TLR 01

Chapter 1 …

“Moon Junhyuk, come out!”

A sharp shout suddenly rang through the crowded lobby during rush hour.

“Moon Junhyuk, come out!”

A woman shouted again. Among the people dressed almost entirely in business suits, the woman in jeans immediately drew everyone’s attention.

“Moon Junhyuk, Moon Hyemi, come out!”

When the woman shouted for the third time, people began to stop walking. They were starting to sense that something serious was going on.

As for who Moon Junhyuk was, he was the man virtually certain to become the next head of MS Group, one of Korea’s conglomerates. Moon Hyemi was his younger sister.

It was only natural for people to be curious about why such a young and pretty woman was desperately looking for those two.

“What do you think you’re doing here?”

“Let go of me! Let go of this!”

When a security guard grabbed her arm, the woman twisted her body in an attempt to break free. Like a wildcat caught in a trap, she looked fierce and sharp, but there was no way she could shake off two sturdy men.

What a sight to brighten up a gloomy commute.

Laughter escaped from somewhere.

“What is she, a crazy woman?” someone said.

Someone else pulled out their phone and started recording.

“Let go! I said let go! Bring Moon Junhyuk and Moon Hyemi here……”

The woman, who had been shouting with all her might, gradually trailed off. Then, at some point, she began staring at only one place.

Seeing the look on her face as though she had seen a ghost, someone quick-witted was the first to follow her gaze.

“Wow, Executive Director Moon is really here.”

The information, which began as a whisper, quickly spread through the crowd.

The voices disappeared, and all the hands holding up phones lowered at once.

Executive Director Moon, Moon Junhyuk, who had been standing motionless, began to walk.

The heavy sound of his dress shoes echoed ominously.

As he reached the woman, one of the security guards hurriedly opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry! I’ll drag her out right away!”

“Let her go.”

“Yes! This way—ah, come this way!”

The security guard was so flustered that he failed to understand properly. Instead, he grabbed the woman and pulled her even harder.

“Let me go!”

The veins on the thick neck stood out.

Who was he cursing at?

‘Fuck.’

Moon Junhyuk swore roughly and repeatedly ran his hand through his hair.

Freed from the security guards, the woman staggered before silently walking away.

Then she simply left the building.

If she was going to leave like that, why had she caused such a commotion in the first place?

“What was that about?”

Murmurs began to spread.

But at the sight of what happened next, the lobby became as quiet as a grave.

Moon Junhyuk turned around.

Then he suddenly started running.

And he ran desperately, shouting,

“Lee Seol-ah!”

Six Months Earlier

“Let’s break up.”

She had run because she was afraid of being late for their appointment, so her body was still hot.

Lee Seol loosened her scarf as she sat down and looked up.

“Huh?”

“I’ve thought about it a lot, but I don’t think this is going to work. Let’s break up.”

Her boyfriend of about two months, Kim Woojae, shook his head as he delivered the words of their breakup.

Lee Seol stared at Woojae somewhat blankly.

Hearing that he wanted to break up, it probably shouldn’t have been her first thought, but she wondered why he hadn’t just told her over the phone.

Or at the very least, he could have chosen somewhere other than right in front of his company as their meeting place.

[The café in front of my office. Come here.]

Two hours ago, Woojae had sent her those words along with the café’s address.

It was rush hour.

She had transferred between subway lines while being jostled by crowds of people.

She hadn’t even had a sip of coffee, let alone taken off her coat, before hearing this.

It was ridiculous.

Especially since this was the man who had spent more than six months pursuing her despite her repeatedly saying she wasn’t interested.

Lee Seol let out a faint sigh and lowered her eyes.

She didn’t even have the energy to argue about the unfairness she was feeling.

She had already sensed that this relationship wouldn’t last long anyway.

Woojae’s once-gentle attitude had gradually changed starting a month ago, and over the past week, the change had become unmistakable.

“Lee Seol-ah, you know I really liked you, right? No. Actually, I still like you a lot.”

“……”

“But, somehow, I just don’t think it’s right.”

“……”

“You know where I got hired this time, right? It’s MS.”

“Okay. I understand. I’ll go.”

“Huh?”

Lee Seol stood up.

Her breathing, which had been labored from running, had finally begun to settle down.

“Ah, okay. Goodbye.”

Lee Seol headed for the door without answering the farewell that came from behind her.

When she stepped outside, white snow was already falling through the night sky.

Only now did she notice the tall building across the street.

The headquarters of MS Group, one of Korea’s most prominent conglomerates.

Come to think of it, Woojae had said that he had recently transferred to MS’s legal team.

With everything that had been happening, she had completely forgotten about it.

Would she have come all the way here if she’d known?

As she dwelled on that regret, she sensed someone coming to stand beside her.

“Do you have a light?”

A young man’s low voice reached her ears.

Even though he wasn’t facing her directly, there was something strangely powerful about his voice that made her certain he was speaking to her.

Lee Seol turned her head.

The first thing that entered her view was a black coat that looked expensive at a glance.

She had to raise her gaze even higher.

“I asked if you had a lighter.”

The man lightly flicked the cigarette held between his fingers and asked again.

“I don’t.”

The moment she answered, she felt as though something about the situation wasn’t real.

He hadn’t said anything funny, yet the man’s sharp eyes, with faint double eyelids, suddenly curved into a smile.

Then the smile disappeared in an instant.

His face became frighteningly cold.

If she had been even slightly out of her mind from the heartbreak she had suffered only minutes ago, she might have wondered whether she was standing face-to-face with the Grim Reaper.

“You don’t have one. A lighter.”

The man, whose features were so perfect that she wondered whether he had been created rather than born, muttered to himself before giving another mysterious smile.

This time, it lasted a little longer.

His straight, long lips lazily curved upward.

“Yes. I don’t.”

“Then it can’t be helped. It’s snowing, so be careful on your way home.”

For someone she had met by chance on the street, the man gave her a surprisingly kind farewell.

Lee Seol instinctively bowed her head in response before heading toward the station.

She had to take the subway again.

Still, by the time she got close to home, rush hour had passed, so she was able to sit down.

‘Hey, Woojae wasn’t so bad.’

Her relationship with Woojae had started because she had been unable to withstand the pressure from him and the people around her.

Even so, he had been her first boyfriend.

But she had no time to indulge in such bittersweet thoughts.

These days, the atmosphere at home was so terrible that even calling it the worst wasn’t enough.

“Mom, I’m ho—”

Lee Seol couldn’t finish her sentence.

She stopped in her tracks.

Her mother, Yoon Donghee, was sitting in the middle of the living room, crying.

Only a month ago, Lee Seol’s older sister, the eldest daughter of the family, had died.

Naturally, the person most devastated by the loss was the woman who had given birth to her.

“Mom, did you eat dinner?”

Lee Seol spoke gently as she knelt in front of Donghee.

Donghee shook her head, her face drenched in tears.

Lee Seol smiled faintly and took her mother’s hand.

“Should I make some ramen? Or maybe I can order whatever you want. What about Ddongpig? Ddongpig! Your sister’s home, aren’t you going to come running out?”

Lee Seol deliberately called out the nickname of her chubby fourth-grade elementary-school younger brother in an exaggeratedly cheerful voice.

‘You told me not to call you Ddongpig!’

Normally, the door should have burst open with an irritated voice.

But there was only silence.

Lee Seol turned her head toward her younger brother’s bedroom.

“Lee Seol-ah.”

“Ah, Mom. Yeah.”

“Your father, your father……”

“Yeah? What about Dad?”

Lee Seol squeezed Donghee’s hand tightly.

“Your father took Jiwan and left the house.”

“Huh?”

“He called me, and he said he, he sold this house too.”

“What are you talking about?”

Lee Seol let out a hollow laugh because the whole thing was so absurd.

She had heard the words, but none of them made any sense.

“He sold the house and the stocks and everything……. I looked around, and Mom, Mom’s jewelry is gone too.”

Lee Seol released Donghee’s hand, which had been clinging to her as if she didn’t want to let go, and searched through her coat pocket for her phone.

• The number you have dialed is not in service……

Lee Seol stared silently at the phone screen.

She hadn’t dialed the numbers one by one.

She had simply pressed the call record saved under ‘Dad.’

There was no way she had dialed the wrong number.

Her father had called her yesterday, which was unusual.

• Daughter, make sure you eat properly.

The moment she remembered his unusually affectionate voice, goosebumps spread across her entire body.

After sitting still for a moment, she called her younger brother, Han Jiwan.

The number was not in service.

Just like before.

“Mom, tell me exactly what happened. What on earth did Dad say?”

Lee Seol grabbed Donghee’s shoulders and shook her as she sobbed too hard to speak.

“He, he resigned. He said he was too ashamed to even show his face anymore……”

“And? What else did he say?”

“He sold the house and the land and everything…… He said we have to vacate the house by the end of this week.”

“……”

“Lee Seol-ah, what are we going to do now?”

Donghee asked while sniffing back her tears.

Lee Seol couldn’t answer.

Instead, she asked herself the same question.

Her father had been born the third son of a poor family and had risen all the way to an executive position at a major corporation.

He was meticulous and cold in every way.

Her late older sister used to look at their father and say,

‘I think all self-made men who rise from nothing have sociopathic tendencies.’

The apartment overlooking the Han River, the farmland in their hometown, and all their savings and stocks were in her father’s name.

And that man had disappeared, taking only the youngest son whom he had always cherished.

They had been abandoned.

He had abandoned his useless wife and daughter as punishment for the crime of making it impossible for him to hold his proud head high.