Chapter 159: Side Story – The Beautiful Eastern Bride (1) [R-18]

It had been about two months since she had immigrated.

7:10 AM. A sound came from the front door.

Seojin had woken up early again today.

She wore no makeup, but a natural pink hue lingered on her eyelids, a remnant of the previous night. Beneath her thin t-shirt, the outline of her braless chest was clearly visible.

When she opened the door, the milkman from their subscription service stood there, milk bottles in hand. Throwing a cardigan over her shoulders in place of a shawl, she reflexively tugged down the hem of her t-shirt and smiled.

Holding the usual two bottles of milk, Aiden smiled brightly as he met the woman at her door and handed them to her.

“Good morning. How are you.”

“I’m fine. And I, no. You, uh… early, today?”

Struggling with the language barrier, Seojin accepted the milk bottles with both hands and spoke to the ever-kind young man.

Even in the short sentence, her pronunciation was awkward, but Aiden nodded.

“Yeah. A little early.”

“Um… yes.”

Seojin fidgeted, rubbing the corner of her mouth.

What else was there to say? Even as her words trailed off and she turned her head, to others, she was a woman whose eyes crinkled beautifully when she smiled.

The loungewear t-shirt she had pulled down beneath her gray cardigan bunched up awkwardly, and the protruding tips of her nipples, evidence of a comfortable morning without a bra, would momentarily capture Aiden’s gaze.

“Wait, Today…”

Deciding that small talk was still too difficult, Seojin turned and retrieved something from the console table just inside the door.

It was a small brown paper bag with a label written in less-than-perfect English.

「To Aiden.」

“Homemade. Cookie.”

Baking was something she’d never really tried, even in Korea, but she had given it a shot, not wanting to bother going all the way downtown.

When she and her husband had tried them, they weren’t half bad. Awkward with her words and gestures, Seojin scratched the back of her neck.

“For… for you.”

Aiden took a short breath, touched by his customer’s kindness so early in the morning. He smiled and took the homemade cookies she offered, his hands now holding them instead of the milk bottles.

“…Just thanks to, your kind.”

Kindness to a foreigner, and admiration for a young man working hard from the early morning.

It was a gesture of Korean kindness, that was all.

Aiden crunched on one right there in front of her. For the rest of the day, he found himself reaching for the bag, remembering the cookie that wasn’t too chunky, reflecting the owner’s taste, but for some reason, he always pulled his hand back.

“……”

It was clearly a gift for a helpful neighbor, but to him, a recent high school graduate, Seojin was a young and beautiful Asian woman, the likes of which he had never seen before.

Healthy, sexy… and very shy.

He knew he shouldn’t feel this kind of curiosity, but in a place where a lack of confidence and assertiveness was seen as nerdy, she was a type of woman he rarely encountered.

In the end, he carefully folded the cookie bag and tucked it deep inside his desk drawer.

As if it were a forbidden love letter.

The moment he finally noticed her ring and realized she was already married, it was as shocking as if someone had hit him over the head with a shovel.

“Madam, perhaps…”

It was another day, another delivery.

In the warm morning garden, Seojin was engaged in an awkward but earnest attempt at small talk with him over the fence.

“English… class? If you need it, I think I could help you a little.”

At his words, Seojin stared at Aiden with a blank expression.

The hem of her casual dress flared lightly. Sunlight filtered through her hair, and a transparent sheen glossed over her neatly folded hands.

Perhaps he had noticed her practicing during their brief daily encounters, because Seojin smiled sheepishly.

Then, a thought occurred to her.

“Besides delivery, you need… more, part-time job?”

She assumed that anyone his age, an age for having fun, would only be looking for work out of necessity.

But at her words, the palms of Aiden’s hands grew hot for an entirely different reason.

Had she noticed how he’d been trying to prolong their conversations lately, tossing out pointless questions like, ‘Is there anything you need help with?’

“I just… thought it would be nice to help.”

Seojin nodded at his words.

She promised to give him an answer when he came the next day.

“—What do you think? It’s like a conversational class with a native speaker, right? Do you think I can keep up?”

That evening, Seojin asked Rio what he thought of the lesson proposal.

Rio, who had planned on just playing around and rolling in bed with his wife every day while his money worked for him, found that a startup he’d only intended to invest in was taking off better than expected.

Annoyingly, this meant he had to spend time away from her, so now that he was back, Rio was busy just being with Seojin.

“That delivery boy? The kid you said was admirable. Well, if you want to.”

“Mhm…”

And so the lessons began, three times a week, under the patio umbrella in the morning after he finished his neighborhood deliveries.

Aiden made his own worksheets, which included everything from very basic sentences like ‘I am’ and ‘You are’ to the everyday phrases Seojin was always concerned about.

It was a level that was easy enough to teach, even for someone who wasn’t a professional.

When Seojin repeated the words, her gaze often rested on his mouth rather than the paper.

She would mimic the shape of his lips, sometimes covering her mouth with her fingertips when she smiled.

“Verry… verry?”

“Very grateful.”

When she couldn’t immediately decipher his handwriting, he would say the words aloud for her.

“Ah, very… grateful.”

“Perfect.”

Even if she only got it then, Aiden proceeded with the lesson, peppering it with generous praise.

Sometimes, when he looked down at the textbook, the heavy curve of her upper body, leaning over the table, would catch his eye. Whenever an improper thought arose, he would deliberately drag out his words.

He would make more sentences to explain pronouns, bring up words not in the textbook, and the teaching time stretched on and on.

She was grateful for it.

“What should I do? You go over the time every lesson.”

“Hm? It’s okay. More importantly, how are you finding it? Am I doing a good job?”

“You? Aiden is a calm… and good teacher. Explains well.”

Aiden smiled.

Calm. His heart was the exact opposite of that assessment, quietly simmering with the tenderness of a first love he knew he shouldn’t have.

Seojin never knew, because he never told her—not even as a joke—that he found the bridge of her nose, the line of her neck when she bowed her head, and the sway of her breasts and thighs when she moved unconsciously, all incredibly attractive.

She simply returned the kindness she received, a gesture of Korean affection. She baked him cookies when he came and served him tea.

“‘I think it’s good,’ and, ‘Sounds good.’… are they the same meaning?” Seojin asked, habitually twirling her pencil.

She always tried to finish her sentences neatly, her gaze serious.

A light cardigan was draped over her white t-shirt in the gentle breeze.

Under the sun, her light beige linen pants kept riding up above her knees, her pale white legs tanning in the light.

Aiden swallowed softly before answering.

“They can be the same, or they can be different.”

“…Different?”

“‘I think it’s good’ is when you’re stating your own opinion.”

“Mhm.”

“‘Sounds good’ is a reaction. When you hear what someone else said and it seems fine.”

“Ah… like… someone say pizza, then I say ‘Sounds good.’?”

“Right. Perfect.”

When Seojin smiled, happy with herself, he found himself smiling along with her.

As she reached up to adjust the cardigan slipping off her shoulder, her t-shirt lifted slightly, revealing the curve of her side.

Aiden forced his eyes away and back to the worksheet.

“Then… I write?”

“Sure.”

She opened her notebook.

She began to write short sentences between the lines.

‘I think he is tired.’

‘Sounds like he’s tired.’

Her pronunciation was awkward and her handwriting wasn’t pretty, but to his eyes, it was cute.

“You wrote that well.”

“This, it feels different, right? How is it different?”

“Yes. The second one… is more, like an observation?”

As Seojin used gestures to express herself, he did his best to understand and respond.

“Exactly.”

She smiled like a child, repeating the word ‘exactly.’

For a moment, Aiden’s gaze was caught by the dimple that appeared beside the corner of her mouth.

She was only there to study, but the young man’s heart and the bright morning sun made the moment feel like a date.

Already conscious of her, he quickly posed the next question, afraid to let even a single suspicious silence fall between them.

“Want me to make… a simple worksheet? Grammar. Like… if you like.”

Seojin tilted her head slightly and asked, “Worksheet?”

“Yes. Next time… fill in the blanks, or reorder the words, problems like that?”

At his words, Seojin placed her hands on her knees and nodded.

“Okay. I like… respect? your style.”

“Thanks.”

Aiden, who had almost added the word ‘sweetie,’ felt the back of his throat grow warm at her short praise.

Her hands closing the notebook, her full breasts, the black hair falling past her chin.

He glanced at his watch. Realizing that one more exchange would push them well past their allotted time, he inevitably brought up the next example.

“Let’s try one more.”

---

Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

Please do consider subscribing to my Patreon for requests or to get early access to chapters