Chapter: 08
A Man Who Can Do Everything
Just in case, Yuri opened the bedroom door and cautiously stepped into the living room. Fortunately, Hushin was nowhere to be seen.
Well, at this hour, he would naturally have already gone to work.
Thirsty, Yuri walked toward the kitchen.
As soon as she entered, she was drawn toward the kitchen island by an appetizing aroma that tickled her nose.
The moment she saw the table, Yuri’s eyes widened like saucers.
There was so much food laid out on the table that just looking at it was enough to make her feel full.
Garden salad, mushroom and beef soup, avocado egg scramble, and freshly brewed coffee filled with the rich aroma of hazelnuts.
The delicious-looking food had been beautifully arranged on neatly set plates. Even though Yuri was not particularly fond of food, she couldn’t take her eyes off the spread.
“He really is a star chef. He’s incredible.”
She had seen him cooking several times on television and through various other media. As the heir to a food company, he was naturally highly skilled at preparing food.
He even possessed culinary certifications in every major cuisine—Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Western, and more—so there was no way anyone could fail to realize how serious he was about cooking.
His handsome appearance certainly helped, but watching him cook with fingers as delicate and graceful as a woman’s, despite being a man, was enough to captivate anyone.
Yuri herself had lost herself watching him more than once.
Imagining Hushin preparing this food with his usual impassive expression felt strangely incongruous, and Yuri unconsciously smiled faintly.
But the smile lasted only a moment. Suddenly, she remembered his disheveled expression from the previous night as he focused solely on her. As the explicit things he had done with her flashed rapidly through her mind, her face grew hot once again.
Everyone in the world already knew about Hushin’s exceptional work abilities, as well as his impressive cooking skills.
Judging by the way he had taken control of her last night, when everything had been a first for her and she had been inexperienced to the point of losing her senses, he had practically proven that he possessed exceptional ability in that area as well.
As expected, Park Hushin was a man who couldn’t do anything wrong.
Through the most intimate act between a man and a woman, Yuri had learned a side of him that only the two of them could know. She had seen firsthand what expression he wore when he held a woman in his arms.
But she knew very well that he was a man she could never dare to desire, so she hid her admiration for him.
Perhaps because the feelings she had kept buried had finally burst forth, the moment she was held in his arms, she had been swept into an uncontrollable storm. And once her desire had erupted, she could no longer stop it.
She had spent an unforgettable night with him, but from now on, they would have to face each other as boss and secretary.
She had achieved what she had set out to accomplish. Now she had to return to reality and treat him as though nothing had happened.
“Phew. Right. It’s time to wake up from the dream. This is enough.”
As though confirming her own resolve, Yuri said the words aloud, turning them over in her mind.
As she pulled out a chair, Yuri noticed a note attached to the corner of the dining table.
[Ms. Jin Yuri, don’t leave anything behind—eat it all. Your official start date isn’t until next week, so take good care of yourself until then. —Park Hushin]
Yuri sat down and opened the covers Hushin had placed over the food one by one.
She scooped up a spoonful of soup and put it into her mouth. Perhaps because it had retained its warmth, it was still pleasantly hot. It felt almost like Hushin’s heart, and something warm and tender stirred inside her chest.
“It’s smooth and mild.”
It seemed like this was the first time someone had ever prepared food specifically for her.
When she had lived at Joo Sang-hee’s house, the housekeepers had prepared meals for her as well, but those dishes had been intended for the homeowners, and the staff simply divided up the leftovers.
As someone merely living off another person’s kindness, she supposed she had eaten that food because she was hungry and had no choice, rather than because she cared about its taste. Perhaps that was why Yuri honestly couldn’t understand people who were passionate about visiting famous restaurants just to eat.
Her friend Iseo also loved food and had often taken Yuri around to famous restaurants. But honestly, Yuri had followed along without complaint because she enjoyed spending time with her friend more than she cared about the taste of the food.
Perhaps because she had expended so much energy the previous night, the moment she saw the food, she became ravenously hungry. Her stomach growled loudly.
Yuri hurriedly ate the soup. As her stomach settled and she began to feel full, her eyes suddenly grew hot.
“What is it about this little bowl of soup…?”
Ridiculously, the realization that this food had been made just for her made her emotional, and tears welled up in her eyes. Surely, when she had been young, her mother must have made food like this for her too, but she had no memories of it.
She had left the orphanage and grown up in a good home eating expensive food, but perhaps because she had never once thought about the taste and had regarded it as nothing more than food, actually tasting and appreciating it felt unfamiliar.
Yet the soup Hushin had made didn’t simply feel delicious. It made her feel grateful. It was the first food that seemed to fill the emptiness inside her heart—the heart that had been hungry her entire life.
Come to think of it, there were so many things she was doing for the first time with him….
Park Hushin was a difficult man for Yuri, yet he was someone she kept finding herself curious about.
She was surprised to discover that, unlike his cold outward appearance, he unexpectedly cared about other people.
Their relationship had begun with revenge, but Yuri did not regret it. The simple fact that she had acted according to her own will and thoughts for the first time had given her tremendous courage.
Perhaps Hushin would remain quite a special person in Yuri’s life from now on.
It was truly precious and meaningful food. Yuri swallowed back her tears and began forcing herself to finish the rest of the dishes as well.
＊＊＊
As Hushin had told her, Yuri finished all the food, quickly cleaned up the kitchen, and left his house.
Using public transportation with her exhausted body seemed impossible, so she called a taxi and returned to her studio apartment.
After taking a shower, Yuri was just about to dry her hair when she received a message.
Ding.
“Oh, it’s Iseo.”
Na Iseo.
Iseo was Yuri’s high school classmate and the only friend with whom she could share her innermost thoughts.
Yuri had been required to attend the same school as Seol-ah, so she had enrolled in an elite private high school mainly attended by children from wealthy families.
Iseo had entered the school through a special admission program for students receiving social consideration. Her father, who had been a firefighter, had died in the line of duty while fighting a major fire, making her eligible for national veterans’ benefits.
Yuri had officially enrolled as a scholarship student sponsored by Royal Hotel, but there was no one at school who didn’t know that she was Seol-ah’s attendant.
Perhaps Iseo felt concerned seeing Yuri, who was in a similar position to herself in that crowd, because she was the first to reach out to her.
At first, Yuri had pushed her away because she felt awkward, but after realizing that Iseo was genuinely warm and cheerful, Yuri gradually opened up to her, and the two became best friends.
Iseo was currently using her vacation days to travel around Japan with her boyfriend. If she hadn’t been away, she would have immediately called Yuri out after learning about this situation.
Without hesitation, Yuri opened the message from Iseo.
[You’re doing okay, right? I’m going to buy you a wedding present before I come back to Korea tomorrow, but why do you keep saying you don’t need one? Tell me your favorite color and design. I’ll buy you some sexy lingerie that’ll make you fall over when you see it.]
Yuri had a lot of thoughts as she read Iseo’s message.
“I miss you. Iseo….”
She couldn’t bring herself to tell her friend, who was on her first trip abroad, that her marriage had fallen apart. She didn’t want to ruin her friend’s long-awaited sweet vacation because of her.
So Yuri sent her a simple message.
[Iseo, I’m doing fine. You don’t have to buy me a present, so enjoy the rest of your trip, and contact me when you get back to Korea. Say hello to Kyungsoo for me too.]
[There’s something I saw here that I want. So don’t worry about me and enjoy yourself until the very end. When you get back to Korea, let’s definitely meet.]
[Oh, you little brat. When did you go shopping for sexy lingerie while pretending you weren’t interested? Fine. Your big sister will go with you and buy it for you, so just wait.]
[Okay….]
How surprised would Iseo be when she came back and heard that Yuri had called off her marriage?
But she would understand everything. She might even get angrier than Yuri and make a scene about going to find Hyunwoo herself.
Iseo was the person who understood Yuri’s circumstances and feelings better than anyone else, without Yuri even needing to explain everything.
Ever since high school, Iseo had always stayed by Yuri’s side, and there was something she constantly told her.
‘Jin Yuri, being too nice is your problem. If you’ve devoted yourself and been loyal to them to that extent, you can live independently and live your own life now.’
Yuri knew exactly what Iseo meant when she said those things, but she had been afraid to suddenly change her life.
If she had known things would turn out like this, she should have listened to Iseo long ago.
Even though she knew in her head that it was wrong, her body had been unable to disobey Joo Sang-hee and Seol-ah.
She had probably been gradually conditioned by them for more than twenty years….
Part of her had wanted to break free, but because she had become so accustomed to that environment, she was also afraid of the unfamiliar world where she would have to make every decision and live entirely on her own.
“So being too nice is my problem? Not anymore. I’ll never live like that again.”
Yuri stared at the messages she had exchanged with Iseo and muttered to herself.
In truth, Yuri had never been a child who simply endured everything and obeyed.
She had desperately tried to win Joo Sang-hee’s favor so that she wouldn’t be sent back to the orphanage, and she had suppressed her temper while doing everything she could to become indispensable to Seol-ah.
Outwardly, she had quietly done everything they told her to do, but inwardly, she had probably cursed them in every possible way.
The time had finally come for all those suppressed emotions to explode. The catalyst had been Seol-ah and Hyunwoo’s immoral behavior, but when she thought about it, that fact itself wasn’t really what mattered.
Perhaps if Hyunwoo’s partner had not been Seol-ah, she might even have turned a blind eye to it just once….
She had never loved him in the first place. That incident had merely been the trigger that awakened the instincts she had been suppressing for so long.
Perhaps forcing herself to finish all the food Hushin had prepared had upset her stomach. After taking some digestive medicine from the medicine cabinet, Yuri collapsed onto the sofa.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Bang, bang, bang.
The noisy sounds assaulted her ears. Slowly lifting her heavy eyelids, Yuri forced her exhausted body up and walked over to the intercom.
“Ha…. This is driving me crazy.”
Standing before her eyes was Baek Seol-ah, visibly agitated.
“Hey! Jin Yuri. I know you’re home, so open the door. If you don’t, I’ll force it open and come in myself.”
Her voice from outside the front door sounded so loud that it seemed as though she were standing right beside Yuri. Yuri hesitated for a moment before opening the door.
She had to meet her sooner or later anyway. She knew all too well that avoiding her would only make things harder for herself.
The moment the door opened, Seol-ah pushed her way inside without permission. She didn’t even take off her shoes before walking over to the sofa and sitting down as though it were her own home.
Seeing her boldly enter the living space in her high heels without the slightest bit of courtesy suddenly made Yuri feel as though she couldn’t breathe.
“What brings you here?”
Seol-ah stared intently at Yuri, who stood before her with a completely drained complexion. Then she tossed the tote bag she had been carrying onto the sofa and stood up.
