abcnovels
Chapter 290:
Chapter 290:
Chapter 290:
Chapter 290
Even Yu-hyun-jo, who was good at managing his expression in any situation, couldn’t help but be flustered this time.
He understood the exercise part, but love advice? Was it the latest trend to have love advice in a sweaty training room?
Yu-hyun wondered if he had missed something, but he realized that it didn’t make sense and shook his head.
“Even if you want love advice, why are you doing it here?”
“Huh? Well, first of all, Yu-chan is so weak that I wanted to make him exercise. And he agreed to it.”
Yu-hyun turned his gaze to Seong Yu-chan, who was lying on the floor like a worm.
That look, he thought he had seen it somewhere before.
It was the same as Yoo Young-min, who had been beaten by Seo Sumin.
“Yu-chan. Is that true?”“I, I heard that this would be… good for me.”
“Who is the person you like that you’re so sure that this would be good for you?”
What, did he have a thing for muscular bodybuilders?
This place was not originally equipped for ordinary people, but for professional fighters. If someone like Seong Yu-chan tried to exercise here, he had to expect his whole body to be torn apart.
“Well…”
Seong Yu-chan explained how this happened.
***
Seong Yu-chan was living his life with satisfaction.
What he wanted was a life without any trouble.
He became a hacker and collected information, and sometimes did dangerous things because that was what he was best at, not because he enjoyed the thrill or had some hero complex.
He was happy with just living comfortably with money.
He ate what he wanted, played games when he wanted.
And occasionally, he collected and organized various information for his employer.
It wasn’t bothersome, and if he put his mind to it, he could finish a week’s worth of data in 15 minutes.
In other words, only 15 minutes of hard work per week, and everything else was free time.
‘I’m fine with living like this forever.’
Seong Yu-chan had made such a vow not long ago.
At the celebration party in between, Seong Yu-chan saw a woman who visited White Flower Management.
A beautiful woman with a cat-like face who smiled brightly at him. She greeted him warmly and even sparkled her eyes when she saw him. The moment Seong Yu-chan saw Ju Kyung-seo, he fell in love with her.
He didn’t realize it at first. To Seong Yu-chan, who always stayed in his room, someone like her who was cheerful and sociable was rather uncomfortable.
So when his heart fluttered when he first saw her, he thought it was just because he was nervous.
But strangely enough, as time went by, he kept thinking of her face more often. Some days, he would spend the whole day thinking about Ju Kyung-seo.
Seong Yu-chan knew that this was not good, but he couldn’t stop it.
He had to admit it eventually.
He liked Ju Kyung-seo.
‘But now what?’
The problem was that Seong Yu-chan had only met Ju Kyung-seo once at the celebration party, and even then he left early and didn’t spend much time with her. The conversation they had was only a few words at best.
Seong Yu-chan knew almost nothing about her. Her hobbies or preferences, or even her ideal type.
He could find out by hacking, but Seong Yu-chan decided not to use his skills this time.
It was too cowardly to dig into the background of someone he loved.
‘Even if I’m pathetic, I can’t do something like that…’
The only choice left for Seong Yu-chan was to get some advice on how to deal with his lost feelings.
There was no point in suffering alone like this.
He had no experience in dating anyone anyway.
There was one problem here.
‘Who should I talk to about this?’
Seong Yu-chan needed someone who could understand him and give him some clear direction.
The problem was that his social circle was so narrow that it was limited to White Flower Management.
He did have some hacker friends on the other side of the monitor through the internet, but they seemed to have twisted personalities even to Seong Yu-chan’s eyes and he doubted that they could give him any proper answer.
In the end, Seong Yu-chan had to find someone within White Flower Management who could give him some advice.
Of course, the first person who came to his mind was Kang Yu-hyun Teller.
His actual employer and a mysterious man who knew a lot of things.
Surely, he could give Seong Yu-chan the answer he wanted.
‘No, no way.’
Seong Yu-chan soon shook his head.
The reason was simple.
To him, Yu-hyun seemed too much like a social butterfly.
‘He wouldn’t understand someone like me who is a loner.’
Social butterflies are always like that.
They don’t understand the perspective of loners, and they pretend to know and empathize while lying as easily as breathing.
Seong Yu-chan couldn’t stand that.
Kang Yu-hyun Teller was handsome and polite.
And he could tell that there were a lot of people who liked him.
A man who could attract women just by breathing, he didn’t think he would understand his feelings.
He would probably not understand if he confessed.
Isn’t confession something that just comes naturally?
He thought that was the most likely answer.
‘Then, I have to think of someone else…’
The next person I thought of was Yoo Young-min.
He was the newest recruit and the youngest collector, and I could sense it instinctively when I first met him.
He was one of my kind.
He had a geeky personality and had trouble talking to the opposite sex, a typical nerd.
Nerds can recognize each other. I was tempted to confide in Yoo Young-min, but I soon shook my head.
‘What’s the point of asking another nerd for love advice?’
It was a remark that Yoo Young-min would have agreed with, even if he was outraged.
Insiders might be useless because of their deception, but fellow nerds were useless because of their incompetence.
I quickly crossed Yoo Young-min off my list.
Maybe it would be better to ask a woman for advice. She would be able to empathize with what women liked, or what their preferences were, since she was one of them.
I immediately started looking for a potential counselor.
The first person that came to mind was Kwon Jia.
‘No way. She’s too scary.’
Kwon Jia was cold and expressionless, and always sweated like crazy while training obsessively.
It was no coincidence that her nickname was Mad Wolf.
She seemed to have no understanding or sympathy for others, and she also looked like she had nothing to do with romance.
I couldn’t muster up the courage to talk to her.
The next person I thought of was Seo Sumin, but I didn’t really want to ask her for advice either.
I understood that she was a reincarnated heavenly horse and that was impressive, but I doubted that she had any lovers in her previous life, and she was still a student now.
She didn’t seem like someone who could give me proper advice.
‘Sigh. Then who should I ask?’
I let out a sigh and left my workshop.
I decided to take a walk and clear my head.
As I was going down the stairs, I ran into Kang Hye-rim.
She was carrying a bunch of sweet snacks in her arms as she climbed up the stairs.
“Oh? Mr. Yu-Chan. Long time no see. Where are you going?”
“Oh, I just wanted to take a walk and cool off.”
“Ah. Walking is good. How far are you going?”
“Me? I’m not going anywhere.”
“Huh? But you said you were walking.”
“I’m just wandering around inside the building.”
“…Is that walking?”
Kang Hye-rim couldn’t understand what he was saying.
She had long forgotten that going outside was a big adventure for a homebody.
On the other hand, I looked at the snacks and chocolates she had in her arms with a disgusted expression.
“Uh, Collector Kang Hye-rim. Those snacks are…”
“I bought them because I thought I needed some sugar for my brain.”
“…But as far as I know, you bought that much yesterday too.”
“Yes. So?”
“So…”
Did you eat all that in one night?
I couldn’t bring myself to ask that out loud.
I knew that collectors were superior to ordinary people, and that they burned more calories and had higher basal metabolism by moving around.
But still, was that enough?
Was it enough to consume all those high-calorie snacks?
I stopped thinking about it. Anyway, that wasn’t important to me right now.
“By the way, Mr. Yu-Chan, you look like you have something on your mind. Do you have any problems?”
“Oh, do I look like that?”
“You can tell by looking at you.”
I didn’t manage my expression well, maybe that’s why.
An idea struck me like lightning in my head.
‘Come to think of it, there’s also Collector Kang Hye-rim.’
I sized up Kang Hye–rim.
The image of being charismatic and intelligent was just a fake she showed to the outside world.
The real her was somewhat clumsy and clueless, and had a cheerful personality.
I felt it instinctively. This lady, she was one of the nerds like me.
Yoo Young-min wasn’t attractive enough, but Kang Hye-rim was pretty and a woman after all.
Maybe she could at least give me some basic answers that were better than nothing?
“Uh, actually, I do have something that’s bothering me.”
That’s how I asked Kang Hye-rim for advice.
Without knowing what would happen next.
***
“…And this is the result?”
“Yes.”
After recovering some of his strength, he barely sat down and nodded.
“Mr. Yu-Chan. You’ve recovered your stamina, so let’s finish with some stretching.”
“Y-yes.”
He answered weakly. Kang Hye-rim stood behind me with an innocent expression, then pressed down on my upper body with both arms.
“Kuhuk?!”
“Now, relax your thigh muscles. And stretch your legs out.”
“Aaaah! It hurts! It hurts! I give up! Tap tap!”
“Hey. Stop being so whiny. This is just a simple stretching exercise.”
“I’m going crazy! I’m going crazy! I’m going crazy!”
“Stop! You’re going to kill him.”
Yu-hyun quickly stopped Kang Hye-rim.
Seong Yu-chan barely escaped from the pain and rolled on the floor like a bug.
Yu-hyun gave Kang Hye-rim a sidelong glance. Feeling his gaze, Kang Hye-rim explained herself.
“Well, I thought Yu-chan needed an image change, considering Kyung Seo’s situation. So I thought it would be good for him to exercise and build up some basic physical strength…”
“That’s fine, but you can’t treat him like that.”
“I didn’t do anything too harsh.”
“…Your standards are different from normal people’s standards.”
Yu-hyun sighed. If he left her alone, Kang Hye-rim might turn Seong Yu-chan into a human cyborg under the pretext of exercise.
“You should have asked me first if you had something like this in mind.”
“Well, that’s…”
Seong Yu-chan stuttered and then cautiously opened his mouth.
“It’s just that, you look like you have a lot of dating experience, Mr. Kang Yu-hyun.”
“Me? I do?”
“You’re handsome, and you have good manners. To be honest, you don’t need to appeal to anyone, you look like you’re popular with everyone.”
“No, that’s…”
Yu-hyun was at a loss for words. Did he really see him that way?
He needed to explain himself.
He looked at Kang Hye-rim for help, but she agreed with Seong Yu-chan’s words.
“You do have that kind of image.”
“…I don’t know how I look to other people, but I’ve never had a romantic relationship with anyone.”
“Liar! Liar! It’s no use denying it with that face! You liar!”
Seong Yu-chan shouted in anger. He instinctively sensed that Yu-hyun’s words were a lie typical of popular people, as an outsider himself.
“No, it’s true.”
There was no way Yu-hyun had such a thing.
In his previous life, he was struggling because of the apocalypse after becoming an adult, and in his current life, he was busy with various things.
‘No, wait a minute.’
Yu-hyun recalled his previous life, or rather, his student days before becoming an adult.
He went to co-ed schools for both middle school and high school, and to be honest, he had no interest in anything other than becoming a collector.
When he tried to remember those days somehow, Seong Yu-chan’s words didn’t seem entirely wrong.
He received letters, chocolates, and gifts from female classmates until he graduated from high school.
‘But isn’t that normal?’
Yu-hyun was only focused on becoming a collector and never thought of those as signs of interest from the opposite sex.
He just thought it was natural to give and receive among friends.
Seong Yu-chan would have foamed at the mouth and fainted if he heard that.
“No, anyway… Why Hye-rim?”
“What? Mr. Yu-hyun. What do you mean by that? What’s wrong with me?”
“I’m already trying to avoid that question as much as possible.”
“Me too?!”
Kang Hye-rim frowned and crossed her arms.
“There’s no one else like me here, okay?”
“What about Seo Ryeon?”
“…”
“…”
Yu-hyun’s words made Seong Yu-chan and Kang Hye-rim shut their mouths.
“And she’s Ju Kyung Seo’s personal acquaintance, so she probably knows her better than anyone else here.”
“…”
“…”
The two remained silent at Yu-hyun’s words.
“Don’t tell me you don’t care about our boss at all?”
The two avoided his eyes while sweating nervously. It seemed like he hit the mark.
Yu-hyun rubbed his forehead with a sigh.
Boss, how did you become so invisible?