Well, Lee Seol-won told me to go back to the U.S. and never come back. Even to my ears, that sounded like a clear message – he was cutting all ties with Eun-sae.

Come to think of it, he might have blocked me that very day.

Should I try to send a text message?

But if he blocked my number, wouldn’t that mean that texts would be blocked as well?

“It’s cold…”

As the cold wind blew in, the sweat on my skin cooled, and my body temperature dropped sharply.

With the security guards standing like a wall around the entrance, it felt uncomfortable to be near the main building.

But I didn’t feel right going home empty-handed either, so I ended up following the late-night strollers, wandering up and down the walking path inside the Art Hall grounds.

It felt like I was trapped in a maze. I couldn’t tell where my destination was, and even as I walked, I kept glancing back over my shoulder.
The uncertainty—wandering endlessly in circles without knowing if I was on the right path, or if an end even existed—was exactly how this moment felt.

After walking and walking for what felt like forever, I came to a decision.

‘I should just go home for today.’

To call a taxi, I needed to leave Songwoon Art Hall and head out to the main road.
With heavy steps, I made my way off the seemingly endless walking path. Just as I reached the roadside, I saw a car across the street that felt strangely familiar.

Unsure if it was a coincidence or not, I kept watching—and then, the car switched lanes, made a U-turn at the signal, and came toward me.

“What are you doing here?”

It was Lee Seol-won.

Of course. A workaholic like him would never leave the office on time.

But still – he had ignored all my calls, and here he was, apparently having spotted me in the middle of my commute, turning his car around to acknowledge me like that. I really couldn’t figure him out.

All of a sudden, my energy drained away. Without thinking, my first words slipped out, blunt and unfiltered.

“Did you block me? Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“Have you been drinking?”

His answer came out of nowhere, completely missing the point.

“No – I mean, not really. I had a little, but just a little…”

Embarrassed, I quickly added, “I’m not drunk.”

“Doesn’t look like it to me. I didn’t get a report on your calls.”

Lee Seol-won turned his head. In response to his look, his assistant reached into his coat.

Three phones came out at once.

I was surprised – first, that such an elegant looking man’s outerwear could hold so many devices, and second, that even his assistant was busy enough to need multiple phones.

After checking the call logs, the assistant reported back.

“Ah, there were four missed calls. It seems that Assistant Manager Kang muted the ringer for a meeting. I apologize.”

It was such a clear, reasonable explanation – and such a clean apology – that I didn’t even know what to say.

Well… I guess that means he didn’t intend to block me, so I could at least feel a little relieved.

But once he heard what I had to say, even someone like Lee Seol-won would have a hard time staying calm.

Since I was the one to blame, it was hard to look him in the face.

While I was biting my lip and trying to calm my thoughts, the car door suddenly swung open from the inside.

“Tell me on the way. Get in.”

Tell him about the leaked scandal photo – not in a spacious office, but sitting side by side in the backseat of a car?

Should I endure the tension of sitting next to him for a dozen minutes – with his assistant listening the whole time?

And that wasn’t the only thing that bothered me.

Lee Seol-won was the kind of executive who spent more time with other people managing his phones than with one in his own hands. As I watched his assistant carry not only Seol-won’s devices, but several of his own, a new question suddenly came to mind.

‘Could this assistant really be trusted?’

After all, he was the one who carried Seol-won’s phones while accompanying him throughout the day. Whether it was official or private, he could know every detail of Seol-won’s movements in real time.

If someone wanted to spy on the people around Lee Seol-won – especially those in his private life, like Eun-sae – wouldn’t his assistant be the first person they would target?

That night, when Seol-won was under the influence of drugs… who really knew where his assistant was or what he was doing?

Now that I’d begun to suspect the people around him one by one, there seemed to be no end to it. I realized, perhaps for the first time, how complicated my own thoughts could be.

Suddenly I came to my senses.

“I’ll just come back another time. When would be a good day? I tried to visit the office earlier, but they told me no one was allowed in without an appointment. And why has the whole security team changed? Did something happen at the art hall?”

“Hyun Eun-sae.”

He cut me off mid-sentence, following the flow of my scattered thoughts, and gestured to the seat next to him with a tilt of his chin.

“Get in. Now.”

His tone left no room for refusal.

Pressed by his silent insistence, I had no choice but to slide into the seat next to him.

It is said that rooms come to resemble the people who occupy them, and it was true. Whether it was his office or the interior of his car, the atmosphere was surprisingly quiet and cold.

The chill lingered and I instinctively hunched my shoulders. After being out in the winter wind for so long, I must have caught a cold.

Achoo – a slight sneeze slipped out.

“Turn up the heat.”

The assistant looked at him, slightly surprised.

“Are you sure?”

Lee Seol-won nodded slightly.

As the heat began to circulate in the car, the shivering cold quickly disappeared. But at the same time, the remaining traces of alcohol in my system began to rise again, slowly creeping up from inside.

I shouldn’t have dozed off – this was neither the time nor the place – but my eyelids grew heavy, regardless of my mood. The assistant’s driving was so smooth, it only made me sleepier.

There’s a joke that chauffeurs hired by chaebol families practice driving with a cup of water on the dashboard to ensure a smooth ride – and now I could believe it.

Sinking into the warm, plush seat, I nodded off without realizing it, drifting in and out of light sleep.

Although he said he would listen to me on the way, Lee Seol-won didn’t press me.

He didn’t even ask me why I came to the art hall in the middle of the night. If anything, when I started to fall asleep next to him, he just left me alone.

Whether it was consideration or indifference, I wasn’t sure anymore.

But by now I had gotten used to the silence that always surrounded him.

There wasn’t even music in the car – not a single sound, not even navigation instructions. Both Lee Seol-won and his assistant were the kind of people who spoke only when absolutely necessary, so the surrounding silence made it even harder to stay alert.

Eventually, I fell asleep completely.

To be honest, I didn’t even notice when it happened. I had only intended to rest my heavy eyelids for a moment – but then, startled by the strange sensation of being gently pulled out of the depths of sleep, I opened my eyes with a jerk.

The car had already stopped in front of my villa.

Confused, I rubbed my eyes.

Lee Seol-won hadn’t tried to wake me. Instead, he was focused on reviewing documents on his tablet. His long, elegant fingers tapped steadily on the screen as he flipped through the pages at a steady pace.

I hurried to pull myself together, still half asleep.

“When did we get here?”

“Just now.”

“You should have woken me.”

I began to complain without thinking – probably because I was embarrassed and uncomfortable.

Come to think of it, this man wasn’t the type to make others feel comfortable, but whenever I was around him, all my usual defenses seemed to melt away and I fell asleep before I knew it.

Even when we were alone behind locked doors in that secluded room at the mansion, it was the same.

And just now, in the car, even though it was a short nap, I’d slept surprisingly deeply.

As if a strange sense of trust had disarmed me from within.

“Sleep a little more. Yoon went to buy you something for your hangover.”

And every time something like that happened, I was even more confused about that man, Lee Seol-won.

You could never tell what he was thinking. His tone wasn’t warm, and yet – there were these unexpectedly considerate moments.

“No, you really didn’t have to go that far…”

I started to refuse, but then my eyes landed on the now empty driver’s seat.

With his assistant out running an errand, it was just the two of us in the car.

Where was the nearest 24-hour pharmacy?

This area was an apartment complex, a little far from any commercial area. If he had just left, that meant I’d be alone with Lee Seol-won for at least ten minutes…

The moment I finished calculating, my hand instinctively grabbed Eun-sae’s phone.

This was my chance.

I had to tell him – right away.

If this had been a properly arranged meeting, I probably would have hesitated – wondering where to start, how much to explain, and in what order.

But now there was no time for second-guessing.

And so it was actually easier to get right to the point.

“…The reason I came to see you – this. I think you need to know about it as well.”