Chapter 9
Up until now, Baek Dohyeok had shown nothing but a neat and courteous attitude.
If asked whether there were odd parts about him—well, it wasn’t as though there hadn’t been any. Sitting a little too close to Jiseo, watching her a bit too intently, reacting to even her smallest responses—those things were strange, yes. But if she thought of him as a man who had fallen for her, they almost felt natural. The fact that she’d only realized all this after listening to her sister made her feel a little foolish.
The problem was that she still couldn’t grasp, even in the slightest, why Baek Dohyeok had fallen for her in the first place.
“Would you like to get some tea?”
It was always Dohyeok who made the invitations, but today—since this would be the last time anyway—Jiseo suggested it first, hoping to resolve that unanswered question. Seeing her ask about him for once and suggest what to do next, Dohyeok’s eyes sparkled.
Of course, from Jiseo’s perspective, it was nothing more than moving to a place better suited for an uncomfortable conversation.
She wanted to wrap up this whole pairing business neatly and stop being dragged along by this man.
“There’s a place nearby that has great café lattes. Let’s go there.”
And so she followed Baek Dohyeok to a new spot. He seemed like the kind of person who had Instagram feeds and foodie blogs stored wholesale in his head.
After meals, Dohyeok always guided her to cafés that weren’t far from the restaurant—places with a nice atmosphere, good drinks and desserts, and just the right number of customers so it wasn’t overcrowded.
This time was no exception.
As soon as they entered the café, Jiseo deliberately turned a corner and headed to the most secluded seat. Already stressed by Dohyeok’s expectant look—clearly aware of what the conversation would be about—she ordered a suitably sweet chocolate drink.
What surprised her, though, was Dohyeok ordering the same kind of thing.
A cool, aloof man who looked like he only drank Americanos or whiskey choosing cute desserts and sweet drinks was oddly amusing.
“Vice President…”
“Yes, Ms. Jiseo.”
A sweet smile bloomed across Baek Dohyeok’s face, as if to say, Go ahead, say anything.
He looked especially cheerful today. Jiseo knew why—but she chose to deny it to herself.
It wasn’t that she rejected dating or marriage outright. It was just that Baek Dohyeok himself was the kind of person who would bring uncontrollable upheaval into her life.
No matter how much class systems and social hierarchies had been abolished, the alphanumeric grade attached to him was still a mark of status. His position, his rank—everything about him was a flame that would inevitably swallow up someone as small as Im Jiseo. And so she kept wondering if it was really worth colliding with that.
Why face a danger you could already foresee?
“First of all… how is the car repair coming along?”
“Oh, the car? Don’t worry too much. It’s in France being repaired right now.”
That only deepened Jiseo’s worries. Transporting a car all the way to France—how much would that cost?
“No, I mean, the repair bill—”
Baek Dohyeok made a peculiar expression, then broke into a grin. It was obvious he understood exactly what she was worried about.
“Don’t worry. Do you really think I’d charge you for the repair costs, Ms. Im?”
Jiseo felt relief and unease at the same time. If he were simply showing off the generosity and noblesse oblige of the wealthy, she wouldn’t have felt this conflicted.
“…Is that because you think I’ll accept your proposal to become a pair?”
Catching the faint resistance in her tone, Baek Dohyeok tilted his head—just slightly. He loosened his neatly tied tie and took a sip of his chocolate latte. Despite it being the kind of drink that easily got messy with cream, chocolate powder, and syrup, he drank it flawlessly.
In a slightly lowered voice, he asked,
“Do you dislike me that much? I thought you’d grown a bit more comfortable.”
A man who had never once made her feel at ease murmured in a gloomy tone. He hadn’t touched her, sure—but the constant, lingering gaze and the confident way he demanded meetings had never been comfortable. They couldn’t be.
Granted, contrary to her first impression, Baek Dohyeok was a decent conversationalist and a good meal companion. If she framed it as dating, she’d even give him a fairly high score—if only their first meeting hadn’t gone the way it had.
Jiseo had unconsciously placed herself in the weaker position because she was facing an enormous compensation bill. More than anything, pairing wasn’t something you entered into immediately, unilaterally, upon meeting someone.
Of course, there were cases like that.
On rare occasions, one party suddenly and unknowingly became imprinted on the other.
But generally, a pairing was formed after an esper and a guide took time to gradually connect and build trust.
Seeing a man who’d tried to buy even that trust with money now look aggrieved left Jiseo speechless.
“It’s not that I dislike you, Vice President. I just have no intention of forming a pair.”
“Couldn’t you think of it as helping me?”
Jiseo rubbed near her eyebrow and bit her lip. This was no different from the first day. She gave up on persuading him.
“No. I just don’t want to. Do I need a reason to dislike something? Just like you said you liked me for no particular reason, I dislike this for no particular reason. Please stop calling me out. When the repair estimate comes in, submit it through the insurance company. Let’s end it here.”
At last, the words that had been so difficult finally escaped Im Jiseo’s lips.
Baek Dohyeok let out a snort of laughter—utterly derisive.
‘…Yeah. That face.’
That arrogant gaze, the attitude of looking down on her.
Thinking that this might be Baek Dohyeok’s true self made Jiseo feel once again that she’d done the right thing by speaking up.
But despite her firmness, Baek Dohyeok still seemed to have more to say.
“Ms. Im Jiseo, do you have a lot of money? You don’t. I do. So I don’t need your money. Did you really think I’d make you pay? With the petty savings you scraped together from your precious life allowance, you couldn’t even afford to replace that car’s tires.”
Jiseo felt wronged.
She could replace the tires!
She hadn’t spent four years grinding herself into the dirt just to save less than fifty million won. She could replace all four tires, even! But saying that would only earn her ridicule, so she stayed silent.
“What I want is simple. I want to take your hand, hold you, touch you, and guide you. That’s all. Why do you refuse? What exactly is the problem? An S-class guide with money and good looks offering to be your exclusive guide—give me a reason I can accept. Write it up clearly, in Shinmyeongjo font, size 10, at least three pages. You have until next week.”
For a moment, Jiseo wondered if she’d been hit with a psychic attack. The sheer brazenness with which he spouted nonsense almost made her nod along. The ‘hold you, touch you, suck and bite’ part, in particular, made her recoil. Sure—that was the essence of guiding. Mucosal guiding was the most efficient, after all. But the Human Rights Commission and the National Guide Association had worked so hard to reform that language.
Sex and kissing were always to be referred to as guiding. Violations—especially by espers—resulted in severe corrective measures and enormous fines. All of it was for the sake of guide rights.
‘And an S-class guide is tearing all that down himself?’
Jiseo’s gaze instantly sharpened. She was a seasoned esper with extensive gate-clearing experience, on the verge of becoming the youngest team leader. There was no way she’d be toyed with by the arrogant nonsense of some silver-spoon heir.
“You don’t need to give me time until next week. Everything you’re doing and saying right now is a problem. I truly don’t need a guide. Especially not someone like Vice President Baek Dohyeok.”
At those words, Baek Dohyeok’s eyes seemed to flip.
Then, abruptly, he reached out and seized Jiseo’s hands, which had been neatly folded on the table.
“Yeah? Then let’s test it.”
His grip tightened.
“Let’s see if you really don’t need me.”
