Chapter 9
“Lee-jae, what happened to your cheek? Surely……”
As Lee-jae came down the stairs, Jeong-woo hurried over to her. It seemed Jeong-woo had come to the family gathering today as well.
“Did something happen with Professor Seo?”
“No, I should get going now.”
“Stay and have dinner with us. Where are you going?”
Lee-jae wanted to leave this house immediately. She had nowhere to go, but anywhere would do.
As she was about to step out through the front door, Jeong-woo caught hold of her wrist.
Looking uncomfortable, Lee-jae shook his hand off.
“I don’t think this is a place for me to be. I’m tired. Let go.”
Just then, Ha-yun approached the two of them holding a champagne glass. She wore a strange expression as she watched Jeong-woo worrying over Lee-jae, then opened her mouth.
“Miss Lee-jae. Our wedding invitations came out. Don’t tell me Jeong-woo hasn’t given you yours yet?”
“Wedding invitations?”
Ha-yun handed a wedding invitation to Lee-jae.
“Jeong-woo, why haven’t you given it to her until now? Miss Lee-jae has to come congratulate us on our wedding too. You weren’t trying not to invite her, were you?”
No matter how close their families were, Ha-yun disliked it every time Jeong-woo tried to look after Lee-jae.
He had always been kind to women, but with Lee-jae he was even more so.
More than anything, even as a woman herself, when she looked at Lee-jae’s slender figure and pure, delicate face, it naturally stirred a protective instinct, so for men, how much more so would it be?
“I heard there’s talk of you marrying Vice President Go Honggyun.”
At Ha-yun’s words, Lee-jae’s eyes widened in shock. Jeong-woo also looked flustered.
“Vice President Go is on my mother’s side of the family.”
It stung that other people had known about her marriage before she did.
So even going to Do-geon and pleading with him had been useless. The man she was to be sold to had been decided all along anyway.
“Ha-yun, stop.”
Jeong-woo cut in.
“Why? I just wanted to congratulate her too. They say he’s been divorced three times and has a messy history with women, but doesn’t that just mean he’s that attractive? And he has money too.”
“…….”
“I heard the age gap is nearly forty years? No matter what, he’ll be reliable. They say he has a record of domestic violence, but well, if he cherishes Miss Lee-jae, he probably won’t hit her. It all depends on how Miss Lee-jae behaves, so she should do her best.”
“Jung Ha-yun!”
Unable to listen any longer, Jeong-woo raised his voice.
Not wanting to hear any more humiliation, Lee-jae hurriedly put the wedding invitation into her bag.
“…… I should get going now. Congratulations on your marriage.”
Lee-jae slung her eco-bag over one shoulder and stepped out through the front door.
Strangely, tears welled in her eyes. She had nowhere at all to go, but for the moment, she did not want to stay in that house.
* * *
After wandering around for a long time, Lee-jae spotted a convenience store in front of her.
When she came to her senses and looked around, it was a neighborhood she had never once been to before.
‘Just how far did I walk?’
After hesitating for a moment while looking at the people drinking soju on the terrace, she went into the convenience store. She had walked so much that she wanted to rest a little.
A little while later, she came back out with a bottle of soju and sat down on the terrace.
She had tried a glass of beer once right after turning twenty, but this was her first time drinking soju.
In dramas, people always tipped back glasses of soju when life got hard, and today she wanted to try doing the same. Maybe this hollow feeling inside her would ease a little.
She opened the bottle and lightly touched it to her lips, only to cough violently at once.
“Why is this so bitter?”
Adults all drank it so well.
She tried another sip.
Cough, cough.
Frowning, Lee-jae glared at the green bottle as if it were an enemy she had a grudge against.
She had only taken two sips.
Maybe because it was her first time drinking something this strong, her body strangely seemed to heat up.
At that moment, a large, broad hand that had appeared from somewhere suddenly snatched away the soju bottle she was holding.
“Can a baby drink something like this?”
5 minutes earlier.
Smoking a cigarette, Do-geon had watched Lee-jae sitting in front of the convenience store for quite a while.
Isn’t she cold?
Maybe because she had come out in a rush, she was wearing only a thin shirt in the middle of winter without even a coat. On top of that, the sight of her drinking straight soju alone was so pitiful she looked like a lost puppy.
The moment Do-geon saw the pale thigh faintly exposed, his gaze slackened lazily for an instant.
Feeling an odd burn inside, he drew on his cigarette. The hazy smoke warped and scattered around his handsome features.
After quickly finishing the cigarette, Do-geon walked over to her.
When he snatched the soju bottle away first, a startled Lee-jae sprang to her feet. Because of her limping ankle, her body tilted to the side. Trying not to fall, she grabbed onto the man, only to end up pressed against his chest.
“E-Executive Director, why are you here……”
“I came to collect a debt.”
* * *
The sleek, finely built sedan sped down Hannam-daero.
Looking at the black car racing swiftly forward, Lee-jae thought it resembled its owner perfectly.
Lee-jae gazed out the window at the glittering nightscape and let out a hot breath. Perhaps because of the soju she had tasted for the first time in her life, her head was spinning.
“……My head hurts.”
Lee-jae clutched at her head with a pained groan.
Ah, I shouldn’t have drunk it. Why had I chosen now to try something I had never once had before?
Suddenly, Lee-jae wondered where exactly she was being taken.
“Executive Director?”
After saying he had come to collect a debt and putting Lee-jae in the car, he had climbed in himself and now seemed to have fallen asleep with his eyes closed.
Quietly, Lee-jae took him in.
His hair, which he usually swept back neatly all at once, was slightly disordered, perhaps because it was late at night.
From his tidy brow flowed a smooth, high bridge of the nose. Long eyes and full lips. The jawline descending from beneath his ears was slightly angular, adding an even more masculine charm.
The Adam’s apple that jutted out like that of a beast made the aura coming from the man feel even more sensual. As she stared at that prominent throat like that of a male animal, it moved.
“Does my face look tasty?”
When Do-geon slowly lifted his eyelids, she started in surprise.
Perhaps because it was deep into the night, fatigue was written at the corners of the man’s eyes. The faint redness there gave off a strangely alluring air. So did his voice, roughened by drowsiness.
“You kept licking me with your eyes.”
“What are you…….”
“I was asking if my face tastes good.”
As if she had heard something she never should have, Lee-jae quickly turned her head toward the window. Her head throbbed because of the alcohol.
“Baby. Do you know what time it is right now?”
Do-geon rolled back his suit sleeve and checked his wristwatch. It sounded like he was asking why she had been wandering outside until this hour.
“I just didn’t want to go home today…….”
She did not want tomorrow to come.
In the end, she would be sold off after being made to go on a blind date with a man she did not even want.
“So were you planning to wander around until morning?”
“…….”
“In that state, there won’t be just one or two bastards itching to put their hands on you.”
Do-geon let his gaze travel slowly up and down her body, dressed in nothing but a white shirt without even a coat. The black bra faintly visible beneath it framed a chest that was still full and lush.
