Bad X Bad: My Dear Hana - Chapter 5

She stretches her neck and arms. She decides to work on the pending case. Reading about this chaebol is giving her a headache. She switches to the other case. In this case, a bankrupt businessman has been suspected of murdering his wife for insurance money. He was broke before he decided to kill his wife. He has three children. The youngest is only three months old.

Her headache intensifies after reading this.

She looks at the doorway when she hears the click. She walks on her toes and picks up the baseball bat. When you are living alone, you have to be cautious of things. She doesn’t make a sound and moves toward the door.

Do Sejin is taking off his shoes. Instinctively, he looks up and finds Ahn Hana holding a bat in a position that doesn’t look too good for him.

“Kid.” Her brown eyes narrow down on him suspiciously. “How do you know the code?”

“You told me last night?” Do Sejin doesn’t move. His fingers are frozen on the laces of his shoe. It seems like one wrong answer or move can send him to the hospital.

“I did?” She puts down her bat. “Why are you here?”

“For my dinner?” Do Sejin is relieved to see that she is not planning to hit him now. She is dressed in an oversized shirt. Her shorts are not visible. Her hair is tied into a ponytail. She is wearing round glasses. There is not a speck of makeup on her face. She is looking at him with a strange calm in her eyes. Do Sejin would do anything to destroy that expression.

“Come inside.” She turns around and walks away. “Let’s discuss the terms.”

She is not disturbed like she was in the morning. At the morning, she was caught off when she saw him. Perhaps, it was because of the bad hangover. After going to work, she has regained her mental peace. She is ready with her armor again. She will deal with this now.

Do Sejin has expected this. He was lucky in the morning, but it wouldn’t be easy now. However, he has come prepared.

They sit across each other. Ahn Hana gives him a penetrating stare. A stare that can make any other highschooler fall on the knees and beg for her forgiveness. Do Sejin pretends to not know. He looks around. The house is clean. He can’t see the pieces of her wedding dress lying around. Near the couch, the ŀȧptop is on. He is curious to see what she is working on.

“Show me your student ID.”

Her cold voice sends a shiver through his spine. What will she do when she finds out the truth? Do Sejin finds it exciting. He has already prepared the fake student ID. He has used his high school student ID card for reference. The information is the same except for the year and the age.

She frowns when she looks at the ID card. “You are tall.”

“I am a basketball player.” Do Sejin smiles at her.

“Fair enough.” She puts the ID on the table. She sighs again. She has expected him to turn 18 soon, but her luck is not that good. He will turn 18 after four months.

“Tell me about your family.” She wants to know what she is dealing with. If things go wrong, she wants to be sure that she can deal with the family. It’s better if it doesn’t go wrong.

“Do I have to?” Do Sejin wonders how she will react after she hears the names. Will she be afraid or use her contacts to try to take care of him? He decides to lie.

She gives him a nod. “Yes, you have to.”

“My father is congressman Do Hwan Seok. I am his illegitimate son.” He pauses for a moment. “My mother was a maid. Until middle school, she raised me in a village. After she passed away, my father brought me to his family. I am living with them, but he keeps me a secret from the world.”

His father will break his bones if he ever finds out about this lie.

She doesn’t show anything on her face. No pity or happiness. He is sure that she is mentally calculating the odds. After a long pause, she asks him the next question.

“How did we met yesterday?”

“I was going home after prep school. You found me on the street and suddenly, pulled me to the alley. You threatened me that you would kill me if I didn’t follow you.” Do Sejin looks scared. “I already told you what happened after that.”

“If you are scared of me, why are you here?” She is not someone who can be easily fooled. The boy is odd. She doesn’t want to offend a congressman who might become the next candidate for the prime minister. She is sure that he will not let this come out if this boy decides to tattletale to his father, but she doesn’t know whether he will let her go for traumatizing his son.

This is a delicate situation.

“It’s because I liked it.” Do Sejin blushes a bit. “I can’t think about anyone else but you. I couldn’t study all day. Before you slept with me, I had no idea what it was like. At first, I was scared. But, I found out that you aren’t a bad person. You were just upset about your ruined wedding. You didn’t want to be lonely. Lady, I don’t want anything. I just want to experience it again. You can guide me on this. You can have fun with me.”

“I am not that type of person.” Ahn Hana’s voice becomes colder. There is a chillness in the air.

“Consider yourself lucky that you slept with me. How about finding someone else? A real girlfriend for your needs? Someone young and pretty from your school?”

“I am not confident that I can make a girl happy. You are my first.” Do Sejin leans toward her. “You seem like someone who has a lot of experience. How many men have you slept with?”

To Ahn Hana, Do Sejin is like a teenager who just saw a new world. She feels a lot old. She isn’t that serious about sėx. The boy has a lot of energy in bed. Perhaps, it is because he is young and instinctive.

“Two men.”

Do Sejin is surprised. If the first guy is her ex-fiance, he is the second guy?

“Three if I consider you.” She lets out a heavy sigh. “I wouldn’t call you a man. You are just a boy.”

She says the exact words that she shouldn’t say to him. He shows her a tight smile.

“Don’t tell your parents or anyone.” Ahn Hana leans back. This is a mess. She is sure that he will keep coming back. He is looking at her like a child who wants candies from her. She regrets it deeply. Why does she can’t stop drinking when she is upset? She shouldn’t have drunk more than her tolerance.

“If you want this to continue, you have to follow rules. You can’t let anyone find out that you are underaged. Wear clothes that make you look like an ȧduŀt when you come to see me. Look like a college student. Don’t keep your student ID when you come here. If we are ever caught, I will pretend that I had no idea about your real age.”

The boy might have a babyface, but his body has a strong build. He can pass for a college student if he acts a bit older. It won’t help if they are ever caught, but she is sure that Jung Kwang-Soo could help her. She won’t ask for help from Jung Kwang-Soo unless things go seriously wrong. She didn’t want to owe him. She is also worried about what he will do to this boy if he finds out. Jung Kwang-Soo is a strange man.

“Okay.” Do Sejin can see the loops in her plans. He is sure that she knows it too.

“You can’t disturb me during work. You can’t have sėx with any other woman either. I don’t like sharing my man whether I am sleeping for fun or not.” She looks at him sternly. “If you start liking someone else, tell me. We will stop. I will even give you some dating advice.”

“I will follow your rules.” He doesn’t promise that he won’t sleep with anyone else.

“If anyone asks who you are, tell them that you are my cousin and you are visiting me to check up on me. You will call me before you come.” She gives him her phone. “I don’t want texts, audios, or videos. Don’t ever record a call. If I ever find out, I will end our agreement. Call me when you are coming.”

Do Sejin types his number and calls his phone. He saves his number on her phone.

“You are not allowed to fall in love with me.” She taps the desk, slightly irritated for some reason. “I will never see you as a man. I am the older one. I have more control over this. You will treat me like a stranger if we ever meet outside this apartment.”

Perhaps it’s her tone why Do Sejin decides that he will make her fall in love with her. He knows that she will never act like Eun Min Ah. But, he wouldn’t mind if she acts like her. It would be fun if she is clingy and chasing him around.

“Regardless of what happens, you can’t ever visit me after a month. After a month, you and I don’t know each other. You will not try to contact me in any way. Within this month, you are allowed to sleep with me.” She looks at the clock. “How long can you stay?”

“As long as you like.” Do Sejin grins at her. “My father is busy. My stepmother doesn’t care. They don’t notice when I go home. As long as I get a high score in the tests and stay out of trouble, they are fine.”

“Your parents are nicer than mine.” She thinks about her dead parents who died when she was in college. They were found dead in their house. “Mine would beat the crap out of me if I ever stayed out during high school.”

Do Sejin doesn’t hate his parents. He knows that they love him a lot. He is spoiled from a young age. Each family member has a unique way of showing care. If anything happens to him, all the members will unite to take care of him. They will fight with the world if they have to. It’s just the way it is. His family is slightly crooked.

Then, all families are crooked in their own way.

“Did you eat?” She gets up and walks to the kitchen. “I will prepare for dinner.”

Do Sejin doesn’t know whether she is talking about the dinner at bed or dinner at the table. He walks to her and puts his head on her shoulder from behind. She jumps in surprise, but she doesn’t push him away. Does he have zero effect on her?

“What are you making, Lady?”

“Stop calling me Lady.” Ahn Hana turns on the gas. “Call me by my name.”

“Hana?”

“Nope.” She goes to the fridge to bring out the ingredients. “Ahn Hana.”

“That’s long,” He tells her in a whiny tone. “Hana Ah.”

“Do Sejin, that’s another rule.” She starts chopping the vegetables. “Call me Ahn Hana or continue calling me lady.”

“Ahn Hana, what are you cooking?” He decides to give in first since she is stubborn about it.

“It’s a recipe that my friend taught me. I hope that it turns out good.”

Do Sejin observes her as she keeps moving around the kitchen. After a while, he sees her throwing all the ingredients in the pan. Do Sejin doesn’t know cooking, but he is sure that the food shouldn’t look like that. The vegetables are cut in the odd shapes. She has thrown in all the spices in one go. The meat is burnt. The egg is black and charred. The vegetables look like they haven’t cooked.

She takes two plates of whatever she cooked to the table. Do Sejin takes a seat and picks up the spoon with hesitation. He waits for her to eat first. She doesn’t show any bad reaction. Thinking that the food is good enough, he takes a bite and chokes it out the next moment.

As he has expected, the vegetables are hard. The meat is still raw. The eggs are burnt. The spices are high. Even dogs won’t eat this.

“If you don’t want to eat, give it to me.” Ahn Hana glares at him. “I don’t like wasting food.”

“You call this food?” Do Sejin can’t control his expression. “I have never eaten anything like this.”

“If you want to have sėx on a hungry stomach, don’t eat this.” Ahn Hana continues to eat. “Sex on a hungry stomach doesn’t feel good.”

“…” Do Sejin picks up the spoon again and starts eating the pieces that are slightly cooked. This woman is odd. Very odd. She knows exactly what to say that will infuriate him or make him motivated to pass through the struggle. Right now, his biggest struggle is to eat her cooking and his biggest reward is the actual dinner that he will get on the bed.