Just No
“You. Become my personal bodyguard.”
The moment Sihyun heard Yuri’s proposal, the same old thought rose unbidden.
This again?
It must have shown plainly on his face, because before he could even refuse outright—
“Hey, at least hear me out to the end first.”
Yuri pressed on without missing a beat.
“Honestly, I still don’t really know what kind of person you are.”
“……”
Sihyun said nothing, simply listening with a blank, unreadable expression as she continued.
“But I can tell for certain you’re not doing this job because you enjoy putting up with insults from those assholes.”
Yuri’s eyes were more serious than he had ever seen them.
“From the very first time I saw you at the club.”
Their first meeting had been the worst imaginable. He had been the root of all that chaos, after all.
And yet, to that same Sihyun—
“First, I’ll admit it.”
Yuri bit down hard on her lower lip and forced the words out.
“In the beginning, I approached you for the exact same reason as those other bitches—because of that pretty face of yours.”
In the middle of the same tedious days she always endured, Sihyun had appeared in front of her like a sudden jolt of freshness. A face that matched a taste she hadn’t even known she possessed. Physical ability that completely belied that looks. The way he grumbled about everything yet still got the job done. And a nature that simply couldn’t turn away from someone in trouble.
The more she looked back on each piece of it, the more impossible it became not to be drawn to him.
If I’d known it would turn out like this…… I wouldn’t have treated him so lightly from the start.
She shoved the old regret aside and kept going in a low, steady voice.
“So of course you’d hate accepting a proposal where I treated you like a toy the way those other bitches at the club do.”
Her frank admission caught Sihyun slightly off guard, but the word “pretty” still made him frown on reflex. Seeing the crease between his brows, Yuri let out a short laugh.
“See? You really hate being called pretty, don’t you?”
“……Just drop it and finish what you were saying.”
Sihyun tried to cut the topic short with a surly tone. Watching him, Yuri murmured as if confirming something to herself.
“Yeah. I was right.”
That only irritated him further. Here he was, actually trying to listen seriously for once, and she kept hammering the one subject he hated.
So he started to stand, temper rising.
“For real, if you’re just going to keep spouting nonsense—!”
Yuri raised a hand and stopped him cold.
“No. This is important.”
“What the hell kind of bullshit is this now!?”
“Don’t you want to stop hearing people call you pretty, or cute, or girly?”
“Of course I do!”
His blunt answer practically shouted that it was a stupid question. Yuri waggled a finger at him and said,
“Then be my bodyguard.”
“Ha……?”
Sihyun stared at her like she’d lost her mind. She drove the nail in deeper.
“Isn’t bodyguard work a hell of a lot more manly than a part-time job where you have to force smiles?”
“That’s……”
While he was still speechless, she delivered the finishing blow.
“And you’d make way more money, too.”
“……”
Watching him fail to come up with a proper reply, Yuri was certain she almost had him.
But the words that left Sihyun’s mouth were—
“No.”
A flat refusal.
“What? Why!?”
Yuri shot back as if she simply could not believe it. Arms flung out behind her, she looked completely at a loss—clearly she had never even imagined being rejected.
Sihyun had expected some halfway decent reason if she was going to act this serious. Who does she take me for……
Yuri had tried her best to sound logical, but he wasn’t buying it. It felt like she was trying to bait him the same way you coax a kid with candy, and for some reason that alone made him hate the whole idea.
So—
“I just don’t want to.”
He cut it off cleanly.
“Just!?”
“Yeah. Just.”
Leaving the flabbergasted Yuri behind, Sihyun rose slowly from his seat. Seonye had offered to cover for him, but leaving the floor empty for too long was still bad form. He’d only stepped out for a quick breath of air; thanks to Yuri, far more time had slipped away than he’d planned.
“What do you mean, just—!”
Yuri kept demanding answers, but Sihyun simply turned, opened the back door, and walked through.
“Hey!!!”
Her voice behind him was pure fury, almost a scream, yet he pretended not to hear and stepped back into the café.
Yuri stormed after him into the café, still fuming, but she never managed to talk to him properly again.
Because the moment she tried—
“Hey, come on, don’t be like that……!”
“I’m working. Customer.”
“Iiiiiik—!”
—Sihyun threw the iron wall right back up as if nothing had happened between them. Left with no choice, a seething Yuri ordered a fresh iced americano, dropped into a seat, and took a sip.
“Ugh……”
To make matters worse, even the coffee tasted like nothing.
“This coffee’s crap too! Just be my bodyguard already……”
While she was muttering, a familiar figure swam into view: Seonye, smirking like a victor.
“Pfft, customer, why don’t you hurry up and finish your coffee so you can leave~?”
“You get lost first.”
Yuri’s rough retort would normally have set Seonye off instantly, but this time—
“Sure. This unnie has other business anyway, so I’m going~”
—she just smiled slyly and let it slide.
“Try not to cause any more trouble, okay~ Customer.”
Seonye turned with an infuriating little wave and sauntered out of the café.
“Iiiiiik—!”
Yuri gripped the edge of the table, trembling, barely restraining the urge to smash the back of Seonye’s head on the way out. Then her gaze slid back to the counter, where Sihyun was still working in silence.
“Fine……”
A cold blue flame seemed to flare to life in her eyes.
“Let’s see who wins this in the end.”
Before long the café’s closing time arrived. Sihyun couldn’t help being impressed by the sheer stubbornness of Yuri’s obsession.
“S-Sihyun, I’m heading out first, okay? See you tomorrow!”
The manager didn’t even wait for a reply; he simply spun around and fled the shop as if running for his life. Hard to blame him—Yuri was still planted solidly at the table right in front of the counter.
“……Excuse me.”
Sihyun approached her with clear reluctance.
“What.”
She answered curtly.
“What do you mean ‘what’? Can’t you see we’re closed?”
“……So what.”
“Ha……!”
Sihyun let out a disbelieving laugh, then pointed at the exit and raised his voice.
“Get out already, customer!”
“No.”
“Haaah—!?”
“I’m leaving with you. Finish up already.”
“Hahaha……”
Having completely lost the ability to form words, Sihyun decided further conversation was useless and simply began closing procedures. A little while later, finished with the work and still thoroughly displeased, he had no choice but to step outside the café together with Yuri.
“Well then, I’ll be—”
He tried to end it with a quick goodbye and turn away.
But—
Grab!
Yuri latched onto his sleeve at once.
“What the hell is it this time?”
A curse slipped out before he could stop it. Yuri paid it no mind, still clutching his sleeve tightly.
“You’re just going to run again.”
“Run? What run? I need to go home!”
“Right. Let’s go.”
“……What?”
For a second he thought he’d misheard.
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
He stared at her like she had truly gone insane. She didn’t so much as blink.
“I said let’s go. I want to see your place.”
In that instant something flickered through Sihyun’s mind—
This time I really want to visit your house!
—a fragment of the past he had wanted to forget. He shook his head hard, then fixed Yuri with a cold look.
“Why the hell would you need to see my house!?”
“Huh?”
Yuri blinked as if she genuinely didn’t understand the question.
“Obviously I need to know where my bodyguard lives, don’t I?”
“Hahaha……”
Sihyun could only laugh hollowly now. Half-resigned, sleeve still caught in her grip, he began walking toward home with heavy steps.
Whatever happens, happens……
Maybe it would be better just to show her everything. Once she saw the house he lived in and met his mother—
That person is your older sister…… no, your mom?
—she would look at him with contempt and naturally drift away on her own.
We live in completely different worlds, after all……
With that thought he kept walking, and before long they turned into a narrow alley.
“What’s with those guys?”
Yuri muttered, frowning. A group of people stood stretched across the path, blocking the way. And right in the middle of them—
“Hey, beggar bastard! What’s this, you’ve got a crazy bitch with you too?”
—Suhyeon stood with his arms crossed.