Chapter 103

According to her usual routine, she would wake up around 7 am, roughly wash her hair still in a daze, put on some simple makeup in a short time to optimize the process, and leave the house without eating anything. Then, she could get to the office at around 8:05, which would speed up the flow of the rest of the day. As for the leisure of lying down in her apartment and watching TV for a little while after work, it depended on her strong and diligent workhorse might.

It was the best she could do.

After entering Si-Jin’s company there was nothing Na-Yool was prouder of in her life than the fact that this routine became a natural habit. She was not even a high schooler, but she woke up at 7 every day! She could get ready and leave the house in 20 minutes! To her, that sense of pride was as good as food to power up.

But to think waking up at 6:50 am in this house made her feel like lagging behind!

Like a criminal on the run, Na-Yool instead washed her hair more speedily than any other time, barely put any makeup on except for her eyebrows, and looked through the shopping bag that she had thrown in a corner of the dressing room. She did not have much luggage, so why is it that she could not find precisely what she needed! Just as she fished out a blouse, she heard a short knock on the door.

“—Yes?”

“Come eat breakfast.”

“I’m good!”

Na-Yool busily answered through the door and turned her attention back to her blouse only to frown, noticing it was crumpled all over. Without realizing that Si-Jin was peeking at her in her back, a similar frown on his face.

“What do you mean, you’re good?”

“Ahh, you scared me…!”

“There’s still plenty of time. Take it easy and come eat first.”

“I usually do not eat breakfast before work… It will delay me more, so don’t wait for me, and just eat by yourse—”

“—Eat.”

The reiteration was, in fact, closer to an order than a suggestion. Si-Jin already minded her small appetite, so it was not hard to imagine how he must have received it when she said she was skipping a meal entirely. Na-Yool put down her blouse with a sigh and tottered out of the dressing room following him.

Two slices of bread and scrambled eggs. It was extremely simple compared to what he had prepared over the weekend, but it was still a luxurious table for Na-Yool.

A warm slice of toasted bread certainly could not compare to her original no-time-to-eat mornings!

Quickly forgetting how she had just refused it, Na-Yool took a bite of bread in a relaxed mood and sat down. She was wearing her nightdress on top, tucked into a skirt she had just put on with no stockings, but she did not care as much about her outfit as before. It felt strange. She wondered how sharing her daily life with Si-Jin came so easily, when she could never do it even with an ex she had dated for a whole year. Just how did she end up making a ‘first’ with such a stubborn man?

Until now, could such an exception exist if not by accident? To her, and obviously to him as well, today was an exception. Yesterday, and the day before too, also were. This man, who was extremely wary of other men, and both obstinate and self-indulgent to no end. This man, who proudly, and surprisingly, eagerly, strives to make a living ‒ plainly said, a pathological hard worker.

Setting aside their personal abilities and backgrounds and simply looking at them as individuals, nothing about them suited each other. Si-Jin ate his food fast but unhurriedly like someone used to time his eating time, then he stood up while Na-Yool was barely halfway through her meal to go make his infamous healthy smoothie. Yes, things like this. Things like eating something good for his body ‒ and at a fixed time, no less ‒ or using his time to the minute…

“…Can I not drink this today?”

“Why? You drank it fine yesterday.”

“But today is a working day…”

“Even more reason to drink it.”

“On the contrary! Going to work is already upsetting, do I have to drink such a tasteless thing right from morning…”

Na-Yool pleaded in earnest with a tearful face, and Si-Jin’s heart seemed to soften. With a slightly more indulgent expression, he took the cup he had placed in front of her. And then, put it down closer to her.

“……?”

“Here.”

“Didn’t your expression and action play out completely differently just now?”

“I even added an apple for you. It’s sweet.”

So what if he added apple? The smoothie had some disgusting color, on the edge of something neither completely green, blue, or gray. As Na-Yool glared at the smoothie in disbelief, Si-Jin so kindly lifted the cup and brought it to her lips.

“Get that away…! Am I Jang Hui-Bin or what?” [T/N: Jang Hui (or Hee)-Bin is a consort who was sentenced to death by poisoning, which she drank somewhat willingly].

“Act your age, don’t whine like a kid.”

“Ah, really…”

Na-Yool reluctantly took the cup and gulped it down. If this is what acting her age is, she does not want to do it anymore. She swallowed the last drop while repeatedly mumbling about her social life.

“Isn’t it sweet?”

“…Are you kidding me?”

The smoothies which Si-jin insisted on every morning could contend for the top worst food Na-Yool had ever eaten in her life. Of course, in their own league. Yesterday’s smoothie VS the one from the day before, today’s smoothie VS tomorrow’s one…

Si-Jin gazed at Na-Yool’s face, which was as rotten as the taste, with the kindest eyes ever.

“If you feel the natural taste of the ingredients, you will sense the sweetness even without sugar.”

Where did this naturalistic culinary researcher pop up from?! Every time something like this happened, Na-Yool was confused. It was as if Si-Jin and the roguish pervert with the lewd mouth who only spoke vulgarities were not the same people.

How could someone be consistent by being so inconsistent?

There is coherence in his incoherence; after he unrestrainedly displayed how much of a handful wacko he was, he then appealed that he was a normal and sound person. Of course, it was hard to believe so since the order was already messed up.

Na-Yool’s eyes pierced at him, and she put down the cup which she had been subconsciously clutching.

“It is not easily done, hence the need for sugar. It’s a result of human evolution. Ordinary people’s taste buds are not as sensitive as those of gourmets like you, able to awaken at the faintest flavor. So here I feel like I’m being deceived.”

“It’s a scam good for your health, don’t you think?”

“…So you agree that you tricked me, am I right?”

“If you don’t plan on going to work in just your underwear, I suggest you put on a top soon.”

“Ah.”

“Enticing me right from the morning, I swear.”

“……”

After sitting at the table in this attire without feeling out of place up to now, the sudden staring gaze made Na-Yool feel ashamed of her current outfit.

She hurriedly got up from her seat, but then squinted her eyes at Si-Jin as she realized that he had swiftly turned the conversation around like he always did ‒ which is, in his own favor.

“What?”

“……”

“What’s up?”

This attitude, this haughty boldness that struck people speechless, was the cherry on the top. It was the attitude of a man who clearly thinks he is always in the right and does not feel a speck of incoherence in his actions.

“You are not actually in the mood for it, are you?”

“I am.”

“Whenever you want to avoid a subject and distract my attention, I know you always say this on purpose. To make me forget what we were talking about. I am fully aware of it.”

“Nope. You very much excite me right now.”