Chapter 10

Dokyeom immediately called his attending physician, Dr. Kim.  

Until Dr. Kim arrived, Dokyeom hesitated, unable to leave Leeyeon in such an uncomfortable position on the sofa.  

“Han Leeyeon.”  

Even when he softly called her name, she didn’t budge.  

“If you stay curled up like this, you’ll end up with muscle pain.”  

So, he thought to himself, he had no choice but to move her.

Thinking this to himself, Dokyeom carefully picked up Leeyeon in his arms and moved her.  

Was she even eating properly?  

She was far too light, even for a person.  

***

Dokyeom entered the inner room located on one side of his office.  

It was a space he had set up to rest more comfortably during the frequent all-nighters at work.  

However, whenever he had the chance to rest, he preferred to go out and exercise instead, so the room was rarely used.  

Dokyeom carefully laid Leeyeon down on the bed.  

Even with the considerable movement, Leeyeon only let out small groans and didn’t wake up.  

The warmth radiating from her body, when he carried her, was alarmingly high, and it worried Dokyeom deeply.  

After all, he had called her out multiple times today despite her being unwell.  

Just then, Dr. Kim arrived, examined Leeyeon, and prescribed an IV drip with fever reducers and vitamin injections.  

“Rest is the most important thing, Director.”  

“I’ll make sure to take care of it.”  

Even after finishing the IV drip and Dr. Kim leaving, Leeyeon showed no signs of waking up.  

“Was she that exhausted?”  

Dokyeom brought a chair to the side of the bed where Leeyeon lay and started reviewing documents on his tablet PC.  

But, unlike usual, he couldn’t focus.  

It was because of the simple fact that Leeyeon was lying right next to him.  

Eventually, Dokyeom let out a short sigh and put down the tablet PC.  

Leeyeon was sleeping with the blanket pulled up to her chin, but it felt as though her curvaceous figure beneath it was completely visible.  

“Am I crazy? What am I even thinking?”  

Dokyeom shook his head slightly, trying to dispel the inappropriate thoughts he had about someone who was unwell.  

At that moment,  

Leeyeon, who was sound asleep, began to slowly open her eyelids.  

“Director?”  

Leeyeon looked startled, her eyes widening as she sat up in bed.  

“You’re not feeling well, so I think it’s better for you to stay lying down.”  

“Where am I?”  

She distinctly remembered sitting on the sofa in Dokyeom’s office, waiting for him.  

The fact that she had been moved to what looked like a hotel room without waking up left her utterly shocked.  

Dokyeom slowly began to explain to the surprised Leeyeon.  

“This is the inner room connected to my office. When I arrived, you had fallen asleep as though you had collapsed, so I called the attending physician.”  

He continued, explaining that she had been moved to the inner room, given an IV drip, and had been asleep ever since.  

“I felt like I was waiting for Sleeping Beauty to wake up.”  

It was said as a metaphor, but coming from Dokyeom, who always seemed so stoic, the words only brought a smile to her face.  

“I’m sorry. I’ve taken up so much of your time today, Director.”  

“No, it’s fine. I should apologize for making you wait because of a sudden meeting.”  

Dokyeom stood up from his chair first.  

“Are you able to get up?”  

“Yes, of course.”  

She felt it would be better to leave this space rather than continue talking to Dokyeom while lying in bed.  

Although it was a room connected to his office, the interior was decorated like a hotel, and being alone with Dokyeom here made her feel strangely uncomfortable.  

***

The two of them left the inner room and sat down on the sofa in the center of the office.  

Leeyeon’s gaze landed on Dokyeom’s face.  

Unlike when she saw him earlier in the morning or during lunch, his face now looked noticeably gaunt.

It seemed his day had been so tightly packed that fatigue was written all over his face.

“What were you doing while waiting for me?”  

For some reason, it bothered him that he had left Leeyeon alone in such a barren space.  

As Dokyeom had said, his office contained nothing beyond what was necessary for work.  

There wasn’t even a single plant or decorative frame to be found.  

Still, the one saving grace was the wide floor-to-ceiling window that offered a view of the outside.  

“I was just blankly staring at the scenery outside the window.”  

Hearing her words, Dokyeom slowly turned his head.  

Where his gaze landed, there was the wide window.  

Because he was always so focused on work in his office, he had never once considered the view through that window, which made Leeyeon’s answer feel refreshingly novel.  

“It must have been boring.”  

After all, the view outside consisted of nothing but glittering buildings, fast-moving cars, and the rippling Han River.  

That was all there was to see.  

However, contrary to Dokyeom’s expectations, Leeyeon gave an unexpected answer.  

“It was interesting.”  

“What was?”  

“This is my first time looking down from such a high place.”  

Dokyeom waited for her next words, wondering what on earth the connection was between that and her finding it interesting.  

“I saw a sense of leisure that you can’t feel down below.”  

Leisure.  

It was a word that even Dokyeom had never experienced.  

Perhaps that’s why he was curious.  

“What kind of leisure did you feel here, Han Leeyeon?”  

At his question, Leeyeon thought to herself.  

Was he asking because he already knew?  

Or was he asking because he genuinely wanted to know?  

Unable to find an answer, she decided to express what she had felt.  

“The leisure of the privileged.”  

Of course, just standing in this office for a few minutes wouldn’t have allowed her to fully grasp that sense of leisure.  

Dokyeom was probably born with that sense of leisure, unaware of what it meant not to have it.  

And if he had everything, why had Director Cha Heeyoung done such things to her family?

What more did they want?

What were they aiming for?

These were questions she couldn’t answer.

Dokyeom leaned deeply into the sofa and asked Leeyeon,  

“Han Leeyeon, do I look leisurely to you?”  

“…….”  

“Let me ask again. What do you think I have?”

Leeyeon’s contemplation deepened.  

It wasn’t because she didn’t know what Dokyeom had.  

She was trying to figure out what kind of answer he wanted to hear.  

She was trying to figure out what kind of answer he wanted to hear.

Eventually, Leeyeon’s red lips slowly parted.  

“Wouldn’t it be faster to find what you don’t have?”  

It was a wise answer to a foolish question.  

Dokyeom smiled, curling his lips as though he found it amusing.  

“That’s true.”  

With his long fingers, he tapped the armrest of the sofa.  

“But you know,”  

The rhythmic tapping stopped, and Dokyeom’s low voice resonated.  

“Surprisingly, there are many things I don’t have.”  

“Really?”  

“It’s not a world where you can have everything just because you want it.”  

Sure, you can’t have everything, but you can destroy what others have so they can’t have it either.  

That was the power held by the people of Jicheol Group.  

Thinking of that, she recalled her mother, Soon-ok, lying in a hospital bed, and her mood darkened.

Dokyeom leaned forward and asked,  

“Han Leeyeon, there’s something I’ve been curious about all day.”  

“Yes, please go ahead.”  

“Why do you refuse the clothes and umbrella I offer you, yet you take the medicine Secretary Choi gives you without a word?”  

“…….”  

Leeyeon’s lips slowly parted, thinking it was ridiculous that he had been pondering such a thing all day.  

“If I had handed you that medicine, you wouldn’t have even looked at it, let alone taken it. Am I wrong?”  

That must have been the case.  

That’s why Leeyeon couldn’t give any kind of answer.  

A faint expression of disappointment appeared on Dokyeom’s face.  

“At this point, there’s one thing that’s becoming clear.”  

“What is it?”  

“It seems like you are particularly wary of me, Han Leeyeon.”  

“…….”  

“Am I mistaken?”  

Leeyeon swallowed hard.  

He was spot on.  

She was afraid of getting closer to Dokyeom, yet at the same time, she had a desire to get closer.  

Perhaps because she found this outstanding man desirable. 

It was truly contradictory, she thought, as she raised the corners of her lips.  

“I tend to be a bit shy around people I don’t know well.”  

“But not with Secretary Choi.”  

“…….”  

Once again, Dokyeom’s sharp remark hit the mark, leaving Leeyeon with no choice but to keep her lips tightly shut.  

“Fine. There’s no point in arguing over something like this.”  

Dokyeom handed Leeyeon a document he had prepared in advance.  

“Take your time and read this.”