The Villain Is Too Good at Cooking C22

Chapter 22

Had he really thrown them out for nothing?

Sure, both of them had been in love with Baek Hamin. But that story was over now. Wasn’t it possible for feelings to change?

The thought crossed his mind, only for him to shake his head immediately. It wasn’t this Jeong Iwon who had done all those terrible things, but considering everything the original Jeong Iwon had done, pushing them away was still the right choice.

“I’m full.”

He said it aloud despite being completely alone, then began clearing away the leftover rice and side dishes.

That was when a familiar voice drifted in from beyond the closed gate.

“Keep your voice down!”

“You’re the one being loud.”

“I am not.”

The two men he had so definitively thrown out were whisper-bickering right outside his gate.

They were trying to keep their voices down, but the countryside was so quiet that every word carried perfectly.

Iwon blinked, startled by the sudden disturbance in the silence.

He crept toward the gate and listened.

Silence.

Yet when he concentrated, he could still sense the presence of people on the other side.

Kwon Heeseong and Yoon Mujin were still there.

Why?

Why were they taking things this far?

He had been so cold when he drove them away. Iwon leaned his back against the gate and let out a long, weary breath.

He decided not to go outside that day.

Perhaps they had simply acted on impulse. Maybe they would leave after a single night.

But the next morning, they were there again.

And the morning after that.

One day was tolerable, but he couldn’t leave the vegetable patch unattended forever. Eventually, Iwon gathered his farming tools, took a deep breath, and approached the gate.

His hand hesitated on the latch before he finally opened it.

And there they were.

Iwon’s eyes narrowed.

Heeseong, however, looked completely unbothered.

“What? Is this your house too? It isn’t. This is outside the gate.”

Technically, he wasn’t wrong.

Mujin looked somewhat uneasy, but apparently he’d decided to borrow a page from Heeseong’s shamelessness. He avoided Iwon’s eyes while making it perfectly clear that he had no intention of moving.

Iwon decided to ignore them both.

He picked up his basket of tools and headed toward the vegetable patch behind the house.

A moment later, he heard footsteps following him.

Heeseong.

It irritated him to no end, but Iwon didn’t say anything.

The vegetable patch itself belonged to him, but the surrounding land was communal village property. If he complained, Heeseong would undoubtedly seize on that excuse and argue that he had every right to be there.

As it turned out, Iwon didn’t even manage to finish half the work he’d planned.

This is hard.

Apparently, he’d been taking Heeseong and Mujin’s labor for granted.

Working the field by himself after so long was far more exhausting than he’d expected. And having the two men hovering nearby was distracting in its own right.

“Hmm. I’m actually pretty good at weeding.”

“I’m good at it too.”

They kept shamelessly advertising their usefulness.

It was annoying.

It was also, somehow, strangely comforting.

A tiny corner of Iwon’s heart kept tickling despite his best efforts.

He knew better than to get his hopes up.

Unfortunately, knowing that didn’t make the feeling disappear.

And so the days passed.

Rain or shine, Heeseong and Mujin followed Iwon around without fail. At some point, without him realizing it, having the two of them around had simply become part of his daily life.

Then one day, while eating lunch alone, the thought suddenly struck him.

This isn’t how this was supposed to go.

Now, whenever he opened the gate and didn’t see them waiting outside, he felt an inexplicable sense of emptiness.

Like a light drizzle quietly soaking through your clothes before you even realize you’re wet, the two men had somehow seeped into his life.

“Scary bastards.”

Iwon muttered under his breath.

At this point, telling them not to come over had become meaningless.

He was going to have to change his mind.

That afternoon, he called out to the two men, who were sitting outside the gate making do with some rather pathetic-looking food.

“I’m not going to accept your feelings.”

“I know.”

Heeseong answered with a brilliant smile.

“I know.”

Mujin answered too, though his expression was visibly downcast.

Seeing a man of his size looking so miserable reminded Iwon of a huge, dejected dog.

“But we can be friends.”

He was about to add, Though if possible, could you eventually wrap this up and return to your own lives?

He never got the chance.

Mujin suddenly lunged forward and wrapped his arms around him.

Caught completely off guard, Iwon was pulled into the embrace, and then Heeseong immediately shoved his way into the mess.

“Friends? Sure!”

It was a lie.

The word was practically written across Heeseong’s face.

And yet, for some reason, Iwon couldn’t bring himself to hate it.

“Thank you!”

This is a serious problem.

At this rate, he was going to be the one who fell for them first.

From then on, Heeseong and Mujin once again came and went freely through the blue-roofed house.

They grumbled their way through the vegetable patch, worked until they were drenched in sweat, and were rewarded with Iwon’s cooking.

Heeseong constantly complained that the house didn’t have a single decent electronic device.

Then, one day, he showed up carrying an enormous flat-screen television.

After that, the three of them would finish dinner, stick snacks into their mouths, and watch dramas together.

“Wow. That guy is seriously unbelievable.”

Heeseong turned out to have a particular weakness for over-the-top makjang dramas.

He would sprawl out comfortably, clicking his tongue at every ridiculous plot twist while munching on fried nurungji coated in sugar.

Mujin never sprawled out like Heeseong did, but he always had something in his mouth too.

They were strangely peaceful evenings.

Still, when bedtime came, Iwon always kicked both of them out.

One shameless bastard would inevitably whine that friends were supposed to let their friends sleep over.

Iwon ignored him without mercy.

The following morning, Iwon woke earlier than usual and was preparing breakfast when his phone suddenly rang.

His brow furrowed.

The number was unfamiliar.

Spam? A phishing call?

He considered ignoring it, but for some reason, he answered.

“Hello?”

There was a heavy silence on the other end.

Then a man’s voice came through, cold and unmistakable.

“Jeong Iwon?”

His heart dropped.

The moment he heard that voice, every hair on his body stood on end.

It was a voice burned so deeply into his memory that he could never forget it.

“You.”

“It’s Kang Taeon.”

Kang Taeon.

The man the original Jeong Iwon had obsessively clung to like a lunatic.

Driven by his single-minded obsession with becoming Taeon’s partner, the old Iwon had committed every imaginable atrocity without hesitation. And in return, Taeon had treated him as something beneath contempt and completely cut him out of his life.

So why was a man who despised him so thoroughly calling him now?

Iwon froze, barely remembering to breathe.

Then Taeon’s icy voice struck him like a blade.

“The rats swarming around you have my spouse extremely worried.”

The insult snapped something loose inside Iwon.

The old Jeong Iwon might have trembled and immediately lowered himself to the floor.

But this Iwon was different.

“Rats? That’s a little harsh. And what does any of this have to do with you?”

A short, incredulous laugh came from the other end.

“You still don’t understand your position.”

“My position?”

Iwon gave a quiet scoff.

“I know exactly what I am. I’m worthless garbage. But you’re trying to interfere with someone else’s life as though you own it. Doesn’t that make you garbage too?”

In the past, he might have blindly thrown himself at Taeon’s arrogance and authority.

But now that someone with a functioning mind was occupying this body, Kang Taeon was nothing more than an arrogant bastard who had no consideration whatsoever for other people.

That habit of looking down on everyone from above was genuinely disgusting.

A crazed top might look irresistible when viewed through the eyes of the protagonist in a novel.

In real life?

He was just a bastard Iwon wouldn’t have gone near with a ten-foot pole.

Just look at what he’d done to get Baek Hamin.

Taeon’s voice became even colder.

“I won’t waste my time talking to you. Leave the country quietly.”

Iwon’s eyes narrowed.

“Without anyone knowing.”

It wasn’t a request.

It was an order.

“I’ll provide you with enough money to live on and a place to stay. Consider it the bare minimum of goodwill I’m extending to put my spouse at ease.”

He said it as though he were granting some enormous mercy.

Iwon couldn’t take it anymore.

“Goodwill, my ass. Wipe your own spouse’s tears and stay the hell out of my business, you crazy bastard!”

Click.

Iwon ended the call before Taeon could say another word.

Then he regretted it slightly.

If I was going to curse him out, I should’ve said more.

That was his one regret.

At that exact moment, inside the headquarters of Taegyeong Enterprises in Seoul—

“……”

Kang Taeon stared at his phone.

The call had ended.

He simply couldn’t process what had just happened.

The man should have been on his knees with gratitude simply because Taeon had bothered to call him personally.

Yet Jeong Iwon, who had once clung to him disgustingly and begged desperately for his affection, had not only rejected his offer—

He had cursed him out and hung up on him.

It felt completely unreal.

That vulgar, grasping Jeong Iwon?

Under normal circumstances, anger should have been the only thing he felt.

An omega who dared to interrupt him and hang up in the middle of a conversation deserved to be crushed under his heel.

And yet, strangely, beneath the irritation, something else began to surface.

A sense of incongruity.

And, alongside it—

Curiosity.

“I wonder what’s for breakfast.”

Heeseong came out of his house humming to himself.

There was perfectly good food waiting at home, but somehow, Iwon’s cooking always tasted better.

He’s surprisingly good at this.

He was smiling without even realizing it when his phone suddenly rang inside his jacket.

“Damn it. What terrible timing.”

He pulled it out and answered.

The longer the conversation went on, however, the deeper the crease between his brows became.

“What? The lead actor got behind the wheel drunk, hit someone, and ran?”

His expression darkened.

“We’re only days away from the first shoot! That crazy bastard! What about the press?”

He dragged a hand down his face.

“Fuck. He really manages to do everything, doesn’t he?”

A massive disaster had just erupted at the entertainment company Heeseong ran.

Normally, he could sit comfortably in his office, bark orders at his subordinates, and let them clean up the mess.

But this time, the problem was too serious.

He needed to go to headquarters himself.

Heeseong ground his teeth and looked up at the midsummer sky.

“I really don’t want to go.”

And yet, he had no choice.