Chapter 29

My boss at the part-time job asked me to help out just this one last time.

Lee-jae sent Do-geon an emoji of a crying cat.

Do-geon had told her to quit the part-time job once they got married.

This morning, the owner had contacted her saying another part-timer was sick and could not come in, and asked if she could cover instead. Since she happened to have no plans, Lee-jae readily agreed.

Once she saw her grandmother again after the wedding, she wanted to bring her tasty snacks too, so she needed to start saving money diligently from now on.

Executive Director

You never listen.

Just as Lee-jae finished washing the dishes, a message came from Do-geon.

“Even though it’s just a message, it really feels like I can hear his voice.”

Lee-jae held her phone and giggled to herself when the café owner slyly asked,

“Are you dating these days?”

“No!”

Startled out of her wits, Lee-jae quickly slipped her phone into the pocket of her apron.

The owner narrowed his eyes, looking suspicious.

“The more I look at you, the more obvious it is. You’re terrible at lying.”

“It’s not like that.”

Shaking her head with a flushed face, Lee-jae denied it. Because she truly was not dating Do-geon.

“Then who are you messaging that has you smiling like that?”

Lee-jae gave an awkward smile.

I need to be careful in front of him. Even just exchanging messages like this is dangerous if my feelings can show that easily.

“Whoa, look at that presence.”

Right then, a black sedan pulled up in front of the café.

While Lee-jae was tidying the display counter, the café owner admired the woman stepping out of the sedan.

“That bag is from that brand people say you can’t even buy with money, right? Is she the new building owner? Why does it look like she’s coming into our shop? Did I do something wrong?”

The elegant woman entered the café with two men who looked like accompanying secretaries. Then she spotted Lee-jae and smiled before heading toward the counter.

“Miss Lee-jae?”

At the sight of the refined woman, Lee-jae’s eyes widened.

She recognized her at a glance. The graceful and beautiful woman, so elegant that it was impossible to guess her age, was Beom Do-geon’s mother.

***

Lee-jae set down a warm Americano on the table.

“Thank you.”

Hira gently curved up the corners of her lips and took in the aroma of the coffee.

“Please, sit. The coffee smells lovely.”

Lee-jae sat across from her.

After taking a sip, Hira set down the cup.

“You were surprised, weren’t you? That I came so suddenly.”

“No.”

“I heard about you from Executive Director Beom, and I was curious about you, Miss Lee-jae.”

Hira smiled softly.

Lee-jae stared at that smile as though entranced.

Hira was a striking beauty. Even the gesture of lifting a teacup was full of grace. Looking at her more closely, Lee-jae felt as though she could see Do-geon’s face in hers.

So good looks really are inherited.

As she was thinking that, Hira looked at Lee-jae with a strange gaze.

“So this is Do-geon’s type.”

Lee-jae was not unaware of the nuance carried in those words. When Hira’s eyes brushed over her worn clothes and shoes, her face burned hot.

“I’ll speak plainly.”

An elegant voice flowed from Hira’s glossy lips.

“To be honest, I was taken aback. Miss Lee-jae, you’re far too young.”

As expected.

Lee-jae felt she understood why Hira had come to see her.

She was someone who had grown up surviving by reading the room. From all the experience she had accumulated over the years, her instincts were telling her so.

Though Hira was treating her with courtesy at the moment, those were not the eyes of someone who liked her.

“At that age, people usually aren’t thinking about marriage, are they?”

“The truth is…….”

What was she supposed to say?

That she wanted to escape her uncle’s house.

That she did not want to be forced and sold off to a man she did not love.

That she needed to pay for her grandmother’s hospital bills.

Then the thought struck her that no family would want to bring in a daughter-in-law carrying such a long and miserable story, and she pressed her lips tightly shut.

“Was it Do-geon who asked you to marry him?”

“I was the one who asked first.”

Hira’s beautiful eyes narrowed slightly.

‘I was the one who begged her to see me.’

‘What?’

‘She said she didn’t want to, but I’m the one who insisted on seeing her.’

It was the exact opposite of what Do-geon had said.

Which meant that one of the two of them was lying.

“What is it you like about Executive Director Beom?”

“What?”

Lee-jae’s eyes wavered.

To have to explain, of all things, why she liked him, in front of Do-geon’s mother.

“Why, can’t you say?”

“No. It’s just that there are too many reasons.”

She could list a hundred reasons she liked Do-geon.

But if she had to choose just one among them, then without question…….

“It’s because he’s kind.”

At that utterly unexpected answer, Hira nearly spat out the coffee in her mouth.

Beom Do-geon was kind?

Since she had borne and raised him herself, she knew him well.

Beom Do-geon had been indifferent to others by nature from the day he was born. He was so consumed by himself, with a temperament that could only rest once he achieved what he wanted by whatever means necessary.

And yet kind. She was more calculating than Hira had expected.

‘If you’re only pretending to like him, that won’t work on me.’

To begin with, Beom Do-geon was not a man who could be kind to anyone.

And yet her face, her manner, why did everything about her look so innocent?

She was completely different from what Hyeon-ju, who had looked after Lee-jae, had described.

‘She went in and out of the police station a few times too. I should have embraced her with more love….’

Judging by the way her cheeks flushed shyly every time Do-geon came up, she did not look nearly bold enough to have caused a violent incident.

‘Lee-jae kept asking us to introduce her to a rich man she could marry into, so we had no choice but to arrange it for her. She even demanded a great deal of money from Vice President Go as a condition for marriage.’

Besides, she seemed far removed from someone full of greed for material things.

Lee-jae was wearing a threadbare shirt and jeans, and old sneakers that looked as though she had picked up something someone else had thrown away.

‘She used to spend nights at hotels with rich men all the time too. And every time, without fail, the day after she stayed out, she’d come back carrying armfuls of luxury gifts.’

What was true?

Lee-jae’s image was utterly different from what Hira had imagined.

If she was a girl who had been willing to marry a man nearly forty years older for money, Hira had expected someone more like a gold digger.

To be honest, she had expected a brazen girl.

But Lee-jae seemed too delicate, too innocent. It was as if she even carried the soft scent of a baby.

“You say Executive Director Beom is kind?”

“…….”

“You can speak honestly. He’s the son I bore myself. Do you think I don’t know his personality?”

Hira wanted Lee-jae to stop putting on a coy act and reveal her true colors.

“……He was the first person who was ever that good to me. So maybe that’s why he felt kind.”

Lee-jae knew too that Do-geon was closer to cold and sharp by nature. But in the days when everyone had ignored her, she had been able to live on with at least some hope because Do-geon had been there.

“To be honest, I didn’t hear anything from Executive Director Beom about you limping. Did you get injured?”

Hira deliberately jabbed at her with those sharp words.

“As you know, Executive Director Beom is the heir to Mujung Group. From now on, Miss Lee-jae, you’ll have to accompany him to many official events. If you limp every time, won’t that look rather improper?”