050 The Slap

"Ah~ So comfortable~"

At the VIP Spa of the Asan Paradise Spa Resort, Bae Suzy had booked a session. While she found it merely ordinary, her manager thought it was amazing.

The best spa Bae Suzy had ever experienced was at those private clubs in the Yeonhui-dong villas, which were the absolute favorites of chaebol matriarchs and noblewomen.

That time, she went with her benefactor, the famous Chungmuro producer Ms. Shim Jae-myung. Of course, bringing her manager along was out of the question.

"Whew~ We should have come here in the winter for the hot springs."

Bae Suzy looked at the soft yellow lights glowing all over the resort, which gradually created a dazzling and mesmerizing atmosphere.

"Summer has its perks too—fewer people. All the tourists went to the water park."

"Haha, that's true."

Bae Suzy snapped back to reality. She was currently wearing a light blue swimsuit dress, quite conservative, revealing nothing at all.

As night fell and the outdoor water facilities closed, the resort, which had been packed just moments before, instantly became much quieter.

For anyone still wanting to enjoy the hot springs at this hour, only the VIP area remained open.

Although hot springs paired better with winter, a summer night filled with the chirping of insects possessed a unique charm of its own.

"Let's go soak in the hot spring for a bit longer~"

Walking back to the VIP area along the pebble path, a staff member informed them that the VIP hot springs closed at ten o'clock at the latest, and requested that they make sure to come out before then.

It was only dark now, and there was still plenty of time. Even in summer, one couldn't soak in a hot spring for that long anyway.

"Why is this a co-ed bath?"

The manager muttered under her breath. Bae Suzy didn't mind. The VIP area was quite large, featuring individual small pools built with cypress wood and stones, rather than the kind where everyone crowded into the same single pool.

When Bae Suzy and her manager arrived, looking down revealed not a single soul in the VIP section.

"Looks like we've booked the whole place for ourselves tonight."

The manager made a lighthearted joke. Bae Suzy nodded, walking barefoot across the warm ground with a relaxed mind:

"Unni, help me take some pictures."

"You got it."

You didn't necessarily have to post the pictures you took, but you had to take them; you could always delete them later.

The two selected a soaking pool with a wooden pavilion. The manager said, still visibly shaken:

"That Yoon Eun-hyeok, is he really that big of a deal?"

"Logically speaking, he's just a part of that behemoth known as the Haepyeong Yoon clan. Maybe he's just an ordinary member."

"He doesn't look very ordinary..."

The main reason was the suspicion that they had encountered someone from his grandfather's generation—that former Minister of Health and Welfare during the Roh administration.

The National Basic Pension and the Elderly Long-Term Care Insurance, these two benevolent policies benefited senior citizens over sixty-five immensely, and the vast majority of families had elders they needed to support.

The manager was exceptionally well-behaved at that moment because her parents actually received those payments, causing her to unconsciously speak up for Yoon Eun-hyeok.

Bae Suzy didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The man hadn't even done anything, yet he had directly bought over her manager.

Was this the power of influence and authority?

"I wonder what Yoon Eun-hyeok's parents are like. His grandfather has passed away, so nothing can be done about that, but his parents must live to be a hundred."

The manager spoke from the bottom of her simple, sincere heart.

Yoon Eun-hyeok: ?

Well said, don't say it next time.

"Pfft, why are you so certain that man is Eun-hyeok's grandfather? In families like that, descendants are surely named according to generational characters. Yoon Eun-hyeok... doesn't quite seem to match."

However devout the manager was, Bae Suzy was equally speechless, a sour feeling lingering in her chest.

I told you to appreciate him, and you actually went ahead and did it.

"Families of that scale, who says they strictly have to follow generational naming conventions? I just think the name Eun-hyeok sounds wonderful."

The manager argued convincingly, then made a joke, showing she wasn't entirely pious after all:

"Of course, could it be... an illegitimate child?"

"Ha, haha, Unni, badmouthing people behind their backs isn't good. Let's not do that next time."

Despite saying that, Bae Suzy was actually laughing along with her manager.

She believed she had reached her current status through her own hard work. Toward those Nth-generation scions who were born on the finish line in Rome, Suzy could only manage superficial respect.

As for what she thought in private, well, that was her own business.

Bae Suzy didn't stop her manager's joke; wasn't that precisely the point of having a manager?

Today's Bae Suzy could never utter such words herself, so the manager became her voice.

Bae Suzy smiled quietly, like a child who had secretly done something mischievous and was gloating over not getting caught.

From a fan's perspective, they might find such a Suzy extremely adorable and refreshingly frank.

However, having listened for quite a while, Yoon Eun-hyeok's impression of Bae Suzy worsened time and time again.

"Tsk."

A light tsk suddenly came from right next door, sounding extremely jarring in the empty VIP hot spring area, where only the sound of flowing water could be heard.

Bae Suzy instinctively turned her head and saw a man with a well-built, balanced physique abruptly stand up from the water with a splash.

The man was shirtless, his muscle lines both sexy and taut, completely devoid of exaggeration. Wet strands of hair clung to his face, surrounded by a hazy mist, and an exquisite sterling silver crucifix hung across his chest.

So alluring~

Bae Suzy, who hadn't touched a man in a long time, quietly swallowed her saliva, brought her legs together, and shifted into a more aggressive posture.