TNS 06

Chapter 6

“If you have nowhere else to go, stay here. I have plenty of other places to stay anyway.”

To a woman who was dying of frostbite, he offered warm meals and a place to sleep. At first, suspicion took precedence. She had learned the hard way that kindness like this always came with a price. So, Yun-seo asked him directly and honestly.

“Um… by any chance, if I stay here… do I have to sleep with you?” “No.”

He truly asked for nothing in return. Cha Seon-jae’s indifferent answer remained in her mind all the more stubbornly. From then until now, after spending years by his side, she had believed she had used up the very last bit of good fortune left in her life. A peaceful life, a daily routine where she could breathe easy. She had believed all of it was a blessing granted by chance. However, feeling the deep despair that all of it was actually a daily life Cha Seon-jae had painstakingly maintained for her left her crushed. Because he was a person who was kinder to her than necessary and at the same time so effortlessly stable, there was a time she had even dared to dream about him. Yet, feeling so terribly guilty about herself—for at some point coming to ask for nothing more, taking comfort merely in being able to stay by his side—weighed heavily on her conscience.

“I’m someone who can give limitlessly, and you’re someone who can receive as much as you want. Do you really need any other reason?” Cha Seon-jae didn’t know the fact that his unconditional kindness might one day break him. She couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling that the anxiety of becoming the weakness that gnawed away at him, and staying by his side in the name of love despite that, might become Cha Seon-jae’s most fatal vulnerability.

“Then, Managing Director… will you marry me?” Rather than a question, it was closer to persuasion. Ha Yun-seo knew better than anyone what kind of man Cha Seon-jae was. Managing Director Cha Seon-jae was a man who generally refrained from making choices unless they benefited him. Therefore, to provoke him—or rather, to cut ties with him cleanly—there was no request better than this. She hadn’t doubted for a moment that he would never throw away the single greatest transaction-like opportunity of his life on a worthless woman like her.

“Will that do?” She had expected a stern, fierce rebuke asking if she realized what she was daring to covet, but when an entirely unexpected reaction came back, Yun-seo’s eyelids trembled faintly. “I asked if marriage would be enough.” At his cool voice breaking through the silence like fingernails scraping against a wall, her heart fluttered shamelessly. “Yes. A marriage with you, Managing Director, seems like a profitable deal for me as well.” “Ha Yun-seo takes full responsibility for everything that follows.” Outside the window, hazy sunlight scattered, and the air inside the room stood still at an unmeasurable temperature. “However, a marriage with someone like me who offers no benefits whatsoever won’t help you in the slightest, Managing Director. So, I intend to give up on it.” “Let’s do it, the marriage.” The corner of Seon-jae’s mouth curled up obliquely. He looked with interest at Yun-seo, who had taken the bait he threw, and answered once more. “I’ll give it to you—the marriage.”

He hadn’t acted like a well-trained dog all this time just to vainly hand her over to a piece of human trash like Cha Jun-hyung. The math only balanced out if he used Ha Yun-seo at least once—the woman he had tamed to his own taste all this time.

“There’s a condition instead.” “A condition? What kind of condition…?” Ha Yun-seo’s eyes trembled faintly. If he had known that Ha Yun-seo’s breaking face—a face that had always appeared calm, unwavering, and emotionless—would be this beautiful, he wouldn’t have treated her so gently all this time. “Surveil Vice President Cha Ik-hyun and Executive Director Cha Jun-hyung. You.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t understand the meaning of his words, yet Yun-seo couldn’t even blink, staring blankly at his lips as if rendered speechless. Looking down at her dazed face, Seon-jae said: “Given that I’m dedicating pure devotion here, I should at least get that much for the numbers to add up.” “So, what you’re saying is…” Yun-seo tried to speak, but she couldn’t finish the sentence and hushed her voice. “Go under Executive Director Cha Jun-hyung. Marry me. Then that works. Pay off your debt over there that way, while I get the practical profits.”

This was a fair deal. At least for Ha Yun-seo. From the moment she first set foot in the company—no, long before that—Ha Yun-seo had been Cha Seon-jae’s person. But today, Cha Seon-jae abandoned Ha Yun-seo. To his cousin. More accurately, he pretended to abandon her. Yun-seo did not know. Even that responsibility she was supposed to bear was entirely under Cha Seon-jae’s plan.

Yun-seo had been unable to awaken from a dazed state all day. It felt as though she were floating in a continuous dream, completely devoid of a sense of reality. And understandably so, because to Cha Seon-jae, ‘marriage’ was merely a business means to leap one step higher, or at best, recruiting a non-betraying ally who would yield business benefits. However, this seemed to be a dangerous signal.

“I am going to marry Secretary Ha.”

Regardless of when or where she had pushed Cha Seon-jae’s buttons, that very evening, Cha Seon-jae dragged her right in front of his mother, Kim Kyung-ae, the current CEO of Hankyoung Pharmaceuticals. To be precise, he intruded upon CEO Kim Kyung-ae’s dinner engagement and was blurting out such absurd nonsense. Having been enjoying a delightful conversation and meal with her acquaintance, CEO Kim Kyung-ae—who stared back and forth at the contrasting expressions of Seon-jae, who suddenly requested to join them, and his secretary Yun-seo—showed a subtle crack across her face.

“Pardon?” “Just as you heard. I intend to marry Yun-seo.” As if encountering a sudden disaster, Kim Kyung-ae had deeply troubled eyes. Glancing at her acquaintance’s face out of the corner of her eye, she scolded Seon-jae under her breath, “What kind of nonsense are you talking about, barging in out of nowhere?” “Please grant your permission for this marriage.”

As if pestering his parents to buy him a toy he wanted as a child, Cha Seon-jae was demanding a marriage with Ha Yun-seo. Looking down at Seon-jae’s firm hand tightly holding hers under the table, Yun-seo instinctively felt that she wouldn’t be able to stop him. “Managing Director Cha, I am currently at a private gathering. Wouldn’t it be better to discuss that matter separately at home?” “Since you don’t make time for me separately, I have no choice but to come find you myself.”

CEO Kim Kyung-ae didn’t particularly welcome meetings with her Managing Director son, who brought up headache-inducing work topics whenever they met. Given the situation, she naturally avoided phone calls and evaded meetings unless it was an exceptionally urgent matter. Because of that, whenever there was a crucial issue to convey, he frequently received her schedule through the secretaries directly under the CEO’s office and came to find her personally like this. The only difference this time was that he had directed his steps to her private gathering spot.

The skin under Kim Kyung-ae’s eyes trembled finely. Conscious of the acquaintances sitting across from her, she forced the corners of her mouth up into an awkward smile. To CEO Kim Kyung-ae, who regarded elegance and decorum as her very life, her son’s rude intrusion was close to a humiliation. “Managing Director Cha. Why are you being so reckless, unlike yourself? I know very well that Secretary Ha is capable.” Continuing her speech, Kim Kyung-ae’s eyes turned toward Yun-seo, who was sitting next to him. Hardening her expression as if disliking opposing it right in front of the party concerned, she tried to calm her breathing and continued speaking. “Marriage is a different matter. There is no way you don’t know what kind of impression it would give in the business world for the successor of Hankyoung Pharmaceuticals to wed a secretary.”

To soothe her son, who looked ready to refuse to leave unless she gave permission immediately, CEO Kim spoke coaxingly. Then, turning her eyes to Yun-seo, she spoke without hiding her inner thoughts. “Secretary Ha, I hope there’s no misunderstanding. I have no personal ill feelings toward you, Secretary Ha. I’m only saying this because, considering various circumstances, it doesn’t seem like the right direction.”

Seon-jae leaned his body casually against the backrest, a sneer gracing his lips. “On the contrary, I think it would be good because it’s clear. It will be seen as a sign that we are different from other chaebol families who trade off marriages.”