However, as if to mock her attempt at escaping, Si-Jin strode behind her, as he quickly closed the distance by taking two steps when she took one.

“I said I will eat by myself! Don’t follow me!”

“If you don’t want to waste your food on me, I can buy you a meal at a restaurant.”

“Do you really think that is what I am concerned about here?!”

“Then, Korean food? Japanese? Chinese?”

“Who said I would eat-… but why no Western* food?” [T/N: “Western food” in Korean is the synonym of fancy/formal food, so although it might sound weird, she is pointing out the fact that they are not close enough to eat more “casual” style of food, as they still need to know more about each other.]

“I had it for lunch, so I took it out of the list. I had a bit too much.”

Even when he invited her to lunch,  Si- Jin had to be that self-centered. Why would a man and a woman who are not close eat anything but Western food? Na-Yool was surprised that there still were reasons left for her to be astonished by Si-Jin and, needless to say, in such refreshing ways.

“Then if it’s Western food, would you eat it?” asked Si-Jin with a jaded face to a silent Na-Yool. Who could ever think this was the look of a man who pressed a woman to accept his invitation to eat out? Na-Yool, astonished once again – this time, by his facial expression – , belatedly felt a justification was needed.

“Ah, it’s not that I want to eat it, I was just curious,” she said hurriedly. “Usually, in this situation, Western food is…”

In this situation?

Na-Yool stopped talking with her mouth still slightly open. Si-Jin stood relaxed next to her. Na-Yool’s heart started to beat nervously. Was she busted? Did he find her out?

As if this was a date…

What is this situation?

This was not a date. This guy and I do not have that kind of relationship. I’ve got other things to do than sit looking in each other’s eyes while eating pastas. Snap out of it, Kim Na-Yool!

After she let her inward muttering go on endlessly, Na-Yool carefully examined Si-Jin’s face. She felt caught on the spot, seduced by the powerful face of a convicted criminal.

“Let’s go.”

Just when Na-Yool had barely pulled herself together, her mind went blank again as Si-Jin wrapped his arm around her shoulder and took her back to the elevator. Then, as if under a spell, she followed him to the underground parking lot and got in his car…

“Seatbelt.”

“Ah, yes.”

… and only came back to her senses just then. Na-Yool fastened her seatbelt, and the little alarm in her head went off before she even realized that it had rung. Before long, Si-Jin’s sedan car smoothly climbed the parking lot’s upward ramp and exited onto the road.

To sit on his right, this scenery… it was not her first time since it had already happened on Saturday, but it still felt strange. She could not even explain how things between them ended up like this.

In contrast with the heated discussion they had in the elevator, the persistent quietness that reigned in the car, as if time did not pass at all, made her skin crawl.

If only he had played the same loud rock that made her head spin last time! The 10-minutes-long refined piano concerto that flowed from the speakers did not help at all.

I’d rather lose my mind to the noise.

The car slowly arrived at a congested area, and it seemed clear that they would get stuck for a while in traffic on their way to the restaurant Si-Jin picked. If she were to doze off next to him, drowsed by the warmth of the heater that blew on her legs, how embarrassed would she be later?!?

Of course, that would give the pervert a greater upper hand to which she would have to catch up to.

This thought gave her the courage to break the silence. “Mr. President. You can play any music you like. I don’t mind.”

“I like what is coming out right now.”

The answer that she got back was unexpected. He seemed sincere, with no pretense. So he likes rock, but also piano… How fitting of someone with a split personality, thought Na-Yool. A gap in taste, as expected of a pervert.