Chapter 122
“Am I being too noisy holding onto a guest like this?”
Crossing the yard where a small garden was beautifully maintained along the edge of the stone wall, the owner looked back at me with an apologetic expression. Following the two people from a couple of steps behind, I slightly bowed my head.
“Not at all. Please feel comfortable.”
Even while walking closely with the petite woman who only came up to his shoulder, his attitude was natural. There was no feeling of stiffness or not knowing what to do. The two people I watched from behind looked like a grandmother and grandson who were rarely affectionate even after the grandson had grown up.
He really grew up well.
Even though I didn’t raise him, I felt pleased for no reason, and a happy smile naturally formed.
We climbed onto the wooden porch of the right house among the three hanok buildings that formed a ㄷ shape. Looking toward the entrance, a wide plain spread out beyond the main gate. It was a completely different landscape from Paeli with its steep mountainous terrain by the sea, or Seoul.
The room assigned to us looked out onto a forest right behind it. Thanks to that, it was sufficiently comfortable even without turning on the air conditioning. It was a small but dignified room that had been carefully maintained.
“The madam came with her friends just last month too.”
“Yes, I heard. Thank you for always taking care of us.”
“We’re the grateful ones. This time too, when you came down saying the old man just caught a cold, you brought some medicine.”
“You need to stay healthy.”
Even after we had settled into our seats, the owner continued various conversations, then suddenly looked at me and smiled awkwardly.
“I’m sorry. It’s been so long since I’ve seen this geumja here…”
“Not at all, it’s really fine.”
“The food is all prepared, so I’ll bring it out right away. Please make yourselves comfortable.”
When the owner’s footsteps on the polished wooden porch had grown somewhat distant, I could no longer hold back my laughter and giggled while shaking my shoulders.
And I leaned forward with my arms crossed on the table.
“Geumja? You’re called to that extent? In some ways, it’s even more than being called a prince?”
“It’s a place I’ve been coming to with my parents since I was little, and they used to call me geumjadong back then… It’s just a nickname they keep using without any special meaning.”
“It’s a well-fitting nickname.”
He looked at me resentfully as I tried to compose my laughter, then reached out and gripped my wrist tightly.
“Don’t tease me. I don’t want to look like a child to hyung at least.”
When he pulled my wrist, my crossed arms came undone and my upper body leaned forward more. He lightly bit my fingertip as if punishing me, then let go and stood up first.
“The food will come out soon, but should we wash our hands before then?”
A small washroom separate from the bathroom was attached to the end of the wooden porch. It was a room that wasn’t originally in the hanok, seeming to have been added later through separate construction.
Even during the short time of washing hands, he stuck close and didn’t stop playing around, looking very pleased.
Saying he would suggest an efficient method for two people to wash hands simultaneously, he stuck to my back and overlapped our hands under the water stream.
Such contact was more ticklish to me than him pouncing to kiss or whispering dirty jokes in my ear. It was because I thought it was a way of dating that didn’t suit my age. But instead of telling him to get away, I obediently rubbed soap and rinsed with him.
It wasn’t that I disliked it, just that I wasn’t used to it.
Moreover, since he looked happy beyond just pleased in the mirror, I didn’t want to take away that happiness just because I was embarrassed. Opportunities to make someone this happy just by washing hands together weren’t common.
By the time we came out of the washroom together, my expression was as relaxed as his face.
“Should I go in first?”
“Why. Where are you going?”
I unconsciously grabbed the side of his polo shirt. He paused for a moment and looked down at my hand, then smiled broadly.
“Do you hate being apart from me even for a moment that much?”
“……Yeah.”
I let go of the hand I was holding and spoke after pausing. Even to him, I must have looked awkward saying such things, as his smile deepened.
“Even knowing it’s a joke, I feel good.”
Muttering as if to himself, he pushed my back into the room.
“I have something to get from the car. It won’t take even 5 minutes.”
In his original life, someone would always do such trivial things for him. There were even people who would buy coffee or condoms for him.
Yet for our secret meetings, he was driving himself, operating the buggy himself, and handling trivial things himself. I couldn’t help but find him endearing as a lover, willingly dismantling his existing lifestyle and accepting inconvenience.
Only after confirming that his tall figure had left through the entrance did I return to the room. In the meantime, two staff members were setting the table.
On the induction cooktop fixed to the table, white soup was boiling appetizingly. Just from what I could see, the ingredients were abundant—neungi mushrooms, water parsley, green onions, chives, and more. The side dishes also all looked neat and delicious.
“You reserved nutritious white soup and duck roast, so please enjoy the white soup first and we’ll prepare the roast in the middle.”
“Yes, thank you.”
“The meat is well-cooked, so you can eat it once the vegetables are done. We’ll do all the preparation for you.”
While I was nodding at the kind explanation, he returned just then with a shopping bag in hand.
“Everything’s ready? Thank you. We’ll prepare the meat ourselves. You may go.”
After sending the people away, he sat down and lightly wiped his hands once more with a wet towel.
“I’m glad you like duck. We need to nourish your body before filming begins in earnest. You can’t really nourish your body by eating this kind of food once… but it’s the thought that counts.”
“The smell is really nice. Fragrant?”
He grinned and picked up a ladle. His posture of pouring broth over the heaped vegetables didn’t look particularly clumsy. He was actually much more skilled than Yoon Juho, who couldn’t properly use tongs or scissors even when eating pork belly.
“This family raises ducks directly on the inner part of the island. They also supply duck meat to our main house. It’s been almost 20 years now.”
It was amusing yet awkward to hear the word “supply” used for food ingredients to a general household, but I thought that if it was the main house of Hanseo Group, it might be difficult to consider it a general household.
He put down the ladle and looked at me while slightly reducing the induction’s intensity.
“Since it came up, how about taking some herbal medicine at least until filming ends?”
“It’s not a bad idea… but let me pay for it. Then I’ll take it.”
“……”
“Don’t make that disappointed face.”
“They say medicine is about sincerity. Taking medicine I give you would be better for your body?”
“If it’s a place Hancheoeum-ssi introduces, it’s guaranteed to be skilled. That alone is enough.”
“Then, please accept this.”
He placed the shopping bag on the edge of the table and slid it toward me. It was a dark brown shopping bag with no patterns or writing, making it impossible to guess the contents from the outside.
“……What is this?”
“Hey. Your boyfriend gave you a present, so why do you look scared instead of happy?”
“My boyfriend isn’t an ordinary person.”
“That’s why I prepared an ordinary gift that you could accept without feeling burdened.”
It was something I said to humor him a little, but the word “boyfriend” seemed to have some effect. I smiled back at him as he chuckled and took out a box from the shopping bag.
The gift wrapped in dark green paper with two or three ribbons and decorated with small artificial flowers was like a gift in itself. It seemed too precious to just unwrap, so I placed it on the edge of the table and took two or three photos.
Meanwhile, he who had been taking the white soup out of the stone pot looked at me with surprised eyes, but I pretended not to notice, put down my phone, and unwrapped the ribbon.
“I feel like you put too much effort into this trip… I’m grateful but also a bit sorry. I haven’t done much for you.”
“I have many people helping me. It wasn’t difficult, so don’t feel sorry.”
What came out of the pretty packaging was a phone.
“ARA Electronics said a new model was coming out, so I requested it.”
ARA Electronics was a subsidiary of Hanseo Group. ARA Electronics, Finance, Insurance, etc. were companies that his uncle Lee Woohyeok had inherited from the previous generation, and separation of affiliates had been gradually proceeding since Chairman Lee Wooyeol was alive. Even that was information I learned only after confirming that he was Lee Hancheoeum.
“It’s an unlocked device, and it’s not activated yet, but you can register and use it anytime.”
“By any chance… is this a pre-release model?”
As if wanting to avoid answering, he hesitated for a moment.
“Well… it is… but how long is that? A few days? A few weeks? The unpack event will be held next week, and probably about 2 weeks earlier than the first activators who pre-ordered?”
Packaging it as if it was nothing special, he placed a duck leg with meat nicely separated in front of me.
“Put that down for a moment and eat this before it gets cold.”
“Don’t you need to use this yourself?”
He smiled and shook his head.
“I don’t usually ask them to send me new products just because they came out. I requested it because I wanted to give it to hyung. The affiliate separation is almost in its final stage now… but still, it would be a bit much for a Hanseo Group person’s lover to use another company’s phone.”
Having spoken jokingly, he hesitated unusually and paused. He stopped taking his portion of meat and looked across at me with a slightly stiff expression.
“It might be inconvenient since it’s not the company product you’ve been using… but I’d be happy if you used it even as a secondary phone.”
“No. I’ll switch to this and use it well. I like it. Actually, my current phone is about 4 years old.”
“4 years?”
He looked down at my phone on the table with wide eyes.
“I bought it when I came to Korea, and I’ve been using it ever since.”
“For something like that, you’ve kept it extremely clean. This is where personality shows, you know?”
Finally seeming relieved, he smiled gently and urged me to eat once more.
But before he could even finish swallowing his first piece of meat, a phone rang. Looking down at the two phones on the table to check the caller, he furrowed his brow and picked up the phone.
“Sorry. I think I need to take this…”
“Yeah, answer it comfortably.”
“How’s the meat? Is it okay?”
“Very tender and fragrant. The sauce is delicious too. Answer quickly.”
With a reluctant expression, he turned his upper body slightly and connected the call.
“Hey, it’s me.”
From the comfortable tone of English he started the call with, it seemed to be Yujun.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
