Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: 1+1
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‘No way… she’s really going to do it?’
Jihyun snorted inwardly.
No matter how reckless Eileen was,
she figured Eileen wouldn’t actually go through with a kiss right in front of her wide-open eyes.
Plus, Woojin oppa wouldn’t just sit there, right?
Woojin was thinking the same thing.
‘Nah, no way. She’s just talking big. It’s a pride match.’
Both of them had let their guards down.
That was their fatal mistake.
Eileen Benedict was the type who followed through if she said she would.
No—she was the type who dove in headfirst the moment she decided.
Her face closed in on Woojin’s nose without a hint of hesitation.
Eileen had seen right through their complacent thoughts.
“Haha, you both think I’m a total joke, huh.”
With those words.
Swish—
Woojin’s head snapped back.
Chuuup—!
Not the shy little smack from Jihyun yesterday, but a thick, blatant friction sound echoed through the living room of apartment 1104.
“!!!”
Woojin’s eyes bulged like they might pop out.
Their lips had touched.
But this was on a whole different level from the light brush with Jihyun yesterday.
Eileen’s lips had aggressively engulfed Woojin’s, invading without mercy.
A soft, scorching sensation slammed into his brain.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
As Woojin groaned in panic, something hot and squishy brushed the edge of his lips.
‘Wh-what’s this!? What the hell…!?’
That was the moment.
Crack—!
“G-get… off!!”
Jihyun’s hands clamped down hard on Eileen’s and Woojin’s heads.
With brute force, she pried the two apart.
Smack—!
The sharp sound of lips separating shattered the silence once more.
“Puha—!”
Woojin, who hadn’t even been able to breathe, finally gasped for air.
A blue glint of madness flickered in Jihyun’s eyes.
“You crazy…!!”
But Eileen just shamelessly smacked her lips, looking regretful.
“Tch, sharp one, aren’t ya.”
Jihyun panted furiously as she lunged for Eileen’s collar.
“You…!!! What were you trying to shove in there!? What was that slipping between our lips just now!!”
Eileen, face flushed, licked her lower lip with exaggerated seductiveness.
“Why? Got a problem with it?”
“A problem?! You think this is just a problem!? There’s such a thing as decency! How could you—!”
“Huh? Decency?”
Eileen shoved her face right up to Jihyun’s and fired back.
“Don’t you think you’re the last one who should be lecturing me on decency?”
“What?”
“You stole Woojin oppa’s first kiss. So doesn’t the second one deserve a little extra to balance the scales? That’s proper decency right there.”
Miraculous logic.
Jihyun’s face turned beet red, like it might explode, as she yelled.
“You call that—!!”
Woojin lay sprawled on the sofa in a daze.
‘What… just happened to me?’
If yesterday’s kiss with Jihyun had been the thrilling whisper of a spring breeze, then this one with Eileen was a midsummer typhoon.
Intense, sticky… and dangerous.
‘What slipped in there!!’
Jihyun whirled her frustration toward Woojin.
“Oppa, say something! Don’t just sit there taking it!”
But Woojin’s mouth just flapped open uselessly—no words came out.
Physical age twenty-five, mental age thirty-five.
For lifelong bachelor Kim Woojin, it was simply too much, too overwhelming.
Honestly, it had been so intense that even his memory of yesterday with Jihyun was fading.
‘Did she plan this? Scary girl.’
But…
Truth be told, he didn’t hate it. No, he liked it.
Male instinct was a sneaky thing.
‘What do I even want? Why are they doing this to me?’
Just as apartment 1104 teetered on the brink of a triangular catastrophe.
Ding-a-ling—
Click—
“Hyung, how long you gonna eat? We gotta head out soon…”
Sangjin had come over from 1103.
The moment he opened the door, he was hit with the bizarre scene unfolding before him.
His hyung sprawled on the sofa, soul seemingly departed.
Jihyun fuming with murderous intent.
Eileen licking her lips with a victor’s smile.
‘What the hell…?’
Even quick-on-the-uptake Sangjin couldn’t make sense of the situation.
Was this a demon’s lair?
Why was there always some unexpected spectacle every time he showed up?
And so, wisely, Sangjin decided not to think too deeply about it. Digging into these three’s relationships would just give him a headache.
“Ahem.”
Sangjin tossed out his business casually, as if nothing was wrong.
“Oh, we’ve gotta make that sample for Chairman Yoo Daeho today… Hurry up and get ready.”
Woojin bolted upright.
His little brother was a lifesaver.
“R-right! Forgot all about it! Gotta get to work, work!”
Woojin shoved Sangjin aside and bolted for the door without a backward glance.
“I’m out! I’ll eat later!”
Bang—!
With Woojin gone, all that remained in the living room was heavy silence and the two women’s killing intent.
Even after Woojin left, the two women’s battle of wills didn’t end.
– Any matters involving Woojin must be agreed upon by both of us.
That was the promise they’d made when they started living here.
Eileen broke the silence first.
She tapped her lips with her finger.
“Hehe, my man’s lips are pretty sweet.”
Snap—!
A vein throbbed on Jihyun’s forehead.
Annoying as hell.
She’d barely managed a fleeting lip brush yesterday.
But this fox had gone all out, brazenly invading—and trying to slip something disgusting in, no less.
“Aaaah!! So freaking annoying!”
Jihyun threw meaningless punches at the air as she screamed.
“You know that’s foul play! Sneaky!! We said fair competition!”
Eileen replied leisurely.
“Foul play? You started it.”
“How is that foul!? Do you know how much effort I—!”
She cut herself off there, a pang of conscience hitting her.
Effort? What effort? She’d just drunkenly pounced on him.
Eileen snorted.
“Hmph, don’t act so aggrieved. A ‘first kiss’ is a ritual with massive ripple effects. It’s etched into a man’s brain for life. Congrats, Jihyun. You just gave him a memory he’ll carry to the grave.”
Jihyun stared at Eileen with wide eyes.
“What…?”
Her face flushed pink.
A memory that lasts till death…
She wanted to squeal and stomp her feet right then and there.
But.
“Now, every time he recalls your first kiss, he’ll automatically think of mine too. Like a 1+1 deal. And he’ll linger on mine longer. It was that intense.”
Jihyun slammed the table with a bang.
“Hey, you bitch! You totally planned that!”
Eileen laughed as if it was the funniest thing.
“Hehe, of course? Now you and I are a lifelong set in Woojin oppa’s brain.”
“……”
Honestly, she was one step ahead.
Jihyun hadn’t even considered it.
‘Looks like that romance studying really paid off…’
But she had to call her out on one thing.
“St-still! Shoving that in was too much!”
Eileen tilted her head, genuinely puzzled.
“Huh? You snatch the first kiss on the sly and dare complain? I just cranked up the intensity to even the odds.”
Damn it, she couldn’t win a single argument.
“How do you even know it was his first!? Maybe he did it way back!”
“Obvious from a mile away. That wooden puppet reaction. One hundred percent.”
Jihyun was at a loss for words. Truth was, she’d sensed it yesterday too.
Woojin oppa was definitely a lifelong singleton.
“Huh!? Whatever. What about you? So slick at it—must’ve done it tons, huh?”
Jihyun sneered.
But Eileen gave an unexpected answer.
“No way. My first time too.”
“……What?”
Jihyun’s eyes went round.
The great Eileen Benedict, star of countless scandals, claiming her first kiss?
“Liar.”
“Not a lie. No man was ever worthy of my lips till now.”
Eileen was utterly confident.
But the tips of her ears were just a tiny bit red.
“I needed something stronger than your first-kiss shock to overwrite it. Don’t get the wrong idea, Jihyun. I’m the one who wants to bawl right now.”
She wasn’t embarrassed or anything.
‘Tsk… what a shame.’
It was her first kiss.
She’d wanted it in a more romantic setting, something grander.
But with her rival stealing the lead, she couldn’t afford to be picky.
“Competition’s fair. That was our deal, right? We both etched ourselves into Woojin oppa’s memory forever this time. Call it a tie.”
Eileen replied shamelessly.
Jihyun’s head couldn’t grasp how this was “fair competition,” but her heart got it.
“……Tch……”
Jihyun stood from the table and headed to her room.
“I’m letting this one slide. Next time, you’re done.”
“That’s my line. Thief.”
As she entered her room, Jihyun thought.
‘Next time… I’ll just go all the way. Make it a done deal, and she won’t be able to do a thing!’
Her own thoughts made her face go boom right there.
‘D-done deal?! Wh-what am I even thinking! But! Leaving that vixen be…’
Eileen was thinking something similar.
‘Next base is mine first, Jihyun. Foul play demands payback.’
“Hmph!!”
“Hmph.”
Bang—!
Their doors slammed shut with a thud.
And so, the kiss incident in 1104 ended—for now—in a draw between the two women.
On the sidewalk heading to catch a taxi.
Sangjin glanced at Woojin, then grinned mischievously.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“What happened back there?”
“Dunno, man. None of your business.”
Woojin grumbled. But he couldn’t hide his reddened ears.
‘Something definitely went down.’
Sangjin chuckled, then suddenly spoke in a serious tone.
“But hyung. Don’t you think it’s time you made a choice?”
“What choice?”
“You can’t keep tightroping between those two noonas forever. They’re both dead serious—you know that, right?”
“Serious my ass…”
Sangjin tossed it out casually.
“Back in the day, we were too busy surviving for luxuries like dating. But things are different now. You’ve earned the right to be happy, hyung. To like someone, to be loved. That’s not a sin.”
“…What does a squirt like you know… You ever even dated?”
“……Can’t argue when you hit me with facts like that.”
The taxi pulled up, and the two climbed into the back seat.
“We’re off.”
Woojin stared blankly out the window.
Outside, couples strolled arm-in-arm, beaming with happy smiles.
‘A choice…’
Honestly, he’d never even considered it.
Orphaned and scraping by at rock bottom, he’d lived solely for his brother Sangjin.
Opening his heart to someone, letting them into his life.
To Woojin, that had always been an unnecessary emotion—a hindrance to survival.
‘Me? With girls like that?’
Korea’s top chaebol heiress, Jihyun.
The heir to the world’s strongest family, Eileen.
He was just some guy who’d lucked into powers.
‘If I didn’t have these abilities, would they even like me?’
No chance.
They were shining stars, and he was just a pebble on the ground gazing up.
But.
Jihyun’s warm, trembling lips from yesterday.
Eileen’s hot, sticky lips that had nearly swallowed him whole just now.
Those sensations kept knocking at a cold corner of his heart.
“……Later.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing.”
A tiny crack began to form in his ironclad heart.
The reason they’d come all the way here was that this store had the widest variety of DH appliances.
It was a weekday morning, so there were hardly any customers. The spacious showroom was empty save for bored staff milling about.
DH Electronics, once hailed as one of the twin pillars of white goods, had gradually fallen from priority within the group. Investments were shelved, new products stalled, and it was in steady decline.
“Alright, let’s do this? Time to shock the world.”
Sangjin nodded at Woojin’s words.
The ambition from that night burned fiercely in his eyes.
“Let’s go, hyung!”