Chapter 13

“Ah, that. I had to go somewhere for work for a bit. Don’t tell me you waited for me?”

Since her role was Kwon Ki-joo’s stalker, Lee-jin quickly nodded.

This too was not entirely a lie. She really had gone looking for him quite diligently.

“But you didn’t resent me for disappearing without a word and cry every night, did you?”

While looking at Kwon Ki-joo’s pleased lips, Lee-jin suddenly realized that she still had not properly thanked him yet. Even though winning that match had been entirely thanks to Kwon Ki-joo.

Lee-jin hurriedly bowed her head again.

“Thank you for that day of the match. I won thanks to you, Boss.”

“Not because of me.”

“What?”

“You won that. I bet on the other side. And I also told the opposing fighter to win with everything she had. I even kindly warned her that if I took a loss that day, she’d better be prepared.”

“……What?”

Lee-jin stared blankly at Kwon Ki-joo, unable to understand right away.

So the reason the opposing fighter had been worked up was not dissatisfaction with how strangely the match was going, but because of Kwon Ki-joo’s threat?

“It means you won fair and square. The other side gave it their all too. It’s also true that because you wouldn’t lose as planned, the opponent got flustered, which made the match much more interesting.”

“Why…… did you do that?”

“Because that’s sportsmanship. Ah, of course, Boss Kim would probably have a different view.”

“That wasn’t an official arena, it was a gambling ring.”

She restated the obvious fact everyone knew to Kwon Ki-joo, who did not look at all like someone who had sent a huge sum of 200 million won into thin air in under seven minutes.

But Kwon Ki-joo only made a careless expression, then leisurely took out a cigarette and lit it.

Looking at Kwon Ki-joo like that, Lee-jin felt something strange. She even thought that if matches were not decided by betting money, then with confidence equal to what she had now, she might be able to become quite a decent fighter.

She had no intention of stepping forward as a full-fledged boxer, but even so, that was a fairly comforting thought.

“Why are you so nice to me?”

Even so, Lee-jin could not help asking. Why he was being so generous to her.

She had thought it was simply one of Kwon Ki-joo’s whims, but seeing that he was even willing to take a financial loss because of her made her even more curious about what was inside him.

“Well, maybe because I want the first stalker I’ve ever had in my life to stay by my side for a long time?”

The highly playful answer drifted through the street on a haze of cigarette smoke.

Was this how he always treated people? Just from a rough glance, he seemed like the kind of man countless women would have followed around, and suddenly she became curious whether he had shown this kind of kindness to all of them too.

But Lee-jin did not let her thoughts stay tied to that for long, and at last brought up what she had meant to say if she met Kwon Ki-joo.

“Is there anything you need, by any chance?”

“Need?”

“Yes. I got my fight money. Even so, since I won thanks to you, Boss, I wanted to give you a gift at least.”

Instead of getting a job as a housekeeper, this was all she could think of as a way to get a little closer to Kwon Ki-joo, but for now it could not be helped.

Fortunately, Kwon Ki-joo did not laugh at Lee-jin’s feelings, plain to the point of being shabby.

“I told you, you didn’t win because of me, and yet here you are.”

“No matter what you said to the other side, I won because of you, Boss. You told me to do whatever I wanted. You told me to do my best too. So I really tried very hard. That’s why it’s true that it was thanks to you.”

That was sincere. It was the first time in her life anyone had ever told her to do what she wanted.

Because the life she had lived until now had been filled entirely with things she could not do as she wished, things she was told to do, and things she had no choice but to do. Even this very moment.

Lee-jin calculated coolly and thought that around here, it would be good to make a fluttered expression. She kept forgetting, but Kwon Ki-joo was her ultimate favorite. She could not act cute like Mimi, but she could at least make herself seem sincere in her own way.

Lee-jin lifted her gaze slightly and looked at Kwon Ki-joo. Perhaps her words had been unexpected, because he was looking at her with a somewhat surprised expression.

Lee-jin pulled up the corners of her mouth as if shy. The muscles in her face, which had been beaten up, were still screaming, but she did not forget to lower her eyes gently again.

“Just how much did you get in fight money?”

At Kwon Ki-joo’s voice tinged with laughter, Lee-jin suddenly realized how ridiculous it was to be talking about her insignificant fight money in front of a man who had lost 200 million won.

To her, it was not a small amount, but to Kwon Ki-joo, it probably would not even cover one night’s drinking bill.

“Um, it’s not that much. So something expensive would be hard, and maybe something a little modest…….”

“I don’t really need anything.”

“That…… makes sense, I guess?”

Even though she knew that already, it seemed her effort to wedge open some kind of opening was about to come to nothing.

Just as she was hesitating over whether he would really find it suspicious if she said that since she had won thanks to him, she would work for him as a housekeeper, Kwon Ki-joo spoke.

“Then buy me a meal instead.”

Lee-jin quickly lifted her gaze. Kwon Ki-joo, who had tossed away the cigarette he had finished and was already clicking the lighter in his hand with a fresh cigarette between his lips, was looking at her with an amused gaze.

“A meal?”

“Yeah. I don’t particularly need anything, but I still have to eat every meal, don’t I?”

“O-okay. When do you have time?”

“Tomorrow around 6 in the evening? I think I can spare about two hours.”

“Tomorrow works for me too.”

Hoping that her state, trying somehow to seize the opportunity, would look like that of a stalker full of delight, Lee-jin answered quickly.

But the corners of her lips, which had risen, soon sank again. The moment her thoughts reached what on earth a man like Kwon Ki-joo would eat, she immediately grew troubled.

Would he go to some hotel restaurant and elegantly use a knife and fork, or would he eat Korean beef that cost tens of thousands of won for a piece the size of a booger?

Perhaps because her confused thoughts showed plainly on her face, Kwon Ki-joo, who had been watching her quietly, burst into laughter. Lee-jin hurriedly erased her expression.

“I like samgyeopsal. How about that?”

At Kwon Ki-joo’s unexpected words, Lee-jin quietly drew the plastic grocery bag containing samgyeopsal behind her back. Then she nodded vigorously.

It was impossible to picture Kwon Ki-joo, dressed in a luxury suit, sitting in a samgyeopsal place and clacking meat tongs, but she did not have the nerve to refuse his consideration.

“I like it too.”

“There’s an old restaurant not far from Havana that’s pushing thirty years. Come to the front of Havana by 6 tomorrow.”

After finishing his words, Kwon Ki-joo lit the cigarette between his lips. Then he held out his phone.

“Your number.”

“What?”

“You never know. We might miss each other on the way, or I might suddenly have something come up and the appointment might fall through, or you might get into an accident on your way there. In any case, we need some way to contact each other, don’t we?”

“I’m not sure you really needed to use me getting into an accident as the example. I’m just going from here to there.”

Even though he had heard that she had once been hospitalized after a hit-and-run accident, did he really have to be that spiteful? Thinking that, she grumbled, and Kwon Ki-joo let out a snort of laughter.

“You never know what can happen.”

It was not wrong, so Lee-jin obediently entered her number and handed the phone back. Then Kwon Ki-joo immediately pressed the call button.

The phone in the back pocket of Lee-jin’s jeans buzzed three or four times, then stopped.

“My number. Not to brag, but not many people know my direct number. You should consider it an honor.”

To humor Kwon Ki-joo’s self-satisfied expression, Lee-jin took out her phone and looked at the screen.

A number so easy it seemed like it would memorize itself was there. This was what they called a golden number, wasn’t it. So he was bragging after all.

“Yes. I won’t do anything like leaking it to someone else.”

At that moment, Kwon Ki-joo’s phone rang, and as he looked at the screen, his face crumpled, and in a low voice he muttered a curse.

“F*ck.”