Chapter 2
Two iced Americanos were placed on the table.
Her throat was parched, and she wanted nothing more than to down the drink in one gulp, but with the person sitting across from her, she found it difficult to reach for the cup.
“How have you been?”
How do you think I’ve been? After seeing me like this, how can you even ask that?
Danbi shook her head from side to side.
“Ah, right. I heard what happened.”
“And you, sunbae?”
Doyoung raised an eyebrow as he looked at her.
“You seem to have been doing pretty well.”
Danbi looked down at herself.
She had deliberately put on a shabby T-shirt and a pair of cotton pants with stretched-out knees, hoping to look as pitiful as possible in front of her landlord.
Doyoung, on the other hand, was dressed in an expensive-looking shirt and slacks, maintaining a relaxed air that made it obvious at a glance that he was doing quite well for himself.
“Did you know that I was the person who contacted you?”
The corners of Doyoung’s lips tilted slightly as he gave a light nod.
“Your messenger profile picture.”
“Oh.”
“It came out well.”
Danbi clenched her molars.
Come to think of it, she had also tried to snoop around through the messenger app to find out what kind of person her landlord was.
But there had been nothing on his profile picture.
Now that she thought about it, even that was so very Moon Doyoung.
She had never imagined that her landlord would also check her identity through the messenger app.
If she had known that, she never would have put up that picture of herself grinning with her gums showing in front of her company headquarters.
“New employees…… normally do that.”
“There’s really such a terrible corporate culture?”
There isn’t. I just put it up because I wanted to brag about getting into a major corporation. My parents liked it, too.
“If you thought the picture turned out well, what’s so terrible about the corporate culture?”
Danbi shot back sharply before staring at the beads of condensation gathering on her coffee cup.
What kind of unbelievably rotten fate is this?
She had thought nothing could be more unfortunate than falling victim to a real-estate scam.
Apparently, that had only been the tip of the iceberg.
“I didn’t know you had returned to Korea.”
“It hasn’t been long. I had some things to take care of as soon as I got back, so I’ve been busy.”
The moment Doyoung finished speaking, he lifted his coffee and took a drink.
Watching his Adam’s apple rise and fall made Danbi swallow dryly.
The fact that she was still flustered by his flawless looks made her feel like a hopelessly shallow woman.
“Didn’t you call me because you had something to say?”
Oh, right.
She had almost forgotten why she was here.
“You’re such a capable girl. How did you end up getting scammed?”
“Exactly……”
Danbi muttered bitterly, her expression falling.
During her undergraduate years, she had never once lost the top spot in her department.
She had even completed her master’s degree without a hitch and prided herself on having a sharper mind than most people.
But once she entered the real world, none of that had been of any use.
They were nothing more than credentials that had helped her land a job.
“Turns out the world favors nasty people over capable ones.”
“So you’re going to live nastily from now on?”
“I guess I’ll have to try.”
Danbi put on a deliberately nonchalant expression, but it was harder than she had imagined.
The corners of her mouth trembled so badly that her cheek muscles were on the verge of twitching.
“Did you report it to the police?”
“I did, but I don’t think they’ll catch him. Apparently, he already fled overseas.”
“That’s too bad.”
Doyoung clicked his tongue sympathetically.
“By now, he’s probably stretched out on some beach in the Philippines, soaking up the sun with his legs kicked out.”
She had tried to save a little money on the broker’s commission and ended up swallowing poison instead.
The money her parents had sent her wasn’t meant to be used to give some scammer’s kid a luxurious life.
Danbi felt like punching herself in the head with her tightly clenched fist.
What else could you call being an unfilial daughter? This is exactly what it means.
“If there’s anything you need, just ask.”
Doyoung practically laid the bait right in front of her.
Yet she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
If her landlord had been anyone else, she would have eagerly snapped at the bait, but the person sitting across from her was Doyoung.
She simply couldn’t get the words out.
“I owe you a favor. So if there’s something you want, I’ll seriously consider it.”
Wasn’t this exactly the situation she had desperately wished for?
She should have thrown her pride out the window and immediately asked him to let her move into the apartment.
But the words caught in her throat and merely circled around inside her mouth.
What does a little pride matter anyway?
“……No. I’ll get going.”
For now, escaping from Moon Doyoung came first.
Even back then and even now, whenever she sat face-to-face with him, she was incapable of thinking rationally.
Danbi was just about to awkwardly rise from her seat when Doyoung asked,
“Have you found somewhere to live?”
No……
Her lips pursed into a pout.
“Don’t tell me you’re sleeping on the streets.”
Danbi dropped back into her seat.
She suddenly remembered all the desperate messages she had sent to her landlord when she couldn’t get through to him by phone.
“I’m currently moving from one motel room to another.”
“I’m about to end up on the streets. ㅠㅠ”
“Could you please meet me just once and hear me out?”
“If you could show me some mercy, I swear I’ll never forget your kindness for the rest of my life.”
The message that had finally arrived after a long wait had been incredibly brief.
“Sunday, 10 a.m. at □□ Café.”
She hadn’t even had a shred of dignity left to preserve in front of him.
Yes. When your very life is hanging in the balance, what good is pride?
The moment she imagined herself curling up on the pavement and trying to sleep, she came to her senses.
Danbi slowly parted her tightly pressed lips.
“Um…… sunbae.”
“Yeah.”
“I gave everything I had to that scammer, so I don’t have a single penny left. And I have nowhere to go.”
“I see.”
“I heard it’s difficult for someone who’s been employed for less than a month to get a loan from a major bank.”
“Of course it is.”
“……”
At this point, his calm responses had become so natural that it almost felt as though they were casually exchanging everyday pleasantries.
It was starting to annoy Danbi.
When she had completely run out of things to say, Doyoung raised one eyebrow and asked,
“So?”
Her stubbornness kicked in.
Whether it works or not, I might as well say it. I’ve got nothing to lose.
“Could you let me stay in that apartment, at least until I can save enough for a rental deposit? I know I’m asking for a lot, but I’ll pay the rent every month without fail.”
Doyoung’s expression, which had remained blank throughout their entire conversation, gradually softened.
The corners of his eyes curved into graceful crescents.
“Sure. We should help each other out.”
He answered so quickly that it was almost as if he had known from the beginning what Danbi was going to ask.
As though he had simply been waiting for her to skip the preamble and get straight to the point.
“No, wait, sunbae.”
Startled, Danbi leaned forward and grabbed the sleeve of Doyoung’s shirt.
“Forget the rent. Just save up for the deposit.”
This easily?
He was offering to let her live in an apartment located in one of the most prime areas of Seoul just like that?
Even though he had no idea when she would be able to save enough for the rental deposit?
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Something like that is no big deal.”
Doyoung laughed casually, reassuring her.
“……You mean it?”
“Yeah.”
She had forgotten.
Moon Doyoung came from an extraordinarily wealthy family.
The kindhearted rich man she had once thought was practically a unicorn while talking to Hyeonseok was sitting right in front of her.
Danbi’s large eyes shimmered with emotion.
They said that even when the heavens collapsed, there was always a way out.
She had never dreamed that the favor she had done for Doyoung so long ago would be repaid to her like this.
“Thank you so much, sunbae.”
A bright smile spread across Danbi’s face.
This time, it was a genuine smile, and her cheek muscles weren’t twitching at all.
The tension in her heart vanished in an instant.
She had truly done the right thing by swallowing her pride and asking him.
She was almost in awe of Doyoung for embodying the spirit of noblesse oblige.
Take back what I said about him being rich but not kind.
“Sunbae, you’re my lifesaver.”
Doyoung smiled contentedly and leaned back against the chair.
When he casually draped one arm over the back of the seat beside him, his broad frame stood out even more.
My taste really is impeccable.
Her shoulders practically swelled with pride at the realization that her first love had been Moon Doyoung.
If she hadn’t rejected his proposal five years ago, she never would have received this kind of help from him.
“Is there anything else you need?”
Danbi raised her glistening eyes and met his gaze.
She had always thought he was an impossible person to read.
She had never realized that he possessed such a kind and admirable character.
“I’m fine. As long as I have somewhere to lay my head.”
“What about food?”
“I’ll take care of that in the company cafeteria.”
If she stuffed herself at lunch, she figured she could probably skip dinner.
There were even people who deliberately ate only one meal a day because they were dieting.
“But actually, there’s already someone living in that apartment.”
Doyoung casually brought it up as though it were nothing important.
Danbi’s face stiffened.
What is he talking about all of a sudden?
Shouldn’t he have talked to the tenant first?
He had gotten her hopes up only to pour cold water all over them.
What is he doing, raising me up and dropping me down like this?
For a moment, she was speechless.
Danbi looked him up and down with an incredulous expression.
“You’re not even going to ask who it is?”
As if asking would make any difference.
“Who is it?”
Doyoung tipped the remaining ice cubes from his empty glass into his mouth and crunched them.
By now, Danbi had more or less given up.
I knew it. Things were going way too smoothly.
Everything had gone dark before her eyes.
It felt as though even the tiny bit of hope she had left had disappeared.
At this point, it didn’t matter whether the person sitting across from her was Moon Doyoung or anyone else.
She was even less interested in who the tenant was.
Danbi let out a deep sigh and turned her gaze toward the window.
“Me.”
“Cough—cough, cough……!”
She had been taking a long drink of coffee when it went down the wrong pipe.
Coffee sprayed from her mouth and dribbled down her chin.
“Are you okay?”
Doyoung quickly grabbed a tissue and wiped her chin for her.
Danbi slapped his hand away and wiped the corner of her mouth with her sleeve.
After finally calming her coughing, she glared at him with all the strength she could muster.
“I’m not joking around right now, okay? This is a really serious situation.”
Whether it was because she had choked on her coffee or because of how bleak her situation was, the tip of her nose stung and her eyes grew moist.
“Who said I was joking?”
But Doyoung’s voice, now lowered into something far more serious, swallowed up the air around them in an instant.
Deep lines formed between his brows.
There was something strangely intimidating about him.
The air between them turned chillingly cold.
His face was so cold and severe that Danbi instinctively shrank her shoulders.
“Come live there.”
“……”
“We already lived together for a year. What’s the problem with doing it again?”
A hollow laugh escaped between lips pulled taut at the corners.
Danbi rubbed her throbbing temples firmly and slowly closed her eyes.
“Is there really a woman crazy enough to live with her ex-husband?”
