Chapter 10
“It’s raining.”
Lately, there had been a lot of autumn rain. As Seoyeon stir-fried the anchovies, she took her eyes off the window.
Cha Dogeon had replied to her text with only a short “Yes.” It had been just ten minutes ago.
‘Did I ask him to come when he’s already busy for no reason?’
Seoyeon regretted it. She wondered if she had meddled too much.
What happened at the company today could have been a coincidence, and the idea that he had done it for her was nothing more than a guess.
‘Or I might have misunderstood.’
Even as she put the crispy, tender, and sweetly braised anchovies onto a plate, her regret grew as high as the pile of anchovies.
‘I heard it’s hard even to make an appointment to visit Morrismore Investment. He must have more work than one person could possibly handle.’
With the time difference from the U.S. headquarters as well, how tired must he be?
‘I shouldn’t have done it.’
Her hands were full of regret as she squeezed the water out of the blanched spinach.
The same was true when she added sesame oil and sesame salt to give it a nutty flavor.
“Ah…”
As if she had just woken up, Seoyeon suddenly realized.
The entire time she had spent cooking fresh rice, making kimchi stew, preparing rolled omelet, and making six side dishes, there had been one person occupying her mind.
Cha Dogeon.
As if trying to shake the thought away, Seoyeon shook her head slightly.
“I should thank someone who did me a favor.”
The Chairman regularly visited her house and ate homemade meals. It was not such a big deal, was it? Only the person had changed.
“It’s just one meal.”
Haesik worked part-time as an instructor at a sports academy for college entrance exams, and he had said that he would be staying there overnight today because it was exam season.
Oh Sanghyuk had said something had come up at his family home and had not been able to come home for several days.
Seoyeon gathered all sorts of reasonable excuses.
‘Eating together is better than eating alone.’
At 7:30, the doorbell rang. Seoyeon opened the front door while still wearing her apron.
“Oh my…”
Dogeon was standing there, completely drenched in rain. His hair and clothes clung to him as if he had just showered in the pouring rain.
His hair had fallen over his forehead, holding droplets of water. Water had gathered on his thick eyebrows. His eyelashes glistened dangerously with moisture.
It was only when he wiped the water from his face as if washing it that Seoyeon finally returned to reality.
“What happened to your umbrella?”
“I was running late, so I took a quick-service motorcycle here and couldn’t use an umbrella.”
For a moment, Seoyeon furrowed her brow deeply and glared at Dogeon.
“Come inside.”
His socks were soaked through, making a wet squelching sound when he took off his shoes, so he eventually had to remove his wet socks too.
‘Ah… Look at those eyes.’
As Seoyeon handed him a large towel, her eyes filled with anger, and Dogeon gained a great realization.
In vulgar terms, he had personally experienced that Lee Seoyeon’s eyes could actually roll back in her head.
As he stepped into the house barefoot with a squelching sound, she stood there with her arms crossed in a battle-ready stance.
“Mr. Cha Dogeon, what on earth are you doing?”
As he dried himself, Dogeon casually narrowed his eyes.
“Why? I made a great effort to get here on time.”
“What if you had gotten into an accident on the wet road? Are you out of your mind?”
She opened her mouth to continue scolding him, but then seemed to give up and grabbed his arm.
“You’re not a child. Getting soaked in this weather… Hurry and follow me.”
As they went up the stairs to the second floor, she continued to nag him.
“You know how bad colds can be in Korea. You really have no sense. You could have just told me you’d be late. What’s so important about dinner time? Are you out of your mind?”
She kept nagging him until they reached the bathroom, then opened the light-green door.
“I hate people who can’t take care of themselves.”
She filled the bathtub with hot water and added eucalyptus salt, which was said to be good for colds.
“Come out after twenty minutes. I’ll leave some clothes outside the door.”
As she waited for his answer with her hands on her waist, Dogeon slowly raised his gaze from her fingertips until their eyes met.
“Wow.”
‘Even my grandfather never nagged me. Why does this woman’s nagging sound more like concern than nagging?’
He placed the towel on the sink.
“If I stay in here for twenty minutes, I won’t catch a cold?”
“You can joke at a time like this? You’re the CEO, aren’t you? If the CEO gets sick, the employees work with the feeling of having a sick parent. Do you even know that? Don’t you understand how important your health is?”
There was no way she actually felt as if her parents were involved over something as trivial as a cold.
‘It sounds more like that’s how you feel. Something like, “If Cha Dogeon gets sick, my heart aches terribly.”’
As Dogeon struggled to take off his clinging jacket, a small hand touched his back. Seoyeon had moved behind him and was pulling at the sleeve of his jacket.
When his skin showed through the shirt that was plastered against his body, Seoyeon became flustered and turned her gaze away.
“Twenty minutes.”
The corners of his mouth kept curving into a smile.
“Okay. Twenty minutes.”
With a prim expression, Seoyeon turned around.
“I’ll leave the clothes outside the door.”
Holding an umbrella, Seoyeon went to a lingerie shop five minutes from her house.
She picked out the simplest pair of men’s boxer briefs and tried to find something suitable for wearing around the house, but in the end, the only thing she could find was pajamas.
“I can ask Mr. Cha Dogeon’s secretary to bring his clothes while we eat.”
Since he was tall, she bought an XL, but the pants would clearly be too short.
“I have to buy these, at least.”
He was an impatient person, so if he came out before twenty minutes and had to walk around naked, it would be a disaster. So Seoyeon started running at full speed through the rain.
Panting heavily, she went up to the second floor. The closer she got to the bathroom, the clearer his singing became.
“My sweet honey~ Come back to me, honey~”
He was singing in a deep voice like a professional singer, apparently putting a lot of emotion into it.
Knock, knock.
She knocked on the door.
“I left the clothes here.”
Hearing Seoyeon’s voice, he sang even louder.
‘Phew. I made it back in time.’
Only then did Seoyeon relax and place a hand on the back of her neck.
Wearing striped pajamas from top to bottom, Dogeon entered the kitchen.
‘As expected, the pants…’
It was the first time Seoyeon realized that pajama pants could be this embarrassing, so she turned her gaze toward the table.
“Please eat.”
She pointed at the dining table.
At the very least, the Chairman always praised the food as soon as he saw a table full of dishes. But this man, Cha Dogeon, looked down at the table with the expression of a judge at a cooking competition, his arms crossed.
“The kimchi in the kimchi stew. Did you make it yourself?”
“It’s last year’s kimchi.”
“Did you use seasoning?”
“I don’t use it.”
His sharp gaze now moved toward the seasoned spinach.
“What did you use for the seasoning?”
“Soy sauce.”
“Oh-ho. You know what you’re doing.”
This time, his index finger pointed toward the rolled omelet.
“Did you put salted shrimp in it?”
“Yes, salted shrimp.”
After throwing questions at her about every side dish, he finally sat down at the table.
“Should I contact your secretary and ask him to bring your clothes?”
“That’s a good idea. Just a moment.”
With a serious expression, Dogeon took out his phone and immediately called Hee-cheol.
He put the call on speakerphone.
[CEO?]
“I got caught in the rain. Can you come here now?”
[What? Right now?]
“Yeah. Bring some clothes.”
Seoyeon, who was picking at her rice grain by grain, seemed to be concentrating on the conversation.
“I mean clothes to change into.”
[I’m in Gangneung right now.]
Seoyeon drank some water with an absurd expression on her face.
“Ah, you’re in Gangneung. So you can’t come?”
[I’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning.]
Seoyeon quietly called out to him.
“Mr. Cha Dogeon.”
Dogeon raised a finger to his lips.
[CEO, where are you?]
“18 Yeonhwa-dong. Be here by seven tomorrow morning.”
After the call ended, Dogeon’s expression relaxed considerably as he scooped up some stew. Perhaps because he was in a hurry, Seoyeon leaned her upper body forward slightly.
“I can drive you home.”
“No, I’ll pass. I’m the CEO of Morrismore. If I get photographed getting into your car wearing pajamas, rumors will spread, the stock price will fall, and our major clients could even stop doing business with us. In short, it would be a disaster.”
Seoyeon put down her spoon and stood up.
“The underground shopping mall might still be open.”
“You have to know when to give up quickly. That’s one of the secrets to living life well. I only wear one brand, and they only sell it at C Department Store in Gangnam. You could try going there.”
It was obvious the store would close before she could get there. Dogeon’s expression became noticeably more relaxed as he lightly tapped his chopsticks together in the air.
He placed side dishes on top of his rice, carefully building a precarious tower before putting it into his mouth. He nodded in satisfaction.
“I heard you were good at cooking, but you really are good.”
Seoyeon narrowed her eyes and glared at him.
“I think your build is similar to Haesik’s since he works out. I’ll lend you Haesik’s clothes.”
“I don’t want to.”
“What?”
“I don’t like wearing other people’s clothes.”
“You can’t sleep here.”
After finishing an entire bowl of rice, Dogeon held out the empty bowl.
“Give me more rice.”
“I’m really saying you can’t sleep here.”
“You’re not going to give me rice?”
Holding his rice bowl, Dogeon stood up and walked toward the electric pressure rice cooker.
“I’ve never opened one of these. How do you open it?”
Seoyeon almost snapped, ‘You can’t even open a rice cooker?’ but bit her lip instead.
“Turn this to the right and press here.”
As she explained, he wasn’t looking at the rice cooker. His voice suddenly came from somewhere much closer, near the back of her neck.
“You know what?”
His warm breath brushed against the back of her neck.
“You and I have the same scent on our skin, Ms. Lee Seoyeon.”
