Chapter 16: You Don’t Spit on a Smiling Face

Yehyeon froze with the spoon in his mouth the moment he took a sip of the soup. Why did the soybean paste stew taste like this?

“How is it? Good?”

What confused him more was Lee Jeong’s proud expression. He acted so confident in his cooking, but why did it taste like this? Yehyeon took the spoon out of his mouth to give a cold evaluation and slowly opened his mouth.

“Hm?”

But as the saying goes, you don’t spit on a smiling face. Yehyeon couldn’t bring himself to say, “Your cooking is garbage,” to that grinning, handsome face, so he reluctantly nodded.

“Uh… yeah…”

It was a bit sour, but not inedible… Of course, it didn’t make sense for soybean paste stew to taste this way, but the flavor itself wasn’t terrible.

Yehyeon forced himself to accept it and took another spoonful. The first taste was shocking, but it wasn’t completely flavorless. It was just that his brain was struggling to process why soybean paste stew had a sour, tangy taste.

The egg roll couldn’t be bad either, could it? Thinking that, Yehyeon picked up a piece of egg roll with a trembling hand.

“Mm. It’s good.”

Fortunately, the egg roll tasted normal. It was hard to make an egg roll taste bad. Yehyeon said with a brighter face, “The egg roll is good.”

“Right? Everyone seems to like it when I make egg rolls.”

That’s probably because the soup is garbage… no, the taste is weird, so the only thing he could safely compliment was the egg roll…

Yehyeon swallowed his inner thoughts with an effort and silently continued eating.

It seemed true that Lee Jeong was proud of his cooking skills, as he kept asking if it was good with every bite. Well, at least he kept talking and distracted him, so Yehyeon didn’t focus too much on the taste.

Thinking that, Yehyeon continued eating silently.

After the long meal, Lee Jeong showed Yehyeon around the house. He had been so absorbed in the dressing room earlier that he hadn’t properly looked at the rest. The more he explored, the more amazing Lee Jeong’s house was.

He wondered why a house for one person needed so many rooms, but there was a dressing room, a home theater, and even a soundproofed practice room for reading and rehearsing scripts. It was a space that showed just how wealthy Lee Jeong was—a top actor and a chaebol grandson.

“You’re a much bigger deal than I thought…”

“You only just realized that?” Lee Jeong shrugged as if he had no intention of denying it.

Actually, Lee Jeong found it more surprising that Yehyeon was only reacting now. Usually, people were shocked the moment they saw his face and looked at him like he was from another world. But he only reacted after seeing the house and dressing room. How interesting.

“You’re quite a materialistic person, hyung.”

“…I can only react to what’s right in front of me… That happens,” Yehyeon answered with a slight embarrassment.

Time passed quickly as they ate and looked around the house. Seeing the clock pointing to nine, Yehyeon stood up and said, “It’s late, I should get going.”

He felt like they were gradually getting used to each other, and he thought today was enough, so he stood up.

“I’ll walk you out.” Lee Jeong grabbed his coat and stood up.

There’s no need to see me out, though. Yehyeon tilted his head. “The security here seems good. Since there’s no chance of getting caught, isn’t it better to just rest?”

“Nonsense. Those entertainment reporters somehow get in even with triple security in personal spaces.” Lee Jeong chuckled. “Besides, their eyes aren’t the only ones, right?”

“That’s true.” Yehyeon nodded. The more people who saw them as a loving couple, the better. “We have to show them that we’re doing well.”

That way, even the person he least wanted to look pitiful to would see and hear it.

Yehyeon came down to the first floor with Lee Jeong seeing him off. When entering, he had to go through various procedures and identity verification, but when leaving, he could do so quietly without those steps.

“Ah, I think I’ll be coming often from now on.” Lee Jeong took out an apartment key card from his wallet and handed it to him. “It’s annoying to sign the guestbook and verify your identity every time.”

Saying that, Lee Jeong wrapped a scarf around Yehyeon’s neck. “It’s cold, so keep your neck warm.”

As Lee Jeong firmly wrapped the scarf around him with a worried expression, a resident passed behind them. Seeing a celebrity wasn’t surprising in this building, but it was unusual to see one openly displaying affection on the first floor of the apartment. The resident glanced at them.

“Take care.”

“You too.”

Conscious of the gaze, Yehyeon rose onto his toes, met Lee Jeong’s eyes, and smiled. From a distance, it could be mistaken for the two sharing a brief kiss.

“Gasp!”

Surprised by the unexpected bold action, the resident hastily drew in a breath and, perhaps embarrassed, repeatedly pressed the close button on the elevator.

“Go in safely.” Yehyeon tried to imitate Lee Jeong’s eye smile and smiled faintly. It was a smile that did its best to look as relaxed as possible, like a person in love.

“Okay. Text me when you get in, honey.” Lee Jeong didn’t lose and lightly wrapped his arm around Yehyeon’s waist.

“Okay. I will.” Yehyeon blinked slowly and bid farewell to Lee Jeong.

“Dream of me, honey.”

Yehyeon, who calmly delivered a counterpunch, turned around and left Lee Jeong’s apartment. What a formidable person, he thought. Lee Jeong watched Yehyeon walking energetically in the red scarf and smiled faintly.

“Oppa, where have you been?” Yeseo nagged Yehyeon as soon as he returned home.

There was only one reason why Yehyeon, who repeated a strict routine between home and work every day, would leave the house without a word.

“You went to see Kang Lee Jeong, right?”

“Why are you so interested in Kang Lee Jeong only in front of me, when you can’t even say a word when you meet him?”

At Yehyeon’s words, Yeseo flinched and said, “Th-that’s… Isn’t it strange to act the same as usual when your crush is right in front of you? Oppa, you’re usually a nagging king, but in front of Kang Lee Jeong…”

“In front of Kang Lee Jeong, what.”

“…Whatever. Anyway, it’s different from how you act in front of me.” Yeseo started whining. Even Yeseo didn’t fully understand her own actions that day. “I thought I’d be able to talk perfectly… and chat excitedly when I met him…”

But when she actually saw him in person, her mouth had gone dry. What could she do? Yeseo pouted and said, “Is Kang Lee Jeong coming to our house again? Is he?”

“I don’t know. I’d have to check Lee Jeong’s schedule.”

“Next time he comes, I’ll definitely, absolutely not stutter or say stupid things.” Yeseo clenched her fist, vowing her own revenge. “Ah, but since oppa became famous, I saw a suspicious person near our house.”

“What?” At Yeseo’s words, Yehyeon, who was tidying his coat, was startled and dropped his clothes. A suspicious person? Does that reporter even know our house? “What suspicious person?”

“A person with a hat and mask… completely wrapped up, walking around with a camera?” Yeseo said nonchalantly, but Yehyeon couldn’t take it lightly.

Yehyeon roughly threw his coat onto a chair and asked Yeseo urgently, “Where did you see that person?”

“Huh? Just on my way home… In front of the alley where we put out the trash, he was checking his camera.”

Why is she so calm, unaware of how dangerous the world is? Yehyeon barely calmed his frustration and asked, “And you just came in after seeing that?”

“No… What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just go up and ask, ‘Hey, what are you doing in front of our house with a camera?'”

“Still. You should have called me right away.”

Yeseo scratched the back of her head, thinking, Is that so? “But when our eyes met, he immediately ran away, so I thought he was just a reporter wandering around trying to get a picture of Kang Lee Jeong.”

“If it’s a reporter loitering to take pictures of Kang Lee Jeong, that’s okay?”

“He’s a celebrity. If there weren’t people like that, the article about you and Kang Lee Jeong dating wouldn’t have come out. It’s nothing new.”

Was that how things worked for celebrities? Yehyeon couldn’t understand. But more than that, the identity of the man with the camera that Yeseo encountered was crucial. Yehyeon pressed Yeseo.

“That person. Did you see his hair color? Do you remember how tall he was? His build? What clothes he was wearing?”

“I don’t remember well… He wore a hat so I couldn’t see his hair. His height was average for a man, and he wasn’t fat or thin.” Yeseo tried to recall and relayed what she remembered to Yehyeon.

With just this much information, he couldn’t be sure that man was the same reporter, but what Yeseo described didn’t stray far from the reporter he had met.

“Not satisfied with my workplace, now my house…”

He hadn’t thought reporters would never find his house. They could find it by following Lee Jeong, and he himself had openly pressed foreheads with Lee Jeong right outside. But harassing a person by asking for interviews and talking nonsense, not satisfied with knowing his phone number, company email, and home address, was a different matter.

“Crazy bastard. I should just report him.” Yehyeon gritted his teeth and recalled the reporter’s face.

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