BT 09

Chapter 09

The Man You Can’t Trust

“Where are you going on Monday?”

Do-hyeok, the handsome-collarbone man, asked the question as he let go of his collar, and Eun-chae was even more startled.

She was supposed to go to an afternoon event on Monday, putting off her helper duties for a little while to attend.

“No. I’m not going anywhere.”

She firmly lied.

Do-hyeok didn’t ask any more questions, but the look in his eyes made her uneasy.

He doesn’t know, does he? He can’t. That would be bad.

“What do you usually do on weekends?”

Eun-chae deliberately asked a question she wasn’t even curious about to change the subject, then suddenly realized something.

“Oh! Today’s Saturday! I should be taking the day off!”

When had South Korea switched to a five-day workweek?

And yet she had been planning to work on Saturday too.

Eun-chae decided this was no time to be sitting around and turned around, intending to go out somewhere for some fun.

Do-hyeok grabbed the back of her hoodie and pulled her back into place.

“One hundred thousand won per day. Thirty days makes three million won.”

Eun-chae frowned at Do-hyeok’s method of calculating her wages.

In other words, she wasn’t going to have a single day off for an entire month.

By the standards of labor law, he was an exploitative employer.

“Who said anything about that?!”

“The moment you accepted my money, you effectively agreed to my employment conditions.”

“You never told me that!”

“You accepted the money without properly checking the employment conditions. I think that makes your mistake even bigger.”

“I still can’t accept it! I’m not some thirty-day slave!”

“So, are you going to give the three million won back?”

Now that she thought about it, Kwon Do-hyeok was an even worse human being than the sexually harassing department head.

At least that department head hadn’t come looking for her on her days off just to torment her.

As she stood there looking utterly miserable, Do-hyeok smiled.

“Then you should start working today.”

After saying they were going to work, Do-hyeok took her out of the house and down to the parking lot.

“What are we doing?”

If he wanted his helper to work, he should obviously have given her cleaning supplies.

Instead, Do-hyeok put her into his Lamborghini.

Don’t tell me I’m supposed to clean the car too?

Do-hyeok started the car.

Don’t tell me he expects me to clean it while it’s moving? Is he asking me to perform some kind of stunt?

“I go for a drive on my days off.”

It sounded like he was imitating some ridiculous famous line from a drama, something along the lines of, “When I’m sad, I dance like a crane.”

She had wondered why he was suddenly saying something so random, but then she remembered that she’d asked him what he did on weekends before they started arguing.

Then why didn’t he just say that from the beginning? Why treat me like a thirty-day slave?

She tolerated it because she was the one getting paid to work for him, but she couldn’t help wondering how the women who had dated him had endured this self-centered behavior.

Did they put up with it because they were hoping he’d give them money?

“Are you this mean when you’re dating a woman too?”

She asked because she wondered what kind of terrible relationships an exploitative employer like him had been in.

Do-hyeok put on his sunglasses and smiled with only his lips.

The gentle curve of his lips was strangely alluring, and for a moment, Eun-chae’s eyes were drawn to him.

“You’d be in danger if I treated you like a woman.”

Of course, the moment he opened his mouth, he ruined the mood.

“Just drive safely!”

But despite her warning, the moment the car entered the highway, it accelerated as though the brakes had failed.

The reason Do-hyeok had chosen a Lamborghini among all the sports cars was because it was a car made for one purpose alone:

To drive.

They said that with a Lamborghini, it wasn’t the driver who chose the car.

The car chose the driver.

Do-hyeok liked the arrogance that a machine without a heart could possess.

This top-of-the-line sports car, built through the stubborn craftsmanship of Italian automotive masters, didn’t simply go wherever the driver directed it.

It flew.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

Eun-chae screamed at the sports car’s insane speed.

The more she screamed, the faster Do-hyeok drove.

But at some point, Eun-chae began to feel as though all her stress was being released.

She hadn’t been able to sing her heart out lately, so she was letting all of it out through her screams instead.

They must have been driving incredibly fast.

It didn’t seem like much time had passed before they had already left Seoul behind, and the sea appeared in the distance.

Eun-chae had never expected to see the ocean today.

So the moment she saw the blue sea, she jumped out of the car before Do-hyeok and ran toward it.

“Wow! It’s the ocean!”

Perhaps because they were by the seaside, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew.

When her bangs blew into her eyes, Eun-chae squeezed them shut.

For a moment, her body staggered.

Then her shoulder bumped against a wall that hadn’t been there before.

And the wall caught her around the waist.

Startled, Eun-chae looked up.

Do-hyeok’s face was right above hers.

His hair was blowing in the wind too.

Amid all that movement, the only thing that remained perfectly still was his gaze.

The gaze of a man who seemed to be looking only at her despite the fierce wind.

—I love you, and the wind is blowing.

“Ah!”

A song suddenly came to Eun-chae’s mind, and she cried out.

Do-hyeok flinched in surprise.

Eun-chae pushed him away, pulled out her phone, and immediately began recording the melody that had just occurred to her.

Do-hyeok stared at her back with an awkward expression.

He hadn’t even done anything, yet somehow he felt like he’d just been rejected.

Eun-chae had been dragged here against her will, yet she was somehow even more excited than he was.

From Do-hyeok’s perspective, they had simply been driving until the road ended.

To him, the sea was nothing more than water.

He had never had any reason to drive all the way out just to look at it.

He had simply been absorbed in driving itself.

“Let’s go.”

“Wait! We just got here!”

“We didn’t come here. The road just ended. We’re taking another route.”

“I like it here!”

“So you want to be left alone somewhere you don’t even know?”

“You’re so mean!”

Eun-chae shouted at Do-hyeok and ran off.

And she was completely sober too.

Do-hyeok didn’t chase after her.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and waited where he was.

He had decided that this time, he absolutely wasn’t going after her.

Then Eun-chae, who was running across the sand, suddenly went sprawling.

He had never imagined that a grown woman who hadn’t even been drinking could fall over simply because she couldn’t control her own body.

Do-hyeok stared at her dumbfounded.

Then he noticed two men wandering around the beach heading toward where Eun-chae was.

Only then did Do-hyeok click his tongue and walk toward her.

This woman really requires a lot of attention.

He had put this much effort into her.

If he eventually found out that it had all been a bluff, he was sure he would be furious.

He hadn’t come out for a drive because he was bored or had nothing to do.

He had driven this far at such a ridiculous speed because he intended to shake Eun-chae’s feelings.

So Do-hyeok asked her if there was anywhere else she wanted to see besides the sea.

But Eun-chae said something completely unexpected.

“You showed me the sea, so I’ll show you a movie.”

I told you, I wasn’t trying to show you the sea. The road just ended.

“Are you trying to show off again by spending money on something cheap?”

And why did this woman keep trying to spend money on him?

Was it simply because she was too proud to lose to him?

“If we’re going to count things that way, the sea was free.”

For a moment, Do-hyeok had nothing to say.

He stared at Eun-chae with a sullen expression.

Eun-chae looked triumphant.

“Movies cost ten thousand won.”

“You said your entire fortune was thirteen thousand won.”

The moment he saw Eun-chae’s face turn as pale as dirt, Do-hyeok’s mood improved.

But the commoner’s spirit wasn’t so easily crushed.

“Then let’s watch a morning movie.”

“What is that?”

“You can watch it for half price. Twelve thousand won for the two of us. I have a discount card, so it’ll be ten thousand!”

Being with her was certainly increasing his knowledge of useless economic facts.

Still, she was practically willing to spend her entire fortune on him.

Should he find that touching?

Or should he just be dumbfounded?

“Why don’t you just ask me to show you?”

Then he would simply rent out an entire movie theater.

He didn’t want to watch it with other people.

“No.”

“Are you worried I’ll like you if you spend my money?”

“That is absolutely not going to happen!”

Eun-chae remained stubborn, and Do-hyeok began to have some doubts.

Could it really be true?

It was only a tiny doubt for now, but if it continued to grow, that would be a problem.

He was someone who had to live believing that he was always right.

If distrust entered his mind, everything would begin to shake.

And that would lead to a loss incomparably greater than Eun-chae’s thirteen thousand won fortune.

When the Lamborghini, which had been racing at insane speeds all day, finally arrived and stopped in front of his house, Do-hyeok asked her,

“Where are you sleeping tonight?”

Eun-chae was startled and immediately denied it.

“Where would a grown woman sleep? I’m going home.”

“If you go home, won’t your father shave your head?”

Eun-chae was even more startled.

How does he know that?

Of course, Do-hyeok knew because he had answered Eun-chae’s father’s phone call himself.

He had also assumed that she had run away from home because she was afraid of her father after seeing her staying at his house without permission.

“Where I sleep is none of your business.”

“I was willing to let you use my sofa if you said you had nowhere to go. You’re being awfully cold.”

It was unexpected that Do-hyeok was willing to let her stay at his house, but Eun-chae didn’t feel grateful for his kindness at all.

He had already been branded an exploitative employer after his thirty-day-slave declaration.

“Forget it. I’d rather let my father shave my head with his clippers than sleep at your house.”

“You’d probably look interesting bald.”

“Who’s bald?!”

Eun-chae shuddered as though her father’s clippers had actually just passed over her head.

“So where are you sleeping?”

Perhaps he genuinely wanted to know, because Do-hyeok asked again.

Eun-chae stuck out her tongue at him.

“I’m not telling you.”

She immediately got out of the car and ran toward a nearby bus stop.

Judging by the fact that she didn’t even look back, she really seemed to hate being around him that much.

Do-hyeok clicked his tongue as he watched Eun-chae’s retreating figure.

Technically, just as she had said, he had no reason to care where she slept.

But he couldn’t help feeling irritated at the thought of her sleeping somewhere dangerous without knowing anything about the world.

Either go quietly home, or stay beside me.

I wish she’d just do one or the other.

Of course, considering that he was the one who had made her sign such a contract, he had no right to say that.

Rrrrrrrrrr—. Rrrrrrrrrrr—.

It was a call from Manager Park, so Do-hyeok answered before getting out of the car.

[I looked into the reason Eun-chae was fired from her previous workplace.]

“What kind of trouble did Lee Eun-chae cause there?”

Do-hyeok asked with absolute certainty that Eun-chae must have caused some kind of trouble.

Manager Park answered in a heavy voice.

[Sexual harassment.]

Do-hyeok’s expression froze cold beneath his sunglasses.

Eun-chae got off in Hapjeong-dong, where Dong-woo’s rooftop room was located.

In the end, she had no choice but to impose on Dong-woo.

She planned to stay just for tonight and look for another friend’s place tomorrow.

Everyone was at the age where they were busy falling in love, so finding a lonely friend who would be willing to spend the night alone wasn’t going to be easy.

Still, if she was lucky, she could probably find one person per day.

How could anyone spend every single day doing nothing but being in love?

Eun-chae had just started climbing the stairs leading to Dong-woo’s rooftop room when a Lamborghini that looked completely out of place in the narrow alley performed what almost looked like a stunt before parking right in front of her.

She knew it was Do-hyeok’s car because she had ridden in it herself earlier that day.

But she had clearly parted ways with Do-hyeok in Dogok-dong.

How could he possibly be here?

Just as she was thinking that, the car door opened.

The real Do-hyeok stepped out.

“Don’t tell me you followed me?”

Eun-chae stared at him in disbelief.

“I’ll ask you one thing. The friend who lives here. Is it a man or a woman?”

She wanted to tell him that he had absolutely no right to chase her all the way here just to interrogate her about something like that.

But Do-hyeok’s presence was more intimidating than ever, and Eun-chae found herself unable to answer easily.

“Y-you have no business worrying about that.”

She protested belatedly.

He wasn’t her father.

There was no reason for her to be afraid of Do-hyeok.

It was true that she was tied to him for thirty days because she owed him three million won, but he had no right to interfere with whom she met or where she slept.

“You can’t answer, so it’s a man.”

He was right.

But the way Do-hyeok said it sounded exactly like a boyfriend interrogating his girlfriend after suspecting her of cheating.

Eun-chae immediately bristled.

“He’s a hundred million times more trustworthy than you!”

“Don’t get confused. Whether it’s that bastard of a department head who sexually harassed you or that guy friend you supposedly trust, there’s barely any difference between men.”

The moment Do-hyeok mentioned the sexual harassment, Eun-chae’s face went pale.

There was no way he could know that unless he had investigated her.

“Did you investigate me?”

He had.

Completely unnecessarily.

The only thing he wanted to know about her was her relationship with his father.

“You’re seriously the worst.”

Eun-chae poured all the anger she should have directed at the sexually harassing department head straight onto Do-hyeok.

She was about to run up the stairs when Do-hyeok grabbed her arm.

“Let go!”

She struggled to free herself, but the strength of a man made her utterly powerless.

In the end, she was dragged back into his car, and the Lamborghini took off again.

Screeech—.

When Eun-chae saw where the car had stopped, she let out a hollow laugh.

It was the market alley where her house was located.

“What are you trying to do?”

“The only man in this world you can trust is your father. So even if he shaves your head, sleep at your father’s house.”

This man! He really knows how to raise my blood pressure until the very end!

If she yelled at him in a loud voice, only her own throat would hurt.

She had learned through the short but intense time she’d spent with him that there was absolutely no way she could beat him that way.

So Eun-chae suppressed her rising anger with reason and put on a tough act just like Do-hyeok.

“Don’t pretend to be righteous. Do you think I don’t know what kind of person you are? How about we replace the thirty-day contract with three days of living together? If you don’t lay a finger on me for three days, you win. Otherwise, I win, you forgive the three million won debt, and you apologize to me.”

She praised herself inwardly for making such a bold proposal, since it was far more outrageous than anything he’d suggested about their contract.

But Do-hyeok looked at her with expressionless eyes and said,

“That’s why your father prepared the clippers.”

She was angry, but somehow it felt like she’d just taken a direct hit.

She felt less like Nongae and more like the Japanese general who had been dragged into the water by Nongae and drowned.

Click.

When the lights came on, an empty officetel apartment was revealed.

The strong smell of a new home filled the air.

Eun-chae simply didn’t have the courage to go home and face her father.

And for some reason, Do-hyeok was being stubborn about not letting her go to Dong-woo’s place.

In the end, Eun-chae came to an officetel owned by Do-hyeok.

Of course, it wasn’t free.

“One hundred thousand won for one night’s stay.”

“That’s way too expensive!”

She didn’t like staying somewhere for free, but she hated being overcharged even more.

“Then for every day you stay here, we’ll add another day to your work as my helper.”

In other words, if she kept staying here, she would never finish her work as his housekeeper.

It was a terrifying chain reaction.

“I’m only sleeping here tonight. Tomorrow I’ll move straight to a friend’s place.”

She would have to spend the night making phone calls until she found a friend willing to let her stay.

“If it’s a man, you can’t leave.”

“Why do you keep doing this?! You’re not even my father!”

“Then call your father and tell him to deal with it himself.”

No matter what she did, she was in a disadvantageous position.

Grinding her teeth, Eun-chae said,

“I’ll find a female friend’s place. A woman.”

Only then did Do-hyeok smile in satisfaction and praise her.

“Good. You’re a good girl.”

Apparently, he had changed his method of tormenting her.

He was a criminal mastermind.

She felt like she was getting hit even more relentlessly than before.

“Oh, right. What time are we watching the morning movie tomorrow?”

Before Do-hyeok left the officetel, he casually asked the question.

Eun-chae looked around for something she could throw at him.

But since it was a brand-new apartment, there was absolutely nothing in it.

The bed and refrigerator were far too large to throw.

Do-hyeok left the officetel alone.

But instead of getting into his car and driving away immediately, he looked up at the officetel building where Eun-chae was staying.

He had decided to treat Lee Eun-chae well, but this whole disciplinary-student-counselor approach clearly wasn’t what he’d had in mind.

Wondering what right he had to act like some kind older brother, Do-hyeok let out a dry laugh at himself.

Still, he didn’t regret what he’d done today.

At the very least, on this long night, he wouldn’t have to lose sleep worrying about whether she was somewhere dangerous with some strange man.

Do-hyeok got into his Lamborghini and accelerated once again, cutting through the night.