Chapter – 27
I felt like spitting out water I wasn’t even drinking.
“Who?”
“The person here is Director Do Ihyun. This is really a secret.”
Hearing such ridiculous words, I felt as if the neural circuit that should have responded normally to the other person’s words had completely short-circuited.
“…Really?”
“Please ask me for relationship advice later.”
After whispering that in a mumbling voice, O Assistant Manager moved away from my seat.
I was confused about how to take this. Was there another person here with the name Do Ihyun?
Suddenly, his cold face and that characteristic, cynical expression came to mind.
No matter how I thought about it, the sentences “Do Ihyun likes someone” or “Do Ihyun is doing well with someone” didn’t easily fit together.
After work, I stood for a long time in the garden because I didn’t want to pile up the stuffy feeling in my room.
The cold wind and the refreshing air entering through the tip of my nose seemed to wash away some of the pressure pressing down in my head.
My heart was complicated. I also felt an indescribable sense of guilt toward the bereaved family of the president of EcoBlue.
Maybe because of my selfishness, I was becoming blind and slowly abandoning the things I should do as a decent human being.
And also…
My endless thoughts stopped when the door opened with a low metallic sound.
Footsteps with large strides were walking toward me. My heart started beating in rhythm with those steps.
“Why are you here?”
Today, he was Do Ihyun, carrying a particularly strong smell of cigarette smoke.
“Just. To organize my thoughts.”
“Looks like you have quite a lot to sort out.”
“Kind of. By the way, really—”
“I guess I’ve been seeing you more often lately,” was the line I swallowed by biting my lip.
If I said that, it would look like I was constantly paying attention to Do Ihyun’s existence.
“Sort out your thoughts all you want and go inside.”
Do Ihyun turned around without hesitation, without even a hint of lingering.
Does O Assistant Manager really like someone like that?
“…Do you happen to have someone you’re seeing?”
I didn’t intend to ask. But sometimes there are words that, if not spoken, feel like they will explode from inside.
Do Ihyun’s face, as he turned back around, showed an expression after a long time—something resembling an actual expression.
“Are you talking to me?”
“Aren’t it just you and me here, Mr. Do Ihyun?”
The eyes beneath Do Ihyun’s thick eyebrows darkened gradually, and his face became noticeably serious.
“When did it start?”
“What did?”
“Are you having nonsense come out of your head because of that head injury? How long has it been like this?”
If his voice hadn’t been so genuinely serious, I would have thought he was being sarcastic as usual.
“I’m perfectly fine, you know?”
“You don’t look fine at all.”
His dark eyes fell onto my face as if marking every single spot.
Each place his gaze landed felt hot, as if burned by fire.
“Since I’m fine, answer me. Do you have someone you’re seeing?”
“Why are you curious about that?”
Because there’s a woman next to me who says she’s doing well with you.
But I had no intention of spreading unverified rumors like a childhood folk song.
“You answer first. Why are you curious?”
Pale, hazy moonlight began to drift between me and Do Ihyun like a curtain.
Standing under it, Do Ihyun looked like a threatening male predator today.
Was it because I was overwhelmed by that strange atmosphere, or was it really a post-head-injury aftereffect?
“…Because you’re handsome?”
Ridiculous nonsense came out.
Do Ihyun didn’t move, maintaining the same posture as before and just looking at me. No, was he glaring?
“No other meaning. I’m just saying it objectively. You’re quite good-looking, so it wouldn’t be strange if you were seeing someone. Pure curiosity… that’s all.”
Just when I started seriously wondering whether I should blame it on head injury aftereffects,
Do Ihyun, whose expression was impossible to read, finally opened his mouth.
“No.”
A clean, unembellished answer. That was all.
Hearing Do Ihyun’s answer, I felt the tight muscles in my heart loosen. It was a strange, unidentified sense of relief.
“Do you have someone you’re seeing, Ms. Yuminha?”
“Me? Are you curious about that?”
“Yes. I am curious.”
I started to feel conscious of the distance that had noticeably shortened between Do Ihyun and me.
“And I’m also curious why Ms. Yuminha is curious about me.”
The gap between us, which had grown closer, was now filled with the faint curtain of moonlight.
“I’m sorry. I asked something unnecessary. I wasn’t trying to interfere with your privacy or anything like that.”
Thinking it would be better not to get any closer, I slowly stepped back from where I was standing.
“Ms. Yuminha.”
Do Ihyun’s low voice grabbed the edge of my clothing as I turned around.
“You haven’t answered yet.”
“No. I don’t either.”
Ending my slightly trembling answer, his voice no longer held me back.
Today, O Assistant Manager looked unusually excited.
More precisely, I kept thinking about the meaning behind what O Assistant Manager said—that I was doing well with Do Ihyun.
Of course, it was none of my business who Do Ihyun was dating, sleeping with, or seeing.
And since he said it himself that it wasn’t true, there was no reason for me to keep paying attention to that topic.
However, O Assistant Manager’s flushed expression looked sincere enough that I couldn’t think she was lying.
So I couldn’t stop being bothered by it.
Still, if he really did have someone he was seeing, wouldn’t it be better to know?
Conveniently, the pile of files in the corner that looked burdensome to O Assistant Manager gave me an excuse to approach her.
“Let me help.”
“Oh, it’s okay…! Thank you.”
“If there’s something like this in the future, let’s do it together. It’s not easy doing it alone.”
I gave her an awkward smile.
She worked in administrative and management duties here, and because of her small, thin body, she seemed especially out of place at Seongjin Capital.
Why did she join Seongjin Capital, among so many places where she could do office work? Was it because of the relatively good salary?
“You’re very kind, Assistant Manager Yu.”
Her small, soft voice required me to lean closer to hear it.
“By the way, what was that story about the director you mentioned earlier?”
“Oh, I just haven’t seen him much lately because he seems busy.”
“Do you two meet often?”
“Yes, sometimes when he’s not busy, I ask him to show his face. From afar, though.”
“From afar?”
“Do you want to meet together next time?”
Her story was hard to follow.
Just as I wanted to dig deeper into my conversation with her, an unexpected guest arrived.
“Minha?”
A voice that refreshed the space. It was Kim Geon.
“Team Leader!”
It was fast. O Assistant Manager, who had been sitting close to me, stood up in an instant and approached Kim Geon.
“Why haven’t you come recently!”
“Sorry, I should visit more often thinking of you, O Assistant Manager.”
The two looked quite close.
“I came to borrow Minha for a moment.”
O Assistant Manager’s expression stiffened the moment she heard Kim Geon’s words. Her stiffened face looked unfamiliar as she stared at me.
Kim Geon took me out, saying he needed to check something regarding the accident in the storage room.
Owing to the paler-than-usual face of the team leader and O Assistant Manager who kept watching me until the end, I could feel the increasingly strange atmosphere of my daily life.
“Where are we going?”
In the elevator, Kim Geon pressed the basement first floor without hesitation.
“Go check the storage room where you were locked before.”
“I heard that place was closed off.”
Ding— the elevator chime stopped briefly on some upper floor.
When the door opened, several men with short-cropped hair that made them look more intimidating stood in front of the elevator.
There was no choice. Just imagining being in that cramped space with them made my heart start racing uncontrollably, and my body stiffened naturally.
The memory of the dull hand that once flew toward my face and the smell of tobacco clinging to it wouldn’t let me go.
The men who were about to enter the elevator saw Kim Geon beside me and lowered their heads in loud voices.
“Sir!”
“Yeah, hello. Going up?”
“Yes? Ah… well…”
“Just get lost.”
Kim Geon pressed the close button, and the door closed with a heavy sound.
My stiff body slowly began to relax.
“If it doesn’t work,”
Kim Geon’s low voice filled the elevator instead of the gangsters as he turned back to me.
“Make it work.”
With a jingling sound, a heavy bunch of keys slipped out from Kim Geon’s pocket.
