Chapter 22. The Woman He Secretly Loves  

Han Yerin drove Lee Hyun’s car to his family’s home, Jinheonjae.  

As they entered Jinheonjae, the aroma of deliciously cooked food filled the air.  

Mrs. Yoon Haeran welcomed Lee Hyun and Yerin with a bright smile.  

“You’re here, Son? And Secretary Han, you’ve worked hard since this morning.”  

“It’s nothing, Ma’am.”  

“The Chairman is waiting. Let’s go in.”  

When they entered the dining room, the neatly arranged dining table caught their eyes.  

“Take a seat.”  

Chairman Cha of Jiseok Electronics was seated at the head of the table.  

To his right sat Lee Hyun, and to his left sat his older brother, Soo Hyun.  

Yerin stood to the side of the dining room with the other secretaries.  

Before even picking up his utensils, Chairman Cha spoke in a solemn voice.  

“How are the marriage arrangements for Lee Hyun and Soo Hyun progressing?”  

It seemed that today’s breakfast meeting was about the marriage plans of his two sons.  

Soo Hyun confidently announced that he planned to continue meeting potential partners until he found someone who suited him.  

Chairman Cha’s gaze turned to Lee Hyun.  

Lee Hyun raised his head and, with an unwavering look, fixed his gaze on Yerin.  

Finally, Lee Hyun opened his mouth.  

“I have someone I secretly love.”  

At Lee Hyun’s words, everyone in the dining room was left speechless.  

Chairman Cha’s eyes narrowed sharply.  

As if doubting what he had just heard, he asked again.  

“Secretly love?”  

“Yes.”  

Mrs. Yoon Haeran reacted with exaggerated surprise.  

“My goodness, Son. What could you possibly lack that would make you secretly love someone?”  

She looked genuinely baffled.  

“Where could one find a man as perfect as you, my son? Handsome, tall, intelligent. Isn’t that right?”  

Lee Hyun smirked and replied.  

“I don’t know how to handle women.”  

“Well, that’s true. I’ve never seen you with a woman, so I’ve always worried about that.”  

Mrs. Yoon looked at Lee Hyun with curiosity and asked.  

“I’m so curious about what kind of lady she is.”  

Lee Hyun’s head subtly turned toward Yerin.  

Having been staring at Lee Hyun the whole time, their gazes locked in midair.  

Yerin clasped her hands together in front of her and bit her lips nervously.  

Why was he looking at me like that in this situation?  

Worried that Mrs. Yoon might follow Lee Hyun’s gaze and look in her direction, Yerin felt anxious all by herself.  

“Son! Why are you looking elsewhere while talking to your mother?”  

At Mrs. Yoon’s call, Lee Hyun reluctantly turned his head back.  

“Who is it? I’m really curious.”  

“If you find out who she is—”  

“Yes?”  

“Are you planning to confront her or something?”  

Lee Hyun’s face hardened with a fierce expression.  

Even if it was his mother, his warning was clear: he wouldn’t tolerate any thoughtless actions toward the woman he secretly loved.  

“No?”  

Mrs. Yoon looked genuinely offended, as if the thought had never crossed her mind.  

“Why would I confront some poor lady? She must have her reasons for rejecting you.”  

Lee Hyun stared at Mrs. Yoon, as if her response was unexpected.  

“Well, I’d at least want to hear her side of the story.”  

As someone who adored her son deeply, Mrs. Yoon had always seemed like the type who would immediately scold the woman he loved.  

How dare she reject my son?  

However, Mrs. Yoon didn’t seem to have any such intention.  

“What do you mean by hearing her side of the story?”  

Yerin felt both curious and afraid to hear Mrs. Yoon’s next words.  

Lowering her head, she kept her ears open.  

Mrs. Yoon’s gentle voice followed.  

“Don’t you think we should hear why you don’t appeal to her? There might be flaws in you that I don’t know about.”  

“And if there are?”  

Everyone expected her to deny the possibility outright, but Mrs. Yoon’s response was surprising.  

“Then, of course, you’d have to fix them.”  

Everyone in the dining room tried to hide their reactions, but they all seemed surprised.  

Leaning forward, Mrs. Yoon looked at Lee Hyun with a stern expression, as if scolding him.  

“If she dislikes you because of those flaws—”  

“I suppose that’s fair.”  

“Yes, in love, the one who loves more is always in the weaker position.”  

Saying this, Mrs. Yoon glanced at Chairman Cha.  

“Isn’t that right, Dear?”  

“Ahem.”  

Chairman Cha, seemingly flustered by the sudden shift in attention, cleared his throat.  

He pretended to pick up his utensils.  

“Let’s eat.”  

Mrs. Yoon covered her mouth with one hand and laughed as she looked at Chairman Cha.  

“Do you know how much your father chased after me, saying he liked me?”  

Lee Hyun chuckled softly and nodded.  

It was a story he’d heard countless times.  

“I kept saying no, no. ‘Even if you gave me all your wealth, I wouldn’t marry you.’ I told him.’

After losing his first wife, Chairman Cha met Mrs. Yoon at a volunteer group.  

Mrs. Yoon hadn’t been impressed by the older Chairman Cha as a man.  

Although she hadn’t opened her heart to him at first, she eventually found herself in a relationship with him.  

It was a love story Lee Hyun had heard so many times that it had practically become a cliché.  

Even though it was his parents’ love story, romance, love, and marriage had never been of interest to Lee Hyun, so he had always ignored it.  

But for some reason, today, he was curious about what came next.  

Even if children resemble their parents in many ways, Lee Hyun couldn’t understand why he had to inherit something like unrequited love from Chairman Cha.  

Feigning indifference, Lee Hyun asked Mrs. Yoon in a detached tone.  

“If you disliked him so much, why did you marry Father?”  

“Your father chased after me so persistently it was almost creepy.”  

Hearing this, Lee Hyun looked surprised, wondering if the usually stoic Chairman Cha could have acted that way.  

“He would stand in front of our house every day with flowers.”  

At those words, not only Lee Hyun but also Soo Hyun nodded.  

Even with his busy schedule, Chairman Cha had a strange way of remembering every anniversary.  

Unlike other chaebols who typically entered arranged marriages, Chairman Cha and Mrs. Yoon’s love marriage had always been the subject of envy.  

“At first, I thought he’d give up after a day or two, but rain or shine, he stood there just to see my face. I realized then—this man isn’t ordinary.”  

Even on days when he returned from business trips, Chairman Cha would stop by Mrs. Yoon’s house, no matter how little sleep he had, just to see her.  

“One day, I came back from an appointment, and your father wasn’t in front of the house.”  

By now, not only Lee Hyun but everyone in the dining room was completely engrossed in Mrs. Yoon’s love story—except for Chairman Cha, who looked like he wanted to disappear.  

“That day, I felt a little disappointed.”  

“That makes sense.”  

“When the man who came every day wasn’t there, I worried something might have happened to him and went inside the house. But guess what?”  

Mrs. Yoon covered her mouth with one hand and laughed softly, as if recalling a fond memory.  

“He was inside our house, chatting with my mother while arranging flowers.”  

The idea of the usually reserved Chairman Cha doing something like that was almost unbelievable.  

“That’s when I fell for him.”  

Was it the flower arranging that made her fall for him?  

Lee Hyun couldn’t help but feel even more perplexed, thinking that women’s hearts were truly incomprehensible.  

In truth, what had won Mrs. Yoon over wasn’t just the flower arranging but Chairman Cha’s consistent devotion and the way he cared for her family.  

Thinking back on it, Mrs. Yoon chuckled, finding it both amusing and absurd.  

Chairman Cha, feeling embarrassed, waved his hand dismissively.  

“Enough with the nonsense. Let’s focus on Lee Hyun and Soo Hyun’s marriages—”  

Mrs. Yoon cut him off mid-sentence.  

“Dear, do you think marriage is something that happens just by talking about it?”  

At Mrs. Yoon’s scolding, Chairman Cha quietly closed his mouth again.  

Even from this brief glimpse of the family’s dynamic during a meal, anyone could tell who truly held the reins in this household—it was Mrs. Yoon.  

Mrs. Yoon seemed thrilled that Lee Hyun was showing interest in her love story for the first time.  

“Son, are you curious about how your father wooed your mother in such detail?”  

“Well, not really.”  

Mrs. Yoon smiled faintly, as if reminiscing about those times.  

“It might help you win over the woman you secretly love.”  

At the suggestion that her story might provide a solution, Lee Hyun put down his utensils and stared intently at Mrs. Yoon.  

But Mrs. Yoon wasn’t going to make it easy for him.  

“If you want something, you have to give something first.”  

“Never mind.”  

Even within the Jiseok Electronics family, information wasn’t shared freely—not even between mother and son.  

“I’ll handle it myself.”  

Lee Hyun didn’t sound particularly convincing.  

Chairman Cha let out a short sigh as he watched his son.  

“Why do you insist on taking such a difficult path?”  

Chairman Cha turned his attention to Soo Hyun.  

“Just do what Soo Hyun is doing—go on blind dates and marry someone who meets the right conditions.”  

“I won’t.”  

Lee Hyun, who had never once opposed Chairman Cha’s words, seemed unusually resolute today.  

“I’m too unsettled right now because of this unrequited love.”  

“Hmph.”  

“That’s why I can’t bring myself to attend blind dates I have no interest in.”  

Chairman Cha’s frown deepened.  

“And unless it’s the woman I secretly love, I have no intention of getting married.”  

Chairman Cha didn’t back down either.  

“You’re aware of the conditions for inheriting the successor position of Jiseok Group, aren’t you?”  

“I am.”  

Unlike before, Lee Hyun looked confident, once again glancing meaningfully at Yerin.  

“I’ll make her mine, no matter what.”  

It sounded almost like a declaration of war.  

Mrs. Yoon, finding her son quite charming, couldn’t help but gush.  

“Oh my, Son! That determination reminds me so much of your father.”  

“Ahem, stop saying unnecessary things.”  

“Son, I’ll support your love.”  

“Thank you. Although, for now, it’s just a one-sided pursuit.”  

Lee Hyun was certain that his one-sided feelings would eventually reach the woman he loved.  

Yerin knew that no one could possibly guess she was the object of Lee Hyun’s unrequited love, but she couldn’t help feeling anxious, lowering her head.  

From time to time, Mrs. Yoon’s gaze fell on Yerin.  

Without anyone noticing.