Lee Sung-hwan + Jung Eun-chae (Part 3)
Jung Eun-chae wrapped her arms around Lee Sung-hwan's waist and looked up to meet his gaze.
"Brother Shenghuan, do I look good in my dress?"
"Okay." Lee Sung-hwan replied and reached out to push Jung Eun-chae away.
But he didn't expect that when he pushed Jung Eun-chae backward, she suddenly stepped on the hem of her skirt. Her body swayed and she fell to the side. Lee Sung-hwan quickly reached out and pulled her back into his arms.
Jung Eun-chae breathed a sigh of relief, "That was close."
The shop assistant rushed over and said, "Miss Zheng, you need to wear high heels so you don't step on your skirt." As she spoke, she placed the shoes on the ground in front of Zheng Encai.
Jung Eun-chae, holding onto Lee Sung-hwan's arm, tiptoed and slipped into her high heels. After that, her height visibly increased, bringing her closer to Lee Sung-hwan's.
"It seems I'll have to wear high heels when I'm with Brother Shenghuan from now on."
Before Li Shenghuan could speak, Zheng Encai took his arm and made him turn around to see their reflection in the mirror.
A pretty and delicate young girl stood next to a tall and handsome man; they were a pleasing and adorable couple.
The shop assistant stood behind them, a warm smile on her face. "You two are such a perfect match."
Jung Eun-chae then smiled and looked at Lee Sung-hwan in the mirror.
Lee Sung-hwan subtly pulled Jung Eun-chae's hand off his arm and glanced down at the pink rose by her ear.
"Is there anything else that needs to be adjusted?"
"No, I think it's just right. If I don't gain weight these next few days."
"Okay. Let's go then." After saying that, Li Shenghuan turned and walked towards the men's changing room.
The shop assistant took Zheng Encai's hand, lifted one side of her skirt, and led her to the women's changing room to change.
As the sales assistant unzipped the back of the dress, she asked, "Ms. Zheng, would you like your hair removed?"
Jung Eun-chae looked at herself in the mirror. The loose braid the shop assistant had given her was quite pretty, and the rose by her ear wasn't too big either. It was perfectly acceptable to wear it out as an everyday accessory.
"I won't take it off. It seems like Shenghuan likes this hairstyle too. By the way, do you have any dresses here that I can wear out? ones that go well with this hairstyle?"
The shop assistant thought for a moment, "Yes. I'll go get it for Ms. Zheng."
The shop assistant quickly left the fitting room and came in a moment later with a light apricot-colored silk short dress. "This dress can be worn as a formal dress or casually, and the color matches Miss Zheng's hairstyle and hair accessories."
Jung Eun-chae took the dress and examined it from front to back. "This one will do. The cost will be included in the engagement dress."
When Jung Eun-chae changed into a dress and went out, Lee Sung-hwan was sitting on the sofa looking at his phone. Only when she stood in front of him did Lee Sung-hwan look up and slightly frown.
"Didn't you go change your clothes?"
“I changed.” Jung Eun-chae twirled in front of him. “Does Sung-hwan oppa think that I look the same in a long dress and a short dress?”
Lee Sung-hwan looked away from her, stood up, and walked out. He clearly remembered that Jung Eun-chae had come wearing a floral top and jeans. Because when she jumped on him, he had even hugged her leg.
Thinking of this, Li Shenghuan stopped and turned around. He looked over Zheng Encai's head and glanced at the two shop assistants who were seeing them out. The two of them bowed and went back into the shop.
“Ms. Eun-chae, our engagement is just a business arrangement. I hope we will not have any overly intimate interactions in the future.”
"Okay." After agreeing, Jung Eun-chae slung the paper bag containing her clothes over her back, then tilted her head and asked Lee Sung-hwan as if she really wanted an answer, "I'm hungry, can Sung-hwan oppa buy me some food?"
Li Shenghuan looked at her for two seconds before answering, "Okay."
Once in the car, Lee Sung-hwan asked Jung Eun-chae for her opinion: "Shall we go for kimchi soup?"
He remembered her saying in an interview that her favorite dish was Korean kimchi soup.
Jung Eun-chae shook her head, "I don't like kimchi soup, I want to eat grilled pork belly."
Li Shenghuan glanced at her. Although he knew that she might be different from the eighteen-year-old girl that the Zheng family presented to the public, he did not ask any further questions.
Instead, when Li Shenghuan drove the car onto the main road, Zheng Encai took the initiative to speak: "I used to work at a Korean barbecue restaurant in the United States. Every time customers came to eat, the smell of barbecue would fill the whole restaurant. I thought to myself, how wonderful it would be if I could eat such fragrant barbecue every day."
Do you still need to work?
In other words, shouldn't the youngest daughter of the Zheng family be living a princess-like life in America, with gourmet food, a mansion, and servants to wait on her? How could she be craving barbecue, which is hardly a high-class food?
Jung Eun-chae said, "I should experience different lives."
Li Shenghuan parked his car directly in front of a barbecue restaurant hidden in an alley. It was past lunchtime, and there was only one table of customers left in the restaurant.
The two sat by the window, and the proprietress handed them the menu. Jung Eun-chae took it casually but didn't look at the contents. Instead, she pointed to the meat that was being grilled on a hot plate at another table.
"I want that meat." Because she thought it smelled really good.
Li Shenghuan took the menu, ordered a few meats and side dishes that he had eaten before and thought tasted good, and then returned the menu to the proprietress.
"How did Brother Shenghuan know about such a small shop?"
The shop is really small, with no more than ten tables in total. And the location isn't great either; you have to turn into a small alley to get there. It's the kind of shop where no luxury cars will be parked outside unless Lee Sung-hwan comes.
Li Shenghuan said, "A friend once brought me here."
Therefore, this is the only barbecue restaurant he knows.
Jung Eun-chae nodded, as if she knew who the friend he was talking about was, and didn't ask any further questions. Instead, she turned her head and looked through the window at the convenience store across the street where people were coming and going.
The food they ordered was served quickly, and it tasted just as good as Jung Eun-chae had imagined.
She ate meat without any of the airs of a wealthy heiress, nor was she as leisurely as Song Yunxi. She stuffed her mouth full, chewing with her cheeks bulging, but that didn't stop her eyes from curving into crescents.
She placed two more pieces of grilled meat on Li Shenghuan's plate, who was sitting opposite her. "Brother Shenghuan, can we come here again next time?"
Li Shenghuan glanced at her hand as she was pulling it back. "What happened to your hand?"
He hadn't noticed it before, but now that she held her hand up to his eyes, he saw a bluish-purple bruise on the back of her hand.
"It's nothing, it's probably just from practicing the piano too much."
Lee Sung-hwan didn't reply. He picked up his cup, took a sip of water, and then looked up at Jung Eun-chae, who was still happily eating barbecue.
He knew that practicing the piano could hurt his hands, but usually it would only cause blisters on his fingers, and eventually calluses would form on his fingers and palms. But he didn't know how he could practice the piano to cause such a large bruise on the back of his hand.
Lee Sung-hwan asked her, "How long do you plan to stay in Korea?"
This was the first time he had thought to ask this question since they had agreed to their engagement and collaboration.
Jung Eun-chae said, "I will wait until the council election is over."
That means there are still more than six months to go. After their engagement ceremony, they will have to live together as an engaged couple for more than six months.
*
After lunch, Li Shenghuan drove Zheng Encai home.
"Brother Shenghuan, do you want to go in?"
"No, I have to go back and take care of my work."
“Okay. See you at the engagement then.” Jung Eun-chae unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the door, and got out of the car.
"Jung Eun-chae, you brat!" Jung Eun-ah appeared beside the car at some point and grabbed Jung Eun-chae's hair.
Caught off guard, Jung Eun-chae's scalp was pulled painfully, so she could only tilt to the side in the direction her hair was being pulled.
"Jung Eun-ah, what are you doing? Let go of me!" Jung Eun-chae grabbed Jung Eun-ah's hand, trying to snatch her hair back from her grasp.
During the tug, the rose hair clip tucked behind her ear fell to the ground with a thud, and the braid that was secured with the rose also came undone on its own.
Seeing the two struggling, Li Shenghuan quickly jumped out of the car. He grabbed Zheng Enya's hand and coldly said to her, "Let go."
Jung Eun-ah's eyes instantly filled with tears. "Sung-hwan oppa..."
"Let go."
"I won't let you go. I should be the one engaged to you. It's because of this brat that she stole you away. I'm going to make her give you back."
As Jung Eun-ah spoke, she used the hand that Lee Sung-hwan was holding to tightly pull Jung Eun-chae's hair, while raising her other hand as if to strike Jung Eun-chae's face.
Lee Sung-hwan applied force to his hand, forcing Jung Eun-ah to release her grip due to pain. He then quickly moved in front of Jung Eun-chae, pulled her into his arms, and used his back to block Jung Eun-ah's other hand from falling.
But the hand that should have landed on his back didn't. Instead, Jung Eun-ah cried and hugged her other arm, which had been pinched painfully by Lee Sung-hwan.
"Brother Shenghuan, you're actually helping this brat?"
"She is my fiancée. Please don't do anything to hurt her again."
From the very beginning, Jung Eun-chae said she was there to help him—to help him break off his engagement and gain his freedom. Now that someone was trying to harm her because of this, he certainly couldn't stand idly by.
Park Geun-hye ran out when she heard the commotion outside. "What happened?"
Jung Eun-ah hugged Park Geun-hye and burst into tears: "Mom, that girl bullied me."
When Park Geun-hye looked at Lee Sung-hwan, he was still holding Jung Eun-chae's head with one hand and her shoulder with the other.
"Don't cry." Park Geun-hye was a worldly woman and immediately knew what had happened. She pushed Jung Eun-ah to the maid who followed her out, "Take Miss inside."
"I'm not going in."
"Stop making a scene here." Then he scolded the servant, "Aren't you going to take him inside?"
"Yes." The maid then pulled and dragged Zheng Enya into the villa.
Park Geun-hye softly asked Jung Eun-chae, who had been resting her head on Lee Sung-hwan's chest, "Eun-chae, are you alright?"
After waiting a few seconds and seeing that Jung Eun-chae did not speak, Lee Sung-hwan had no choice but to answer for her: "Mrs. Jung, I will take care of Eun-chae. You should go and check on the young lady."
"Okay, then I'll trouble you." After saying that, Park Geun-hye turned around and hurriedly returned to the villa.
Lee Sung-hwan looked down at Jung Eun-chae, who was burying her face in his chest. Her shoulders were trembling, as if she were crying very sadly.
He asked her softly, "Ms. Eun-chae, are you alright?"
A young girl like that, being pulled by the hair and hit like that, must be very scared, right?
Jung Eun-chae still had her arms around his waist, and when she looked up at him, she had a shallow dimple on her face.
"I'm fine."
It turns out that her trembling was because she was laughing, not crying.
“I’m so happy to have Brother Shenghuan protecting me.”
Looking at her messy hair, Li Shenghuan suddenly found her somewhat adorable and couldn't help but laugh.
He reached out and smoothed her hair a few times, tidying up the few strands that were flying wildly.
Jung Eun-chae tightened her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest again.
Li Shenghuan asked, "Is the injury on your hand also because of her?"
Judging from Jung Eun-ah's appearance, she probably bullies Jung Eun-chae quite a bit at home.
"Mm." Jung Eun-chae answered, then gently patted his back a few times to comfort him. "But don't worry, Seong-hwan-gege, she can't beat me."
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