Chapter 22 – That Man ⑵

“As soon as President Ryu Ga-yeon’s side guessed the Chairman’s intentions about the marriage between Lee Min-hee and you, Senior Executive Director, they took action.”

The President of Hanju Distribution didn’t want to marry his precious daughter to a man with women problems. Of course, that standard was strictly one-sided, and he didn’t seem to care how his own daughter lived.

“They proposed deals here and there, asking for help in fabricating the Senior Executive Director’s messy private life, and eventually connected with Jung Kyung-won, manager at ‘Ramos Capital.’ After negotiations, Jung Kyung-won contacted Jung Hee-won, and at the same time met with Jo Mi-sook.”

Ryu-il flipped through the report with a blank expression.

Jung Kyung-won. Jung Hee-won’s half-brother. He hadn’t known she had such a person in her life. He’d guessed her family’s finances were bad, seeing her always at Ryu Gil-jae, but he hadn’t realized she’d been burdened with such massive loan shark debt since birth.

‘Ramos Capital’ was a notorious loan shark organization even Ryu-il knew… He was facing Hee-won’s life, crushed by its weight since she was born, through no fault of her own.

His cold gaze scanned the report.

The day before yesterday, Jung Kyung-won met Jung Hee-won on campus in the afternoon. That evening, Hee-won visited Ryu-il’s room for the first time. In twenty years, she’d never done that, not even as a servant, but she came herself, wearing clothes borrowed from the staff. Ridiculously, his body reacted immediately.

Yesterday, she came again with a silly excuse about a notebook, wearing makeup and clothes he’d never seen before. She closed the twenty-year gap in an instant, and he felt desire for her again.

He thought it was the worst he’d ever seen her, but just being close and talking a bit longer made his lower half act up. In the end, he kissed her.

It was clear impulse and l*st, but he didn’t miss how she showed interest in Lee Min-hee’s photo.

So he immediately had Sungjun look into Jung Hee-won. Sungjun reported everything by dawn that day.

“Miss Jung Hee-won, she’s the woman who brought the notebook last night, right?”

Sungjun spoke knowingly.

“You realized right away she was after money, Senior Executive Director. You sensed something was off.”

Ryu-il frowned slightly. Sungjun was very capable and always careful with his words, so Ryu-il trusted him. But that last comment bothered him. He couldn’t quite figure out why, so he murmured,

“…It was odd.”

It was a bland answer, but Sungjun, sensing Ryu-il’s discomfort, didn’t ask further. Ryu-il’s mouth tightened.

Hee-won had definitely been strange for two days. His rational mind had been warning him all along. Hee-won wouldn’t act like this toward him. She’d always kept her distance, wanting to be a stranger. Admitting that oddness was the first thing that bothered him.

To be honest, he’d felt something was off even before he knew the whole story, but he hadn’t wanted to admit it until he saw the report.

“Don’t misunderstand. She’s the woman I got an engagement proposal from, so I did some research.”

He’d tried to excuse himself, not wanting to seem like someone who looked up lewd photos, when he saw Hee-won’s face as she looked at Lee Min-hee and Albert’s picture.

Even as he wondered at her unusual behavior… even in the moment he confided in her when she came to see him…

“They said you were smart, so I figured you’d go into business and aim for the Wigang Foundation management scholarship. I thought you might join as a junior associate.”

He scoffed at himself and closed his eyes for a moment. It was hard to define this unfamiliar negative feeling. Was it anger, depression, or just pathetic? No emotion fit clearly.

The second thing that bothered him was Sungjun’s comment about her coming for money. But he didn’t get angry because the guess was reasonable.

Told to sleep with the man to pay off debt, she’d dressed up and come to his room for the first time in twenty years, made up a silly excuse, and kissed him.

Stripped of emotion, the facts were clear. Sungjun had always spoken objectively, leaving out feelings. That was why Ryu-il kept him close.

“There are quite a few of President Ryu Ga-yeon’s people among the staff at Ryu Gil-jae. ‘Ramos Capital’ also put people on your trail. If anything happens, be careful with photos. Or you could just confront it head-on.”

“Confront it head-on? Why would I?”

Ryu-il leaned his chin on his hand. His face was back to its usual coldness, and he gave a dry laugh.

“Wigang Home Shopping—they could force it on me, but I’d never take it.”

Won-jong seemed desperate to pass on his father’s legacy to Ryu-il, but Ryu-il wasn’t interested. People said he’d overcome his father’s absence and succeeded, but Ryu Han-jo was Han-jo, and Ryu-il was Ryu-il. If he’d wanted to follow his father, he wouldn’t have moved into construction, which was dominated by his uncle’s family.

He had even less interest in marrying someone he’d never met, Lee Min-hee. He wasn’t interested, but everyone else was fighting over giving or taking it away from him.

“Good work. You can go.”

Sungjun didn’t ask anything, just bowed and left the room. Ryu-il stood by the window, looking at the brightening dawn sky. It was the start of another ordinary day; nothing in the world had changed.

Since he’d started rising in Wigang, he’d met many women who tried to tempt him. Some genuinely liked him; others were sent as traps by relatives. He never paid attention, but he wasn’t clueless about how seduction worked.

Like a hunter setting a trap, he wondered what Hee-won would do next. He didn’t even know if he wanted her to get caught. He folded his arms, burying the unanswered question inside.

***

That night. When Hee-won appeared again in that awful makeup and mismatched clothes, with the ridiculous excuse of returning an umbrella, Ryu-il, for the first time, felt the disconnect between his mind and body.

He knew why she’d come, what she was thinking, but couldn’t send her away. Instead, his words came out harsh.

“Who knows. If you do it well, and I like it, maybe. If you’re desperate, just try.”

He was curious whether she’d swallow her pride for money. He almost wished she’d get angry and leave. But Hee-won didn’t run. She just trembled, unable to hide her miserable, hopeless expression.

She looked so pitiful that, even though she was the one coming to him, he felt like he was forcing himself on her. He felt disgusted, but she did her best.

“I’ll… I’ll try again, okay?”

She was so desperate, but every move was a mess. Of all the seductions he’d experienced, none had been so talentless. Even her words were so earnest it didn’t fit the act.

“To be precise… It’s a temporary s*xual act based on impulse and desire, grounded in a fair transaction…”

But it was also the first seduction that made his body react. Ryu-il, almost absurdly, fell for Hee-won’s clumsy attempt. The moment he entered her, he almost felt he’d wanted this sensation for a long time.

A woman he’d watched grow from a child to a girl to an adult. She’d seemed to like him once, but drifted away before he could do anything, making him think it was just a misunderstanding. Now, at last, he reached deep inside the girl who’d always been in the backyard.

Deeper, further… Desire consumed his body, erasing everything else. Why she’d come, why he was there, didn’t matter. Her unfocused eyes, faint m*ans, the way her waist twisted in pleasure, the ecstasy that felt like his head would burst—all of it overtook him. It was like floating in empty air.

He felt reality only when Hee-won quickly disappeared from the room after they finished. Alone, he laughed hollowly. She left like she’d never been there, as if she wanted to get away as fast as possible.

He watched her flee across the backyard to her quarters, feeling complicated. The feeling of having visited heaven vanished in an instant.