🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 17
“Uh, uh?”
Gong Giha responded in extreme confusion.
“T-the application deadline for joining has already….”
“Ah, here it is.”
Seo Taeju found the expired club application form posted on the wall and immediately pulled it down and signed it.
He neatly folded it and stuffed it into the front pocket of Gong Giha, the president of No-Brain, crumpling it as he did.
Tap, tap.
“From now on, we’ll be sharing meals together. President, I look forward to working with you. Just so you know in advance, I absolutely hate being ordered around, assigned positions, or participating in events.”
What?
Behind Gong Giha’s round glasses, his eyes widened.
“Ah, instead, I’ll support you generously in a material sense. Since I’m a latecomer member, I’ll show my passion and sincerity.”
Seo Taeju pulled a black card out of his wallet and held it out in front of Gong Giha’s eyes.
Then, as if remembering something, he gave a light smile.
“Ah, the card would be better handled by the treasurer.”
He pointed toward the back of the room, where calming meditation music was still playing.
“Conveniently, our club treasurer is over there. Well then, I’ll take my leave for smooth club relations.”
“Uh, uh…!”
After politely bowing to the president, Seo Taeju disappeared.
Left alone, Gong Giha pushed up his glasses and muttered,
“…I was just going to tell him his bag was there.”
Right where Seo Taeju had left, a locker containing Gong Giha’s belongings stood.
All he had intended was to ask him to move aside.
Instead, he had unexpectedly recruited a rude-but-rich new member.
Seo Taeju entered the empty meditation room.
A space thick with aroma therapy scent.
The fairly spacious wooden floor had been neatly cleaned.
Soft music flowed from a radio placed on a small table in the center.
Yeo Jaegyeong was sitting alone at the very front of the room in a lotus position.
Wearing comfortable athletic clothes.
Large headphones covered her head.
“Music is playing, and she’s listening to something else entirely.”
Seo Taeju muttered at the sight.
She really is a full-on lone wolf.
He slowly walked toward her. Looking closer, she was murmuring something continuously as she meditated.
“What is she saying?”
He bent down slightly and leaned closer to her.
But he could only see her lips moving.
Unable to help it, he knelt and moved onto the edge of the yoga mat she was sitting on, then sat down in a lotus position right beside her.
“How loud is that music? She doesn’t notice anything at all.”
Even when he brought his face so close he could count each of her eyelashes, Yeo Jaegyeong didn’t open her eyes.
Seriously, you could carry her away and she wouldn’t notice.
With their faces this close, his heart started pounding for no reason.
Then her muttering reached his ears.
“…can do it. I… will… definitely… will.”
What is she constantly saying she can do?
Seo Taeju frowned and leaned even closer to her lips.
His gaze fixed on her soft pink lips.
Gulp. His throat moved on its own.
“…I can definitely escape. I will definitely get out. I will escape no matter what…”
Seo Taeju’s expression stiffened instantly.
What is this unusual wish?
“Get out of what?”
Suddenly, he felt his mood drop in worry about her.
Looking closely, Yeo Jaegyeong was frowning deeply, repeating the same words like a chant, as if in pain.
“What exactly are you trying to escape from…?”
Why is she like this… it’s worrying.
“Hey, Yeo Jaegyeong.”
Seo Taeju called her name out loud.
No response. She just kept murmuring like she was reciting a mantra.
“…can do it. I will definitely escape. I will get out no matter…”
“Hey, Yeo Jaegyeong?”
“…will. I can definitely escape. I….”
“Yeo Jaegyeong!”
Whoosh.
Seo Taeju suddenly pulled off the headphones covering her ears.
“Ah—!”
She tipped backward, but he quickly caught her. Luckily, he managed to support the back of her head just in time.
But the two of them ended up overlapping on the yoga mat in a rather awkward position.
Their noses were almost touching. Their shocked breaths tangled together in the air.
“…Seo Taeju?”
After blinking a few times, Yeo Jaegyeong finally recognized him and shouted.
What…?
Since when was he here!
Startled, she pushed him away before fully realizing the situation.
Cold sweat ran down her back as she processed what she had just seen.
Seo Taeju had been right in front of her face.
She hadn’t expected him to arrive so early and had been doing her private meditation.
She occasionally meditated like this alone.
Holding onto the hope that one day she would be freed from the suffocating pressure of Chairman Yeo Baekhwa.
“…Did he hear everything?”
Her grand life plan, her desire.
To escape Hanlim and the shadow of Chairman Yeo Baekhwa.
Seo Taeju wasn’t supposed to know yet…
She bit her lip anxiously. Her eyes trembled as they landed on him.
For freedom.
The man she absolutely had to seduce and marry was right in front of her.
Seo Taeju, pushed back by her hand, was also startled in his own way.
With red-tinted eyes like a startled rabbit, Yeo Jaegyeong shouted first.
“When did you get here!”
“Just now.”
Feeling awkward, he picked up her headphones from the floor and replied.
“What were you listening to that you didn’t answer after being called so many times?”
He casually put the headphones to his ear.
Startled.
The next moment, a powerful heavy metal scream like something from hell pierced his ears.
He quickly pulled the headphones away and complained,
“You were meditating, right? What kind of heavy metal is this…?”
“You… you heard it?”
Yeo Jaegyeong suddenly asked, unusually flustered.
Seo Taeju flinched slightly.
Heard what?
If she meant that strange chanting of hers, then yes, he heard it very clearly.
But for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Keeping a blank expression, he answered bluntly,
“What are you talking about? Hear what?”
Yeo Jaegyeong visibly relaxed in relief.
Seo Taeju suddenly felt irritated. It bothered him that she seemed to be hiding something from him.
“What is it… why does it bother me?”
Then he heard something familiar.
Gurgle.
He tilted his head, wondering if he heard wrong.
But the only person in front of him was Yeo Jaegyeong.
She had her head lowered, clutching her stomach.
Gurgle.
Seo Taeju froze, then leaned down to look at her face.
“Yeo Jaegyeong, are you hungry?”
“….”
Still no answer.
Another stomach growl sounded.
“She skipped dinner, and barely ate breakfast.”
Yeo Jaegyeong closed her eyes tightly in humiliation, thinking she could never be more embarrassed than this in front of the man she had to seduce.
Then something lifted her chin.
Seo Taeju’s fingers.
“Yeo Jaegyeong, I asked if you’re hungry.”
When she opened her eyes, his face was right in front of her.
She had never once said she was hungry in her entire life.
She had been taught that maintaining a perfect body—strictly according to Chairman Yeo Baekhwa’s standards—was everything in life. In reality, she was dangerously underweight.
“If her weight increased even by 1 kilogram above the set limit, there would be consequences.”
She couldn’t easily say she was hungry.
Even though her stomach felt like it was sticking to her spine.
But the calm eyes of Seo Taeju had a strange power that made her forget everything.
For some reason, she felt like she could confess the truth to this man…
Slowly, her lips moved.
A faint answer reached his ears.
“…yeah.”
Immediately, the corner of Seo Taeju’s lips lifted.
“As expected. Let’s go eat.”
Where Seo Taeju dragged her next was a student cafeteria area frequently used by students.
It was early lunchtime.
A private space would have been nice, but he deliberately chose a crowded place.
“To use Yeo Jaegyeong for the ‘Taegwang troublemaker’ image.”
There was no better place than here to carry out that plan. Feeling the gazes on them, Seo Taeju slightly raised his lips.
Yes. Keep looking.
Spread more rumors.
Even though he noticed his feelings toward her were changing, he forced himself to ignore it.
“Let it spread everywhere—Taegwang’s youngest son and Hanlim’s only daughter are getting close. They’re dating. They’re seeing each other. They’re a thing. Go tell everyone.”
He glanced at Yeo Jaegyeong.
Surprisingly, she seemed completely unfazed.
“I thought she’d ask to go somewhere with fewer people.”
But it made sense.
She also intended to use Seo Taeju, so rumors didn’t matter to her.
Seo Taeju teased her slightly.
“You’re okay with this kind of place, right, Yeo Jaegyeong?”
“Of course. What’s wrong with the cafeteria?”
She answered coolly, pretending nonchalance.
Seo Taeju’s mouth twitched slightly at the unexpected reaction.
This isn’t how it was supposed to go.
Still, he quickly regained his composure.
A dangerous relationship where both were trying to use each other while being drawn in uncontrollably. This was a battle where the first to flinch loses.
“So, anything you want to eat?”
“I don’t really like food… or have anything I dislike.”
Because she had never eaten enough to form preferences.
Yeo Jaegyeong answered indifferently.
“Anything is fine. You choose.”
“Just pick whatever.”
To her, it was meant as consideration. But for him, it was a surprisingly difficult position.
Seo Taeju’s mind began racing wildly.
