“Come downstairs. I have something to say.”

Even as Kangwook spoke, Yunjoo was still gripping her towel and couldn’t move. She pressed her ear to the door, and only when she heard Kangwook going downstairs did she walk to the bed and sink down onto it, drained. She had gone into the bathroom without grabbing a change of clothes because Kangwook wasn’t home, and she hadn’t wanted to go back out for them, so she had just washed up and come out.

The second floor was her space alone, and she had been living there however she pleased. Even with Kangwook on the first floor, she had never once thought twice about using the bathroom. She couldn’t understand why a man who had never come up here was suddenly walking into her space.

The moment she had run into Kangwook, her heart had dropped at the look in his eyes. She didn’t know what it was, but it felt like seeing something she wasn’t supposed to see. Watching those dark eyes fix on her and go still was like a kind of torment.

But she had decided the sound that escaped Kangwook’s lips probably wasn’t what he had meant to say. Telling herself it was a breath he had let out in exasperation at her carelessness snapped her back to her senses. That was why she had fled into her room like mad. The shock had given way to embarrassment and shame.

She sat there blankly wishing she could erase what had just happened, but that wasn’t possible, and the owner of the house was asking her to come down, so she had to go.

“Choi Kangwook, why do you keep barging into my space? Three years of living here and this never happened once! Ugh, I have to go down and I really don’t want to. If I don’t go he’ll probably come up.”

She truly didn’t want to face him today of all days, but she couldn’t avoid it either. She came down from the second floor to find Kangwook sitting in the living room waiting for her. Yunjoo walked over and sat down across from him, her face composed, as though nothing had happened.

“Say what you want to say.”

Kangwook watched Yunjoo look up at him with a carefully maintained air of calm, but her eyes were shaking wildly, and unlike her face, her gaze couldn’t quite meet his. He nearly laughed thinking about how much effort she must have put into composing herself before coming downstairs, and held it back.

He knew she had been just as startled as he was, and watching her pretend otherwise was both amusing and oddly compelling. Kangwook held her flustered eyes with a look that was almost mischievous.

“Lee Sihyeong.”

“What about Mr. Sihyeong?”

“Are you spending time with Lee Sihyeong these days?”

“Spending time, hardly. We just had dinner together and he dropped me off, that’s all.”

“Cha Yunjoo, you remember our contract is still in effect until the divorce goes through, right?”

“Of course. And what would Mr. Sihyeong possibly want with someone like me. There are so many wonderful, impressive women out there.”

“Is that what you think?”

“I wasn’t going to say this, but Mr. Choi Kangwook, do you have a lot of free time lately? Now you’re taking an interest in my personal life too.”

“No, I don’t have free time. I’m still just as busy. But I’m saying this because I happened to see my wife come home in another man’s car.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything to put a scratch on the great Choi Kangwook’s reputation. And I am still your wife, for now.”

“Good to know. Take a car. If you don’t want to drive, I’ll assign you a driver.”

“I prefer getting around this way……”

She had been about to say she didn’t like it, but looking at Kangwook’s firm expression, she couldn’t finish. Faced with a look that left no room for refusal, she decided to find a middle ground.

“Would you rather take a car, or have a guard follow you around starting tomorrow?”

“How am I supposed to go to the theater company with a guard!”

“Then taking a car works out fine.”

“Then give me a smaller one.”

Kangwook had said he would assign her a guard, the one thing he knew she would hate most, because he didn’t want her riding in other men’s cars, and just as he had intended, the word car came out of her mouth. The corner of his lips lifted slightly.

“Good thinking. I’ll have it taken care of tomorrow.”

“I’m going to the site starting tomorrow and I don’t know when I’ll be back. I’m telling you in advance.”

“Understood.”

Kangwook finished talking with Yunjoo, got up, and headed toward the study. Without turning around, he spoke to her.

“Cha Yunjoo, don’t say someone like me. You’re a person of more than enough worth.”

Yunjoo watched his back as he walked into the study and said nothing more, and she stood rooted to the spot, frozen. What did Choi Kangwook just say before walking in? Was that meant for her? 

At his words, something she couldn’t name pricked at her heart with a dull, aching warmth. It was something no one had ever said to her in her life.

‘Cha Yunjoo, you’re a person of more than enough worth.’

Yunjoo murmured his words under her breath and stood there for a long time. Was she really that kind of person? It wasn’t just anyone who had said it. It was Choi Kangwook, and somehow that made her feel, just for a moment, that maybe it was true.

Inside the study, Kangwook perched on the edge of his desk, crossed his arms, and looked out the window. His heart, which had dropped when he ran into Yunjoo on the second floor, still hadn’t settled. The woman had no idea how much a man could be drawn in by someone who showed him a different side of herself every time he looked. A murmur slipped from his lips.

“Cha Yunjoo, do you know I just wanted to tell you that you’re someone worth being shaken up over?”

That was what he had wanted to say. He was saying alone what he hadn’t been able to say in front of Yunjoo. At the thought of her heading to the site and becoming harder to see, Kangwook felt something, and then found himself absurd for immediately thinking it would mean he could finally lose himself in work again until late.

* * *

He had told her in the morning that he would send a car since she was going to the site in the afternoon, and within a few hours an employee brought one over. Yunjoo received the car and was staring at her phone wondering whether to call Kangwook when her phone rang.

[Choi Kangwook] 

She looked at the name, a name that needed no other description, and pressed the button.

“Yes.”

“What time did you say you were heading out?”

“I still have time. Why?”

“Bring me an envelope from the study.”

“Alright. And I got the car. Thank you.”

He would normally send someone from the secretary’s office for something like this, so the fact that he was calling her for an errand and summoning her to the office made her think it must be urgent. 

But she quickly shook her head and felt a flare of irritation at Kangwook. She had gone out of her way to say she received the car, and he hadn’t said a single word in response before hanging up after saying what he needed to say.

“Honestly, unbelievable! Of all days to send me on an errand, it has to be today. I need to wear comfortable work clothes for the site, and now I’ll look completely out of place! Then again, when did I ever care about that. It’s not me who should be embarrassed.”

She considered wearing something more formal as she got dressed, but decided against the hassle and put on what she had planned. She left the house in worn-out pants and a reasonably faded T-shirt and walked into Kangwook’s company building, where the security staff immediately looked her up and down with suspicious eyes.

She was lucky she hadn’t been stopped right there. If none of the security staff had recognized her face, she probably would have been held up and humiliated on the spot. She made it up to Kangwook’s office on the top floor and walked into the secretary’s office, where the most junior secretary stood and greeted her.

“Madam, hello.”

“Hello. Have you been well?”

“What brings you here? Did you come to see the president?”

“No. I just need to leave this.”

She didn’t need to see Kangwook, so she left the item with the secretary’s office, turned around, and headed for the elevator. The secretary took what Yunjoo had brought and went into Kangwook’s office, handed it over, and mentioned that Yunjoo had come and gone. At the word that Yunjoo had just left, Kangwook raised his voice at the secretary. The sudden outburst startled the staff. The most startled of all was Team Leader Moon, who had been in the room with him.

“Why did you let her leave without telling me?”

“Well, we didn’t……”

“When did she go?”

“Just now……”

At Kangwook’s words, Team Leader Moon moved to rush out.

“I’ll go check.”

“Never mind, just call down to the first floor and have them hold her there!”

With those words, Kangwook bolted out of the president’s office. He ran to find her, and there at the elevator was Yunjoo, head down, idly shuffling her feet. Relief hit him, followed immediately by irritation. He walked up to her quickly, grabbed her hand without a word, and headed back toward his office.