Unhealthy - Chapter 22

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 22. Feed Me?

 

He had never made time to visit her separately during lunch breaks before, and he had never shown up so unexpectedly without notice, so she couldn’t hide her surprise.

 

Taejun left word that he was waiting in the parking lot of a commercial building near the main gate of Korea University.

 

Before approaching the car, Hae-yeong unconsciously straightened her clothes.

 

When Hae-yeong carefully tapped on the car window, the locked door opened.

 

Taejun’s rich body scent mixed with the cool air conditioning inside the car brushed past her nose.

 

“What brings you all the way here? Did you have business nearby?”

 

“No.”

 

When Hae-yeong looked at Taejun with puzzled eyes, he casually picked up a heavy lunch box pack that had been placed in the back seat and handed it to her as if placing it in her arms.

 

“Are you only giving me one?”

 

Hae-yeong asked with a bewildered expression as she received the lunch box.

 

“I have a lunch appointment later.”

 

“We’re not even eating lunch together… and this isn’t on your way, so why did you come all the way here?”

 

Hae-yeong’s eyes, unable to contain her curiosity, wavered as she tried to make sense of it.

 

Taejun crossed both arms over the steering wheel, releasing the tension he had been maintaining and leaning back.

 

In the narrow car, the faint scent of soap emanating from her penetrated deep into his lungs.

 

“Whether you eat then sleep, or sleep then eat.”

 

“…Pardon?”

 

Watching Hae-yeong act confused without grasping the situation made him finally let out a quiet laugh.

 

Taejun turned his head completely toward her and stared intently at that innocent face colored with bewilderment, as if searching it.

 

“You said you couldn’t sleep, not a wink.”

 

“Ah, that was—”

 

Hae-yeong’s eyes widened noticeably. She seemed to have recalled the message she sent in the morning.

 

“Did you come all the way here because of the message I sent earlier?”

 

“Eat. Or sleep.”

 

“It’s a bit awkward to eat alone. There’s so much too…”

 

Hae-yeong looked down at the lunch box with a troubled expression. The warmth from the freshly prepared food hadn’t faded yet, and dew had formed on the outside of the container.

 

“Feed you?”

 

“Oh, no. That’s not what I meant.”

 

Taejun leaned forward with both arms on the steering wheel, enjoying watching her frantically wave her hands in denial.

 

“Eat and leave some.”

 

“The car will smell like food though.”

 

Hae-yeong glanced around cautiously, and when no response came, she hesitated before carefully splitting the wooden chopsticks.

 

“When did you prepare something like this? You must have been busy.”

 

“As long as I have a mouth to give orders, my subordinates handle the preparation.”

 

Though he replied with feigned coldness, he didn’t bother to reveal that each menu item reflected Hae-yeong’s preferences.

 

“Ah…”

 

“So, does the food suit your taste?”

 

“Yes, it’s delicious. Would you like to try some… Oh, right. You said you have a lunch appointment.”

 

His gaze fixed on Hae-yeong’s face as she pouted her lips with apparent disappointment.

 

Her red, soft lips were exactly the same shape as when they had whimpered beneath him. Taejun, maintaining an indifferent expression, slowly opened his mouth toward the spoon she offered.

 

Hae-yeong quickly piled rice and side dishes generously on the spoon and pushed it into his mouth.

 

Then she raised her eyebrows questioningly.

 

“How is it?”

 

It was amusing how she asked about the taste with expectant eyes even though she hadn’t made it herself, so Taejun just nodded roughly.

 

Only then, seemingly relieved, did Hae-yeong’s eating pace pick up.

 

“There’s a friend named Ji-su in my department who I’m closest with.”

 

“Oh, Shin Ji-su.”

 

“Ah… you know her, I mentioned her before.”

 

Occasionally, on days when Taejun would pick her up from school or drop her off, unable to bear the silence, she would chatter about Ji-su or funny things that happened at school.

 

So it was natural that Taejun knew her friend Ji-su’s name.

 

“Ji-su had a boyfriend she dated for about a year, but they broke up recently.”

 

Hae-yeong was chattering to Taejun about the kind of things kids their age would talk about.

 

“That friend’s name is Han Chang-hyeon… I thought it was really over after they broke up and he immediately started dating another girl, but well…”

 

While Hae-yeong enthusiastically gossiped about her friend’s love life, Taejun’s gaze was directed at the stain around her mouth.

 

He immediately reached out and wiped away what was stuck around Hae-yeong’s mouth.

 

“Continue talking.”

 

Taejun’s thumb gently rubbed the tip of Hae-yeong’s lower lip. At the sensation of rough, firm fingerprints pressing against the delicate mucous membrane, Hae-yeong froze, stopping both her words and movements as if paralyzed.

 

“You had something here.”

 

Taejun didn’t remove his finger. Rather, he traced deeper, slowly following the texture of her lips.

 

“I, I think I’ll stop eating.”

 

Hae-yeong hurriedly swallowed her food and quickly closed the lunch box lid.

 

Taejun’s gaze lingered on her slender wrist. Though she hadn’t eaten even half of her usual portion, for some reason Hae-yeong roughly wiped her reddened lips with the back of her hand and leaned back in her seat.

 

“You didn’t even eat half.”

 

Taejun murmured quietly, sharply observing her as she abruptly stopped eating.

 

The sight of her closing her eyes tightly and mumbling as if avoiding Taejun’s persistent gaze.

 

Her eyelashes trembling with tension resembled those of a young animal playing dead and holding its breath before a predator.

 

Just watching that innocent reaction stirred a sadistic impulse deep within Taejun to torment her more cruelly.

 

“Since you came all this way… I’ll rest for just a bit before you go. That’s okay, right?”

 

Hae-yeong’s voice coming from behind her closed eyelids was trembling slightly.

 

Taejun silently observed her for a long while.

 

Then, breaking the deep silence, his work phone vibrated.

 

It was a call from Secretary Lee.

 

After briefly glancing at Hae-yeong’s face as she pretended to sleep, Taejun left the words “Get some rest” and stepped out of the car.

 

As soon as the cool air of the parking lot brushed his cheek, his expression sank to an almost ruthless coldness.

 

[Sir, we found An Ji-min’s whereabouts.]

 

“You found her?”

 

Taejun’s brow furrowed instantly and his eyes flashed.

 

[Yes, she’s in Nagano Prefecture. It seems she married a Japanese man and settled down with a family, and since she’s not engaged in any economic activities, it took time to track her down.]

 

“Hah. Father’s side hasn’t caught on first, have they?”

 

[Their reach probably hasn’t extended that far yet. Unless you work in the shadows, finding people is realistically difficult.]

 

“Just put surveillance on her for now.”

 

[Yes, understood. Should we proceed with today’s lunch appointment with Executive Director Choi from Eunseong Chemical without any issues?]

 

Taejun glanced at Hae-yeong’s silhouette faintly visible through the windshield.

 

“I’ll contact Executive Director Choi separately, so cancel that schedule.”

 

[We’ll proceed accordingly.]

 

After giving Executive Director Choi a polite but firm refusal, Taejun returned to the car.

 

Looking at Hae-yeong who had fallen into a terribly peaceful sleep in the passenger seat, a bitter laugh escaped from his chest.

 

To think she could fall into such deep sleep while being held by the hair by the most vicious hands in the world. She was truly just a child.

 

It had already been several years since he began thoroughly searching the archipelago for An Ji-min’s whereabouts.

 

Though he had long ago determined that she had fled to Japan, the task of finding one person who had deliberately hidden their tracks was impossible without obsession bordering on madness.

 

Now the problem lay in how meticulously to move the pieces on this chess board.

 

For Gi Chairman, who was tracking An Ji-min by dangling large sums as bait to the Yakuza in Japan, finding her was now only a matter of time.

 

If Hae-yeong’s only blood relative, believed to be dead, appeared alive, the inheritance settlement clause that Gi Chairman so desperately craved would crumble like a sandcastle.

 

The years he had spent wearing the mask of a benevolent guardian while raising her would become futile in an instant.

 

When that happened, Gi Chairman would be furious, and those flames would try to devour both Hae-yeong and An Ji-min whole.

 

Just like in the past, when he ruthlessly eliminated boss An Dae-jin and Hae-yeong’s father An Dae-cheon, who had stood in the way of his greed.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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