Chapter 75.1

Chapter 75.1

“Uwaagh!”

When the large foreigner suddenly barged into the living room, Taeyoung, who was sitting on the sofa, jumped up.

“Y- you scared me!”

Behind the bathroom door, Hongseok also turned pale and shouted.

“E-excuse me! Who are you!”

André stood tall, furrowing his brows like a statue, and scanned the two men one by one. Just standing there, he was already intimidating, and with his stern expression, he looked even more frightening.

Miran stepped forward, as if to point at André, and gave a sheepish smile to the two men.

“Guys, this is… my friend from New York, um… he came to drop me off since it’s really late. He’s just here to check out the dorm and will leave soon.”

André raised an eyebrow.

‘Friend?’

From acquaintance to friend—that was quite a step up. Should he be thankful for that?

He didn’t particularly like the title, but he couldn’t blame Miran. After their brief encounter in Korea, he had never defined their relationship, so it was true that there wasn’t a specific term to use. Besides, this wasn’t the time to quibble over such things.

‘First, let’s handle the urgent matter.’

André quickly revised his plan to persuade her, which he had intended to approach slowly.

“Kang Miran, you’re going to get out of here too.”

“Me?”

Miran turned to him with a puzzled expression.

He had followed her up to the dormitory to find out where she was staying and whether it was a safe place, but there wasn’t a corner he  liked, starting from the environment itself.

The edge of Kips Bay, where the dormitory was located, wasn’t as dangerous as Harlem or Alphabet City. However, it wasn’t a neighborhood where a woman could safely walk alone at night either. But that wasn’t the reason he wanted to take her away immediately.

In expensive New York, co-ed dorms or roommates were so common that they hardly raised any eyebrows. But after witnessing two men walking around half-naked right in front of him, he simply couldn’t leave Miran behind.

She might say she was fine, but he wasn’t okay with it.

One thing he had learned thanks to Miran was that he had a rather obsessive side. Having never experienced losing something before, he found it unpleasant not only when someone touched his belongings but even when they merely glanced at them.

Even to his picky eyes, she was beautiful, so there was no way she wouldn’t be beautiful to others. Therefore, it was much more rational to take preventive measures before someone, like the Lafayette-Lowell Group, reached out to Miran with greedy intentions while he was off guard.

“Where’s your room?”

“…That way.”

With Taeyoung and Hongseok watching with wide-eyed expressions, André walked in the direction Miran pointed. Miran, who had been staring blankly, hurried after him.

“André, what do you mean? Where am I going, and why?”

Without answering, he swung the door open and pulled the cord attached to the tall floor lamp with a click. Just then, a fat cockroach the size of a 500-won coin dashed across the white wall, waving its long antennae before disappearing behind the desk. Witnessing that scene, André turned around with a stern face and crossed his arms.

Miran instinctively took a step back. When André made that kind of expression, it sent a slight shiver down her spine.

“Pack your things.”

“…No, if you just suddenly tell me to pack—”

As Miran weakly protested, glancing around, he firmly interrupted her.

“We’re going to my apartment.”

Miran’s mouth fell open.

“Oh, to that place from earlier?”

“Not the Lafayette Residence, my apartment.”

That meant he had a separate apartment. But—

“I already paid this month’s rent…”

Caught off guard by the unexpected turn of events, Miran felt confused.

‘If I pack my things and go to André’s apartment, wouldn’t that be cohabitation? I stayed with him at the Dragon Valley Hotel, but this feels a bit different…’

She also recalled Juran’s warning that the world was small and that everything she did here would reach her ears.

As Miran hesitated, nervously chewing on her lower lip, André gestured toward the living room.

“Haven’t you seen those two guys walking around naked?”

“That’s because they thought I left the dorm—”

“Miran-ah.”

André approached her, calling her name with a sigh. Pressured by his presence, Miran felt as if she were nailed to the floor and couldn’t move. Every time he called her name, her knees trembled by reflex, and the hairs on her arms stood on end.

He stopped in front of Miran, cupping her chin and lifting it. His thumb gently brushed against her cheek.

“…You don’t want to go?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to; it’s just so sudden…”

Her large eyes shook, clearly revealing her anxiety.