Ramiro waited outside for a long time, only hearing Leo’s shout of “Jigab.”
After a while, there was no sound, just a few heavy thuds in the alley, like sacks being knocked over.
“Is he okay?” Ramiro asked, pretending to be concerned.
Chloe, however, said calmly, “He’s fine. He might just want to play for a while.”
Ramiro didn’t expect such an answer from Chloe and couldn’t help but glance at her a few more times.
At this moment, someone walked out of the alley, their upper body still shrouded in shadow.
Ramiro tensed up. At this time, anyone coming out of the alley was likely one of those thugs. He grabbed Chloe’s hand and retreated, unwilling to confront them.
Although he was a director at the Pear Blossom Institute, his title only held sway at banquets. It was useless in this dark alley against thugs.
Chloe shook off Ramiro’s hand and ran towards the shadow.
“Be careful,” Ramiro called out anxiously.
But he saw that the person who emerged was Leo.
Leo was holding dozens of wallets, one even slipped and fell to the ground.
“Sorry, they might not understand. When I said ‘Jigab,’ they handed over all their wallets. I didn’t know which one was yours, so I took them all.”
Chloe laughed, “The pink one is mine. Can’t you recognize it?”
Halfway through her sentence, she saw that the wallets Leo held were of various kinds.
It turned out that the thugs had handed over wallets they had stolen from others too. No wonder Leo couldn’t recognize Chloe’s wallet.
His Korean wasn’t fluent enough to explain to the thieves that he only needed Chloe’s wallet.
Chloe picked up her wallet from the pile.
Ramiro was shocked and almost wanted to walk into the alley to see what had happened.
It couldn’t be that Leo kept repeating “Jigab,” and the thugs just handed over their wallets, right?
Since when did Korean thugs have such high standards?
Chloe cheered as she found her pink wallet in Leo’s arms.
She opened it, didn’t count the cash but checked the inner pocket. Finding the photo still there, she breathed a sigh of relief, pressed the photo to her chest, and closed her eyes without speaking for a long time.
Leo was still troubled about what to do with the other wallets. He couldn’t return them; they were stolen goods.
As he pondered, Chloe suddenly threw her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
Leo was stunned.
“Thank you, Leo,” Chloe said, letting go and walking away.
Leo stood there with dozens of wallets, still in a daze.
Ramiro’s face turned pale. He felt half hatred and half jealousy.
He hated that his foreign goddess had kissed that guy’s face and was jealous that if he had retrieved Chloe’s wallet, that kiss might have been his.
Ramiro gave Leo a cold look and turned to leave.
Leo was troubled by the wallets.
After this incident, Chloe and the others lost interest in shopping.
Ramiro called his driver to take Chloe and Leo back to the Pear Blossom Institute while he left to prepare for the banquet.
Back at the institute, Chloe let out a long sigh.
“What’s wrong?” Leo asked, thinking Chloe was sighing about her stolen wallet.
“I have to wear those troublesome hanboks again,” Chloe pouted.
“Aren’t you wearing them yourself? Is someone forcing you?” Leo asked curiously.
“Of course someone is forcing me. Davon said we should follow local customs in Korea and make a good impression on our partners. So he made me wear hanbok. Why doesn’t he wear it himself!?” Chloe complained as she walked to her room.
Leo was about to go to his room to tidy up when Chloe suddenly called out, “Leo, why don’t you wear hanbok too?”
“Hmm?”
“It’s boring if I’m the only one!” Chloe seemed excited about her idea. She ran over, hooked her arm around Leo’s, and pleaded, “Will you wear it too?”
“Me?” Leo pointed at himself. “That’s impossible.”
Chloe stomped her foot and went back to her room.
Seeing Chloe not pestering him anymore, Leo sighed in relief. He shook his arms and went back to his room to lie down when there was a knock on the door.
Leo opened it to find Dakota standing there.
Dakota looked drunk, his face flushed with several lipstick marks on his neck. He seemed to have had a great time outside.
“It’s time to go, Dr. Bloomer,” Dakota said with a slight slur, still smiling widely.
Leo admired Dakota for having such a good time with his broken Korean. It seemed he had hooked up with many women. If there was more time, Leo would have liked to ask about it.
“Are you going out like that?” Dakota noticed Leo’s clothes for the first time.
Leo looked down at his shirt and jeans.
“It’s fine. No one will pay attention to me anyway. As long as you’re there to hold the fort,” Leo teased.
Dakota’s eyes squinted into slits as he laughed at Leo’s words.
Leo tidied up a bit and went out with Dakota.
Davon was also dressed in new clothes but still looked like an upgraded version of a scruffy old man. Standing next to Dakota, they made quite a pair.
Leo’s eyes fell on Chloe sitting at a stone table in the courtyard like a white lotus flower.
Her Korean dress was large and round like a blooming lotus in a pond. Chloe looked both ethereal and worldly beautiful in her white attire.
Sitting between Davon and Dakota made her look even more elegant.
Even though it was his second time seeing her like this, Leo’s heart still skipped a beat.
“Ahem, let’s go,” Davon coughed dryly, seemingly reminding Leo.
Leo snapped back to reality and walked out to cover his momentary distraction.
The welcome banquet was held in a large courtyard at the Pear Blossom Institute. Though it was a ancient-style courtyard, everything was arranged in Western style.
As guests passed by Leo, they instinctively kept their distance from him since even the waiters dressed better than him.
Leo didn’t care much. His eyes were fixed on the trays of exquisite pastries, eager to grab some food first.