Peninsula: The young master is poor and doesn't want to date.

Chapter 22 Don't Get Too Intimate

Li Zheng sat up straight and began counting on his fingers.

"For this incident, I mobilized a technical team, an intelligence network, a detective from the National Intelligence Service, a female special forces soldier who can chop down solid wood tables, and my precious brain cells. Compensation for emotional distress is separate. Think about how much you owe me."

Bae Joo-hyun was somewhat surprised after hearing this.

She never imagined that this man had mobilized so many resources behind the scenes.

Also, when did he become able to access so many resources?

Is he rich?

Wasn't it said that if they were kicked out of the house, they wouldn't be given a single penny?

Putting her questions aside, she stood up and bowed ninety degrees to Li Zhengyi.

"Thanks."

The voice didn't tremble, nor did it convey any sense of being bullied.

It was a very sincere, word-by-word expression of gratitude.

Li Zhengyi, on the contrary, felt a little embarrassed by the solemnity of the occasion.

He scratched the back of his head and turned his face away.

"Alright, alright, stop with the act. I'm not used to you being so serious all of a sudden."

Bae Joo-hyun straightened up and looked at him.

"I'm serious, thank you. If it weren't for you, I would have been finished this time. Lee Woo-bin would have used this to pressure me, the company would have abandoned me, and my fans would have cursed me to death. All my hard work over the years might have been for nothing."

She paused for a moment.

"I really owe them."

Li Zhengyi never expected her to suddenly reveal her hand like this.

He looked into her eyes and confirmed something.

This woman is not a bad person.

Although she initially intended to use him, she felt guilty, grateful, and humbled herself when it was time to say thank you.

But he wouldn't let her get away with it so easily.

"You owe me something, and saying thank you isn't enough."

Bae Joo-hyun's expression instantly shifted from being touched to being alert.

"What do you want to do?"

"Let's sit down and chat."

The two returned to their previous setup.

She sat on the edge of the bed, and he straddled the chair backwards.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions, and you have to answer them honestly."

"What?"

"How did you find out about me before the night you confessed your feelings?"

Bae Joo-hyun paused for a moment, then the answer almost made him fall off his chair.

"Han Sung-wook, my manager. He said he found out from a friend who works at YG. That friend knows Kim Soo-ho, and Kim Soo-ho is often with you. So he found out you work in Kowloon Village."

Li Zheng slapped his thigh.

"Kim! Soo! Ho!"

Bae Joo-hyun was startled by his reaction: "W-what's wrong?"

"I knew it! How could they find us even though we hid so well? Turns out, my childhood friend led the enemy in. What a traitor!"

"Isn't he your childhood friend?"

"Childhood friends are childhood friends, and traitors are traitors. I'll settle this score another day."

He rested his chin on the back of the chair again and stared at her.

"My second question is about how you like the way I look when I'm organizing the shelves. To be honest..."

Bae Joo-hyun's face turned red again.

But this time it's not a shameful red, it's a red from being exposed for lying.

"……Fake."

"continue."

"But when I saw you arranging the shelves from afar that night, I did think... it looked pretty good."

Li Zheng blinked: "What's so good about it?"

"You were squatting there, your face turned to the streetlight, holding instant noodles in your hand, looking very serious, like..."

She carefully considered her words, "It's like she's not tidying up instant noodles, but organizing a work of art."

"Is this your reason for coming here in the middle of the night to confess your feelings?"

"That's not the fundamental reason."

"What is the fundamental reason?"

"...I want to use you to fight against Lee Woo-bin."

Li Zheng clapped his hands twice.

"Okay. You're honest, so I'll give you ten points."

Bae Joo-hyun felt like rolling her eyes and laughing at the same time because of his kindergarten teacher-like tone.

She noticed a strange sense of relaxation about this person.

No matter how outrageous his words or actions, they all sound normal coming from his mouth.

You can curse at him, argue with him, glare at him, but you just can't bring yourself to hate him.

Bae Joo-hyun suddenly asked, "Then I'll ask you a question too: why did you help me?"

"It's not helping you, it's helping myself."

"What do you mean?"

Li Zheng put one foot on the edge of the table, the front leg of his chair was off the ground, and he was swaying.

"The fact that my second brother has his eye on a toy and then confesses his feelings to me is quite interesting in itself. You can use me as a shield, and I can use you as a pawn. It's a fair trade where each gets what they want."

Bae Joo-hyun thought for a moment.

"So we're... business partners?"

"You could say that. Do you feel like you're getting the short end of the stick?"

"At first I felt like I was getting the short end of the stick, but now I don't. You've put in more effort than I have."

"Then wear something cooler next time."

Li Zhengyi casually chimed in, then added.

"Just kidding."

"...You'd better be joking."

But while Bae Joo-hyun said that, she wasn't really that resistant in her heart.

She's even thinking about what color to wear next.

Bae Joo-hyun suddenly realized a danger signal.

She started thinking about "next time".

This doesn't work.

Her original plan was to use him to get rid of Lee Woo-bin and then break up with him.

Clean and neat, leaving no trace.

But now it seems that the plan has taken a slight detour.

Instead of "keeping her distance," she sat on his bed at 1 a.m. wearing black stockings and chatted with him quite happily.

No.

We need to get the relationship back on track.

"Li Zhengyi, I have something to tell you."

"explain."

"I can't be in a relationship right now. The group has only been around for a few months, the company has a no-dating policy, and if the fans find out..."

"I know, you said it last time. Don't contact me unless it's necessary, and if you do, pretend you don't know me."

"That's not what I meant. I meant that we can be a fake couple now, pretending to date in front of your second brother, but actually we're just... just..."

"Just friends?"

"Yes! Just friends. So... so we can't do anything too intimate."

As she spoke, her voice gradually regained its composure, but the way her fingers gripped the bedsheet betrayed her nervousness.

Li Zhengyi looked at her without saying a word for a long time.

Then he suddenly stood up, put the chair back in its place, walked to her, bent down, put his hands on the edge of the bed, and wrapped his arms around her.

The distance between the two people has been reduced to twenty centimeters.

Bae Joo-hyun's body froze instantly.

Her brain screamed "backwards," but there was a wall behind her.

Her eyes were forced to look at him.

A face so close, eyes with a faint smile.

"What...what are you doing...?"

"Test your definition."

"What, what definition?"

"We can't do things that are too intimate. Does this count as too intimate?"

He didn't touch her.

He propped himself up on the edge of the bed, keeping a distance of twenty centimeters, and stared at her, pinning her to the spot.

Bae Joo-hyun could feel her heart rate exceeding the normal range.

Her fingers gripped the sheets tightly, her toes curled up inside the black stockings, and her breathing became shallow and rapid.

She should push him away.

She has practiced dancing for so many years that her core strength is enough to push a man away.

But it seemed like she had forgotten how to use her hands.

"Does your word count?"

"……Calculate."

"it is good."

He released his grip, stood up, took two steps back, and sat back down in his chair.

The whole set of movements was clean and efficient, as if nothing had just happened.

It took Bae Joo-hyun a while to regulate her breathing.

She looked at him; he was sitting with his legs crossed, eating sunflower seeds.

I don't know when I took it from the table.

"you……"

"What? You said we shouldn't be too intimate, so I didn't. How sensible."

"What you just said shows a lack of restraint!"

"I just took a closer look to see if your eyelashes were fake. The conclusion is, they are false eyelashes."

Bae Joo-hyun was so angry that she wanted to hit him with a pillow from the bed.

But she couldn't find a pillow.

There was only a thin blanket on the bed in this dilapidated house.