EHR 08

Chapter 08

No matter what explanation Jaekyung gave, he wouldn’t easily believe it. She couldn’t answer any further because of her heart about to burst and Yoo Gam’s not-unfamiliar scent.

“Jjimjilbang again today?”

“…No.”

Earlier, at Ms. Kim’s words, she had looked into the group chat and found many things being said about Jaekyung and the new chairman. Most were unfavorable to Jaekyung.

“Move into my house.”

At Yoo Gam’s words, Jaekyung was startled but didn’t show it.

“It’s not a suggestion to live together.”

“Then what?”

“Since we’re already married, there’s no reason to live separately. Until the paperwork is settled, it’s natural to be together.”

Just as Jaekyung was about to refuse, a text rang.

[Uitae Foundation Audit Office—Tonight, scheduled visit to contract teacher Seo Jaekyung’s residence. If marital and residential facts are not clearly confirmed within 48 hours, job exclusion measures will proceed. Requesting address confirmation.]

The next text had attached photos taken at the restaurant along with photos of Jaekyung entering and leaving the jjimjilbang.

When Jaekyung looked up in surprise, her eyes met Yoo Gam’s, who had been watching from beside her.

*

Because of the text from the audit office, she had no choice but to enter Yoo Gam’s house. With the seizure leaving her without a residence, it was an unavoidable choice.

Thanks to Yoo Gam’s consideration, the audit team verified her identity outside the front door and left.

“Are you going to keep standing in the entrance?”

“……No.”

“I won’t attack you, so come in.”

Not knowing what might happen once she entered this space, her legs wouldn’t move even after taking off her shoes.

“But, what’s this?”

“It’s Saebom. ……My mother’s flowerpot.”

She couldn’t leave her late mother’s keepsake flowerpot in an empty house.

“I absolutely hate plants and animals. Put it somewhere out of sight.”

Perhaps displeased by the flowerpot Jaekyung clutched to her chest, a thread-like wrinkle formed between Yoo Gam’s brows.

“I’ll put it somewhere it won’t be seen.”

Worried the man might come in and throw it away, she locked the door firmly with the flowerpot in hand.

Looking around the room, she set Saebom down in the powder room. She hadn’t been able to care for it properly, but Saebom, somehow still alive, was a companion plant like a younger sibling.

The excessively luxurious bathroom was quite to her liking.

Fearing she might fall asleep in the bathtub like last time, Jaekyung washed roughly and came out, tousling her wet hair with a luxurious towel.

“Really humiliating.”

She buried her face in the hotel-like comfortable bed and plopped down again. Already her head throbbed not knowing what would happen going forward.

*

‘Don’t seduce me half-heartedly. If you don’t want to be called a gold digger.’

*

“Haa……. I really don’t want to go outside. That man must really be crazy. I never seduced anyone!”

Unable to vent her anger at Yoo Gam, who misunderstood her as a gold digger, she tossed and turned all night.

*

Barely twenty years old.

It was a contract marriage she had accepted without time to weigh it, because of her late mother’s hospital bills.

Since it was a proposal from a major corporation’s director, she believed there was no way he would harm her using money or the contract.

*

“Jaei. Don’t struggle because of money like Mom, and don’t live being pointed at and despised as a shaman.”

*

The world wasn’t easy enough to keep the dying wish of her mother, who wanted her only daughter to live ordinarily and prettily like others.

Suddenly appearing and saying he wants to start something—what did that mean. For now, there were no particular signs other than threatening with money and glaring coldly, but she couldn’t be at ease.

She thought she should work hard, but he told her to do it moderately. He was a man whose insides she couldn’t figure out.

*

From the next room, calm piano music could be heard. Had he turned on music?

‘Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2, 3rd movement.’

It was a solo piano melody familiar to Jaekyung.

*

“Go to the principal’s office and clean every day.”

*

Since she received a scholarship, she couldn’t complain about cleaning the principal’s office.

The music room next to the principal’s office.

Every time Jaekyung cleaned, beautiful piano music could be heard.

It felt like a longing of walking alone through a garden where night had fallen. At the tender and warm melody, Jaekyung thought of her mother and her eyes grew moist.

The next day, and the day after that.

From some moment, cleaning while listening to that piece became familiar.

*

“Envious. You play well.”

*

Like her friend Yeseul, who had won the grand prize at a piano competition, she wanted to learn if she had the chance.

Jaekyung peeked through the small window of the music room to see who was playing the piano. It was a male student—tall, with big hands.

*

“Is he lonely like me.”

*

Perhaps because of the black school uniform jacket, it felt like listening to a pianist’s performance.

Piano Man.

Jaekyung gave him a nickname on her own and hummed the melody that had become familiar.

It felt like walking around a calm, misty lake—it tapped gently at Jaekyung’s heart.

It was a piece that warmly caressed the heart of Jaekyung—whose mother had left home when she was seven, whose father was absent, and who lived alone.

She couldn’t see his face, but the glimpsed profile, broad shoulders, and long fingers were exceedingly handsome.

One month after hearing the piano performance.

After Jaekyung caught the flu and missed school for a week, the male student no longer appeared in the music room.

Piano Man’s piece.

Humming the familiar melody, Jaekyung tossed and turned all night.

*

At the loud alarm, Jaekyung reached out and turned it off.

Getting out of bed and tiptoeing as carefully as possible, she opened the door. There was no sign of Yoo Gam—perhaps he was still asleep.

Passing through the living room with low lighting on, Jaekyung entered the kitchen and poured a glass of water from the water purifier.

The kitchen was larger than Jaekyung’s entire house.

As she drank water and turned around, Yoo Gam in a shirt entered the kitchen.

“You’re up early.”

“Ah, ……yes.”

Yoo Gam passed the instinctively retreating Jaekyung and went to the coffee machine, brewing two cups of coffee. The scent of finely ground beans filled the kitchen.

“Drink.”

“I’m fine. I’ll go to work first.”

“Seo Jaekyung.”

“…….”

“Don’t you know it’s basic for the chairman’s escort secretary to commute together? Let’s move together so the audit office’s talk doesn’t leak out. If we go separately, more noise will come out.”

It was prison life, just without bars.

It wasn’t wrong, so a deep sigh escaped on its own.

*

Jaekyung trudged into the chairman’s office with a haggard face.

It was her second day at work, and she hadn’t slept a wink because of nightmares of being chased. She had a feeling she would collapse before filling the three months.

“Ms. Seo, are you sick?”

“No. I couldn’t sleep.”

Chief Secretary Kwon, saying the coffee Jaekyung made suited his taste perfectly, came by several times a day to ask for it.

It was just impressive how Chief Secretary Kwon, who didn’t pay any attention to Yoo Gam’s words to make his own coffee, had such inner strength.

“Is working with the chairman incredibly stressful? He’s impossibly picky and a complete workaholic. During my study abroad days, I was his roommate and thought I’d get insomnia too.”

Chief Secretary Kwon took the coffee Jaekyung handed him with a satisfied expression, savoring the aroma familiarly.

“Did you two study abroad together?”

“I’m a KE Group scholarship student. Even though hyung looks cold, he’s a tsundere. When I first saw him, he wandered around without sleeping, so I thought he was a sleepwalker. I’m the one who made him human.”

Even at Chief Secretary Kwon’s praise, her prejudice against Yoo Gam wouldn’t disappear. There was no way she could have good feelings for someone who called her a gold digger.

After listening to Chief Secretary Kwon’s now-familiar chattering, Jaekyung returned to her seat and looked again at the vice principal’s materials she had been reviewing since the previous day.

“What’s this? The calculations don’t add up.”

Part of the fixed-term teachers’ salaries had been converted to administrative expenses, but there was no clear source for where it was used. Moreover, event supply deliveries had been monopolized by two companies for over ten years.

“But why are the addresses of the two places the same?”

The company names and phone numbers were different, but the business locations were the same.

*

“They say you have to donate a lump sum to become a regular teacher, but I don’t know where to get it right now.”

*

It was probably a coincidence that the complaint of Ms. Kim Juyoung, who had worked with her as an assistant teacher, came to mind.

Since no offer had even come to Jaekyung, she had no clue what regular positions and donations had to do with each other.

“Um, Vice Principal. This is Ms. Seo, the chairman’s secretary.”

-Ms. Seo. What is it?

Just from hearing Jaekyung’s voice, the vice principal showed wariness as if on edge.

“Could I receive additional materials about the supply companies?”

There were suspicious parts, so she planned to request official documents through the vice principal.

-I handed over hundreds of pages of materials—what are you curious about now? If you’re a contract worker, act like one. Did Ms. Seo lose her mind even after going to the chairman’s office? Needlessly sensitive……

Jaekyung, holding the phone, was troubled over how to get the materials from the vice principal.

Just then, Yoo Gam snatched Jaekyung’s phone.

“That contract worker is my secretary. Send the materials requested by the chairman’s office immediately.”

Yoo Gam, who had come at some point, looked down at Jaekyung, instructed the vice principal, and hung up abruptly.

“Why did you just sit there listening to that kind of crap?”