Chapter 20

She wandered, walking until late at night. Kyung-won sent several messages, but she ignored them all. The debt was paid off, and she didn’t want to talk to Kyung-won.

She kept walking until her feet hurt. She thought she was wandering aimlessly, but eventually her steps led her to the backyard of Ryu Gil-jae.

…It was her inevitable home. She’d wanted to leave for a long time, and soon she really could.

She’d grown up in this backyard. She’d played with Ryu-il here, received his notebooks, written him letters when he was in the army, and… passed through this backyard on her way to his room.

After s*x, she’d avoided the dawn light by returning along the short path shaded by beautiful trees in the backyard. Every step brought tears. From now on, she’d never walk this path to approach him, nor walk it to return.

Now, she couldn’t cry anymore. After her first step into Ryu-il’s room, she’d cried so much, but now her tears had dried up as if by magic.

Should she contact Ryu-il… But she didn’t have his number. And if she’d learned about all this from Ga-yeon, then Ryu-il surely already knew.

Lost in thought, she noticed someone standing before her. It was one of Ryu Gil-jae’s attendants.

“Miss Hee-won.”

She quietly lifted her head. Ignoring her dazed expression, he spoke.

“The Chairman is calling for you.”

Chairman Ryu Won-jong…

A mountain-like figure who built Wigang. The master and emperor of Ryu Gil-jae, even her mother, who worked for him, had never looked him in the eye.

But now he’d called for her. It was almost unbelievable. At the same time, she could immediately guess the reason.

She left her bag and textbooks on a backyard bench and rose wearily. Following the taciturn attendant, she entered the Chairman’s domain for the first time.

“Chairman, this is Lee Il-hoon. I’ve brought Jung Hee-won.”

The man, introducing himself as Il-hoon, bowed as if before a Joseon king and opened the door. She awkwardly entered.

She met Won-jong’s eyes as he sat in his chair. Even in his seventies, he radiated a tiger-like vigor. Yet, she felt no fear—only calm, as if something inside her was broken.

She thought how his fierce eyes resembled Ryu-il’s, and quietly bowed to him.

“I’m Jung Hee-won, Chairman. I heard you called for me.”

He didn’t tell her to sit. She stood as if being punished. Won-jong looked her up and down, clicking his tongue in disapproval.

“You were close with Ryu-il when you were young?”

“…That was a long time ago. After I turned eight, we weren’t close.”

“I figured as much. If you had been, you and your mother would have been kicked out.”

Won-jong clearly hadn’t known about her until now. He hadn’t paid much attention to Ryu-il either, only showing interest when he started to stand out. So he wouldn’t know about Ryu-il’s childhood.

“Of all my children, Han-jo was the best. Until he got a housekeeper seven years his senior pregnant.”

Han-jo was Ryu-il’s father. She bit her lip and lowered her eyes. She’d heard Han-jo was demoted for marrying against his father’s wishes, but not that his wife was seven years older and had been a housekeeper.

“I told him to get rid of it, but he insisted on marrying and having the child. That child is Ryu-il. And he died early because of his wife.”

She’d heard he died in a car accident on the way to visit his father-in-law. But Won-jong blamed it all on Ryu-il’s mother, saying if it hadn’t been for her, Han-jo wouldn’t have gone to the provinces.

“As Ryu-il grew, he resembled Han-jo more and more, which made me uneasy. So I told him, if he shows a different side in marriage than his father, I’ll give him Wigang in his father’s place.”

To give Wigang…

The meaning of those words was enormous. But right now, it felt like a story from another world.

It was a different world from hers. No matter what she did, she was just a pawn who didn’t know where she was going.

“The first part was Wigang Home Shopping. The one Han-jo built up after getting demoted.”

Piecing together all the context, she realized the marriage with Lee Min-hee was more significant than she’d thought. It was a symbolic proposal from Won-jong to Ryu-il.

“But he ended up just like his father… Tsk.”

Won-jong didn’t seem interested in having a real conversation, and corporate management was not her field. She’d never even interned at a company, and was too worn out to follow the news.

“…I have something to say.”

But she felt she had to speak.

“Actually, President Ryu Ga-yeon…”

She barely managed to speak in a shaky voice.

“You think I wouldn’t know that?”

Won-jong cut her off immediately.

“You think I wouldn’t find out you and Ryu-il were close as kids?”

“…”

“Whatever means were used, if it succeeded, that’s Ga-yeon’s skill. Who recognizes fair defeat on the battlefield? The one who loses is at fault.”

It was chilling—he sounded exactly like Ryu-il.

“Ah… But sometimes it’s not just ability—luck or tricks could be involved…”

“Not falling for that is part of ability. Only results matter; good and evil don’t mean anything.”

Thinking back to her own words, Hee-won felt even more foolish. She herself had been a trap for him, so what was she worrying about or trying to comfort? The absurdity made her want to laugh.

“Now that the engagement is nullified, I can’t give the home shopping business to Ryu-il.”

How much weight did those words carry? She’d never even freely bought a thing from home shopping, so she couldn’t grasp its value.

“Ryu-il is leaving the country tonight. I told him to go to the Dubai site for a while, because I don’t want to see his face.”

She stood still like a doll. Won-jong got up and walked to the window, not even glancing at her as he spoke.

“How much do you want?”

His voice was cold as ice.

“How much to settle things, I mean.”

Settle…

Was there anything to settle between them?

She was the one who kept seeking him out, the one who begged for his embrace, relying on fleeting pleasure. Their relationship would end the moment she stopped seeking him.

She’d watched similar scenes in dramas and joked with her mom, “Hey, I’d take that money and break up right away!” But at least those women in front of the envelope were lovers. She wasn’t even that—her relationship with him didn’t even have a name.

“You don’t need to give me anything.”

But she wanted to keep her dignity. She didn’t need to pay off debt anymore, and the moment of joy she’d felt at being debt-free was enough for her.

“We’re not a relationship that needs to be settled.”

She thought that no matter how hard her life became, she wouldn’t regret this moment.

“I sincerely apologize to Senior Executive Director Ryu-il.”

At the mention of his name, a wave rose deep in her chest. Among all her tangled emotions, the strongest was guilt.

More than being deceived by Kyung-won, more than resenting her mother for dragging her into this, more than her own helplessness and foolishness, she worried most about having caused harm to Ryu-il.

It was a truly stupid thought.

Even now, Ryu-il was probably sitting in a luxury sedan, eating the finest food, flying first class to hotels she couldn’t imagine. Won-jong sending him overseas meant he would keep working in construction—he would live unbelievably well.

Yet, a penniless university senior like her was worrying about him. She couldn’t even grasp what it meant, but she felt so miserable that he couldn’t get the home shopping business because of her.

The answer was simple. She was never someone who matched him, and because she didn’t know what her actions would cause, this had happened. People who should have lived separately got tangled up. The backyard was her territory, but she’d crossed a line she didn’t understand.

Even in her muddled mind, she tried to see the essence clearly. If she cut everything away, it was simple.

Because of a moment’s impulse, she’d embraced him, and now he couldn’t get the home shopping business.

By using others as an excuse to embrace him, she’d harmed the love that was precious to her.

“A clever girl who’d liked Ryu-il from the start would have joined Wigang and at least become his secretary, but you didn’t even do that…”

Won-jong spoke with his hands behind his back.

“Be clear. What do you want?”

What did she want…?

She didn’t know what it meant to be asked that question here…

Finally, tears welled up in her eyes.

Maybe it was something she’d wanted since childhood. She’d always wanted it, watching him. From the first time she called him ‘Young Master’ and he didn’t react, to the time she bravely sent a letter and got the reply ‘Don’t visit me,’ she’d always held onto that wish.

Looking up at high places made her neck ache. Staring at something dazzling made her feel she’d go blind. No matter how hard she tried, she ended up wandering, unable to reach it, and eventually lost herself.

“I… from the beginning…”

Tears quietly slid down her cheeks.

“…wanted to live a life unrelated to all this.”

Even after living at Ryu Gil-jae, even after holding its young master in her heart.

She’d rather be far away than beneath him.

“With Wigang, with Senior Executive Director Ryu-il… I wanted a life completely unrelated…”

Won-jong, who hadn’t looked at her, slowly turned and stared at her. His large pupils fixed on her.

Time passed. The silence stretched.

“Leave.”

At his sigh-like command, she turned and left, almost collapsing.