Chapter 4
The man spoke to her without the slightest hesitation, his eyes looking somewhat bored.
Was that faint glimmer in them curiosity?
“Do you know me?”
She asked as she slipped her phone into her bag.
The man responded with a question of his own.
“Don’t you know me?”
Even his voice was unbearably self-assured. His smooth, rich baritone curled pleasantly around her eardrums.
Seo gazed straight at him before answering.
“I do.”
Of course she did. She knew him very well.
She had spent nearly two hours reading a report about him, after all.
An unofficial race held at the Formula Circuit in Jeju Island. The report had detailed every last thing he had done there.
Apparently, he had a pretty pair of racing models draped over his arms while he poured alcohol down his throat, rubbed himself against them, and threw money around like it meant nothing.
And that wasn’t all. He had even placed bets on an otherwise perfectly legitimate race, dragging down the prestige of the competition.
Before long, the participants had started shouting at one another, and the argument had eventually escalated into a fistfight.
Kwon Jae-eon, meanwhile, had watched the whole thing as though it were the most entertaining spectacle imaginable.
What a waste of a handsome face.
It was almost admirable how recklessly women threw themselves at a man like him, falling for his looks alone like moths drawn to a flame.
“Then enjoy yourself.”
Uncomfortable with the prospect of spending another moment facing him, Seo gave him a slight nod and turned to leave.
“What’s your name?”
The man’s voice stopped her in her tracks.
When she turned back, the eyes that had looked so bored just moments ago now glinted with a peculiar light, their gaze sharpened by arrogance.
“You said you know who I am, right? But I don’t know who you are. Doesn’t that seem a little unfair?”
The curiosity in that handsome face was anything but ordinary.
“What would you do if I told you?”
“There’s an open spot. Want to join us?”
“…?”
“If you’re okay with a threesome, that is.”
At his words, Seo’s face twisted ever so slightly in disgust.
“Just as I’d heard…”
“What, that I’m trash?”
The corner of his mouth curved into a smile, and the tilt of his lips was devastatingly seductive.
Looking straight at him, Seo opened her mouth.
“I said you’re a slut.”
For a moment, the man stared at her before bursting into laughter.
Throwing his handsome head back, he laughed as though he were genuinely delighted.
Who on earth laughed after being insulted to his face? What a strange man. And yet, she couldn’t help admiring the sight of that wide, radiant smile.
It really was a shame to waste such a gorgeous face on a man who behaved like a slut.
“Then…”
Seo tore her gaze away from his face and dipped her head in a slight bow.
“I hope you find a good partner.”
With an expressionless face and not a trace of emotion in her voice, she delivered the words before turning around and walking away.
Watching the woman’s retreating figure, Jae-eon slowly let his laughter fade.
His gaze remained fixed on her back as she descended the stairs and crossed the first-floor lobby.
When she finally opened the door and disappeared completely from sight, a quiet chuckle escaped him.
He lifted the hand that had been resting on the sofa and lightly brushed the corner of his mouth, still curved with amusement.
“What on earth was that?”
“What was what?”
Yoon-gi had just appeared, carrying a bottle of champagne and two empty glasses. He frowned and glanced over his shoulder.
“What happened?”
Still looking toward the place where the woman had disappeared, Jae-eon answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
“She insulted me right to my face.”
Yoon-gi stared at him in bewilderment. Despite claiming to have been insulted, Jae-eon was still smirking.
“Which bastard did that?”
Taking the glass Yoon-gi offered him, Jae-eon replied,
“Which… a lovely young lady.”
At his answer, Yoon-gi’s eyes widened.
“A woman?”
He looked utterly dumbfounded, as though he couldn’t comprehend how such a thing was possible, while filling Jae-eon’s glass with champagne.
“No, seriously. Which woman?”
Wondering who on earth possessed such courage, Yoon-gi craned his neck to look around.
But the only women in sight were those hyena-like creatures constantly looking for an opportunity to get their claws into Jae-eon.
Every single one of them watched him with unmistakable longing, twisting and writhing their bodies as though they were made of rubber.
That was the normal reaction, wasn’t it? And someone had actually insulted him?
In response to Yoon-gi’s bewilderment, Jae-eon answered indifferently.
“I guess I’m not her type.”
“What are you talking about? There’s a saying, ‘Kwon Jae-eon is above anyone’s type.’”
Then he arrived at his own conclusion.
“Is this some new tactic? Like, there’s no ordinary way to seduce Kwon Jae-eon, so she’s trying something different?”
As if.
The look in the woman’s eyes when she had stared at him moments ago had been unmistakable contempt.
As though she were looking at a genuinely filthy slut…
Jae-eon scoffed.
“Forget it.”
The women who had been watching from a distance, each waiting for someone else to make the first move after Jae-eon’s arrival, were now approaching him one by one.
No doubt they had heard that things were over between him and Sienna and were eager to seize their chance.
But did he look like someone who would let just anyone get close to him?
His head was already beginning to throb.
“Just close the door. The perfume stinks.”
At his words, Yoon-gi hurriedly pressed the button for the folding doors.
The tightly fitted glass panels concealed the women swarming toward them like cats in heat.
Watching them disappear behind the doors, Yoon-gi shook his head in exasperation and spoke up.
“You can’t blame those women, you know. This is all your fault.”
It was Jae-eon’s fault for pretending to be interested when he had no interest at all.
His fault for acting as though he might give them something when he had no intention of giving them anything.
His fault for never turning away a woman who approached him, yet never chasing after one who left.
His face and body looked like they had committed a hundred lifetimes’ worth of sins, and yet he never acted carelessly. Instead, he kept everyone hanging, giving them just enough hope to keep trying.
It was all his fault. His fault. His fault.
“I can hear you.”
Jae-eon frowned, a faint trace of irritation in his expression, and swallowed some champagne.
“And I already know all that.”
Naturally. It was exactly what he had intended.
“I didn’t even say anything.”
“Your eyes are making too much noise.”
Yoon-gi let out an incredulous laugh at the reprimand before dropping heavily onto the sofa.
Jae-eon raised one eyebrow slightly, then furrowed his brow.
His dark, sharply focused gaze settled on Yoon-gi.
“…Did you change your perfume?”
The moment Yoon-gi sat down, a peculiar floral fragrance had spread faintly through the air.
Intrigued by the strangely enticing scent, Jae-eon leaned forward until the tip of his nose was right next to Yoon-gi.
Yoon-gi sucked in a sharp breath and pressed himself against the back of the sofa, his shoulders stiffening.
“Hey, even if I am a man, you’re going to make my heart flutter if you do that.”
As though to prove his point, he took Jae-eon’s hand and placed it against his chest.
“See? It’s pounding.”
“And I’m not wearing any perfume, okay? This is one hundred percent my natural scent.”
“Really?”
Smiling faintly, Jae-eon withdrew his hand from Yoon-gi’s chest and leaned in a little closer.
“Definitely your natural scent. You smell like a sweaty old man.”
Jae-eon stretched out his arm, bringing his nose close enough to nearly brush Yoon-gi’s neck, and grabbed the cream-colored scarf lying in the corner of the sofa. Only then did he straighten up and return to his original position.
“A-a sweaty old man…?”
No, absolutely not! He had even switched to a ridiculously expensive shower gel, damn it.
With his face flushed, Yoon-gi alternately raised his arms and sniffed himself.
Meanwhile, Jae-eon placed the scarf on the table and finally realized where the fragrance was coming from. A quiet laugh escaped him.
“Cute.”
And a little sly, too.
Remembering the woman who had mocked him in such a calm, matter-of-fact voice, Jae-eon drained his champagne glass in one go.
After leaving Club Ryun, Seo pulled her coat collar tighter around her neck.
It was mid-January, and the icy wind slashed sharply across her cheeks.
She had left her scarf in the corner of the sofa, but she couldn’t bring herself to go back inside to retrieve it.
Thinking about what had just happened, Seo let out a thin sigh.
Even if that man had been the one to bring up a threesome first, she shouldn’t have called him a slut just because he was exactly what she’d heard he was…
How could she say something like that right to his face? And to the grandson of her employer, no less?
What if she got fired?
Still, there was one thing that reassured her: Taesung Group’s headquarters, where she worked, and TS Motors were located in Gangnam and Songpa, respectively, far enough apart that she was unlikely to run into him.
Kwon Jae-eon was the CEO of TS Motors, while Yoon Seo was nothing more than a junior lawyer who had only recently joined the legal team at the group’s headquarters.
Compared to Kwon Jae-eon, a colossal star in the sky, Yoon Seo was smaller than a speck of cosmic dust. There was practically no chance of their paths crossing.
Naturally, he wouldn’t even remember her face.
Still, she regretted leaving her scarf behind, so Seo turned to look back one more time.
The moment she looked toward the club, Kwon Jae-eon inevitably came to mind.
His gaze, which had fixed itself so intently on her. The smooth curve of his lips as they tilted into that smile.
His voice, which had slipped softly into her ears, and that languid smile of his.
And yet, none of those things could erase the memory of what had happened…
“What, that I’m trash?”
“I said you’re a slut.”
Remembering what she had done, Seo shuddered.
If she made one wrong move, she might lose the comfortable job she had only just managed to secure.
She could ask Won-i to retrieve the scarf for her and make sure it was kept safe. For now, the best thing to do was to stay away.
After leaving Won-i a message, Seo easily shook off her lingering attachment, as she always did, and set off down the cold winter street.
Her home was only two and a half blocks away from Won-i’s club.
Having regained her composure, Seo strolled leisurely through the winter night, even enjoying the icy wind that cut across her face.
She was now only half a block from home.
That was when her phone rang.
