After the Incident
After the event ended, Cha Yeri stared blankly at the reference book Kang Ijin had left behind. The cover and the first couple of pages were the only parts that looked used—the rest of the book was pristine. —All because of the president, the book ended up like this. You’ll have to take responsibility and go buy a new one with me. It seemed far too wasteful to buy another one. Yet Kang Ijin had meticulously abandoned the book here and left. His intention was obvious. He wanted to go buy a new one together with her. At this point, she even began to suspect he had deliberately taken the knife for her. ‘No, that can’t be right.’ The idea that the stabbing had been planned was ridiculous. To anyone watching, Kang Ijin had simply been returning from buying a reference book, spotted her, and jumped in. ‘But does jumping in like that even make sense?’ People naturally freeze when they see a knife. She had been the same. She had stepped forward for the hostage, but she had still been terrified of the man wielding the blade. However— —That fucking bastard. How dare he swing a knife at my woman! Kang Ijin had burst in as if it were the most natural thing in the world and taken the blade for her. And on top of that, he had even said those strange words…
“M-my woman…”
With Kang Ijin gone and her left alone, Cha Yeri’s snow-white face flushed bright red like a ripe tomato. She had only been pretending to be composed in front of him until now. ‘I’m getting excited because of Kang Ijin? That doesn’t make any sense, does it?’ Objectively speaking, the way he had stepped in to protect her had been… quite cool and reliable… Thud. The absurd thought made Cha Yeri collapse onto her desk. She had let herself think something ridiculous. There was no way she would ever think Kang Ijin was cool. The shock from the restaurant stabbing must have been greater than she realized. ‘My heart is racing because of arrhythmia. It’s just startled from the knife incident. It definitely has nothing to do with Kang Ijin.’ She was just thinking she should go to the hospital right away when the door opened and a frantic-looking Lee Yena rushed in.
“Miss! Are you okay?! Did you get hurt anywhere…”
“I’m fine, so calm down first, Yena. But you… don’t tell me you came all the way here in that outfit?”
“Ah…”
Cha Yeri was startled when she saw what Lee Yena was wearing. Of course, it was the exact same outfit she wore when attending to her at home. That was precisely why it was a problem. A black dress with a white apron covered in ribbon patterns. Black over-knee socks that reached her thighs and a skirt so short it looked like her underwear might show at any moment. It was an outfit Lee Yena, who loved cute things, had designed herself. While she was technically a maid, this was the 21st century. No maid actually worked in such an inconvenient, skin-revealing uniform. Among all the maids who worked at the mansion, Lee Yena was the only one who wore such an impractical outfit. Naturally, Cha Yeri had given her permission to wear it. Unlike the other maids who commuted, Lee Yena had lived in the mansion since childhood, occupying a room and serving her. Except for sleeping hours, she was essentially always on duty. So Cha Yeri had allowed her to modify her uniform freely under the condition that she only wear it inside the house.
“I-I asked the driver to bring the car, so no one saw me! There’s zero chance anyone will find out I’m your maid, Miss!”
What Cha Yeri had been worried about was whether she felt embarrassed going outside dressed like that… but since she didn’t seem to mind, she decided to let it go. More than anything, the fact that she had rushed over still wearing her maid uniform was rather touching.
“You’re not hurt anywhere, right?”
“Yeah. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”
“Phew… thank goodness.”
Lee Yena placed a hand over her chest and let out a sigh of relief, but her eyes darted around anxiously. It looked like she had something she wanted to say but was hesitating.
“What is it, Yena? You don’t have to hold back. You can ask me anything.”
“Well… I heard that son of a bitch got caught up in it too…”
“Pfft.”
At the words “son of a bitch,” Cha Yeri couldn’t help but burst into laughter. For the kind-hearted Yena to call someone that outright, it seemed Kang Ijin had earned quite a bit of her hatred. Son of a bitch… it really was the perfect nickname for him.
“That’s right. He was here until just a moment ago.”
“He didn’t do anything bad to you, did he?”
“Bad?”
Rather than doing anything bad, Kang Ijin had saved her. She wondered why those words had come first, but it seemed Lee Yena didn’t know he had protected her. It was fascinating how his image was improving positively in her mind while plummeting negatively in Yena’s. As expected, Kang Ijin really was an enigmatic man. Was that why? She found herself wanting to know more about this man named Kang Ijin.
“He didn’t do anything bad. Anyway, Yena. I think I should go to the hospital.”
“What? So you are hurt! You said you weren’t injured at all…”
“I’m not hurt. But my heart seems to have been really startled. I keep getting arrhythmia—my heart is beating irregularly.”
“That sounds serious. Let’s go to the hospital right away. The driver is waiting right outside.”
Cha Yeri hurried to the hospital with Lee Yena. The doctor’s surprised reaction. After receiving a clean bill of health that was almost too perfect, Cha Yeri underwent another detailed examination, but…
“Huh?”
She only received the same results again.
“Oppa, are you actually crazy? Have you lost your mind? Are you some kind of suicidal person or what?”
I got dragged off by Sua and thoroughly scolded. It turned out Kang Suho had already told her everything.
‘That fucking Kang Suho. No wonder Sua asked to meet early during tonight’s walk. I thought it was a date and got excited.’
She had just called me out early to nag me before the walk. If I had known the truth, I wouldn’t have come, so she had even lied about it. I pouted and answered in a bored tone.
“I didn’t die, did I? In the end, I was the one who stopped the whole mess.”
“Are you a cop or something, oppa? Do you suddenly burn with a sense of justice whenever you see a bad guy? You never even glance at stuff like that normally, so why did you suddenly get all fired up with useless heroism back there?!”
“Hey, shh shh. You’re yelling so loud the whole neighborhood can hear… wait, are you crying?”
When fat tears started rolling down Sua’s cheeks, I panicked. I had expected her to worry, but I never imagined she would cry.
“Sob… If something like this happens, you should’ve told me right away… Why did I have to hear it from Suho? When Suho told me you got stabbed… sob… Didn’t you think I’d be incredibly worried…?”
Even after hearing it from Kang Suho, the fact that I hadn’t contacted her separately seemed to have made her worry even more. And on top of that, she seemed upset that she had to hear it from him instead of me. That loose mouth of Kang Suho’s really caused this mess. I had planned to tell her myself when the time was right. I was going to show her I was perfectly fine first and then casually say it was no big deal. That way it wouldn’t be too late, and Sua wouldn’t end up crying like this.
“I’m sorry. This one’s on me.”
I pulled Sua into my arms. She was still crying, but thankfully she didn’t seem to mind being held and stayed obediently in my embrace. I patted her back and gently rocked her side to side. Slowly, her sobs began to calm down.
Whew, thank god. The people around us kept staring at me like I was trash for making a girl cry, and it was getting embarrassing. What the hell are you looking at? Want me to steal your girlfriends too?!
“I’ll buy you strawberry milk. Let’s go to the convenience store.”
“Do you think I’m a kid? You can’t just placate me with strawberry milk…”
“If you still love strawberry milk at your age, you’re definitely a kid. And why are you crying in the middle of the street, you dummy.”
“Grr…!”
Sua let out a dinosaur-like growl in frustration and kicked my leg. She always gave such fresh reactions whenever I teased her that I just couldn’t stop. Once she seemed to have calmed down a bit, I pulled away from her and slipped my hand into my pocket, creating space between my arm and my side.
“Link arms.”
“Oppa, do you realize how shameless you are? You’re seriously asking to link arms in this situation?”
“Hurry up. My arm hurts.”
“…Next time something like this happens, promise you’ll tell me right away… I hate hearing stuff like this from other people…”
Other people… wasn’t Kang Suho supposed to be your childhood friend? To Sua, Kang Suho had basically become a stranger. Technically he was also caught up in the incident, so aren’t you being a bit too cold, Sua? Well, I don’t mind if you become this much of a bad girl. I like it when a delinquent girl turns into a total sweetheart in front of me.
“Got it. Next time I’ll definitely tell you first.”
“Really?”
“If you really don’t trust me, should we write up a contract?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t trust you… ahem…”
With her anger mostly subsided, Sua let out a slightly annoyed sigh and nodded.
“Fine. I’ll forgive you. But if something like this happens again, I won’t let it slide.”
“Alright.”
“Ahem… Then can you open your arms again, Ijin oppa?”
When I made space and held my arm out toward her, Sua slipped her arm through it. Not satisfied with that, she even tucked my arm between her breasts and pressed her body tightly against mine.
‘Whoa!’
The heavenly sensation of soft cushions gently enveloping my arm. So this kind of play is possible when a girl has big breasts. As expected, our Sua really has a lot of talent. If this were a world where physical specs were everything, Sua’s body was so obscenely perfect she could aim beyond Seoul National University and straight for Oxford.
‘Oppa, what’s wrong?’
The fact that she wasn’t even aware of it herself was an extra point.
“While you’re at it, can you hug my arm a little tighter?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because it feels good. It’s so soft.”
“Soft? What are you suddenly—”
Sua looked down in a daze. She finally seemed to realize that my arm was nestled between her breasts. Just as her mouth opened to scold me, I grinned and said,
“You’re going to shout ‘pervert’ like a little kid and make a big fuss again, aren’t you?”
At my provocation, Sua’s face instantly turned bright red. Her body, which had been pulling away, froze. Then, pretending nothing had happened, she adjusted her grip on my arm.
“N-no it’s not!”
“Sure it isn’t. If I hadn’t said anything, you wouldn’t have even noticed my arm was between your breasts.”
“Th-this was completely on purpose, okay?! You keep treating me like a kid, so I was trying to seduce you! What? Does it feel so good you can’t even think straight?”
She was telling an obvious lie with her flushed face, but to me she just looked incredibly cute. I leaned close to her ear and whispered,
“Yeah. Thanks to you, I’m hard.”
“?!!”
Sua’s eyes reflexively shot down to my crotch. But when she saw no visible bulge in my pants, she looked back at me with a puzzled expression.
“You horny bastard.”
“Ugh, seriously…!”
Realizing she had been tricked, Sua gave my chest a light, affectionate smack. Then, as if she couldn’t help it, she let out a helpless laugh and walked toward the convenience store still linked arm-in-arm with me.