MBFT 08

Chapter 08

Although he had seen many celebrities and influencers who were rumored to be beautiful at all kinds of events, he had always thought of them as nothing more than stones.

“Here is the pizza you ordered. I’ll set it down for you.”

Just as he was struggling with his bewildering emotions, the pizza arrived.

Two employees came over, placed three pizzas of different kinds on the table, and left.

The table was almost completely filled.

Haesom asked with a surprised expression.

“Oppa… You ordered three whole pizzas? I can’t eat all of this. Do you… think I’m a pig?”

“What?”

Jaehyun could not help but laugh.

“You could carry all of that with one hand. How could you possibly be a pig?”

“Then….”

“Eat as much as you couldn’t before. Try each kind. Don’t worry about leaving some.”

As soon as Jaehyun finished speaking, he put some bulgogi pizza on a plate and placed it in front of her.

Then he put some pepperoni pizza on another plate and placed that in front of her as well.

“What if there’s some left…? You worked hard to earn that money, Oppa. I’ll feel bad if I leave food behind….”

Jaehyun tilted his head as if he had heard wrong.

Then he asked casually.

“What did you just say?”

“I said I’d feel sorry about leaving food if you bought it with money you worked hard to earn….”

Suddenly, a strange feeling, sweet and fizzy like cola, bloomed inside his chest.

Until now, there had been plenty of people who knew he was the son of the chairman of Taekyung Group and tried to get things from him.

But no one had ever considered his circumstances like this.

They say a man becomes loyal to a woman who recognizes his hard work.

How could a girl who was only twenty-two be like this?

In fact, regardless of whether he quit the company, he had planned to decide whether to tutor Haesom after finding out what kind of person she was today.

If she did not suit his personality, or if she had become overly spoiled because she had received no education at all while being kidnapped, tutoring her would only drain him.

But even though they had only been together for a few hours, seeing her care about him made him want to help her somehow.

While Jaehyun was lost in thought, he looked at Haesom, who had almost finished a slice of pizza.

“…You must have been really hungry.”

Unlike the way she had looked worried about leaving food behind, she answered brightly.

“It’s so delicious. It’s completely… intense. I only ate fish, boiled chicken, and eggs every day… So after eating bread, I feel like everything in front of my eyes is spinning!”

Jaehyun chuckled.

In a way, perhaps she could show her emotions so honestly because she had lived freely until now.

There was something very innocent about that side of her, and it made him even more curious about her.

She was completely different from all the people who had approached him with ulterior motives.

Bzzzt—

Just then.

The cellphone in his pocket rang.

It was a text from an unknown number.

[Hi, Oppa! This is Kwon Minah. We ran into each other in front of Haesom’s house earlier ><]

What was this now?

Jaehyun frowned and immediately shoved the phone back into his pocket.

“Kid.”

“Yes?”

“But why haven’t your oppas bought you a cellphone yet?”

“Ah. That’s because….”

Haesom quickly chewed and swallowed the pizza in her mouth before answering.

“You don’t have to answer so quickly.”

Jaehyun handed her his cola.

After drinking a few more sips, Haesom continued.

“They said there’s so much nasty stuff on the Internet these days, so they asked if I should wait until I get a little more used to living in Seoul before getting one.”

That made sense to some extent.

These days, you could easily access highly stimulating content with just a few clicks on a smartphone.

If Haesom, who had been trapped in a world from twelve years ago, came across things like that, she might become confused.

“Hmm. I understand, but how will you contact them when they go to work at Taeguk? What about when you go out alone?”

“They told me not to go out alone for the time being. They said to call one of my oppas whenever I need to go somewhere.”

Jaehyun nodded.

“And there’s a landline at home, so I can call with that.”

“…A landline?”

Come to think of it, there had been an old black landline phone on the console in the living room when he went to their house earlier.

He had wondered if there were still homes that used such phones, but apparently it was Geukju’s family.

“They said they didn’t change the home phone because they were worried you might call me. If it broke, they repaired it, and then repaired it again….”

Silence followed for a moment.

It was a very heavy story.

Despite going through something so difficult that even speaking about it was painful, Haesom calmly explained everything to him without difficulty.

He found that admirable.

“But, Haesom.”

“Yes, Oppa.”

“Couldn’t you remember your home phone number? Why didn’t you call home? If you had, they might have found you sooner.”

“There wasn’t a single house on the island that had a telephone. And after so much time passed… I forgot the number.”

Just how small an island had she been living on?

“The pizza’s going to get cold. Eat quickly.”

Jaehyun put some Hawaiian pizza that Haesom had not tried yet onto her plate.

Then he took out his phone and sent a text to Secretary Kim.

[Secretary Kim. When you come, get a 2G phone activated for her and bring it with you.]

After finishing their meal, the two headed to a nearby bookstore.

As soon as they entered a place filled with books, an even brighter light sparkled in Haesom’s eyes than it had at the pizza restaurant.

“Do you like reading?”

Haesom nodded vigorously.

“Yes! Reading books was my only pleasure on the island. There were so many random books in the attic of the house where I lived.”

Every single thing Haesom told him interested Jaehyun.

“So whenever Mom—no, that lady—went outside, I secretly went up to the attic and read books. There must have been more than 200. But about thirty of them were old books written in Chinese characters, so I couldn’t read those.”

“Then you read all the other books?”

“Yes. All of them. I was sad because there were no new books left to read after I finished them all.”

Perhaps she really loved reading, and perhaps she really had been upset about having no new books left to read, because her eyes became slightly dull as she recalled the past.

“Then pick out whatever books you want to read. I’ll buy them for you. As a gift to celebrate us becoming friends.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah. But let’s look at the workbooks first. That’s why I brought you to the bookstore.”

Jaehyun had already researched roughly what kind of workbooks she needed.

He had looked through them by grade level and planned to choose ones suitable for Haesom’s level.

But he began to think that preparing for the high school equivalency exam might be easier than he had expected.

Since she had read so many books, she would probably understand the theory quickly if he explained it sufficiently.

For about an hour, the two of them went to the high school equivalency exam workbook section and chose books together.

“At your level, you probably don’t even need to prepare for the elementary school test. You could probably just take it. As for middle school, I think you could pass if you study hard for a month or two.”

Haesom smiled.

“Oppa. You’re complimenting me just to make me feel good, right? It’s been ages since I stopped studying.”

“We have to try. Don’t you want to go to college soon?”

“College… Of course I want to go.”

“Good. We’ll finish in six months what takes other people years to prepare for.”

Haesom’s pupils shook like an earthquake had struck.

“Trust your family’s genes.”

Her parents included a doctor, the top-ranked applicant in the National Intelligence Service’s regular recruitment exam, and the youngest prosecutor ever. There was even an idol in the family who was a genius composer.

There was no doubt that she came from a naturally intelligent family.

Jaehyun left the large pile of workbooks he had chosen at the checkout counter for a moment and gave Haesom time to choose books she wanted to read.

He received many calls and messages regarding company business along the way, but instead of focusing on his phone, he stayed close beside Haesom.

“Wow…!”

Then he heard Haesom gasp in amazement.

“No way…. This is the final volume….”

Jaehyun read the words written on the sign above the section where she had stopped.

Manga?

“Oppa! This is Arong-Satae. It’s a manga about Arong, who gains supernatural powers, and his life story. There were up to Volume 20 at home. I really, really loved reading it… Wow, so the last volume was the very next one.”

At Haesom’s disappointed murmur, Jaehyun checked the volume number of the manga titled Arong-Satae.

It said Volume 21 was the final volume.

“…Then, you…”