FC 07

Chapter 7

Returning home, Sung-hyun stood in the hollow, stillness of the first floor like a broken robot.

To say he had climbed the mountain because he was unsettled by an uninvited guest was an understatement; the house was simply far too quiet.

Since he rarely ate breakfast, Mrs. Park usually didn’t arrive for work until around lunchtime. He was accustomed to a routine of spending all day at the office, eating the dinner Mrs. Park prepared after getting off work, and returning once more to his solitude.

Yet here he was, finding the emptiness awkward just because the household had grown by two people.

AM 6:45.

Checking his watch twice, he finally forced his feet to move. His destination was the study. He needed to shower in the en-suite bathroom, sit at his desk, and get to work.

But why am I acting like this?

Instead of the study, he headed toward the second floor. Once again, fabricating an excuse under the guise of checking on Ria.

What is wrong with you since yesterday?

Though the room he actually wanted to knock on was a different one, he resolutely knocked on Ria’s door to deceive himself—knowing full well it wouldn’t work.

“Ria, are you sleeping well—”

Click.

Who would have thought a six-year-old squirt would diligently lock her door before going to sleep?

Pulling his hand back awkwardly, Sung-hyun hesitated before shuffling over to the distant neighboring room.

Stop it, Joo Sung-hyun.

This is seriously wrong, Joo Sung-hyun.

He had never once disobeyed the commands of his own mind. But now, he was breaking that rule.

Knock, knock.

He wasn’t even in his right mind enough to knock a second time simply because there was no answer. His body and mind kept acting entirely on their own whim.

In the end, he actually heard a dreamy, “Yeeees…….” And yet, he had no plan whatsoever.

Before long, the door clicked open to reveal a groggy face. Ji-won lifted her heavy eyelids, barely able to open her eyes.

“Hey.”

“……Oh. Sung-hyun…… ah…….”

Her disheveled appearance, free of even sleep crust, was as clear as a baby’s skin. The relaxed tension and her softly flowing posture were strangely pretty, causing him to gaze at her unthinkingly.

“Isn’t it about time to get up?”

Sleep-drunk, Ji-won squinted to meet his gaze. Realizing even to himself how absurd this spur-of-the-moment excuse was, he feigned ignorance.

“Do you normally sleep until this time?”

“……My alarm didn’t go off. What time am I supposed to start working from—”

“I was just about to tell you.”

“Ah…… oh, oh.”

Whether from sleepiness or sheer bewilderment, Ji-won’s usual sharpness was dulled. She submitted obediently without a single retort.

“Wash up and come downstairs. We have a lot to talk about, you and I.”

Snap. Ji-won’s eyes cleared instantly. Hearing the phrase ‘things to talk about’ seemed to act like an emergency button, entirely chasing away her sleepiness.

Swallowing hard, Ji-won wore a complicated expression. Then, she stared fixedly at Sung-hyun.

“Are you running a fever?”

That only made her already flushed complexion turn even redder.

“Are you sick somewhere?”

Sung-hyun smoothed down his face as if it were nothing.

“It’s hot.”

“The house is air-conditioned though…….”

Tilting his chin to look at her sideways, he fluttered the top of his athletic wear.

“Can’t you tell?”

“Ah.”

“I’ll be downstairs.”

What use was hiding his emotions when his physical reactions were completely beyond his control?

Hurriedly turning away, Sung-hyun bitterly regretted ever going up to the second floor.

Nestled between a mountain and a river.

True to the jaw-dropping real estate prices, mountains and rivers spread out refreshingly around the terrace.

Even if it wasn’t necessarily about mountains and rivers, the absurdly wide private terrace made one acutely feel a high-level lifestyle.

Though she was here to work, just when she should have been thrilled to experience the leisure of the wealthy elite:

“Aren’t you going to work?”

Ji-won felt as though the luxury European-style rattan chair was a bed of thorns.

“I’m working from home for three months.”

On top of that, the employer paying her kept summoning the past, making him a man she could hardly bear to look in the eye.

Even though the house felt like a five-star resort, her heart was hammering so wildly that it offered no comfort at all.

Working from hooome—

Working from hooome—

The echo reverberated inside her ears. Ji-won narrowed her eyes, the pupils rippling shallowly.

“Why?!”

She had forgotten everything in her rush: that it was only 7:10 AM even as she sat there with damp hair; that she was wearing the exact same clothes as yesterday in front of Joo Sung-hyun, who was dressed in a crisp linen shirt and slacks; and that she was dealing with a emotionless statue of a man.

“Are you skipping work because of Ria? Do you think I won’t be able to do this properly?”

Feeling as though she were being monitored, she pressed down hard on the table.

Lifting only his eyes, Sung-hyun set down the coffee he had been drinking.

“We have a babysitter, so why would it be because of Ria? And what’s this about you not being able to do it properly?”

“N-No…….”

Feeling foolish, Ji-won tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and smiled brightly.

“……Why are you looking at me like that?”

Was something on her face? His intense gaze only intensified her awkwardness.

“You still smile just as well.”

The corners of her lips, which had been smiling weakly, began to tremble.

“Huh?”

Only then withdrawing his gaze, he looked at his phone and said,

“I’m in the middle of confidential work. Being at home gives me peace of mind.”

“Ah…… then you’re just going to stay, at home the whole time?”

“I’m staying in my own home, so why are you making that face?”

“No, no.”

Ji-won didn’t just wave her hands; she shook her head side to side vigorously.

Was it her imagination? Sung-hyun, glancing at her sideways, seemed to let out a brief snort of a laugh.

Anyway, when was he planning to have that ‘talk’? Though she guessed it would be about her running away in the middle of the night 10 years ago, her mouth felt parched.

She felt sorry and ashamed. Because she shouldn’t have done that.

As she froze, waiting for some heart-dropping remark to fly her way, he finally broached the subject.

“You said you were a kindergarten teacher.”

“Yeah.”

“It suits you.”

“Huh?”

“Why did you quit?”

Whether she had seen right or heard right, everything was vague. She was kept busy just trying to keep up with Sung-hyun as he smoothly changed the subject.

“I quit to try something else, but old habits die hard, so I ended up finding a similar line of work anyway.”

She carefully packaged the answer that could have simply been three words: I got fired. She couldn’t bring herself to say she had been disgracefully chased out, having even fabricated work experience.

Whether he noticed her slight trembling voice or not, Sung-hyun simply watched her quietly.

The interrogation moved to the next item.

“Ten years ago.”

A prick of guilt—here it comes.

“Enough to disappear without a word.”

“About what happened back then—”

“Were you…”

“Were I a person of no meaning to you?”

“I wanted to ask. If Seong Ji-won ever appeared in front of me again.”

What must the state of her household, which had vanished overnight, have looked like?

The scene Sung-hyun must have witnessed was glaringly obvious. She could picture him standing there in despair, a man who had cared deeply about even a single leaking ceiling.

“I’m sorry. It must have been so bewildering, right?”

“Is that a feeling you can just brush off as ‘bewildering’?”

Sung-hyun was a man who had swallowed those words every time: If you’re ever struggling, I’ll help you.

Because he was the type of man whose actions came before words in order to protect her pride. Because he was that kind of man, it was agonizingly difficult for Ji-won to open her mouth.

“……You know that our family’s financial situation was always hard, right?”

“Yeah.”

Hearing a blunt “Yeah” from a man who knew all too well how bone-chillingly poor she had been made her chest constrict.

“My dad had already ruined everything, and then he caused another accident on top of that…….”

Back in a time when she didn’t want to offer messy explanations even to a man who knew her circumstances inside and out.

Why things had been so hard, how they had ended up living in such a state—she had never once spilled those secrets. Now, she was dragging them out in disjointed fragments.

“It was a situation that couldn’t be resolved. Other than running away…….”

She still didn’t want to bare everything to this man.

The accidents that had erupted back then weren’t just one or two; a debt collector she was seeing for the first time in her life had threatened her with a knife. It wasn’t merely a matter of a leaking ceiling. She couldn’t ask for help, and she mustn’t.

Unable to make a clean confession, she ended up blurring the lines once again.

“I meant to tell you before I left, but…… I’m sorry.”

“You meant to tell me?”

His sharp, analytical insight seemed to pierce right through her pathetic mask. Sneering, he flipped his phone over.

“You’re going to need to retake your interview.”

The words, languidly dropped as he scratched the edge of his phone like a toy, struck her ears with crystal clarity.

“Someone who’s supposed to watch a child is a terrible liar.”

“Then why didn’t you say so—that last night we tumbled together, but we’d soon vanish like strangers? That that kind of sex was just something we did to celebrate becoming adults, so we shouldn’t attach any meaning to it.”

“Sung-hyun.”

“Because we wouldn’t see each other for a whole ten years anyway, because we weren’t anything back then and we aren’t in a position to explain ourselves down to the bone now, you should just forget that night.”

“You should have said that back then, Seong Ji-won.”

Every single word from Sung-hyun carried a chilling mockery, as if it had happened just yesterday.

The turmoil that had ballooned the moment they reunited clawed through her complicated mind.

Facing this calm man who didn’t even crease a brow while venting his anger, she sorrowfully swallowed the words rising to her throat.

You’re the one who didn’t attach any meaning to that night, not me.

The man’s shallow smile had always been fleeting, and his gaze when looking at Ji-won had never carried conviction.

Because that was how Joo Sung-hyun had been back then. Ambiguous feelings, an ambiguous relationship, an ambiguous first time.

A day when she couldn’t let anyone know where she was going.

To that ambiguous boy, she hadn’t been able to say: Actually, I like you… do you feel the same way?

Would things have been different if she had heard him say, I like you too? Would she have cried her eyes out and begged him to come see her?

Because she regretted the feelings she couldn’t confirm, and she regretted the puppy love that had to end, they had tangled together that night just to leave behind a single memory with the boy who had stubbornly insisted he wanted to sleep with her.

Me too, Sung-hyun.

It remained carved into her mind as vividly as yesterday’s events.

“Experiencing it firsthand felt like absolute crap. I understand your circumstances, but it felt like I’d been played with and thrown away. Exactly like that.”

“It wasn’t like that—”

“You can curse me out as an emotionally bankrupt bastard. My head understands the situation, but right here says no.”

Striking his chest, Sung-hyun muttered quietly.

“What can I do?”

“I guess I just attached meaning to it on my own. The sex we had that day. All by myself.”

Even in this moment, he used vague phrasing to viciously cut off Ji-won’s choked-up words.

“Sung-hyun, the reason I slept with you back then—”

“Ria.”

The topic of conversation shifted coldly.

“As you’ve seen, she’s a demanding kid.”

Ji-won powerlessly let go of the truth she hadn’t been able to tie off. Sung-hyun’s gaze lingered on her slowly drooping shoulders before pulling away.

“Talk to me when things get to be too much.” “I have plenty of experience, so don’t worry.”

“Right, then.”

As if nothing had happened, his pressing tone transformed instantly into an unmodulated, businesslike one.

“She usually wakes up around 8:00. Work starts then, and work ends when she falls asleep. Spend your time however you like. If she happens to wake up in the middle of the night, stay with her.”

“Yeah, I will.”

“If you don’t have any questions, I’ll be heading in first.”

Checking his watch for the fifth time, he pushed his chair back.

Ji-won leaned her back against the backrest for the first time since coming out to the terrace. Exchanging a silent visual cue telling him to go ahead, she suddenly remembered something and called out to him.

“Is it okay if I drop by my house for a bit this evening? I didn’t pack enough luggage.”

“Go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

Amidst his coldness, the corners of Sung-hyun’s lips twitched upward in a brief snort. Puzzled by the reason, Ji-won forced a smile to match.

Leaving the terrace, Sung-hyun immediately dialed Min-seok’s number. The call connected almost before the ringtone could sound.

—Yes, Vice President.

Just hearing his title spoken aloud—

—Don’t worry. All the Unpack invitations have been sent out. Regarding the viewing event at the executive meeting……

A barrage of unrequested reports followed.

A guy who was brutally good at his job. Feeling a secret sense of satisfaction, Sung-hyun stepped into his study and stated his business.

“Forget that, do me a favor and run a background check.”

—Pardon? Whose background check……

The fingertips tucked into his trouser pocket lifted upward.

Languidly rubbing his lower lip, he murmured the existence of a woman who still felt like a mirage.

“Seong Ji-won.”

A woman he once couldn’t find, and later, as time passed, deliberately stopped looking for.

“Her debts, living conditions, family background, and even the reason for her recent resignation. Miss nothing.”

Now, even belatedly, I want to know your past and present that I missed.

—Seong Ji-won, Seong Ji-won…… I’ve heard that somewhere. Who was it again?

He didn’t wait for Min-seok, who had suddenly turned dense.

“The babysitter.”

An immediate, noisy reaction came through.

—Pardon? Why?! You didn’t run a background check when you hired Mrs. Park!

True to form as Han Min-seok, he started spouting nonsense.

—Look at this, look at this! You’ve fallen head over heels, haven’t you?!

Narrowing his brow, Sung-hyun headed toward his desk.

“My loving Min-seok, would you like to come work in the office?”

—Hk! I’ll look into it right away!

His booming voice sounded loud enough to blow out an eardrum.

Just as he was pulling the phone away from his ear, a thought struck him belatedly.

Unconsciously, Sung-hyun touched his earlobe.

“One more thing.”

—Yes?

“Find out if she has a man.”