The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 20

“They’re here, they’re here!”

As the car stopped in front of the building, murmurs grew among the reporters lingering there. People passing by the building also started to glance over, noticing the situation.

They wanted to see the person who had been the talk of the town for the past few days.

And as they hoped, the person who got out of the car was a man with dark hair.

“Wow! It’s Lucas Taylor!”

“President Taylor!”

Someone cheered, and another desperately called out, hoping to get even a word from him to put in their article. But their commotion didn’t last long.

Lucas slightly bent his body and extended his hand towards the inside of the car.

As if escorting someone.

“Oh, no way!”

One of the reporters watching widened his eyes.

At the same time, a slender white hand appeared from inside the car, followed by a small woman.

It was another hot topic, Giselle Anticia.

“Gasp! Did they come together?”

“Take a picture quickly!”

The reporters, who didn’t know Lucas had personally gone to Giselle’s house to bring her, were surprised and hurriedly raised their cameras.

“Ugh…”

Giselle, holding Lucas’s hand as she got out of the car, squinted at the flashing cameras.

Lucas, straightening his bent waist, turned around.

“Uh, um…”

“Ahem.”

At his gaze, the reporters, who had been frantically taking pictures, started lowering their cameras one by one. He didn’t say a word, just gave them a look.

“Let’s go in.”

Lucas looked at the reporters once more before turning back to Giselle. She looked around in wonder and nodded her head.

“What kind of threats did you make to scare them so much…”

She muttered to herself as she entered the building with Lucas.

“Threats?”

“Didn’t you threaten them? Otherwise, there’s no way the reporters would be so quiet. Besides, you didn’t even say anything to them.”

“…I wonder.”

Lucas replied a beat late to Giselle’s words, raising one corner of his mouth.

“What? Smiling like that makes you look like a villain, senior.”

Giselle glanced at him and squinted her eyes. Just as Lucas was about to respond with a chuckle to her words, a group of people approached from the opposite side.

They were his company employees and her office colleagues.

Among them was Schnickel, the superior who always dismissed and scolded Giselle just because she was a woman.

“President, you’re here!”

Schnickel, spotting Lucas, hurried over and bowed in greeting. Then, noticing Giselle standing next to him, he awkwardly lifted the corners of his mouth.

“Anticia, no, Miss Anticia, good morning. Ahem… Did you come to work with the President?”

His voice trembled like a goat, just as much as the corners of his mouth quivered. Trying to use honorifics he wasn’t accustomed to seemed to have caused spasms in his vocal cords.

“Pfft.”

Giselle couldn’t help but imagine the state of her superior’s vocal cords and quickly stifled her laughter.

“Sorry. I was thinking about something else for a moment…”

She hastily apologized to Schnickel. He twitched his cheek and then forced a smile, waving his hand.

“Haha. It’s fine, Miss Anticia. It’s possible to laugh while thinking about something else. We don’t need to apologize for such things between us, do we?”

‘Between us, what?’

Giselle almost frowned at Schnickel’s words.

A man who would usually raise his voice at even her smallest mistakes was now pretending to be kind and laughing it off, which was absurd.

She turned her gaze away instead of responding to Schnickel’s words.

Her office colleagues standing behind Schnickel glanced at Giselle, and when their eyes met, they either cleared their throats and looked away or smiled awkwardly.

Their expressions clearly showed discomfort.

“…”

Giselle suppressed a bitter smile and turned her gaze away. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular; she just had nowhere else to look.

But…

Even where she casually turned her gaze, she met eyes with people. They were also people she knew to some extent.

When they made eye contact with her, they reacted similarly to her colleagues from earlier.

Their faces also showed discomfort.

“Giselle? What are you thinking about?”

At that moment, Lucas’s voice was heard. Giselle turned her gaze back to him and then looked around.

Neither Schnickel nor her office colleagues were in sight. It seemed they had returned to the office while she was lost in thought.

“Nothing. Um… I’ll head to the office now.”

She shook her head and replied to his question, then began walking towards the stairs to go to the office. Lucas followed beside her, matching her pace.

“Senior, I’m heading to the office now. Why do you keep following me?”

“Excuse me, Miss Anticia. You seem to have forgotten that my office is on the upper floor. Should I be worried about the memory of my future wife?”

Lucas replied with a laugh, as if finding her words absurd.

“Senior, are you going to keep teasing me?”

Giselle snapped at him, her face turning red, and quickened her pace.

But why was it…

That her hurried steps and Lucas’s leisurely pace matched?

Feeling unfair, Giselle quickened her pace even more, almost as if she were participating in a speed-walking competition.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t widen the distance between her and Lucas.

“Whew… I’ll go in now.”

‘Climbing the stairs in a hurry only made me tired. Tsk.’

Giselle took a deep breath, bowed slightly to him with a sullen expression, and turned towards the office. But Lucas grabbed her arm.

“…!”

Giselle’s eyes widened as he grabbed her arm without warning. Her green eyes darted around and then slowly moved towards Lucas’s hand holding her arm.

“My apologies.”

As soon as her gaze fell on his hand, he released her arm.

“Why did you suddenly grab me?”

Giselle asked, trying to hide her flushed face, which still felt the sensation of his touch.

Lucas let out a small ‘Ah’ and shrugged his shoulders.

“Just because.”

“Just because?”

“Would you like to stop by my office for a moment?”

“Pardon?”

Giselle’s eyes widened at his sudden suggestion. Lucas continued, seeing her reaction.

“Have a cup of tea. It’s still before work hours, so it should be fine, right?”

* * *

“Sit there.”

“But…”

Giselle looked at him nervously. Lucas, taking off his coat and heating the teapot himself, chuckled.

“Is it such a big deal to have a cup of tea with the man you’re going to marry?”

“It’s not that… But you’re still my employer.”

At her hesitant words, one of Lucas’s eyebrows twitched.

But he quickly corrected his expression and approached the table with the teapot.

“Senior, you’re good at pouring tea too.”

How should she put it…

It felt like a scene from a famous painting, and no one would argue otherwise.

Even though he was just pouring a cup of tea, it felt so elegant that she muttered absentmindedly.

Hearing her words, Lucas frowned slightly as he poured tea into the cup in front of Giselle and spoke in a reproachful tone.

“Stop saying silly things and just drink your tea.”

“Who’s being silly… Yes.”

She replied in a sulky tone and picked up the teacup. The well-brewed tea suited her taste perfectly.

Thanks to that, her expression relaxed noticeably. Seeing this, Lucas casually asked.

“What’s bothering you?”

“…Yes?”

Giselle, savoring the tea with both hands around the cup, looked up at him with wide eyes. Lucas took a sip of his tea and spoke again.

“Your complexion hasn’t looked good since earlier. You seemed uncomfortable too.”

“Oh…”

Giselle blinked a couple of times as she listened to his words. She thought he wasn’t paying attention to her while talking with Schnickel.

No, beyond that, she didn’t think he was the kind of man who would notice even her slightest changes.

But it seemed he had noticed her mood. That’s why he stopped her on her way to the office.

Giselle’s green eyes lowered. She thought her face reflected in the tea was turning red.

She unconsciously tightened her grip on the teacup.

“Is there a problem? Or was it because of the reporters earlier…”

“No. It’s not that… Thanks to you, I got to work without any issues. I didn’t even get hit by a camera today.”

She added a joke to hide her embarrassment and pointed to the scar on her forehead.

However, instead of laughing at her joke, Lucas stared blankly at the scar on her forehead.

“Uh, um… It’s almost healed.”

Giselle awkwardly lowered her hand and rolled her eyes. She was clearly hesitant, but he didn’t rush her.

“…It seems.”

After some time had passed, Giselle fidgeted with the now cold teacup and spoke with difficulty.

“I think… I need to quit my job. Yes. That would be better.”

Though she started hesitantly, she repeated herself, seemingly organizing her thoughts, and then nodded as if convincing herself.

“Quit your job?”

Lucas looked at her in disbelief upon hearing her words.

Giselle hurried to explain the reason, as if he were asking if she intended to become a parasite.

“People find me uncomfortable. They keep watching me…”

The only thing that had changed was the announcement of her marriage to Lucas, yet the world around her had completely transformed in just a few days.

She wondered if she could continue working in such a situation.

Moreover, once she got married, she would become the wife of the President. If she insisted on continuing to work in the office…

‘Ugh, even I would hate it. It’s bad enough working with a boss’s wife, but the employer’s wife?’