“I have someone. Let’s go with a man. Pay double the cancellation fee and make sure he can’t work anywhere under our group.”

“Yes, sir.”

Team Leader Moon didn’t make him say it twice. He had never asked about things Kangwook chose not to explain.

This was the kind of man Choi Kangwook was. Cold, selfish, ruthless, and arrogant with nothing to hold him back. Yunjoo didn’t like Kangwook’s attitude. He looked like he was taking his anger out on her. He swung his words like a blade, cutting clean through everything, and his expression never changed.

Looking at the face of a man who projected stillness more than cold sharpness, Yunjoo gave a small shake of her head. She had no idea what he was doing right now. Why was he doing this in front of her, of all times? It had nothing to do with her anymore. Was he trying to show off? She didn’t know what was going on inside him, but it made her uneasy.

“What is this? Why are you doing this?”

“She crossed a line. I don’t go easy on people who cross lines.”

“Really… I wonder if that woman knew. What kind of man she was trying to catch.”

She had probably been certain she could get him. That was why she had even shown up at the house. Yunjoo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“If you really want to work, you’d do well to listen to me.”

“Why are you suddenly like this? You don’t need to bother with someone like me, so just leave me alone.”

“Enough. I have a meeting to get to and I’m tired. Take your profile and portfolio and go find the director at Art Enter Musical.”

From the way he was pushing this far, it seemed like he had no intention of backing down. But she couldn’t simply go along with living in Kangwook’s shadow.

“Fine, I have a condition too.”

“Say it.”

“Don’t tell anyone I was your wife.”

Kangwook’s expression shifted slightly at Yunjoo’s words. Saying she was his wife in the past tense already meant she no longer considered herself his wife.

“Why should I do that?”

“We’re getting a divorce anyway. I don’t want people to know.”

“Fine.”

Yunjoo knew there was no point in holding out any further. Work was something she was doing to earn money, and since she didn’t plan to stay long, it didn’t seem to matter. Her final plan was to study abroad. That was the only way she could break free from this suffocating web. And for that, she needed to earn money now. She had never intended to take the settlement money or the house from the start.

She had no desire for anything that belonged to that man. She wanted to earn her own way, study on her own strength, and stand on her own two feet. She had not the slightest intention of going back to her parents’ house after the divorce.

‘All right. Let’s give it a try. I’ll figure the rest out as I go.’

Kangwook’s thinking was simple. He planned to keep Yunjoo close for the time being. The changed woman intrigued him, and he didn’t want to give up the comfortable life he had grown used to. Divorce was not yet part of his plans.

‘Let’s see what you’ve got, Cha Yunjoo. Just how different can you become? I’m sorry, but I have no intention of letting you go just yet… You’re making things far too interesting for me.’

* * *

Yunjoo walked into the office with an awkward smile, having gone to find the director at Art Enter. The man who greeted her with an easygoing grin looked laid-back at first glance, but his eyes were quite sharp. He didn’t stand up from his seat, only gestured for her to sit.

“I don’t like parachutes.”

“This is my first time being a parachute, so… am I supposed to apologize in a situation like this?”

Understanding that his rudeness came from the fact that she had been dropped in through connections, she got it, but she still thought it was unfair, so she pushed back.

“You brought a portfolio, right? Let me see it.”

“Yes.”

The director flipped through the pages one by one, and after a long moment, he looked up at Yunjoo and introduced himself.

“Han Sangyun.”

“Parachute. Cha Yunjoo.”

She threw his own words back at him with a bright smile. Sangyun stared hard at this woman with a refreshing edge to her.

“The designs in here use techniques and a way of thinking that are different from anything I’ve seen before. I like them. This next piece isn’t a musical, it’s a play, a reimagining of Hamlet, and I want the stage to do something special. That’s why I like your work, Ms. Yunjoo.”

“Thank you.”

“Then come in starting tomorrow and we’ll get to work. But you won’t be showing up dressed like this, will you?”

He had been in a bad mood since the foundation chairman called him that morning. He had never allowed anyone to enter his workplace through connections rather than ability. The request came from the foundation chairman, who knew that about him perfectly well, which was why he had agreed to take the meeting, but he had planned to look at the portfolio and send her on her way. Then he saw her drawings, and they were fresh.

“Oh! I came on such short notice that… I’m sorry. I won’t dress like this when I’m working.”

“Is this your first time in this field?”

“Yes, I wasn’t able to work due to personal circumstances.”

“For someone with no experience, you’re quite good. Come in tomorrow.”

After graduating from university, she had gone on to graduate school. The reason was simple: she wanted to study for the work she intended to do. Yunjoo had studied design at an art college and taken stage design as her minor. The minor was actually her main focus.

Yunjoo had poured everything she had into a course of study that her family would have made her quit the moment they found out. It was what she wanted to do. For graduate school, she had chosen stage design, her minor, without her father knowing. And then she had been dragged into that wretched marriage market, never got to pursue her dream, and ended up with the ill-fitting title of wife.

She had learned baking and even earned a barista certification to become the kind of woman who gave a man everything he wanted, all while waiting for this moment.

* * *

A few days after Yunjoo started coming in to the theater company, the staff pushed for a team dinner to welcome the new member, and she found herself sitting at the table. Yunjoo could hold her drink well and had a fairly high tolerance, but she wasn’t in the mood, so she just sat there turning her glass in her hands.

Among people in this line of work, there were plenty who were especially fond of drinking and known for putting away a lot. Yunjoo could hold her own and never backed down from a round, but since she was still living with Kangwook, she didn’t want to do anything that would raise eyebrows until she was out of that house. She wanted to leave without giving anyone even the smallest thing to hold against her.

“Is the work going all right, Ms. Yunjoo?”

He had been watching Yunjoo for a while as she sat quietly in the corner, turning her glass in her hands. She turned it and turned it again, never actually drinking.

“Yes.”

“You’re not holding a memorial service, are you?”

“Pardon?”

“You’ve been turning your glass by yourself.”

“Have I?”

“Let’s have a drink.”

“Sure.”

He clinked his glass lightly against hers, and she knocked it back in one go, rolling the liquor around in her mouth before swallowing. Sangyun raised an eyebrow. He had thought she was turning the glass because drinking felt like a burden, but it seemed like it might be the opposite.

She was a completely different person from when she had first walked into the office. He had worried that her loud outfit and blunt way of speaking might cause friction with the staff, but that had been an unnecessary concern.

Han Sangyun, the company’s head and director, was an easygoing and cheerful person. The blunt things he had thrown at her at first were simply because he had been unhappy about her being dropped in through connections. Once she started coming in as an employee, Sangyun was the one who greeted her most warmly and helped her fit in with the rest of the staff.

“Looking at your face, you could stand on a stage yourself. Why did you choose to work where there’s no spotlight?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It is a compliment. I don’t waste words on empty flattery.”

“All right, then I’ll believe you.”

Sangyun’s warmth made for a pleasant atmosphere.

“I have stage fright. I was making a stage once and the people around me pushed me up onto it. But the moment I was actually standing there, the words wouldn’t come out, I got dizzy, and I couldn’t breathe. I ruined the performance that day, and after that I never went up on a stage again. Well, I do go up, but only to build them. I love this work.”

“So there’s a story behind it.”

“It’s not much of a story. I just prefer being behind things rather than in the spotlight.”

Sangyun had a good-natured smile, but he had a sharp eye. Among the performers he had discovered, there were quite a few whose names alone would ring a bell. That same Sangyun studied Yunjoo closely, and a spark of interest lit in him.

“Have you ever thought about trying again?”

“What? On stage? No. Absolutely not.”

Yunjoo shook her head and waved her hands in front of her, and Sangyun burst out laughing. Someone who reacted like that was never going to do it.

“Are you a good drinker?”