BT 16

Chapter 16

Introduce Me

“Why are you standing there with your mouth shut?”

The party was noisy and lively, everyone caught up in the festivities. Yet Eun-chae stood there silently, like an uninvited guest.

Do-hyeok asked her the question.

She simply felt that this was not a place where she belonged, so she remained quiet. There were plenty of people around, but she couldn’t see anyone she actually wanted to become friends with.

Instead, everyone treated her like an outsider and kept her at a distance.

Just as she and Do-hyeok were completely different from each other, the party and Eun-chae seemed to exist in separate worlds.

Her original purpose had been to bring Do-hyeok to his sister’s party. She had never intended to enjoy herself.

Perhaps that was why Eun-chae felt like a sack of barley that had simply been tossed into someone else’s party.

Watching her unusually quiet demeanor, Do-hyeok took a sip of champagne before leaning closer and whispering in a low voice.

“Want me to show you something nice?”

Whenever Do-hyeok said something was “nice,” there was a greater chance that it would be something terrible for her.

So Eun-chae looked at him suspiciously and refused.

“No, thanks.”

Do-hyeok smiled mischievously.

“You’ll regret it if you don’t look.”

I regret ever meeting you.

What am I even doing here?

Eun-chae grumbled inwardly as she continued staring at the Han River.

Then, out of nowhere, Do-hyeok began counting down.

“Ten, nine, eight.”

“Don’t count.”

“Six, five, four.”

Even though she told him to stop, Do-hyeok continued without caring.

Eun-chae became genuinely irritated, feeling as though he was deliberately teasing her.

“Three, two, one.”

“Stop counting! You’re annoying me. I’m seriously going to get angry.”

Do-hyeok seemed completely absorbed in his little prank.

He even shaped his fingers like a gun and pretended to shoot toward the dark night sky.

“GO.”

“I told you to stop!”

She was genuinely angry now and had even forgotten that she had promised not to get angry today.

But her voice was drowned out by a loud boom.

Fireworks suddenly burst over the Han River.

Eun-chae’s mouth fell open in surprise.

She had never expected fireworks to go off at that exact moment.

The fireworks painting the night sky looked like the hottest, most magnificent painting in the world.

Eun-chae stood there with her mouth slightly open, unable to tear her eyes away from the dazzling night sky.

Do-hyeok felt a strange sense of satisfaction.

He hadn’t prepared the fireworks himself. They were merely part of the decorations for this boring party.

But still.

Seeing Eun-chae so amazed somehow made him feel rewarded.

Boom—! Boom—! Boom-boom—!

For that brief moment, the two of them stood side by side watching the fireworks.

It was peaceful.

It felt as though everything in the world had disappeared, leaving only the two of them behind.

That unfamiliar sense of comfort quietly knocked against both their hearts.

Unexpectedly, Do-hyeok had been quite gentlemanly today.

She had deceived him and brought him to his sister’s birthday party, yet he hadn’t gotten angry.

He had even taken off his jacket and given it to her because she looked cold.

And now he had shown her the fireworks.

So she felt good.

Not because of the extravagant party on the boat.

Because of Do-hyeok.

“I actually thought you would just turn around and leave at the entrance.”

At Eun-chae’s words, Do-hyeok pressed his lips together.

If he hadn’t had a purpose, he wouldn’t have come in the first place.

He needed an audience to witness the fact that he had a woman he was seeing.

Fortunately, there were more than enough people at Do-yeon’s party today.

He had simply wanted to use those people’s eyes to convey to his father that Lee Eun-chae belonged to him.

If Eun-chae knew that, she would probably call him the worst man in the world.

So Do-hyeok gave her a different answer.

“Don’t you want to sing in front of people?”

At Do-hyeok’s question, Eun-chae shook her head.

“Not here.”

“You even choose your audience when you sing?”

“People here only listen to classical music while putting on airs. You only have classical records at your house too.”

“So you’re saying you can’t beat Beethoven or Mozart.”

Eun-chae immediately bristled.

“There’s no such thing as winning or losing when it comes to singing!”

Everything was about winning and losing to Do-hyeok, so the words came naturally to him.

“Only eight days left now.”

At Do-hyeok’s words, Eun-chae looked surprised.

She hadn’t realized that so much time had already passed.

“B-But I missed several days because of my father’s hospital stay.”

Do-hyeok gave her a dry smile.

“Looks like you want to stay with me longer.”

“No, I don’t!”

She vehemently denied it.

She should have felt relieved.

Instead, something felt strange.

Her chest tightened.

Eun-chae fell silent.

Just then, Do-hyeok noticed Do-yeon approaching from behind her.

He put an arm around Eun-chae’s shoulders and pulled her toward him.

Do-yeon stopped in shock when she saw them.

Eun-chae was startled too and looked at him.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m freaking hot!”

Eun-chae snapped back, insisting that she was burning up.

But Do-hyeok still didn’t remove his arm.

Eun-chae’s face had turned as red as a roasted sweet potato.

It was cute.

Now that he thought about it, Eun-chae seemed weak against this sort of thing.

Do-hyeok glanced toward Do-yeon.

She was trembling all by herself.

So Do-hyeok deliberately leaned even closer to Eun-chae’s face, as though making sure Do-yeon could see everything, and whispered,

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

Eun-chae frowned.

Why would you ruin such a good atmosphere by announcing something like that before leaving?

“She wasn’t just a housekeeper! Oppa is seriously weird! Why does he have to do that with a woman like her?! Mom, do something!”

Instead of being happy after the party, Do-yeon had returned home in a hysterical mood.

Jung Madam was exhausted.

No matter how much Do-yeon complained about how strange everything was, there was actually nothing Jung Madam could do about Do-hyeok.

Even the management of Do-hyeok’s house was handled by Manager Park.

There was virtually nothing Jung Madam did for Do-hyeok as a mother.

So it would be ridiculous for her to suddenly interfere in Do-hyeok’s love life simply because she was technically his mother.

Do-hyeok would obviously ignore her anyway.

Jung Madam would never do anything that made herself look foolish.

“They’re probably only seeing each other for a short while. So don’t worry about it.”

The Kwon father and son were the kind of people who would rather hurt others than do anything that might leave themselves vulnerable.

If Do-hyeok was seeing a woman like that, Jung Madam believed there had to be some reason he wanted to use her.

She would never believe it was love.

“You didn’t see it yourself, Mom! They had such a different atmosphere! I’ve never seen Oppa act like that before!”

“Instead of wasting time worrying about Do-hyeok, pay attention to Do-jin! Do you even know what rank Do-jin is nationally?”

The mother of a high school senior preparing for college entrance exams was exhausted whether she was an ordinary mother or the wife of a chaebol family.

Jung Madam was especially concerned about Do-jin because she knew Chairman Kwon would inevitably compare Do-jin and Do-hyeok.

She absolutely hated the thought of her own child being discouraged because of another woman’s son.

“Chairman Kwon has arrived.”

When Do-yeon heard that Chairman Kwon had returned, she started toward him.

But Jung Madam anxiously grabbed her daughter and warned her.

“Don’t say a single word to your father. Understand?”

“Why?! You said you weren’t going to do anything!”

“So you want some woman you don’t even know to end up at your father’s mercy?”

Do-yeon looked at her mother with dissatisfaction.

“Even if Do-hyeok Oppa were your biological son, would you still pretend to be so kind?”

“Kwon Do-yeon!”

Jung Madam’s voice rose because her daughter had hurt her feelings.

But the moment she saw Chairman Kwon entering, she quickly fell silent.

She tightened her grip on Do-yeon’s hand so that her daughter couldn’t say anything to Chairman Kwon.

Do-yeon glared unhappily at her mother, but eventually said nothing and simply bowed in greeting.

However, once she was somewhere her mother wasn’t around, she would eventually tell him.

She would tell Chairman Kwon about the woman Do-hyeok had brought to the party that day.

With Chairman Kwon now knowing about Eun-chae, Manager Park’s position had become extremely ambiguous.

He was practically the JSA—the Joint Security Area—between Chairman Kwon and Do-hyeok.

For three years, he had only reported to Chairman Kwon.

Now Chairman Kwon had started calling him in and giving him orders again, almost as though he were still his secretary.

And what that meant was that Chairman Kwon intended to use Manager Park to educate Do-hyeok according to his own wishes.

That only made Manager Park’s position more difficult.

Depending on how he acted, he might either freeze the relationship between father and son solid or usher them into an era of peace.

“Chairman Kwon instructed me to look into a manager from a famous entertainment agency.”

After hearing Manager Park’s report, Do-hyeok’s reaction was filled with cynicism.

“Does he think Lee Eun-chae will be easily swayed by something like that?”

“You did the same thing once yourself, President.”

At Manager Park’s pointed remark, the smile disappeared from Do-hyeok’s face.

His expression turned cold.

“At least I don’t use someone else’s dream so carelessly.”

Do-hyeok insisted that he had only used her for a single event.

But from Manager Park’s perspective, Do-hyeok and Chairman Kwon were exactly alike.

Perhaps that was why neither of them could bring themselves to yield easily.

“What do you intend to do?”

Chairman Kwon had already decided to separate Do-hyeok and Eun-chae.

He seemed to believe that if he did that, everything would return to the way it had been—as though nothing had ever happened.

Manager Park didn’t know whether Chairman Kwon’s feelings toward Do-hyeok’s late mother were hatred mixed with love or simply longing.

But whatever they were, they were probably his weakest feelings.

That was why Chairman Kwon himself refused to face them and only tried to run away.

What Manager Park wanted to know was how Do-hyeok would respond to his father.

Perhaps Eun-chae had changed him in some way.

Manager Park hoped so.

But—

“Find me a manager too. Someone more famous than the person my father finds.”

Apparently, people didn’t change that easily.

He intended to fight power with greater power.

It was childish, if anything.

Manager Park sighed and placed the file folder he had brought in front of Do-hyeok.

“I prepared this in advance because I thought you would say that.”

Just that level of preparedness was enough to make some of the disappointment Do-hyeok had felt toward Manager Park disappear.

But when Do-hyeok opened the file folder, his expression immediately twisted.

The person Manager Park had found from the record industry was someone Do-hyeok knew very well.

“This person isn’t a manager.”

“No. He’s a producer, which is higher than a manager. So he’ll be able to provide Miss Eun-chae with more practical assistance.”

“No. Find someone else.”

Do-hyeok pushed the file away as though he didn’t even need to hear anything more.

But Manager Park wasn’t the kind of secretary who would simply back down.

“If we’re looking for someone Miss Eun-chae actually needs, he’s the perfect person.”

Manager Park had always been willing to stand his ground whenever he believed he was right and his boss was wrong.

But Do-hyeok was hardly the type to accept that quietly.

“I don’t like this man!”

“He isn’t someone you need, President. He’s someone Miss Eun-chae needs. So please think about this once more from Miss Eun-chae’s perspective—”

“I don’t want to.”

Do-hyeok was firm.

“There isn’t only one person in South Korea who makes albums. Find someone else.”

Manager Park knew exactly where that stubbornness came from, so he calmly offered his advice.

“Then find someone yourself. This is the only person I recommend.”

From Do-hyeok’s perspective, this was practically a rebellion by his secretary.

Do-hyeok stared sternly at Manager Park’s wrinkled face, which stubbornly refused to obey him.

The person Manager Park had recommended was Yun Seo-il.

His late mother’s younger brother.

His maternal uncle, with whom all contact had been completely severed after his mother’s death.

After spending the entire day cleaning Do-hyeok’s house, Eun-chae returned home and did exactly the same thing there.

Her father had to be careful with his back, so he avoided chores that required him to bend over whenever possible.

That meant Eun-chae handled things like mopping the floor and carrying the dining table.

In the past, her grandparents had lived with them as well, so three generations had once occupied the house.

Because of that, there were many rooms.

Once she started mopping, it took at least an hour to finish.

She rolled up the legs of her sweatpants and diligently wiped the old wooden floor when her phone rang.

It was Do-hyeok.

Thinking he was probably calling to annoy her about something again, Eun-chae frowned even before answering.

She pressed the call button with unnecessary force.

“What?”

[Why do you always say “what?” whenever I call you?]

Now he was picking a fight over something completely pointless.

“Maybe because I’m not happy to hear from you.”

[Haven’t you ever been dumped for having no affection?]

“Hang up!”

She was about to end the call in anger when Do-hyeok unexpectedly mentioned a name.

[Do you know Yun Seo-il?]

Of course she knew that name.

Yun Seo-il was a famous composer and record producer, known not only among people in the Korean music industry but also by the general public.

His name was probably one of the most commonly heard during singers’ award acceptance speeches.

“You mean that Yun Seo-il from SI Entertainment?”

[You know him.]

Do-hyeok sounded extremely disappointed.

Eun-chae wondered what kind of reaction that was supposed to be.

He was the one who had asked her in the first place.

“Were you close with that Yun Seo-il? You should’ve told me sooner!”

[If I had told you sooner?]

“I would’ve cleaned your house without taking the three million won!”

[Keep dreaming.]

Click—.

Do-hyeok tossed out a refined curse and simply hung up.

Eun-chae stared at her disconnected phone with a baffled expression.

“What?”

He hadn’t even explained why he had asked about Yun Seo-il.

He was the one who asked me first!

What the hell is he trying to do?

Meanwhile, Do-hyeok had called because he thought Eun-chae, who worked in indie music, might have a different opinion of Yun Seo-il, who worked in mainstream music.

But her reaction only made him feel worse, so he had ended the call.

“Why did you get so excited just because I mentioned that man?”

Do-hyeok glared at his phone for no reason.

He disliked it.

Because Eun-chae seemed to harbor an almost excessive admiration for Yun Seo-il, Do-hyeok found himself disliking Yun Seo-il even more.

He tossed his phone aside and got up, heading toward the study.

Then, from behind him, the notification sound announced that a message had arrived.

He didn’t even need to look.

It was probably Lee Eun-chae.

Do-hyeok intended to ignore it and continue walking.

But after taking only a few steps, he stopped.

He turned around.

The phone screen was glowing.

Almost as though it were calling out to him.

In the end, he walked back the way he had come and picked up the phone.

Eun-chae’s message was incredibly long.

But the content itself consisted of only one thing.

<If you know Yun Seo-il, introduce me to him. Introduce me. Introduce me. Introduce me. Introduce me. Introduce me. Introduce me. Introduce me. Introduce me. Introduce me. Introduce me.>

Do-hyeok’s hand trembled around the phone.

It was as though Eun-chae’s voice had transformed into text and was echoing directly in his ears.

So as long as it’s a man who works in music, she doesn’t care about his age, his personality, or anything else. She just likes him.

His mood instantly soured.

Do-hyeok gripped his phone and immediately walked into the kitchen.

He opened the refrigerator.

Then he tossed the phone into the empty refrigerator and shut the door.

Bang—!

The refrigerator, which was supposed to hold food, had just become a prison for his phone.a