Chapter 268: Unplanned Meeting (3)

Kang Ra-Eun’s mind was in complete disarray due to Park Eun-Soo’s sudden entrance because there was absolutely no reason for him to visit her home.

‘No way...’

Could the fact that she was the masked woman had been discovered? It was possible that Kim Han-Gyo had sent Eun-Soo here for that reason. Such thoughts stormed inside her mind because that was how unexpected his visit had been.

“What... Brings you here?”

Her voice was unintentionally filled with wariness, to which Eun-Soo concisely answered.

- I’ve come to pick up some items.

“Items?”

- Yes.

As Ra-Eun was confused, Yi-Seo, who had come out of the kitchen, clapped her hands together in realization.

“Oh, right. They said they were gonna come pick up those things today.”

“Things? What things?”

“While I was unpacking, I found a few books that the previous house owner... the congressperson, left. They were boxes of books, and apparently, the moving company completely forgot to take them with them while cleaning out the study. So, Yi-Jun called the real estate lady and then we later received a call that they would come pick it up sometime today.”

Ra-Eun had finally come to realize why Eun-Soo had come to her home.

‘Oh, it was nothing special, then.’

She had put the gears inside her head into overdrive for no reason first thing in the morning due to his appearance.

‘I’m exhausted now.’

She wanted to go back to bed.

***

Ra-Eun couldn’t just disregard Eun-Soo. She recalled the relationship that the two of them had. He had been her mentor in her past life, but...

‘In this life, we’ve never even met.’

But of course, it was not like Ra-Eun had never seen Eun-Soo in this life; she had fought him for a short moment during the time that Ahn Su-Jin had been kidnapped. However, that was not as ‘Kang Ra-Eun,’ but as the ‘masked woman’. Hence, she couldn’t forget that they were supposed to be complete strangers. Eun-Soo was an extremely perceptive man.

‘If I make even the tiniest mistake and he finds out that we’ve met before, he’ll suspect that I’m the masked woman.’

Han-Gyo had already suspected Ra-Eun once before, and there was no way that Eun-Soo, who was always near him, wouldn’t know that. Therefore, she needed to be extra careful.

Eun-Soo was guided into the house by Yi-Seo. He lightly bowed to Ra-Eun both to greet her and ask for her understanding.

“I sincerely apologize for coming so early in the morning...”

It would have been a different story a few days ago, but this was Ra-Eun’s house now. It was natural that he would be asking for the house owner’s understanding for suddenly stopping by.

Ra-Eun answered with an awkward smile, “It’s okay. We’ve placed the items over there, so please feel free to take them.”

“Thank you very much.”

“But are you alone?”

“Yes.”

Yi-Seo expressed her concern as Eun-Soo answered as if it was perfectly natural.

“There are a lot of things...” she said.

There were five cardboard boxes in total, all considerably heavy since they were filled with books. However, Eun-Soo did not mind.

“It’s okay. I’m more than enough.”

Eun-Soo then lifted two of the boxes by himself. He looked slender, but he was extremely strong. Unlike the shocked Yi-Seo, Ra-Eun already knew of his strength.

‘Team Leader Park Eun-Soo is way stronger than he looks.’

Back when she had been a man, she had never once beaten Eun-Soo. His strength aside, he was also extremely agile and had unreal reflexes. If he had dedicated his life to a certain sport such as judo like Jung Hun-Seong, taekwondo, or kendo, he would definitely have become a national representative.

‘I still don’t understand why he became a bodyguard...’

Eun-Soo had won all sorts of awards for several different sports ever since his middle school days. Just thinking about it now, he was an absolute monster.

“This should be fine,” Eun-Soo said as he stacked the remaining three boxes on top of each other.

Yi-Seo asked in surprise, “Are you going to carry them all at once?”

“Yes. The two boxes earlier were lighter than I’d expected.”

“L-Light...?”

Seo Yi-Jun had struggled to lift even one of those boxes. Yi-Jun was also fairly strong since he worked out, but he was nothing compared to Eun-Soo, who wasn’t even breaking a sweat.

Yi-Seo whispered to Ra-Eun, “He’s a lot stronger than he looks.”

“Yeah.”

That was why Ra-Eun did not want to make an enemy out of Eun-Soo if possible. However, she couldn’t just wait until Eun-Soo quit Han-Gyo’s security team. She had almost trapped Han-Gyo with nowhere to escape, so postponing her plans just because of Eun-Soo was out of the question.

‘Even if he’s a tough opponent, I’ll have to overcome him one day or another.’

Ra-Eun tensed up for no reason.

***

Eun-Soo had finished putting all five boxes in the trunk.

“I will get going, then.”

Yi-Seo suggested as he was about to leave, “Why don’t you have a cup of tea before you go?”

She couldn’t just have him leave so quickly after he had come all this way. Eun-Soo respectfully declined at first, but Ra-Eun also stepped in to support Yi-Seo.

“Please stay for a while like Yi-Seo suggested. If you go now, you’ll get caught up in rush hour, so you’ll be stuck in traffic. Don’t you think it’d be better to stay a bit for some tea?”

Since the current house owner was also saying that, Eun-Soo could no longer refuse.

“In that case... I understand. I will be in your care for a bit.”

It was extremely dangerous to let a male stranger into a house with only two women, but not only had Eun-Soo’s identity already been verified, Ra-Eun also knew what kind of person he was. He was only faithful to his role; he was not an evil person like Han-Gyo.

‘That’s why I don’t want to antagonize him.’

Ra-Eun smiled bitterly in secret. Eun-Soo had been her mentor, who had taught her everything there was to being a bodyguard in her past life, but they were in completely opposite positions now. It was truly a twisted turn of fate.

***

The corners of Eun-Soo’s mouth slightly rose as he tasted the tea that Yi-Seo had brewed.

“It’s delicious.”

His smile was extremely rare to see. It had also been a while for Ra-Eun to see him smile. That just went to show how delicious Yi-Seo’s tea had been.

“I’m glad it’s to your liking,” Yi-Seo said in relief.

Eun-Soo asked Ra-Eun and Yi-Seo after having emptied his cup around halfway.

“Are you satisfied with the place?”

“Yes, it’s amazing. Ra-Eun has been so happy ever since we moved here. Right?”

Yi-Seo had been with Ra-Eun since high school, but she had never seen her smile so much other than recently. She was always unmoved whenever she wasn’t on camera, so Yi-Seo thought that they had made the right decision to move considering how happy Ra-Eun was.

Yi-Seo’s thoughts certainly weren’t wrong; Ra-Eun had been overjoyed lately because she had managed to take Han-Gyo’s home away from him. However, she did not let that show in front of Eun-Soo.

“It has a great view and all the peace and quiet you could want, so I’m very satisfied.”

Ra-Eun gave credit for her satisfaction to the home’s environment instead of her successful revenge. Eun-Soo nodded at her remark.

“This certainly is a wonderful place. It’s in a nice area, and it’s pretty much the ideal place to live as long as you can afford it.”

Ra-Eun then asked Eun-Soo, “How is the congressman doing lately? I heard that he hasn’t been doing very well.”

She wanted to hear about Han-Gyo’s condition directly from Eun-Soo. Although her men were monitoring Han-Gyo, there was no way that they would know more information than someone who was constantly by his side.

Ra-Eun had kind of hoped that Eun-Soo would leak even a little bit of information, which was why she had used the excuse of traffic congestion to make him stay for tea.

Eun-Soo chuckled bitterly and answered, “He’s been focusing on recuperating his health instead of his political activities ever since going down to the countryside. We’ll have to wait for a bit longer to see how he’ll do.”

“I hope he gets well soon,” Ra-Eun expressed.

She did not mean a single word of that sentence; it had simply been out of courtesy. Having no idea of that, Eun-Soo thanked Ra-Eun, who was pretending to be worried for Han-Gyo.

“Thank you very much. I’m sure the congressman would be happy if he knew how much you cared for him.”

Ra-Eun clicked her tongue in her mind as she scanned Eun-Soo’s face.

‘He doesn’t mean that either.’

There was absolutely no way that Han-Gyo would be happy that Ra-Eun cared for him. His answer had also been simply out of courtesy.

“That aside, I heard something from the madam,” Eun-Soo mentioned. His eyes suddenly sharpened. “You apparently seemed in a bit of a hurry when you signed the contract for the house. I heard that you had signed without even taking a look at the house.”

It was normal for the buyer to at least take a look at the house before they bought it. However, Ra-Eun had not, and had instead insisted on signing the contract first, as if she couldn’t wait to take this house away from Han-Gyo as soon as possible.

Ra-Eun perfectly maintained her smile despite Eun-Soo’s pressing.

“I’d already taken a look at the house back when the congressman invited people at GNF for a party there. I thought that there was no need for me to look at it a second time.”

“You must have taken a very thorough look inside.”

“Yes. I’d taken quite a liking to the place at the time, to the point that I wanted to move to someplace like this if I ever were to move.”

Ra-Eun was a professional actress; it was extremely difficult for Eun-Soo to see through the facade of Korea’s poster actress.

“I see,” he remarked.

Eun-Soo couldn’t say anything else. Both he and Ra-Eun sipped their tea. An unsettling silence filled the area; the only sound that could be heard was their sipping.