Lucas Falls Hard (Part 1)
The place was a shabby warehouse, yet the girl and the man kept talking without pause.
Their acquaintance was still new, but in this world the two of them were the only comrades who could truly understand each other. Subjects to share were hardly in short supply.
Darin had been visibly tense at first, but even that had long since melted away. The man called Lucas had a way with words that was anything but ordinary.
"T-Taekwang Group?!"
As the conversation deepened, Darin startled at Lucas's bombshell of a revelation.
She had just realized that Lucas was the grandson of Taekwang Group's chairman — the eldest grandson, no less.
Taekwang Group was a sprawling conglomerate with interests in automobiles, semiconductors, computers, food, department stores, chemicals, and more. To put its scale simply: its market capitalization soared well past six hundred trillion won. That made it the undisputed number one among Korea's chaebols, and even on the global stage it ranked among the top ten corporate giants.
So what Darin felt now was a shock greater than meeting any famous celebrity.
"M-Ma Hyeok-pil? Wait — is it Mr. Ma Hyeok-pil?"
"Haha. That's what they called me in my past life."
"Oh my god…!"
Clap, clap, clap.
The girl broke into applause before she even realized what she was doing. Whenever her emotions got the better of her, Darin had a habit of doing just that.
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
"Wow… woooow…"
This time, though, the astonishment seemed to have gone a little overboard. Her mouth hung open and her hands would not stop clapping.
Then again, it was hardly surprising. Taekwang Group, in modern-world terms, was on the same level as the Northern Grand Duke — the lord her husband served.
"Ahem. You can stop now."
"Ah! I'm sorry. That was embarrassing, wasn't it?"
"…Not in the slightest."
"Still… a commoner getting this worked up in front of a chaebol heir feels a bit much."
"C-commoner? Pfft—"
Lucas burst out laughing at Darin's guileless manner. Even the words that tumbled out of her without a filter somehow came across as modest rather than rude, and that alone was remarkable.
"Hyeok-pil, I used to see you on TV and YouTube sometimes. You always looked so capable and gentlemanly. Seeing you like this is just… wild."
Having the girl he was already half in love with praise him like that was pure delight. The corners of Lucas's mouth curved without mercy.
Given the size of the group, they had danced right along the edge of the law behind closed doors and committed more than a few underhanded deeds — but at least the public image had been kept spotless. He found himself grateful for that now.
"I never even felt envious. You just seemed like a completely different species of superhuman from someone like me."
Especially when Darin looked at him so kindly.
The girl chattered on with her mouth opening and closing nonstop, then suddenly narrowed her eyes a little, as if she had been believing him a bit too readily.
"Um… you aren't lying to me, are you? I'm not very good at telling those things apart…"
"Haha, no. If anything, believing me so quickly is the strange part."
To clear her doubts, Lucas freely shared corporate secrets that no longer held any value in this other world. He answered every question she tossed his way without the slightest difficulty.
Naturally, the Hero's innocence was proven in short order. And Darin's admiring gaze only grew deeper.
She chattered happily with Lucas for a while, then made a face as if something unexpected had struck her.
"But you're a little different from the image I had."
"Pardon?"
"On TV you seemed so polite and clean-cut, but here the rumors about how dissolute you are are everywhere, aren't they?"
"Ahahaha…"
Lucas scratched his head, looking sheepish.
He was a man who had never needed to care what others thought of him. There had never been any reason to hear such remarks, nor any need to feel ashamed — and yet, being scolded by this woman left him feeling strangely unable to hold his head high.
Male nobles envied him for picking beautiful young ladies as he pleased. Beautiful women, unless they were the rare few like princesses, practically threw themselves at him for a single night.
But Darin reproached him for it.
It was the kind of remark only someone who shared a modern sensibility could make.
"In the end, I'm only human… Since you're from the same place as me, Darin, I'll be honest. Once the restraints disappeared, I just… ended up doing everything I wanted."
"Hmm…"
The girl fixed him with a look that said, Is that really so? Or were you always just that kind of person?
Having shown such an ugly side of himself to his only pure and noble comrade — a virgin, no less — Lucas felt his face flush red.
"O-of course, I might seem a bit dissolute to you, Darin, but… men and women are a little different, aren't they?"
"…Well, that's true. Honestly, I'm probably just too conservative myself."
Darin nodded as if she understood, even though they had barely spoken for long.
Who am I to act like some great moral authority? What right do I have to give Lucas a hard time…
How many people, freed of every constraint of power, would still keep their morality and the law? Unless someone was pathologically obsessed with being good, it was nearly impossible.
"I've never been in your position, Hyeok-pil, so I don't really have the right to scold you. We're not family, either — just strangers."
"…Strangers? Why would you put it like that?"
"Pardon?"
The Hero answered with a faintly wounded tone. Strangers? As far as Lucas was concerned, he and Darin were destined for each other.
Of course, he intended to hold the upper hand in the relationship. But if she would only join his harem, he was prepared to treat her more sincerely than any other member — and yet she had answered so coldly.
"How could we be strangers? And don't call me Hyeok-pil. Call me Lucas."
"I… appreciate the thought, but you and I come from completely different worlds, Lucas. At first I thought of us as comrades, but calling you that almost feels disrespectful…"
"…Different worlds?"
At the man's question — clearly hungry for a firm answer — Darin lowered her head and continued in a small voice.
"I mean… you were born with a diamond spoon in your past life, and here you're the strongest person in the entire world. I just feel like we're on completely different levels. I thought you were an ordinary person in your past life, but even that wasn't true…"
Yes. Somewhere along the way, Darin had begun to find Lucas a little intimidating. Even her speech had suddenly grown more polite.
She had died as a middle-schooler, but even she knew perfectly well how high Ma Hyeok-pil had stood in their previous world.
She was the kind of person who would never even have locked eyes with someone that important. Just a pathetic middle-schooler who had stupidly choked to death peeling a tangerine.
"…Heh heh heh."
Lucas looked blank for a moment, then a laugh slipped out. He had figured out what Darin was trying to say.
But what did it matter in the end?
No matter how impressive a man was, he still had a cock between his legs. And a woman as beautiful and young as her — with a perfect personality and character on top of it — was someone no man would ever turn down.
Ah, mid-twenties wasn't exactly young. Still, judging by the glimpses of her skin, that texture would surpass even a teenager's. He was certain of it.
Even so, holding the upper hand in a romantic relationship was important. So there was nothing wrong with her looking up to him.
"I understand what you mean, but you don't have to treat me so carefully. Businessmen are just ordinary people in the end."
"Mmm, really…? Still…"
"Of course. I'd like to get closer to you quickly, Darin."
"Uh… you mean closer as friends, right?"
"…Who knows?"
Whether it would actually have been true, Lucas felt that if he had known Darin in his past life, he would have seriously considered a relationship. The age gap would have been large — she was a middle-schooler — but dressing her up to his taste and keeping her like a kept woman didn't sound half bad either.
In both his past life and this one, Lucas was a man with an overwhelming sense of elite entitlement. To him, ordinary people were nothing more than cogs spinning for the sake of the company.
Ah, this is driving me crazy…
That a man like him was feeling this way meant he had fallen for Darin completely. Lucas gazed at her sparkling amber eyes with a fluttering heart, only to be hit by a sudden wave of self-awareness.
Was I always the type to fall for a woman this easily?
Across both lives, this was truly the first time his heart had been genuinely moved — and the confusion of that feeling left him thoroughly unsettled.
"What's wrong, Lucas?"
"It's nothing, Darin. But…"
Lucas shook his head and barely managed to collect himself. He had come here today partly to spend a pleasant time with her, but the most important matter was something else entirely.
The man slowly looked the crimson-haired girl over from head to toe.
Even in a shabby dress, the sweetly rounded breasts rising from her small frame and the flare of her hips seized his attention. Gulp. His Adam's apple bobbed roughly. He wanted to take her right then and there, but he would have to hold back. Given her delicate nature, he would need to treat her gently — at least while she was still a virgin.
"But…?"
Why had this man trailed off mid-conversation? The girl rounded her eyes and stared at Lucas blankly. The question was a bonus.
Asking outright if she's a virgin would be rude…
Lucas was turning it over in his head, trying in his own way to show her respect. With any other woman he would simply have spread her legs and shoved his cock in to check, but with Darin it wasn't that simple.
Of course, he was 99.9 percent certain she was a virgin.
But there was always that 0.01 percent — that vanishingly slim possibility.
"Darin, there's something I'm curious about. If it wouldn't be too rude… may I ask?"
Apparently Lucas wasn't the only one who felt how quickly they had grown close.
"Of course."
Darin smiled with her eyes, sweetly mischievous, and nodded without hesitation.
"If it's something I can answer, I'll do my best."