A Night Soaked With You - Chapter 16
Some chaebols treated celebrities as their personal jesters. Especially those who weren’t popular—like mere playthings to them. (t/n: ‘Chaebol’ refers to a wealthy, powerful figure who treats less successful people, like minor celebrities, as disposable for their own entertainment or benefit.)
Yeong-won couldn’t help but wonder if her audacity as a lowly, unknown actress had scratched his pride. That thought made her even more wary.
A man like him surely hadn’t come for a good reason. As she eyed him cautiously, Tae-geon spoke up.
“You need to apply this for me.”
“Pardon……?”
“You’re the one who caused it, so take responsibility and apply the ointment until it heals.”
The words that came out of his mouth far exceeded Yeong-won’s expectations. She understood them, but they didn’t make sense.
Without thinking, she blurted out a response.
“Did you…… hit your head back then?”
It was her roundabout way of asking if he’d lost his mind.
“That’s harsh. Didn’t you bust my lip?”
Tae-geon, looking offended, tapped his lip with his finger, where a large, dark scab had formed.
Yeong-won had been fully prepared to confront him about that day, ready to fire back with her own arguments, but now she was at a complete loss for words.
Tae-geon’s smirk widened.
“You rubbed my lips so hard that the wound got worse.”
“Th-that’s not……!”
Feeling utterly wronged, Yeong-won jumped up. When had she ever aggressively rubbed her lips against his?
Even if she was flustered, she wanted to set the record straight—it was this man who had kissed her as if he would devour her.
But Yeong-won couldn’t bring herself to speak about ‘that incident.’ Her face turning bright red, she frantically waved her hands to shoo Tae-geon away.
“I-I’ll just buy you the ointment. Apply it yourself. You’ve got perfectly fine hands and feet, why ask me?”
“No. You have to do it.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
As his insistence continued, Yeong-won practically jumped in protest. Tae-geon stared at her intently as she resisted. His gaze darkened, causing Yeong-won to swallow nervously. Then, Tae-geon quietly called her name.
“Kim Yeong-won.”
“……Yes?”
“I hate repeating myself, so listen carefully.”
His suddenly lowered voice made Yeong-won’s eyes widen like a startled rabbit, and she instinctively nodded.
“Let’s say a car accident happens because of someone else’s fault. Just because they apologize, does that mean you won’t get your car fixed? Are you supposed to fix it yourself?”
“No, that’s not it, but……”
Yeong-won mumbled her response, and Tae-geon opened the box of ointment.
“Then, Kim Yeong-won suddenly lunged at me, and I ended up with a deep wound on my lip. Who should treat it?”
His voice was as sweet as could be, but his gaze was as cold as the Siberian tundra. And somehow, his argument seemed oddly convincing.
Before she knew it, Yeong-won found herself answering.
“……Me.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Yeong-won realized her mistake. Tae-geon had already placed the ointment in her hand.
When she looked up in surprise, she saw his lips curl into a cheerful smile.
“Then you can start the treatment now.”
I should have said the car should go to a mechanic.
Yeong-won stared at him, feeling utterly dazed. It felt like she had just been swindled.
The second hand of Yeong-won’s wristwatch ticked away relentlessly, yet she couldn’t move an inch.
The reality of ‘Seong Tae-geon’ sitting on a stool in the convenience store, leaning in toward her, was too surreal to comprehend.
‘Should I…… pinch my cheeks?’
Yeong-won discreetly pinched her own cheek.
It hurt. This wasn’t a dream.
Unsure of what to do, she stared at him blankly as his dark, neatly arranged eyelashes fluttered.
Soon, his deep eyes emerged.
“What should I do? Does letting the ointment sit make it more effective?”
Caught in her foolish act, Yeong-won quickly dropped her hand and changed the subject.
“But…… did I really charge at you that hard?”
“Yeah.”
Tae-geon closed his eyes again and leaned closer, urging her on. Yeong-won wet her dry lips with her tongue and squeezed the ointment onto her fingertips.
With trembling fingers, she rubbed the ointment onto the wound. The dark scab felt rough, but the skin surrounding it was smooth.
As she touched his lips, memories of that day naturally surfaced, the enticing way he had kissed her, vigorously rubbing and pulling her in painfully hard.
