Chapter 3.3

The weight of her lies, now unbearably heavy, pressed down on Su-eon. The heat she hadn’t yet swallowed rose up her throat, spilling out like a reflux.  

“I have something to confess.”  

Su-eon spoke in a stiff voice. He had once said she sounded like a soldier. That was exactly how she needed to sound. Every time Jung Cho-ah tried to tear down walls by calling her “Unnie,” Su-eon responded by drawing clearer lines and paying closer attention to her tone. She couldn’t afford to be taken lightly.  

That’s how all women do things. Because she’s a woman, because she’s a woman.

In the business world, being a woman was just another way of saying you had a handicap. That’s why Su-eon made herself colder and harder. Whether it was her tone or her demeanor, she avoided anything that might make her seem even slightly weak.  

It was an easy task for Su-eon—hiding, concealing, and keeping her distance. She avoided unnecessary exchanges about her personal life and fled even farther whenever someone tried to approach her. Su-eon could not tolerate even the slightest leakage of emotions. And yet… in a moment of underestimating her opponent, she had been caught off guard.  

She should never have gone along with the follow-up meeting in the first place. She should have simply revealed the truth or turned away after saying what Jung Cho-ah had instructed her to. Su-eon regretted her fleeting arrogance in believing she could become Jung Cho-ah, even for a moment.  

“I’m not Chief Jung Cho-ah.”  

“……”  

“I’m her secretary.”  

Su-eon confessed calmly, her gaze fixed on Ki Seung-jo’s tie pin. As the deceiver, she didn’t want to face the eyes of the deceived. She knew it was rude to the very end, but that was just how she was.  

“As you may already know, our Chief is quite immature. That’s why, as you suspected, she ran away that day, and I ended up being there in her place. I couldn’t leave the Executive Director of K.U. Electronics hanging, could I?”  

She waited for a reaction, but there was no sound or movement. Keeping her gaze fixed, Su-eon continued speaking, as if the cleanly cut black onyx pin was a stand-in for his dark eyes.  

“I know that once you learn the truth, you’ll surely hold someone accountable. That’s why I tried to set things straight… but in the end, it’s all my fault. I apologize.”  

She bowed deeply. The heat of the ground, which had been scorching under the midday sun, wrapped heavily around her legs as she remained bent over.  

“Please hold Chief Jung Cho-ah responsible, not me.”  

After all, she would be busy answering to Assemblywoman Yeo’s demands for accountability.  

“……”  

A long silence followed.  

*Baaang!*  

The sound of a car horn on the road broke through the stillness between them, as if time itself had stopped.  

“Have you confessed everything now?”  

The tip of Ki Seung-jo’s shoe entered Su-eon’s field of vision as he stepped forward. 

Should I run? 

For a moment, Su-eon thought about throwing everything aside and bolting from the scene.  

Ki Seung-jo’s hand approached her. For a brief moment, she imagined him grabbing her by the collar and hoisting her upward. But instead, his large hand gently rested on her shoulder.  

“Then let’s go eat now.”  

Su-eon flinched in surprise, but before she could lift her head, he had already grabbed her arm and helped her stand up. Her gaze traveled from his arm to his sturdy neck, and then to the composed face above it.  

“What… did you just say?”  

“I told you from the start. I wanted to have dinner with you.”  

“…Did you even hear what I just said properly?”  

He chuckled softly, unable to hold back his amusement.

“There you go again, talking in that stiff, military-like tone.”

“…Executive Director.”

“Senior.”  

“…What?”  

“I’m your senior.”  

Ki Seung-jo’s eyes curved slightly as he looked at Su-eon, who seemed frozen in confusion.  

“Ji Su-eon, from Han Kyung Teachers’ College Middle School.”

“…!”  

“Princess of the Track Team.”  

Su-eon’s eyes widened. 

He knows me? Ki Seung-jo knows who I am. How does this man know my name?

Still frozen, she remained stiff as Seung-jo grasped her arm and steadied her properly. Su-eon suddenly felt like a child who knew nothing at all.  

“How… how do you know me? My name?”  

“I’ve always known.”  

“Since when…?”

“You used to come over to practice all the time. To our school.”  

Ki Seung-jo’s words pulled Su-eon back into the past, a time now faded like an old memory under a black-and-white filter.  

Su-eon had been running on the track team since elementary school. Running was the only time she could escape to somewhere—anywhere—without interference, where she could reach the end uninterrupted.  

By the time she reached middle school, the number of medals hanging on her wall had reached double digits. Around then, she vaguely dreamed of going to college as a student athlete.  

But that alone didn’t seem like enough of a reason for Ki Seung-jo to know her. Although the track teams of the two neighboring schools often trained together, it had nothing to do with him, who was part of the basketball team.  

Above all, Ki Seung-jo had been the school’s popular star, someone who drew attention wherever he went, while Su-eon was just an ordinary middle school student in comparison.  

“You were famous.”  

“…”  

“For being pretty.”  

Su-eon’s brows furrowed instinctively, and Seung-jo chuckled when he saw her reaction.  

“Pretty and fast.”  

“…”  

“Whenever you showed up on the field, all the guys would crowd around the windows.”  

Looking at the cars filling the road in front of National Assembly Avenue, he spoke as if reminiscing about the past, his voice carrying a slight mischievous tone.  

“It seems like I’m the only one who remembers, but we even took a group photo together on the podium at the last National Sports Festival.”  

She couldn’t remember it at all. Back then, all she could recall was how difficult it had been. Su-eon was astonished at how different the memories of two people who had been in the same place could be.  

“No matter how you look at it… that was ages ago.”  

It was a past that had long surpassed ten years. Moreover, he had left for the United States after finishing his first year of high school, so they had only shared the same time for one year. And even then, they were in neighboring schools.  

“It’s hard for me to understand how you remember me, Executive Director. It was just a brief encounter when we were kids, and yet…”  

“Maybe that brief moment left a deep impression.”  

Her school days hadn’t been remarkable enough to warrant such words. On the contrary, they were a time filled with nothing but cold emptiness because she had nothing to her name.  

“It seems like you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”  

“You’re quite the skeptical one, aren’t you?”  

As Seung-jo smiled, Su-eon closed her mouth. She felt as if her unpleasant nature had been exposed once again.  

“At first, I wasn’t sure.”  

Noticing her cheeks stiffen with tension, Ki Seung-jo continued in a low tone.  

“At the new employee orientation. When I heard that the only final candidate who declined the offer was named Ji Su-eon, I remembered you.”  

“Ah…”  

“I wondered where you’d gone that was better, but then I saw you at the World Hotel, and I was a bit taken aback.”  

“…”  

Su-eon had nothing to say about that. It hadn’t been a choice she made willingly. Such unreasonable events were merely trivialities in her life. Naturally, they were personal matters that Ki Seung-jo had no need to know.  

“So that day at the restaurant, when we first met, you already knew who I was.”  

Now calm again, Su-eon carefully reviewed the situation and information in her mind.  

“Then why didn’t you say so right away?”  

True to her nature of needing to clarify everything, Su-eon asked.  

“You pretended to mistake me for Chief Jung Cho-ah.”  

“Didn’t you also leave it uncorrected?”  

“That’s different. I had my reasons…”  

Su-eon stopped mid-sentence and squinted her eyes.  

“Did you do it on purpose to tease me?”  

“Why does the conversation suddenly go in that direction?”  

“Answer me properly.”  

With a firm gaze, Su-eon demanded.  

Ki Seung-jo let out a light sigh and looked at her with an inscrutable expression.  

“I wasn’t teasing you. There was no reason to.”  

“Then, why did you do it?”  

“Well…”  

As he trailed off, Su-eon perked up her ears. His expression, meeting her cold gaze, remained as composed as ever.  

“Just because?”  

“…Just because?”  

“Yes.”  

What was that supposed to mean? And what was with this anticlimax?  

Su-eon sank down on the spot. The emotions that had been weighing on her shoulders disappeared, leaving her completely drained of energy. She no longer had the strength to stand. It was the first time she had ever been so swept up by someone.  

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”  

Ki Seung-jo sat down in front of her and asked with a worried expression. He had been like this that day too. Without asking her any uncomfortable questions, he had adjusted everything to suit her, even when she had been frozen with tension. And then, he had asked her if her work was difficult. Looking back, it wasn’t a question one would typically ask a blind date partner.  

When Ki Seung-jo had said goodbye in front of the elevator, Su-eon had clearly felt that his consistently kind demeanor had crossed a certain line, beyond what was typical of someone meeting a potential match. His gaze toward her held an inexplicable warmth.  

“Are you being nice to me because I’m pretty?”