“If you’re going to conduct a background check, you might as well declare war.”
Eun Chae’s face turned red at the blatant word ‘background check’. It was more embarrassing that he acted as if he was on her side rather than the fact that she had ordered such an unethical thing. They weren’t Bonnie and Clyde.
Ki Joo handed her a stack of papers from the passenger seat before she could even scold him.
“I did it while working on something else.”
Eun Chae accepted the documents Ki Joo handed over. Even a quick glance revealed that they were related to Han Seung Yoon.
Did Kwon Ki Joo really do everything he was told to do? Eun Chae raised her eyes, pondering this.
Think about what to ask if he gives something. So, she fell for an expensive gift after all.
Eun Chae joked and closed the documents.
By then, the car had stopped in front of her house.
“Why aren’t you reading more?”
When he asked, she replied in an exaggeratedly tired voice,
“Later. Good job.”
Then she opened the car door and got out. The sound of the driver’s side door opening could be heard simultaneously. Eun Chae didn’t utter the words telling him to go straight to the garage without getting out.
Kwon Ki Joo’s tie and watch were as usual.
She forgot to close the door, lost in thought. Only the sound of Ki Joo’s footsteps gradually coming closer could faintly be heard. He took her hand off the car door and closed it himself.
“Were you planning to immigrate?”
It was a matter that had been put aside. But hearing it from Kwon Ki Joo’s mouth, Eun Chae’s eyes widened.
“If you had succeeded as planned, what were you going to do?”
Eun Chae frowned at the unexpected question. She hadn’t planned to do anything. It was more of an escape.
“There was nothing in particular.”
“No contingency plan.”
“Why do you ask?”
What gives you the right? Eun Chae stopped herself from adding those words.
“I’m curious about many things.”
“…”
“What were you thinking while I was gone?”
He lowered his gaze. She felt a strange sensation, as if every single cell in her body was being penetrated. Eun Chae shook off the feeling and approached Kwon Ki Joo.
“Why don’t you use the things I give you?”
She gently wrapped her arms around Ki Joo’s neck. She could feel him tilting his head to look down at her.
Ignoring his gaze, Eun Chae lowered her arms, reached for his tie, and before he could resist, untied it. She then looked up.
Her eyes met Ki Joo’s, who had been staring at her. His pupils were mysteriously sparkling in the street light.
The night blurs the boundary of many things. Even the lights that illuminate the darkness mostly fail at the edges. Only Kwon Ki Joo defied that rule.
He overwhelmed his surroundings with an ominous atmosphere even darker than the darkness. Eun Chae felt this fact anew, being so close to him.
Kwon Ki Joo twisted his head as if asking why she was fumbling. He took a weary breath and straightened his spine.
Her mouth dried up and her body twitched in a hurry, not a hurry.
Once a beggar, always a beggar.
Eun Chae fiercely glared at him, her eyes wide open, suppressing the reaction of her body that was faithfully responding to him. Her eyes stung, but she didn’t care and grabbed his tie again.
The tie slid smoothly, no need for further touch, and was undone. Her next target was Ki Joo’s wrist. She detached the watch from his muscular wrist that wrapped around his plump bone, and hung it at the end of her finger, sneering.
“Why aren’t you using what I bought for you? Because it’s too much?”
“…”
“I bought it because it’s too much. I provide you with highpriced materials that you can’t even dream of, and you don’t ask for affection in return, you just satisfy my desires. It’s our deal, isn’t it?”
Deal. He repeated softly. Then he bit the tip of his lip with his tongue. He looked down and nodded nonchalantly, then suddenly looked up. The wrinkles on his forehead seemed a bit displeased.
At that time, Eun Chae vaguely recognized her feelings for Kwon Ki Joo.
He had abandoned me. I was writhing in agony, not knowing why he had left. So now I was trying to create a reason. Directly.
“But you did as I asked you to.”
At that, Ki Joo glanced at the document envelope that she had casually stuffed into her handbag. It was pitifully crumpled.
“You didn’t confess to Chairman Song, did you? Boringly.”
“No one will know about what’s happening between me and Miss Eun Chae. Not in the future either.”
He muttered as if talking to himself. It was so faint like a passing wind that I had to strain my ears to hear it.
Soon after, Ki Joo opened his mouth in an awkward posture. This time his voice was relatively clear, as if he had settled some thoughts.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to give?”
At his question, Eun Chae let out a fake sigh. Then she glared at him as if to say, do I have to worry about such things too.
“Just tell me what you want.”
Ki Joo, who had been silently receiving her gaze, scraped the asphalt floor with the tip of his shoe and muttered as usual.
“Song Eun Chae.”
Ki Joo twisted his lips as he watched her, whose pupils were widened in disbelief. She seemed to be laughing, yet also seemed to be enraged.
“From head to toe. Everything.”
“…”
“Will you give it to me if I ask?”
“…I’m already Han Seung Yoon’s.”
“Whoever wants.”
“Isn’t it because you’re willing to take even the shell that you started doing this?”
As if to agree with her words, Kwon Ki Joo reached out and pulled her waist towards him. Then he twisted his head and lowered his face. Just before their lips touched, his breath faltered.
Eun Chae, whose pupils were shaking slightly, defused the situation by lightly turning her head.
“What are you doing?”
“Song Eun Chae is shaking, if you tell her to bark, she barks, if you tell her to sit, she sits. You would feel upset if you say that.”
“…”
“Do you want to check, can I kiss?”
His throat vibrated. She tried to look at his expression, but she couldn’t confirm because he was hanging his head.
As a result, her bad mood was amplified. He dares to ask now after he tried to kiss her abruptly.
“You should have asked for permission first. Don’t act rashly.”
“I thought it was permission because you told me to say what I want.”
Ki Joo spoke as if he was a bit aggrieved. Eun Chae felt even more disgusted by his cunningness, skillfully utilizing the situation.
Then, the sound of the gate opening was heard. She roughly pushed his chest and deliberately bumped into his shoulder as she passed.
“Oh, Miss.”
Mrs. Ham An, holding a waste bag in her hand, made a halfhearted smile, then blinked her eyes as she sensed the subtle atmosphere. Eun Chae threw her tie and watch into the slightly opened waste bag as if to show off.
“Please throw it away.”
Words have power. Depending on how you say it, it could harm or soothe others.
Eun Chae walked away without regret for the malicious words she spat out.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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