# Chapter 120
Dojin covered Habin, who seemed to have fallen asleep early from exhaustion, with a blanket. As he was carefully stroking Habin’s reddened eyes, he took out his phone when he felt a vibration in his pocket.
“Hello?”
[Young master, I’ve taken care of everything you asked for.]
“That’s good, faster than I expected.”
[We were able to process it quickly because the evidence was clear. More importantly, are you injured anywhere?]
“No. Unfortunately not.”
If he had been injured, he could have extracted more from them, but sadly, not even a hair on his body was harmed. It was because Ji Haecheon had rushed things, so there were only small fry involved.
Still, he decided to look on the bright side since Habin hadn’t been seriously injured. Above all, it was enough that he wouldn’t have to see Ji Haecheon in Korea from tomorrow onward.
[I’m relieved to hear you weren’t injured.]
Secretary Lee had a good guess about Dojin’s true feelings but pretended not to know. Dojin let out a small laugh at that, while at the same time gently patting Habin, who was rustling and turning over.
“So. When does Ji Haecheon leave?”
[They said they would send him to study abroad within a week.]
“A week, huh—I should expect it to take longer than that.”
Considering Ji Wuhyun’s personality, Dojin could guess that Ji Haecheon wouldn’t be able to leave in a presentable state. To prepare for any contingencies, he wouldn’t depart until he looked decent at least on the surface, so it would probably take at least two weeks.
“Would you let me know when Ji Haecheon leaves the country?”
[Yes. I will do so.]
Once he leaves, it would probably take at least five years for him to return to Korea. Maybe he’ll even finish university abroad? If so, it might take around ten years. Whatever the case, just the fact that he wouldn’t have to be under the same sky as that guy was satisfying enough.
[Also, young master, the Vice President has called for you.]
“Please tell her I’ll visit her later. It’s a bit difficult right now.”
Looking down at Habin’s hand clutching his clothes, Dojin smiled pleasantly.
[I understand.]
About to end the call after Secretary Lee’s brief response, Dojin felt something strange and tilted his head slightly. He sensed that the other person was hesitating.
“Secretary Lee?”
[…Young master.]
“Yes.”
At the hesitant call, Dojin tapped the bed with his index finger. What could he be hesitating to say?
[If I’m not mistaken, you seem to be in a good mood.]
Despite there being no reason for it.
Easily picking up on the swallowed words, Dojin smiled with the corners of his eyes curved. In truth, Secretary Lee’s observation wasn’t wrong. The date they had planned for today was completely ruined because of Ji Haecheon, Habin was somewhat injured, and he might even develop trauma.
“Well.”
Dragging out his words, Dojin stroked the back of Habin’s hand that was holding onto his clothes.
“To be honest, it’s not bad.”
[Why is that?]
“Hmm—”
How should he explain it? While pondering, Dojin covered Habin’s eyes with his palm when he noticed Habin’s forehead twitching slightly.
“It’s because my character isn’t very good.”
When a crisis arises from external forces, internal bonds tend to strengthen to resolve it. He believed this applied to relationships between people as well.
Since he had never even considered easily breaking up with Habin, he thought there might be a day when he would need to work on their relationship. But before he could do anything, a suitable crisis had conveniently arrived. So Dojin truly thought it wasn’t bad.
“This incident will make him rely on me more strongly.”
Since he had successfully maintained Habin’s belief that he would solve the problems and his trust that he would protect him from danger, he could expect positive results.
Though his explanation wasn’t kind, Secretary Lee had spent enough time observing Dojin to roughly guess the hidden meaning.
[Young master…]
“But it’s not like I deliberately arranged this incident, right?”
[You must never deliberately arrange such incidents.]
Forcefully swallowing a sigh that was about to escape, Secretary Lee added firmly.
[And it would be best if you conceal your true nature as much as possible.]
Dojin let out a hearty laugh at Secretary Lee’s concern. Then, as if savoring the lingering feeling, he exhaled a long breath and willingly expressed agreement.
“I was already planning to do that.”
* * *
Perhaps because it was the height of summer, the sky was bright with the sun beating down instead of being blue. In short, it was hot. Extremely hot. Honestly, I didn’t want to go out on a day like this, but since I was meeting Kwon Dojin after a week, I couldn’t not go.
Wiping away the beads of sweat rolling down my cheeks due to the season, I looked around and brightened up when I saw Kwon Dojin leaning against a shaded wall.
“Kwon Dojin!”
My voice must have been a bit loud, as several people nearby turned around as well, making me flinch. As I was feeling a slight regret, wondering if I had called out too loudly, Kwon Dojin approached and wiped my forehead with a handkerchief that he had taken out from somewhere.
“Hot, isn’t it?”
“Extremely. Let’s go in quickly. I want to feel the air conditioning in the movie theater.”
“Sure, let’s do that.”
With his arm around my shoulder, he guided me into the movie theater. The air conditioning must have been set high, as a cool breeze brushed against my skin.
“Did you eat lunch?”
“I did, since we said we’d watch the movie right away. Don’t tell me you didn’t eat?”
“No, I did. I just asked in case. Then, popcorn?”
“I want nachos instead of popcorn.”
Since there were more than 15 minutes left until the screening time, we headed straight to the concession stand. After ordering drinks, nachos, and butter-grilled squid, we sat near the concession stand.
“Hey, Kwon Dojin.”
I called out to Kwon Dojin, who was checking the reservation information on his phone, but there was no response, as if he hadn’t heard me. However, considering our distance, it was unlikely he hadn’t heard me.
Finding this strange, I just blinked my eyes and soon realized what the problem was, letting out a short exclamation. He’s protesting right now.
“Dojin.”
“What?”
Seeing Kwon Dojin smiling prettily while putting his phone face-down on the table as if he’d been waiting, I was so exasperated that I couldn’t even speak. Really, wow. It was ridiculous, but I decided to let it slide because he was handsome.
“Did you wrap up everything well?”
Following the kidnapping incident, Kwon Dojin had truly abandoned the hierarchy. It was such a sudden event, and since it’s rare for someone to quit before the ranking determination, he had been busy dealing with the aftermath.
And he was even busier with various overlapping matters, like punishing those who had staged the kidnapping. I heard that even Ji Haecheon’s family was involved? Anyway, I heard it was more complicated.
There was a reason we couldn’t meet for a whole week. But since he had been in touch intermittently, I didn’t have time to feel the gap.
“Yeah. It ended well.”
“…What about the Ji Haecheon matter?”
Since he had said the families were involved, it seemed like a somewhat sensitive issue, so I asked carefully, but Kwon Dojin just smiled as if it was nothing.
“I’ve confirmed he’s left Korea. It seems like we won’t see him in this country for the next 10 years.”
“For as long as 10 years?”
“His family didn’t like him going around fighting.”
Kwon Dojin, shrugging his shoulders, whined that we should stop talking about that bastard. He was being cute, pressing his palm against his lips repeatedly, so I quickly nodded as if surrendering.
In an instant, the topic disappeared, and while I was just playing with Kwon Dojin’s hand, I spotted an advertisement that caught my eye. Was it because I had been staring at one spot for too long? When Kwon Dojin expressed his curiosity, I opened my mouth.
“Shall we get that?”
“That?”
Kwon Dojin tilted his head questioningly. I had pointed with my finger, but since there were several things together, he seemed confused about exactly what I was referring to.
“Photo ticket.”
“Ah, that.”
“Since we booked with our phones, we can print one, can’t we?”
“Probably?”
After checking by swiping through the screens, he nodded, saying we could print it.
“Then let’s take a picture.”
“What kind of picture?”
“Um…”
I was speechless because I hadn’t thought about that. While rolling my eyes around, I saw a couple walking with their hands clasped next to Kwon Dojin, and thought, that’s it.
“Hands.”
When I spoke with the back of my hand touching the table, Kwon Dojin immediately placed his hand on top of mine. I moved my fingers to interlock with his. Watching quietly, Kwon Dojin matched my movement and held my hand as well.
“Are we going to take it like this?”
“Yes. We’ll just take a picture of our hands like this.”
Since I wasn’t prepared at all to have my face in the photo, I decided to just take a picture of our hands. Somehow I had interlocked my right hand with his, so I left the photo-taking to Kwon Dojin.
“This one’s the prettiest.”
“Yeah. It came out well.”
After excluding the ones where the focus was blurry, shadows fell strangely, or the hands appeared too large, only one photo remained. Since it had no particular flaws and came out well, we immediately made a photo ticket.
It was just a picture of interlocked hands, but that’s why I liked it. Showing my delight by playing with the printed photo ticket in my hand, he smiled faintly.
“Do you like it that much?”
“Yes. It’s like we’re a couple.”
Maybe it was because we had been so close even before dating, but honestly, I hadn’t felt much difference since we started dating.
“The way you say it makes it sound like we’re not actually dating.”
“I just meant it as a figure of speech. You’re not upset, are you?”
When I gently swayed our clasped hands, he turned his head to the side. Taking it as a sign that he was upset, I wrinkled my nose. How should I make it up to him? While I was pondering, Kwon Dojin glanced at me. And the way he tapped his lips was quite clear in its meaning.
“We’re in public?”
When I widened my eyes, he turned his head away again. It meant he wasn’t over it yet, and at the same time, he wouldn’t back down from his demand.
“Oh my god, are you serious?”
I asked one last time while leaning against Kwon Dojin’s shoulder. His sidelong glance suggested that the longer I delayed, the harder it would be to appease him, so I reluctantly smiled and gave him a quick kiss.
As soon as the kiss ended, looking at his curved smile, I vaguely thought: I hope it will always be like this.
<END of “How to Escape the Seduction of the Second-Ranked”>
Aww
Cute ending