Chapter 26

He strode forward, barely aware of himself, and began the departure procedures. Soon the last call sounded. He picked up a few financial newspapers and sat down, his mind blank.

—I… from the beginning… wanted to live a life unrelated to all this. With Wigang, with Senior Executive Director Ryu-il… I wanted a life completely unrelated…

Had he really not known? Had he truly not understood her heart?

Maybe the notebooks he’d handed her, thinking she might become a junior colleague, were never useful to her. She’d never once imagined a future that included him.

The flutter he’d glimpsed in her eyes as a high schooler was just a fleeting fantasy of an adolescent girl. The letters she’d sent while he was in the army were just kindness to a young man fulfilling his military duty.

All that faint goodwill had ended long ago, and she had simply, for the sake of paying off her debt, forced herself into the arms of a man she didn’t want.

“I mean, I’m human too, so I guess I wanted to watch movies, eat, celebrate important days with a boyfriend, like my college friends do. But… it just wasn’t possible.”

Now that she was free from debt, maybe she’d be able to date another man properly. Perhaps with him, she wouldn’t cry at night. That thought made him curse under his breath.

Her heart had always been perfectly clear, so why had he expected anything? Was it because their s*x was so devastatingly ecstatic? Because the beach walks felt dreamy? Because sometimes, in her gaze, he saw something like innocence?

Or… was it just because he wanted to hope for something with her?

Ryu-il groaned and closed his eyes. Suddenly, all his questions seemed pointless.  

‘Jung Hee-won…’  

There was no need to circle around. He already knew the truth.  

There was no special reason for her not coming to the airport.  

She just didn’t want to.  

So everything else became clear too. The reason he’d hoped she would come wasn’t because of some grand emotion, but simply because he wanted her to.  

‘…Jung Hee-won…’  

There was a reason why Won-jong hadn’t bothered to ask about his feelings. He already knew.  

‘I… I…’  

Only now, flying through the night sky, did he finally admit it to himself.  

‘You…’  

The reason he secretly waited for her every night, the reason he pushed her so cruelly until she said, “I want you, Senior Executive Director,” again and again, the reason her miserable sobbing after s*x always made him angry and resentful, the reason he couldn’t stop those self-destructive nights—  

He loved her.  

So he’d kept testing and testing her heart, hoping to find even a tiny piece of sincerity in the midst of obvious exploitation. But he could never find it, so all he had left was pride.  

It was only now, when she had used him for everything and left him so miserably, that he finally realized it.

* * *

A few months later, Dubai.  

Faint smoke drifted in the air. Ryu-il’s eyes were hollow as he looked out over the construction site. Everything was going smoothly; nothing was bothering him. He stubbed out a short cigarette and lit another.  

Nothing was getting resolved. Despite having told Won-jong to quit, Ryu-il had become a heavy smoker in no time. At night, he often drank alone.  

Women, cigarettes, alcohol—these were the three things Ryu-il had never understood in others. He’d never known why people got addicted to things that hurt them. Now, as he was swept up in all three, he was growing more humble about life.  

But most of all, women… meaning Jung Hee-won. The memory of her, someone he could neither touch nor see, tormented him the most.

“Jung Hee-won and her mother left Ryu Gil-jae the morning after you left for overseas. They’ve been confirmed to be living in a small rented apartment on the outskirts of Seoul.”

In the blazing sun, smoke drifted deep into his body again. Hee-won had left a note in Ryu-il’s room that day. It explained she hadn’t known about Ryu Ga-yeon’s involvement, thought it was Lee Min-hee’s doing, and apologized sincerely for what happened with Wigang Home Shopping.  

Why she’d approached him didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was that she didn’t want to be near him.

“She graduated university with good grades. Jo Mi-sook and Choi Young-gil attended the ceremony to congratulate her.”

“…Choi Young-gil?”

“One of the drivers at Ryu Gil-jae. He remarried Jo Mi-sook. He’s also suspected to have provided information about Ryu Gil-jae to Jung Hee-won.”

Months had passed since he started tracking her life, wanting to live a life unrelated to Wigang.  

She finally seemed to be moving forward energetically, as if she’d escaped whatever had held her back.

“She’s working as a supervising pharmacist at a pharmacy in D region.”

“Details.”

“It’s a small country pharmacy. She’s covering for the director, who’s going to America for two years. She’s using the director’s house.”

“She went all the way down there?”

“The pay isn’t high, but since there’s no hospital nearby, the pharmacy doesn’t get a lot of prescriptions, so it’s leisurely. Maybe… she just wanted to rest. She must have been very tired.”

Indeed, looking at the data Sungjun had gathered, Hee-won had lived fiercely. She’d taken leaves of absence as often as meals, tutored several students, and anxiously chased scholarships every semester.

He hadn’t known any of Hee-won’s time spent running on her own path. He’d always taken it for granted that she’d be like a picture in the backyard at Ryu Gil-jae.

“Senior Executive Director.”

Lost in thought, he heard Sungjun approach again.

“There are instructions from the Chairman. He says you’ve been away from Wigang Construction for too long, so prepare to return to Korea.”

Ryu-il looked at the nearly completed building, report in hand. The massive Dubai project commissioned by Wigang Construction was wrapping up.

He’d expected Won-jong would call him around now.

“This project’s results are so good, the media is going crazy. There’s a request for an interview. They want to write an article about your career.”

Sungjun handed over another interview proposal.

Scanning it, Ryu-il saw dry details like “entered business school, double majored in architecture after military service, became Executive Director of Wigang Construction after MBA.” The expected questions included “Why did you choose a different branch than your father?” which made him feel disgusted, and he answered brusquely,

“Just pass.”

“Then I’ll have you give brief answers to only simple questions and pass them on to the PR team.”

As if he had expected this, Sungjun took back the proposal and continued,

“You’re leading all these projects to success—if you could share what you consider most important when reviewing such projects, it would help college students aiming for careers at Wigang Construction.”

“Hmm…”

Ryu-il folded his arms and thought silently. Then he answered slowly,

“I think of Ryu Gil-jae.”

“…Pardon?”

“Spring, summer, fall, winter—Ryu Gil-jae is beautiful in every season. It has its own charm as time passes, so anyone who stays there can always admire it…”

He paused, then laughed quietly, remembering something.

“You always started with the weather at Ryu Gil-jae.”

“Oh, right. I learned somewhere that letters should start with the weather.”

During his army days, he didn’t know what he wanted to do. There were many branches in Wigang, but he couldn’t guess where he’d end up. But as the only relative admitted to Korea University’s business school, he was confident Won-jong would place him where he wanted.

Back then, he received letters from Hee-won.

“Spring has come to you, it’s so pretty. When you are covered in snow it is so romantic. The autumn leaves make it so colorful these days…”

“Ryu Gil-jae isn’t my house, but the people who made a place like this are amazing…”

“You are the most wonderful place I’ve ever seen. It’s silly, but I feel lucky to have spent my childhood there. Even if I leave someday, I wonder if I’ll ever see a place as nice.”

After his discharge, he impulsively applied for a double major in architecture. He wanted to know why places like Ryu Gil-jae were beautiful, and as he studied, he wanted to create such places himself.

He wanted to fill the world with spaces Hee-won had called beautiful. It was so long ago, and he’d forgotten his first steps while running forward all this time.

“Haha…”

He reached for a cigarette, then stopped, laughing at himself.

He’d watched her for too long. He was only four years older, but had ignored all his feelings just for being the first to become an adult. He’d thought endlessly about the little girl who’d drawn a line for him. He’d always looked down at the backyard from his room, but never really understood his own heart.

In fact, he’d decided the direction of his life because of a few words from that girl.

He couldn’t grant her wish to live a life unrelated to him. Because he’d never lived a life unrelated to her.

“There’s a resort construction planned in D region, right?”

Ryu-il spoke calmly.

“Prepare to return to that site.”

As always, Sungjun asked nothing. So, after a few months, Ryu-il appeared before Hee-won again.