I Think I've Poked a Sleeping Bear
Chapter 20
First Meetings Are So Hard
Photos lay scattered across the table.
The protagonists in every one of them were Lee Heon and Dan-a.
A clear, undeniable couple on a date to anyone who looked.
“……So there was a woman.”
Seo-rin looked down at the photos with a pale face.
“He wanted to break off the engagement because of this woman…….”
With eyes devoid of laughter, Seo-rin slowly began sorting through the photos.
A fair, slender hand picked up a picture of the two strolling before lush green trees.
It was the photo where Dan-a and Lee Heon were smiling the brightest.
“I want to see her. The woman he’s seeing even after breaking off his engagement with me. In person.”
***
Did I push it too hard over the weekend?
It hadn’t been on foot, but it really had been a sprint.
Seoul–Jeju Island–Seoul.
Going back and forth in half a day, and even having a date on top of that.
Besides, because the President paid for the clothes Dan-a picked out, she had to cover all the date expenses.
Of course, the President offered to pay for everything, but he had to shoulder the cancellation fee for the suite room as well. In all good conscience, she couldn’t let him bear the entire burden.
Thanks to that, her monthly living expenses had suddenly taken a terrifying hit.
Phew, if I’d paid for the clothes on top of that…… bank-rupt-cy!
Still, it was fun for the first time in a while.
The President had gladly accommodated everything she wanted, putting her in such a good mood that in the end, she had even done something she shouldn’t have.
Chalna Four Cuts.
Haa. I shouldn’t have taken photos like that. (And took four of them, no less.)
Why on earth a Chalna Four Cuts photo booth between two people who need to return everything to how it was?
Yet even as she told herself that, she couldn’t resist sticking them on her vanity and desk.
Because the President came out looking so pretty.
Ha, if he were a real boyfriend instead of the President, we’d be a dream couple by now.
Instinctively in perfect sync, their chemistry felt completely out of this world.
“Haa…….”
“The weather’s so nice, why do you keep sighing?”
Yunseo handed a cup of coffee to Dan-a, who was sprawled out on a park bench.
“Thank you.”
“What on earth did you do over the weekend to be this exhausted?”
“Don’t even ask. Rode a helicopter, rode a yacht…….”
“Huh? A helicopter? A yacht? Were you playing a game?”
“Uh, well…….”
Similar enough, I guess.
“Geez. I told you to go on a blind date. The weather was so nice this weekend, what are you doing cooped up at home playing games, of all things?”
Don’t you worry, I enjoyed a date more spectacular than anyone’s.
“Yunseo, how’s your wedding prep going?”
“Yeah. Fine, I guess.”
“What kind of answer is that? Did you fight with Ji-hoon?”
“They say everyone fights when preparing for marriage, and I thought we’d be different, you know? But I guess it’s unavoidable. I say, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do that,’ and all he says is, ‘Sure, do whatever you want,’ so it gets on my nerves. It makes it feel like I’m the only one who wants to get married.”
“Ji-hoon has always been the ‘whatever’s good is good’ type, you know.”
“Exactly. And right now, that’s what annoys me.”
Yunseo vented her complaints about Ji-hoon as if seizing the moment.
“Sigh, Han Jihoon. Since he loves me so much, I have no choice but to let it slide.”
“What’s this? They say never give dating advice to friends, and they were right. Are you just bragging in the end?”
Until not long ago, a conversation like this would have been unimaginable.
Being able to talk this comfortably felt like a dream.
Whether Ji-hoon liked Yunseo immensely or madly, she felt nothing at all.
This was all thanks to the President.
“Hehe. Did I brag too much to someone without a boyfriend? If you’re jealous, hurry up and get yourself one.”
Yunseo brought up blind dates again.
Suddenly, the moment the President looked into her eyes and called her pretty flashed in her mind.
‘You’re pretty.’
Crazy…….
Who’s calling whom pretty? When he’s the one who’s prettier.
Hmph.
With a man like that as my boyfriend, why would I ever be jealous?
Wow, seriously, if only he weren’t the President.
If only he weren’t in an engagement worth trillions of won.
I’d just, totally, just, yeah.
“Ha.”
A sigh escaped on its own.
“What is it? You’ve been sighing non-stop. What’s troubling you?”
“Nothing. What worries could I possibly have?”
Infinite things are so vast they feel like nothing at all.
“By the way, Lee Dan-a, haven’t you gotten way prettier lately? I’m the bride-to-be here.”
“Me?”
‘You look pretty.’
Ah, it keeps popping up.
“What’s this? Why is your face turning all red and splotchy? Are you seeing someone?”
“Huh? Well…….”
It wasn’t quite dating, but it wasn’t not dating either.
Yunseo’s eyes widened.
“What? Really? Who is it? Is that why you said no to blind dates? But until just the other day, you said you liked the President! Said he was your first love! Who is it? There’s no way you’re dating the President.”
Pfft.
Dan-a spat out her coffee at Yunseo’s sheer certainty.
Dating the President was something she could never, ever reveal.
“I-Isn’t that Ji-hoon over there?”
“Where? Oh my gosh. What the, Han Ji-hooon! You couldn’t even wait that long and came all the way here!”
Ack. He really came. She had only pointed somewhere at random to change the subject.
Yunseo had already dashed over to where Ji-hoon stood, clasping his hands and spinning around in circles like they were dancing the Ganggangsullae.
After keeping it a secret for so long, look at her, head over heels.
“You two have fun! I’m heading back first!”
Waving goodbye loudly to Yunseo, Dan-a headed toward the recycling station in the corner of the park to throw away her empty coffee cup.
Just then, someone stepped smoothly in front of her.
Turning around after tossing her trash, Dan-a didn’t see the person and ended up bumping shoulders with her.
“Ah, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”
“Ah, yes. I’m fine.”
“What do you mean fine? You fell down.”
Dan-a took the hand of the woman who had collapsed in front of her and helped her up.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere? Let’s go to the hospital and……”
Their eyes met.
Huh? Where have I seen her before?
The woman quickly covered her face.
Is she a celebrity? Where did I see her……
“T-Thank you.”
Rising to her feet, the woman bowed while shielding her face with her long hair.
“Excuse me, then.”
“Excuse me!”
Dan-a stopped her.
“W-Why, what is it……?”
“Do you happen to know me?”
When Dan-a narrowed her eyes, the woman averted her gaze.
“Pardon? No, I don’t. I really don’t! I truly don’t know you!”
And with that, she hurriedly fled.
“Hey! Excuse me!”
What in the world…… Why is she running away like that……
Tilting her head in confusion for a moment, Dan-a’s eyes widened.
Could she be…… a pickpocket?
She rummaged through her pockets.
Gasp. My phone. My phone!
……Oh, it was right in her hand.
“She didn’t even take anything, so why is she running away like a pickpocket?”
She wasn’t even running that fast, still loitering near where they had just been.
Still, that face—she’d definitely seen it somewhere before.
“Did I see her on TV? She looks like a celebrity. A model? I feel like I saw her in a magazine or somethi——”
Gasp.
“Baek Seorin?”
***
Seo-rin leaned against a bench in a secluded corner of the park, panting for breath.
Usually she wouldn’t collapse to this degree, but perhaps because she was so nervous today, she felt a bit dizzy.
It was all because she had stepped closer to see her face and ended up tripping over her own feet.
“Does she recognize my face?”
She had taken to her heels when the woman suddenly recognized her.
As the person dating him, she might know of my existence, so maybe greeting her properly was the polite thing to do.
But handing over photos without even introducing myself wouldn’t make any sense, right?
Seo-rin took out the photos of Lee Heon and Dan-a from her bag.
The photos of the two blending into the scenery had turned out so beautiful that she desperately wanted to give them to her.
Yet since her initial intention had been to hire an investigator to find out why on earth Lee Heon wanted to break off the engagement, from their perspective, they would definitely be displeased.
It must be a foolish thought.
What a waste. There were so many pretty photos.
Would I be able to give them to her once we become close someday?
“As if…… How uncomfortable I must make her feel…….”
Just as she was about to put the photos back, someone grabbed her wrist forcefully.
“Who do you think you are!”
Lifted by the sheer force gripping her, Seo-rin’s body was pulled upward.
Flutter, flutter. The photos scattered across the ground.
Startled, Seo-rin’s heart plummeted, and her face went pale.
“Who the hell are you! Why aren’t you speaking! What are you to be loitering around our sister-in-law all day!”
Sister-in-law?
Who is a sister-in-law……
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
The moment their eyes met, both recognized each other.
Ra I-on.
Baek Seorin.
“Ra Iheon-ssi’s younger brother…….”
“Dongyeon Group? My brother’s fiancée? Why are you here…….”
Staring at Seo-rin, Yi-on spotted the photos dropped on the ground.
What on earth am I looking at right now?
Frowning deeply, Yi-on picked up the photos.
Scenes of Lee Heon and Dan-a on their date.
Yi-on’s eyes widened.
“Holy shit. What is this?”
“Uh, that’s…… well…….”
“Did you just run a background check on my brother?”
“N-No, it’s not like that.”
“This really won’t do. Where did you learn such wicked tricks?”
“It’s nothing like that, so please give them back.”
Just as she tried to snatch the photos back, Yi-on caught her wrist first.
“Just because the engagement got broken off, have you lost your mind? Did you learn that being a chaebol lets you do whatever you want?”
“Wh-What?”
“If you have something to say, say it to my brother. Why come looking for my sister-in-law? What, are you trying to blackmail her? Force them to break up?”
“That’s…….”
“I’m glad I caught you. You grew up totally spoiled rotten, didn’t you? Follow me.”
Yi-on dragged Seo-rin along.
“L-Let go of this! Let go!”
“Are you crazy? Why would I let a caught-in-the-act criminal go? You’re coming with me. We’re going to my brother to……”
“W-Wait, ah…….”
The world spun around.
“Wh-What? What’s wrong with you?”
Seo-rin collapsed straight into Yi-on’s arms.
