“Yes, well, I work with carpenters a lot, and they tend to drink quite a bit.”

She hadn’t been able to hold a proper job, but while she was in graduate school she had chased after every opportunity she could find, learning like a woman possessed. Even that hadn’t lasted long.

“The day you first came into the office, I was worried you’d keep showing up dressed like that. But looking at you now… hahaha.”

“What? That laugh is weirdly offensive.”

Yunjoo had knocked back a whole bottle of soju, going back and forth, and her face had flushed a soft pink. It felt like the first time in a long while that she had laughed freely. She was sitting there laughing with Sangyun when someone came over to talk to them.

“Director, would you introduce us?”

“Oh! You know Lee Sihyeong, right? He’s playing Hamlet, the lead in this production.”

“Yes, I really enjoyed your film. So you do theater too?”

“Yes, it helps a lot with my acting.”

“I’m Cha Yunjoo. I’m the stage designer.”

“I thought you were an actress.”

“Pardon?”

She was spending a night building connections somewhere she belonged. It was a good night, being around people. This was how she had wanted to live. Doing work she loved, laughing and talking with people who did the same work. She had wanted that kind of ordinary life.

Since she started coming in, Yunjoo’s face had gradually taken on the look of someone truly alive. The truth was, Yunjoo was not the person Kangwook knew her to be. Past midnight, later than the gathering had been expected to run, she came home and tried to make her way as quietly as possible up to her space on the second floor, when Kangwook’s voice came from behind her.

“Do you know what time it is?”

“Why are you still up? Don’t tell me you were waiting for me.”

“Have you been drinking?”

“Yes, I have. We had a team dinner.”

“You drink?”

“Not just drink. I drink well. And there’s no one in this line of work who can’t hold their liquor.”

“Coming home drunk at this hour and telling me you drink well, you think that’s something to be proud of?”

“Then why are you asking?”

“What?”

Kangwook was dumbfounded by her complete lack of remorse or hesitation.

“When have I ever asked you what time you came in? Let’s live like that. There’s not much time left, so let’s not make things ugly. We each do our own thing and then go our separate ways.”

“Ha…”

“No need to sigh. I’m just saying let’s not start doing things we’ve never done before.”

The careful steps she had taken a moment ago gave way to something easy and assured. She had been trying to slip in unnoticed, but getting caught actually put her at ease. Kangwook stood there with a look of disbelief as Yunjoo turned and headed up to the second floor. The sheer absurdity of it left him speechless. The Yunjoo of these past few days was not the same woman he had lived with for three years. She had the same face, but it felt like he was living with a different person entirely.

‘Huh… what…! Honestly!’

The words that couldn’t come out dissolved into a helpless sigh. Watching her say everything she wanted to his face, and with that kind of confidence on top of it, left him nothing but confused.

Upstairs on the second floor, Yunjoo let out a long breath. Well, at this point, a clean ending seemed out of reach. She would just have to live as herself and get through to the divorce.

But the moment Kangwook had called out to her, her breath had seized in her chest. She had been so startled that her voice nearly failed her. She didn’t know what to make of it. She was alive, and it was fun, and it was good. Talking and laughing and making noise with people until late into the night. She had endured everything to get to live like this.

* * *

The area outside the office grew loud. The sound of a woman shrieking and the voices of people trying to hold her back reached Kangwook’s room, and his brow furrowed. Unable to concentrate on his work, Kangwook picked up the intercom.

“What is all that noise?”

— Sir, Song Rahee is insisting on seeing you and won’t take no for an answer. We’ll call the security team.

— Kangwook! I just need to talk to you for a moment…!

Behind Team Leader Moon’s voice came the urgent, raised voice of a woman. Fatigue and irritation washed over him.

“Let her in.”

It seemed better to deal with this cleanly while she was here. Kangwook made no effort to hide his displeasure.

“What brings you here?”

“Why was I dropped, Kangwook?”

“Not Kangwook. President Choi Kangwook.”

There was a clear line in the man’s words. A line she could see she was not allowed to cross.

“Why are you being like this? We were so close…”

“You’re not very bright, are you, Song Rahee? We had fun together. Having fun together doesn’t mean you’re compatible.”

Song Rahee’s brow twitched slightly at Kangwook’s words. He seemed to be trying to humiliate her. He had been a man worth wanting. She couldn’t understand how he had changed so completely overnight.

“Can you at least tell me what happened?”

Watching the woman’s face harden, Kangwook pressed his fingers between his brows. Exhausting. She was truly exhausting.

“Did you go to see my wife?”

“Yes, I did.”

Her answer came with more confidence than he expected, and Kangwook fixed his gaze on her. He was curious what had made this woman so bold. If she thought it was him, he needed to cut that idea out at the root.

“……”

“I told her you loved me. I told her to step aside because I knew you weren’t living with any love between you.”

“Who gave you the right to do that?”

“I love you. I did it because I wanted to make you happy.”

“So you want to marry me, then.”

“I do. I’d give everything up and live only for you.”

“Song Rahee says she’ll throw it all away and live only for me, so why does that give me a different feeling entirely?”

“Your wife told me it wouldn’t be long. That you were getting a divorce.”

“Did I ever put marriage on the table because you and I slept together?”

Kangwook had only ever slept with her. He had never made any kind of promise. But she was different. At first it had been about money. She had coveted the wealth Kangwook possessed and everything that came with it, but later she had come to want the man himself. She had been curious about the woman who never showed her face in public, and she had told herself that a position in name only was something she could take for herself.

“But we love each…”

The corner of Kangwook’s mouth lifted at Rahee’s words. Usually a lifted corner softened a person’s expression, but with Kangwook it was the opposite.

“Love, you say. How amusing. I thought making you a model for our group after sleeping with you was more than enough, but you had other dreams. And over something that ended more than a year ago. From now on, Song Rahee won’t be doing any work connected to our side. That’s the only answer I have for you.”

“Kangwook…”

“Presi. dent. Choi. Kang. wook. You overestimate yourself far too much, Song Rahee. The woman in my home is at least not someone like you, who tries to claim a man’s bedroom through her body. That’s why people like you should never get involved with someone like her. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Each syllable of his name fell cold and deliberate. The chill of it pinned Rahee in place, and she could only sit and stare at Kangwook.

She had thought that even if the relationship was over, the fact that he kept giving her company work meant there was still an opportunity, still something left between them. But the man had only ever seen her in bed.

Kangwook’s voice, pitched so low, was cold and cruel enough to raise the hairs on her skin. Song Rahee had heard people say they were a couple going through the motions, and she had thought she could step in, take that place, and dream of becoming the mistress of Juon. She had never imagined it would come to this. 

She stared blankly at Kangwook, who had already turned away from her and sat at his desk working. She had always known he was cold, but she hadn’t expected him to be cruel enough to speak like this. Not once during the time they spent together had he ever smiled at her.

She had always been the one walking on eggshells, watching his every mood, careful and more careful again, and even after sleeping together he would leave without spending the night, shaking her off cleanly. She had thought that even a man like that could be held, because there was a relationship and a professional connection to keep him. 

Kangwook spoke without even lifting his head toward Song Rahee, who had kept her eyes fixed on him. She had thought she could hold a man who wouldn’t spare her a glance once he had said his piece, and it had been foolish of her to think of the woman at home as nothing more than a housewife.

“You can go now.”

Even after sending Song Rahee away, Kangwook couldn’t contain his irritation. Did Juon mean so little that he would hand it over carelessly to a woman like that? Yunjoo, who was busy scheming to leave this place that any woman would dream of, only made Kangwook less and less willing to let her go.