So, This Is Totally a Sleepover Setup, Right? (2)
“I’ll take a look around outside. If I’m lucky, I might find us a room. If not, I can always hold out at a nearby all-night tavern until the first cart leaves in the morning.”
Dang Ihwa’s eyes went wide.
“You don’t even know the streets. What if you run into someone dangerous?”
“I’ll manage. Don’t you know me?”
She did.
She knew exactly what kind of slippery bastard he was.
Maybe he really could conjure a room out of thin air if one didn’t exist.
The problem was Hamwon’s night streets.
Wherever there were crowds, there was always trash mixed in with them.
And the more packed the city got, the worse it became.
More prey to tear into.
A perfectly ordinary man with no inner power at all.
Not only did he lack qi, his external training was pathetic too.
Even the incident at Physician Yang’s pharmacy had only been resolved because she and the others had been there with him.
If he gets tangled up with some gangsters…
Her hand clenched on its own.
If anything happened to him, then the family’s long-cherished goal would be ruined too.
“You’re weak, you know that? What if those thugs we saw last time come after you?”
“Hmm… well…”
She was confident when it came to thinking things through.
But if the other side was just a brutish idiot who couldn’t be reasoned with?
Then there was no answer.
And she couldn’t just barge into a room with him either.
She was known in Hamwon.
If anyone saw her going into a room alone with an unfamiliar man, it could draw exactly the kind of attention she didn’t need.
That was every bit as risky as running into thugs.
Dang Ihwa spoke again.
“The contract says we’re supposed to ensure your safety. So it makes sense for me to go out.”
“You do know you’re already a known face in Hamwon, right? If you’re wandering the streets all night, you’ll attract attention. You really want that?”
“But…”
“Just go inside.”
“You go inside.”
Her voice was as flat and dazed as ever.
And yet she didn’t give an inch.
Neither of them looked ready to back down.
Then—
Rrrripple—
The tavern door opened.
Several sets of footsteps spilled into the room.
Dang Ihwa’s gaze flicked toward the entrance.
“Ah…!”
The lips she’d been arguing with froze.
Her shoulders stiffened all the way down to her legs.
Whip—
She turned away from the door in an instant.
Baek Wontae tilted his head.
“What’s wrong?”
She couldn’t answer.
The cold, expressionless face she usually wore was nowhere to be seen.
Baek Wontae looked toward the entrance.
There stood an elderly man in fine silk robes, with a number of servants lined up behind him.
A young man clung close to the old man’s side.
A gaze sharp enough to cut.
An unruffled stance.
…That look.
It rang a bell.
Three faces came to mind.
People who had the same eyes as that young man.
The dark green robe he wore.
The characters embroidered across his back.
Dang Clan.
* * *
The young man stepped forward with a smile.
“Honored sir, this is the tavern you reserved.”
“Mm. I do have quite a few people to meet, so I hope I didn’t keep you working too late.”
“Not at all. If it’s for you, Honored Sir, I could serve for seven days and seven nights and it would still be like flowing down the Long River.”
“Hah, listen to this one—what shameless flattery.”
“I could have brought you to a finer tavern. May I ask why you specifically chose this one?”
“My niece runs the place.”
The old man looked deeper into the tavern.
A middle-aged woman stood at the counter.
“Ah, there she is.”
He raised a hand in a casual greeting.
The innkeeper, startled, spread her arms wide to welcome him.
“Oh my, look who it is! It’s been ages, Uncle!”
“Hah, it has been a while. Have you been well?”
* * *
In that same room, there was someone who couldn’t afford to smile in greeting.
Dang Ihwa had turned her back and was trembling.
Baek Wontae glanced at her.
Her complexion was pale, and her breathing unstable.
The Dang family must have some bad blood with the Dang Clan. That’s why she’s this shaken?
He looked around.
He had definitely heard that Hamwon lay outside the Dang Clan’s influence.
That was why the siblings had been operating here in the first place.
And yet they had to run into each other in a place like this.
Unlucky didn’t even begin to cover it.
Dang Ihwa was afraid.
The Dang Clan… why are they here…
If they found out who she was, not only she but her father would be in danger.
She couldn’t breathe.
She wanted to run, but her legs wouldn’t move.
Plop—
“…!”
Something fell over her head.
The feel of cloth.
The world went dark.
“Put this on.”
Without fully understanding what was happening, she grabbed the edge of the robe.
She covered her face with it.
Baek Wontae quickly scanned the room, then took her by the wrist.
“Come on.”
He pulled her away without the slightest hesitation and headed for the corridor.
* * *
The young man was still escorting the old man.
Just as he was about to guide him to his room—
A passing fold of dark robe.
Through the gap, a pair of eyes flashed into view.
At that instant, his body locked up.
“…!”
The old man turned back, sensing something off.
“What is it?”
The young man jerked back to his senses and lowered his head.
“N-no, nothing at all. Let me show you to your room, Honored Sir.”
“Do that.”
The old man resumed walking.
The young man kept his expression under tight control.
But he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
That robe he’d just glimpsed. The eyes beneath it.
…Did I see wrong? But those eyes—
* * *
Clack—
The door shut, and silence settled in.
The room was neither spacious nor cramped.
In the candlelight, the shadows of two people wavered against the wall.
Dang Ihwa was still standing near the door, the robe draped over her head.
Her shoulders trembled faintly.
Baek Wontae spoke carefully.
“I dragged you in here in a hurry because there might be more Dang Clan people outside. Don’t take it too badly.”
There was no reply.
She was still frozen stiff, not even blinking.
He could practically hear her heartbeat hammering in her ears.
Baek Wontae studied her for a moment, then asked in a low voice, “You okay?”
Only then did Dang Ihwa peel the robe away.
A shaky breath escaped her.
“…Yeah.”
She nodded.
Baek Wontae flopped down into a chair.
“Don’t just stand there. Sit on the bed and rest.”
Dang Ihwa hesitated, then moved toward the bed.
Once she sank into the soft mattress, some of the tension finally began to loosen from her body.
She steadied her breathing and forced herself calm.
After a moment, Baek Wontae asked quietly, “So? You going to tell me now?”
“Tell you what?”
“The relationship between the Dang family and the Dang Clan.”
Dang Ihwa’s expression hardened.
“I… can’t tell you that.”
Baek Wontae let out a scoff that was half disbelief, half amusement.
“Seriously? Even now?”
“My father told me never to tell an outsider.”
“Am I an outsider?”
“…Huh?”
She had no answer for that.
Instead, Baek Wontae went on.
“I mean, sure, this whole thing started because you were trying to stay alive, but I’m the one funding your family’s dream, I’m the one cleaning up your thug problem without leaving loose ends, and I’m also the one who just got you out of a jam with that Dang Clan bastard.”
He tapped the tabletop with a finger.
“I’m not doing this half-assed. You’re my business partners. Your danger is my danger. And if there’s information that could blow up the company, then obviously I need to know it. So let me ask again.”
Baek Wontae leaned forward.
“Am I an outsider?”
Dang Ihwa said nothing.
She couldn’t refute him.
In her logic, there was no way to beat Baek Wontae.
Everything he’d said was true.
The ugliness of his methods was only ugly by the Dang family’s standards.
It wasn’t crime. It wasn’t illegality.
He had used fraud and threats, yes, but…
They had been unavoidable measures to protect the family’s cause and safety.
Besides, the Dang family desperately needed his business.
Without him, their great goal would have remained a pipe dream.
She clenched her fists.
I might end up going against Father’s warning…
At last, her voice came out, heavy with resolve.
“…I can’t tell you everything.”
“Why not?”
“It’s tied deeply to our family’s long-held goal. Not just because of Father… I can’t easily talk about it either.”
“Then tell me at least a little.”
“Just in case…”
She motioned for him to come closer.
Baek Wontae rose from his seat.
Dragging the chair behind him, he walked up to her.
He drew a slow breath, then lowered his voice.
“I’ll keep it short.”
Baek Wontae nodded.
“The Dang family… is being pursued by the Dang Clan.”
The air seemed to sink.
“It was around the time I was born. My father was framed, and officially he was sentenced to a twenty-year Jungmun ban with a twenty-geun reentry penalty. Most of our property was confiscated, too…”
…So that’s why the contract amount was twenty geun.
The amount written on the contract was twenty geun.
He had wondered why it was such a strange number, and now he knew.
But confiscating their property and still demanding twenty geun?
That was roughly 1.2 billion won.
For a modern person, it was still money that would be hard to earn.
It was practically telling them not to come back.
“During the Jungmun period, we lived under the Dang Clan’s surveillance. But something happened between the Dang family and the Dang Clan, and after we fled, we hid our identities and waited for the chance to return.”
“So if you were put under Jungmun when you were born… then that makes it almost twenty years now.”
“The Jungmun ends in late December this year. There are still a few months left.”
“Then that’s your family’s long-held goal? Revenge for being chased? Or… exposing the truth behind the framing?”
“No…”
Her voice wavered.
“It’s… something even deeper than that.”
Dang Ihwa lowered her head.
“…I can’t say any more than that. Just remember that the Dang Clan is chasing us, and that could become a threat at any time.”
“Yeah… I’m not interested in digging into your family matters that deeply. That’s enough. So, in short, until you officially return to the Dang Clan, you can’t let them find out who you are, right?”
“Right.”
“But hold on. They don’t know what you look like as an adult, do they? And you’re using an alias too. So it should be fine if you go out, no?”
She raised a hand and covered her own eyes.
“…Ah.”
Only then did he understand.
They really were distinctive eyes.
He hadn’t seen that many people with them, but he’d seen four so far.
Which meant there was no one else with those eyes except the Dang bloodline.
“The people of the Dang Clan are born with these eyes, whether they’re direct descendants or collateral branches.”
She dropped her head.
“What made me avoid him at the tavern door wasn’t his clothes… it was because I saw the eyes first. If he sees me, even if I use an alias… he’ll suspect me.”
“Of course he will.”
Arms crossed, Baek Wontae went on, “If they start doubting you, the Dang Clan’s going to investigate, whether you deny it or not. That’s not just annoying… it could be seriously dangerous.”
Dang Ihwa nodded in silence.
Baek Wontae thought it over.
“Fine. We sleep here tonight. We leave first thing tomorrow, before the first cart.”
Dang Ihwa blinked, baffled.
“Aren’t you a little too calm about this? The Dang Clan might be in the same tavern right now.”
“I said it already. I’m not doing this half-assed.”
“That’s… why?”
He smiled.
“As long as I know about it and keep it under control, no one—whether it’s the Dang Clan or the government—gets to lay a hand on my business partner.”
Anyone who gets in the way of my business gets wiped out.
“So stop worrying and sleep. I doubt you’re the type to oversleep, but you still need to rest a little if you want to stay sharp, right?”
Dang Ihwa couldn’t say anything.
There was something absurdly convincing about the way he spoke.
He didn’t know it, but somewhere deep inside her, trust in him had begun to take root.
Baek Wontae picked up the robe.
Then he walked toward the candle.
“I’ll sleep at the table. I’m an expert at napping face-down. You got no complaints, right?”
Fwoosh—
The candle went out.
One of them lay on the bed, the other at the table.
In different places, they closed their eyes in silence, each carrying the same unease.
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