BTUB 05

Chapter: 05

Eunjae felt a ticklish sensation coming from somewhere and instinctively hunched her shoulders.

The moment she heard his voice, a cold premonition ran down her back. She wished the voice of Joo Taegun was merely part of a dream, but judging by the breath she could feel behind her shoulder, this was reality.

“If you’re awake, let’s talk.”

A reality she could neither escape nor turn away from.

“Don’t ignore me.”

……Could she pretend to be asleep again?

She thought about it, but the intense gaze of Joo Taegun was frightening enough to make her skin prickle.

With the desperate wish to fall asleep again, Eunjae reluctantly turned her head. In the darkness, Joo Taegun’s eyes shone brightly, as though he had been waiting all this time just to meet her gaze.

“When did I ever ignore you, Vice President?”

“Until just now.”

“Not at all! Absolutely not!”

His calm tone was frightening, as though he were holding a knife to her throat.

She only swallowed nervously before suddenly widening her eyes in surprise.

“Stay still.”

“What?”

“I’m going to get a bandage.”

Creak.

The bed shook. Joo Taegun got off the bed and approached somewhere, then rummaged through a bag with a rustling sound.

Only then did Eunjae lower her gaze and realize the source of the ticklish sensation she had been feeling all this time.

‘Ah…….’

Apparently, she had injured herself when she fell. There was a wound on her right knee. Beside her knee were ointment and cotton swabs that appeared to have been placed there after Joo Taegun had just finished applying the ointment.

‘Did he treat it himself?’

Eunjae stared blankly at her knee, which was glistening from the ointment. Just as she continued thinking about it, Joo Taegun returned and sat down on the edge of the bed.

“This is my house.”

Without paying any attention to the tense Eunjae, who was holding her breath, Taegun tore open a bandage and muttered bluntly.

“What? Vice President’s house?”

Eunjae quietly asked as she watched him personally place a bandage over her knee.

“I couldn’t wake you even after shaking you, so I brought you here for the time being. I didn’t know your home address, and I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“…….”

“It was too late, so the hospital was already closed. I called my attending physician to examine you, and he said you were fine aside from mild symptoms of a concussion, so don’t worry.”

Only then did she clearly remember what had happened just before she lost consciousness. Seeing Joo Taegun with his shirt neatly changed made the memory even clearer.

“I’m sorry, and thank you, Vice President. I’ll pay for the laundry…….”

“Laundry?”

“Because I spilled water on you…….”

As Eunjae rambled on with her excuses, she flinched at a stinging sensation and frowned. Regardless, Joo Taegun firmly pressed the bandage onto her knee and let out a small laugh.

“Judging by the fact that you’re calling me Vice President, I suppose you already knew about me.”

……I messed up.

‘Should I have pretended not to know?’

Eunjae tightly shut her mouth and desperately racked her complicated mind.

In truth, she wanted to disappear from this place as quickly as possible, but since this was Joo Taegun’s house, escaping immediately was difficult. She did not even know where they were or how far they were from the company.

“Are you thinking about running away again?”

On top of that, Joo Taegun was an extraordinarily perceptive man. She had merely glanced furtively toward the bottom of the bed, but he reached out his hand like a ghost and blocked her.

“What? Run away? When did I ever run away…….”

“I wanted to ask you this the next time we met.”

Joo Taegun tossed the empty bandage box into the corner of the bed before demanding sharply,

“Ms. Han Eunjae, do you have a hobby of grabbing random men and kissing them?”

“Of course not!!”

Eunjae jumped in shock and raised her voice. That day, she had simply been desperate. If that incident had never happened in the first place, she would never have grabbed a strange man and asked him for help!

But Joo Taegun snorted, folded his arms, and stared down at her. His hair swayed lightly in a breeze that came from somewhere.

“Then why didn’t you contact me sooner?”

“How could I possibly contact the vice president? I was so flustered after what happened that day…….”

“You knew I was the vice president.”

Joo Taegun’s voice became sharp again. Feeling a pang of guilt, Eunjae quickly began her next excuse.

“I only found out that the man was the vice president this morning. I saw your face in the company newsletter. Before that, I really didn’t know.”

Joo Taegun’s eyes narrowed even further. His gaze was unmistakably suspicious. Eunjae’s already timid voice gradually shrank to a whisper.

“Th-that day was pretty shocking for me…… so I also forgot about it.”

“You forgot that?”

What on earth was the problem?

As far as Eunjae was concerned, it was a fairly reasonable excuse, but Joo Taegun’s voice instead became even more ominously low. Eunjae trembled like a mouse trapped in a corner, watching his reaction.

“Th-then how did the vice president know about me and come all the way to my office? Did you investigate me?”

“Are you calling me a stalker now?”

“I-it wouldn’t hurt to be suspicious. I only recently went through something frightening.”

No matter how handsome Joo Taegun was, how strong his physique was, or how excellent his family background was, things would be different if he were a stalker. It would mean he was similar to Team Leader Kang.

Perhaps that suspicion had seriously offended Joo Taegun’s pride, because he gave a derisive laugh and tossed something at her. Eunjae instinctively caught the object he threw, and her eyes widened.

“Huh? This is…….”

The neatly rectangular piece of paper was unmistakably Han Eunjae’s own business card.

“I found your business card among the bills you gave me that day.”

“…….”

“I thought you had deliberately given me your contact information from the beginning. Wasn’t that the case?”

If so, Joo Taegun must have known who she was for quite some time already.

A mere assistant manager at his company, an ordinary little citizen trying to get by.

It felt as though ice water were being poured over the top of her head.

“Ten thousand dollars for one kiss. That’s a bit much for payment.”

“It wasn’t payment for that kind of thing!”

At his unexpected choice of words, Eunjae frantically waved both arms and vehemently denied it. The idea that she had treated the vice president like a prostitute was absurd, but of course, since she was guilty of what she had done, she could not exactly hold her head high.

“That day…….”

While Joo Taegun watched her expectantly, Eunjae hesitantly opened her reluctant mouth.

“I’m really sorry about that day. My team leader kept confessing his feelings and harassing me…… so I was pretending to have a lover and trying to run away. Then I happened to notice a man who stood out…….”

“It happened to be me?”

Taegun’s face, which had been quietly listening to her story, became even more rigid. Then a twisted smile appeared around his lips as he whispered menacingly,

“If it had been another man instead of me…… you would have kissed him just like you did that day?”

Eunjae remained silent with a miserable expression. According to her own argument, there was nothing wrong with what Joo Taegun had just said.

She considered saying that she had taken his appearance into consideration, but she had no idea whether telling the vice president that she had not minded because he was handsome would produce a good response.

“I-I didn’t just grab anyone.”

“Then.”

But when Taegun pressed her with a low, growling voice, she could not hold out any longer. As he gradually leaned his upper body closer, his gaze grew fierce.

Meeting his eyes, she began making excuses in every direction.

“It’s just that you’re tall and handsome, so I felt a little less intimidated! Of course! I didn’t know you were the vice president at the time, and I never originally intended to kiss you, either. Uh, at least, it’s not like I do that to just anyone…… I-I was simply in an emergency situation…….”

The longer her excuse became, the quieter her voice grew. Eunjae could not bring herself to check Taegun’s expression and instead hunched her back, trembling.

She had been too desperate that day to think clearly, but impulsively kissing him, throwing money at him, and running away afterward had been completely insane.

So she could not bring herself to boldly argue that she had only lightly touched his chin with her lips and that he had been the one to turn it into a kiss.

“So, in other words…… if there had been any tall and handsome man, you would have seduced him.”

Did it really sound like that?

Eunjae was too flustered to answer properly, and naturally, Taegun’s expression grew even darker.

Her stumbling expression twisted into an even more miserable look.

“S-seduce you? That’s an absurd thing to say.”

“If that wasn’t seduction, then what was it?”

The moment Joo Taegun sharply questioned her, Eunjae was overwhelmed by a sense of injustice. She did not think she deserved to hear words like “seduction” over merely brushing her lips against the tip of his chin.

Besides, the one who had responded passionately to the kiss was not her…….

“Anyway, Ms. Han Eunjae.”

Meanwhile, Joo Taegun looked down at Eunjae with a lofty gaze, his arms folded.

He thought that he had to corner her without giving that tiny head of hers even a chance to think. Otherwise, this woman might suddenly disappear again, just as she had that day.

“Take responsibility for me.”

He had no intention of letting his target slip away twice right in front of his eyes.