Chapter 4

The headache was clearly the result of drinking too much.

Frowning as he opened his eyes, Ijun blinked blankly and stared at the ceiling.

It was an unfamiliar ceiling. And that was not the only unfamiliar thing. There was the weight he felt on one of his arms, and the warm breath touching his chest at regular intervals.

It was a situation he could not make sense of at all. Still lying down, his eyes made a sweep around the room, then turned toward his right arm.

There, he saw a small head resting on his arm and a slender body curled toward him.

A hotel room and a woman. Ha, pathetic.

An irritated sigh escaped him. No matter how hard he searched his memory, the last thing he could recall was drinking at the hotel bar after parting ways with Harin.

The unpleasant feeling that his pride had been damaged ran deeper than he had expected. It was not an emotion Ijun often had the chance to experience.

That was probably why. Why he had drunk without restraint, unlike usual.

And so this was the result.

“How ridiculous…….”

Ijun muttered through clenched teeth, as if chewing the words.

In any case, it was a relief that neither he nor the unidentified woman lying with her head on his arm was undressed. No, perhaps that made it all look even more absurd.

First, he needed to get himself together and assess the situation. Ijun pulled his arm out from beneath the woman’s head. Even when her head dropped onto the bed with a dull thud, she did not wake.

He got up and headed for the bathroom.

To think he had checked into a room like this. And to think he had blacked out without even knowing it. It was so pathetic it was infuriating.

After showering in hot water, his mind seemed to clear a little at last. The fact that he had no change of clothes irritated him too. He intended to send that woman away and then have Chief Hyeon bring him some clothes.

Wearing only a bathrobe, Ijun sat down in the single armchair. The room was so cramped that even from the sofa he could face the bed directly.

He meant to at least see what kind of woman she was, if she was the one who had brought him to this room.

The back turned toward him, curled up, looked delicate. A wrinkled blouse and slacks. In one sense, it could be called ordinary, but she did not look like someone who could possibly be connected to Ijun.

With his arms crossed, Ijun folded one leg over the other. A faint line formed between his brows.

If she had approached him knowing he was Cha Ijun, this could become troublesome. It would not be difficult to deal with, but this incident was connected to the matter from the day before that had wounded Ijun’s pride.

Perhaps sensing his gaze, the woman made a small sound, “Mm…,” and turned over. Only then was her face fully revealed.

The furrow between Ijun’s brows deepened.

It was a face with a completely different impression from what he had vaguely imagined.

The tiny face, small enough that one of Ijun’s hands could have covered it and more, was pale and smooth. Her features, tucked neatly into it, were gentle yet well-balanced. The long lashes cast over her lowered eyes, and her small reddish lips, made her look almost like a child.

It was the kind of face that made it hard to imagine she would do something this bold, like bringing a drunken strange man into a hotel room.

Was she someone he knew?

There were countless women Ijun knew. No, there were probably even more women who knew Ijun. If one counted the tens of thousands of employees at Daejeong Electronics, employees of partner companies, people connected through social ties, and even those who had merely seen Ijun through the media from time to time.

And yet, somehow, this clear, innocent-looking face did not feel entirely unfamiliar. Tilting his head slightly, Ijun searched his memory carefully, but like trying to see through fog, he could not grasp anything with real clarity.

Meanwhile, the woman’s petal-like eyelids fluttered, and then she suddenly opened her eyes.

At first, even seeing Ijun staring at her, she only blinked in confusion, as though she still had no sense of reality. For a few seconds, glances carrying different emotions passed between them. Then at last, with a startled expression, the woman jerked upright into a sitting position.

Seeing that look, Ijun felt his insides twist again with displeasure. Wasn’t he the one who had the right to be startled?

“Now that you’re awake, explain. Why I’m here, and why you’re here.”

The hands that had been hastily trying to smooth her disheveled hair and clothes faltered at Ijun’s low voice.

The woman’s trembling gaze wandered without direction. Her eyes landed for a moment on the bit of chest exposed through the opening of his bathrobe, then on the leg he had crossed beneath the robe’s hem, before shivering and darting away.

At last, a voice slipped from between her lips, which had been moving hesitantly.

It was such a small, uncertain voice that it was almost like a murmur. Calm and soft in tone, but so quiet one had to listen carefully to hear it.

“I-I’m sorry, Senior. I was going to go home, but I must have dozed off without realizing it.”

“Senior?”

“Um…. I don’t know if you’ll remember, but I’m Seoyun. Song Seoyun.”

“Song Seoyun….”

Only then did Ijun take a proper look at the woman’s face.

Now that he had heard her name, he felt as though he remembered.

A small, unusually pale face and eyes like those of a gentle puppy. As the face of a girl who had once looked on the verge of tears and asked him for help rose faintly in his memory, it overlapped with the face of the woman sitting before him.

Soon after, he also remembered a woman in mourning clothes at the funeral, greeting the few visitors with a sorrowful face and red-rimmed eyes.

I see. So it was Song Seoyun.

But why was she here….

“All right, Song Seoyun. I remember. Now tell me what happened.”

“I happened to see you at the hotel bar yesterday. You looked so drunk when you were leaving the bar, so I followed you out….”

“And then?”

Fine, he could let pass the part where she said she had happened to see him at the bar. To be honest, even that was not without its doubtful parts. What reason would a woman like Song Seoyun have to come to a hotel bar alone?

If he had been drunk, the hotel could have handled it well enough. They could have used the VIP contact list the hotel kept to call him a driver, or the hotel itself could have used one of its own cars to take him home directly.

And yet she had checked into this ordinary room? A woman with whom he shared no more than a faint acquaintance?

Ijun knew well about “K-Cell,” Song Jeonghun’s company, which had collapsed in an instant despite all the reputation it had built. And it was not difficult to infer that Song Seoyun had been left behind in the ruins of that downfall.

So it was only natural to consider what sort of hidden intentions she might have behind that mild face.

While Ijun narrowed his eyes and thought, Seoyun continued her explanation.

“You were so drunk that you fell asleep on a sofa in the lobby. I couldn’t just leave you there…….”

“So you brought me to this room while I was asleep?”

“N-no! I…. You were much heavier than I expected, so…. I asked a bellboy to help me.”

“Ha…….”

Ijun gave a dry laugh.

With those thin arms and legs of hers, it would have been impossible for her to handle his body. But when she had gone so far as to ‘ask’ a bellboy for help, had she not thought of any other method?

“And then…….”

Whatever she was about to say, her pale face suddenly flushed red. Ijun stared at Seoyun with a sharp gaze.

“I was going to go home, but without realizing it, I, well, I had drunk a little too……. B-but I absolutely didn’t do anything bad. After laying you on the bed, I didn’t touch you at all…. Ah, you looked a little uncomfortable, so I just loosened your tie and a few buttons….”

“That’s enough. Stop there.”

Ijun cut her off irritably.

Anything bad? Was loosening his tie and a few buttons really something she needed to explain while trembling that much?

He could not even tell whether she was naturally this timid or whether it was calculated behavior.

All the more because those uneasy eyes looked so convincing.

“All right. Fine. You didn’t have to go to the trouble, but thank you anyway. I’ll make sure to compensate you appropriately.”

“N-no, Senior. There’s no need for compensation between us….”

Between us? What exactly was there between us?

Watching Seoyun even wave both hands in denial, Ijun felt displeased. He was in a situation where he did not even know what had happened overnight. There was every chance that she could put on that innocent act now and later strike him from behind.

This unfamiliar discomfort scraped at his nerves like a sharp piece of metal.

“Then I’ll be going now. I…. I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”

Seoyun rose from the bed where she had been sitting, then quietly picked up the handbag she had left on one side of the sofa.

“Wait.”

Ijun stood up from his seat. Then he walked over to the jacket hanging neatly on the coat rack and took out the wallet from the inner pocket.

With impatient hands, he pulled out whatever bills he could grab.

“I should at least pay for the room. And for last night as well. If it’s not enough, say so.”

At the thick bundle of bills Ijun held out, Seoyun’s eyes widened in shock.