IOTF Ch 21

Kim Mijin called Jaehoon over. As Jaehoon approached, she caressed his thigh with the hand holding her cards.

“Soyoon, would you like to come over here too?”

At her call, I frowned slightly.

“Me?”

“Yes, come here. Our Sowon’s luck isn’t going so well, so I think we need you. Having handsome men around always brings good luck. Come on, we’ll cover your bets.”

As she beckoned, my head instinctively turned towards the boss. But he was gone. He had been sitting there just a moment ago, legs crossed, watching the game with a bored expression, but now he was nowhere to be seen. Then Jaehoon came up to me and tugged at my sleeve.

“Let’s go.”

I shook my head and said, “No, let go of me.”

“You know how to play. Let’s join in.”

It wasn’t just about joining the game. If I went over there, it meant sitting next to Lee Sowon and letting her touch me.

“We’ll cover your bets. It doesn’t matter if you lose, just come and raise the stakes,” she said.

Jaehoon rolled his eyes at me, urging me to get up, but I didn’t want to go at all. I tried to shake him off when a tall man entered the room. The imposing figure in the black coat was the boss, followed by Manager Kim.

“Oh, sorry we’re late. I had something important to discuss with our Boss.”

“We were waiting for you. We came after hearing about Manager Kim.”

Manager Kim pulled up a chair and sat down at Kim Mijin’s words.

“Are your hands warmed up?”

“It doesn’t seem like a lucky place. I had high expectations because I heard it was newly opened.”

The boss’s gaze landed on me. He swatted Jaehoon’s hand away from my sleeve and, as if he hadn’t seen anything, pulled up a chair and sat right next to the table.

“Don’t say such disheartening things. Our Boss put so much effort into securing this location. This place, believe it or not, is aligned with the Gongdeoksan mountain range, so no one who’s gambled here has ever gone bankrupt.”

“Oh, really? But the Boss said many people have been taken advantage of here. How do you explain that?”

Kim Mijin cleverly twisted the boss’s words. Lee Sowon coughed next to her, and Manager Kim’s eyes widened.

“Taken advantage of?”

“If there’s no sucker at the table, then I’m the sucker. If there’s a sucker, there’s a shark, and if there’s a player, there’s also loud bluffing.”

At her provocative words, Jaehoon pretended to try and stop her. Manager Kim frowned, his pride seemingly hurt.

“Our guest from Seoul has quite a sharp tongue. I even included my regular customer to make sure our Boss’s guests were treated well.”

Grumbling, Manager Kim restarted the game. Kim Mijin knocked out one of the two men sitting across from her. Manager Kim took his place, and then Jaehoon joined in. The game continued, and more chips were added. Manager Kim casually flipped his cards, and Jaehoon folded repeatedly. After two rounds, Kim Mijin took the lead, winning continuously. Manager Kim remained unmoved, and his regular customer also folded.

Meanwhile, the boss still hadn’t said a word. He didn’t even look at me. It made me feel uneasy.

Then Lee Sowon grumbled, “I’m folding again.”

“That’s why you should stick with the pretty boy,” Kim Mijin said. Sowon stood up and approached me.

“Soyoon, aren’t you playing poker?”

The perfume from the woman who had come close was strong. I recoiled slightly at the scent, completely different from the mint I was used to, and she tried to whisper seductively,

“We’ll stake you.”

“It’s not about that, I’m just not good at gambling.”

“This isn’t really gambling, it’s just playing around. The stakes aren’t that high.”

Not high? The game had started with a minimum bet of 100,000 won, and the chips being exchanged were now worth hundreds of millions. Just now, when Manager Kim swept the chips, the bet had immediately jumped to the billions.

“I think it’s over two billion,” I said.

“Oh, don’t worry. My sister doesn’t bet more than a hundred million.”

“How much are you willing to bet?”

At my instinctively materialistic question, Lee Sowon smiled and whispered in my ear,

“How much do you want me to bet?”

…’I don’t need the money, so stop whispering in my ear,’ was what I really wanted to say, but she wouldn’t understand. She was probably here to check out a cute, young guy she could keep as a pet.

“Well, with you, Soyoon, I think I could bet twice as much as my sister.”

She smoothly mentioned two hundred million. If it had been before, I would have jumped at the offer, but now I was so worried about the boss that my legs were trembling.

Unable to stand it any longer, I abruptly stood up. Sowon looked up at me, and then Kim Mijin exclaimed,

“Royal flush! Royal flush!”

At her excited cry, Manager Kim threw down his cards. The boss was still unmoved. Even though I was talking to another woman, he didn’t show any jealousy, but rather looked bored and indifferent.

Hurt, I unconsciously clenched my fists. To be honest, I hated this. I didn’t understand why the boss had chosen this place, whether Kim Mijin was actually winning, or what Manager Kim was thinking as he played against her. I wasn’t interested in gambling at all, and I didn’t like Jaehoon either.

“Let’s go, Jaehoon!” I snapped, unable to contain my irritation.

Kim Mijin, who was gleefully collecting her chips, chuckled and said,

“Sowon, the baby seems bored. Take him out and buy him some snacks. Or tell him to eat you, if you want.”

I was taken aback by Kim Mijin’s vulgar words. What was even more shocking was Jaehoon’s response. He cheerfully replied, “Soyoon likes cookies, not snacks,” and Kim Mijin burst out laughing.

“Our Sowon’s cookies are delicious. She bakes them well, crispy and chewy.”

I couldn’t bear the sexually suggestive words any longer and lowered my head. Then I sensed the boss’s movement. I looked up sharply, and he was already leaving the room. I quickly followed him. He was crossing the hall.

I followed him. He opened the back door and was about to enter the basement storage room, so I called out to him.

“Boss!”

Joo Geonwoo turned around at my voice.

“Soyoon, you came out?”

I ran to him and grabbed his coat.

“I hate it there…!”

“Soyoon,” he said, cutting me off, as if he already knew what I was going to say. He looked down at me.

“Go back inside.”

“…I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“I’m anxious…”

I shook my head, clutching his coat tightly. I was acting like a child, showing my displeasure with my whole body, and the boss asked again,

“Why are you anxious?”

“I just am.”

“Just anxious? Is that the only reason?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“I’m embarrassed…”

This was a new feeling for me. I had lived a life where being chosen and evaluated by women was the norm, but now it was different. The thought of the boss watching me made me feel embarrassed on top of being anxious, and that embarrassment made me restless.

“I’m so embarrassed to be treated like that in front of you.”

“……”

“I’m worried that you still see me as a host, as a whore… I’m getting anxious.”

The boss was silent again. The silence made me even more anxious.

“You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s their problem for treating you like that.”

At the word “their,” I looked up to see the boss had lost his bored expression and was grinning at me.

“Mr. Lee Soyoon has done nothing wrong, so go back inside and just stay put.”

“……”

“Do you trust me?”

I nodded, but honestly, I wasn’t sure. Why was I feeling so restless and anxious? I was uneasy even though I knew he wouldn’t abandon me. And at the same time, a flutter of excitement settled in my heart, a feeling I had never experienced before.

“I’m curious about your younger days,” I said.

“Am I old now?”

“No, no. I mean when you were my age.”

Young, strong, beautiful, handsome, and full of energy, he must have been like a demon, but from my current perspective, he would have seemed endlessly lovable.

He probably maimed people, did all sorts of bad things, and didn’t care about morals, but that’s how I would have seen him.

“What do you think I was like at twenty-six?”

“I think you were more passionate and had a worse temper than now.”

“You’re right. I stabbed anyone who got in my way.”

He said it so casually. But the problem was, I was the same.

“I would have fallen for you.”

The boss’s eyes suddenly narrowed. It wasn’t a look of suspicion, but more like he didn’t understand what he had just heard.

“I might have watched you with admiration and eventually fallen for you.”

“……”

“You wouldn’t have cherished me back then, but I would have liked you anyway, even if it was just me.”

I stood on tiptoe and wrapped my arms around his neck. I kissed him softly, deepening the kiss. Kissing him calmed my anxious and embarrassed feelings, bringing a sense of stability. I continued to tangle our tongues, expressing my affection. With the sound of our lips smacking, I swallowed his saliva and tilted my head, kissing him more deeply, and whispered his name, “Joo Geonwoo.”

“Is this what it feels like to be loved by you?” he asked.

“……”

“Imagining my past self and saying you’d like me back then, and then using a kiss to sweep me off my feet?”

I laughed at the expression “sweep me off my feet.” It was so like Joo Geonwoo. Still on tiptoe, I replied,

“Let yourself be loved more. You might receive even more than what you were expecting.”

It didn’t matter if I didn’t stay by his side forever. It was okay if he told me to leave. I was the type to roll around like this and eventually leave empty-handed, so it was okay if he changed his mind. But I wanted to cherish the memory of having devoted my pure heart to someone, even just for a short while.

“I am curious about what more you could give.”

“You’ll find out if you date me. You will.”

At my reply, the boss narrowed his eyes. He raised his dark, sexy eyes, and a harsh word escaped his lips.

“I’ll give my liver to this nine-tailed fox. Fuck.”

This time, the boss lunged at me. His hot, rough breath enveloped me, consuming me. I clung to him as he devoured me with his kisses. I moaned and tilted my head back, accepting him. Rough breaths and hot bodies intertwined, merging. He and I embraced each other fiercely in that storage room-like space.