TKFT 27

Chapter – 27

“—Mr. Cha Yugeon? What are you doing over there? Still haven’t fixed that creepy habit of snooping through other people’s diaries? Peeking at others again?”

Startled, Jian looked this way and asked.

W-What…? The person behind you wasn’t me?

“What? The person behind me is Mr. Cha Yugeon? What are you talking about? This is the person I love.”

Only then did Yugeon clearly see the man holding Jian in his arms.

It was that bastard—her company’s CEO—the one Jian used to smile so prettily at.

He was smirking down at Yugeon from the audience seats.

“I told you. The person I love is someone much more wonderful than Mr. Cha Yugeon. He and I communicate so well, and he’s so kind.”

Jian sneered as well.

“So please don’t compare him to someone totally pathetic like you, Mr. Cha Yugeon, who snoops through other people’s diaries. Okay? Understood?”

“…Mr. …Yugeon!”

“Gah—!”

Yugeon jolted awake at the sound of someone calling him.

“Mr. Yugeon! Are you okay?”

Jian’s worried face filled his vision as she looked down at him.

Still dazed, Yugeon glanced around.

It was his bedroom. Not the damned pottery wheel.

So what he had just seen—it had been a dream.

“Haah…!”

He wiped his face dry and let out a deep sigh.

He felt relieved knowing it was a dream, yet even now, the sticky remnants of it clung unpleasantly to his mind.

“Look at all this sweat on your forehead… Did you have a bad dream?”

Jian asked, still looking concerned as she wiped his sweat with the sleeve of her pajamas.

She had been sleeping soundly in his broad, firm chest when she woke to his groaning—“ngh… ugh…”—and the sight of his face twisted in pain even in his sleep had driven away her drowsiness completely.

“No…”

He couldn’t exactly say, “In my dream, you were making pottery with that bastard and calling me totally pathetic.”

He checked the time. It was earlier than his usual waking hour.

Telling Jian to go back to sleep, Yugeon went to his study instead. There was no way he could fall back asleep.

“To have such a damn nightmare.”

It felt as if someone were mocking his confidence from last night—that if she had been awake, she would have fallen for him.

“Haah… I really need to hurry.”

The key thing he had forgotten all this time—

To give Mr. Sunyoung a great-grandchild.

…And to do that, he would have to win Eun Jian’s heart.

Once he achieved all his goals.

Once that happened.

Then this heart of his, which kept making a chaotic mess because of Eun Jian, would finally find peace.

Right…? That’s how it works, right?

Yes. It must be.

Jian seemed to be getting healthier too, so now was truly the time to step on the gas.

Morning came, and after the holiday, the world returned to its normal rhythm.

After work, Jian and Yugeon had dinner together as usual.

Yugeon had resolved to dazzle her with flashy flirting from now on.

He was just about to ask her if she wanted to go for a drive over the weekend—

But Jian spoke first.

“Oh, right. Next Friday and Saturday, I’m going on a one-night, two-day volunteer trip with my company. I thought I should tell you in advance.”

“Volunteer trip?”

“Yes. We’re doing talent donations to support the emotional well-being of elderly people in rural areas. The whole company is going.”

Companies often engage in donations and volunteer work to fulfill their social responsibilities.

Since Jian’s company was a pottery company, they had apparently planned something like a one-day ceramics class.

But one night and two days?

That meant he would have to be apart from Jian the entire time.

Even though he knew it was work-related, a surge of dislike rose within him.

Suppressing his true feelings, Yugeon asked,

“…Where are you going?”

“To Chungnam…”

It was a region familiar to Yugeon.

It was Sunyoung’s hometown, and where Lee Sunja—Sunyoung’s younger sister and Yugeon’s grandaunt—lived.

Normally, they visited Sunja during holidays as well, but this Chuseok she had gone on a Southeast Asia trip with some neighborhood grandmothers.

Now that I think about it, I should call Lady Sunja sometime soon.

“Okay, I—”

Yugeon nodded, then froze.

“Wait. A company volunteer trip…? Then in the dream, when Eun Jian was making pottery with that CEO bastard…”

The dawn nightmare flashed back, and a sense of crisis washed over him.

Why does she keep getting tangled up with that CEO?

Inside Yugeon, two selves began fighting fiercely.

The childish, reckless self that wanted to shout at her not to go.

And the mature adult self that understood the importance of social life.

Jian stared at him with a puzzled expression, as if asking, What’s wrong?

“You can’t… not go, right?”

Unlike a simple company dinner, this was a full one-night, two-day trip. And right after that nightmare.

He desperately didn’t want to send her.

“Um… no. Unless something special comes up. Why? Do you have something that weekend?”

He didn’t.

Chuseok had just ended yesterday.

They had already visited both sides of the family.

“No. It just sounds tiring, going all the way through Saturday. Social responsibility is good and all, but shouldn’t employees be happy first? If Eun Jian ends up exhausted, what’s the point? Hm? Don’t you think?”

He brought that up half-heartedly.

“Oh, come on. It’s for a good cause, and it’s only once in a while. We’ll be busy running the program Friday afternoon and Saturday during the day, but Friday night we’re going to grill barbecue at the lodging and have fun together. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Completely unaware of his inner turmoil, Jian smiled brightly.

As a newcomer to the workforce, this was Jian’s first job, and she hadn’t been there long.

Of course she would be excited about something like that.

Seeing her anticipation like a child before a picnic, Yugeon couldn’t insist any further.

Perhaps because of the anxiety caused by Jian’s upcoming trip—

The nightmare Yugeon had dismissed as a one-time thing returned again that night.

In the dream, Jian was once more making pottery while being back-hugged by that CEO bastard.

And when Yugeon, nothing more than “Audience Member #1,” protested to the production company about why he wasn’t the male lead, she sneered and said,

“Because Mr. Cha Yugeon is totally pathetic!”

“Ughhh—!”

He groaned and woke up again.

The sound startled Jian awake as well.

“E-Eun Jian…! You’re really Eun Jian, right?”

Holding her small face in both hands, he asked urgently.

There was no mocking smile.

No clay-stained hands overlapping with that man’s.

“Uuh… y-yes… it’s me…”

With both cheeks squished by his hands, Jian answered in a fish-like pout.

Only then did Yugeon sigh in relief.

It was just a dream.

“You had another nightmare? What kind of dream was it…? Was I in it?”

“…No. It’s nothing. Sorry for waking you again. Go back to sleep.”

“Are you sure you’re okay? If you think you might have another nightmare, I could… hold your hand?”

Yugeon was about to refuse out of embarrassment—

Then changed his mind.

“…Then, would you?”

He didn’t know if that would really stop the nightmares.

But at least one of her hands—

The one that had overlapped with that bastard’s in his dream—

He wanted to claim for himself.

Even if, in her life, he was nothing more than a spectator.