Chapter 41: “can I Join?”
At the tavern doorway, Lin Xiuyuan, who had just hung up the phone, turned around and returned to the shop, confirming the progress of the final touches with the decoration team.
After confirming that the soft furnishings could be cleaned up completely tonight, he immediately contacted the alcoholic beverages company and arranged for delivery the next morning.
The call with the supplier had just ended, and before he could dial the next one, the incoming call ringtone sounded.
Seeing the caller ID, Lin Xiuyuan recalled their first meeting that evening, then answered with a smile, “Hello, Ji-yeon.”
“Lin Xiuyuan, where are you?”
Park Ji-yeon, on the other end of the phone, was squatting in a corner backstage making this call. With them currently facing a full network blackout, even their music show schedule had no waiting room.
Only commercial performances at the shopping mall offered a place to rest.
And Park Ji-yeon knew better than anyone that by the end of the year, they wouldn’t even have seats on stage.
“At the tavern doorway. Also, call me oppa.”
Facing Park Ji-yeon’s direct use of his full name, Lin Xiuyuan, who wasn’t a Korean person, didn’t really mind, but emphasizing it was just to hear the beautiful celebrity star call out sweetly.
But Park Ji-yeon pretended not to hear and asked on her own, “Ah, has it opened?”
“In two days. Just finished the soft furnishings, alcoholic beverages coming in tomorrow.”
Hearing this, surprise emerged on Park Ji-yeon’s face, because in just two more days, she could rest.
This wasn’t because their company had a change of heart, but because the newly debuted subunit had faced another boycott, leading to many previously confirmed performances and activities being canceled, cutting off their comeback just like that.
Thinking of this, Park Ji-yeon smiled and said, “Can I join then?”
“Come on over.” Lin Xiuyuan didn’t refuse.
But the next second, Park Ji-yeon said, “Then I’ll bring some people over to help bolster the scene for you.”
However, this time she was rejected by Lin Xiuyuan, who said, “It’s membership system. You come alone is fine; I don’t have the energy to entertain others.”
“Ah~ oppa~”
“Refused. No negotiation. Hanging up.”
Recently, with frequent experiences of foot washing and massages over there in 2025, Lin Xiuyuan had somewhat steadied his dao heart, so he had some resistance to Park Ji-yeon’s acting cute.
But the next second, Park Ji-yeon’s shout made his hand tremble slightly. “Don’t, oppa. I can help you sort out Ji-yeon, that married woman.”
“…”
Beep beep beep~
Hearing the busy tone in her ear, Park Ji-yeon first smiled, then put down the mobile phone, restrained her smile, sighed lightly, stood up, and turned back to look at the members over there.
What she had told Ham Eun-jung that evening about ‘liking’ wasn’t lying to her older sister. It was just that the guy liked a divorced ‘married woman’ from another time-space.
However…
So what? Would future Park Ji-yeon not be Park Ji-yeon?
It was all her, so she hadn’t said anything wrong.
…
The next day, 2025.
At the corner of the alley in the villa community, a car slowly pulled to a stop.
Having finished work overseas and made a side trip to Los Angeles to see Krystal, she was finally back in Seoul today.
Upon landing, she had Jessica, who came to pick her up, drive her to the vicinity of Lin Xiuyuan’s villa.
That was the doorway of the tavern under renovation, less than two hundred meters from the villa where he lived.
Parking the car by the roadside, Jessica gazed at the shop under renovation and asked puzzledly, “Soo Jung, why are we here?”
“This small tavern is opened by my friend. I wanted to come by and check on the progress. It feels almost done.”
Seeing several workers cleaning through the window, Krystal got out of the car, dragged the suitcase from the trunk, and then said to Jessica, “Older sister, you go back first.”
But her odd action left Jessica full of confusion and worry. “You’re waiting here with luggage for who?”
Krystal didn’t answer her, just quietly gazing at her, intending to make Jessica ‘back off knowing the difficulty’.
But this time Jessica wouldn’t leave, as if she had guessed something.
And sure enough, reality didn’t disappoint her. After she and Krystal had stared down for a few minutes, a familiar guy slowly walked over from that side of the alley.
Then, as if noticing something off, he stopped a few meters from the car hood.
His gaze scanned back and forth between Jessica in the car and Krystal outside.
At the same time, the moment Jessica saw Lin Xiuyuan, she immediately looked at Krystal outside the car window, her delicate brows furrowing. “Hey, Jung Soo Jung, are you really obsessed?”
“Older sister~ you hurry back.”
Krystal sighed deeply. She knew it would be like this.
So she had said at the airport earlier that she didn’t need her to pick her up, but Jessica insisted, and now it was like this.
Hearing her little sister’s response again, Jessica was utterly baffled and also looked toward Lin Xiuyuan at the car hood.
The latter was quietly standing there, and upon meeting her gaze, silently shifted a few steps to the side.
Afraid that the sister complex gripping the steering wheel might suddenly charge at him in anger.
Fortunately, Jessica still retained the last shred of reason.
Her angry gaze shifted back and forth between him and Krystal a few times, followed by a cold snort, then she drove the car away from there.
Watching the car’s taillights disappear into the distance, Lin Xiuyuan finally dared to approach Krystal. “You didn’t say Jessica was here. I was so scared she’d really run me over just now. That would be a loss not worth it.”
“I originally planned to take a cab, but she insisted on picking me up from the airport. What could I do?”
Answering Lin Xiuyuan, Krystal smoothly pushed the suitcase in her hand to him and looked toward the small tavern nearby. “When does this place open?”
“Next week. Get the tavern over there sorted first, then handle this.”
“Mm, anyway, it’s just the two of us here.”
The two chatted while walking and soon returned inside the villa.
Then, at Krystal’s request, Lin Xiuyuan carried the suitcase to the walk-in closet in the master bedroom.
When she opened the box, revealing neatly folded clothes inside, along with delicate little boxes one by one, he immediately turned his gaze to the nearby wristwatch cabinet and glasses cabinet, saying somewhat incredulously, “It can’t be these little things, right?”
“Mm, this time going to Paris for work, I also made a trip to Bern to hunt down some of your old vintage pieces from before, and bought some new wristwatches, so this nice walk-in closet doesn’t go to waste.”
Ever since Krystal had toured this villa and seen this empty walk-in closet, she had already planned this.
But Lin Xiuyuan was a bit surprised. “Too extravagant. I’m not used to wearing these things; they feel cumbersome and uncomfortable.”
“Whether you wear them or not doesn’t matter, but they need to be here. Don’t leave this place empty; it looks bad.”
While saying this, Krystal continued stuffing glasses into the cabinet. “And these glasses are free anyway. I just took a bunch straight from older sister’s store. You can wear one and toss it; it’s fine. If they’re gone, I’ll restock for you.”
If the Jessica from just now heard these words, she would probably go mad enough to want to kill or smash the cabinets.
How are they free? No production costs? No salaries for labor? No store rent?
But this was all hypothetical. Anyway, Jessica currently didn’t know and was returning to the apartment hugging a belly full of anger, planning to have a good chat with Krystal later when she got back, to talk heart-to-heart.
Meanwhile, Krystal and Lin Xiuyuan over at the villa, as their chat continued, somehow shifted to the opening of the small tavern over there in 2013.
Krystal perked up immediately. “Can I join?”
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