.  That was when I gasped and suddenly looked outside while running on adrenalin. I heard a frosty cold voice that sounded quite familiar. Staring in the hallway, I had a sharp intake of breath.

  There came in the view of a man’s back who had well-groomed hair and navy suit on. It was Yoo Gun, the guy who escorted me to the bathroom just now; however, he, somehow, looked completely different.

  Just until now, he was like a competent associate or a clerk at the information desk, but now he was smiling like a generous king.

  “The man inside there might be deeply asleep, huh?” asked Yoo Gun.

  “…”


  The girl, who was confronting him, just scowled at Yoo Gun fiercely without any response.

  Yoo Gun continued yet with a soft voice, “Anyway, there is no change in your sticky fingers, whether in the States or Korea. Be careful not to get caught.”


  It sounded sweet and kind as if he was talking to his close friend, but what he was saying didn’t seem to be that cordial. When I hunched my shoulders, there came out, at last, a sharp-tempered voice in response to the guy’s remark.

  “So are you being such an asshole here and there. Well, it won’t change at all just by crossing the borders, right?”


  Lifting my hand quietly to cover my mouth, I directed my eyes on the girl who just made a sarcastic remark.

  Her outstandingly gorgeous blond hair waved around her chest. As if she was wearing makeup, her brows looked perfectly groomed than usual and her lashes were long and voluminous. Browsing her appearance, I nodded my head. The girl looked, indeed, fabulous, but…


  The sarcastic voice just now definitely belonged to Yi Ruda; besides, as I took a closer look near her, she resembled Yi Ruda so much.

  Yoo Gun looked as if he knew Yi Ruda very well. He then replied, still, with a smile.

  “Your Korean sounds so fluent now, especially when it comes to innuendoes.”


  “Very true. I learned that first to take a jab at you.”


  Laughing hysterically with that response, Yi Ruda looked like a beast. So far, it was such a tense fight with neither side having a chance to win. The sudden battle of these wild beasts was now taking place here, in this narrow corridor.

  That was when I lowered my body a bit more while rambling those thoughts in mind.

  Yoo Gun then brought up a name that I never heard of out of the blue. Yi Ruda’s face then turned stiff in a flash.

  “Does Jenny know about you hanging around like this?”


  “… Shit!”


  “That means she doesn’t.”


  As if he was excited, Yoo Gun then spoke with downcast eyes, “I love your honesty. It tells your weakness straightforwardly.”


  Pausing for a second, he soon continued, “I thought dressing as a woman disgusts you, but perhaps I’m wrong?”


  Yi Ruda, who gnashed her teeth until then, replied, “Shut the fu*k up! You think I’m doing this for fun?”


  The two didn’t seem to notice my presence around them even until that moment.

  Putting his hands into his pockets at a slow pace, Yoo Gun tilted his head sideways and detached his lips again.

  “Hmm, I was quite surprised. Of course, I knew that you had run away from Jenny, but I never thought we’d encounter in Korea, Jennie’s homeland, even you with that outfit.”


  He then took his head backwards a little and commented, ‘Well, it looks quite good on you,’ as if he was evaluating Yi Ruda’s overall appearance.

  Yi Ruda replied with a grimace, “I said SHUT UP.”


  “Why are you here in the first place? The securities are everywhere here. How many of them do you think are out of the reach of Reed Enterprises?”


  Listening to their ping pong-like conversation, I fell into thought.

  Jenny? Jenny’s homeland? I grasped that the person named ‘Jennie’ in their conversation was from Korea; however, I couldn’t guess the relationship between Jenny and Yi Ruda.

  Anyway…


  My brows met in the middle while recalling, ‘Run away?’


  The man said that Yi Ruda had run away from Jenny. The reason that Yi Ruda was having a chase every day was, therefore, all because of the person called Jenny?

  That was when I heard Yi Ruda’s sharp reaction.

  “Why are you acting like a big brother all of a sudden? Mind your own business. I had a reason.”


  Smiling leisurely, Yoo Gun then responded, “Acting like a big brother? Haha, no way. Do you think I’m trying to act like your big brother?”


  His voice frightened me. If Yi Ruda sounded like a hedgehog raising its quills to stand on end, the guy seemed to be a lion that roared elegantly while hiding its teeth.

  ‘Freaking scary,’ while I shrank my shoulders with fright, his remark continued.

  “I heard from Chun Young. You’re getting along with them in school, huh? Although you guys are in different classes.”


  “So?”


  “If you’re traced by Yi Jenny, don’t you get where she’ll begin to nose around for locating you?”


  Yi Ruda, who sealed her mouth for a moment, soon tittered nervously.

  She responded, “Aha, I see. I thought you were on your deathbed since the invincible Yoo Gun was worrying about me, but that was what mattered to you. You were concerned about your dearest baby brother.”


  “Me worrying about you? No, that won’t happen unless I’m in my last moments.”


  My eyes opened wide. As I anticipated, the man seemed to be Yoo Chun Young’s big brother for real. What they just said like ‘baby brother’ or ‘Chun Young’ was the evidence for my assumption to be true.

  I thought, ‘I never expected he would be such a frightening person like that. Why is his big brother supposed to be a hundred times scarier than Yoo Chun Young, who was the main character of a web novel?’


  The words that followed by then made me take a deep breath.

  “And I heard that you are in the same class as her.”


  “Who?”


  “Ham Donnie.”


  My name came out so naturally that I firmly closed my lips. Yi Ruda asked back quite nonchalantly, “So what?”


  “Chun Young and the girl… Chun Young didn’t say anything but they seemed very close.”


  “What’s the point?”


  A brief but clear answer came back.

  “Don’t get close to Ham Donnie.”


  A moment of silence swept the space. Meanwhile, unlike her fabulous outfit, Yi Ruda gave him the finger.

  Her pretty face swayed fiercely like a beast under the dim light. Putting a twisted smile on her face, she uttered, “Fu*k you. That is none of your fu*king business.”


  However, her offensive attitude didn’t last long. As soon as he dropped a remark, the look on her face was in disarray.

  “Don’t you feel sorry for her?”


  “What?”


  “What if that innocent girl gets chased by the black suits because of you? Does she even know that you’re involved in such a dangerous situation?”


  The words that Yoo Gun uttered composedly yet determinedly with his arms crossed made Yi Ruda clench her lips.

  Listening to their conversations, I just jittered and rolled my eyes. I quietly held my hands together like praying and said to myself, ‘Ok, that’s enough. I can’t handle this anymore.’


  That was when I walked sideways secretly with those thoughts in mind.

  The problem was me, who wasn’t used to wearing high heel sandals. Suddenly, I twisted my ankle.

  YIKES! Shrieking out loud, I collapsed and, at the same time, could hear the rapid footsteps coming towards me. When the two appeared after turning around the corner, the look on their strained faces quickly changed as they found me.

  “Ham Donnie?!”


  Yi Ruda, who shouted my name and dashed into me without a break, took me up in her arms in the blink of an eye. Her arms were as stable as usual, despite her slim figure.

  “Uh, thank you, Ruda…”


  Calling her name thoughtlessly at the end of my gratitude, I suddenly lifted my head then encountered Yi Ruda’s pretty but stiffened face that was directed on me.

  ‘Oh, damn it!’ I thought, ‘Yi Ruda, the female crossdresser has noticed that only I do not have any gender recognition disorder… but isn’t it weird to not know Yi Ruda’s real gender?’


  At that moment, Yoo Gun, who carefully walked toward her back, stretched out his hand to me.

  He still looked decent and trustworthy. His voice calling my name with a gentle smile sounded soft enough to melt my ears.

  “Ham Donnie?”


  I nodded while thinking, ‘He may be asking if I’m Han Donnie.’


  His smile then got richer. I wondered if he was about to treat me nicely for being his little brother’s friend. Holding out his hand to me, he asked, “Are you okay?”


  “Um, yes,” I replied with a nod but soon flinched at the look in his eyes.

  Just until now, he drove Yi Ruda to the edge mercilessly with that grinning face. I felt scared. My fingertips that were holding his hand slightly recoiled with fear.