“Seo Hanryul-ssi, what have you been doing since earlier? Do you even really want the Young Master to get better?”
After confirming Jaehyun entered his room, Woojin asked Hanryul coldly.
“You’ve been smiling the whole time since earlier. I guess you’ve given up on smiling now.”
Hanryul thought Woojin was finally revealing his true self and slightly raised the corners of his lips.
“I think you’re mistaken about something. I don’t know why the Young Master signed that ridiculous piece of paper, but I think you should stop now. The Young Master isn’t someone who should suffer doing such rough work.”
“Rough work, you say. I’m disappointed that you’d describe a manager that way. Just what kind of family is Cha Jaehyun from that you’re protecting him like this? I’m truly curious.”
Hanryul found Woojin’s attitude of not leaving Jaehyun’s side as if he were his guardian extremely strange.
“That doesn’t seem to be something Seo Hanryul-ssi needs to know. However, I do want to tell you that the Young Master isn’t someone you can treat so lightly.”
Woojin glared at Hanryul as if ready to devour him. Hanryul had a sort of question arise as he watched the robot-like man’s eyes ripple with anger. Why was he excessively concerned about Cha Jaehyun to that degree?
“Secretary-nim, I’ve found it quite strange since that time in America. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk for this long like today, but I’ve known your face for a while. Because you were always next to Cha Jaehyun. Do you know what your expression looked like when you were stuck next to that bastard before? A corpse. You looked exactly like a corpse. But… now you go beyond just being by his side and show excessive doting on him. Your changed appearance just strikes me as strange.”
“Seo Hanryul-ssi, you’ve been jumping to conclusions on your own too much since earlier. Calling someone a corpse. Don’t you think that’s a rude remark even by your own judgment? What’s the problem with a secretary taking good care of the person they serve?”
Woojin answered Hanryul’s question irritably. Woojin also couldn’t understand Hanryul’s attitude of harping on about his behavior. Even if his attitude had changed, there was no reason Hanryul should be curious about it.
“Well… I think Secretary Han would know this well too. That Cha Jaehyun changed drastically from one day to the next in an unbelievable way. I clearly saw your corpse-like face. You definitely wanted revenge on Cha Jaehyun. But looking at the situation from America until today, your attitude is extremely strange. …And I’d appreciate it if you’d stop concerning yourself with matters between Cha Jaehyun and me now.”
“Seo Hanryul-ssi, you’ve only been saying incomprehensible things since earlier. Whether the Young Master has changed or not, I don’t know why you’re saying such things to me now, and I don’t think pointing out my attitude is very appropriate behavior either. I’d like to end this meaningless conversation now.”
“Yes. Fine. I didn’t know you were such a talkative person until today.”
“Same here. Then let’s see each other again next time.”
After finishing their sharp conversation, Woojin left Jaehyun’s house first, and Hanryul was left alone in the living room.
‘Snake-like bastard.’
Hanryul thought as he watched Woojin’s departing figure.
‘Fox-like bastard.’
As soon as Jaehyun entered his room, Woojin also thought Hanryul, who was throwing a fit, was an unlucky bastard like a fox.
Seo Hanryul and Han Woojin.
Previously, the two had felt a sense of kinship and sympathy for each other over their common enemy, Jaehyun. But now that hostility turned toward each other. Before, they thought of each other as just ‘poor bastards who got caught by a son of a bitch,’ but through today’s meeting, they came to judge each other as ‘annoying and irritating people.’
* * *
“A day has already passed.”
A war-like day passed and the next day arrived before I knew it. The cold still hadn’t fully healed, so my condition was still poor. As soon as I woke up, I turned on my phone and sure enough, there was a text from Seo Hanryul.
[Come out in front of your house by 7]
This harsh bastard. Originally today’s schedule was to meet at the agency at 11…
Yesterday he barged into my house and performed the bizarre act of fighting with Han Woojin, and today, knowing full well that I’m sick, he moved the schedule up by 4 hours.
‘Right, it’s my fault for being the weaker party…’
But I had no other choice. If I said I couldn’t come out by 7, he’d really abuse me. Thinking it was better to be sick than to hear noisy nagging, I jumped up and prepared to go out.
By the way, why does he want to meet in front of my house instead of his? The location he mentioned was very questionable, but without much thought, I went out in front of my house. When I came outside, I saw Seo Hanryul’s car.
“What? Why did you come in a car?”
“Shut up. Just get in.”
Annoying bastard. Everything’s his way. Where is he trying to go at 7 in the morning that he brought his own car all the way to my house?
“Where are we going?”
“Shut your mouth.”
As I wished, I kept my mouth shut, and as soon as I got in the passenger seat, he stepped on the accelerator as if he’d been waiting.
The place we arrived at was Seo Hanryul’s house. Why does this bastard keep bringing me to his house since last time? Coming to his house must mean there’s no particular schedule, but I found Seo Hanryul detestable for bringing sick me to his house.
“What? Why did we come to your house again?”
Seo Hanryul cleanly ignored my words and roughly pushed me inside the house.
“Hey, I have feet too. I can walk fine, so take your hands off my back.”
I avoided his rough touch with a serious face, but Seo Hanryul didn’t care and pushed me all the way to his room.
‘What a temper…’
When I was semi-forcibly entered his room, I saw a small, neatly organized space. The room’s appearance wasn’t much different from the living room.
“Why your room too?”
“Lie down.”
He suddenly gave an order to lie down on his bed. It was an absurd situation, but I obediently followed his words and lay down on the bed. Heat rose up my back, probably because he had laid an electric blanket underneath.
“Are we playing some role-play or something?”
“Your house is ridiculously big and empty, so your cold will heal just great. Lie down for a bit. You know what happens if you do anything else, right?”
I thought he was insulting my innocent house, then he made me lie on the bed and left. Why is that extreme bastard acting like that? I gave up thinking and closed my eyes.
“Hey, get up.”
I must have fallen asleep without realizing it. Seo Hanryul shook me awake. Like a puppet, I jumped up and followed him out.
‘What’s this now?’
When I entered the kitchen, food was laid out. Is he making me rest on the electric blanket out of worry and even preparing food for me? But unsolicited favors are meaningless. I thought that rather than this chaos from the morning, it would have been much better to sleep well at home and go to the agency by 11.
Soy sauce braised chicken, beef seaweed soup, a soft-boiled egg on top of rice, and even carefully peeled fruit.
I briefly looked at the food, but the level of the menu prepared was on par with Han Woojin. The characters here must have cooking ability as a passive skill.
‘Is breakfast something to do to this extent?’
“Don’t just stand there looking dazed, sit down.”
I came to my senses at Seo Hanryul’s irritable words and sat in the chair. Thinking about the attitude he showed toward Han Woojin yesterday, Seo Hanryul seems to be someone with a lot of anger in his heart.
“Eat.”
“Thanks for the breakfast.”
I’m sick as hell, what breakfast. I wasn’t grateful at all, but I lied to him and took a bite. It definitely seemed delicious, but maybe because my nose was blocked, I couldn’t taste the food well.
“If you watch closely, you seem to eat food by picking at it terribly. How unappetizing. Your body will heal just great eating like that. That’s why you’re losing weight unattractively day by day…”
Because he kept nagging while sticking his face in front of me, the food went down even less.
“Do you want me to eat or not? Don’t you think I’m losing weight from stress because of someone?”
“Still, seeing you say everything you want to say, you don’t seem to lack energy that much… If you can’t empty that rice bowl, know that you can’t get up from here.”
Why are all the people here so desperate to make me eat breakfast? I wish they’d stop caring about other people’s eating situations, and I thought they were really compassionate bastards to even take care of the food of someone they dislike.
“Now do I have to be monitored by you even for eating? I can’t eat like this?”
“Are you even trying to rebel? It would be good to finish it all, you know?”
Seo Hanryul said with a deeply furrowed brow. Looking at his expression, it really seemed like he wouldn’t let me leave until I emptied the rice bowl.
‘Crazy bastard…’
“Fine, I’ll eat it all. My body’s already not good, and if I get indigestion on top of that, it’ll be quite a sight.”
I glared at Seo Hanryul and started forcing rice into my mouth.
“Hey, I ate it all like you said. Now it’s over.”
After barely emptying the rice bowl, I pushed the empty bowl to him. But Seo Hanryul didn’t stop and pushed the fruit bowl to me.
“Empty this too.”
At this point, I began to have reasonable suspicions that he was torturing me under the pretext of recovering from a cold.
“Do you want to see someone’s stomach burst and die from the morning?”
“Don’t say things that aren’t even funny. Your build is huge like a mountain, and you can’t even finish this one thing?”
In the end, I had no choice but to eat all the fruit because of Seo Hanryul’s food torture.
“Ha… I cleaned it all out just like you said. Are you satisfied now?”
“If you’re done eating, get up.”
Eccentric bastard, as soon as I emptied the food, he made me stand up, took me back to the bed, and sat me down.
“What have you been doing with me since earlier?”
“I don’t want to do schedules with a sick patient who keeps whining either. I can’t stand seeing a beanpole-tall guy looking sick, so get completely better by today. Stay here all day without moving. If you stray somewhere else, you’re dead.”
Seo Hanryul made an unfunny murder threat to me and went out by himself.
‘Funny bastard. He must have been worried.’
I seemed to be unintentionally confined to Seo Hanryul’s house. Even if it’s someone he dislikes, he couldn’t just keep watching them being sick, I suppose.
‘He’s weak-hearted in unexpected places.’
Even though he grumbles every day on the outside, thinking that he has a soft side like a protagonist, a chuckle escaped me.
