Runaway Secretary - Chapter 53

CHAPTER 53

Yeonseo hesitated, covering her unease with a forced smile, and gestured her in.

Crossing the extravagant VIP room, Yeonseo felt a twinge in her footsteps. She wondered how her actions under Taeheon’s protection appear in Taeseon’s eyes.

“How are you feeling?”

Taeseon asked, taking a seat on the couch. Yeonseo dragged a lounge chair to settle down across from her.

“I’m much better now. Can I get you something to drink?”

“No, it’s alright. Please, have a seat. I didn’t come here expecting special treatment from a patient.”

Yeonseo reluctantly took her seat, her hesitation palpable.

She might have said that she was feeling better, but she hadn’t recovered enough to bend over, fetch tea, and boil water.

“Okay. I’ll sit down then.”

“We’ve met before, haven’t we? Do you remember?”

“Uh, no. I’m sorry.”

“You worked as a nurse at the local hospital where my grandmother was hospitalized, right?”

“Yes.”

“I think I saw you briefly back then. You might not have noticed me. With such a large family, it’s easy to miss someone.”

Yeonseo fidgeted with her fingertips. She wasn’t particularly good at focusing on polite greetings.

Taeseon’s probably going to ask her to break up with Taeheon.

Their mother, Seonye had visited Yeonseo once before, so it wasn’t hard to guess the purpose of Taeseon’s visit.

The thought of another visit, and the feeling of not knowing how to react, hung over Yeonseo like a cloud.

“Talking for too long while someone is unwell isn’t considerate. I’ll get straight to the point.”

“Okay.”

“If you ever feel like you want to break up with Taeheon, contact me. I can help you escape.”

Taeseon said, placing a business card in front of Yeonseo.

“Here’s my number.”

The soft texture of the card blurred in the sunlight, reflecting the logo of a prestigious law firm. Yeonseo squinted slightly, as if trying to make out the details.

“…You’re telling me to break up with him?”

“When you want to break up and want to get away from Taeheon, I want to help you.”

Yeonseo bit her dry lips.

“I don’t really understand what you mean. I don’t think there will be a need for me to seek help from a lawyer when I want to break up.”

“At some point, the two of you will come to an end. I’m scared to think about how Taeheon will react. I know it’s your first time with him, but do you know it’s Taeheon’s first time ever seeing a woman like this?”

He had been with many women, but none of them seemed to matter. Yeonseo expressed this sentiment with her dry eyes.

“No.”

“It’s his first time, Yeonseo, and I don’t think he’s going to let you go easily and when the time comes to sort things out, I think you’re going to get hurt.”

Taeheon’s possessiveness was one-sided. But when the time comes for them to part ways, he would discard Yeonseo without hesitation, indifferent and unattached, as if they had never been anything.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve had this conversation with your mother before.”

So stop now.

Yeonseo looked at Taeseon with a pleading look in her eyes.

“What if I want to break up first?”

For a moment, it felt like she had revealed her true feelings.

“If you say you want to break up, do you think he will let you go easily? That’s what I’m worried about.”

She said she wasn’t sure how Taeheon would react, which meant that Yeonseo could get hurt. Yeonseo couldn’t easily continue the conversation.

Yeonseo needed to tell her that she had no intention of breaking up with him. She could just tell her bluntly, like she did with Seonye.

But she couldn’t find the words. Yeonseo squeezed her fingers, tormenting herself.

Yeonseo wasn’t sure now if she should continue seeing Taeheon like this. She was wavering.

She couldn’t guarantee that a confrontation like this wouldn’t happen again. Maybe as time passed, Yeonseo would be hurt even more than she was now, growing wearier with each passing day. She didn’t want that kind of love.

But she couldn’t bring herself to break up with Taeheon, so she ignored the defense signals telling her to move on.

“Taeheon is the kind of guy who destroys things if he can’t have them. It’s no big deal for him to ruin everything if something he desires falls into someone else’s hands.”

“I don’t think he’d do that to me.”

“Well, among your friends, there’s someone named Baek Hyeonho, right?”

“How do you know about Hyeonho…?”

“He’s leaving soon, right? Do you know that was Taeheon’s doing?”

What?

“Taeheon has this kind of personality. He’ll probably eliminate everything you can rely on. Which friend would it be next time?”

“Why on earth would he…….”

“I told you. It’s because he likes you, Yeonseo. For such a difficult person, seeing a woman for the first time, can you imagine how significant you are to him?”

Taeheon was responsible for Hyeonho leaving?

She felt a mixture of needing to know and wondering why Taeheon would do such a thing.

“Yeonseo, you can’t handle him. Even our family has been struggling for over 20 years. If you don’t want to see how Taeheon ends this, keep my business card.”

It hurt. A discomforting heat spread from her heart to her throat and head, as if swallowing thorns.

Did I really cause trouble for Hyeonho?

She felt dizzy, as if she might collapse at any moment, but Yeonseo clenched her fists and steadied herself.

“I understand what you’re saying. However, I’ll make my own judgment about him.”

“I’m just worried about you, Ms. Yeonseo.”

“You said it’s been years since you gave up on Taeheon, so you don’t know much about him now.”

“Really, I don’t know if I should call you naive or stubborn…”

“I know Taeheon and I know we won’t be together for long, but until then, I want him to love me genuinely, not as someone who would harm me.”

“You probably shouldn’t expect any real love from Taeheon, though.”

Taeseon smiled slightly and stood up from hre seat. She took out an envelope from her bag and placed it on the table.

“I’m not giving this to you to break up with him, It’s a gist, I want you to eat something delicious and recover quickly. Don’t feel burdened, it’s just something I’m giving as a friend.”

“Wait…!”

Before Yeonseo could stop her, Taeseon quickly left the room. Even after the door to the hospital room closed, Yeonseo remained motionless for a long time.

It didn’t seem like a lie that Taeheon had done something terrible to Hyeonho. From the beginning, Taeheon didn’t like Hyeonho, even though he had never met him personally.

Was it because Hyeonho was a friend of the opposite s*x?

No, even if the other person had been Jiyeong, Taeheon might have done the same.

As Taeseon had said, Taeheon was dangerous.

This kind of perverse possessiveness was a ticking time bomb.

If I asked him not to do such things to Hyeonho and Jiyeong, would he listen?

No, she didn’t have the confidence to convince him.

It was evidence that she was in a love that gave her nothing in return.

Yeonseo wiped away the tears that welled up in her eyes. It seemed like a good idea to get some fresh air on the rooftop.

As she stepped out into the hallway, someone glanced her way and quickly turned a corner to hide. It was a familiar face. A face she’d seen a few times before, near the officetel, near Shinju Hospital.

Yeonseo quickly walked down the corridor, dragging her IV stand, toward where the man had disappeared.

“Hey, hey, hey, who are you?”

The man, who was about to run for the emergency exit, stopped. The man was tall and burly, dressed in black pants and a T-shirt.

Like a guard…….

“Who are you to keep appearing around me… Right? You were around here before, too, weren’t you?”

Yeonseo asked in a strong tone as the man, who had just opened the emergency exit door, turned around. He bowed slightly in greeting and ran out the door.

“Hey!”

Yeonseo shouted towards the empty space. Suddenly, a giddy speculation shot through her head.

Could it be that he’s also involved in Taeheon’s schemes?

Yeonseo thought Taeheon knew everything about her, but did he really plant someone like this? Not because he knew through Hyunyoung, but because he planted someone…….to monitor her.

She suddenly felt suffocated. Yeonseo clutched her throat and took slow, deep breaths. Even as she exhaled, the burning sensation and pain lingered in her chest.

**

On that night, four days after Yeonseo’s surgery, Taeheon came to the hospital. Yeonseo had improved considerably by then that she was able to shower by herself with a waterproof pad.

Taeheon’s face was tired as he entered the room late at night. Yeonseo, who was reading a book in the dim light, smiled at him.

“I thought you’d forgotten about me.”

“I wished I had.”

Yeonseo frowned.

“But I can’t.”

Taeheon approached, loosening his tie. When he was close enough, he put one arm across the bed where Yeonseo lay.

Yeonseo put down her book and touched Taeheon’s cheek. He looked unusually tired; she had never seen him like this before.

“You never contacted me, you know?”

“You, why didn’t you?”

“You’re always telling me to hang up because you’re busy.”

“Did I say that?”

“Were you very busy? You look exhausted.”

Yeonseo raised her arms and pulled Taeheon into a hug. It wasn’t pleasant to see this rude and unruly man looking pitiful.

His nose is really crooked. Yeonseo chuckled softly, and Taeheon buried his nose in her neck, gripping the back of her neck gently.

His rich scent drifted into her chest. But it wasn’t as cozy as the arms of the man she missed.

The more she realized how she reacted to his presence, the more she feared it, and the more her loneliness intensified, the more she feared being with him.

It felt like she would taste frustration instead of happiness. So, Yeonseo couldn’t contact him either.

Yeonseo reached out and gently stroked the back of Taeheon’s head. For some reason, she felt like he needed comfort today too.

“Be good, Woo Taeheon. Be a good boy. Be a good boy.”

“You’re making fun of me again.”

“Then smile a little, you’re always furrowing your eyebrows and saying, ‘come here’, ‘go away’ and stuff like that.”

“But you don’t hate it.”

Taeheon pulled away from her face and met her gaze. It felt like she was being sucked into his eyes like a black hole with no end in sight.

“Even though you’re making me look ridiculous, I’m kind of enjoying it. Awkwardly so.”