Chapter 32

“Taeheon?”  

His right-hand man cautiously urged him. Taeheon clenched and unclenched his fist.  

The logical decision was clear, yet his instincts pulled him elsewhere. It was difficult to suppress the impulse.  

“It’s just a dinner meeting. It won’t take too long,” the driver hesitantly added from the front seat, worried Taeheon might refuse.  

It was a reasonable concern.  

“Tell them I’ll be there,” Taeheon finally decided, his knuckles whitening from the pressure of his clenched fist.  

***

“Have you done this kind of work before?”  

The restaurant owner, wearing a headscarf, observed Yaein with skepticism.  

Feeling awkward, Yaein shook her head.  

“No, this is my first time. But I’m a fast learner.”  

“This place may look slow now, but lunchtime gets crazy. Think you can carry trays of side dishes and hot pots with those wrists?”  

The owner grabbed Yaein’s wrist and clicked her tongue. Yaein rubbed her arm self-consciously.  

“I used to work at a café before. I’m good at carrying heavy things.”  

“With those stick-thin arms? Why would a girl like you want a job like this?”  

Seeing the owner shake her head, Yaein feared she would be turned down immediately. She quickly pleaded.  

“I… I really need this job. I’m pregnant. My situation is tough, and I need to save as much as I can before the baby comes.”  

The honesty in Yaein’s voice must have touched something in the owner. She offered a hesitant, awkward smile.  

“How could I have a pregnant woman working here?”  

She mentioned concerns about Yaein’s lack of experience, her seemingly weak build, and the blank space where an emergency contact should have been. Eventually, the owner politely declined.  

Still, Yaein didn’t leave empty-handed. Perhaps out of sympathy, the owner placed an apple in her hand before sending her off, wishing her a safe and healthy delivery.  

Yaein brought the red fruit to her nose. A fresh, crisp scent filled her senses.  

That was the third rejection today.  

And yet, strangely, she didn’t feel disheartened.  

It had been so long since she’d gone out to look for a job like this. As a student, she had spent entire days running from one interview to the next.  

The memories brought a faint sense of nostalgia. She needed to find work soon, but…  

As she walked along the roadside, she picked up her pace to cross at the changing light. Then, out of habit, she glanced behind her.  

A man in a suit was standing on the other side of the intersection, scanning the area—searching for her.  

So, she hadn’t been imagining it.  

Yaein tightened her grip on the apple inside her pocket.  

‘Someone is following me.’

Had Taeheon sent them?  

A surge of anxiety sped up her footsteps.  

She needed to lose them.  

Breaking into a run, Yaein darted into a narrow alleyway. The sound of hurried footsteps followed.  

She didn’t know the area well. Every turn was unfamiliar. The moment she veered into a secluded backstreet, the main road vanished, and the surroundings took on a rough, unsettling feel.  

A tall wall suddenly blocked her path. Yaein spun around, looking for another way out.  

But it was too late.  

The pursuer had already closed in.  

Yaein took an uneasy step back, glancing between the looming barrier and the man who approached her.  

Just as she grabbed the edge of the wall, ready to climb, the man spoke.

***

“What the hell are you doing all the way back here?”  

Bansak frowned, pushing his sunglasses up onto his forehead.  

“You’re sure she got off here?”  

The woman in the photo—the wife of the esteemed Director—was the very definition of elegance. Dressed in luxury, smiling with effortless grace. Like a white egret by a lake.  

This run-down town, with its narrow roads and cramped, low-rise buildings, did not match her at all.  

“I’m just following the navigation records. I remember the passenger because she was acting suspicious,” the taxi driver muttered, clearly uneasy. 

“Young people rarely pay in cash these days. Plus, her behavior was off.”  

“What do you mean, off?”  

“She was restless, fidgety. Like someone on the run.”  

Bansak clicked his tongue.  

‘So she ran away from her husband.’

He didn’t know much about the Director—a man who worked in one of Seoul’s flashy high-rise offices—but the brief encounter he’d had with him was enough. The kind of man you wouldn’t want to meet twice.  

If his wife had decided to flee, it was probably for an obvious reason.  

Scratching the bandage on his nose, Bansak grimaced. What the hell did a guy like that do to his wife?  

“Did you see where she went?”  

“Not really. But I’d guess over there.”  

The taxi driver pointed towards a cluster of houses at the end of an alleyway. It made sense—there weren’t many places to go around here.  

Bansak stepped out of the taxi and pulled out his phone. He had been explicitly told to report in as soon as he arrived. They had even given him the Director’s personal secretary’s number. Just in case. Even the Director’s direct number. It made him feel oddly important.  

“I’ve confirmed where she got off. Just sent the location. Want me to wait here and… pick her up?”

[─ Did you check who she’s with? Where she’s staying?]

“No, I only tracked her to where she got out of the taxi.”

[─ Ask around. See if anyone in the area has seen her. If you spot her, don’t approach her yet. Find out where she’s staying and who she’s with first.] 

“Got it.”

‘God, what a pain in the as$.’

Wasn’t he just supposed to find her? Why the hell did he have to stake out the place like some undercover cop?  

Grumbling to himself, Bansak walked into a convenience store.  

He had time to kill anyway. His stomach rumbled. Maybe he’d grab a beer.  

‘And some snacks. And two sports betting tickets.’

With no one supervising him, his work responsibilities quickly faded from his mind. He settled into a plastic chair outside the store, pulling out a pen to fill in his sports betting slip.  

Might as well check his online gambling account while he was at it.  

All he had to do was match some numbers or roll the dice—it passed the time quickly. Too quickly. And money disappeared just as fast.  

Thinking about his debts soured his mood.  

If it weren’t for those, he wouldn’t be a lowly errand boy who got dragged around at a moment’s notice.  

“F*ck my life.”  

He sighed. Was there no way to hit it big?  

If he could just make it once, he’d turn his whole life around. Buy designer watches, dress in sharp suits, drive a sports car. Women would line up for him.  

Bansak licked his lips, picturing the Director’s wife from the photo.  

“Hey.”  

Someone snatched the sports betting slip from his hand.  

‘What the hell?’

Bansak’s forehead wrinkled in irritation as he looked up.

As soon as Bansak recognized the person who had taken his betting slip, the tension in his face melted away.  

“Hyungnim!”

They were drinking buddies from this town, often throwing around the words hyung and ahwoo after a few rounds. Seeing a familiar face, Bansak was genuinely happy.  

“Wait, isn’t this Dongho? It’s you, right? What are you doing in this neighborhood?”  

“Just going back and forth for work.”  

“What kind of work lets you sit around drinking beer and betting on sports, huh? Still haven’t kicked that gambling habit, I see.”  

“Come on, sports betting isn’t real gambling. Just for fun. Besides, it’s not like I’m the only one doing it. Be honest, you were way worse than me.”  

They exchanged boisterous banter, laughing in the way that only men who prided themselves on their loyalty did. The kind of loyalty that men in this region claimed to live and die by—rough but sentimental.  

“This is fate, isn’t it? We gotta have a drink.”  

Dongho swung a plastic bag with a convenience store logo. Inside, beer cans clinked together.  

Bansak hesitated for a moment, then smacked his lips. One can really wasn’t enough anyway.  

Suddenly, a sting ran beneath the bandage on his nose. The memory of that blazing flame flashed through his mind, and like a reflex, he pulled back from following Dongho.  

“I told you, I’m working.”  

“Hey, when a hyung says let’s have a drink, you don’t refuse.”  

Dongho put on a mock-stern face, and Bansak scratched his cheek awkwardly. 

“Still… I really can’t right now.”  

“Just come along. I’ll treat today.”  

“For real? Well, if you’re treating, how could I say no?”  

‘What’s the worst that could happen if I just have a quick drink?’

With that thought, Bansak followed Dongho into an old multi-unit housing complex.  

The building was right in front of the spot where the taxi had stopped.  

Then—  

“Yaein?”

A woman’s voice.

When Dongho knocked on the door, a middle-aged woman appeared from inside.  

The moment Miryung spotted the two men standing at the door, her expression soured.  

“He’s my junior, my junior.”  

Dongho said cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood.  

Miryung gave Bansak a reluctant once-over before finally opening the door.  

“Excuse me for intruding.”  

Bansak chuckled sheepishly as he stepped inside.

***

Stuck in the back seat of the car, Yaein tried to process the situation.  

The woman in a suit who had followed her from the street sat across from her in the van. She handed Yaein a phone—it was connected to Gyeongju, her mother-in-law.  

“How did you even know to call me?”  

Yaein asked, still dazed.  

— That’s near your hometown, isn’t it?  

Gyeongju’s question made the same thought echo in Yaein’s mind. How on earth did her mother-in-law know where she was?  

— Back in the day, when I felt lost, I wanted to go back home too. People all think alike. Someone as diligent as you wouldn’t just sit around—you’d start looking for work here and there.  

It seemed that being spotted in an area full of stores looking for workers wasn’t just a coincidence.  

Yaein felt her cheeks grow slightly warm. It was unsettling to have her thoughts read so easily.  

Yet, strangely enough, knowing someone understood her… didn’t feel entirely bad.  

— Anyway, if you still plan on running from Taeheon, you should leave that place now.  

The brief sense of comfort vanished instantly.  

The moment Taeheon’s name was mentioned, she felt her breath catch.  

“Does Taeheon already know where I am?”  

— Of course he does. Do you even have to ask?

She had discarded her phone, used only cash, and stayed at her mother’s house—where there was no connection to Taeheon at all.  

Yet, he had already caught up to her this closely.

It felt like she had never escaped his grasp at all—from start to finish.  

— Hey, are you listening?  

Gyeongju’s sharp voice snapped Yaein back to reality.  

— No need to panic. He doesn’t know exactly where you are yet, and this is a busy time for him. His mind is probably all over the place.  

She only said things meant to reassure Yaein.  

If her mother-in-law hadn’t reached out first, Yaein would have been completely unaware, walking straight into Taeheon’s hands.  

Just imagining herself cornered in a dead-end alley, face to face with Taeheon, sent a shiver down her spine.  

— Take the cash, pack your things, and have those people drive you out of here. You don’t have much to pack anyway, right? The sooner you move, the better.  

At the mention of cash, the woman who had been silently sitting across from her lifted a white envelope and handed it to Yaein.  

Even at a glance, it was thick—and with only high-value bills, it must have been a considerable sum.