Chapter 3

“You have an important client coming at five today.”

[M Holdings Director Kwon Jung-heon. Appointment at 5:00.]

The name recorded on the pad was very familiar. Woo-yeon’s gentle gaze, fixed on the screen without much thought, slowly took in the letters. At the same time, one face came to mind.

“…Kwon Jung-heon?”

“Why? Do you know him?”

When she quietly let the name slip from her lips while reading it, Representative Na asked curiously.

“No.”

Woo-yeon quickly shook her head. Representative Na lowered the teacup she had been holding near her lips and continued.

“He’s coming through an introduction from Director Seo Jeong-ju of Haeshin Art Center. I’d like you to take care of him.”

“Understood.”

An introduction from Director Seo Jeong-ju of Haeshin Art Center.

Is he connected to Haeshin Group?

Next to the unfamiliar company name were a few simple details, including information about an investment company.

“You and Chef Kang are still doing well, right?”

Representative Na’s words stopped Woo-yeon before she could continue looking through the information. Her relationship with Kang Yu-gun, whom she had been asked about as a matter of courtesy, had ended a week ago.

Woo-yeon unconsciously raised her stiff face. Her eyes rolled slightly. Representative Na, whose eyes met hers, looked at her more deeply.

Does she not know yet?

Since their relationship had been formed through overlapping personal and business connections, it was unavoidable that their networks would overlap like an intersection. Besides, Representative Na’s relationship with Kang Yu-gun was almost as close as Woo-yeon’s.

Emotion appeared in the experienced eyes. Woo-yeon slowly parted her dry lips.

“We ended it.”

“Hm?”

“Last month.”

It had only been a week ago, at the very end of June, just as July was beginning. Representative Na stared at Woo-yeon for a while, looking as if she really had not known.

It’s okay. You don’t have to look at me like that. I don’t need comforting either. He cheated on me. Strangely, I’m calm. In fact, I’d almost rather he confessed after only two months. It’s already over.

A lump of words rose all the way to the end of her throat, but she swallowed them with difficulty.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course.”

Woo-yeon smiled lightly. She was so calm that it was almost strange. Her six-month relationship had ended so emptily, yet aside from feeling a little down on the day of the breakup, she had not felt much of a blow afterward. If anything, that was what surprised her.

“It’s the time when you should be working hard. When you’re young and busy with work, things can sometimes go in different directions. Maybe something better is waiting for you. Keep up the good work.”

That was not the reason, but Woo-yeon simply smiled awkwardly, politely greeted Representative Na, and left the office.

Something better is waiting for me.

“Please let that be true.”

Woo-yeon murmured to herself.

It had been a relationship that was neither long nor short. She was glad she had loved him just enough, and perhaps not giving him more of her heart had been the best decision she could have made. She thought it had been a good experience. Even if it had not been good, she decided to seal those memories away and let the past go.

As Woo-yeon walked down the quiet hallway, she suddenly stopped at the sunlight pouring through the window. In the small garden built in the center of the building shaped like the Korean letter ‘ㅁ,’ a nogak tree swayed with white flowers blooming on its branches.

As July began, the sunlight had definitely become stronger.

It was hot.

Woo-yeon stared at the sunlight stretching down toward her feet before looking at the touchpad again.

[M Holdings Director Kwon Jung-heon. Appointment at 5:00.]

It was just an ordinary name on an ordinary appointment list.

Then why?

She could not take her eyes off that familiar name.

“…Kwon Jung-heon.”

Kwon Jung-heon, Class 1, third year of Korean high school.

Could it be that boy?

She remembered the boy her age whom she had met after suddenly going down to her maternal family’s home in Okcheon because of her parents’ divorce. On the hottest day of the year, her first day at the new school, she had been paired with him simply because he was always ranked first and was the class president.

That face, as if sharp lines had been drawn over and over again.

The name that had naturally been engraved in her mind, along with the face that came to her now, made the wound that had healed ten years ago itch again.

No way. It can’t be.

There wasn’t only one person in the world named Kwon Jung-heon, and it was not even an especially unusual name.

She remembered his back on a winter day when snowflakes were falling, his cold face as he carefully dumped out the lunch she had prepared for him.

‘I’ll enjoy it.’

He had said it with gentle lips, then stepped on it with his neat sneakers.

It was one of the memories Woo-yeon never wanted to remember again.

“It can’t be.”

Her first love at nineteen, which had not ended well.

Please, let it not be that incredible coincidence.

Woo-yeon wiped the heat from her aching forehead with the back of her hand, hugged the pad tightly against her chest, and walked away.

“From here to here.”

The man’s long, neat fingers pointed from one end of the display case to the other. Colorful macarons were lined up temptingly behind the clear glass.

“All of them?”

“Yes. Please pack everything.”

Bakery ‘1983,’ located in the art district of Gahoe-dong.

Only three minutes after entering the spacious café, Jung-heon had ordered every macaron displayed in the case.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“Please pack all the dacquoise, canelés, and chocolates too. And the tarts.”

His finger once again moved from one end to the other, pointing at the display of tarts topped with delicious-looking fresh fruit.

“I’ll have everything ready shortly.”

The bakery employee, who had just made an entire day’s worth of sales in only a few minutes, turned away with an excited face.

A woman in her mid-thirties, who had been quietly watching him from behind, spoke with a puzzled expression.

“Didn’t you come to look at paintings?”

“Yes.”

Jung-heon turned around. The woman, who had been looking at his neat neck from behind, raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“But you just cleared out the whole bakery… You don’t even eat sweets, do you?”

As far as she knew, the man in front of her did not enjoy snacking. In all the years she had known him, she had never seen him eat sweets.

“I’ll take some to Nason Gallery. Let’s say the rest are offerings. The people at ‘Codename’ like sweets, don’t they? I have to go straight there after this.”

His neat face lifted slightly at the corners of his relaxed mouth. His gentle smile gave the person looking at him a sense of trust.

The woman thought it must be because of the overwhelming confidence filling his eyes, which were set within smooth, elegant lines as if they had been painted with a brush.

When he smiled, he had quite a handsome and sweet image. But when his expression disappeared, he somehow looked cold.

She had known him for a long time, but he was still difficult to read.

Even so, his presence was unmistakable anywhere. No matter where he stood among other people, it was easy to find Kwon Jung-heon.

His tall, lean frame stood out inside the café. At 189 cm tall, his suit looked as extraordinary as his sleek, polished dress shoes. His broad back beneath his square shoulders was clearly strengthened by exercise, and his hairstyle, neatly swept back to reveal his forehead, added a cool feeling to his sharp features.

A flawless face.

Beneath his broad forehead were neatly arranged eyebrows, clear eyes filling his small face, and a sharp nose. Below it, a distinct philtrum curved naturally toward his lips. His dark, clearly defined lips were tightly closed, as if showing his decisive personality.

Meanwhile, his curious gaze briefly landed on Seon Yoon-jung, who was standing there watching him as if she could not understand him.

Yoon-jung pushed up her rimless glasses with her finger, her eyes lifting strangely as if she still could not figure him out.

“To be honest, I was nervous when I got your call this morning.”

“Why?”

“I wondered why Director Kwon suddenly asked me to come with him. Why are you suddenly going to a gallery? Are you getting into art investment now?”

Facing Yoon-jung, who asked directly whether he was investing money through art, Jung-heon shook his head.

“It’s because of Chairman Ryu Jung-hwan’s 60th birthday celebration. We can consider art investment later.”

At Jung-heon’s serious answer, Yoon-jung shook her head with an “Ugh.”

“You left Haeshin ages ago, but you’re still Haeshin? I don’t even like going near the company I quit. Still, considering that even Chairman Ryu and the notoriously strict Director Seo Jeong-ju trust you completely, you really are the irresistible Director Kwon.”

“I’m Haeshin’s dog.”

The short words rang out clearly.

Yoon-jung, who had been chattering playfully, looked up at Jung-heon with a startled expression.

“I’m sorry.”

Yoon-jung pretended to zip her lips shut, and Jung-heon gave a brief smile.

She had worked beside Jang Woo-jin, the CEO of M Holdings, for about fifteen years. She had worked with Managing Director Kwon Jung-heon for three years, but she had known him for ten.

She had never imagined that they would start as university juniors and seniors, go their separate ways for ten years, and then come together to establish an investment company.

At twenty, after coming to Seoul from Okcheon, Jung-heon had been her junior in the Department of Business Administration. Now, he was leading M Holdings as its chief executive in charge of operations.

Before joining M Holdings, Jung-heon had belonged to Haeshin Group. For as long as Yoon-jung had known him, he had been a person of Haeshin.

When she did not know him well, his neat appearance and the calmness that showed in his every action had made her mistake him for the son of a wealthy family. Sometimes, when a black sedan came to school to pick him up, she had thought the rumors must be true.

But wherever there is light, there is always darkness.

After hearing Jung-heon calmly confess that he had grown up in an orphanage and was being supported by Haeshin Group, Yoon-jung had even made sure the people around her kept quiet. In front of him, she never carelessly said anything.

“Let’s get moving.”

Then and now.

Was the only thing that had changed the passage of time?

“I really can’t figure out what’s going on inside his head.”

Yoon-jung followed Jung-heon, a man who had never once been involved in a scandal and seemed so thorough that not even a single flaw could be found in him.

A certain street in Bukchon, where artists gathered.

On a rectangular plot of land stood a solid wall built from black bricks, looking imposing. Beyond the strong stone exterior wall, a modern building made of brick and cement rose high.

Ten minutes before the scheduled appointment, Jung-heon pressed the bell.

“Are you Director Kwon Jung-heon of M Holdings? We’ve been waiting for you.”