BT 06

Chapter 06

I’ve Never Shown Anyone but Myself Before

“I’m sorry. Lee Eun-chae has some mental issues, so I guess she panicked when strangers started chasing her.”

At Do-hyeok’s words, which conveniently turned her entire commotion into a mental-health problem, Eun-chae felt a surge of indignation. But she had caused a scene, so there was nothing she could do but keep her mouth shut and endure it.

When Do-hyeok gave her a look, Eun-chae bowed her head and apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

After causing such a huge commotion, there was no way they could possibly buy clothes at that department store.

In the end, the two of them left after doing nothing but apologize over and over.

Since his entire plan had gone completely off track from the very beginning, Do-hyeok stood there motionless for a moment, like a statue, unsure where they should go next.

“This is a first.”

As Do-hyeok muttered those words like a creator who had discovered a fatal error in his own masterpiece, Eun-chae was just as indignant.

“Same here! Why do I have to be treated like a criminal and a crazy woman?!”

Determined never to come anywhere near Sejin Department Store again for as long as she lived, Eun-chae started walking away.

But Do-hyeok grabbed her arm from behind and pulled her back to where they had been standing.

“What are you doing?!”

Ignoring her anger, Do-hyeok looked her casual outfit up and down before saying,

“If you go around dressed like that, you’ll look like a monkey at the zoo.”

At Do-hyeok, who was treating her like an animal, Eun-chae gave him a bitter smile.

“Then I just won’t go.”

She tried to run away again, but Do-hyeok caught her once more.

“We’ve already been humiliated at the department store today!”

That meant they couldn’t simply end the day after being humiliated. His time was far too valuable for that.

Even when Eun-chae shouted that she didn’t want to go, Do-hyeok stubbornly headed toward a hotel restaurant, where they were already late for their reservation.

“Are you together?”

Even the employee waiting at the restaurant entrance immediately seemed to separate the two of them in her mind.

After all, there was no denying that Do-hyeok, dressed in an impeccably tailored suit, and Eun-chae, wearing worn-out jeans, looked completely mismatched.

Since she had been dragged here anyway, Eun-chae thought it would only look pathetic if she let herself be intimidated.

Straightening her back, she answered before Do-hyeok could.

“Yes. We’re together.”

Then Eun-chae confidently walked into the restaurant first.

When the employee tried to stop her, Do-hyeok finally confirmed that she was with him.

The employee bowed deeply, as though she had committed an enormous offense.

“I’m terribly sorry. It was my mistake.”

Eun-chae narrowed her eyes.

Why didn’t they believe me when I said it, but believe me the moment Kwon Do-hyeok says it?

She already disliked this restaurant, and they hadn’t even started eating yet.

“Rich people must really like looking down on others from high places.”

After being guided to a window seat, Eun-chae sat down and grumbled while looking outside.

She preferred being on the first floor, where she could actually see people.

“I suppose I’ll have to order for you myself.”

“I can read a menu too!”

Eun-chae opened the menu in front of her, but her expression stiffened for a moment when she saw the winding French words and the prices.

Still, Do-hyeok had practically dragged her here, so there was no reason for her to feel intimidated.

“I bought jjajangmyeon last time, so you’re buying this time.”

Do-hyeok let out a quiet laugh as he remembered the jjajangmyeon that had given his stomach indigestion for hours.

The fact that it had now become an established fact that he had been treated to a meal was practically a comedy.

The eldest son of Sejin Group Chairman Kwon Tae-woong, Kwon Do-hyeok, being treated to a meal by a woman.

Who else would believe such a thing except the woman sitting across from him, Lee Eun-chae?

“Do you like all kinds of meat?”

“Yes. I even eat the bones.”

When Do-hyeok stared at her as if asking whether she was serious, Eun-chae grabbed an imaginary jokbal bone with both hands and pretended to gnaw on it.

“I’ll buy you jokbal next time.”

“Absolutely not.”

Do-hyeok made it very clear that he had no intention of being fooled twice.

Perhaps it was a matter of great pride to Do-hyeok, but to Eun-chae, it looked like completely pointless showing off.

With practiced elegance, Do-hyeok raised his hand and called the waiter.

Even from that simple gesture, Eun-chae could feel just how different the two of them were.

Do-hyeok told the approaching waiter the name of a dish so long and difficult to memorize that it sounded like one of those words from a memorization subject that could never stick in your head no matter how hard you tried.

Do-hyeok glanced at her bored expression.

“Is this somewhere you find difficult to enjoy?”

“Then are you enjoying yourself?”

Eun-chae had clearly asked without thinking, but Do-hyeok flinched.

In truth, he had never thought of himself as enjoying a meal, no matter where he ate.

The waiter brought the wine they had ordered and neatly poured it into their glasses.

Eun-chae smiled for the first time when she saw the red wine.

“This is nice.”

At her smile, a hint of one spread across Do-hyeok’s face as well.

But then an unwelcome voice interrupted them.

“Kwon Do-hyeok. Long time no see.”

Do-hyeok’s face stiffened, and Eun-chae’s smile disappeared along with his.

Judging by the fact that the man called him by name, they clearly knew each other.

But from Do-hyeok’s expression, it was equally obvious that they weren’t friends.

Soon, a man who wore such an overpowering amount of cologne that the scent was almost suffocating walked over and stopped beside their table.

It was obvious at a glance that he was another rich man, much like Do-hyeok.

But unlike Do-hyeok, who dressed naturally, this stranger was so extravagantly dressed that merely looking at him was tiring.

What on earth had possessed him to wear that purple shirt?

When Do-hyeok failed to give him a proper greeting, the man’s gaze shifted toward Eun-chae.

“Well, well. Your taste in women has changed quite a bit since I last saw you.”

Judging by his expression, it clearly wasn’t meant as a compliment.

It probably had something to do with Eun-chae’s clothes—the very outfit Do-hyeok had been trying to make her change.

So Eun-chae said,

“Who are you? Purple Man?”

At her words, the man in the purple shirt’s expression instantly soured.

Do-hyeok, meanwhile, let out a quiet snort of laughter without bothering to hide it.

“Ha, ha, ha.”

The man was obviously furious, yet a staccato laugh escaped his mouth.

Unable to hide the twitching expression on his face, he asked Do-hyeok,

“What did this woman just say to me?”

Do-hyeok looked at him with an expression that contained not even the slightest trace of apology.

“You’re disturbing us. Just leave.”

After Eun-chae and then Do-hyeok each delivered a blow, the man’s face turned purple, just like his shirt.

“Arrogant bastard.”

The man muttered under his breath.

Eun-chae heard him.

Do-hyeok probably had too.

Do-hyeok coldly raised his eyes and stared at him.

The man couldn’t even bring himself to challenge him properly.

He simply turned around and left.

He looked completely like a fox that had encountered a tiger.

“Do you have anyone you’re actually close to?”

At her question, Do-hyeok answered with an almost shamelessly affectionate expression.

“You.”

Eun-chae glared at him and downed her glass of wine in one shot.

How could someone toy with a person who was actually worried about him?

You keep living like that, and one day you’re going to get yourself into serious trouble. Watch out.

She had thought this was a place where she absolutely wouldn’t want to eat, but surprisingly, the food was unbelievably delicious.

The meat looked like something she could probably buy at the neighborhood supermarket, but the moment she put it in her mouth, it practically melted.

There must have been a reason people considered hotel chefs to be the best.

And perhaps because wine and meat went so well together, Eun-chae’s hand kept reaching for her glass.

“Wine can get you drunk too if you drink too much.”

Perhaps thinking she was drinking too much, Do-hyeok warned her.

But Eun-chae didn’t let herself be intimidated.

She poured all the remaining wine from the bottle into her own glass.

“No matter how much I drink, I’ve never been someone who couldn’t find my way home.”

“So as long as you make it home, you don’t care if you have to roll there.”

“Exactly.”

Eun-chae agreed with Do-hyeok as though playing along with him and drank her wine.

Her cheeks had turned red from the alcohol.

Watching her flushed face, Do-hyeok asked casually,

“Then should I order another bottle?”

If she got completely drunk, she might start spilling everything herself.

Things like her relationship with his father.

Or the possibility that she was actually an all-purpose gold digger who could seduce people at will.

But Eun-chae had no idea what Do-hyeok was really after.

She drank the wine like beer and drew a circle in the air with her finger.

It was expensive wine, and if she didn’t drink it today, she would never finish it.

So while she had the chance, she wanted to drink as much as possible.

When a new bottle of wine arrived to replace the empty one, Do-hyeok drank only water while watching Eun-chae consume the wine like it was a soft drink.

She was getting quite drunk.

Drunk enough that she might not remember any of this when she woke up tomorrow.

“Have you ever met a man around your father’s age?”

Do-hyeok tossed the question out as casually as someone flicking a pebble into water.

Eun-chae stared blankly at his face before opening her mouth.

“Woo-oo~ I’m a singing butterfly.”

That wasn’t an answer.

It was a song.

Do-hyeok frowned as he looked at her.

For a moment, he wondered if she was mocking him.

But this was simply her drunken behavior.

As a singer who loved singing, she naturally started singing when she became truly drunk.

“Don’t sing.”

Do-hyeok warned her.

Her suddenly breaking into song was genuinely irritating.

Although he wasn’t exactly in a position to get angry about it.

“This is my song. I dreamed of the stars. Of their brilliance, their eternity, their uniqueness.”

But the drunk Eun-chae no longer listened to him.

He had tried to use a little trick to pry information out of her, only to step straight into shit.

He never imagined she would have such a ridiculous drunken habit.

Do-hyeok instinctively realized that it was time to leave.

“Let’s go.”

He grabbed Eun-chae’s arm to get her out before she became an even bigger spectacle.

But Eun-chae resisted.

“I can still drink more!”

“If you don’t come with me right now, you’ll have to pay for all the wine and food yourself. Do you have any money?”

“No! My entire fortune is thirteen thousand won! I can’t even buy jokbal!”

Eun-chae made a miserable face, as though the fact that she couldn’t drink more because she had no money was heartbreaking.

“Have you already spent the three million won I gave you?”

Surely she couldn’t have spent all of it on jjajangmyeon.

“I gave it all to that bald manager. I told him, ‘Here, take this and get lost!’ Then I threw three hundred ten-thousand-won bills at him!”

Do-hyeok had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

When Eun-chae tried to drink more wine, Do-hyeok took the glass from her hand and forcibly led her out of the restaurant.

The problem was that he had been drinking too, so he couldn’t drive either.

Even if he called his driver immediately, he would have to wait at least thirty minutes.

Do-hyeok looked up at the hotel building directly in front of them.

Then he turned to look at Eun-chae, who was singing while doing some strange dance on the street.

Probably not.

Perhaps because he hadn’t kept her around for that kind of purpose, he drew a firm line in his mind.

They couldn’t cross that line.

“Lee Eun-chae, if you take a taxi, can you make it home?”

Do-hyeok asked her rationally.

Eun-chae’s answer was another song.

That meant she was already completely out of her mind.

He could easily imagine a taxi driver throwing her out somewhere because she was being too loud.

But he didn’t want to ride in a taxi with her all the way to her home either.

Why should I go that far?

“Lee Eun-chae! You said you could get home even if you had to roll there! How are you going to get home?”

Eun-chae stretched both arms out to her sides.

“Fly like a butterfly.”

As absurd as that was, what happened next was even more ridiculous.

Eun-chae suddenly started running.

Do-hyeok shouted in surprise.

“Lee Eun-chae! Where are you going?!”

“My house.”

She was seriously planning to run all the way home?

She really was crazy.

Do-hyeok stood there with both hands in his pockets, waiting for Eun-chae to come back on her own.

But after realizing that this was nothing more than a ridiculous hope, he had no choice but to run after her.

As he ran, he ground his teeth.

This night was not going to end like this.

* * *

“Uuugh.”

Eun-chae slowly opened her eyes.

She had gotten greedy because the wine was expensive and ended up drinking far more than usual.

Since she rarely drank wine, she hadn’t known her limit properly.

That had been her mistake.

She couldn’t remember how she had gotten home.

And the place where she had opened her eyes was unfamiliar.

It was far too luxurious to be her room, and she was sleeping on a sofa.

What is this? Where am I?

If she had accidentally ended up in a hotel room while drunk, she would have been shocked.

But the place where she had woken up was clearly the living room of someone’s home.

And she was alone.

First things first, she desperately needed to use the bathroom.

Eun-chae awkwardly got to her feet and wandered around the enormous house searching for one.

She started opening random doors without thinking and eventually found a bedroom with a bed inside.

Then she heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom attached to the bedroom.

Whoooooosh—

To Eun-chae, who desperately needed the bathroom, the sound seemed like it was calling her toward it.

She walked toward the bathroom and threw the door open without hesitation.

The moment she saw the naked body of a man through the steam, her drunkenness and sleepiness vanished simultaneously.

Then Do-hyeok turned around.

Eun-chae shrieked in horror.

“KYAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

In reality, Do-hyeok was the victim and she was the intruder.

But because she had fled in a panic, she left her bag behind as well.

With no people and no cars around, Eun-chae trudged aimlessly through the streets at dawn with nothing.

She couldn’t go home.

She couldn’t go back to Do-hyeok’s house, where her wallet and phone were.

And even if she wanted to go to Hongdae, she didn’t have any money.

She had somehow become a penniless beggar in Dogok-dong.

Embarrassed, still desperately needing to use the bathroom, and completely at a loss, she wandered endlessly through the streets.

Why had she woken up in this rich neighborhood instead of at the market where her own home was?

It was mostly her own fault for drinking so thoughtlessly, so she couldn’t put all the blame on Do-hyeok.

Still, how could Kwon Do-hyeok take a shower without locking the bathroom door?

Even if that was simply the habit of a man who lived alone, Eun-chae felt that Do-hyeok was ultimately more at fault for not locking the door.

And that man’s naked body…

“Aaah! I didn’t see anything!”

Even thinking about it made her feel as though her face would explode.

She had lived a fairly modest and proper life under a strict father, so this was the first time she had ever seen a naked man.

It made her feel as though she had somehow fallen into depravity.

She had seen the body of a man she hadn’t even kissed.

And because his body had been so good-looking, she couldn’t even forget it.

Just as a duckling recognizes the first creature it sees after hatching as its mother, Eun-chae had unconsciously taken the first man’s body she’d ever seen as the standard for the male body.

On the empty streets of Dogok-dong at dawn, Eun-chae clutched her corrupted eyes and screamed internally all by herself.

* * *

At the same time, Do-hyeok stood motionless in the living room, where there was clear evidence that Eun-chae had fled in a panic.

Since she had even left her bag behind, she clearly wasn’t completely herself yet.

He couldn’t understand why Eun-chae had run away with an expression as though she had seen a ghost.

After all, he wasn’t a man who needed to preserve his purity.

Could it be that it was her first time seeing a man’s body?

Do-hyeok made that assumption, then shook his head.

He had suspected that Eun-chae might be a gold digger involved with his father.

And yet she was supposedly an innocent virgin?

That was simply absurd.

He decided not to worry about it and go back to sleep.

Then a phone that wasn’t his started ringing.

It was the phone Eun-chae had left behind.

Do-hyeok answered it without hesitation.

After all, the phone was currently in his house.

The moment he pressed the answer button, a middle-aged man’s voice exploded from the other end like a volcano erupting.

“You little brat! How dare you spend the night somewhere else while I’m still alive and kicking! When you come home, I’m cutting your hair off immediately!”

Do-hyeok immediately pressed the end-call button.

Then, pretending as though he had never answered it, he placed the phone back where it had been.

So that’s why Lee Eun-chae lived so thoughtlessly.

Her father must have had a lot to do with it.

Threatening to shave his daughter’s head completely just because she’d spent one night away from home.

He was so completely different from Do-hyeok’s own calculating father.

* * *

Eun-chae was relieved that she knew the password to Do-hyeok’s house.

Once Do-hyeok fell asleep, she could sneak inside, retrieve her phone and bag, and leave.

If she could, Eun-chae wanted to use this opportunity to end her connection with Kwon Do-hyeok for good.

She quietly slipped into the dark house and crept toward the sofa like a thief.

She had fallen asleep there, so she assumed her bag would be nearby.

But for some reason, she couldn’t see any of her belongings.

After searching around the sofa for a long time without finding anything, Eun-chae became furious.

It seemed like Do-hyeok had deliberately hidden her things.

He’s not some kind of woodcutter!

She wasn’t mentally ready to wake Do-hyeok and confront him yet.

So Eun-chae stubbornly continued searching for her bag on her own.

She searched the living room, the dressing room, the study, and even opened the refrigerator in the kitchen.

She searched everywhere except the bedroom where Do-hyeok was sleeping.

But when she still couldn’t find the bag, Eun-chae stopped in front of Do-hyeok’s bedroom door and hesitated.

Damn it! I was hoping it wouldn’t be here.

It was already four in the morning.

Even if she went home now, it would still count as spending the night out.

She briefly considered whether it might be better to simply sleep on the sofa rather than risk her life opening Do-hyeok’s bedroom door.

But her instinct to return home kept urging her forward.

Eun-chae grabbed the bedroom doorknob and desperately tried to open it without making a sound.

Through the slightly opened door, she could see Kwon Do-hyeok sleeping on the bed.

And on the bedside table, she saw a familiar bag.

Hers.

Eun-chae stood outside Do-hyeok’s bedroom for a long time, torn between going in and staying out.

It was the same dilemma as deciding whether to go home or not.

And that question always led to only one answer.

She absolutely had to go home.

Whether she rolled there or flew there.

She had to get home somehow.

Like a special-forces soldier beginning an operation, Eun-chae flattened herself against the floor and moved forward using her arms instead of her legs.

She absolutely could not wake Kwon Do-hyeok.

She didn’t even want to make eye contact with him anymore.

The moment she grabbed her bag and got her phone and wallet back, she would leave this house immediately.

After what felt like forever, Eun-chae finally reached the bedside table.

Even then, she didn’t stand up.

She simply stretched out her arm and tried to grab the bag on top of the table.

The strap was just barely within reach, but she couldn’t quite get hold of it.

Eun-chae grew increasingly frantic.

Just a little more! Just a little more!

Dad! Give me longer arms!

“Want some help?”

A ghost’s voice probably would have been less terrifying.

Eun-chae’s face went white as she slowly turned her head.

Her eyes met Do-hyeok’s.

He was wide awake, staring directly at her.

Eun-chae nearly jumped out of her skin.

“I didn’t see anything!”

At Eun-chae’s excuse, Do-hyeok calmly replied,

“I’ve never shown anyone but myself before.”

For Eun-chae, it was a moment when she wanted to smack herself in the head hard enough to knock herself unconscious.