Episode 7
Tilting his head, Inhyeok looked at Min-woo, who swallowed hard.
“W-well… I’m just worried Harang might get involved with the wrong kind of person.”
“And is that more strange than you trying to stop someone who says she wants to go alone?”
“……”
“How about you mind your own business? Don’t come crying to me if you get a bloody nose for pestering my precious student.”
Student? He said ‘student’?
Min-woo blinked a couple of times, then went “Ah!” as if realizing something and swiftly put on his model student mask. The gentle smile that had fooled everyone appeared.
“Ahh, so you’re Harang’s tutor! Hello. I’m Jeong Min-woo, a close senior of Harang’s.”
Affably, Min-woo offered a handshake to Inhyeok.
“……”
But Inhyeok just stared down at him without any change in expression, his gaze arrogant as if to say, ‘Why should I hold that dirty hand?’
He then walked right past the hand still hanging in the air. It was a perfect snub.
“I’m hungry. Let’s get something to eat on the way.”
Harang, who had been watching Min-woo standing frozen like a statue with his hand still out, hurriedly chased after Inhyeok.
“L-let’s go together!”
Watching Harang and Inhyeok walk away, Min-woo’s face twisted grotesquely.
“Just who the hell is that guy?”
A thick sense of defeat washed over him.
More than anything, he was angry at his own pathetic response, cowed by Inhyeok’s imposing aura.
Jeong Min-woo, the only son of Daesung Ilbo, one of Korea’s top three newspaper companies.
He had never felt such humiliation in his life.
His classmates usually opened up easily after a little kindness, a few meals or drinks bought for them.
But Lee Harang was the exception.
While she was always friendly and kind to everyone, she subtly drew a line specifically at the favors Min-woo offered.
That touched a nerve in Min-woo’s pride, nurturing a twisted obsession.
Min-woo decided he needed to look into the man Harang was with.
“This just got annoying, but I’ll have to get rid of him quickly.”
Only then could he have Harang completely in the palm of his hand.
“It’s been 3 minutes. Eat.”
The place the ‘hungry’ Inhyeok headed to was a convenience store.
After fully opening the lid, Inhyeok picked up the wooden chopsticks and started eating the cup noodles.
It was just instant noodles, yet he made it look like a scene from a commercial. Watching him, a curiosity sparked in her.
He looked like the son of a wealthy family, a graduate of a prestigious American university, and he’d even worked at a decent company.
What was the story that led him to volunteer as her tutor? And not only for free, but even paying her.
“Teacher.”
“Yes, my student.”
Harang asked a fundamental question she’d been curious about for a while.
“By any chance… are you wanted in America for committing a major crime… or… it’s not something like that, right?”
Inhyeok let out an easy laugh.
“Why? Want to run away with me?”
“……!”
The color began draining from Harang’s pale face.
Seeing this, Inhyeok retracted his laughter and asked.
“…You don’t actually believe that, do you?”
“Ah, no! Of course not! Haha.”
He’s not. Thank goodness.
She denied it quickly, but Harang secretly sighed with relief.
Still, he didn’t seem like someone with a resume that would be lacking anywhere, yet he was unemployed.
Maybe he was a con artist using his good looks as bait.
Still harboring unresolved questions, Harang opened her mouth again.
“Um… My brother said you worked for a quite solid company in the States. I just don’t really understand why you offered to be my tutor.”
“The world is full of things that don’t make sense. Just accept it as it is.”
She didn’t expect him to explain it easily anyway.
But Harang wasn’t one to back down meekly.
“I have something else to ask.”
His well-shaped eyebrows lifted slightly.
“You’re very curious about me, aren’t you? Being proactive is just my style.”
Putting down his chopsticks, he stuck a straw into a strawberry milk.
Then, leaning his previously slouched body forward, he parted his thick lips and took the straw into his mouth.
The way he slowly just rolled his eyes upward was incredibly sensual.
The man took even an unnecessarily long breath just to bite a straw.
The problem was that in the gaps he created like that, he stole away all of the other person’s senses.
Just like right now.
Harang lowered her gaze, trying not to look at his mesmerizingly parted lips.
But just because she wasn’t looking didn’t mean she wasn’t aware.
“Why didn’t you tell Ha-jun Oppa that we’d met before? Were you embarrassed that you tried to make your friend’s sister cry… I mean, that you hit on her?”
She couldn’t bring herself to say his exact words, so she phrased it indirectly.
“You didn’t tell him either.”
“W-well……”
Hit right on the mark, Harang’s mouth clamped shut like a clam.
Strangely, she found it difficult to talk to Ha-jun about anything related to Inhyeok.
It was partly because he left for training right away, leaving no time to talk, but she could have told him if she’d really wanted to.
Inhyeok, who sometimes seemed interested but then created distance like someone with no feelings at all, was like a difficult puzzle to Harang.
Harang stared at Inhyeok for a moment.
“Do you have any siblings, Teacher?”
“Now you’re trying to do a background check on me?”
This time, curious about what she would say next, Inhyeok chuckled and answered.
“I have one older brother.”
He didn’t bother adding that it was a half-brother.
“Since you have a sibling, you must understand. Even family doesn’t share everything. It’s the same for us.”
“So you’re saying you thought there was no need to tell him, is that it?”
“Yes.”
“…Alright. I can agree with that sentiment.”
A cool night breeze blew between the man and woman, each thinking of their own cherished sibling.
It was a moment later that their eyes met, pulled from their thoughts.
“Take good care of me while I’m in Korea. Who knows? The story of the grateful toad might just become your story, my student.”
“Are you saying you’re the toad, Teacher?”
“That’s right. A very handsome toad, at that.”
It’s not easy for a toad to be handsome.
Tae Inhyeok and a toad.
It was a rather mismatched combination, but anyway, she had to admit the man before her was good-looking.
“Any more questions?”
“No. Nothing.”
“Alright, then.”
Inhyeok nodded as if that was fine and continued his meal.
The cup noodles weren’t enough, apparently, as he ate three more hot bars and triangle kimbaps.
Harang watched him with fascination.
“I guess you’re not on a special diet.”
“I thought you said you had no more questions.”
Stung, Harang added as if making an excuse.
“It’s not that, it’s just… when I saw you this morning, your body looked so good…!”
Harang, who had been speaking without thinking, froze with her lips parted.
What did I just say?
It sounded like she was admitting she had been peeking at him with impure thoughts.
In-hyuk, with his sharp hearing and quick perception, curled his lips into a smirk.
“So you liked my body? Seems you remembered it from that brief glimpse.”
And who was it that shamelessly stripped off his clothes in the first place!
Feeling that the more she talked, the worse it got, Harang stayed silent until Inhyeok finished his meal.
She waited for him outside the convenience store, when a vanilla ice cream bar was suddenly thrust in front of her eyes.
“Here, dessert.”
Inhyeok already had another ice cream bar stuck between his lips.
“You’re having dessert after all that?”
“I have a separate stomach for dessert.”
Reluctantly taking the ice cream, Harang grumbled.
“If I eat this now, I’ll gain weight.”
“You could stand to gain a few pounds. That’s much better than being too thin.”
…And he said he liked thin women.
Was she really that far from Inhyeok’s type, as Ha-jun had said?
Telling her to gain weight sounded like he was saying he’d never see her as a woman anyway.
Harang stuck her lips out in a pout and began tearing at the ice cream wrapper.
Inhyeok chuckled at her aggressive unwrapping.
“With that temper, you should’ve just punched that senior guy earlier.”
“I’ve rejected him many times. But it seems like we’re not on the same wavelength.”
She tried hard to avoid Min-woo on campus, but they shared many classes, and as class president, it was hard to avoid him completely.
“Tell him you have a boyfriend. Someone tall, rich, and handsome.”
Hearing that, Harang let out a long sigh and tapped the innocent ground with the tip of her shoe.
“How can I say I have a boyfriend when I don’t? It’s not like one’s going to fall from the sky.”
Then, Inhyeok’s mischievous eyes crinkled predictably.
He pointed at himself with a greasy finger.
“Well, look who’s right here?”
