IGYW 03

Chapter : 3

I-eum quietly took a sip of the tea served before the meal and set it down.

Representative Park, a year older than her father Chang-shin, was sitting across from her with a greasy smile on his face.

“Hello, I-eum. It’s nice to see you again.”

His glossy suit, reflecting the light dully, reminded her of a silver hairtail fish that had been caught a long time ago. The eyes that subtly scanned I-eum from head to toe were just like those of a rotten fish.

She had never believed the claim that all she had to do was have one meal, but now that she had figured out Chang-shin’s intentions for sending her here, I-eum already felt as though she had indigestion.

“You should have nourishing food when the CSAT is just around the corner. So I called you here because your older brother wanted to buy you something delicious. By any chance, did our I-eum remember your older brother?”

I-eum shook her head.

“You don’t remember. Well, that makes sense. I haven’t seen our I-eum since you were very young.”

Representative Park continued, putting on a benevolent smile.

“I was so surprised. Our I-eum has grown this much already. When you were little, you were just as cute as a fairy, but now…”

His aged voice trembled slightly, unable to hide his filthy emotions.

Just as I-eum felt nauseous and frowned, about to raise her head—

“Representative, your meal is ready.”

There was a knock, and the waiters entered and began serving the food.

Should I run away even now?

As I-eum wondered that, the man spoke.

“Our I-eum is already almost twenty. Time really flies, doesn’t it?”

Representative Park waited until the staff who had finished serving the food left. Then he leaned his upper body toward her and said,

“I’ll get straight to the point. I came here because I want to marry I-eum.”

I-eum was not surprised.

She knew that her grandfather, Yeon Ho-nam, wanted not only his son Chang-shin but even his young granddaughters to have someone powerful backing them.

Representative Park, who leisurely watched I-eum sitting stiffly as her thoughts multiplied, curled the corners of his lips upward.

“I was too abrupt, wasn’t I? You must already have a lot on your mind because of the CSAT, and then I suddenly bring up marriage. I’m sorry if I startled you. I’m just a little pressed for time.”

As if he had anticipated I-eum’s silent reaction, he called over a waiter and had something brought to them.

A small glass was brought over as though it had been prepared in advance.

“Here, drink this. Having a drink at times like this helps you relax.”

“This is alcohol.”

For the first time, I-eum had spoken, and the man smiled warmly as if he found her adorable.

“I-eum is such a good girl. But it’s okay to drink alcohol when an adult offers it to you. Here, go ahead.”

His face, smiling as though he were a kind man, was disgusting.

I-eum knew that look in the eyes of a criminal consumed by lust all too well. She could clearly tell what he intended to do after getting her drunk.

With an expressionless face, I-eum said,

“What am I supposed to trust?”

“Hm?”

“Who knows if you put something in it.”

Representative Park looked startled for a moment. Then he burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahahaha! They say kids these days are quite daring, and I guess it’s true. Who would put anything in it? Do I really look like the kind of person who would do that to you, I-eum?”

Just as I-eum was about to answer with an expressionless face that he did—

“Guest, you cannot enter the reserved room…!”

BANG!

Suddenly, the door was violently thrown open.

Both Representative Park and I-eum, who turned around, widened their eyes in surprise.

“Teach—”

Before I-eum could even finish saying “Teacher,” Ji-hoon entered the room in the blink of an eye, picked up the glass placed in front of her, and brought it beneath his nose.

“W-what the hell are you doing!”

But only after shouting did Representative Park seem to recognize Ji-hoon. His eyes suddenly widened, and his chin began to tremble.

Ji-hoon slammed the glass down in front of the man.

“Drink.”

“Y-you…!”

“Drink it in front of me. Before I report you to the press.”

At the mention of the press, he flinched. Then his face turned bright red, and he abruptly stood up.

“Driver Kim! Driver Kim!”

But Ji-hoon grabbed the back of the man’s neck as though there was no way he would let him get away, while saying to I-eum,

“Kid. Close your eyes.”

The moment I-eum instinctively closed her eyes, the sounds of things being struck and shattered, along with Representative Park’s desperate screams, rang out noisily.

BANG, CRACK! CRASH—!

She had become so accustomed to the ugly, disgraceful, and horrible things adults showed her that she was sick of them.

Even so, I-eum did not open her eyes until the very end.

Instead, she wanted to protect Ji-hoon’s feelings—the feelings of someone who cared about preserving her innocence.

Because he was the only adult who had treated her like a child.

On the way home, it rained heavily.

I-eum gazed absently at the streams of rain tapping against the window, then shifted her eyes slightly.

Ji-hoon, who was holding the steering wheel, had been silent for a while.

She did not know what he had done to the middle-aged man earlier. By the time she heard his voice telling her that it was okay to open her eyes, everything had already been taken care of.

“I’ll take you home.”

The rain grew heavier, and there was no one on the streets. The roadside trees swayed frighteningly in the wind and rain.

But I-eum’s heart was different.

It felt like a warm spring day.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m fine.”

“Still, cover yourself.”

A large jacket was casually tossed onto her lap.

He was probably concerned about her thighs, which were clearly exposed. He said he wasn’t a teacher, but he was someone who guided students even more than a teacher would. That was why I-eum called him “Teacher.”

After tossing the jacket over her, she glanced again at Ji-hoon, who was still watching the road ahead, and asked,

“How did you know to come?”

“Just happened to be there.”

“Why did you help me?”

Only then did Ji-hoon’s gaze fall on I-eum.

His eyes were still sharp, as though something displeased him, but every time their eyes met, I-eum’s heart fluttered so much that she could not calm herself.

It was a feeling she had experienced for the first time in her life, making it difficult even to put into words.

“Was I supposed to just leave a suspicious situation like that alone?”

“Why was it suspicious? You could have thought he was my father.”

At her reply, Ji-hoon closed his mouth with an expression that suggested he had a lot to say.

Her inappropriate outfit, the awkward way she had been walking, the anxious look in her eyes—everything had been abnormal. But explaining all of that made him feel it would be better to simply keep quiet.

He remembered I-eum confessing that she liked him.

The girl’s eyes, sparkling with a multitude of colors.

So he needed to choose his words carefully. If he said the wrong thing to that pure and soft sensitivity of hers, he had no idea what kind of aftermath might follow.

“You don’t look anything like him.”

He thought it would be better to simply say that and leave it at that rather than give her unnecessary hope.

“You hit that man earlier, didn’t you?”

“Don’t be curious about adults’ business.”

“I’m not that far from becoming an adult myself.”

“That means you’re not an adult yet.”

Faced with Ji-hoon’s impenetrable wall, I-eum pouted, but she did not ask anything else.

The inside of the car was filled entirely with the sound of rain. The atmosphere was so calm that simply listening to it made her feel drowsy.

But in truth, Ji-hoon’s situation was anything but peaceful.

The reason was that his phone, which he had switched to silent mode, was flashing nonstop.

〈

Secretary-in-Chief Joo Min-jae

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Are you insane?

Have you lost your mind?

It was Min-jae. Ji-hoon had openly stood up his arranged blind date with Kang Ri-won, caused an incident, and then left the scene, so this was only natural.

When they finally arrived in front of I-eum’s house, fortunately, the rain had become much lighter.

“Go inside.”

But I-eum seemed to have something she wanted to say. Her lips moved slightly before she looked up at him and asked,

“Can I take Teacher’s jacket inside?”

“No.”

A brief look of disappointment crossed her face at his firm refusal, but it seemed that she had actually wanted to ask something else, because I-eum cautiously watched his expression.

“Can I pretend I don’t know about what happened today?”

It had been a place she had gone to at the request of her father, Yeon Chang-shin.

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t worried about what would happen to her because of what had happened today. This was the first time she had ruined her grandfather’s command, the command of the absolute ruler of the family.

“I mean… can I hide behind Teacher?”

At that, Ji-hoon looked at I-eum with an unreadable expression.

And after a brief silence passed—

Just as I-eum, holding her breath and waiting for his answer, nervously moved her lips—

“Unni?”

Knock, knock.

What reached I-eum’s ears was not his voice, but someone else’s.