‘……The smell of alcohol.’
Serhi slowly wiped the alcohol streaming down his face with the back of his hand.
Jin Siwon’s voice demanding to know what was going on clamored in his ears.
He curtly replied that he was fine, and when he raised his gaze, the face of a seething man came into view.
‘I can’t see why he’s making such a scene over something this trivial.’
Since he couldn’t afford to cause a commotion, he had resigned himself to enduring the man’s venting.
The man seemed to grow even angrier at Serhi’s indifferent expression, looking him up and down as he asked.
“How old are you?”
Serhi flinched.
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking how old you are, selling alcohol here.”
Serhi answered, struggling to maintain his composure.
“I am an adult.”
“You don’t look like it. You snuck in by lying about your age, didn’t you?”
Ah, dammit. This is a big problem.
If he got caught up in a pointless quarrel here and got found out that he was undercover……
‘Irina is……!’
When Serhi bit his lip and averted his gaze, Jang Hyeonmin raised his phone.
“Hey, hold still. What’s your name? If I look this up, everything comes out. Huh?”
That was when.
Strawberry milk was poured onto the pant leg of Jang Hyeonmin, who had been holding his phone and trying to contact someone.
“Ah, whoopsie! Gru, my hand shwipped.”
“Ah!”
He shuddered at the sweet smell of strawberry milk and stood up, causing his phone to fall to the floor.
“You, you! What do you think you’re doing right now?!”
Serhi’s eyes went wide.
*
“Don’t disturb Serhi too much.”
Gru recalled what Jurim had said.
It had been the same in the last dungeon, and today Serhi was probably helping with the Management Bureau’s work.
‘I shouldn’t recklessly step in……’
Gru turned to look at Serhi with worry.
Gidan and Gru were sitting a short distance from Serhi, watching his humiliation.
‘What do I do.’
She glanced at Gidan, but he was resting his chin on the armrest, so his expression was hidden.
Could he still be angry at Serhi and pretending not to know?
Gru drooped her shoulders sullenly.
Yet, while continuously observing Serhi’s expression closely, Gru eventually sensed the danger and sprang to her feet.
With one hand holding strawberry milk and the other clenched into a fist!
‘I’ll save Serhi oppa!’
Gru, who had immediately put her plan into action, spoke stiffly as if reciting from a textbook.
“Ah, whoopsie! Gru, my hand shwipped.”
Sticky strawberry milk dripped past his pants and fell to the floor, drop by drop.
Jang Hyeonmin’s face instantly began to flush red and then blue.
“The hell—! Where’s your guardian! Do you even know how much these pants cost?!”
Just as Jang Hyeonmin was shouting at the top of his lungs.
Gidan, wearing a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes, approached from the side.
“Gru, what do you think you’re doing.”
Gru flinched at his scolding tone and furrowed her brows.
But Serhi oppa had looked troubled.
She’d had a strong feeling that she needed to help. Was it a mistake?
At that moment, Gidan picked up the liquor bottle on the table and began pouring it all over Jang Hyeonmin’s head.
“Wha—! What the—!”
Jang Hyeonmin squeezed his eyes shut and flailed both hands.
“This is how you do it.”
“……!”
Gidan smiled broadly at Gru, whose face had lit up with delight.
When Gidan held out his fist, Gru bumped fists with him.
The flabbergasted Serhi lowered his gaze to find the phone that had fallen on the floor. He had to do something about that first, at least……
Soon, Serhi, who had located the phone, froze. Gidan was feigning ignorance, stepping on the phone in front of the man who was throwing a fit.
‘……’
Hadn’t he said not to show up in front of me anymore. Why did he even come all the way here.
Serhi hung his head low and rubbed the back of his neck.
“What the hell is this—!”
“Ah, my hand slipped.”
“Oppa too?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s weally swippery here, wight.”
“You can say that again.”
Jang Hyeonmin looked at the siblings before him who insisted they had merely slipped, and after being momentarily speechless as if flabbergasted, he roared.
“You say slipped my ass! You poured alcohol right in front of me!”
At that, Gidan asked Gru with a brazen face.
“Did I?”
“No! I didn’t do it!”
Gru shook her head vigorously. Her acting skills were nothing short of prodigious—if only at times like this.
“Ha! Look at this, just look!”
Jang Hyeonmin, his shoulders trembling, raised his voice.
“Call the manager! Do you know who I am? I’ll make you all regret this. Where’s the manager? Manager!”
As Jang Hyeonmin shouted, Serhi looked around.
Most of the lounge customers were now watching their actions.
‘Too many eyes watching.’
Gidan, who had made eye contact with Serhi, also seemed to think so, shaking his head briefly.
They’d have to take him somewhere quiet to subdue him or something……
At that moment.
“It will be difficult if you continue causing disturbances like this.”
A man who had approached unnoticed mediated the commotion.
Gru recognized the man and forcefully held back the voice that was about to burst out.
‘Uncle Heungsam?!’
Jin Siwon, wearing a black suit and an earpiece, blocked his path and smiled.
“I’m from the security team. Shall we step over there and talk for a moment?”
“Ha! Are you kicking me out now? Don’t you see minors here?!”
Jin Siwon glanced at Gru and Gidan and spoke calmly.
“Miss On Gru is permitted entry anywhere in the resort.”
“……What?”
On Gru?
Jang Hyeonmin paused at the rare surname ‘On.’
Come to think of it, hadn’t he heard that On Jurim had adopted a daughter of mixed blood?
‘Then that means……’
This little brat was the granddaughter of the resort’s owner.
Jang Hyeonmin felt his heart plummet and rolled his eyes.
Damn it. To think I’d get tangled up like this……
At the sight, Gidan lightly tipped up his baseball cap.
“Mister. Are you really going to call Gru’s guardian? It won’t be easy……”
As Gidan added playfully, Jang Hyeonmin shook both hands and his head frantically.
The child’s guardian would no doubt be On Jurim. Or perhaps Chairman On!
Either way led to a dead end!
“Ah…… no, that’s not what I was trying to do……”
“Call Daddy?”
As if she had been waiting for this, Gru took out her phone and pretended to dial a number.
“Ah, no!”
Jang Hyeonmin screamed.
“Can’t?”
Gru tilted her head.
Jang Hyeonmin distorted his face and nodded repeatedly.
“Y-yeah. I must have misunderstood something……? I didn’t know our baby had slipped her hand……”
“Mmhmm. It got a wittle noisy ’cause I shwipped. Wight, Dani oppa?”
“You can say that again.”
As Gidan snickered, Jang Hyeonmin bowed every which way.
“I-I’m sorry for causing a disturbance.”
At this, Serhi let out a small sigh, but when his eyes met Gru’s, he couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
Gru was secretly sending him a V-sign with her fingers. How cute.
“Then, since that seems to be settled, please follow me for a moment.”
Jin Siwon lightly pushed Jang Hyeonmin’s back. However, because it was the strength of an S-rank, Jang Hyeonmin was pushed forward with a yelp.
‘Oh!’
Gru held up two thumbs toward Siwon.
At that, Jin Siwon, turning around, winked with a grin.
*
‘This is going to be a pain.’
Jurim looked at the two women before him and scowled.
He had just finished unpacking in his room and was languidly heading toward the lounge to find Gru.
But rather than finding Gru, he had been caught by Chairman Nam and dragged to a restaurant with a nice atmosphere.
“I’m Yu Suyeon. I’ve heard much about you. I didn’t expect to meet you like this.”
Introduced by Chairman Nam, she had a faint impression. She looked gentle and mild, but nothing about her elicited any further feeling.
“Suyeon has been quite the longtime fan of yours.”
At Chairman Nam’s words, she blushed as if embarrassed and burst into laughter, and Jurim simply nodded along graciously.
Truthfully, even when his older brother had been alive, Chairman Nam’s matchmaking nagging had been no different from a monthly routine.
With his brother gone, it had quieted down, only to shift to him, so he wasn’t very surprised by this situation.
However, thinking of Chairman Nam’s dignity, he had been planning to listen for a bit before leaving.
A woman’s voice laced with a foreign accent reached his ears.
“How many in your party?”
“Ah, I’m alone.”
A familiar voice.
Jurim rose from his seat.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to step away for a moment.”