PIA 40

“That’s the fee for today’s treatment and acupuncture. The herbal medicine fee is separate. Do you think your grandmother would bring her grandson to just any place? It’s not like we’ll settle for some wishy-washy doctor.”

Ji-an’s eyes widened. This amount was just for the treatment fee, and the medication fee was separate. According to Woo-seok’s words, he should just block his nose and gulp it all down. Perhaps enduring it would be worth the money.

He wasn’t sure if it was time for his grandmother to die, or if she had suddenly changed her mind and returned after receiving an unexpected fortune, but she appeared to have grown to love her grandson, who had been like an enemy until now. He felt both happy and uneasy about the unlikely change.

“Are we the only clients receiving treatment here?”

Grandma asked the staff who had come to take Ji-an to the treatment room.

“Oh, no. There are others receiving treatment inside as well. It’s just so quiet.”

“Oh, then can I just walk around and take a look?”

“You are free to look around except inside the treatment room. We also have a space that we decorated in case guardians get bored while waiting.”

The staff emphasized to the grandmother that there were many customers and showed her the location of the artificial garden inside the 8th floor and the cafeteria on the 9th floor.

Ji-an left his grandmother behind and moved inside to receive the acupuncture treatment. As he lay down on the bed inside the partitioned room, he soon felt warmth spreading throughout his body.

“Please lie down and rest comfortably.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“If you need anything, just press the call button. Take a deep breath and relax.”

He was really getting sleepy. All of the spaces in this Oriental medicine clinic were comfortable enough to make him comfortable. It was amazing to experience something like this while being dragged by his grandmother.

“I guess it’s true that this is something we will live to see for a long time.”

After the therapist left, the room was filled with the quiet scent of herbal medicine. It seemed like the nausea was easing, just as they had said. The area around his belly button where the acupuncture was applied felt warm, and his eyes naturally closed.

About ten minutes passed like that.

“…”

“… Where did Teacher Sang-mi go?”

“Teacher Sang-mi is attending to VIPs in the plum room. Why?”

“There’s a client looking for you.”

Ji-an, who had been dozing off, woke up at the whispering sound near his ear. The one responding was the employee who had applied the acupuncture on him, and the one asking was a voice he hadn’t heard before.

“We’re already assisting someone else. How can we just switch? Did you come in here to have that conversation?”

There was a hint of irritation in the voice of the person checking the acupuncture on Ji-an. It was a tone of reprimand for the employee who had entered the treatment room without reason.

“…Because it’s the 10th-floor client who’s looking for you.”

“The VVIP room? Mrs. Myeong?”

“Yes. Can you please come for a moment?”

“Who’s in charge of the reservation…”

The employee’s voice lowered even more. Perhaps they realized Ji-an flinched. The two closed their mouths as if they had made an agreement, quietly tidied up the acupuncture, and left. As the door closed, Ji-an’s eyes flickered open.

“…”

His mind quickly finished deducing. Ji-an gently cleared away the things on top of him and got up from the treatment bed. The face that had been peaceful just a moment ago suddenly darkened and contorted.

“This old lady is really…”

Well then. There was no way his grandmother would have suddenly become so passionate about her grandson without any purpose that she would have spent such a large amount of money to bring him to an oriental medicine clinic.

It was clear that she was planning to meet Myeong Hyun-sook by pretending it was a coincidence, with a pregnant him next to her. She couldn’t visit directly, and it was obvious that Ji-an wouldn’t cooperate, so she came up with this plan. How did she even find out that Myeong Hyun-sook was coming to this traditional medicine clinic?

“Unbelievable.”

Ji-an quietly got up and opened the treatment room door. It was quiet outside, perhaps because they were looking for someone named Teacher Sang-mi.

Now he understood the true nature of the strange unease he had been feeling since earlier. The sense of unease he felt from the awkward appearance of his grandmother unexpectedly coming to him for the first time or the way she looked around was not due to his mood.

“I can’t just let Grandma have her way…”

Ji-an turned his body in the opposite direction of the bamboo room where he was initially guided without hesitation.

He wondered how smoothly it would go. Unlike the past few days when he had nothing to worry about except his morning sickness, he now felt his nerves tightening. Ji-an swallowed dryly and cautiously made his way through the quiet corridor.

As he passed the elevator and opened the emergency exit door, Ji-an paused for a moment.

He must not forget that he was inside a drama. Every event had its cause and effect. If the episode had started, there would definitely be a twist.

If the action taken by his grandmother was to force him into marriage, there was certainly no way it could have ended this easily. Even the people who seemed to be making noise around his bed were probably not mere bystanders but part of the plot.

“…You idiot.”

Anyway, he was very weak when it came to food. Ji-an muttered and chewed his lips. He was so hungry that he got tricked by the herbal medicine. Pathetic, pathetic.

Ji-an let out a sigh and pushed open the emergency exit door, feeling like he had no choice. Even if he were to encounter a tiger, it would be better than facing Myeong Hyun-sook with his Grandmother.

But then…

“Hyung-nim, why are you here?”

“I came to catch you, but you came out on your own.”

He almost crushed Jeong Hee-seo’s artistic nose with a piece of iron. Ji-an looked up at Jeong Hee-seo, who was holding the door close to his face, and brushed away the surprise in his chest.

“Come here. Let me see your face.”

He was pulled in by the arm, and his weak body, unable to resist, followed inside. As the emergency exit door closed, Jeong Hee-seo’s chest blocked Ji-an’s face unexpectedly.

“Ugh.”

Damn it… Ji-an almost swore. His pheromones were too strong. From the cologne he used to the shower cologne and even his natural scent… There was not a single unpleasant thing among them. All sorts of good scents were mixed together, but was this really a good thing?

“Why are you trembling? Seo Ji-an. Am I going to eat you?”

Ji-an must have trembled involuntarily. Jeong Hee-seo held Ji-an’s chin and lifted his head.

It seemed like Ji-an had been fantasizing, or rather dreaming too much. He hadn’t done anything, yet it felt like the lower part of his body hardened and the space between his thighs was getting moist. Just by standing next to him.

Crazy, this was crazy.

They said it was even more obscene to learn sex through imagination, and here Ji-an was, exactly in that state. It was heartbreaking enough to get pregnant with a body that he had never used before, but his body knew too well about sex that he had never tried. It was incredibly disconcerting how his body responded eagerly just from smelling Jeong Hee-seo’s scent.

“How did you know I was here?”

“Secretary Yoon said he saw you in the parking lot.”

That means that Myeong Hyeon-sook and Grandmother narrowly missed each other by a hair’s breadth. Ji-an shivered and rubbed his arms.

“Did you come with the Chairman?”

Actually, there was no need to ask. Not only it was unimaginable for Jeong Hee-seo to go to an oriental medicine clinic to get acupuncture, but Ji-an wondered why he came looking for him. With Myeong Hyun-sook here, he must have known he had a condition.

“How many days did you starve yourself? Enough for Secretary Yoon to notice?”

Jeong Hee-seo gave a different answer than Ji-an had imagined. The annoyance was clearly evident in the gaze that swept across his blank face.

“Secretary Yoon said you looked like a zombie. Ji-an-ah.”

“So you came to look for me because of that?”

“Yeah.”

Their eyes met. Jeong Hee-seo stroked Ji-an’s hair and released his pheromone. It felt like all the uncomfortable debris that had been circulating through his body was washed away.

Ah, this was cheating.

“What are you doing looking for me…”

Ji-an mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

“I don’t think now is the right time for you to get acupuncture and cupping.”

“Then what timing is it?”

Jeong Hee-seo clicked his tongue as if to say what kind of foolish thing Ji-an just said.

“Food. You need to eat, Ji-an.”

Ah. If words had temperature, then that word would be the warmest in the world.

Food.

While Ji-an was preoccupied with the word “food,” Jeong Hee-seo flung open the emergency exit door. Since it was the 8th floor, it was too far to walk down and Ji-an wondered if they should take the elevator, but the direction they were headed was where Kang Boon-nam would be. Ji-an hastily put strength into his legs and grabbed Jeong Hee-seo.

“What are you going to do?”

Even holding onto his arm and putting all his weight on it, Ji-an couldn’t stop Jeong Hee-seo. Secretary Yoon, who was good at his job, had even found out about the bamboo room and reported it, so he headed there without hesitation.

“Hyung-nim, wait a minute… ”

“Oh, look who’s there.”

It seemed that Jeong Hee-seo’s purpose was Kang Boon-nam. Ji-an was so surprised that he almost screamed because there was his grandmother where Jeong Hee-seo pointed. Kang Boon-nam, who was looking around after leaving the bamboo room, also flinched and stopped when she saw the two people. She looked just as surprised as Ji-an.

“Oh, no… What brings you here? It was so sudden that I was startled.”

“Hello. I was truly surprised. I had no idea that Mrs. Kang was receiving health care here.”

Jeong Hee-seo responded shamelessly, still holding Ji-an’s arm as if he didn’t know anything.