[AFYC] Chapter 73
In truth, the difficult person wasn’t Barbara but rather Abel Sting.
Oscar had assigned Abel to her as both a bodyguard and a watchman, but it quickly became clear that Abel despised both the market and cafés. At first, she was too preoccupied to notice, but it became impossible to ignore over time. The way he glared so fiercely; his eyes seemed to burn holes into the back of her head more than once. Yesterday, she felt as if there might actually be a hole in her skull from his intense staring.
She felt both guilty and afraid.
The guilt was obvious, but the fear stemmed from his bizarre behaviour—he would glare at her as if he wanted to kill her, then suddenly smile warmly, only to return to glaring, and then out of nowhere, he’d buy her flowers and recite poetry.
“I thought a flower holding a flower might be nice, so I bought these. Just as I imagined.”
In the middle of the market, he had suddenly handed her flowers while reciting poetry, and it was nothing short of unsettling.
Instinctively, she had complimented his poetry skills, but she couldn’t shake the suspicion that the flowers might be cursed.
Once she returned to the mansion, she found herself anxiously sifting through the bouquet, searching for hidden talismans. But then, a wave of guilt hit her.
How could she suspect someone who was enduring places he hated just for her sake?
However, she couldn’t figure out how to express her apology.
She sensed that Abel was subtly trying to take her somewhere and wondered if she should give in just once. Yet, the occasional eeriness of his actions kept her from doing so, and simply apologising seemed odd. She could only offer polite greetings and take the lead through crowded places.
“I’ll lead the way now, so just follow me closely.”
“...”
Of course, even that earned a lukewarm response. Anything she tried to buy him was met with disinterest; the market clearly didn’t have anything to appeal to him, and it felt absurd to gift something with money that wasn’t hers.
She couldn’t help but notice that their relationship was deteriorating by the minute, if not by the second.
And then, this morning.
Abel showed up looking like he was being led to the slaughter. He approached her with the expression of a man who would rather be anywhere else, and Seo Ah greeted him with the brightest smile she could muster.
“Good morning... Did you sleep well?”
“...”
The heavy silence that followed conveyed that it was neither a good morning nor a restful night. She tried to keep her lips from drooping downward, but his weary voice cut through the tension.
“Are we going to the market again?”
“Yes….”
“Which market?”
“…Pal Phien Market.”
“It’s filthy, cramped, chaotic, dangerous. It’s crawling with nomads and homeless people. It’s overcrowded, the goods are cheap and shoddy, and you’ll likely get sick if you eat anything there.”
“...”
Oh no. He really doesn’t want to go.
However, none of the reasons Abel listed were enough to dissuade her from visiting Pal Phien Market.
If you want to catch fish, you need to cast your line where the fish are.
Over the past week, she had discreetly gathered information about Vieux, and it became clear that the markets were the best places to freely enter, mingle with people, and potentially make contact with someone. She wasn’t here as a tourist; she couldn’t afford to waste a single day.
“I just don’t understand—why do you want to go to the market so badly?”
The problem was that she couldn’t reveal her true reason for wanting to visit the market to Abel. She didn’t dare to demand anything from someone who clearly found her company burdensome, nor was she shameless enough to invoke her contract with Oscar.
So, in the end, she could only do one thing.
Seo Ah lifted her head as much as she could. She felt the early morning sunlight seep into her eyes as she tried to pull her trembling lips into a semblance of a smile.
She tried to convey her apology and her desperate plea for him not to refuse her request.
“I really want to go….”
She pleaded.
Her gaze, which had met his and then dropped away, now lingered near Abel’s jawline.
“Could you please take me there…?”
So, she does have the ability to charm people.
Abel stood with his arms crossed, staring at the woman before him.
Pal Phien.
Who the hell had told her about that place?
Of all the places to suggest, when she insisted on visiting that filthy, cramped, chaotic market, Abel swore to himself that he would not go there. He would not set foot in that place no matter what she said or how she tried to persuade him. He would counter every argument she made.
