The Problematic Helper - Chapter 46

As Ji Wan leaned forward to check on Do Eum’s expression, he seemed to reach a conclusion and leaned his upper body back against the chair.

With his long legs crossed and hands clasped, his posture was relaxed, but his eyes had a hint of coldness that was clearly different from before.

“This is ice cream with black garlic and a lemon financier.”

Do Eum solemnly put the dessert that had just been served into her mouth.

While with Ji Wan, everywhere would be enemy territory.

She had to be fully prepared.

For 6 months at the shortest, up to a year at the longest.

She had no intention of backing down from this fierce battle, so Do Eum was resolute in her determination not to give up her territory at all.

The problem was that this resolution melted away the moment she took a bite of the ice cream said to contain black garlic.

As her tense eyes relaxed and a smile naturally formed on her lips.

The woman she had met in the restroom entered and made direct eye contact with Do Eum.

Let’s see, shall we.

I’m not a woman to be intimidated by luxury brands.

As Do Eum straightened her back and haughtily bit into the ice cream, she accidentally bit her tongue.

Ouch.

Ji Wan’s brow furrowed for a moment as he watched this scene unfold.

The man wiped his mouth with a napkin, tossed it onto the table,

and stood up without hesitation, striding towards the table diagonally across.

Oh, oh!

Whether due to her bitten tongue,

or the ominous feeling creeping over her, Do Eum could only open and close her mouth soundlessly, unable to call out to Ji Wan.

The man went straight to the table where three women were sitting, glanced over them all, and then fixed his gaze on exactly one person.

The woman who had just returned from the restroom.

“What is it.”

The rude first words were unlike him, cutting off mid-sentence without any regard for manners.

“Pardon?”

“I asked what you’re curious about.”

Thinking he must have been told about what just happened in the restroom, the woman glared at Do Eum once before asking deliberately:

“What do you do?”

Unlike Ki Hyeok, Ji Wan’s background had been shrouded in mystery from birth, and he had only appeared in economic news for about 1-2 years, so it wouldn’t be easy to recognize him at a glance.

Especially for someone not interested in current affairs or economics.

Her already short skirt rode up as she seductively crossed her legs, revealing smooth thighs.

Despite the blatant gesture inviting him to look, Ji Wan’s eyes remained fixed on her heavily made-up face.

“You seem to be in broadcasting or modeling. I know a lot of people in that field. If you want, I could help you with work…”

“I’m self-employed.”

Setting aside the curt answer that cut her off,

the man’s gaze was so cold as he looked at her face, which would stand out anywhere, that the woman was flustered and uncrossed her legs.

“Ah, so you run your own business.”

Her voice had lost all its earlier confidence.

“What else?”

“Excuse me?”

“I asked what else you’re curious about.”

His half-lowered gaze and monotone question were indifferent, as if dealing with an annoying person.

By this point, the woman’s previously upright face had turned pale.

“No, I just…”

“You must have been curious about something to follow my wife out. What did you ask her!”

Ji Wan’s long, graceful finger cut through the air to point diagonally at Do Eum.

“Why is my wife with a healthy appetite biting her tongue instead of the meat she’s supposed to chew?”

The gazes of everyone in the packed restaurant all turned to Do Eum.

More precisely, to the beautiful man’s wife with a good appetite, who was grimacing with a bitten tongue.

“I-I didn’t ask much! Just what your relationship was…”

The woman waved her hands as if caught doing something terrible.

“You just heard me call her my wife.”

Murmurs could be heard from each table.

Amidst whispers about why she would approach a married man in a restaurant and how such women should be embarrassed, at the point where someone said “Haven’t I seen that man somewhere before?”, Do Eum half-rose from her seat.

It was only a matter of time before Ji Wan’s identity was discovered.

Do Eum urgently waved her hand above her head.

There was no way Ji Wan, half-turned away from her, would see this.

“Whether we’re married or having an affair or whatever else. Why should I tell you that? I’m asking what right you have to sit there and confidently ask such a rude question.”

As a man skilled at blowing things out of proportion, he seemed determined to teach her a lesson, with no regard for appearances.

Now she understood why Han Woo Seok always looked anxious and ready to bolt when next to Seo Ji Wan.

The two women who had been with her exchanged glances before saying “We’ll go first” and leaving the restaurant.

Thoroughly abandoned even by her friends, the woman hurriedly grabbed her luxury handbag.

“Hey, where are you going! We should leave together!!”

As the woman tried to chase after them, Ji Wan grabbed the strap of her bag.

“Where are you going? You should apologize to my wife before leaving.”

Do Eum’s bewildered gaze shifted to the woman as she lowered her arm that had been flailing in the air.

“Fine, I’m sorry. Happy now? God, this is so annoying. How embarrassing.”

Though it was a reluctant apology, Do Eum spread her hands as if to say this was enough, so let it go.

As quickly as her hasty apology, the woman fled like she was escaping.

As if nothing had happened, Ji Wan returned to the table and pushed even his own dessert plate in front of Do Eum.

“Now, let’s eat slowly.”

Eat slowly while everyone’s gazes were focused solely on her in this situation.

Since he was sitting there quietly wanting to see that, Do Eum felt like willingly eating it deliciously for him.

She felt like she was being properly tamed by this man called Seo Ji Wan.

Unable to deny that she seemed to have been domesticated by this man, Do Eum took a big spoonful of the sweet ice cream.

“I apologize for the disturbance.”

The restaurant manager who had approached at some point bowed, and Ji Wan beckoned him closer to whisper something in his ear.

“Yes, we’ll do that. Thank you.”

The general manager disappeared with a bright expression, and soon after, a bottle of wine was delivered to each table.

It was the same French wine costing about 400,000 won per bottle as on Ji Wan and Do Eum’s table.

“What did you say?”

“I apologized, since I also bear some responsibility for causing a commotion.”

As the tables realized the delivered wine was Ji Wan’s gesture of apology, there were soft cheers and words of thanks.

A smile formed on Ji Wan’s lips as he watched Do Eum respond to each one, not knowing what to do.

The man spent the money, but the woman got the credit.

“Do you like it?”

“Yes, of course.”

Leaning back fully in his chair with arms crossed in a leisurely pose, Ji Wan thought.

If that woman could smile like that, it might not be bad to do this once in a while when he felt like it.

“Even after what happened to you in the restroom?”

“You don’t know what happened. I snapped back at her very confidently.”

“It didn’t seem that way. The way you came in huffing and puffing, you looked like you’d been thoroughly put in your place.”

“No, that woman was totally cowed. Didn’t you see when she came in? She couldn’t even meet my eyes.”

Even this pitiful bravado was tolerable.

That’s how Ji Wan felt.

Right now, he felt like he could understand anything she did.

“What did you say your relationship was?”

“Huh?”

“When she asked what your relationship was, what did you answer?”

The previously unfaltering answers suddenly stopped, and judging by Do Eum’s wildly shaking eyes that couldn’t lie, it seemed she hadn’t even managed to say they were lovers, let alone husband and wife.

“Why, are you worried I might have said I was your housekeeper?”

Ji Wan laughed lightly at Do Eum’s joke.

Well, she was a woman who could pull that off.

“But how did you really know?”

Leaning forward, she asked with curiosity, as if whispering.

“From the moment you came in, you were in a fierce staring contest with those three women, or…”

Ji Wan’s gaze moved from the wine glass to Do Eum’s face as he slowly poured wine into her glass.

“The three women undressing me with their eyes from head to toe?”

His dark brown eyes were seductive even with such a crude joke.

Though it was the three women who had undressed him with their eyes, Do Eum’s earlobes turned red as if she had done it herself.

“You knew it all, didn’t you.”

The man who seemed brusque yet cunning smiled, lifting one corner of his mouth.

“No man could fail to notice such blatant staring, and how could I not know when that woman followed you out as soon as you stood up, as if she’d been waiting for it. If Kang Do Eum hadn’t come back looking like steam was rising from her whole body, I would have tried to hold back.”

Do Eum pouted her lips as he swirled the wine glass in his hand.

She felt annoyed that he had known about the women’s gazes from the beginning but pretended not to, and also felt wronged about the fierce staring contest she’d had with a complete stranger over one man.

“Do Eum.”

The man called the woman’s name in a low voice, having uncrossed his arms and legs and even loosened his tie knot as if something was bothering him.

Do Eum.

Her name coming from his Adam’s apple always felt unfamiliar.

Too ticklish and too warm.

“…Yes.”

Do Eum clenched her toes, trying to hide something that was tingling.

“None of them are…”

She took shallow breaths, afraid the man across from her would notice her racing heart and rough breathing.

“What?”

“None of those women are my type.”

Yes, yes.

Of course they aren’t.

For someone as incredibly popular as you, your standards must be sky-high.

Do Eum soon turned away with a sullen face, averting her gaze grumpily.

“I don’t like tall women.”

Which implies that you are short.

“I dislike showing off wealth even more.”

Since she had no money to show off, that wasn’t her domain either.

“Above all, I don’t like women with big breasts and big butts.”

Listening to this, she wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or an insult.

“I know my butt isn’t much, but my breasts are decent, you know.”

Ji Wan raised both hands in agreement at the woman’s correction, determined to gain at least one point.

“Alright, I’ll revise that. I only dislike women with big butts.”

You don’t have to say it like that.

“In any case, my type is just you, Kang Do Eum.”

When the brusque man set out to melt her, the sweetness of the almond chocolate in her mouth was nothing compared to this.

It was as sweet as if she’d eaten honey straight from a beehive.

“That’s enough!”

Though her voice of denial was loud, the problem was her twitching lips that showed she was pleased.

Do Eum forcibly pulled down the corners of her mouth that kept curling up.

“Shall we go now?”

Ji Wan checked the time on his left wrist and stood up.

“Do we have somewhere else to go?”

Without answering, Ji Wan grabbed Do Eum’s bag and pulled her hand.

His suddenly urgent movements were no different from when he had sent away Driver Park and Woo Seok, so Do Eum asked in a voice filled with fear:

“…Where…are we going now?”

“Anywhere. For now, somewhere without people.”

This man, again, again.

Every time he hurried unlike himself, Do Eum’s heart raced helplessly.

She had just eaten ice cream with black garlic, meat, and even wine indiscriminately, so what if this man sought out her lips first without warning?

Though it was a matter she could simply refuse if she disliked it, the fact that she didn’t dislike it either drove Do Eum crazy.