Chapter 8 – That Man 

“……Therefore, the Chairman’s opinion is ultimately about Wigang Home Shopping shares…….”

“Wait.”

With an impassive expression, Ryu-il, who had been listening to Sungjun’s report, gave a low command. Sungjun, commonly called Secretary Yoon, immediately closed his mouth. Ryu-il slowly crossed the room and slightly pulled back the curtain near the bookshelf.

Ryu-il quietly looked down through the small window. There was a large window on another wall that let in plenty of light, so Sungjun found Ryu-il’s behavior odd, but did not show it. He served Ryu-il more closely than anyone, but no matter how long he had been by his side, he could never guess what Ryu-il was really thinking.

Just a moment ago, he couldn’t even guess why a clumsily made-up college girl was picking up a notebook under Ryu-il’s desk. Sungjun only knew that the girl was one of the servants’ daughters. He caught a glimpse of ‘Ryu-il’ written on the old notebook she was picking up, so he figured she must have found it somewhere and came to return it to its owner.

Over the years, countless women had tried to get close to Ryu-il. Many tried to find excuses to approach the distinguished third-generation chaebol. Especially since Ryu-il didn’t have parents who actively meddled in his marriage, many women targeted him.

Sungjun had watched all of them fail and be mercilessly cast aside. So, even if the student was just another woman trying to make an excuse to get close to Ryu-il, Sungjun didn’t think much of it.

After looking out the window for a long time, Ryu-il finally turned his impassive face back to Sungjun. Sungjun quickly continued his report.

“Anyway, if you marry Lee Min-hee, the distribution side will run smoothly, and it seems the Chairman thinks it will greatly help in the share battle.”

“So who sent those photos?”

“President Ryu Ga-yeon.”

Ga-yeon was Ryu-il’s aunt. She was an ordinary relative who found it difficult to accept that her own daughter was being pushed aside by Ryu-il. Especially in the home shopping sector, she firmly believed it belonged to her daughter, and as Chairman Ryu Won-jong quietly increased Ryu-il’s shares, she grew extremely anxious. It was a reasonable anxiety.

In fact, Chairman Ryu Won-jong wanted to hand over the home shopping business to Ryu-il. The problem was that Ryu-il only dealt with the construction company and was ignorant of the related industry, so he suggested a marriage that would give wings to the distribution side. Ryu-il, having returned from a long overseas business trip, only heard about this from Won-jong last night.

And this morning, photos of Lee Min-hee and her lover were placed conspicuously on his desk. The intention behind sending such photos to Ryu-il, who was almost obsessively clean about his relationships, was obvious.

“So fast.”

Ryu-il sneered, curling his lips.

“The person involved hasn’t said a word, yet both the one trying to pass things on and the one trying to block it…”

The method was simple, but he had to give credit for the information network. Judging by the photos, it seemed someone had been tailing Lee Min-hee for quite a while, clearly predicting and preparing for this situation. Contrary to Ga-yeon’s worries, Ryu-il had no interest in the home shopping side, but it was still quite unpleasant for an unexpected situation to suddenly intrude into his daily life.

“Shall we assign someone to Lee Min-hee as well? Or perhaps check if there was any secret deal with President Ryu Ga-yeon…?”

“No.”

Ryu-il cut off Sungjun and fell silent in thought. Suddenly, he realized his index finger was brushing his lips.

“Impulse and desire…”

Swallowing her slightly parted lips in surprise was certainly impulsive. When Hee-won entered his room carrying an armful of notebooks, he had never imagined such a thing would happen.

Well, maybe he hadn’t imagined it. When he saw the pale skin and plain underwear under the loose uniform that wasn’t hers yesterday, he felt something heavy stirring below for the first time in a long while.

Jung Hee-won.

As a child, she was someone he played with at Ryu Gil-jae, blowing soap bubbles, reading books, picking foxtails, and running around. She was younger and a bit less mature, but there weren’t any other kids to play with in the vast and lonely Ryu Gil-jae. There were a few servants’ sons living together, but they were much older and always treated Ryu-il respectfully, already knowing how the world worked.

Ryu-il liked spending time with Hee-won, who was young and ignorant and played comfortably with him. It was true that just watching the little girl was cute. Her pale skin, big eyes, and soft cheeks were like a cute puppy.

When that girl turned eight and started keeping her distance, bowing and calling him ‘Young Master’, Ryu-il thought the expectation had finally come.

He thought maybe young Hee-won would say, ‘What’s different between you and me? Don’t do this. Just treat me like before. I like that.’ Maybe that was his true feeling, but he knew that feelings alone were not the answer.

Ryu-il was four years older than Hee-won. So he knew he couldn’t always be so close with her.

If Hee-won kept acting comfortably, unaware of the distance that had existed since she was born, and if that reached Won-jong’s ears, her mother might be kicked out by the time she was in middle school.

Since Hee-won kept her distance on her own, Ryu-il was moderately satisfied. He was a bit sad, but getting entangled with a subordinate would only cause problems for both. Especially since Ryu-il had the precedent of his own parents.

Won-jong still believed Ryu-il’s father died because of his wife, who was a former servant. There was no way he would allow Ryu-il to be close with a servant’s daughter like his father had been. Knowing this well, Ryu-il let Hee-won drift away.

Hee-won didn’t know, but Ryu-il’s room had a tiny window overlooking the backyard. It used to be his father’s room, and his father had forced construction to make a window that wouldn’t be noticeable from outside, just to watch the backyard.

Just as his father had watched his mother through that window, Ryu-il watched Hee-won.

At first, he worried about the young girl who must have been hurt, but later, he just watched out of habit.

She read books on the backyard bench, practiced volleyball for school assessments by bouncing the ball on her wrist, or just sat absent-mindedly looking at the sky. Like that, Hee-won grew from a little girl into a young woman, reaching the boundary of womanhood.

Without Ryu-il by her side, she was almost always alone at home. During those times, Ryu-il wondered what Hee-won was thinking. Would she be hurt by the sudden distance? Or think it was natural? Or forget about the memories they shared? Either way, it probably wasn’t a good feeling.

They had grown apart overnight without even a proper goodbye. When they met, he would smile faintly and sometimes ask how she was, but the distance was clear.

In a way, both he and Hee-won knew the power over their relationship was always in his hands. Even though Hee-won was the one who distanced herself first, only Ryu-il felt a faint guilt. As she grew older, he became more curious about how she remembered him.

Before going to the army, when Hee-won was a high schooler, he gave her a notebook—half as an attempt to shake off that uneasiness, or maybe just a vague desire to be remembered fondly at the end.

“You’re good at studying even without going to academies. But as you move up grades, it might get harder.”

He’d overheard her mother bragging to the servants that she’d ranked first in her school’s midterms without attending a single academy. Seeing her studying textbooks in the backyard at night, he thought she was pretty determined.

“……Thank you, Young Master.”

And as soon as their eyes met, Ryu-il was certain of Hee-won’s feelings. She admired him, even liked him. Even if that wasn’t the case, she was clearly infatuated now. Just entering high school, Hee-won wasn’t good at hiding her expressions, and Ryu-il read the excitement and long-standing affection on her face at once.

It was a bit awkward, but not surprising.

For him, girls’ admiration and attention were as natural as breathing. Just a word from him would send girls writing love stories and running to him. And among them was a childhood friend who lived in the same house—Hee-won couldn’t help but feel special.

Ryu-il hadn’t played with Hee-won as freely as before, but he always smiled warmly when they met. If he had ever smiled like that at any other girl around him, they would all have acted like his girlfriend. Plus, he’d handed her a notebook he’d written himself—there was plenty of room for hope.

But since he was already set to enlist, Ryu-il didn’t think much more about it. While in the army, a few shy letters arrived, and he just thought, ‘She still likes me.’

She was a strong-willed girl, so he vaguely thought she might become his junior and stay at Wigang for a long time. The scholarship system was excellent, so it was the best way for Hee-won to get close to someone she was in love with.

But Hee-won didn’t fit any of those expectations.

She didn’t apply for the scholarship and went to pharmacy school, completely unrelated to Wigang. Time passed, and when they met again, Hee-won was no longer a child and could hide her emotions well. She no longer looked thrilled at his casual kindness and just politely expressed gratitude.

It must have been just a brief crush from high school. Ryu-il let it go indifferently and showed Hee-won only as much kindness as one would to a younger sibling from childhood.

Still, out of old habit, he would watch the backyard when he visited Ryu Gil-jae. He thought that kind of relationship was just right for them.

The pure, clear laughter of the little girl who used to run with him in the backyard… Maybe the one who couldn’t let go of that laughter for so long was Ryu-il himself. Because it was the last purity he had in his life.

But yesterday, when she barged into his room and looked down at the backyard, what came before discomfort was, surprisingly, excitement.

It was thrilling just to be alone together, hiding from others, for the first time in ages. Even when beautiful women threw themselves at him n*ked, his body wouldn’t react, but it instantly responded to the pale skin under her loose uniform. That was a bit embarrassing.

And today.

The girl who had never crossed the line with others brought him notebooks over ten years old.

She said she came to ask forgiveness for her mother, but if she’d just talked properly with her mother, she would have known Ryu-il didn’t care at all. He knew from the start that the mother-daughter relationship wasn’t bad, so he naturally thought it was just an excuse.

Instead, her clumsy makeup, cheap perfume, and the dress she never wore caught his attention. The funny thing was, even as he looked at her ridiculous appearance and wanted to send her out, he kept the conversation going and ended up impulsively swallowing her moving lips.

“So you mean you can understand these people?”

“…Yes.”

At that moment, Jung Hee-won truly had a face he’d never seen before. Ryu-il suddenly realized that, although he thought he knew Hee-won who was always there, he actually knew nothing about her.

Ryu-il had no parents. No one to look out for him, and even as a child, he didn’t get attention from Won-jong. The reason he’d made it this far was his thoroughness in missing nothing, no matter how small.

For him, nothing happened without reason.

“Jung Hee-won.”

Ryu-il looked at Sungjun, who was quietly waiting for orders, and said,

“Investigate Jung Hee-won.”

“…Jung Hee-won…?”

“The girl who just left.”

Ryu-il continued coldly.

“Especially whether she’s had any recent contact with Aunt. Focus on that.”

Sungjun bowed his head in acknowledgment, closed the door, and left. With the sound of the door closing, Ryu-il habitually leaned against the wall and gazed at the small window. Night had fallen deeply over the backyard.