Chapter 182: Obsession (3)

She might not look like it anymore, but Kang Ra-Eun had spent over a decade as a bodyguard. She was making a plan to raise Ma Yeong-Jun and his men as bodyguards using her plethora of experience.

Yeong-Jun was surprised after going through Ra-Eun’s self help book... no, manual. It was easy to understand even for someone with no bodyguarding experience, and the descriptions through words and pictures were very intuitive.

“I never expected you to have talent like this,” Yeong-Jun expressed.

“What, me?” Ra-Eun asked.

Yeong-Jun nodded. He knew that she was very versatile, but he would never have imagined her to be so knowledgeable about bodyguarding. However, that was only the case from a third-person view; for Ra-Eun, it was natural.

“I told you. I learned a lot from real bodyguards for my performance.”

“Even if that is the case, you don’t get knowledge like this from just a few months of learning.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Ra-Eun would be the only one in a predicament if Yeong-Jun pried any further.

“Make enough copies of that for everyone here. You can study using that, and I’ll look over the training. All you have to do is to make sure everyone attends my training sessions.”

“But you’re the busiest one here. Are you fine with that?”

“It doesn’t matter. My film shoots are over, and I’m planning on just appearing on a few programs to advertise the film. I’ll have tons of time left over.”

Not just that, revenge was the number one priority for Ra-Eun than her career in the entertainment industry. She was planning on making time even if there wasn’t any. The corners of Yeong-Jun’s mouth awkwardly rose as Ra-Eun displayed her strong will.

“I guess we’ll have to resolve ourselves for hell.”

He had a strong feeling that hellish training would be awaiting them.

***

Ra-Eun had also trained her juniors back when she had been a bodyguard in her past life. If there was one word that could describe her training methods, it would be ‘spartan.’

“What the hell are you doing?! If you’re just gonna fuck around, don’t even think about going home today!” Ra-Eun exclaimed through the megaphone.

She decided to use the empty 4th floor as their training ground since no one had leased the space yet. The interior was modified and sports equipment was added for the men to focus on their training. This space was meant only for training; there was no such thing as breaks in here.

Ra-Eun called everyone over to one area to give them a demonstration.

“Come here, Mr. Ma.”

She nominated Yeong-Jun as her practice partner. He stood up from his seat, proudly showing his build that was twice as large as Ra-Eun. The difference was even more apparent once they stood right across from each other.

“Attack me in any way you’d like,” Ra-Eun remarked.

Yeong-Jun’s eyebrow twitched. “I don’t lay my hands on children, the elderly, and women.”

“Don’t forget the opponent in front of you is not a woman, but your instructor.”

“...”

She was not wrong. Come to think of it, Yeong-Jun had never fought Ra-Eun himself. Only Park Du-Chil, the man with a scar on his face and one of Yeong-Jun’s executives, had been educated by her a few times. He had witnessed her skills, but he had never experienced them for himself. His curiosity piqued, wondering what her true skills were like.

Yeong-Jun got into a stance. However, that wasn’t enough for Ra-Eun.

“Don’t use your bare hands. Try coming at me with this,” she said as she handed him a rubber knife.

The situation was overwhelmingly in Yeong-Jun’s favor.

“Don’t blame me if you get hurt,” Yeong-Jun stated.

That was the final warning he could give Ra-Eun. He displayed impressive agility despite his large build, but it was by no means a danger for her. She lowered her center of gravity and used his strength against him by throwing him over her shoulder. Yeong-Jun’s massive body flew through the air.

Boom—!

Yeong-Jun dug into the mat laid on the floor. He was lost for words as he looked at the ceiling laid out in front of him. He had been thrown by a slender woman with a much smaller build than him. If there had been no mat under them, he might have been knocked out.

“When someone charges at you like that, don’t get scared and just use their strength against them.”

“I-I see.”

Yeong-Jun’s pride was not hurt from losing to Ra-Eun since he already knew that she was strong. However, he was a bit surprised.

“Now, try stabbing me with the knife,” she said.

Yeong-Jun did not even bother warning her this time because he had realized that he should be saying that to himself.

Thrust—!

Yeong-Jun aimed for Ra-Eun’s stomach, but Ra-Eun slightly shifted to the side as if she had foreseen where he would try to stab her. She then grabbed Yeong-Jun’s arm that held the knife and twisted his wrist. He groaned from the shooting pain. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Ra-Eun let go of Yeong-Jun’s arm.

“Like I said before, there’s no need to be scared. The moment you get flustered, you’re done. Train so that you can always observe your opponent’s movements in a calm manner and react accordingly.”

“Yes, Chairwoman! I mean, Instructor!”

Ra-Eun nodded in satisfaction from their energetic yells.

“Okay. Go back to individual training.”

It helped that they had made a living with their fists.

‘They’re growing faster than I’d expected.’

Ra-Eun thought that she had done well to take Yeong-Jun and his men under her wing.

***

Ra-Eun had to go to Busan this time for a film event.

‘I’d shared a waiting room with Tae-Yeon sunbae and Seo-Yeong back in Seoul.’

They had their own waiting rooms this time, which she personally preferred. There was no need to be careful of others when she was alone.

“These goddamn heels... I can never get used to them, no matter how many times I wear them.”

Ra-Eun suppressed her discomfort whenever she wore high heels. She had been given heels the same color as her dress, but she personally wanted to throw away these heels and wear sneakers instead.

“How do women go around wearing these?”

She often used to get blisters on her feet because they weren’t accustomed to the heels at first. She had gotten somewhat used to them now, but she couldn’t even stand for an hour... no, thirty minutes when she first wore them.

There were many instances where Ra-Eun was amazed by women after becoming one herself. As she was combing her long hair so that it wouldn’t get tangled, the three that had accompanied her to Busan, Kim Tae-Seon, Yeong-Jun and Lim Seok-Jun, came to her waiting room.

“We’re he—!”

Tae-Seon suddenly cut off her sentence, turned around, and stopped Yeong-Jun and Seok-Jun from entering the waiting room as best she could.

“P-Please wait outside for a bit, you two!” she exclaimed.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Yeong-Jun asked.

Tae-Seon couldn’t answer him. She was acting this way because of Ra-Eun. Because she had the waiting room all to herself, she had been completely defenseless. She had been sitting on the couch cross-legged with her heels off and her short dress rolled up to a point that her panties were almost visible.

Tae-Seon had bought Ra-Eun enough time to tidy up her clothes.

“Thanks. I owe you,” Ra-Eun expressed her gratitude.

Tae-Seon sighed in relief. She, Yeong-Jun and Seok-Jun had accompanied Ra-Eun to Seoul because they were in charge of guarding her. The production team had already hired a team of bodyguards, but their formations were so full of holes that Ra-Eun could not trust them in the slightest.

Hence, she had explained that her agency had hired some private bodyguards for her because she had recently gained a stalker. The production team was satisfied with that explanation, but the security team was not.

“They were looking at us quite distastefully,” Yeong-Jun mentioned.

“Their pride must’ve been hurt. The fact that you’re here makes it seem like they're not being trusted,” Ra-Eun expressed.

However, she decided not to pay it any mind. Her safety was far more important than their pride as bodyguards. Even so, the three that she had brought were far from being the perfect bodyguards; they were still incomplete, but Ra-Eun trusted them far more than the security team that the production team had hired. The three of them were lacking as bodyguards, but their skills were top-tier.

‘Even if they do make a mistake, I can just take the threat down myself if worse comes to worst.’

There wasn’t much to worry about since she herself was the ultimate weapon.

Shin Yu-Bin entered the waiting room while Ra-Eun was killing time in there.

“It’s time, Ra-Eun.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there.”

Ra-Eun put her heels back on, put on her celebrity face and set out from the waiting room. She would come face to face with countless people after passing through the door at the end of the hallway.

Tae-Seon asked Ra-Eun before they reached the door, “But would that stalker have come all the way here to Busan?”

Tae-Seon, Yeong-Jun and Seok-Jun had followed Ra-Eun to Seoul since a bodyguard’s most important job was to protect their client, but it was still uncertain whether the stalker had also followed them or not. Tae-Seon was doubtful, but Ra-Eun was sure.

“He’ll be here. I’m sure of it.”

Her intuition was screaming at her that it was the case. A staff member leading the group opened the door. Soon afterward...

Waaaahhhh—!

The cries of fans filled the entire venue, so thunderous that one would think it was a cloudy day despite there not even being a cloud in sight. In the meantime, Ra-Eun stuck as close to Seo Tae-Yeon and Jin Seo-Yeong as possible like she had done in the Seoul event, just in case. She had not eliminated the possibility that the stalker’s target was one of them.

Ra-Eun quickly scanned the packed venue. Right, left, front, back. She was smiling, but she was on the lookout. Until finally...

“Look over there.”

Ra-Eun called Tae-Seon over and pointed somewhere. There was a man in a hoodie seated near the right entrance going up to the platform.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

It was the man that she had seen in Seoul.