EHR 13

Chapter 13

At Yoo Gam’s command-like words, the hesitating Jaekyung took the jacket held in her hand and draped it over her shoulders.

“…It’s warm.”

The familiar scent and cool warmth felt cozy, contrary to her prejudice.

“It’s made of fabric suitable for maintaining a constant body temperature.”

It was such a Yoo Gam-like answer that a laugh escaped Jaekyung.

“Still, being with you, Chairman, I’m not scared.”

“That’s a relief. We’re a pair accustomed to the dark, after all.”

At his words dredging up the past and defining the relationship between them, her heart dropped with a thud.

“I, I’ll leave your house now. The audit office hasn’t contacted me anymore either.”

She had managed to endure a week, but living in the same house as her ex-husband was, after all, too much.

“Just stay for three months. Who knows when the vice-principal or the parents’ association will file another complaint with the audit office.”

“But it’s uncomfortable for you too, Chairman, and for me……”

“I’m not uncomfortable. Just focus on your work.”

As Jaekyung tried to argue back, the lights came on one by one.

From afar, there was the sound of a door being unlocked with a click.

“Is anyone in there?”

It was the security guard’s voice.

Jaekyung, self-conscious about being close to Yoo Gam, jumped to her feet on her throbbing ankle. As if she had been waiting for the lock to be released, she hurriedly opened the equipment room door and answered.

“Yes, we’re here.”

“The Korea Electric Power Corporation came and fixed the voltage regulator. They said a crow tampered with it.”

“Thank you.”

Noise gradually returned to the gymnasium, and Jaekyung returned the jacket draped over her shoulders to Yoo Gam.

“Here.”

Yoo Gam, standing close, looked down at Jaekyung’s red lips giving off a faint steam.

“Don’t come in alone next time.”

The instruction not to walk around the gymnasium alone either was absurd, but he was so close it was burdensome, and she swallowed her trembling breath. It seemed he had already noticed her heart flinching.

“…I will.”

Yoo Gam fixed a cold gaze deeply on her and spoke.

“By the way……”

Yoo Gam’s voice had already subsided.

“…Do you like that man from earlier?”

“W-Who?”

Could he have seen her talking with Minho in the morning?

“The math teacher.”

“Ah! No? What are you talking about?”

“A lie.”

“Teacher Choi would feel bad. Not at all. We’re nothing to each other.”

Yoo Gam looked down at Jaekyung with eyes full of distrust.

“Then why are you so nervous in front of me? You must be trembling because you’re up to something.”

Jaekyung was dumbfounded. He was a person who couldn’t be reasoned with from the start.

“Th-That’s.”

As Yoo Gam slowly traced the area under Jaekyung’s chin with his fingertips, a cold sensation brushed past.

“The math teacher said something different. He said Seo Jaekyung is his type. So I wondered if that’s why you refused his proposal too.”

“It’s a misunderstanding. I haven’t been dating my boyfriend for long. Besides……”

“……”

At Yoo Gam’s disbelieving expression, it seemed unnecessary to explain that she had broken up with Minho today.

“Do I have to explain everything to you, Chairman?”

“I think I have the right to hear it, as your husband.”

“There’s no such thing as rights. We’re a relationship that will end soon anyway.”

Jaekyung held up three fingers and showed them to Yoo Gam’s face, which was pressed close.

“In exactly three months, we’ll be nothing to each other.”

“Legally, we’re clearly something—and you call that nothing? What if I change my mind and don’t grant the divorce?”

Was he threatening her?

At Yoo Gam’s piercing gaze, Jaekyung’s heart pounded. She had to somehow proceed with the divorce without offending him.

“I’ll try to make the divorce happen. You’re too close. Step back……”

“Does being close make you uncomfortable?”

“Of course.”

“So that was the problem.”

Yoo Gam’s eyes wavered deeply and slowly descended toward Jaekyung.

There was 1cm between lip and lip.

Their breath touched.

Heat rushed in, but Jaekyung didn’t avoid Yoo Gam’s eyes, determined not to lose. The moment he confirmed that, Yoo Gam’s eyes grew disheveled.

Just before their lips touched, Yoo Gam dropped the hand that had been touching her slender chin.

“Let’s go.”

“…Where to?”

At the tightening breath, Jaekyung’s voice was also submerged.

“Because I can’t stop here, let’s go out.”

Yoo Gam was cold as usual, but his voice was submerged like a deep abyss.

Jaekyung straightened her athletic clothes and, as if she hadn’t been shaken by emotion, picked up the lunchbox shopping bag Yoo Gam had brought and went outside the gymnasium.

“Seo Jaekyung.”

At Yoo Gam’s voice reaching her back, Jaekyung stopped.

If she turned around and faced him, because of the embarrassing moment just before, it felt like sweat would pour all over her body.

“Don’t misunderstand.”

At the word “misunderstand,” she couldn’t move. Jaekyung looked at the black sky before her with a choked heart.

“…Misunderstand what?”

“That I’ll like you again.”

At the absurdly distorted interpretation, Jaekyung spun around and met Yoo Gam’s gaze.

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t have such a delusion even in my dreams. And… liking someone, loving someone—is there anything as scary as that kind of passion?”

The passion of the twenty-year-old man and woman who had loved each other so desperately, so ardently—the result of that immature passion was Jaekyung.

But among the three—Dad, Mom, and Jaekyung—none of them were happy because of the price of passion.

“…Rejecting me so cleanly like that makes it bother me. Let’s see each other at home.”

At Yoo Gam’s words, Jaekyung gave a slight bow and turned around.

Like me again.

He was a truly strange person, making her confused as if the two of them had been something special.

—

Yoo Gam, who had been watching Jaekyung’s retreating figure as she walked away in turmoil, moved his reluctant steps in the opposite direction from Jaekyung for a company dinner with the executives.

If it weren’t for her ankle, he would have taken her to the dinner. No—should he use her injured ankle as an excuse to take her home?

Because of what he had said just before, she would surely refuse, saying she didn’t want to.

Passion.

Do Junwoo, the only son of Chairman Do, who had passed away when Yoo Gam was eight years old.

—

*’Yoo Gam, you are my life. I love you. My one and only son.’*

—

He was a warm and affectionate husband and father. He had passionately loved Managing Director Jin and Yoo Gam, but he had also passionately loved another woman and child.

There had been times when he was happy because of his father’s love, but in the end, everyone became unhappy. A love that couldn’t be kept was not love. Because of that love, he had lived with a hole in his heart, just breathing.

Was that the passion Jaekyung had said was scary?

“It really is scary.”

Yoo Gam let out a hollow laugh and smirked. He took out from his pocket the phone he had firmly denied having to Jaekyung and called Chief Secretary Kwon.

“Have the car waiting in front of the main building.”

He recalled Jaekyung, who had opened her round, startled eyes under the moonlight when the lights went out in the equipment room earlier.

He had known the door was locked the moment he heard the sound, but being locked in wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Jaekyung was beside him.

—

*’We’re locked in?’*

—

Like five years ago in bed, he liked Jaekyung’s clear voice heard in the darkness. Her crystal-clear tone resonated through the space and reached Yoo Gam’s ears.

In the silent space, each small movement of Jaekyung felt magnified, stimulating all his senses.

—

*’Ah! It stings a little.’*

—

When she touched her ankle, regardless of Yoo Gam’s will, every cell in his body reacted as if remembering Jaekyung’s voice and scent.

He had had no plan to sit side by side on the mat from the beginning, but his hand had somehow seated her beside him.

It was self-mockery, but the fact that he had laughed was a bad sign that his boundaries were crumbling.

He had to block his body and nerves from reacting to Jaekyung. He had boasted that he would never waver, but he kept collapsing.

It was a chilly night where sleep didn’t seem to come because of Seo Jaekyung.

Yoo Gam clenched his hand, which still retained Jaekyung’s hot warmth, and walked toward the main building with his usual expression.

“Teacher Seo!”

At the unfamiliar male voice calling Jaekyung from behind, Yoo Gam instinctively turned.

He saw the math teacher who had made useless jokes on the athletic field earlier approaching Jaekyung as she came out of the gymnasium and headed to the auditorium.

“Are you okay with your ankle from earlier? Shall I give you a ride in my car?”

Standing under the light, Jaekyung appeared to pretend to be flustered and smiled.

“Ah, no. I’m fine.”

It was Jaekyung’s obvious tactic.

The clear smile that suited her neat face, the pretty facial line slightly tilted as if shy, the lovely smile that had almost fooled even him.

Yoo Gam walked toward the math teacher and Jaekyung with a sharpened face.

“Not Teacher Seo—Secretary Seo. She is the Chairman’s direct secretary.”

“Ah! Hello, Chairman.”

The math teacher, startled by the Chairman’s sudden appearance, flinched.

“Please refrain from making personal offers to female employees on school grounds.”

Yoo Gam’s tone was polite, but it was a clear warning.