Maybe It's You (It's You Series #1)

10 ✽ The Second Attempt

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Someone scoffed loudly. "Touching a woman without her permission? I thought a nobleman should know better than this!"

"That's right!"

"My thoughts exactly!"

As the people shook their heads in disapproval at the mysterious nobleman, their voices gradually faded at the arrival of a new guest.

A man – one who was equally tall, good-looking but intimidating – slipped through the crowd and stood by the nobleman's side. He scanned their faces, pinning them with a fierce glare that shushed them up quickly. The sheathed sword hanging by his side was doing a fine job of scaring the spectators even more.

His voice was a low whisper as he spoke. "My lord, we should go."

However, the Lord of Arrogance didn't react to his words and kept his eyes fixed on Eun-bi instead, who was still sitting on the floor after her fall earlier. She stared back at him intently, waiting eagerly for even the slightest change in his stoic expression.

When one of the workers in the inn brought out a basket of salt, she finally snapped out of her act. Her eyes widened in horror when she realised what was about to unfold next.

Yes, Eun-bi was quite a mischief-maker but she was sensible enough to know when to stop a joke before it would go too far.

She got up hastily and pulled the nobleman aside, narrowly avoiding the wave of salt when the worker hauled it at them. It sailed past, hitting one of the ragged men standing behind them who, unfortunately, had his mouth opened wide at that exact time. He had been yawning and grumbling lowly about the lack of drama at this whole commotion, but little did he expect that he would be fed with salt instead for supper.

Well, Eun-bi thought, at least someone had an interesting tale to tell his friends now.

Jumping three feet into the air, he spat out the salt quickly and glared at the inn's worker. "What the hell?!"

As the man tried to remove the overwhelmingly salty taste left on his poor tongue, she decided to clear up the misunderstanding before the situation got any worse than this.

"Wait a minute." She approached the Lord of Arrogance and stared right up at him, bringing her face close to his and making him grow uncomfortable.

"Is that you, my betrothed? Good heavens, it has been two years! When did you return from Ming (China)?"

This time, she finally received a small response – his brows knitting together in confusion at her atrocious lie. However, it wasn't enough to give her the island that she wanted.

Ignoring how his bodyguard gave her an odd stare and the way Da-hee gaped at her, she turned back to the nosy spectators. "I apologise, everyone! It's my mistake! I do know this handsome man after all. The show's over, you guys should get going!"

The crowd grumbled their complaints and shook their heads, dissatisfied at the way things had turned out to be. Once they started filing out of the inn, she whirled on the silent nobleman.

"Are you an idiot?! How could you simply stand like a fool there and let everybody else curse at you?"

He stared at her pointedly. "The one who lied to them...was you."

She winced at his words and tried to think of another excuse instead, but soon realised that she could come up with none.

He stared at her expressionlessly. "It doesn't matter now," he said indifferently and stretched out his hand. "Return me my jade charm."

Her face scrunched up nervously, willing her mind to think up the next plan. "I don't have it with me at the moment. I can give it to you tomorrow." She peered up at him and took a step closer, but he backed away from her. Did he really dislike her that much? 

"What's your name?"

"It's none of your business."

"Oh I see..." A smirk broke out on her face and she dropped into a curtsy. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lord None-of-Your-Business."

He remained unfazed by her mocking words, whereas on the other hand, his bodyguard didn't seem to react well to her rude attitude. He was about to correct her but the nobleman simply lifted his hand to stop him.

"My name..." he said. "It's Yul."

"Yul?" Eun-bi repeated. "Park Yul?" When he didn't answer her, she carried on speaking in a bubbly manner. "Forgive my impertinence, my lord. I'm afraid we'll have to cut this conversation short because my parents are expecting me to be home soon. Goodbye."

She turned her back against him and attempted to leave. Before she could even take her second step, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Running away again?" he asked coldly.

She swatted his hand away, but not before she realised that his skin was cold to the touch. Good heavens! Where did he live? In an ice cave? It was undeniably a chilly night, but for him to not be uttering a single complaint?

Exactly how long would he keep up his arrogant act?

As she huffed in annoyance, a crazy idea appeared in her head at this moment – one that involved throwing her pride away. But she knew from observation that this was something that Park Yul would terribly detest and there was a greater chance that this would draw out a better reaction from him.

Her gaze wandered to the wall behind them and her eyes widened in fear. She started screaming as if she saw a shadow peeking over the edge of the wall.

"Oh my goodness, look behind you! It's a ghost!"

Without waiting for him to turn around, she threw her arms around his body.

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A/N: You guys have been leaving so many flattering comments for me and they are making my heart bubbling with pride & joy! Many have told me that they have re-read this book several times – the highest count I've seen so far was 10 (I was like 'are you serious?' 😂). Some have said that they would like to see this story get adapted into a K-drama someday – ME TOO! 🥺❤️

What's your favourite kdrama right now?