CHAPTER 21

*

This feeling is supposed to be hate, so why is my heart pounding in my chest, why am I shaking like an idiot.

“It’ll pass soon. Why did you call?”

• Just checking to see if you’re doing well. You don’t seem to be in trouble yet.

Yeonseo faintly smiled.

“Yeah, I’m still alive.”

Despite foolishly considering ending her life, she couldn’t find the courage to take her own life, like her father Moon-sik. Life had been really tough, but she realized there was too much in the world for her to go through with it.

Yeonseo couldn’t bring herself to make the few precious people in her life, like Mrs. Kang, Hyeonho, and Jiyoung, unhappy. They had given her warmth and affection, so she couldn’t bear to hurt them by leaving. Perhaps it was her ambiguous courage that was making things difficult for her.

The same applied to dealing with Taeheon as well.

• Take a few days off. There are plenty of people to take care of things.

“No, it’s okay. I can’t rest comfortably anyway because I’m worried about Mrs. Kang.”

• You should also consider the persons who feels uneasy while looking at you. Act like an adult and handle yourself properly.

Yeonseo was about to argue back, but she couldn’t find the words.

“Yeonseo.”

Seungbin was there where the voice came from. He had gotten out of the car and was waving at Yeonseo with a big smile on his face, as if he hadn’t done something unpleasant.

“Are you on the phone?”

Dressed in a brown checkered suit, he looked sophisticated on the outside. In the past, Yeonseo might have thought Seungbin looked good like that, but now she didn’t even want to force a smile for him.

Yeonseo weakly lowered her hand holding the phone.

“What brings you here?”

“Sorry for not being able to attend the funeral, I was busy with work. Where is the friend who came with you? I want to say hello.”

The mention of a friend coming along could only refer to Jiyeong, and at that, a shiver ran down Yeonseo’s cheek.

“How do you know that?”

“Hmm?”

Yeonseo asked with trembling lips.

“I asked how you knew that Jiyeong came with me.”

“Does it matter?”

After checking some messages earlier, Yeonseo confirmed what misdeeds Seungbin had been up to. His smile, which used to look gentle in the past, now looked heinous, like a devil’s mask.

“Did your friend go up first?”

As Seungbin closed in, Yeonseo fumbled and dropped her phone. In an instant, he closed the remaining distance and picked up the phone, offering it back to Yeonseo.

“Here.”

Yeonseo noticed that Seungbin’s gaze fell upon the phone’s screen. It was showing the name “Woo Taeheon” blinking. It seemed like the call had been abruptly disconnected or cut off.

Yeonseo couldn’t shake off the feeling that Seungbin’s expression had turned cold for a moment, but she dismissed it as her imagination when he smiled again.

Yeonseo quickly tucked the phone back into her bag.

“We should get going.”

Seungbin casually grabbed Yeonseo’s wrist.

“Where are we going?”

“The funeral is already over. We should go back.”

“We haven’t laid him to rest yet. And please let go of me.”

Yeonseo said as she was being pulled along. Her wrist began to ache once again.

If Taeheon was hot-tempered, Seungbin was cold. It felt foreign, like a snake had coiled around her wrist.

As Yeonseo resisted, trying to twist her arm to break free, Seungbin sighed and turned around.

“Yeonseo, your father, Mr. Han Moon-sik, only left you with debts. You’ve already done enough by taking care of him. Is there really a need to maintain proper formalities until the end?”

“…How did you know about the debts?”

“After a while, my people will go up there to offer condolences. Don’t worry about the rest. I’ll take care of it.”

“Deputy Manager Woo, this is my problem. It’s not something others can handle, it’s something I have to do.”

“You’re still angry, aren’t you? I apologized for what happened before. Isn’t your heart not letting it go?”

As Seungbin casually stretched out his arms to hug her, she looked down. Pretending as if nothing was wrong, Seungbin was trampling over Yeonseo emotionally.

He was attributing her anger to her narrow-mindedness.

“How can I make you feel better? We were good all this time. Should one mistake ruin everything?”

Yeonseo would have preferred Taeheon openly insulting her rather than Seungbin pretending to be considerate of her while making assumptions about her feelings.

“I plan not to associate myself to you anymore, Deputy Manager Woo.”

“What?”

Seungbin asked, sounding incredulous. Yeonseo looked him straight in the eye and made her intentions clear.

“I don’t like you.”

I really don’t.

“I dislike you, too much.”

The rejection could not have been clearer.

“You heard me. I don’t like you, Deputy Manager Woo.”

He was harmful to Mrs. Kang, and for that reason alone, Seungbin should stay far away from her.

Seungbin froze for a moment, then sighed through gritted teeth, took out his cigarette, and placing it between his lips. With a click, the expensive lighter flicked on and a small spark caught on.

The end of it burned fiercely like the raging fire inside Yeonseo.

“Yeonseo, does grandmother know you’re in a lot of debt?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Then does she know about the new debt that has come up?”

“…How do you know about that, Mr. Woo?”

Since earlier, something felt off. He looked like he knew that she was with Jiyeong …….

As he exhaled smoke, he walked towards Yeonseo, and the pungent smell of the cigarette enveloped her face.

Lowering his head, Seungbin whispered in her ear,

“I’ll keep that secret for you.”

“Secret? What do you mean?”

“You’re going to have to work hard for that, aren’t we, Yeonseo?”

A shiver ran down her spine. Yeonseo blinked her dry eyes. Stepping back and taking another drag on his cigarette, Seungbin said.

“Let’s go.”

“No, no. That’s not going to happen.”

“I almost forgot to mention this. Grandma received a diagnosis of a brain tumor in her recent examination.”

It felt as if she had been struck with a blunt object, her back suddenly felt heavy.

“Wait… what did you say?”

“It’s a malignant brain tumor, and the location is not favorable for surgery,”

Yeonseo remained speechless for a while.

“That’s a lie……. You’re lying, right?”

“Why would I lie?”

Seungbin’s sigh mingled with his cigarette smoke. The ground beneath her feet felt as if it would swallow her up into a dizzying abyss.

“Why, why all of a sudden? Mrs. Kang was fine all this time. There were no signs at all! But why? Why now?”

“Would you have believed me otherwise? This incident has already turned our household upside down.”

Her legs gave way, and she sank down. She had just spoken to her on the phone. She hadn’t mentioned anything about it. Her voice was the same as always…

“She won’t be long, two months at most.”

Seungbin showed no mercy. He ruthlessly crushed all of Yeonseo’s hopes, confirming her demise.

“No…….”

As Yeonseo choked back tears, Seungbin awkwardly scratched his forehead, as if unsure of how to react.

“Yeonseo, you must attend the funeral.”

“I have to see her. I have to see her face right now.”

Yeonseo reached for her cell phone with trembling hands. First, she called Jiyoung and asked her to take care of things, and then she had to gather the strength to stand up again.

If only Moon-sik could have given his life to Mrs. Kang, it would have been better. The absurdity of it all made her sob silently.

“Now, let’s go to the hospital. If you wander around here and there, you might end up getting blamed by my aunts for nothing.”

His aunts, Mrs. Kang’s daughters. Yeonseo had seen their faces when they visited Yongin house a few times.

They were not easy-going personalities, just as Seungbin had described. However, she couldn’t postpone meeting Mrs. Kang. She had to see her immediately and check on her well-being.

“Grandma wants to stay in Yongin instead of being put on life support. She’ll be going down to Yongin soon, so you can see her then.”

“But…”

“Think about Grandma and hold it, Yeonseo. Do you think it would it make her feel better if you also break down?”

Yeonseo’s breath came out in ragged gasps. She couldn’t make a clear judgment on what would be best for Mrs. Kang.

“I have an apartment in Seoul. Stay there for the time being. And my father is also very worried about you.”

“Director Woo?”

“My father’s a bit of a worrywart.”

Yeonseo’s breath caught as if she had swallowed something incorrectly.

“If Grandma finds out that you’ve been spreading information to my father, I wonder how she’ll react. It would be quite a shock for her. Especially when she’s already not in good health…”

Yeonseo had done it unknowingly. However, just because she didn’t know doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

“If she finds out about the whole situation, she might collapse again, right? Two months is nothing, she might pass away in that position, won’t she?”

Seungbin was now making a clear threat.

Hold my hand, or I’ll tell Grandma everything. Do you want Granda, who has only a few days left to live, to know that?

Seungbin was coercing Yeonseo in a different way than Taeheon.

“If the truth is revealed, wouldn’t Director Woo also be in trouble?”

“Yeah, so let’s make sure to show Grandma a good side while we’re at it.”

Seungbin wiped the damp cheek of Yeonseo with a hand that smelled of cigarettes.

“Huh, Yeonseo? Listen to me.”

His touch felt disgusting. She kept comparing him to someone’s bigger and cleaner hand.

*

Inside the shabby building, waiting for reconstruction, faint sunlight streamed in through dusty and stained windows. The old office was filled with a musty smell of blood that lingered in the air.

Taeheon’s gleaming dress shoes moved slowly across the contaminated floor. With his every step, the men tied to the chairs made muffled sounds through their gagged mouths.

Their faces were swollen, and their bodies were covered in bruises from the beatings. They moaned in pain while remaining semi-conscious. However, Taeheon showed no interest in their suffering.

Staring at the blackened screen of the phone, he placed it in his inner pocket. The call with Yeonseo was silently disconnected.

On the other line of the phone, there was Yeonseo, together with someone that he presumed to be Seungbin.

According to his staff’s report, after the funeral, Yeonseo completed the burial process and headed to the mortuary with Jiyoung. He thought having a friend by her side might give her some support rather than being alone, but it seems like an unwelcome guest named Woo Seungbin has intervened.

Yeonseo’s face turned pale, as if she could collapse at any moment, but her demeanor made her appear older. He felt like he had caught an illness, with his chest feeling tight and irritation rising within him. The musky aroma that came from her flushed earlobes lingered in his mind, which caused him to feel a rush of heat.

He admitted to himself that he felt desire for her. As long as it remained unresolved, he couldn’t cut off ties with Yeonseo.

Taeheon was the kind of man who had to deal with problems as soon as they arose, but with this uncomfortable feeling, he couldn’t cut off his desire for Yeonseo.

“Wake up.”

Taeheon commanded shortly and stepped back.