CWFH 10

Chapter 10

Their small, private welcome party continued on to a second round.

The second round was at the lounge bar on the first floor of the hotel.

Jian ordered a martini, while Dayeon ordered a cocktail simply because she liked its pretty color.

As she slowly looked around the bar, where soft jazz melodies were playing, Dayeon said,

“This company dinner is way too fancy. Usually, company dinners are grilled pork belly and soju, and then we go to karaoke for the second round.”

“Then how about we drink soju for the third round and go to karaoke for the fourth?”

“Hmm, no thanks. I guess I’ll enjoy something a little more classy today, thanks to you.”

Dayeon lifted her orange-colored cocktail and brought it to her lips.

“But you’ve really made it, huh?”

At that, Jian gave a small laugh.

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“Yeah. I was a little surprised.”

“About what?”

“When they said they were recruiting outside talent, I heard about your credentials. You worked at Google too, right?”

“Yeah.”

He had graduated from a prestigious university that was difficult to get into even in the United States, then worked as a highly skilled professional at a famous IT company.

Knowing what Jian had been like in high school, Dayeon couldn’t help being surprised when she heard about his impressive background.

“Why did you leave such a good company? If it were me, I’d stay at a world-class company like that until I died.”

“Because I wanted to start my own business.”

Dayeon looked at Jian once, clicked her tongue, and turned her gaze away.

“I’ve seen plenty of people leave big companies like that to start their own businesses and then completely screw things up. Why leave a perfectly good job just to start a business? Tsk, tsk.”

Jian smiled as he slowly swirled his cocktail glass.

“But when did you go to the States? Did you study abroad?”

“Yeah. I attended university until my third year, took a leave of absence, served in the military, and then immediately prepared to study abroad.”

Dayeon almost asked, With those grades, you even got into university? but decided it would be rude and kept her mouth shut.

“Why did you suddenly decide to study abroad?”

At the question, Jian glanced at Dayeon before turning his gaze away again.

“To forget. Whenever I was in Korea, I kept thinking about it. I thought I was going crazy.”

“Forget what?”

Jian slowly turned his gaze back toward Dayeon.

She had absolutely no idea he was talking about her, yet she looked so innocently curious.

“Was it your first love?”

Jian’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at Dayeon’s face, which was full of curiosity.

Could she know it was her?

“You got dumped, didn’t you? I can tell just by looking at you. You got dumped while you were in the military, right? And because you couldn’t get over her, you went far away?”

Jian merely smiled without answering.

It was you, Han Dayeon. You were the person I couldn’t forget.

That was what he repeated only in his mind as he slowly swirled his cocktail while looking down at the glass.

“Ooh, you’re more of a devoted romantic than I thought.”

Thinking that Jian had a painful love story in his past made him feel more human to Dayeon.

She slightly regretted having been so cold toward him and decided she should treat him a little better.

“Cheer up! Let’s have a drink. Huh? Your glass is empty. One more drink, please.”

After several cocktails, Dayeon started feeling a little tipsy.

Once she was drunk, she laughed more freely than usual.

She giggled at even the smallest things.

Jian had never seen Dayeon smile like that at him before.

He had seen her laughing and chatting with her friends from a distance, but she had never once given him a smile like that.

Seeing Dayeon laughing so freely under the influence of alcohol, Jian rested his chin on his hand and gazed at her.

Then Dayeon suddenly turned her head toward him.

“You!”

Jian flinched.

“Yeah?”

“I want to ask you one thing.”

“What?”

“Why did you tell me to be your secretary?”

Dayeon stared straight at Jian, her eyes slightly unfocused.

“You’re curious?”

“Yeah. Really curious.”

Jian quietly gazed at Dayeon’s face.

Because I want to keep you by my side. Because I’m afraid you’ll run away again.

Those words kept circling around in his mouth.

“Answer me already.”

“I don’t think I’ll tell you.”

“What?”

“The day will come when you figure it out yourself.”

Dayeon frowned at Jian.

“What’s so important about it? What is there for me to figure out myself?”

Jian simply smiled as he brought his cocktail to his lips.

“Let’s go. You look a little drunk too.”

“I’m going to the bathroom first. Then we can go.”

Dayeon got up and headed toward the restroom, while Jian paid the bill at the counter.

“Could you call a designated driver for us?”

“Yes. Please wait a moment.”

After finishing the payment, Jian waited for Dayeon at the entrance.

Meanwhile, Dayeon washed her hands in the restroom and was walking out when she ran into a foreign man at the door.

{Honey, where did you go? I’ve been looking all over for you.}

The drunk foreigner spoke in English and treated Dayeon as if he knew her.

“Who? Do you know me?”

With blond hair and a face flushed red from alcohol, the man looked incredibly colorful.

{Baby, we were only apart for a little while, but I already missed you. I think I’ve already fallen for you.}

“What? What are you saying? Pardon? Can you speak Korean?”

{Honey, I want to go to the room and spend a hot night with you. You want that too, right?}

Eventually, the foreigner wrapped an arm around Dayeon’s waist and leaned in to kiss her.

“Eek! What the hell! What’s wrong with him?! Go away, go away!”

Dayeon pushed the foreigner away and turned her face aside.

Apparently mistaking Dayeon for another woman, the foreigner looked hurt by her reaction.

{Honey, are you already tired of me? You said earlier that you wanted to go to my room.}

“Let go of me! Get away!”

{Honey~ Aaargh!}

The foreigner, who had his arm wrapped around Dayeon’s waist, suddenly screamed and was pulled away from her.

Jian had grabbed the arm around Dayeon’s waist and twisted it sharply behind his back in one swift movement.

{Aaaagh!}

Standing behind the man, Jian said in a cold, low voice,

{Take your hands off my woman right now. Before I break your wrist.}

Since Jian spoke in English, the foreigner understood him immediately. His eyes went wide as he looked at Dayeon.

{Your woman? You had a girlfriend? You said you didn’t have one!}

“James!”

But there was another woman watching the whole scene.

{James, what’s going on?}

A Korean woman approached the foreigner, and only then did the man realize his mistake.

{Damn it! Why do Asian women all look so similar?!}

To a Korean person, the two women didn’t look particularly similar, but their builds and clothes were somewhat alike, so apparently they had looked similar to the foreigner.

{Sorry, I made a mistake. So let go of me.}

Once the man admitted that he had mistaken her for someone else, Jian released his arm.

The foreign man glared at Jian with an irritated expression while rubbing his aching wrist.

{You can make a mistake. Did you really have to restrain me like that?}

{If another man had put his hands on your woman, you would have done the same thing I did.}

Apparently unable to argue with that, the foreigner merely glared at Jian before leaving with the woman.

“Are you okay?”

Jian approached Dayeon and asked, and Dayeon rubbed her chest as she tried to calm her racing heart.

“I’m okay. I was just startled. But did he really mistake me for that woman?”

“Yeah. Looks like it.”

“What the heck? We don’t look anything alike.”

Dayeon pouted as she watched the foreign man and woman walk away.

“But earlier, I think you said something about ‘my woman’ in English?”

“When did I?”

“Did I hear wrong? I can read English, but I’m not very good at speaking it.”

Dayeon tilted her head as she looked at Jian.

Jian’s face was still stiff, as if he were angry.

Dayeon had been a little startled when she saw how frightening Jian’s expression had become in an instant when he subdued the foreigner.

He’s really scary when he gets angry. I’d better be careful from now on. I shouldn’t provoke him.

Dayeon reminded herself once again that Jian was her boss.

Jian still looked angry, the ends of his eyebrows raised sharply.

The feeling of blood rushing to his head when he saw an unknown man with his arm around Dayeon’s waist still hadn’t faded.

He hadn’t known he could get this angry.

I can barely stand the thought of anyone even looking at her, and that bastard dared to put his hands on her waist?

He was barely keeping his anger under control as he walked through the hotel lobby with Dayeon.

At the center of the hotel lobby was a large decorative fountain, and every hour on the hour, a fountain show was held.

As it happened, the fountain show began right then, accompanied by music.

The fountain, which had been peacefully flowing, suddenly began shooting water violently into the air.

Whoosh!

With a tremendous roar of water, streams shot more than three meters into the air before cascading down on both sides.

“Ahhhhh!”

As Dayeon was walking through the lobby, she suddenly screamed and collapsed to the floor.

Sitting there, Dayeon curled up and covered both ears with her hands.

“Dayeon, what’s wrong?”

Dayeon kept her ears covered, her face twisted with pain.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”

Since she was covering her ears, Jian wondered if they were hurting.

The hands covering Dayeon’s ears were trembling.

Jian was flustered by her reaction, his face filled with confusion as he had no idea how to help her.

“Dayeon, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Dayeon suddenly sprang to her feet and started running.

“Dayeon!”

She ran straight through the center of the lobby where the fountain was and out through the hotel’s main entrance.

Jian hurried outside after her and found Dayeon standing there with one hand pressed against her chest, breathing heavily.

“Are you okay?”

Dayeon turned her head toward Jian and slowly nodded.

“Sorry. Did I scare you?”

“Are you really okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“I don’t need to go to the hospital.”

Still, Jian was relieved that Dayeon seemed to have calmed down.

“Actually, it’s because I have a fear of water.”

“A fear of water?”

Dayeon silently nodded.

At the words fear of water, Jian remembered that day more than ten years ago.

“When I see that much water, I feel anxious and terrified.”

He was certain that incident was the reason she had developed her fear of water.

“That’s why I can’t even think about going to the beach or swimming pools. It’s kind of stupid, right?”

He had never known that Dayeon was dealing with a trauma like this.

“I see.”

As Jian slowly nodded, a sharp ache pierced somewhere in his chest.

“Did you call for a designated driver?”

The designated driver, who had already arrived, approached Jian and asked.

“Ah, yes.”

Jian opened the rear passenger door of the car and said to Dayeon,

“Get in.”

“I can take a taxi home.”

“I’ll take you home.”