Pierre forced a smile with a reddened neck as if he had put on a forced smile.
“Kukuk! You’re not an easy man, after all. I’ll hear about the beauty secret later. It’s because the balcony without curtains doesn’t pull in the gumis (chilly wind), you know.”
“If you’re really curious, I can send it by email. If the rumor about me frequently leaving my seat isn’t true, you can easily confirm it.”
When Jiwon teased his workaholic nature, Pierre’s face turned as red as if he had put on red makeup. However, he couldn’t come up with a suitable retort.
“Well, well, isn’t it the first time seeing Pierre in such a situation? Normally, when Pierre throws hints, people run away as fast as they can.”
“Last time, he even made the young CEO who had just taken office cry. Thanks to him, the atmosphere was a mess even before the forum started.”
Those who had been watching the two with keen interest burst into laughter.
Pierre was notorious for being eccentric in the company.
After coming out on the first day of work, he surprised people, and since then, whenever he found the opportunity, he flirted with male employees.
His excessively free-spirited attitude occasionally caused problems even on the official podium, and rumors circulated that the chairman had a headache because of him.
Amid the surrounding murmurs, Pierre’s complexion turned reddish-blue.
“Hey, are you done talking? Who said I made anyone cry with such nonsense?”
The target of his arrows was the female CEO from Singapore who was murmuring beside him.
The woman who had been hit by sparks pulled up her arched eyebrows.
“Oh, now you’re going to regret it? It happened just last year! Do you know how embarrassed Eric was because of you?”
“Oh, now that I think about it, that bastard was a subordinate under you, right? It’s embarrassing just for a few jokes! Well, he looked like a weak-willed girl, anyway.”
“Stop it. I don’t want to have unnecessary conversations with someone like you in a place like this.”
“Someone like me? What about me! What’s wrong with me!”
Excited, Pierre stepped forward, ready to argue. Ironically, his arm collided with the tray of a hotel employee passing by.
Crash!
Glassware spilled from the busy tray carrying champagne.
More than ten glasses shattered, and liquid splattered on the floor. Some glass fragments flew nearby, while others embedded themselves in the red carpet.
“Ugh!”
Unfortunately, Jiwon, who happened to be closest, was the one who took the most glass shards.
“Goodness!”
Touching the coins in his pocket, he hastily raised his arm to block the suddenly descending glass shards, but he couldn’t avoid them entirely.
Blood dripped from his eyebrows, scratched by small glass shards.
“Oh no! Are you okay?”
People around were surprised and approached.
Jiwon raised his hand, signaling that he was okay. Using a handkerchief handed to him, he pressed it firmly against his eyebrow. In another sense, his heart pounded.
The coin disappeared!
“It’s not torn, right? It’s better to go to the hospital first.”
Concerned voices from the surroundings fell on deaf ears.
‘I was holding it just a moment ago, right?’
Forgetful of even staunching the bleeding, Jiwon bent down and felt the floor.
It seemed that he had accidentally let go of the coin while blocking the suddenly flying glass shards, and no matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t find it.
In his bewildered eyes, all he could see were the clumsy footsteps of those who rushed over, wondering what had happened.
“What on earth…”
Seeing the blood flowing from his eyebrows, he thought of Hyeju.
The coin she gave me as a talisman felt ominously missing.
‘Could something have happened to Hyeju?’
Suddenly, the fact that Hyeju hadn’t answered the phone since this morning struck his mind. His chest pounded unpleasantly.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
He pushed through the crowd and went outside to call Hyeju.
As expected, she didn’t answer.
When he logged into the intranet, a status window appeared indicating that she had suddenly applied for leave.
‘What on earth is happening…!’
The veins on his forehead bulged.
Jiwon urgently spoke to Edward, who had come to check on his condition.
“Edward, book me on the fastest flight to Korea.”
“But the forum hasn’t ended yet, sir.”
“I’ve already made my mark roughly. It shouldn’t be a big deal if I miss one. This face is not easily forgotten.”
“I agree with that, but still, this is so sudden…”
A bewildered Edward objected as Jiwon threw his blood-stained jacket into Edward’s arms.
“I’ll explain the situation later. Please do me this favor.”
[Star Icon]Fortunately, it was a weekday, so he could quickly catch a flight without worrying about packing. Jiwon arrived at the airport without time to spare and boarded the plane right away.
“Damn.”
His head throbbed.
Logically, there were no signs of any major incident. There was no news of an accident, and he didn’t receive any urgent calls.
However, Jiwon’s sharp intuition cut through him sharply.
Hyeju not answering for a long time, her sudden leave, and… the lost coin.
If someone asked him if he had left the banquet just because of that, there would be nothing to say.
Yes, Jiwon wasn’t in his right mind now. Who would leave a crucial meeting just because he couldn’t contact his girlfriend?
[Dash] For now, you’ll suffer alone. But soon, the anger will reach her too!The ominous warning from the fortune-telling shaman echoed in his mind, and he felt suffocated.
Jiwon loosened his tie, breathing heavily.
‘Let’s stay calm, Kang Jiwon. Nothing major will happen.’
His irregularly beating heart ached.
He arrived in Korea when the sun had already set.
Fortunately, there was a brief message from Hyeju.
[Dash] I hurt my arm and came to the hospital.
Hurt your arm? How much? How did this happen?
The moment he read the message, his heart sank.
He grabbed a taxi from the airport and rushed straight to the hospital.
Looking at the nameplate that read [Oh Hyeju], he felt a deep sigh of relief, but at the same time, his heart crumbled. It was fortunate that she was breathing inside, but now that he knew she was hurt, he worried about how badly. Jiwon took a deep breath at the door.
“!”
He hesitated.
However, he couldn’t open the door.
Seungwon was inside the room.
Embracing Hyeju.
The Villainous Demon Lord Laid an Egg for Her (Female-Dominated)
Several months after transmigrating into a book, Yu Wu found herself facing the demon lord Li You, who could no longer conceal his dragon horns. With one hand on her aching waist and the other gripping a sharp sword, she stared at him.
The demon lord’s eyes were red with fury:
“This is all your doing! Today, I won’t rest until I kill you!”
Yu Wu rubbed her temples. Putting aside the taboo against bloodshed during pregnancy, wasn’t it this very man who willingly walked into her trap that day?!
Warnings:
- Male pregnancy.
- Height ratios are set to mirror typical male-female height proportions.
- Characters include a foot-loving demon lord and an eldest daughter from an immortal family’s concubine lineage.
