So Unexpectedly Tender
Six feet two—had he just said that? I quietly opened the calculator on my phone and secretly checked exactly how many centimeters it was.
Close to 189. Judging by how much taller he’d gotten, he had to be around 190 by now. It made sense. That kid was bigger than the refrigerator. The difference between us was roughly thirty centimeters.
“Are you hitting the gym because you’re trying to be a bodybuilder or a model or something?”
Kwon Hyun-jin turned and looked at me as if I’d just spouted complete nonsense. I flinched without meaning to.
“No, just… because you work out so hard. Never mind…”
Embarrassed, I finished clearing the trash and stood up from my seat.
I’d promised to cook for him, so now I had to earn that strawberry-milk money.
“Want me to order us some hamburgers for delivery?”
In Hannam-dong you couldn’t freely order delivery whenever you felt like it, so whenever we ate out I craved fast food.
I ordered a shrimp-burger set, three Monster Whoppers, and some nuggets. The shrimp burger was mine; the rest belonged to Kwon Hyun-jin.
I knew how much teenage boys could put away. Even Chan-hee had been eating two burgers at a time since middle school. And this kid was far bigger than Chan-hee.
Sure enough, Kwon Hyun-jin polished off the Whoppers without spilling a single drop of sauce. I pushed the fries and nuggets that had been sitting in the middle of the table all the way over to him.
Ice rattled in Kwon Hyun-jin’s cola cup. Mine was still more than half full.
“You finished your cola?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’m drinking this.”
“Wait—I’ll pour it into a clean cup for you.”
I stood to fetch a glass, but a long arm stretched across the table. Kwon Hyun-jin casually took my cup and started sucking down the cola through the straw.
“……”
I was so startled I could only stare blankly as his cheeks hollowed. Heat flooded my face in an instant.
“What.”
“You… that’s… my straw…”
“So?”
“……”
“Is that not allowed?”
His whole attitude said he genuinely couldn’t see the problem.
“You gave it to me. What does it matter how I drink it?”
Maybe it really was nothing. But because the person doing it was Kwon Hyun-jin, it was very much something.
Using someone else’s utensils, eating something another person had already touched—those things simply did not happen in the chairman’s household. The owner’s family, especially, were nearly obsessive about cleanliness. The servants had it drilled into them to be meticulous about personal hygiene; it was second nature.
And yet a straw?
He was drinking what I’d been drinking, just like that?
Kwon Hyun-jin stared straight at my flustered face while he kept sucking on the straw. Even after there was nothing left and the sound turned disgusting, he didn’t stop, as if he wanted me to hear every last noisy pull.
Heat rushed all the way to my ears. The fact that a boy who never even smacked his lips while eating was doing this made the whole thing feel even stranger.
“Stop it!”
“Stop what.”
I tried to snatch the cup back, but Kwon Hyun-jin, who towered over me, easily kept it out of reach. I even went up on my toes and stretched my arms in a ridiculous little farce, and still I couldn’t win.
“You already finished it—give it back!”
“Once you give it, it’s mine. What’s there to give back.”
I was the only one making a scene; Kwon Hyun-jin remained completely at ease. He even popped the lid off and dumped every last ice cube into his mouth.
Crunch. Crunch.
He chewed the ice while staring me down, one corner of his mouth crooked up, looking for all the world like a villain.
“Lee Na-hee’s face is completely red.”
“……”
“Kinda cute, actually?”
The kid had to be genuinely insane. The more I huffed, the more he seemed to enjoy it. I dropped into a chair and covered my forehead with my hand. The strength had drained from my legs; I didn’t even have the energy left to stay mad.
“Thanks for the meal, Lee Na-hee.”
I’d only placed the order; he had paid. He was also the one who’d gone outside to collect the bags.
“The cola was the best part. Really sticks to the mouth.”
“Are you seriously nuts?”
I couldn’t hold it in any longer. Kwon Hyun-jin snickered as he watched me tremble with indignation.
Leaving this apartment as soon as possible seemed like the best thing for my mental health. Fortunately, Kwon Hyun-jin cleared away all the trash on his own while I gathered my outerwear.
“Hey. Cook dinner before you go.”
“……We just had lunch.”
“You’re not eating dinner?”
“……”
Honestly, the kid’s rotten core went beyond merely hopeless—it was thoroughly decayed. To think I had ordered him hamburgers and even planned to buy advance tickets for Defenders 2. I must have been momentarily possessed.
Chapter 3
So Unexpectedly Tender
It was already the tail end of autumn.
The more I learned about Kwon Hyun-jin, the more he surprised me, but one fact surprised me most of all: he was apparently sailing smoothly along with a girlfriend.
Every time I visited the apartment, there were orange roses. They were always fresh, and the mixed foliage kept changing, so he must have been receiving bouquets nearly every day.
How on earth did anyone put up with a personality like his? I couldn’t believe the miraculous patience and affection his girlfriend must possess. Did she simply ignore character entirely? Looks weren’t everything about a person…
On the other hand, I grew even more reluctant to enter Kwon Hyun-jin’s place.
What if I ran into the girlfriend? What was I supposed to say then?
That I was the live-in cook’s daughter from the main house, just running an errand—should I make that excuse…?
Even having to worry about it felt awkward and wretched.
Keep running into Kwon Hyun-jin himself was uncomfortable too. Teach me how to cook, let’s go buy whatever I need, help me install the appliances. His demands kept growing, and for some strange reason the time I spent in his apartment stretched longer and longer. Even when I told him to just send Driver Kim, who was always on standby, he pretended not to hear.
He ought to have been out on dates instead of suddenly deciding he needed a TV and Wi-Fi. Being alone in the house with a guy who already had a girlfriend was a heavy burden. It felt a bit like I was stealing someone else’s things.
In the end I started varying the dates and times of my visits irregularly. After that, the number of collisions dropped sharply.
“Madam, I need to start preparing to live on my own soon, so I’ll take care of the young master’s place myself.”
When I said I would pack side dishes myself and run the errands at times that worked for me, Madam Jang looked noticeably pleased.
“Na-hee, you should have said so earlier! Take things over to the young master often, all right?”
I had worried she might be put out, but Madam Jang showed not the slightest sign of it. She even went and got a resident access card from Assistant Manager Choi and handed it to me.
“It’s a hassle to keep asking Choi every time. You keep it safe, understood?”
“Yes, Madam.”
I had already been leaving the apartment key card for that place in Building B anyway. Whether it was in Assistant Manager Choi’s hand or in a drawer in the Building B storage room, it was all the same.
“I guess being the same age really does make a difference. I’m so glad I put you on these errands, Na-hee. Look after our young master for me, keep him from getting lonely, all right?”
Madam Jang seemed to be under the mistaken impression that Kwon Hyun-jin and I had become something like friends. All I had done was scheme to visit by surprise when he wasn’t home…
“Madam says you’re such a wonderful girl, Na-hee. The chairman always eats well, so she’s grateful to Director Lee as well. She’s thinking of finding you a decent officetel near B Women’s University.”
“No, it’s fine, really.”
Afraid that even after I left Hannam-dong I might still be stuck with the errands, I waved my hands vigorously in refusal.
“I’ve already saved enough money to live on my own. If it’s short, Mom said she’d help, and my school is giving me a scholarship too.”
It was a scholarship awarded for excellent school records and grades. Sponsored by the high-school alumni association, the amount wasn’t small.
“Well, I don’t know about any of that. Madam wants to do it for you, so just take it.”
Madam Jang smiled and patted my shoulder. The message was clear: my opinion wasn’t required, and the conversation ended here.
“This is for your pocket money.”
In the white envelope she held out I could see the yellowish edges of banknotes. It was quite thick.