episode_0014

Hyeyoon’s house is big.

It’s so freaking big. I think I could even run it around the house.

That was the first thought that came to mind when I saw Hye-yoon’s house.

How many bad things did I do to buy this house?

I have never lived in a big house since I was born.

When I was young, I slept with my family at Saehui Hope Orphanage… As I grew up, I lived in a goshiwon, and finally managed to escape to a studio apartment.

I’m staying at Hye-yoon’s house for my safety, but…

I don’t think it will be comfortable.

There is a saying that it is more comfortable to live in a beggarly house than in someone else’s palace-like home. That saying is exactly right.

After moving into Hye-yoon’s house, I also got my own room.

It was a bigger room than the studio I lived in that exploded.

Originally, Hye-yoon wanted to give me a much bigger room, but I refused.

I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep in a room that was too big. I’m already sensitive, so I’d toss and turn in bed if I moved…

And since the studio apartment I was living in was blown away by an explosion, I had nothing to pack.

Clothes, shoes, and everything else were all burned. I had no choice but to buy new ones.

Anyway, the first day after moving into the large mansion passed quickly.

After I finished sweeping, cleaning, and tidying up my room, it was already night.

I lay in bed tossing and turning until I finally fell asleep.

“Hmm…….. Hmm…….”

I was sleeping with my lower stomach churning.

But I felt something strange. It was like a pressure pressing down on my body…

So I woke up. I carefully opened my eyes.

“ja?”

Hye-yoon’s gaze as she lies on top of me and glares at me.

I woke up in a fright.

“What- What! Oh my. This is surprising. What are you doing here?”

I tried to get up, wiping the drool from the corner of my mouth.

“Just lie down. I came here to tell you something.”

“What are you doing at this hour?”

“About the last explosion incident. When I got home from work, you were sleeping. I also washed up and got ready, so it was late.”

Hyeyoon, who was wearing a baggy T-shirt, wasn’t wearing a bra.

In that state, he was lying on top of me and looking down at me, so I could clearly see his chest.

In the darkness, Hye-yoon’s bust was faintly but clearly visible. As expected… it was big.

“You can see all of your breasts.”

“I don’t care. Do you want to touch me? Should I take off my shirt?”

“…….Okay.”

This kid definitely doesn’t see me as a man. But he doesn’t see me as some kind of rock rolling around on the street, right?

As I gulped, Hye-yoon stared down at me and continued speaking.

“I caught the guys who planted the bomb in your studio. They were just some small-time mafia guys who had a grudge against me.”

“Okay……. So what happened?”

“I killed them all. All of them.”

When I heard that, I suddenly woke up with a start.

Anyway, the people related to me are dead. If Hye-yoon’s words are true…

“You came to my room in the middle of the night to tell me that?”

When I asked while rubbing my eyes, Hye-yoon nodded slightly.

“Anyway, since they were the ones who tried to kill you, it would be better to tell you how you dealt with them. Right?”

“There was nothing I could do about them anyway. You could have just handled them however you wanted, right?”

“That’s right.”

Hyeyoon looked down at me expressionlessly and then smiled for the first time.

I yawned as I felt sleepy again and said,

“Okay. Let’s talk about the details tomorrow. You must be tired too. Go back to your room.”

Hyeyoon, who was looking down at me expressionlessly again, slowly moved and whispered softly in my ear.

“I will definitely protect you. Definitely.”

Hyeyoon’s lips seemed to be about to touch my ear.

……Something gave me goosebumps.

On the one hand, it was solid, but on the other hand… it was creepy.

Can I get away from Bin Hye-yoon?

That’s what I thought.

Hye-yoon’s words clearly conveyed a mad obsession.

So I didn’t react at all until Hye-yoon left my room.

It felt like I could finally breathe after Hye-yoon left.

Hoo- Is this the atmosphere of the mafia? The oppression of the mafia?

What should I do now?

I absentmindedly picked up my phone and checked the time.

One o’clock in the morning.

And then, Hye-yoon’s chest, which I had seen clearly in the darkness earlier, flashed through my mind.

This won’t work. If I watch some porn and then go to sleep, I’ll calm down a bit…

Oh no. There’s no toilet paper in the room.

***

The next day.

I was out shopping for shoes and clothes when I found a public phone.

Wow… a public phone in this day and age?

for a moment.

At that time, Yoo Seol-hee told me to use a public phone if I needed to call her.

As it happened, the contact information that Seol-hee had written down was still in my back pocket.

Um… At that time, I had decided to reject the job offer that Seol-hee had suggested.

I couldn’t handle Hye-yoon right now… and I didn’t want to get Seol-hee involved too. Not even if it was a job outside of Hwarang Group.

Then, should I try making a call from a public phone?

After breaking a coin at a nearby convenience store, I put the coin into a public phone and called the number written on the memo.

After a while, Seol-hee answered the phone.

“Yes. Hello.”

“Yeah. Me. Woo Sung-won.”

“Ah. Sungwon?”

Seol-hee answered the phone with a cheerful voice.

“Yeah. I appreciate the job offer, but I have to decline. I have some personal issues right now.”

“What? What’s going on?”

“My studio apartment was blown up. It was blown up by a bomb. Bam.”

“What? A bomb? Tell me more. Quickly.”

Seol-hee’s reaction was serious.

I told you exactly what dynamic things had happened over the past two days.

Seol-hee, who had been listening to what I was saying without even breathing, opened her mouth after a long time.

“……. Anyone can see that it’s Bin Hye-yoon’s doing.”

“What?”

“Are you really that naive? Are you an idiot? Do you believe Bin Hye-yoon?”

Huh? What is she talking about?

I held the pay phone properly and answered.

“Hey. No way. Even so, why would Hye-yoon do something like that?”

“Seongwon-ah. What would make you a target of the mafia? Isn’t it strange? Think about it carefully.”

I thought back.

Now that I think about it, I’ve been too naively believing Hye-yoon’s words until now…

No. Hye-yoon woke me up at dawn and told me to catch the guys who planted the bomb in my studio apartment.

I answered in confusion.

“No. There’s a behind-the-scenes story you don’t know-”

“Seongwon-ah. Don’t believe everything that woman says. Bin Hye-yoon is trying to eat you.”

“Me? Why is Hye-yoon eating me?”

“That’s…… Ha-”

Seol-hee, who had been speechless and not saying anything, opened her mouth again.

“I’ll just give you one piece of advice. Don’t be too swayed by Bin Hye-yoon. Got it?”

Seol-hee said that she was busy and hung up the phone.

I was left staring at the pay phone as the call ended awkwardly.

What? What are you saying?

***

That moment.

Seol-hee, who finished talking to Woo Sung-won, stood in front of the hospital.

It was a very large university hospital.

Seol-hee, holding a plastic bag full of grapes, slowly entered the hospital.

The lively and innocent look that he had shown in front of Woo Sung-won was nowhere to be found.

Seol-hee was a person who could wear different masks depending on the time and situation.

After getting off the elevator, Seol-hee stood in front of a patient room, took a deep breath, knocked, and entered.

“I heard that the reporter had a really hard time.”

Seol-hee started crying as she entered the spacious single patient room.

The reporter, who was lying down with bandages wrapped all over her body, carefully tried to get up.

“No. No. Just lie down. You can eat the grapes I brought later.”

Seol-hee said that while putting the grapes in the refrigerator.

The reporter, lying back down in bed, opened her mouth in a tired voice.

“I almost died. You’ll pay for the reporting expenses, right?”

“Of course.”

Seol-hee, who was sitting on a chair next to her, changed her expression to serious and opened her mouth.

“……Then tell me everything that happened. Everything.”

The reporter with chapped lips smiled faintly and opened her mouth.

“Originally, I was going to die. Bin Hye-yoon was going to go play at the beach……. Bin Hye-yoon ordered her subordinates to kill me.”

“But you came back alive?”

“Yes, one of the legs was broken cleanly.”

The reporter swallowed hard and continued speaking.

“I was filming them with a hidden camera in my bag, and I got caught. It wasn’t easy. They didn’t give me any leniency because I was a woman.”

“I know that too.”

Seol-hee, who was sitting with her legs crossed, answered in a harsh voice.

She added with a stern expression.

“I’m curious about something else. How did you come back alive?”

“Woo Sung-won told Bin Hye-yoon not to kill me. I owe my life to Woo Sung-won.”

It was a story about when Woo Sung-won and Bin Hye-yoon went to play at the beach.

Seol-hee took out her sunglasses, bit the temples, and thought deeply as she asked.

“……Did Bin Hye-yoon listen to Woo Sung-won?”

“Yes. I thought I heard it. It seemed like Bin Hye-yoon had another plan.”

“What kind of man do you think Woo Sung-won is?”

“He seemed like too innocent and kind a guy to be hanging around a mafia boss.”

“Is that so?”

Seol-hee stood up from her seat, walked towards the window, and carefully lowered the blinds.

It was a world where you never knew where the mafia’s eyes might be.

Seol-hee, recalling her conversation with Woo Sung-won earlier, muttered as if talking to herself.

“That’s right. Woo Sung-won is definitely a good person. I feel bad for deceiving him and using him…….”

“Yes?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Seol-hee continued speaking, sitting back down on the chair next to the bed.

“Reporter. Do you think you can continue to cover Black Emily in secret?”

“No. I almost died and came back to life. I wouldn’t do it even if you gave me a billion dollars. Just pay for the hospital bills.”

Ah. So this is another information line that’s disappearing.

Seol-hee licked her lips in regret.

The reporter glanced at Seol-hee and asked.

“It seems like Bin Hye-yoon likes Woo Sung-won a lot, right?”

“It’s not just a normal feeling between a man and a woman.”

“Yes?”

Seol-hee, who was thinking while moving her hands here and there, answered seriously.

“Woo Sung-won is definitely a special person to Bin Hye-yoon. But the motivation behind that feeling is not ordinary. Bin Hye-yoon lived fifteen years of her twenty-three-year life relying only on Woo Sung-won. During that time, Bin Hye-yoon had no one else. The only person she could find was Woo Sung-won, and only Woo Sung-won.”

“Then……”

“Bin Hye-yoon is a very rational and crazy person. That’s why I’m scared. That woman.”

There was silence for a moment.

Seol-hee stood up from her seat and looked out the window, whispering.

“I don’t think you should approach Bin Hye-yoon in an unconditionally hostile manner.”

“Yes?”

Seol-hee sighed softly, clenched her small fists, and muttered.

“You have to build trust. And then you have to destroy it all at once.”

***

The next morning.

I had breakfast with Hye-yoon.

Since she started living with me, Hye-yoon has kicked out all the housekeepers who worked at home.

I don’t know what he was thinking, but…anyway, all the housework like cleaning and cooking fell on me.

Well, I wasn’t really dissatisfied with that. I owed a lot to Hye-yoon and I was somewhat confident in cooking. I’ve been living alone for a long time, so I could cook to some extent.

“Kimchi stew is a little salty.”

Hyeyoon grumbled while eating a little bit of stew.

“What?”

“Sodium is bad for your health. Chef, please make it a little less spicy next time.”

“What…… It’s been a while since I made kimchi stew, so that’s why. Next time, I can adjust the seasoning better.”

“Don’t be so upset. But I like the food you make the best. You used to make it for me a lot back when I was in orphanage, right?”

“Yeah. At that time, I made it with cheap materials, but……”

Then suddenly my phone, which was on the table, rang.

I checked my phone screen and thought, “Oh no.”

It’s a call from Yeonlim.

What the heck… why is he calling again?? And why at this particular time?

Hyeyoon put down her spoon as my expression turned ashen and reacted coldly.

“Who is calling?”

“Huh? Huh? Oh, no. That’s…….”

Hyeyoon tilted her head to the opposite side, smiled, and said.

“Who’s the one who’s converting? Get it here.”