Choi Young Do could see her considering her choices, her serious eyes flickering from his smile to the snowy woods beyond him.
He saw the realization dawn that there were actually no choices—just one inevitability. He saw the acceptance, and then the furious wheels turning behind that deceptively fragile façade.
He just waited, hand outstretched, polite smile in place.
After a long moment, in which the air seemed to become perceptibly colder between them, she handed the basket over.
He wrapped his long fingers around the handle. "Not so difficult, was it?" He teased lightly.
"Since you have taken my basket, I assume I am free to leave?"
"Not so fast, my lady." He stepped to her side, and looked out into the scenery, inhaling deeply and thoroughly enjoying himself the most he had in years. "What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't escort you to your destination?" He presented his free arm. She looked at it as if it was diseased. He shook it at her, prompting. She tilted her chin stubbornly away.
"We'll work on that." He let his arm fall to his side. A challenge indeed.
"Gentlemen," she said with icy dignity, "don't steal baskets."
"Entirely wrong." He began moving forwards. "In reality, only a gentleman can pull it off with the required style."
He kept walking, but there were no tell-tale footsteps behind him. He glanced backwards. "Coming?"
Her hands tightly balled against the yellow fabric of her cloak, she was still standing, her indecisive anger visible in the white around the knuckles. He waved the basket, feeling what felt like food and a soju bottle roll around in the bottom.
That jerked her towards him. "You'll spill the soju." She protested.
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?" He tried another experimental jiggle.
That brought her all the way to his side, one arm grabbing his wrist to stop the motion. "Stop."
Her hand was cold, even through the sleeve of his jacket, almost burningly numb, but her breath was hot against his cheek as she exhaled shakily. Amused, he realized she'd fight him if she thought she stood a chance. Maybe even if she thought she didn't. "Aish, you're freezing." He clucked his tongue in reprimand, and shook her off. "Let's get you somewhere warm."
"Such as where?"
He feigned innocent bewilderment. "The Kim household, of course. Where else?"
That knocked the breath out of her. "H-how did you know where I was going?"
He lifted a hand to his heart. "Because I have been sent by them, of course." He lied smoothly, knowing the very slickness of his performance would throw her off-balance. "Lady Kim remembers your mother and her skills with great fondness. She sent me to enquire after her well-being. Imagine my surprise to encounter her daughter walking in the direction from which I've come, attired splendidly and carrying a basket of food. Where else would she be going but to the Kim's? Surely, you don't think me such an idiot to not put two and two together? Really, I'm offended."
Cha Eun Sang was having none of it. "How did you know who I was?"
He let a wicked smile slide free. "Because I have heard Cha Eun Sang described as the most beautiful girl for miles." He leaned down, letting his breath glide across her ear, letting his eyes become intense, his voice an intimate whisper. "I would have to be blind not to recognize you."
She pulled back, wiping a hand across her ear, smearing away his very breath on her. "You're a mad man, aren't you? Aish, you expect me to believe people hire you? To do actual work?"
He laughed. "They pay me in compliments. Mad men need their vanity soothed, you know, and it's cheap pay, when you think about it."
Eun Sang rolled her eyes heavenwards. "Just my luck. A mad man in the woods who won't let me carry my own basket."
"It could be worse." He encouraged. "Just think. I could have been a wolf."
Her eyes flicked sharply to his, and then away, as if he had said something that struck a chord, and he felt a deep thrum of satisfaction. So she had recognized him—maybe just a little, but enough.
"Shall we go? The lady will want to meet you. And as employers go, she is rather demanding."
Eun Sang exhaled sharply, still unwilling to go with him, but her worst fears allayed.
"I'll shake the basket again." He threatened.
"I'll come, I'll come!" She began walking hurriedly.
"Such a good little Cha Eun Sang." Young Do fell into step beside her, matching his length-eating stride to her smaller steps. "Almost trainable."
That earned him another glare from under thick lashes, before she turned her head away, back into the folds of her hood. Her hands were still gripping the side of the cloak, the bright yellow vivid against the white and black of her backdrop.
Young Do glanced up, measuring the time he had left. Enough, he reasoned, to drop Eun Sang off with her basket, do his reconnaissance, and slip back into the forest. He allowed himself a self-satisfied grin.
"So, does my lady look forward to renewing her acquaintance with the Kims?"
Another quick look from the girl beside him before she retired into the hiding space provided by the hood. "What do you mean?"
"Your old friendship with the young lord of the house, of course."
This time she was entirely startled. "Who?"
"Young Master Kim! An old childhood friend, I understand."
"I've never met him in my life." She said shortly.
"Not what I've been led to understand, little Cha Eun Sang." He loaded every possible innuendo he could into the phrase.
At that she truly startled him. Perhaps the first time he'd been startled in fifteen years.
She wheeled sharply on one small heel, delivered a sharp kick to his ankle, and then, leaving him swearing in shock behind her, continued forwards.
She paused and looked back over her shoulder, brown eyes wide and innocent. "Coming?"
