MWFL 4

4. A Real Dogfight

…W-What on earth did this woman just say?

Caught completely off guard, Shin-woo froze, looking dazed rather than angry.

Staring right back at him, the woman’s eyes didn’t betray even the faintest tremor. If anything, they shone with even greater confidence.

He clearly held all the power, so why did he suddenly feel so small?

For the first time in forever, he found himself genuinely flustered by this insolent, unfiltered type of woman.

Was he confident? Of course he was! Obviously!

If she actually saw it, she’d be dead shocked.

Should I just whip it out? Or not?

Wait a second… why am I even agonizing over this?

“Hey. What is wrong with you?”

Snapping back to his senses, Shin-woo blurted out in an annoyed tone.

“I know you want to void this contract, but please stop acting like a spoiled child.”

“…What?”

“You probably expected me to burst into tears and storm out of here, but if that’s what you were hoping for, you should give up.”

Not a single syllable wavered—her voice was excessively calm.

Even her expression was as peaceful as a monk who had meditated for decades.

Now, the woman in front of him was starting to feel a little scary.

“Until you put your stamp on the cancellation paperwork, I have no choice but to do my absolute best at my job.”

“…”

“So don’t go shifting the blame for breaking the contract onto me.”

The moment she brought up shifting responsibility, a crack appeared in Shin-woo’s eyes.

“As far as I’m concerned right now, Player Cha Shin-woo is my meal ticket.”

She said it with such brazen confidence that it left him speechless.

“Which means: don’t ruin an innocent person’s livelihood.”

Dropping her warning, the woman drew in a long breath.

“Is a single thing I just said wrong?”

Shin-woo had to force his neck to stay locked to keep from accidentally shaking his head ‘no.’

“The interview you canceled yesterday is scheduled for 10:00 AM. Go change your clothes and come out.”

Without waiting for an answer, Ha-rin finished her piece and spun around on her heel.

Just as Shin-woo, still wearing a stunned look, darted his eyes toward her—

SLAM! The door slammed shut with an explosive crash, brutally hitting his eardrums.

“…”

Instinctively covering his ears, Shin-woo’s face twisted into an irritated scowl.

“Seriously! Why does she have to slam the door so damn hard every single time?!”

It made him even more annoyed that this was literally the only fault he could find to pick at her for.

He knew it. He was fully aware that he was taking out his petty frustrations on an innocent person right now.

He had called his father all day yesterday—the man he actually needed to confront—but he never picked up. Even when he sent text messages, his father didn’t reply, let alone check them.

He had wanted to leave his father to handle this himself, but now he was dragged into an annoying situation where he had to step up directly.

“Does she really think if she walks out like that, I’ll go, ‘Oh dear, I’m so sorry,’ and just do whatever she tells me to?”

With his frustration boiling over, the man kept muttering without pause.

“Does she think I’m that easy?”

At the same time, he started throwing on his clothes.

. . .

Stepping out into the living room, Ha-rin ran into Dong-goo.

“Hello. When did you get here?”

Right around the time you told our Hyung to drop his pants.

“I just got here.”

“We need to leave in an hour if we don’t want to be late for the interview. I think we’ll be late if we head to the makeup shop now, so I canceled it—I’ll just do his makeup simply myself.”

“Ah, right. But we don’t have any makeup tools here…”

“I brought everything with me.”

Dong-goo glanced at the large shopping bag sitting next to the sofa.

It seemed she had anticipated this exact situation and packed accordingly.

“Hello, this is Ju Ha-rin, director at Daol. I think we’ll have to cancel Player Cha Shin-woo’s makeup appointment for today. I’m so sorry. I’ll reach out in advance next time.”

Quickly finishing the call with the makeup salon, Ha-rin sat down on the sofa and pulled her tablet out of her bag.

“You haven’t checked the question list for Player Cha’s interview yet, right?”

“I did email it over, but…”

He almost certainly hadn’t checked it.

“If any uncomfortable questions come up during the interview, I’ll cut them off, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Okay.”

“I figured Player Cha won’t be moving cooperatively for the time being, so I pushed back all the schedules set by the agency.”

Ha-rin kept typing on her tablet without even raising her eyes, continuing smoothly.

“I judged that the four-year salary and contract deposit offered by the club are significantly lower than expected. So I plan to meet with them directly to negotiate. Player Cha and you don’t need to accompany me for the first round of negotiations. And also…”

Watching her, Dong-goo felt like he was looking at a human machine built with AI—it was simply astounding.

“Before spring training starts, aside from the club’s facility, we’ll need to secure a separate private training ground…”

Stopping abruptly mid-sentence, Ha-rin pulled her phone out from inside her coat.

“I’m sorry. Let me take this call real quick.”

Asking for Dong-goo’s understanding, she pressed the call button immediately.

It was her closest friend, Lee Su-min.

— Ju Ha-rin! Where on earth are you right now?!

Before she could even open her mouth, her friend’s agitated voice exploded through the line.

“I’m working. Is something wrong?”

— Is it true that Cha Shin-woo signed with your company?!

Ha-rin’s expression froze for a second before she quickly smoothed it back to calm.

— Is it true?!

“Who did you hear that from?”

A specific person popped into her head, but she asked directly anyway.

— So it is true. Hey. Quit that company right now.

“Su-min, I’m working right now, so I’ll call you back—”

— After what that bastard Cha Shin-woo did to you?! I swear, over my dead body will I let you see that man’s face again! He turned his back on you without a shred of mercy—what kind of grudge does he have to show up in front of you again?!

Firmly closing her slightly parted lips, she let out a long, silent sigh inside.

Time keeps flowing on and on, yet the memories recorded deep inside her remain frozen in place.

Even if they fade, they never vanish—holding onto the sights, sounds, and scents of those days, she blindly walks along the flow of time.

“Su-min, I’m working. I’ll call you later.”

— Hey, wait—

Cutting off the momentary wave of nostalgia, she unilaterally hung up the phone.

Click. Right then, she heard the faint sound of a bedroom door opening. Sliding her phone back inside her coat, Ha-rin shifted her gaze.

Stepping out of the room, Shin-woo looked down at her with lowered eyes.

SLAM! He slammed the door shut so violently that her shoulders flinched at the loud noise.

You think you’re the only one who knows how to slam a door hard? I can do it too!

Wearing an expression that practically screamed those childish words, the man strode over on his long legs. Then, he slouched onto the sofa in a crooked posture.

She had expected him to come out dressed haphazardly, but he was clad in a flawless, dapper suit without a single hair out of place.

“Is this suit good enough?”

Shin-woo asked, fixing his gaze on empty air.

Ha-rin glanced over Shin-woo from head to toe, casually scanning him as if looking at a telephone pole standing by the roadside.

“You didn’t need to go to all that trouble, but it looks neat.”

This woman, seriously… Shin-woo subtly gritted his teeth.

He had actually bothered to dress up nicely, and she tells him he didn’t need to go to the trouble.

Moving with a nonchalant face, the woman picked up the shopping bag sitting beside the sofa and approached him.

Setting the bag on the floor, she dragged over a round ottoman stool and sat right in front of him.

“I’ll do your makeup real quick.”

“Do I really need to do something like that?”

Isn’t this already perfect?

Still sitting crookedly, Shin-woo turned his face side to side to show off both angles.

“You have a few blemishes under your eyes.”

“What? Blemishes? I have those?”

“You spend a lot of time in the sun, so that’s only natural.”

Wearing a look that said that’s absolutely impossible, Shin-woo picked up the hand mirror Ha-rin had just set down.

“Where are there blemishes?”

“No? I must have misseen it then. Turn your face this way.”

Replying as if he were making a fuss over nothing, Ha-rin stared intently at Shin-woo.

His playful expression vanishing, Shin-woo quietly set the mirror down and leaned his face toward her.

“Come a little closer.”

Slightly narrowing his eyes, he pulled his hips—which had been shoved all the way against the back of the sofa—forward to the very edge.

His posture placed her neatly together knees right between his firm, half-spread thighs.

“Did you apply lotion?”

“Yeah.”

Staying just a hand’s breadth away, the woman’s gaze quietly drifted over his face.

Up close, the eyes that had annoyed him from afar for looking so dry held an unusually clear, luminous light.

Ha-rin dabbed something onto a puff and began tapping it across his face.

They were close enough for their breaths to mingle. A scent from her that he had never noticed before began drifting into his nose.

It was a soft, fresh fragrance—a delicate blend of sweet floral notes and fresh herbs.

Neither too light nor too heavy, neither overly strong nor faint, it suddenly struck him as a scent that suited her exceptionally well.

Setting the puff down, Ha-rin lightly moved her fingertips along his skin texture using her index and middle fingers.

Shin-woo slowly closed his eyes and opened them again.

It was a simple motion of applying something to his face, yet a strange flutter stirred deep inside his chest.

No… rather than a flutter, it was closer to that same scratching sensation he felt every single time he faced her.

What is this? The meaningless, recurring irritation was starting to get on his nerves in a very specific way.

“Don’t scowl.”

It seemed his expression had shifted without him meaning to.

“I’m not scowling. My face just looks like this.”

At his sudden, random defiance, Ha-rin stopped her fingertips and stared straight into his eyes.

“Fine. I won’t scowl.”

Feeling ridiculous for acting like this, Shin-woo fixed his expression.

“By the way, do you usually do things like this yourself?”

“Depending on the situation.”

“This is an extreme job.”

“I never thought so before, but I’ve been feeling that way for the past few days.”

At her words—laced with crystal-clear thorns—Shin-woo let out a dry laugh.

“You really never let a single remark slide, do you?”

“Have you been trying to beat me all this time?”

“Look at this. Just look at this.”

So you’ve decided to go completely off the rails, huh?

Shin-woo started to scowl, but fearing she’d point it out again, he just wrinkled the bridge of his nose slightly.

“Are you born in the Year of the Dog?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“You seem to enjoy biting people.”

Ha-rin kept her hands moving busily without much change in her expression.

“You’re Year of the Dog too, aren’t you?”

“Exactly. So be careful. Push me too far, and you’ll have a real dogfight on your hands.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t bite unless someone provokes me. But I’ll keep that in mind.”

What on earth are those two doing? Sitting a distance away watching them, Dong-goo froze with a blank, serious look.

Both of them were carrying on a chilling, cutthroat conversation with completely expressionless faces.

He already knew Cha Shin-woo was that kind of person, so he just brushed it off.

But now, someone who actually surpassed him had appeared on the scene.

It was a situation that was equal parts astounding and terrifying.