Chapter 56

It was certain. Contrary to the impudent eyes that had been glaring at me, the voice coming from those pure, delicate lips was unmistakably Jaesugang’s.

The guy who’d brazenly tried to overwhelm me with his aura, all gleaming good looks, was Jaesugang.

…Holy crap. This guy is Jaesugang.

My uncle, who knew my game nickname, hesitated before looking at me. To my uncle, who was sending me looks full of unspoken questions about what was going on, I muttered low, as if talking to myself, that he was someone I knew. At that, my uncle let out a deep sigh and released me, then apologized to the staff gathered around us for causing a commotion instead. Thanks to my uncle’s cleanup, the gazes and attention that had been focused our way soon fizzled out and scattered.

I did my best to calm my breathing and accept the situation. That person is Jaesugang? For real? Isn’t this broken balance (*balance collapse)?

For now, I figured I should at least answer the question of whether I was Kkulppang, so I opened my mouth. But my words caught in my throat and nothing came out. With Jaesugang standing right in front of me, my mouth opening and closing like a fish, I summoned my strength and spat out my first word.

“…Holy crap.”

I wasn’t entirely sure if that even counted as a sentence.

Jaesugang seemed to find my reaction amusing, throwing his head back in a refreshingly clear laugh. It sounded far better in person than over a broadcast.

He strode up to me and lightly pinched and tugged the jersey jacket tied around my waist. At that weak yet firm force, my body swayed toward him, closing the already narrow enough gap for one person to slip through even tighter. We were similar in height, but he was slightly taller, so I had to lift my gaze just a little.

“Why didn’t you answer me?”

Hearing Jaesugang’s voice up close in person was incomparably sweet. I had always thought it was sweet, but my vocabulary was sorely lacking to find a better word for it. On top of that, with the distance narrowed, his light brown eyes—tinged with gray and almost animal-like—became clear enough that I could see his pupils dilating, and a faint scent of lemons brushed the tip of my nose, nearly stealing my breath away.

With so many stimuli rushing in at once, my brain failed to process properly, leaving me only able to stare blankly into Jaesugang’s eyes.

When I stood there without saying a word, Jaesugang looked at me with a puzzled expression before stepping back slightly. Only then did the visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli fade, and my frozen body began to move again.

How could someone who already had everything also have a face like that… He really had everything except money.

“…Are you really Jaesugang?”

Now that I could move my mouth, which had been frozen as if struck by silence, I blurted out a stupid question. To my foolish echo, Jaesugang maintained his smile and merely twitched his eyebrow.

“I asked first.”

“No, you just look so unreal that I can’t get my words out.”

“Thank you. I hear that a lot. So, your answer?”

Perhaps because he hadn’t heard the answer he wanted, he urged me again, scrunching up the bridge of his nose with a grinning face. Since it wasn’t like I wasn’t Kkulppang, there was no reason to drag out the answer, so I rubbed the back of my neck and opened my mouth somewhat awkwardly.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to be called Kkulppang, so just call me Goyeongi or Yeong. Comfortably.”

Hearing my answer, Jaesugang smoothed his scrunched nose and broke into a bright smile. Then he offered a handshake with his white hand. As I reached out my hand in turn, I saw a long scar on Jaesugang’s right palm before we shook.

“I’m Gang Jegyeong. Don’t call me Jaesugang either—just call me comfortably by my name.”

Although I already knew, since this was our first meeting, we formally exchanged names and lightly shook our clasped hands.

Afterward, I tried to pull my hand free, but Jaesugang—or rather, Gang Jegyeong—swiftly snatched it before it could escape, gripping it tightly enough that it wouldn’t come loose easily. Even when I looked at him in bewilderment, he paid me no mind and pulled me along with him.

Walking straight ahead like that, he led me to the bench by the escalator where he’d been sitting earlier. Next to the bench stood a female staff member who had been talking with Gang Jegyeong, fidgeting uncomfortably.

“Kkulppang-nim is here. Should we wait a little longer?”

Gang Jegyeong pointed at me. Following his gesture, the staff member confirmed who I was, cleared her throat, asked us to wait here for a moment, then disappeared into the corridor across from us.

Only then did Gang Jegyeong release my hand. He suggested I sit for a moment and sat down on the bench himself. I declined, saying I’d been sitting in the car this whole time, then stood beside him, looking down at him.

I knew it was rude to scrutinize someone so freely, but… Gang Jegyeong’s face was nothing short of art—so perfectly balanced and beautiful in every regard that my eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

His eyes, sharply angled and lifted upward as if fully torn—perfect for crushing another’s spirit—yet emanated a somehow languid atmosphere that evoked precariousness. His pale skin, as if someone had stolen its color from him, and the slender line of his jaw rendered his impression all the sharper and more delicate. And, as if to neutralize all that, his lips alone curved in moderately rounded arcs, adding softness.

Matching his cold yet pretty face, his build was tall and slender, but he looked anything but frail. The proof of his dense, solid body was evident simply from how the white round-neck shirt, subtly revealing his collarbone, draped broadly from his chest without wrinkling easily.

Perhaps that was why a brief thought crossed my mind: if he weren’t wearing that oversized, thin cardigan, his smile might have felt more obscene than pure.

After savoring all this and surveying his overall appearance once more, I thought that Gang Jegyeong looked less like a bodyguard and more like an actor playing the role (役) of a bodyguard.

While I was inwardly appreciating his appearance down to the last detail, Gang Jegyeong—whether aware of my persistent gaze or not—suddenly held out a brown paper envelope. And he wore that same pure-white smile.

“This is my gift.”

The thick paper crinkled from someone’s touch. As I took the unexpectedly heavy paper envelope, I felt my uncle, who had quietly stuck by my side, reach out to check the contents. I lightly waved my hand toward my uncle to signal that it was fine.

Opening the envelope, I saw yellow kernels still holding onto a warm heat inside. I plucked one out with my hand.

The slightly soft and moist kernel was a chestnut. A roasted chestnut.

Why roasted chestnuts? When I looked at him with a bewildered face, Gang Jegyeong answered readily.

“You joked about roasted chestnuts last time.”

Joked about roasted chestnuts? Me?

Holding the chestnut, I slowly recalled the memory. Scenes of attacking Null in the hidden dungeon came back to me vividly. Back then, during the day-night phases, he had typed “day-night, day-night” in chat, making a pun on roasted chestnuts.

“So I woke up this morning and tried making some. I figured it’d be hard to find a place selling roasted chestnuts this early…”

“Didn’t you get off work at dawn today?”

Where would someone who worked all day and only came home late at dawn find the time to make these? I had even been worried about whether he could arrive without being late, but Gang Jegyeong didn’t look very tired except for the faint dark circles under his eyes.

“If I’m tired, I sleep deeply and wake up quickly. Don’t worry about it.”

He told me not to worry, but that’s easier said than done. I glanced at Gang Jegyeong while holding the roasted chestnuts. He, for his part, was looking up at me with a gaze that said he didn’t care about his own condition and wanted me to hurry up and eat them.

In the end, I set aside my worry for him for the moment and popped a perfectly cooked chestnut into my mouth whole. Biting down with my molars, the uniquely savory fragrance and sweetness of roasted chestnuts filled my mouth.

“Does it taste okay?”

It was much softer and tastier than the dry, stiff roasted chestnuts from a highway rest stop I’d eaten at an elementary school retreat long ago. I nodded and moved my jaw diligently. He’s good at everything, I thought. He even knows how to make roasted chestnuts.

Gang Jegyeong watched me proudly as I settled on the bench and picked up chestnuts one by one, then smiled mischievously and muttered quietly, just loud enough for me to hear.

“Go on, nom nom. Eat up.”

Hearing that, I stopped chewing busily and glared at him. He burst into a bright smile, insisting it was a joke. It didn’t look like a joke at all. Annoyed, I picked up a roasted chestnut and shoved it into Gang Jegyeong’s mouth.

While waiting for the staff and sharing the roasted chestnuts, Gang Jegyeong stared at me as if he had marked me as his designated target. It wasn’t rare for people to look at me, but no one had ever done so this openly from such close range, so I was at a loss over whether to stare back or ignore him.

In the end, unable to overcome the awkwardness, I had to search for a topic to divert Gang Jegyeong’s attention.

“Come to think of it, earlier. Why were you staring at me like that?”

“…When?”

“Earlier.”

“When we first made eye contact?”