Chapter 332 - The Naive And Harmless Woman

As agreed, Halia eventually left the hotel to have lunch with Natalie and Sean. They ended up arriving at Gwangjang market, one of the oldest and largest traditional markets in South Korea.

There were many street food stalls in this market with a variety of popular dishes that the trio wanted to try.

Halia looked around and felt her stomach grumble. "I could try one of everything!" she exclaimed greedily.

"Me too!" Natalie said with a similarly greedy look on her face.

"Tteokbokki?" a middle-aged woman asked as she stirred a pot of rice cake in a spicy red sauce.

"Bindaetteok?" another woman asked as she poured some mung bean pancake batter onto a hot plate.

Meanwhile, a man tried to pull Sean over to show him a little fish tank at the front of his stall. "San-nakji?" he asked as he pointed to the wriggling creatures inside the tank.

Sean bent over and looked inside with surprise. There were a few baby octopus swimming inside the tank. "Pet?" he asked in English.

He then turned to the two girls, "How fascinating, they keep octopus as pets here."

Halia and Natalie looked at the tank and tried to hold back their laughter.

Men often complained that women watched too many brainless romance dramas, but reality proved at that moment that they were actually quite educational. Because, the two women both knew the octopus were not pets... They had seen these octopus in dramas. 

Natalie immediately pulled Sean away. "Honey, that's food," she whispered.

Sean looked at her with curiosity, "It doesn't look very filling. They're so small. How do they serve it? Stir-fried?"

Halia broke into laughter, "They are chopped live and served raw!"

She then pointed to a plate that someone was eating. The tentacles were still wriggling as the man grabbed a piece and put it into his mouth! A bit of the tentacle even clung to his lip like it was refusing to be eaten. It was a local delicacy!

Sean's eyes opened wide in shock. He had eaten sashimi before, but nothing that was still moving!

With a laugh, the two women dragged him to another stall, "Let's eat this instead."

They then started pointing to a few different things. The woman behind the stall quickly nodded her head happily and started preparing the dishes.

Soon, a bowl of fish cake soup, a plate of kimbap, a serving of tteokbokki, a bowl of bibimbap, and a bowl of kalguksu were placed in front of the trio, covering the bench in front of them.

Sean looked at the dishes in surprise. Wow! These two girls sure ordered a lot! Could they even eat it all?

But, while he was thinking this, the two girls already began to shovel the food into their mouths.

"This is so good! Honey, you need to learn how to make this! Your child really likes it," Natalie mumbled with a mouth full of food as she rubbed her stomach. 

Sean laughed, her stomach wasn't even showing yet, how could their child eat this much? 

But, as Sean started eating, he nodded his head with satisfaction. He had to agree that the food was really good. They had a few random Korean restaurants in the big cities back home, but none of them served good, authentic street food like this. The textures and flavors were completely addictive.

Not too far away, a man took a bite of sundae, a type of Korean blood sausage, and stared at Halia. No matter how he looked at it, this woman just looked like a naive, harmless woman. Why did his client offer so much money to capture her? Was she someone important with a lot of money and influence? The amount of money offered was enough to pay for a killing job. But, he was glad. He'd rather eat blood sausage than to have blood on his hands. After all, this was his last job before retiring. It was nice to end on something easy.

He glanced at the woman and man next to Halia and smirked. The woman looked just as harmless as Halia and the man looked smart and neat like a gentleman that had never been in a fight in his life. Even if he took all three of them on at the same time, he was confident he would be able to capture Halia easily. He simply had to wait for an opportunity.

Soon enough, his opportunity arrived. After the trio finished eating, they went to look for the bathroom. Naturally, Sean separated from the two women.

The man that had been following the two women continued to follow them as they entered the women's bathroom. He carefully crept inside behind them, making sure that no one saw him and there was no one else inside. Carefully, he pulled out a knife from his pocket and smirked. He was going to rush straight up to Halia, push the other woman away, and threaten her to follow him with the knife. He had done this many times in the past. It was the most direct and easy method.

He pulled down his cap and placed a face mask on to hide his identity. He then turned the corner and charged...

But, just as he stepped out, a foot met the side of his mouth, followed by another foot against his chest. Before he could react, he dropped his knife in surprise and groaned in pain and surprise. He tried to strike back, but a leg swiped across his feet, tripping him, and causing him to fall on the floor.

"Halia!" Natalie gasped.

A moment ago, when they entered the bathroom, Halia had suddenly told her to step back to a safe distance before she focused her eyes on the entrance with a fighting stance. Natalie didn't understand what was happening, but before she managed to ask, a man rushed around the corner with a knife!

Halia launched off her feet, spun her body smoothly, and threw a roundhouse kick at the man, knocking his mouth and chest. She then followed it with a swipe across the man's feet, tripping him before he even knew what had happened.

"Why have you been following us?!" Halia asked threateningly as she picked up the man's knife and pointed it at him.

The man gripped his chest in pain and looked at Halia in shock. What just happened?