Sihyeong had been keeping his eyes on Yunjoo with the intention of seeing her before the first performance began, and when he saw her leave the audience seats, he felt a pang of disappointment. 

The moment the final rehearsal ended, he went to the office, but Yunjoo wasn’t there. He was still looking for her when he stepped outside the theater company and spotted Kangwook walking somewhere. The cultural foundation was under the group, but it made no sense for Kangwook to come out to a production like this.

The thought that flashed through Sihyeong’s mind the moment he saw Kangwook was Yunjoo. As far as he knew, Kangwook was a married man. The fact that a man like that kept showing up around Yunjoo sat badly with him. He checked the time while watching Kangwook’s retreating figure. He had a feeling Yunjoo would be wherever Kangwook was headed, but he had no time. Sihyeong dropped his arm with a sharp, irritated motion.

“Why does that man keep coming!”

Knowing there was nothing he could do about it, all he could manage was irritation. For some reason, he kept feeling like he was losing ground to Kangwook.

* * *

Once the play opened, there wasn’t much left for Yunjoo to do and no pressing reason to be at the theater company every day, so she took what amounted to an unofficial vacation from Sangyun, asked Mr. Seok to handle things while she was away, and was in the middle of preparing for her first trip with Kangwook.

Kangwook called it a business trip, but to her it was simply her first time going abroad. Both things, the way Kangwook kept changing and the fact that she was about to travel for the first time, had Yunjoo’s heart stirring with excitement. Ever since the day Kangwook and her brothers had come face to face, Yunjoo had begun to feel a small, growing interest in him.

Was this man capable of this kind of warmth? Was this the side of him that drew women to him? No one could know how tangled her thoughts were running. Sometimes she would think about Kangwook and smile to herself, and other times she would remind herself that he was just the type of man who was that way with women and wipe the smile away. She had to shake her head to clear it several times a day.

That day, how warm his hand had been, how much comfort that warmth had given her heart, and even the fact that her chest had fluttered just slightly… all of it was a secret she kept only to herself.

That was why, on that street, she had pretended not to notice and simply walked along holding the hand of a man who refused to let go, and the memory of everything that had happened that day carried no pain at all. Kangwook could never know that. She didn’t want him to know what was in her heart.

Yunjoo took out a bag and started packing. She pulled out a few simple clothes and a dress, something understated, and looked through the dresses she had. Most of them were plain things that revealed almost no figure, the kind no one would remember. 

Yunjoo had lived that way, like a shadow. She had lived hoping that no one, in any setting, would remember her as Choi Kangwook’s wife. Because of that, more often than not, people didn’t recognize her when she wasn’t standing beside Kangwook.

But for some reason, because this gathering felt like a trip, the clothes she owned didn’t appeal to her. She shook her head and pushed the fluttery feeling aside. An event attended with Choi Kangwook was the same as always. She would sit quietly and come home. The pointless excitement that had been bubbling up inside her settled with a quiet, self-deprecating laugh.

“Cha Yunjoo, you’re getting too worked up. This is not a vacation.”

She closed the wardrobe she had been rummaging through for a dress, and closed off her feelings along with it.

Two days, with only one evening party on the schedule, so there wasn’t much to bring. She fit everything into a single bag. She trimmed her feelings down just as simply as her luggage. With her own bag packed, Yunjoo went into Kangwook’s room, packed his carry-on as well, and looked around at the room that was never once out of order.

She was the one doing the cleaning, yet she had never seen a single thing out of place in here. Choi Kangwook was a man of exact precision, without a crack anywhere. Ever since the marriage, not wanting anyone to learn the details of how they lived, Yunjoo had always cleaned both her room and Kangwook’s herself and kept the housekeeper from going in and out of the rooms.

Yunjoo looked around Kangwook’s room once more, as though doing a final check, then stood the two carry-ons side by side against the wall in the living room. Seeing them there like that made it feel real, that she was actually leaving. Leaving the house seemed to work on her like a spell that kept loosening her resolve. No matter how hard she tightened and shut herself off, it kept slipping back out.

* * *

Sitting in the car on the way to the airport with Kangwook, Yunjoo looked out the window. She kept her mouth shut because her heart was too giddy to speak. She felt like if she opened her mouth, she would embarrassingly give herself away.

‘I’m really going on a trip. So this kind of day can happen in Cha Yunjoo’s life too.’

Hong Kong was business for Kangwook, but for Yunjoo it was simply a trip. And yet even Kangwook felt a flutter of excitement about this business trip, because of the person sitting in the seat beside him. He was planning to somehow wrap up all his obligations in one day and keep the remaining day free for Yunjoo, which meant the schedule on arrival would be grueling, but even that felt enjoyable.

It was a first, having thoughts about something other than work on a business trip, and the idea of getting things done quickly to carve out personal time was something he had never once imagined. The people who would be run ragged by what Kangwook was thinking were the staff accompanying him.

‘The things I end up doing because of Cha Yunjoo.’

Yunjoo was pretending to look out the window while watching Kangwook’s reflection in the glass. The evening before, she had received a call from Kangwook telling her it was a social gathering and to dress simply. It wasn’t on the schedule the secretarial office had given her, so she had wondered about it, but she had gotten into Kangwook’s car in a plain black dress with a bright scarf for a touch of color.

Kangwook didn’t say where they were going, and Yunjoo didn’t ask. She wasn’t curious either way. But the place he took her was somewhere she hadn’t expected. She couldn’t bring herself to step out of the car, and Kangwook walked around to her and held out his hand.

“Get out.”

“Why…?”

“It’s alright.”

Yunjoo just stared at the hand he extended, and he answered with a small nod. Without any further explanation, he quietly took her hand in a firm hold, met her eyes, and told her it was alright, that nothing would happen. She followed him out.

Her family home was a difficult place for Yunjoo. Even after the marriage, she had almost never visited unless something significant required it. She had lived there from birth until she married, yet it still filled her with a heaviness and a low, persistent unease. Sensing that unease, Kangwook gently ran his thumb over her slightly trembling hand.

Did he know how much steadier his hand was making her feel right now? When they stepped through the front door, her father and brothers all rose and came out to greet them, which created a strange and uncomfortable scene. Yunjoo faltered and stopped mid-step.

Watching it, she felt a bitter, humorless smile form on her face. The same people who had treated her carelessly were now coming out to welcome her with open arms, simply because Kangwook was beside her.

“Welcome, President Choi.”

“Hello. It’s good to see you, Father.”

After a brief greeting with her father and an awkward moment of her brothers all crowding around to welcome them, they moved inside to find her older sister and brother-in-law there as well. She wasn’t the only one who rarely came. Yunjoo stared at Kangwook with wide eyes. No one but Kangwook could have made this happen.

Her brother-in-law was not the type to visit her family home together with her sister either. Kangwook caught Yunjoo’s surprised look, gave a small smile, and sat down, pulling her into the seat beside him. After receiving the finest treatment she had ever experienced in her family home and seeing the evening through to the end, Kangwook began to speak, as though he had been waiting for this moment.

This gathering was one Kangwook had requested from his father-in-law. He could have come alone, but he had arranged it because he wanted to show Yunjoo’s family where she stood. He wanted to make clear that the one who mattered here was not himself but Yunjoo. 

He had wanted to say it in front of everyone. The person it was all for had no idea this kind of gathering had been arranged, and no idea that she was the one at the center of it. Kangwook glanced at Yunjoo sitting beside him, then turned his gaze to his father-in-law and the rest of the family.