Chapter 403: The Mother and Daughter's Resolve (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 403: The Mother and Daughter's Resolve (5)
It was the third day since Baek Hyeon-a had moved in as a tenant.
Shin Yu-jeong finally realized it.
Kim Do-jin.
She couldn't just let this man, whom she had come to love so dearly, run wild.
“That damn playboy.”
Once she started looking with suspicious eyes, things that had seemed perfectly normal before began to look different.
First, there was Im Na-eun.
“Do-jin~ What are you doing?”
“…I’m training.”
“Aww, no wonder your muscles look like they’re about to pop♥”
The woman, who had seemed shady even before she’d grown suspicious, was now practically a confirmed case.
“Per… no, Do-jin?”
“Yeah? What is it, Elena?”
“I’m going for a new deadlift record today. I might get hurt, so could you watch over me from the side?”
“…Alright.”
“Oh my, I’m suddenly feeling anemic…?”
Elena, who put on a display of terrible acting as she subtly collapsed into Kim Do-jin’s arms, was also suspicious.
And she wasn't the only one.
“Do-jin.”
“Yes, Seo-yeon-sunbae.”
“Um… about the part you pointed out yesterday.”
“Oh, that.”
“Yeah. If you look at yesterday’s video….”
Son Seo-yeon, who used the video as an excuse to shove her smartphone in his face and press their shoulders together, was just as suspicious.
In truth, they were just the tip of the iceberg.
“You’re tired, right? Want to rest your head on noona’s lap for a bit?”
“That’s a bit…”
“Aw, what’s the big deal! Come on, lie down. Be a good boy, okay?”
“No, hey, come on.”
“Huhu… Your words say no, but your body is honest, my dear Guild Leader♥”
All of them paled in comparison to Han Ju-yeon, who was openly wagging her nine tails as she laid Kim Do-jin’s head on her lap.
An S-rank Hunter hitting on a man much younger than her.
And the bastard who pretended to refuse but went along with it because he enjoyed it.
“…What a sight, truly a sight to behold.”
She couldn’t think of any other words to describe the scene before her.
“Huuuh…”
Shin Yu-jeong let out a deep sigh.
If she could, she would have grabbed each and every one of them by the collar and yelled, ‘Stop hitting on my man, you bitch!’
‘…But I can’t. We’re on the same team.’
Besides, she had no hard evidence, only suspicions. She was afraid of damaging their teamwork with a rash action, so it was difficult to act recklessly.
Her gaze, which had been sweeping over her teammates with complicated feelings, finally settled on one person: Kim Do-jin.
‘He’s the problem.’
Whether man or woman, it was only natural to be drawn to an attractive person, just as bees are naturally drawn to a fragrant flower.
So, she could fully understand why her teammates were drawn to him.
The problem was that Kim Do-jin, who should have been firmly rejecting their advances, was enjoying it instead.
‘How did I end up falling for a guy like that…?’
Shin Yu-jeong grumbled with a small sigh.
She realized that the bigger problem wasn’t Kim Do-jin, but herself.
‘I’m the crazy one for not being able to leave him even after seeing all this.’
In truth, Kim Do-jin had been like this from the very beginning.
Didn’t he openly show his playboy tendencies from the moment he started going on and on about threesomes?
And yet, she hadn’t been able to leave him then. She had not only tolerated it but had even participated.
“…I’m in no position to blame anyone.”
She hung her head at the miserable truth.
In the swirling vortex of her emotions, she quickly organized her thoughts.
‘Right. It’s already spilt milk.’
The man she’d fallen in love with was a world-class playboy who never turned a woman away.
And she had come too far to leave him.
The affection that had naturally deepened while they stayed together and shared their bodies had reached a point where even she couldn’t fathom its depth.
She would even give him her organs if it was for him.
‘Of course, only the ones I can live without.’
Giving up her life for a lover was a bit too much for her.
He had to live, and she had to live too. What was the point if one of them died?
If she died, he would just bury her memory in his heart and meet other women. She could never let that happen.
‘Maybe… dying together might be possible, though?’
She thought that would be better than one of them living on.
Anyway, that was how she felt.
There was no longer any room in her life for any man other than him.
‘What do I do now?’
Her worries continued even after she returned home.
Kim Do-jin was like the wind.
She couldn’t do something as foolish as trying to hold the wind in her hand.
But what if she could change the wind’s direction, even just a little?
For instance, what if she could completely drain his libido so he wouldn’t even think of other women?
“…Not a bad idea.”
It was a sudden thought, but it wasn’t bad at all.
There was just one problem.
His libido was so immense that she couldn’t handle it alone.
That meant she would need an accomplice.
The first person who came to mind was, of course…
‘Yoon Ji-an.’
She didn’t like her, but she was a woman who was practically Kim Do-jin’s lover, just like herself.
With her help, they could surely drain his libido dry.
He loved threesomes anyway, so he’d probably be thrilled to let it all out if the two of them pounced on him.
However, she wasn’t a perfect choice either.
‘That woman is too submissive.’
Not that she wasn’t the same, but Yoon Ji-an was excessively submissive to Kim Do-jin.
You could tell just by how she looked like she owned the world after a single word of praise from him.
If Kim Do-jin said he wanted to fool around with not just two, but three, four, or five women, she’d probably hesitate for a moment before gladly accepting.
“Sss… that’s a little… exciting… no, no.”
Shin Yu-jeong wiped the drool from her lips and shook her head.
The number of women by his side would surely increase.
She knew she couldn’t stop that flow.
But she wanted to slow it down as much as possible, and Yoon Ji-an would be no help in that regard.
“Ah… then who is there?”
Who else was there? A woman who would sympathize with her goal and work with her.
It was then.
“There is someone.”
Someone who would completely sympathize with her goal.
No, there was one person who would go beyond that and move as one body, one mind with her.
And she was right beyond this door.
“…Mom.”
Her own mother, Seo Jeong-hee.
Her own flesh and blood, with whom things had become awkward after their plan to talk two nights ago had fizzled out.
Remembering her existence, Shin Yu-jeong squeezed her eyes shut without realizing it.
“Hah… this is crazy, seriously.”
It was definitely a crazy idea.
What woman in the world would team up with her own mother to manage a man’s uncontrollable libido?
But conversely, she felt that because it was such a crazy idea, the chances of success might be even higher.
“That bastard might not listen to anyone else, but he can’t disobey my mom…”
If there was anyone in this world who could exert even a little bit of control over Kim Do-jin, it was undoubtedly her mother.
Perhaps because she had shown him such kindness since he was young, didn't he always go out of his way to help her with almost anything?
Thinking about it was truly regrettable.
“If only I had pretended to be nice when I was younger…”
She wouldn’t be getting pushed around by him like this.
As she agonized over this utterly insane idea, she finally made up her mind.
She recalled an immutable truth.
“…To deal with a crazy bastard, I have to become a crazy bitch.”
Of course, that was only if the conversation she was about to have with her mother went well.
“Huu… alright.”
Having finally resolved to face her mother’s true feelings, Shin Yu-jeong left her room.
She walked up to Seo Jeong-hee, who was sitting on the living room sofa watching TV, and stopped.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“We need to talk.”
Seo Jeong-hee’s expression stiffened slightly at her words.
As if the inevitable had finally arrived, she looked confused for a moment before nodding.
“Yes, we should.”
Getting up from the sofa, she went straight to the kitchen, took out beer and soju from the fridge, and placed them on the dining table.
After beautifully cutting up some fruit and setting it down, she smiled awkwardly and asked her daughter.
“This will be hard for you sober, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“Come and sit.”
Finally, the two sat facing each other at the table.
In an atmosphere completely different from the silent breakfasts they shared when Kim Do-jin wasn’t around, they exchanged drinks.
After downing two glasses of somaek—a perfect half-and-half mix of soju and beer—in a row.
“I… I saw it last time.”
Shin Yu-jeong began to speak.
“You and Do-jin having sex.”
Her mother’s pupils shook violently at the shocking confession.
She hadn’t known.
She thought Yu-jeong had only figured out some things about her relationship with Kim Do-jin, but to think she had witnessed it firsthand.
“Um… when did you see it?”
“Last time, when I left the house to clear a dungeon.”
“Ah…”
She dropped her head limply.
Of all times, it had to be then—when she had cried out more intensely and shamelessly than ever before in her life.
She wished the ground would swallow her whole.
Shin Yu-jeong asked her again.
“…How long have you been like that?”
“For quite a while.”
A nonchalant reply.
“How did it happen?”
“Well…”
In truth, there was a part of it that was a little hard for her to understand as well.
The first time she did what she shouldn’t have, he looked quite different from how he did now.
Back then, he was much shorter and weighed a lot more.
No matter that he had saved her life, if she hadn’t felt anything for him, she wouldn’t have done such a thing in the hospital room.
That’s why she herself was curious.
Ten out of ten, a hundred out of a hundred women would have found his unimpressive appearance unattractive.
What on earth had she seen in him to feel that attraction?
After some thought, she soon found the answer.
“…He felt dependable.”
Seo Jeong-hee lifted her head, her eyes filled with undisguised affection and trust.
“I felt that no matter what happened, this boy would protect me. That kind of dependability was something I really needed back then… and I felt that from him, you see.”
Facing her mother’s sorrowful smile, as if to say it couldn’t be helped, Shin Yu-jeong realized something.
Her mother, who had supported the family her entire life, was also just a vulnerable woman who yearned to be protected by someone.
That fact weighed heavily on Shin Yu-jeong’s heart.