Chapter : 05
Se-A slowly opened her eyes.
“Huh…?”
Je-Eon was looking down at her from so close that she could feel his breath. His strong arm was wrapped around Se-A’s waist.
“D-Director Han…”
“What are you doing here?”
What… had she been doing?
She was so startled that her mind went blank for a moment.
“Well…”
She felt the large hand withdraw from her stiffened body.
The spot around her waist where his palm had rested still felt hot, as though the warmth of his touch remained.
“What, what is this? Are you with that lady?”
The man who had been threatening Se-A and speaking rudely to her the entire time suddenly became exceedingly polite when someone who looked stronger than him appeared.
“If she’s with me…”
Je-Eon’s eyes turned cold, and his words became curt.
“What are you going to do about it?”
Even without saying anything more, the low voice carried a distinctly intimidating aura.
The drunk flinched. Unlike his own body, which was surrounded by layers of fat, the other man had a solid, muscular build, and he instinctively shrank back.
Even through his drunkenness, he could vividly sense the murderous intent in Je-Eon’s eyes.
As the drunk felt threatened and tried to back away, his wrist was suddenly seized.
“What, what the hell? Why are you grabbing someone else’s arm?”
The man shouted, the veins in his neck bulging.
“You said you did it first.”
Je-Eon calmly twisted his thick wrist in his grip.
“Ugh, aaagh!”
The man tried to yank his arm free from the tightening grip, but it would not budge.
The harder he struggled, the tighter Je-Eon’s hold became. The man’s body gradually curled in on itself like a squid.
Je-Eon twisted his wrist farther inward and stepped closer.
“I’m not allowed to do it too?”
“That’s not fair… Ngh, ugh!”
The man’s face contorted in pain.
Je-Eon stared him down until a scream finally escaped the man’s lips, then abruptly released his arm.
Although he merely gave him a slight push as he let go, the man toppled backward without putting up any resistance.
“Ah. My mistake.”
Je-Eon’s indifferent voice struck the man’s ears.
“Why, you son of a—!”
Driven by his pathetic pride, the man tried to make a last stand, but when the toe of Je-Eon’s shoe approached him, he turned and ran without even looking back.
Je-Eon watched the staggering man disappear before turning around.
He picked up Se-A’s phone from the ground and approached her.
“Are you all right?”
Se-A’s shoulders trembled as though she were shivering from the cold.
She had thought she was fine now, but she was nowhere near fine.
“Let’s go to my car for now.”
Je-Eon started walking toward where he had parked, then turned around when he realized Se-A wasn’t following.
“Ms. Han Se-A.”
“Yes, yes?”
Se-A stared at him with a dazed expression.
“Let’s go. Can’t you walk?”
“Oh… I can walk.”
But the moment she took a step, a sharp pain shot through her knee. Her palm stung as well.
When she turned it over, she saw that she had scraped it against the ground.
“Here. Hold on for now.”
Something came into focus through her hazy vision. Je-Eon was holding out his arm for her to take.
Knock, knock.
At the sound of someone tapping on the window, Se-A slowly opened her eyes.
When she turned toward the car window, Je-Eon was standing there, lightly shaking a pharmacy bag.
Apparently, she had fallen asleep for a moment while Je-Eon went to the pharmacy.
Click.
Je-Eon opened the passenger-side door, placed the bag on the dashboard, and opened it.
Inside were cotton swabs, ointment, and bandages.
“Can I see your hand?”
Almost reflexively, Se-A held out her hand, and his long, neat fingers took hold of her palm.
He applied ointment to the scrape she had gotten from falling.
The ticklish sensation made Se-A’s shoulders twitch slightly.
“Give me the other one too.”
“…”
After entrusting her other hand to Je-Eon as well, Se-A quietly watched his face as he treated her injuries.
Her eyes instinctively drifted toward his reddish lips.
“You can do this part yourself, right?”
“……!”
The moment Je-Eon suddenly raised his head and their eyes met, Se-A hurriedly looked at where he was pointing.
It was her knee.
“Ah, yes. Of course.”
But as soon as she lowered her head to apply the ointment, her head spun.
It must have been the alcohol.
“Give it to me. I’ll do it. It’s still medical treatment, after all.”
In the end, Je-Eon treated her knee as well.
Even if his actions were completely innocent, to Se-A, they felt like a form of physical intimacy.
That was why, even after the first aid was finished and Je-Eon returned to the driver’s seat, her heart continued to pound wildly.
“Thank you. But how did you know to call me? And how did you get here so quickly…?”
Everything about the situation seemed impossible—the phone call arriving at exactly the moment she was in danger, and Je-Eon appearing right then.
“Team Leader Park Hyun-Soo contacted me. He said everyone was having a good time at the company dinner thanks to me.”
“……?”
That brief answer did nothing to explain what the phone call had to do with this situation.
“He said everyone was drunk, so I came just in case. I was worried someone might wander off without telling anyone and get lost.”
“Wander off…?”
Je-Eon remained silent and simply looked at Se-A.
For some reason, she felt embarrassed under his gaze and looked away. But at his next words, she looked straight at him.
“You’ve done that before after drinking, haven’t you?”
Se-A blinked her round eyes.
“I mean walking around without a destination.”
“I have, sometimes… But how do you know that?”
“How do you think I know?”
“That’s what I’m asking. How do you know, Director?”
Je-Eon leaned his head against the headrest and slowly lowered his eyes, turning them toward her at an angle.
“You really don’t remember.”
“……?”
“You and I aren’t meeting for the first time.”
“What? That can’t be.”
The chances of someone like him crossing paths with her, whose activities were mostly confined to her neighborhood, were extremely slim.
There was no doubt that Je-Eon was mistaking her for someone else.
“You don’t remember anything?”
She had no idea what he was talking about.
She was the one who had been drinking, yet listening to Je-Eon, it almost seemed as though he were the one who was drunk.
“Are you sure you’re not mistaken, Director?”
“Me? No way.”
Suddenly, a mysterious voice began echoing in her ears.
At the end of the year.
For once, her aunt and uncle, who normally worked like ants from morning to night, had gone on a couples’ trip.
The moment they left, Jun-Hee called his friends over and started a drinking party in the living room.
“So, did you sleep with her? Come on, tell us.”
“Hey, asshole! Watch your wording when she can hear you.”
“Ah, sorry. So, did you spend the night with the girl you’re seeing?”
“Hahahaha! What a crazy bastard. ‘Did you spend the night?’”
Se-A glared at the firmly closed bedroom door and covered her ears.
I don’t want to hear this. What the hell is so funny?
Whenever her aunt and uncle came home late from work, Jun-Hee always took over the living room like this.
Normally, he finished before nine at night, but today was the end of the year, so it looked like the gathering wouldn’t be ending early.
[Can you come out now?]
The moment Se-A contacted Do-Won, he called her.
—You want to meet?
“Yeah. Is that okay?”
—Sure. I’ll come over there.
Se-A threw on a padded jacket and left her room.
Jun-Hee and his friends, who had been talking loudly, all turned their attention toward her at once.
“What’s up? You going out?”
“Yeah.”
“At this hour? Hey, it’s already past ten.”
“A friend said they were nearby.”
“A friend?”
Se-A noticed Jun-Hee’s eyes quickly scanning her from head to toe.
“Yeah. Go ahead. Call me if anything happens.”
Se-A didn’t pay much attention to Jun-Hee’s words.
He probably wasn’t saying it sincerely anyway.
She met Do-Won at a bar in the neighborhood. After leaving the orphanage, Do-Won had deliberately found a place to live near Se-A’s aunt’s house. They were both busy making a living, so they couldn’t meet often.
After catching up over drinks for the first time in a while, they eventually parted ways. But when Se-A heard voices loud enough to carry all the way outside the villa, she turned around and started walking again.
“Let’s walk around a little longer.”
Perhaps to sober up a bit, she walked for quite some time.
When she finally came to her senses, she realized she had wandered into a place she didn’t recognize.
Her phone battery had died, rendering it useless, and her feet were beginning to ache. After hesitating for a moment, Se-A asked a passerby for directions.
“Excuse me. Where are we?”
But the man simply ignored her and continued walking away at a brisk pace.
“Excuse me!”
In her urgency, Se-A practically ran after him and grabbed his arm.
He was the only passerby around, so she had no choice.
Slowly, the man’s sharp jawline turned toward her, and he removed the Bluetooth earbud from his ear.
“Do I know you?”
Contrary to his intimidating expression, which looked as though he might say something terrifying, his manner of speaking was polite.
Se-A’s vision wavered from the alcohol, but the man’s intimidating gaze remained crystal clear.
