Why?”

Julian gasped.

Why would she think that of all things?

“I don't know. Molly apparently checked with someone. She asked who went into the hotel with her. The person she asked told her it was me.”

Well, Ju-Heon did go in there. He went in to throw them a surprise party and to throw Julian in the room.

“Then who the hell told such a lie?”
“Who knows? If I ever find them…”

But at that moment…

Jaeha's face became drenched in sweat as he listened to them.

He realized something as he listened in on their conversation.

'Now that I think about it… Molly asked me a weird question that day…'

On the morning of the incident…

Molly had seemed frantic as she came to ask the hungover Jaeha a question.

'Mr. Jaeha, everybody else is saying that they don't know, but you know, right? You know who came into my room that night.'

'Huh, why?'

'I found this on the ground…'

Molly had shown him a zippo lighter.

Jaeha recognized it right away.

'Ah, it's the Captain's. Oh, I do remember the Captain going in for a moment while you were sleeping, Miss Molly.'

'Ah, he must have dropped it when he came in with Julian.'

Molly seemed extremely embarrassed as she said that.

'Wow, then I did something so embarrassing in front of Mr. Ju-Heon…'

'Embarrassing?'

'I don't really remember it, but I think I jumped on Julian. No wonder I remember hearing Mr. Ju-Heon's voice.'

Jaeha had mischievously smiled in response.

This was the scammer, Yoo Jaeha.

Since Julian had been knocked out cold from drinking that night as well, he felt like playing a prank.

'Huh? You really mean that? That's weird. I don't remember Julian going into your room, Miss Molly.'

'Huh…e, excuse me?'

'He was drinking all night with us. I'm sure of it because he was next to me.'

'Excuse me?'

Jaeha shook his head at the now frantic Molly.

'Ah, it's okay, it's okay. It's okay to jump ship for a bit before marriage. It's fine to want to be with a handsome bastard at least once.'

'N, no, there's no way…!'

'Come on, Miss Molly, you hugged the Captain and even kissed him. Tada, I even have a picture.'

Molly turned pale after seeing the picture on Jaeha's phone.

It was a picture of Molly kissing Ju-Heon…well, it was actually a picture of Molly kissing Julian that Jaeha had quickly modified.

Molly seemed to be having a mental breakdown after seeing the shocking picture and Jaeha's comments.

Jaeha had quickly added on.

'Oh right, keep it a secret from Kongming. Otherwise, he'll start stressing out for no reason.'

Yes, he did pull a prank like that in the past. Julian would quickly uncover the truth once he heard about it.

The picture he showed was a pretty terrible edit job as well.

However…

'N, no way, right?'

Jaeha started shaking while thinking about the past.

Julian and Ju-Heon, who seemed to have not noticed, were tilting their heads in confusion.

“That's odd. Who would say such a lie? You weren't the one who said it?”
“Absolutely not.”

Jaeha could not raise his head.

He was sure of it.

It was his fault.

Molly got the wrong idea because of him and broke off the engagement!

Although it might not have been THE reason, it most likely played a part.

'D, damn it!'

Jaeha started shaking. Julian and Ju-Heon's gazes turned suspicious as they noticed him shaking.

"What the hell? Why are you suddenly shaking?”
“Yeah……wait a minute.”

Ju-Heon and Julian had the same gaze. The way Jaeha looked right now as if his leg was numb and this unnatural reaction…

Could it be?

“Hey. Monarch of Fraud.”
“Did this son of a bitch……”

Jaeha quickly lowered his head in shame.

“I wasn't trying to do that!”
“?!”

'What? This son of a bitch really was the culprit?'

“I just felt mischievous and edited a picture of you and Molly kissing so that it looked like she was kissing the Captain-nim…… But it was such a shabby job that she should have noticed…”
“Hey!”

Jaeha was stomped on by both Ju-Heon and Julian.

“Are you fucking joking?!”
“IT REALLY WAS YOU?!”

Yoo Jaeha started to cry.

“I thought that she would know it was a joke!”
“Haaaa….! Hey dumbass!”
“You might think it was a shabby job but it's probably first-class for regular people!”

That wasn't important right now.

“I finally found the culprit.”
“I got you now, you son of a bitch.”

The combination Jaeha tried to split up fused together once more in anger.

Jaeha turned pale thinking that this was not what he had intended.

A terrible screech soon echoed through Ju-Heon's room.

Julian asked as they stood around a corpse(?) that was burnt to a crisp.

“So… You still didn't answer me. What is this engagement ring for?”

[#$&*!]
That's right! What is it? What is it?

The rope was constricting Ju-Heon's head as it asked who it was for.

Molly's name engraved on the case was Jaeha's doing to make Julian emotional, but……

“This ring isn't Jaeha's, is it?”
“No, it's mine.”
“What? Then you really are getting married? You're not really getting married to Molly, are you?”
“What? Ah, whatever, shut up. Get lost. You dimwitted trashy dumbass. I really don't like you.”
“?!”

Ju-Heon pouted. The photo of him with Molly was something that he coincidentally found while looting a paparazzi.

The angle made it look like they were together, but he had not even been with Molly.

However, that photo helped him to track down Molly so that Julian could live in happiness with his former fiancée in this new life, but…

“Ah whatever, no wedding gift for the two of you. As for you, pushover, hurry up and fix the palace! I'm annoyed so you're going to go work abroad for a year, Julian! I'm going to get Nina and Jaeha married while you are gone!”
"W, what did you say?! Hey! I thought you said you understood me earlier!”
"Who cares?! And I wouldn't act so crazy like you. You damn siscon!”

Julian stood in disbelief as Ju-Heon walked off with the rope.

But something that Ju-Heon should know happened at that moment.

“K…Kongming. B, big incident.”

Jaeha, who was burnt to a crisp, gasped after checking a group text.

[Great Sage: Captain, do you know about this?]
[Photo]
[The hottest couple of Harvard University?]
[Great Sage: Captain, your sister seems to have gotten a boyfriend.]

1. Korean tradition is to have an official engagement ceremony after the proposal, which is why she is already his fiancée but they are having an engagement ceremony.

2. Jaeha's nickname for Ilya. Also a term for someone who has not had sex for a very long time. Joke is that you turn into a sage after years of being a virgin

Chapter end