radicalducati Chapter 32 Cross-Border Crisis Education in a Private Box
Chapter 32 Cross-Border Crisis Education in a Private Box
Lee Ji-hoon still carried the slight warmth of his body from the competition, and fine beads of sweat clung to his forehead.
With a soft click, he pushed the door open from the outside.
He held a water bottle in his left hand and rested his right hand on the doorknob. He had to admit that the match was great, and the attribute points rewarded by the system were quite nice. The only thing that made him feel uneasy was that the scene in front of him was not the relaxed and casual waiting scene that Peach had imagined.
Instead, it was Lim Yoona who was bowing deeply to him at a perfect 90-degree angle, which puzzled Lee Ji-hoon and made him secretly surprised.
What's wrong with this woman? What's going on here? Is she worshipping gods? A series of questions arose.
Li Chixun's steps slowed slightly as he stepped across the threshold. He had just placed the kettle on the counter next to him and hadn't even had a chance to ask a question when another, more unrestrained and lively figure broke the somewhat absurd stillness.
"Oppa!"
Sulli casually tossed the half-eaten chocolate-coated cookie onto the coffee table.
The little girl didn't even bother to find the soft slippers next to her feet; she simply rushed over with her two bare, white little feet pattering on the thick carpet.
Then he plunged his head into Li Chixun's broad, firm chest.
"That overtaking maneuver you made on the field just now was terrifying! Those defenders couldn't even touch the hem of your jersey!"
The girl wrapped her arms around his strong, muscular waist, her furry head nudging against his chin, while she munched on the potato chips she hadn't finished eating.
She raised her clear, watery eyes, which were filled with undisguised excitement and admiration.
"Hey, slow down." Lee Chi-hoon was bumped into and took a half step back, looking down at the overly excited little animal in his arms.
He couldn't help but let out a light chuckle, and with a stretch of his long arm, he naturally pulled her slender waist into his embrace.
"This is just basic stuff, and it's already got you this smitten?"
Choi Sulli didn't let him off the hook. Instead, as if she were thinking of some scene, a delicate blush quickly rose on her fair cheeks.
She nestled against the man's chest, her body soft and tender, and rubbed against him a couple of times.
"And that flirtatious gesture you made later when you went to the corner flag area... you stinky oppa, aren't you afraid that the live broadcast camera would cut so close and people would see it and be so embarrassed?"
Although she muttered that she was embarrassed, her coquettish tone was already so proud that she was practically beaming with joy.
Li Chixun pinched the soft flesh of her nape, lowered his head so his nose almost touched her forehead, and said with a roguish air, "Do I need to pick an auspicious day to be a pervert with my own woman?"
This straightforward and explicit announcement caused a wide smile to spread across Choi Sulli's eyes.
She couldn't resist standing on tiptoe and giving the man's slightly sweaty cheek a soft smack.
The two were so intimate and affectionate with each other that they seemed oblivious to everyone else. Yoona, who was still bowing, felt like an eyesore and an outsider, and her back was starting to ache from maintaining the posture.
It was at this moment that Sulli finally caught a glimpse of her senior from the same school who was still diligently "standing as punishment."
Oh wow.
Yoona is still being punished by standing.
She immediately snapped out of her daze and shrank back like a thief.
Choi Sulli immediately peeked out from Lee Ji-hoon's arms, looking a little guilty. She glanced at Lee Ji-hoon first, then at Im Yoon-ah, her eyes darting around.
She immediately tiptoed, stretched out a small, fair hand to cover her lips, and leaned close to Li Chixun's ear.
"Oppa, when you didn't come back just now, Yoona unnie thought I had been kidnapped by some bad guys."
The warm, moist breath brushed against Li Chixun's ear, carrying a sly glint in its eyes.
"She gave me a long, serious lecture on how to avoid being scammed in the workplace, saying that once a wicked capitalist like me gets tired of me, he'll suck me clean, down to the last bone."
Goodness, it's a shame not to use that defensiveness to write spy drama scripts.
After listening to this embellished private complaint, Lee Ji-hoon's gaze moved past the top of Peach's head and landed on the girl group's visual center, who was still looking down.
He twitched his lips, amusement appearing in his eyes.
"Yoona-ssi, what are you doing?"
As he spoke, he gently patted Choi Sulli's back to signal her to relax, then took two steps forward and extended his right hand to give Lim Yoona a light hand on her shoulder.
"Get up quickly, there's no need to make such a fuss."
Feeling the heavy pressure on his hand, Lim Yoona carefully straightened up.
But those usually bright and lively doe eyes, when they met Li Chixun's gaze, still unconsciously looked away, maintaining a serious and reserved demeanor.
Lee Chi-hoon was too lazy to play along with this rigid, hierarchical drama.
He walked past her and plopped down on the large corner sofa, casually grabbing a potato chip from the bag Choi Sulli had just left behind.
They threw it directly into their mouths and chewed it with a crunching sound.
"Hurry up and sit down. You've made such a big fuss, it's just making Sherry and me feel awkward." He swallowed a potato chip and leaned back on the comfortable cushion in a casual posture.
"We're practically acquaintances thanks to this broken peach. If you keep acting so stiff, people might think I'm putting on airs and coming all the way to Munich to bully her family."
This approachable attitude, which completely disregards social status and even carries a touch of rough, down-to-earth charm, is like a key that unlocks the tightly locked shackles in Lim Yoona's heart.
Choi Sulli also took the opportunity to run over quickly and grabbed Im Yoona's still somewhat stiff and thin arm.
She dragged and pulled him back to the sofa, forcibly making him sit down.
The oppressive feeling of unknown capital hanging overhead, accompanied by Li Chixun's casual banter, finally dissipated completely in the temperature-controlled private room.
Yoona let out a long sigh of relief.
She rediscovered her usual lively and cheerful nature, covered her cheeks with her hands, and finally couldn't help but start complaining loudly.
"Oh my god! I'm so incredibly embarrassed today!"
She lowered her hand, with a hint of coquettish resentment typical of a deer, glanced at the man opposite her who was still drinking water, and then glared at the brat beside her.
"You two actually conspired together, deliberately playing dumb to see me make a fool of myself? And here I was, jumping up and down in a panic just now!"
Looking back now, all that lecturing I did to you guys made me look like a clueless, worrying idiot!
Faced with such fierce accusations from her fellow students, Choi Sulli showed no remorse whatsoever.
Instead, he grinned and leaned his face closer, nuzzling his head affectionately against Yoona's shoulder.
"Unnie~ I'm not taking the blame for this."
The speed at which he shifted the blame was comparable to Li Jixun's overtaking maneuver on the wing during the game.
"That's because oppa insisted on keeping a low profile! If this were in Seoul, and I told you his identity directly..."
As she spoke confidently, she turned her head and frantically blinked her charming eyes at Li Chixun across from her, signaling him to quickly take over this mess.
"I was just worried that the shock would be too much for you to handle!"
This ability to spout nonsense and still manage to make it sound so convincing is getting better and better.
Lee Chi-hoon's eyelid twitched uncontrollably, and he chose to swallow the thought of exposing her.
He raised his hand to scratch the back of his head, nodded helplessly, and took over the conversation.
"Yeah, it's definitely my fault. The main reason is that I don't really like those messy paparazzi, so I just made up an excuse about doing odd jobs."
Although this explanation sounds like complete nonsense, it did give this senior colleague a perfect way out.
"But now that you already know, it doesn't matter anymore."
Lee Chi-hoon casually pushed the sparkling water on the table towards them, "Like I said before, don't feel any extra pressure. Just treat me like a normal male friend in private."
With his definitive statement, the last vestiges of unfamiliarity and wariness in the private room were completely eliminated.
For some time afterward.
The three of them quickly switched back to casual everyday conversation with no vested interests involved.
Without the suffocating workplace constraints, two glamorous girls naturally have endless grievances and gossip to share when they get together.
From the recent incident of a blind brand constantly getting clothing sizes wrong, to the disgusting bald aesthetics of the executives at Seoul's entertainment agencies.
While munching on high-calorie snacks, Choi Sulli echoed Im Yoona's complaints with deep empathy.
Every now and then, she would burst into a few clear, cheerful laughs that were completely devoid of any idol image.
The relaxed feeling emanating from her whole being was a vitality she had never shown in all these years in this cutthroat world.
Li Chixun barely spoke.
He simply leaned quietly against the other side of the sofa, occasionally picking up his phone to glance at the casual chatter in the team's group chat.
But his gaze would always instinctively drift back to the chattering peach every few seconds.
The indulgence and protectiveness hidden in their eyes could be clearly seen even by a passerby.
Sitting next to her, Yoona appeared to be having a lively conversation with Sulli, but in reality, she had taken in every detail of the scene out of the corner of her eye.
She has been struggling in the dirty world of the Korean entertainment industry for far too long.
I've seen too many tycoon sons and capitalists who appear gentle and refined on the surface, but secretly treat female stars as playthings and trample on them at will.
But the mixed-race man in front of them, who not only possesses terrifying fame in the football world but also seems to wield immense power, is truly building a solid wall for this peach in his own way.
A sincere and unadulterated admiration, devoid of any jealousy, quietly spread through Yoona's heart.
She lowered her eyes slightly, looking at the exquisitely packaged imported soda in her hand. This was Seoul's seemingly unbreakable web of power, which utterly trampled celebrities under its feet.
It's possible that with this man's unpredictable arrival, everything will be turned upside down.