V3C4

“Knock! Knock!! Knock!!!”

Jae-hee jumped up at the sound of knocking on the front door.

Is Jaewon here?

As soon as she opened the door in a hurry, someone pulled her wrist.

“What?”

The moment she thought she was going to fall, a big arm wrapped around her. The tip of her nose hit the coat button.

She knew who it was without raising her face.

“How did you know about this place?”

The cool smell of cologne. It’s the scent she smelled in his bathroom.

Even without looking up, she could feel the eyes of Jung-hoo looking through the single room.

“If you’re at home, it should be warm when you open the door.”

He muttered. Still holding Jae-hee in his arms.

“What would I do if my senior was covered in ice?”

“What does that have to do with you?”

These cold words turned him into a complete stranger. To her, he was a stranger. Someone who doesn’t deserve to be involved in her life.

“Now it does. I’m thinking of pressing for debt.”

What are you trying to say? Jaehee looked up, but Jung-hoo didn’t let go of her. He stared at all corners of the room. It was a room where you can hardly see any signs of people living there. Just thinking about Jae-hee, lying down in this dark and cold small room, made him angry.

“From next month, I’ll pay you back a little by little. I can’t afford it right now. I’m sorry.”

“It’s up to me. I didn’t say I want money.”

Jung-hoo dragged Jae-hee out of the house and said to lock the door. He didn’t want her to be concerned because it was a house with nothing to steal, but it was Min Jae-house hee’s anyway.

“Five minutes. In five minutes, I’ll do it my way. Think carefully. Don’t even think about running away for those five minutes.”

Jung-hoo’s eyes were cold as if he would not listen to anything Jae-hee said. She made sure to write a memo to Jae-won asking him to contact her when he returned. He took out his cell phone watching Jae-hee put the bag with chicken in the refrigerator. Jung-hoo called somewhere and watched Jae-hee locking the door.

“Director Yang, I’m Yoon Jung-hoo. I need something.”

She was a personal shopper in charge of the department store. When asked to come to his villa right away, starting with underwear and everything a woman needs to live, she immediately replied that she knew what to do, even though it was late.

“Senior, what do you like?”

He asked Jae-hee, who came out of the door.

“Why?”

“I’m going to eat what you like.”

Come to think of it, she couldn’t eat properly yesterday or today. Everything went like a dream, and she had no idea she was hungry. When he mentioned food, the hunger she had forgotten about returned.

“I eat everything well”.

“You liked meat when you were in school”.

She ate anything well among the side dishes of the lunch box, but Jung-hoo remembered how many times the chopsticks were pointed at the meat dish. He remembered the memory of that time so naturally that he thought he couldn’t really forget Min Jae-hee.

“I still like it. I can’t eat it because I don’t have it.”

Jung-hoo smiled and opened the passenger door for Jae-hee.

“Then let’s go eat meat.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Her body was exhausted to the point of death, but you don’t eat, you don’t survive. Jaehee, who knew this, nodded her head brightly and got into the car.

Jung-hoo took Jae-hee to a place where privacy was guaranteed. A private room in Gangnam and ordered Korean beef separately. As soon as it was grilled on the iron plate, she ate quite a bit of meat without caring about him.

“Do you want some cider?”

“Am I a child?”

Jae-hee smiled and ordered soju and beer and started making somaek and drinking it.

[T/N: Somaek: In South Korea, Somaek (소맥) refers to a cocktail made by mixing soju and beer . The word is a syllabic abbreviation of the words ‘soju’ (소주) and ‘maekju’ (맥주). ]

Jung-hoo noticed that it wasn’t something she’d only done once or twice. Jung-hoo ordered tea for Jaehee who had quickly emptied two bottles of beer and half a bottle of soju alone without asking if Junghoo wanted any.

“You’re a good drinker.”

“You drink well, too.”

She always bought soju and stashed it under the sink.

It used to be difficult for her to fall asleep if she didn’t drink that and sleep.

Young-joo told her she was addicted to alcohol and that she needed to stop drinking right away, but Jae-hee preferred the blank world and found it only when she drank a lot of strong alcohol at once.

A world where even her restless brain seemed to have stopped. She felt so good that she could smile whenever she drank even in her everyday life when she had nothing to laugh about. A few years ago, Jae-won found it and cried, so she stopped it.

She hadn’t had a drink in a long time. To her, it tasted very sweet.

“Unfortunately, I can’t drink well. My family’s ability to detoxify alcohol has declined from generation to generation.”

“Really? Too bad. This is a good thing.”

Jae-hee smiled and emptied the beer glass once again. Looking at it, Jung-hoo soon put the soju bottle and the beer bottle away from the table.

“I don’t know how well you drink, but stop drinking.”

“Alright, well.”

She nodded her head and ate meat again. Jung-hoo watched with pride as she ate a fairly large amount for a small body.

“Do you think I’m a man?”

“Yeah, you are not a woman.”

Stea