IDTE 05

Chapter – 05

The man pulled another cigarette from inside his jacket and held it out to me. Instead of answering, I glared at him.

“I knew something was off. I should’ve realized it from the moment you jumped at taking Kim Hyungman’s advisory case.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You planned it all with Do Yihyun from the start, didn’t you? Huh? Pretending to take on the advisory role while snitching behind the scenes? Poor bastard Kim Hyungman is the only one who ended up pitiful.”

This guy had somehow mistaken me and Director Do for some kind of secret lovers of the century.

Of all the misunderstandings I’d received in my life, this was the most absurd.

“I thought maybe I was overthinking it, so I tried gently probing you a bit. And what do you know? That bastard Do Yihyun even sent his people.”

“At that point, it’s just a delusion.”

“There’s something I’m really curious about.”

The acrid cigarette smoke was gradually filling the space.

“Is it money, or is it this? What got you so hot?”

The unpleasant man in front of me began making a filthy gesture.

“…You’re even going to sexually harass me now?”

It felt like the source of that disgusting gaze had no bottom.

“I’m just curious. Those Capital bastards? They do dirty work. You’re a lawyer—why are you hanging around people like that?”

“I’ve told you several times. That’s not it.”

“I knew something stank from the moment those bastards started wiping out everyone else in this field so they could swallow it all for themselves. Not caring whether innocent people die? That all started there.”

“What are you even….”

“Twenty years ago, when those bastards devoured all the other private lenders and started running wild. That’s when I should’ve washed my hands of it.”

A sudden sense of déjà vu hit me. It was a story I’d heard somewhere before—something I definitely knew.

“So, since when have you and Director Do been that kind of relationship?”

“Wait! What was that thing you just said?”

“Damn it, noona! I’m the one asking! Are you trying to dodge the question?”

He stood up, cursing, and started kicking the plastic chairs around him.

I wanted to press him further, but I was certain now that he was someone I couldn’t reason with.

“Why are you ignoring me?! Answer me!”

“Y-You just need to answer! I’m saying this again—I have absolutely nothing going on with Do Yihyun, I swear!”

Only then did the man stop kicking things and face me again. His foul eyes narrowed slightly.

“Really? Then how about this?”

He lifted the flashy watch on his wrist playfully.

“Let’s see if Director Do comes looking for you within thirty minutes.”

“Why would he come here?”

“I left him a message. Told him I was having a very nice meeting with you here.”

“Thirty minutes or whatever—you said it yourself, he’s not coming here.”

“Then I’ll coolly let you go, trusting your word that there’s nothing between you! Okay?”

“You’d better keep that promise.”

“Okay. But if he shows up, that means you screwed us over twice. You’ll take responsibility.”

I almost laughed at how ridiculous this was.

He should realize that the price of not trusting people is wasting his own time and energy on the ground like this.

The man sitting across from me just chain-smoked, chatting idly with the other thugs around him.

I don’t know how much time passed before he looked back at me.

“Five minutes left.”

“I told you he’s not coming. By the way, what you said earlier—”

“This is bullshit.”

His thick palm searched for another cigarette before I could finish speaking.

“This is weird.”

The sound of his thick knuckles cracking echoed sharply—crack.

“Then why were you going in and out of Seongjin Capital? Did Director Do sleep with you once and toss you aside?”

The decibel level of his voice kept rising, growing more unpleasant by the second.

“How many times do I have to say it? I’m not involved with Do Yihyun in any way—”

Bang— From somewhere far away came the sound of something slamming. It was the metal door at the entrance being pounded hard.

No way. The large eyes of the man sitting across from me curved again.

“What? I thought you said no?”

One of the burly men approached the entrance.

“Who is it?”

There was no answer.

“Boss, something seems off—”

That was when it happened. With a grotesque screech of metal tearing, the rusted iron door burst open.

From within a cloud of rust dust, the person who had been pounding on the door revealed himself.

“Huh? Hankyu?”

Someone who seemed to have spotted me from afar began striding toward me without hesitation.

“Miss, so it wasn’t Director Do, it was him? You’ve got unusual taste.”

The man who had appeared out of nowhere had a deep knife scar across his face. Soon, he began grappling with several burly men who rushed at him.

One against many—it looked pretty cowardly.

“Hey! Why are you here?!”

Their fight continued. I’d only ever seen fights like that in movies, but in reality, it wasn’t nearly as cool.

I was staring blankly at their prolonged scuffle when—

“Why is this taking so long?”

A familiar low voice sounded from afar.

The deep voice that echoed through the abandoned building made the humid air seem to dry up in an instant.

“Do I really have to come in and check myself?”

Tall, lean build, a perfectly tailored suit. I could recognize him even from far away. It was Do Yihyun.

“I’m sorry. We’ll finish it right away!”

This was bad. It was Do Yihyun.

“Fuck, Director Do! He actually came?”

Without a word, Do Yihyun strode into the building.

It didn’t seem like he’d taken many steps, yet before we knew it, he was standing in front of the two men locked in chaos.

“Shin Gwanghyuk, do you think I’m a joke?”

“You came to save your woman, huh? So it’s true then.”

“No, this is a misunderstanding. Wait a second!”

This situation was utterly absurd. Why on earth had Do Yihyun shown up here?

Even to me, it looked like the perfect setup for a misunderstanding.

“Yoo Minha, I’ve come to get you.”

“Then why? Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

“I had something to discuss.”

Just when I was seriously beginning to think he’d lost his mind, this messy situation ended in an instant.

Do Yihyun’s fist struck the face of the overweight man named Shin Gwanghyuk, and with a dull thud, he collapsed to the floor in a heap.

In the blink of an eye, the burly men scattered.

Until everything was settled, I remained seated in the cheap plastic chair.

Somewhere, I heard an unpleasant, muttered laugh.

“Heh… noona, what did I tell you? Like hell there’s nothing.”

The Do Yihyun who I had been certain would never appear was now standing off in the distance, smoking a cigarette.

The glass table set upon the cold marble floor looked as though it might shatter at any moment.

Judging by the nameplate on the large office desk that read “Executive Director Do Yihyun,” this cold, desolate room seemed to be his office.

During the entire drive here, he hadn’t said a single word. In the end, I decided to be the first to wave the white flag.

“You remember what you said to me not long ago, right?”

“You mean about not seeing each other again?”

“So you haven’t lost your memory, at least? Then why are you suddenly acting like this toward me?”

“The situation has become quite complicated.”

Do Yihyun pressed two fingers to his temple and rubbed it firmly.

It seemed to be a habit of his whenever he had too much on his mind.

“The old men in the other affiliates have started talking.”

“Talking about what?”

“Some people from Myeongcheon were seen following you. That’s reached their ears. They’re suspecting our relationship.”

“There’s no reason for them to.”

“…I met with you several times while you were Kim Hyungman’s lawyer. We exchanged materials. And on top of that, the fact that I protected you from Myeongcheon got twisted in a strange way. There are even rumors that I’m leaking internal information through you.”

Now I understood why he had been pressing his temple. Just listening to this was making my own head start to ache.

“Then just tell them the truth.”

“If it were that simple, that would be nice. The truth isn’t what matters to those people. What matters is what they want to believe. They just need a plausible excuse to drag me down.”

He stood and walked toward the window attached to the wall.

It looked as though he was trying to distance himself from me somehow.

“We need to settle this before it becomes more troublesome. I need your cooperation, Yoo Minha.”

“What kind of cooperation?”

“Let’s get engaged. You and me.”

I couldn’t understand at all the words he had just thrown at me so abruptly.