Chapter 24
[Sign it.]
[Put your signature on it.]
‘?’
The moment Wonyoung picked up the employment contract, he was stunned by the choices that appeared. Now they’re even messing with the choices?
‘System! System, this isn’t right!’
Wonyoung cried out in frustration. Of course, no answer came back, and while he grumbled internally, a minute passed and Wonyoung ended up signing the employment contract.
“Don’t you need to read it?”
“……”
Wonyoung smiled bitterly at Taerim’s question. Even if I wanted to read it, I can’t.
“It’s a big company, so it should be good… I wouldn’t understand it well even if I read it.”
“You’re exactly the type to get scammed. At least be selective about the people you associate with.”
‘Right, how did you know. It just so happens that the setting is that my father got scammed.’
Wonyoung muttered that to himself and handed one copy of the employment contract back to Taerim. As soon as Taerim received it, he said.
“Then quit this part-time job immediately.”
“What? It’s night shift so it’s fine, and I can even eat the discarded triangle kimbap…”
“Isn’t it because you eat such things that you’re so thin your pants fall off?”
Wonyoung was hurt by Taerim’s strong direct hit. The only thing I gained from this game was one triangle kimbap.
When Wonyoung became dejected, Taerim sighed once and said.
“If you work for one year, you should be able to pay off all your debts.”
“What?”
Wonyoung was surprised by Taerim’s casual remark and looked at him. Could it be that he knew I had debts and deliberately came to offer me a job? Why?
‘Is this what they call protagonist privileges? Or was he really sorry about making me take my pants off?’
While Wonyoung hesitated, not knowing what to say, Taerim, who had finished his business, turned around without hesitation.
“Then I’ll expect you to start work from next week. See you then.”
Only after seeing his well-balanced inverted triangle back did Wonyoung remember that he still hadn’t completed his daily mission. The mission that gives a ‘Choice Refresh Right’!
“Wait, wait!”
At Wonyoung’s call, Taerim turned around. Wonyoung’s mind started spinning frantically. Taerim was different from Siyeon or Heegang who had favorable feelings toward him. Although he had offered a job, he would still be wary of him.
In that case, it would be unreasonable to be called cute for no reason. To create a situation where he could act cute… should he stupidly trip and fall?
‘Ah, there’s Lucky Pervert, isn’t there?’
With the ‘Lucky Pervert’ penalty, there was a possibility of falling. If he fell while making sounds like “oh my,” wouldn’t that work? Of course, it would make him want to vomit, but he’d already suffered enough humiliation. Whether it worked or not, he had nothing to lose.
Although Wonyoung never thought such a thing would happen, he decided to deliberately receive a penalty.
His accumulated warnings happened to be 2. He only needed to do it once. Wonyoung took this opportunity to shout out what he’d really wanted to say.
“Kyung Taerim-ssi, you’re obnoxious!”
“…What did you just say.”
Taerim furrowed his eyebrows as if he couldn’t believe it. And Wonyoung received the Level 1 penalty he’d been waiting for.
[This statement is inappropriate for your character. A penalty is given for 3 warnings.]
[Level 1 penalty ‘Lucky Pervert’ is activated.]
As soon as the notification ended, something flew and hit Wonyoung’s nose.
“Argh!”
At Wonyoung’s scream, Taerim hurriedly approached.
“Are you alright?”
When Wonyoung, who had been holding his nose, looked up, he could see Taerim’s firm chest muscles through his open shirt.
Unbelievably, a button from his chest area had popped off and hit Wonyoung’s nose.
‘What is this… are you kidding me?!’
I just need to fall down like before! What kind of Lucky Pervert is this…
[Insufficient stamina. Please rest.]
[Remaining stamina: 2]
To make matters worse, as his nosebleed started, Wonyoung’s stamina began dropping rapidly. Wonyoung felt sudden fatigue.
“Narae-ssi, are you alright? You have a nosebleed…”
“…I feel dizzy.”
“I’m sorry. Because of my chest button.”
“Yes, that’s really ridicu… lous…”
Ridiculously enough, Wonyoung fainted with those as his last words.
Naturally, the daily mission was a failure.
And while Wonyoung was unconscious, Taerim had no choice but to carry him on his back all the way to the shabby neighborhood he’d never visited before. Since it was an alley where cars couldn’t enter, he had to walk entirely on foot.
‘You’re troublesome, Narae.’
He thought that while still supporting Wonyoung well so he wouldn’t fall.
When they finally arrived in front of the house, a woman who seemed to live next door was about to enter her own house when she saw the two and was startled. Since Taerim wasn’t one to care about such things, he completely ignored the woman’s presence, searched Wonyoung’s pockets to open the door, and went inside.
The neighbor woman left alone, Semi, pushed up her glasses and nodded.
“I should write this down… before I forget.”
* * *
When Wonyoung opened his eyes, he was lying on the small bed in his studio apartment.
Then, sensing someone’s presence, he turned to the side and saw Taerim sitting beside him, asleep. Although he didn’t want to admit it, even crouched and sleeping in this cramped room, he was such a handsome man that he looked like he was deep in thought rather than sleeping.
‘That makes him even more obnoxious though.’
Although it was early, both he and Taerim had to go to work, so Wonyoung carefully shook Taerim.
“Director Kyung. Please wake up.”
He immediately opened his eyes and looked at Wonyoung for a moment before asking.
“…Are you awake?”
“Yes.”
“The bleeding.”
“It stopped.”
He let out a light sigh of relief. Then he stretched, and with a ripping sound, the button right above where it had torn was also hanging loose, about to tear off any moment.
“……”
“Where are you looking?”
Taerim closed his torn shirt with displeasure. Wonyoung was dumbfounded, but because of his damn pectoral muscles, he was in an enchanted state and it was difficult to speak.
And then, choices appeared.
[Your, your chest is so magnificent that I couldn’t help it.]
[I, I thought I should sew a button on for you.]
Wonyoung quietly pressed the bottom option. Despite appearances, he was quite confident in his sewing. He even remembered getting excellent grades in needlework class when he was young.
“I, I thought I should sew a button on for you.”
However, at Wonyoung’s words, Taerim looked at him somewhat doubtfully.
“Do you know how to sew?”
“Of course. I’m good at it.”
Wonyoung answered immediately, thinking how dare this person doubt him. Then Taerim exhaled briefly and tried to take off his shirt.
“Wait, wait, wait!”
“What now.”
“Why are you taking it off…”
“If I don’t take it off, how are you going to sew the button?”
That made sense too, but Wonyoung didn’t want to see another person’s chest muscles anymore. Are BL games originally this full of exposure? Is this really all-ages? He was confused.
“I, I can do it without you taking it off.”
“You’ll just stab me with the needle. I want to get out of this beggar-like place quickly, so hurry up.”
Saying that, Taerim took off his shirt and threw it to Wonyoung. Wonyoung frowned deeply and said.
“Oh, thank you. For this precious shirt.”
“It is precious. Do it well if you don’t want to increase your debt.”
“……”
Come to think of it, since it was a shirt worn by a chaebol, it would cost at least a few hundred thousand won, and Wonyoung’s fingertips tensed up. Watching this, Taerim silently raised the corners of his mouth, but Wonyoung, who was concentrating, didn’t notice.
While sewing the button stitch by stitch, Wonyoung suddenly realized something and casually said.
“By the way, Director-nim doesn’t seem to wear cologne.”
“……”
“Usually rich people all wear cologne.”
Even at Wonyoung’s company, the owner used such strong cologne that it was torturous whenever he came. Come to think of it, he realized he’d never smelled cologne from Taerim, which was unusual for a wealthy man.
“You must not like it? There, it’s done.”
Taerim didn’t answer throughout, but since this person being rude wasn’t a day or two thing, Wonyoung didn’t think much of it and held out the shirt. Finally, when Taerim received the shirt and looked at the button, he snorted.
“You said you were confident, but what is this?”
“What?”
“Where on earth did you attach the button?”
When Wonyoung hurriedly took the shirt back to examine it, he could see that the two buttons were almost attached together. He had positioned them wrong.
“That can’t be…”
‘I sewed it perfectly with my excellent needlework. But why on earth…’
Wonyoung still didn’t know that his ability level was at Narae’s level, not Heo Wonyoung’s. That this was Narae’s best effort.
“Never mind. I wasn’t expecting much from the beginning anyway.”
“……”
“I’ll say your effort was admirable.”
Wonyoung, who had been gauging Taerim’s mood that seemed neither good nor bad, carefully asked.
“Will you bill me for the shirt cost…?”
Then Taerim chuckled and asked.
“Should I do that? Do you want me to?”
“Since you said my effort was admirable, if you could value that effort highly…”
“When two buttons are stuck together so closely.”
It was a remark that left him speechless even with ten mouths. Wonyoung became quite dejected, thinking he might incur more debt.
However, not knowing how devastating his dejected appearance was, Wonyoung soon brightened up at what the affected Taerim said.
“Well, buttons can be reattached, so I’ll consider this mistake as never having happened. You even got a nosebleed because of me.”
“Really?”
“Don’t ask twice annoyingly. You’ll need to be especially careful when working with me.”
“…Yes.”
When Wonyoung pouted, a crooked smile appeared on Taerim’s face.
“Ah, come to think of it.”
“?”
“Didn’t you say something before you got the nosebleed? You called me obnoxious?”
When the fact he thought was forgotten surfaced, Wonyoung’s complexion turned pale. This person really had a damn good memory.
“That, that was, well…”
While Taerim leisurely watched Wonyoung fidget anxiously not knowing what to do, he pressed Wonyoung’s round cheek once.
