Deal Breaker - Chapter 112
For someone so indifferent about everything that her nickname was Monk Hyeji, she was soaking in sentiment when a strange hand suddenly darted into view and tried to grab Hyeji’s phone.
Gasp, a pickpocket!
You’re not supposed to do this in Europe, but she’d had her phone out like on a Korean subway. And she still had tons of photos she hadn’t backed up yet. Hyeji tried to hide the phone quickly, but the thief was faster.
Thunk.
But the fastest person was Kanghyeon. Just as the thief was about to snatch Hyeji’s phone, Kanghyeon grabbed the man’s pinky finger.
“Gaaah!”
He didn’t stop there, twisting it mercilessly backward. He even kicked the screaming pickpocket, whose eyes had rolled back, hard in the butt.
Crash— BAM!
The thief, who had been planning to steal the phone and bolt when the subway stopped, went flying empty-handed out through the open doors and sprawled on the platform. The train doors closed immediately after.
[ Bravo! ]
The grandmothers sitting nearby clapped and laughed heartily, clearly delighted. Kanghyeon, ever the well-mannered man, exchanged polite eye contact with them, then took the phone from Hyeji’s hand, which had gone stiff in shock, very unlike her usual monk-like calm, and put it into her bag.
“That scared you, right? You okay?”
He pulled Hyeji into his arms, one arm around her waist, and soothed her. She was the one who’d made the mistake, yet he was comforting her.
A similar situation suddenly came to mind. It wasn’t something Hyeji usually experienced, since she was always on high alert abroad. Today, she’d just been a little loose because it was their honeymoon.
Once, in front of the Louvre, a Japanese female tourist had nearly been pickpocketed, and Kanghyeon had stepped in, chased the thief away, and then comforted the shaken tourist.
He’d been so genuinely adult and cool.
Now she finally understood. Noh Hyeji being a lifelong single was entirely Han Kanghyeon’s fault.
With a grown man like that by her side, there was no way boys her age would ever catch her eye.
Hyeji, who had only been watching, had felt her heart flutter. How much more must the woman he helped have felt. That day, when the woman had asked for his number so she could treat him to dinner in thanks, he’d drawn a clear line, saying he’d only done what anyone should and it wasn’t necessary. That man, who wasn’t easy to sway, was now looking down at Hyeji with eyes asking for praise.
‘Did I do well?’
You did great.
Chu.
Since Europe was a place where even stamping a kiss in public didn’t offend public morals, Hyeji found her courage.
So had she escaped forever single status up to her waist now.
* * *
After spending two nights and three days in Rome, the two of them rented a convertible.
The destination was north. From Rome, through Florence, all the way to Milan.
Sometimes they deliberately left the highway, opened the roof, and drove slowly along local roads. Following winding country lanes lined with tall cypress trees, cutting through vineyards, they were met with green hills dyed gold by the sunlight. The phrase scenery like a painting was made for the Tuscan countryside.
Part two of the honeymoon was supposed to end in Milan after passing through Florence, but true to their not-so-J personalities, they impulsively added one more stop to the itinerary.
“Want to go buy olive oil?”
“Call.”
After a long drive, they arrived at Lake Garda, in northern Italy, at the southern foot of the Alps. The place that sold the olive oil was a small town called Riva del Garda, at the very northern edge of the vast lake region.
The entire Mediterranean is an olive oil producing region. And yet, the olive oil that drove them to this remote place they’d never heard of before was something they’d encountered at a restaurant in a small town during the cruise.
“Crazy. Is this really olive oil?”
Without thinking, she’d dipped some warm focaccia, served as pre-meal bread, into the olive oil on the table, and the taste was something she could only describe as insane.
Hyeji didn’t particularly like olive oil. The grassy, green smell it had always felt strange to her.
To be honest, that olive oil had that green note too. No, it was much stronger than any she’d had before. And yet, how could it be so refreshing without being unpleasant.
In 27 years of Noh Hyeji’s life, it was the first time she’d ever thought olive oil tasted good.
Everything she ate on this trip suited her palate, but the only thing she found herself muttering about every day, “Ah, that was so good,” was that olive oil.
Kanghyeon searched, but it wasn’t sold in Korea. They went into every supermarket and olive oil shop they came across, looking for it, but came out empty-handed every time.
After looking into it further, they learned it was a specialty produced only in the small town of Riva del Garda. And so, to buy Hyeji’s life-changing olive oil, the two of them ended up taking a trip that hadn’t been in the plan at all.
