If You Want Me - Episode 78
<Episode 78>
[08:03 Seo Do-gyeom Young Master] Let’s have dinner together today. I’ll pick you up at 7.
When I woke up late, there was a message waiting for me. Last night, he did say he wanted to meet, and it seemed he intended to have dinner together while meeting.
I didn’t really think much about that, but what caught my eye was the time. 7 pm. He’s someone who usually works overtime as if it’s natural, so I wondered if there was no urgent work at the company. Why is he finishing so early?
Since it’s such a big company, it doesn’t seem like there would be no work… I was a little worried that he might be skipping work and coming like yesterday, but he seemed to have pride in his work, so I didn’t think he would irresponsibly abandon it and come.
[10:12 Yoon Seo-won] Okay.
After sending a reply, I tried to do something… but I seriously had nothing to do.
Do-gyeom said he would provide full support, and he didn’t want me to work while pregnant. I also thought it would be hard to work while pregnant, and I had no freelance work left as I had cleared it before going to the island.
So I spent the whole day lying around on the bed, watching videos on my phone. Still, just when I felt guilty for playing around so much, mom played prenatal education music she used to listen to on a speaker, so I didn’t just do unproductive things.
Eat, sleep, eat, sleep… Perhaps because I only played, time passed quickly. The promised 7 o’clock approached soon, and I received a call from Do-gyeom.
“Hello?”
– I’m in front of your house. Get ready and come out.
Since my only plan for today was the appointment with him, I had prepared to go out early.
Thinking it might be chilly, I took a cardigan and came out, and Do-gyeom was waiting in front of the gate. As soon as he saw Seo-won, he smiled faintly as if happy to see him and took a step closer to Seo-won.
“Seo-won-ah.”
He didn’t say much and only called my name once, but his joy was evident.
Last night, I thought he was being too much, saying he missed me and wanted to come see me… But even though only a day had passed, not even, he was happy to see me as if it had been a very long time.
As I quietly looked at him, somehow, he looked like a huge black hunting dog the size of a person, wagging its tail happily to see me. It was the first time in my life that I thought of Do-gyeom as a dog.
Why is he acting like this? Half feeling unfamiliarity and the other half feeling a little surprised, I looked at Do-gyeom, but he didn’t care about my stiff reaction and immediately opened the passenger door.
“For now, get in. I have somewhere to go.”
“Okay…”
As Seo-won slowly got into the passenger seat, Do-gyeom closed the door and got into the driver’s seat.
Before grabbing the steering wheel, he leaned in very close. Seo-won inhaled sharply, pressing his back against the seat at the suddenly close distance.
For a moment, I thought there was no one in the car but us, wondering if he had sent the chauffeur and Secretary Bae home early today. Knowing Do-gyeom’s behavior of always having one of the two with him to save time, I wondered if there was any meaning behind possibly sending them home…
As I tensed up, having strange thoughts, I heard the sound of a seat belt being fastened with a “click”. He moved his body back without any special contact and asked.
“Is it okay if I release some pheromones?”
“Ah… Sure.”
I wondered what he was suddenly doing… He was just fastening the seat belt for me. He sent the chauffeur and Secretary Bae away to release pheromones.
After all, it must be burdensome for an alpha to smell another alpha’s pheromones. Thinking that way, I understood why Do-gyeom grabbed the steering wheel himself.
This makes it seem like I had silly expectations… Seo-won answered awkwardly, but Do-gyeom leisurely released his pheromones in the car as if not noticing.
Feeling fortunate that he didn’t seem to catch on to my embarrassing imagination, the car started running smoothly on the road.
The night view outside the window was beautiful. As Seo-won slightly lowered the window and let the cool breeze ruffle his hair, he suddenly realized he hadn’t asked about the destination.
Since he said we would have dinner, it seemed like we were going to a restaurant… I was a little hungry and curious about what we would eat, so I glanced at him and asked.
“Where are we going?”
“To have dinner, I made a reservation at a samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) restaurant. Is that okay?”
“Samgyetang? It’s fine, but…”
I was taken aback because the menu was completely different from what I had imagined. There was no problem with samgyetang, but somehow, it didn’t fit the image I had of him at all.
Perhaps because of that, I ended up answering in a slightly awkward tone, but fortunately, Do-gyeom didn’t seem to think it strange and said with a slight smile.
“That’s a relief. It’s my first time going there too, but I heard it’s good for health, so I made a reservation.”
“For health…? You don’t think I’m sick, do you?”
Last night, when I told him I slept a lot while talking to him, he looked like he wanted to take me to the hospital right away. I did refuse clearly, saying I wasn’t sick, but I was suspicious that he might be feeding me health food because he was unsatisfied with just that.
When Seo-won asked just in case, Do-gyeom answered nonchalantly.
“It’s not necessarily for that reason. Since you have a weak body, I thought it would be good for you to eat it.”
“You think I have a weak body?”
“Then you’re not weak?”
I asked, dumbfounded by his words that I had a weak body, but Do-gyeom asked back if I wasn’t.
No… I never thought my body was weak. Come to think of it, the grandmother on the island also said I was scrawny before. If two people say that to me, do I really look like that to others?
As I was seriously contemplating, Do-gyeom continued.
“With your small frame and scrawny body, I can’t help but worry if you’re sick somewhere.”
“I’m not that short for an omega… And I’ve never been scrawny.”
“You’ve never been scrawny? I’ve seen you lying sick in bed many times.”
Do-gyeom let out an empty laugh, looking ahead as if telling me not to talk nonsense.
When did I ever lie sick in bed…? There were a few times I rested when I was his partner. But I didn’t do it to the point of being called scrawny…
The words that I’m healthy for a recessive omega rose to the tip of my tongue, but he was an abnormally healthy dominant alpha. He looked sturdy even before manifesting, but after manifesting, he became so sturdy that he never even caught a cold. So it didn’t seem like I could make him understand even if I refuted.
Let’s just drop it… As I let out a small sigh and tried to turn my gaze back to the window, Do-gyeom, who had been staring ahead, glanced at Seo-won.
After examining Seo-won a little cautiously, he naturally brought up another topic.
“Anyway, let’s go together on the next prenatal checkup appointment date. They said it’s in 3 weeks, so I already took time off in advance.”
“You’re even taking time off to come? You, you don’t need to go that far.”
“Once I go to work, there’s a lot to do, so it’s hard to leave on time. And rather than adjusting to my schedule, I think it’s right to adjust to yours.”
“No… I’m unemployed, so there’s no need to adjust to my schedule…”
“It’s not about your job being important, but the situation is different from before now. It’s right for me to adjust.”
“…”
No, even so, that’s too much…
I thought that, but there was no reason to stop him when he took time off because he wanted to do that.
As he said, I no longer needed to adjust to him, and we were no longer in an employer-employee relationship or a young master-servant relationship. Although it might be lacking for now, we were in the process of becoming equals.
Somehow, I felt a little like it wasn’t becoming equal… but the superior and subordinate positions were being reversed, but I nodded my head, thinking it was impossible to change my feelings of thinking about him since I was young overnight.
As Seo-won agreed, Do-gyeom smiled satisfactorily and focused on driving.
Was it because of the wind coming in through the slightly open gap, or thanks to his pheromones filling the car? I felt a little more at ease.
* * *
“We’re here.”
At Do-gyeom’s words, I unfastened my seat belt and got out of the car, and the cool air penetrated deep into my lungs.
I thought we were going up a slight slope in the car, but when I got out, it was a complete mountain. Why is there suddenly a mountain? I wondered if there would be a restaurant in a place like this, but really, as soon as I got out of the car, a rustic yet subtly elegant restaurant appeared.
Do-gyeom doesn’t seem like he goes hiking often, so I wondered how he found out about a place like this. I had a vague thought that Secretary Bae might have found it.
Seo-won looked at the dense trees for a moment and followed Do-gyeom, who took the lead, into the restaurant. As we went inside, an employee with neatly tied-up hair at the counter asked Do-gyeom.
“Do you have a reservation?”
“Seo Do-gyeom.”
“Ah, yes. Please follow me inside.”
As soon as the employee heard the name, she started leading the way as if she had been waiting.
The restaurant looked bigger than I thought from the outside, and when we went inside, there were private rooms.
We could have just eaten with other people, but he even booked a room. I was thinking for a moment, but as soon as the closed door opened, that thought disappeared.
“Wow…”
An exclamation automatically escaped Seo-won’s mouth. It was because as soon as the door opened, red autumn leaves were clearly visible.
The room had one side completely open, and the scenery of the mountain could be seen through the window. It would have looked cool and nice even if it was just a mountain, but as autumn came, the leaves had turned into red foliage. It was really beautiful.
As I sat down, unable to take my eyes off the scenery, the employee asked Do-gyeom for confirmation.
“The samgyetang you mentioned when making the reservation. We will prepare it right away. One of them is made with only neungi mushrooms without medicinal herbs, correct?”
“Yes.”
One without medicinal herbs and only neungi mushrooms? Seo-won was only puzzled, but Do-gyeom nodded his head, saying it was correct.
The employee who finished confirming quickly left the room. As Seo-won still sat there puzzled, Do-gyeom belatedly asked, saying “Ah.”
“I heard that medicinal herbs might not be good for the baby, so I asked them to make yours with only neungi mushrooms. Is that okay?”
“…”
No… Did he have such a considerate side? For someone who came to want me because of a one-sided imprint, he was sincerely caring for Tteokbokki.
Seeing him consider and be considerate of even the parts I hadn’t thought of, his appearance felt so unfamiliar to me.