DDB Ch 21

Startled, Sangdoo blinked his eyes a couple of times and scratched beside his eyebrow with his finger.

“Well… Mr. Seo Jiwoon has been suggesting to the CEO that they should get a whiff of each other for the past few days…”

That apparently wasn’t enough because Sangdoo started to mimic sniffing by leaning his head forward. His eyelids gently closed as he went “sniff sniff.”

“Following the CEO around, savoring the scent like this…”

Ishin, clenching his fist, banged the desk hard. Startled, Sangdoo opened his eyes and quickly continued.

“…if you don’t get it, you must be an idiot, right?”

Sigh.

A sigh escaped naturally.

“Such a small thing…”

Ishin let out a chuckle, almost like a lament.

“With blood not even dry in his head… he’s grown quite lewd.”

Sex? With whom, with me?

“Ha ha, haaah.”

As a self-deprecating laugh faintly escaped, Sangdoo tilted his head and opened his mouth.

“Mr. Seo Jiwoon isn’t that small, though.”

“…What?”

Ishin, with all humor gone from his eyes, looked at Sangdoo.

“I mean, he’s not a kid whose blood hasn’t dried in his head. He’s twenty-seven, or almost twenty-eight since he’s a February baby.”

“…”

“He’s old enough to have dated for at least twelve years if he had a boyfriend, old enough to know men well too. CEO.”

They broke up when he was just an adult at twenty winter, and met again at the end of twenty-seven winters. Did Seo Jiwoon become a woman over those full eight years?

Ishin furrowed his brows.

What nonsense. Seo Jiwoon was a woman eight years ago too.

On the dawn transitioning from nineteen to twenty, she demanded her first kiss by standing on her tiptoes, saying she was now an adult… That cheeky side of her…

“I want my first kiss to be with you. Of course, the second, third… and the last kiss too.”

Her eyes tightly closed were both cute and lovable.

Her thick eyelashes cast long shadows on her pale face under the dim light, which was also beautiful.

Untouched snow, cherry blossoms just bursting from their buds, freshly made warm cotton candy…

Even in the eyes of a not fully mature twenty-six-year-old man, Seo Jiwoon looked like that.

She might pass by quickly, but she was still someone to cherish.

“Alright. But only when you’re really an adult.”

At his words, Jiwoon lifted her closed eyelids.

“I’m already an adult! I can even read those naughty novels with 19+ stickers!”

“…You’re only truly an adult after your birthday. Until then, study with novels, and let’s do the real thing then.”

“Then, on that day, a kiss, perfume, roses, you’ll give them to me?”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

“Promise…did we?”

“Yes, promise.”

That promise was never kept. He cruelly parted from the crying woman the day before her birthday.

His heart felt uncomfortable, as if it was being scratched.

“Director Jo, did you hear all of Seo Jiwoon’s previous phone calls too? Who else did she talk to?”

“Huh? No?”

Sangdoo waved his hands, his eyes wide open.

“Yesterday afternoon, you installed the hacking program, and it was off until now, this is the first connection.”

This is the first call.

Sangdoo even smiled reassuringly.

“I’ll write the report for the director with discretion, I’ll do a good job of editing it too.”

“No.”

Ishin slowly got up from his seat.

“From now on, I’ll write the daily reports on Seo Jiwoon.”

Even if it’s Sangdoo, he can’t let him hear this.

“Director Jo, don’t listen to the call content, just pass all the files to me.”

She’s really an unpredictable woman.

Eight years ago, she was adult-like and composed despite being just an adult, and now she’s like a broken machine, creaking… it all felt like his responsibility, weighing heavily on his heart.

“…And Shin Myungja.”

So this time, definitely.

“What kind of person is she, I’ll dig into it.”

I’ll make sure she lives right, no matter what.

But first, let’s deal with the friend who makes this strange girl even stranger…

🐬🌊🐳

[Heritage Beyond] It’s said that a studio has finally been set up in Annex A. This was news from three days after meeting Heo Seungjae.

Over those three days, Jiwoon got a bit closer to Shanti and adapted quite well to life in the mansion.

Baek Ishin brought in a desk and stationery, and Jiwoon made a map of the mansion.

She wandered around the mansion, comparing the structures seen from outside and narrowed down spaces where <Guinevere> might be kept. It was quite an educational time.

She couldn’t meet Myungja who had entered Korea, so they shared updates through frequent calls, mainly talking about Baek Ishin.

When Jiwoon spoke about how handsome Baek Ishin was and how good he smelled, Myungja would inevitably ask about how far things had gone.

“What progress…?”

To her indifferent response, Myungja’s rebuke came like lightning.

“How long are you going to just sniff around like a pervert!”

She boldly suggested that if he was that good-looking and smelled nice and was to her liking, she should just go for it.

“It’s not like that. I want to lock him in bed, but not for sex, no… I just want to bury my nose in his chest and sleep. It’s like a sleeping pill, a walking sedative.”

When Myungja asked which was better, his face or his scent, Jiwoon answered, “Obviously the scent.”

She wasn’t going to live off a man’s face, the right to sleep was more important, wasn’t it?

Then Myungja asked if she’d dump him if someone with an even better scent appeared. It was a hard question to answer.

After some pondering, Jiwoon…

“…I’ll think about that then.”

…answered ambiguously.

From the way she was currently trailing behind Ishin, admiring his back, it seemed like that would never happen.

How easy would it be to find someone with a scent that induces sleep and a perfect face?

Moreover, Baek Ishin had something special beyond just his scent. Something that kept touching something deep in Jiwoon’s heart, beyond just sensory appeal…

His calm, black eyes stiffly captured her image.

For some reason, his gaze towards her these past few days has felt awkward, oddly keeping a distance.

“…Choose something here.”

Choose? What?

Her head tilted in confusion.

Looking down at her with his brows slightly furrowed, he added in a cold tone.

“Where have you left your mind this time?”

“Ah-.”

Come to think of it, this is…

Cheongdam-dong, right?

She was invited by Vice President Heo Seungjae for dinner, and she came out to buy clothes suitable for the occasion.

“Don’t lose your mind, keep your wits about you, okay? Be as quiet and ladylike as possible.”

Ishin, not bothering to hide his displeasure, furrowed his brows and with a single gesture called over the store manager. The manager, as if waiting for this, approached with a broad smile. She was a Western beauty with striking features and a great figure.

“Welcome, CEO. I’ve been waiting for you.”

The manager was openly exuding sensuality, not even trying to hide her fondness for Ishin.

Watching Ishin smile at the manager’s hospitality naturally made Jiwoon frown. It was true what they said, few women didn’t like him.

Well, who could refuse Baek Ishin?

Was it just women? Not even a black hole; from the moment he stepped into the store, or rather, from when he got out of the car in the parking lot, he was drawing the attention of everyone, man, woman, young or old, like a magnet. And he acted as if it was only natural.

Jiwoon bit at a piece of skin on her lower lip with her teeth.

Strangely enough, that fact somehow ruffled her feathers. It felt like a sharp nail scratching at some strange emotion she didn’t even know existed.

It was the same now. The manager, standing close to Baek Ishin, shaking her body gracefully while responding kindly to his requests, was somewhat irritating.

She wanted to push her way between them, but she couldn’t.

“Don’t sniff around like a dog, from now on, keep one step, no, two or three steps away. …Because it’s annoying.”

It started from yesterday evening. He had given her a no-approach order with a cold face, telling her not to come close. He did that to her, yet he was like that with that woman… ha ha ho ho.

‘What’s so fun about that?’