ITLW 04

Chapter 4

Nothing Happened. ……………At Least Not Yet

Have you ever heard the voice of a star crying out from somewhere in the distant reaches of space?

That sparkling, noisy voice.

“The CEO! He’s the person I like!”

It was a sound he had never heard even once before.

And because of that, it was a sound he knew he would never be able to forget.

“What are you talking about? What do you mean, the stars are making a sound?”

Dohyeon, who was standing close behind Leeheon, spoke up.

Startled, Leeheon cleared his throat.

“What did I say?”

“Yes. Something about the voice of a star…………….”

He had been so shocked that he must have accidentally said his thoughts out loud.

Leeheon turned his gaze unnecessarily toward the number panel inside the elevator.

After climbing the stairs, he had heard an employee’s confession and, like a lost navigation system that had suddenly lost its destination, unconsciously headed for the elevator and gotten inside.

“Raiheon! I like CEO Ra! I’ve liked him ever since the first moment I saw him after joining the company!”

The intense stimulus made Leeheon shake his head.

Perhaps it was because learning the secret of his birth so suddenly had left him temporarily out of his mind.

He pressed firmly against his temple.

“Secretary Kang, what I heard earlier………………”

“The passionate confession directed at you?”

A passionate confession.

“You heard it?”

“How could I…………… not hear it? I could practically feel her determination to spread it all over the company until it reached your ears.”

So he hadn’t misheard it.

“She must really like you. For her to go around announcing so loudly that she likes someone who already has a fiancée. Just how much do you have to like someone to do that?”

Was it really possible to like someone that much?

To feel something that intensely for another person?

“Well, it’s not like you only have one employee who likes you, right?”

Leeheon’s lips twitched before his eyes widened.

“There are more?”

At Leeheon’s question, Dohyeon looked at him as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

With that face of his, wouldn’t it be harder for there not to be any?

“Well, I don’t know for certain, but there are probably quite a few.”

“Are you asking me?”

Why are you asking me? Are you mocking me?

“There……………… probably are.”

Leeheon furrowed his brow, and Dohyeon clasped his hands together.

“I’ll look into it.”

“Don’t you have work to do, that you have time to go around investigating things like that? Don’t report information unless you’re certain.”

Though I’m pretty sure there are.

Dohyeon muttered under his breath before finally asking the question he had been curious about since that morning.

“But what did you have investigated today? You could have asked me to handle something like that. Was it urgent? Or important……………?”

“The passionate confession directed at you?”

Dohyeon continued talking, but all Leeheon could hear was the clamor of stars—the deep echo lingering inside his chest.

What exactly was the feeling of liking someone?

Come to think of it, he had never experienced anything like that in his life.

No.

He had never really experienced emotions very strongly at all.

“I heard you’re getting married, Hyung. Is it really okay to get married like this?”

…………Marriage.

When Cheolmin had told him the wedding date, the very first thought that had crossed Leeheon’s mind had been:

Was my schedule free that day?

Nothing more.

No emotion.

No sentiment.

Because to Leeheon, marriage was nothing more than business.

“If I ever really got married, I’d want to marry the CEO! Because I like him so much!”

The employee he had encountered in the emergency exit had said she liked him so much that she wanted to marry him.

She had definitely said that.

That was how ordinary people got married, wasn’t it?

But what about him?

A marriage without even knowing his own feelings.

A marriage based on business, without any feelings of love.

………………Was that really okay?

“Should I break off the engagement?”

“Was that why you had me investigate the background? If that’s the case, you could have just told me…… Wait. What? Break off the engagement?”

Dohyeon’s eyes flew wide as he raised his voice.

“Did you just say break off the engagement? Did something happen? D-Don’t tell me it was because of that confession earlier………….”

“Why? Do I look like some crazy man who would break off his engagement because of one confession?”

Uh……………… with the way you’re looking right now… a little?

The Leeheon Dohyeon had known until now wasn’t the kind of person who would do something like that.

But right now, there was an inexplicable glint of madness in his eyes.

“If that’s not it, then why are you suddenly saying something like that………………?”

“I was joking.”

“Y-You joke?”

Dohyeon inwardly wiped the sweat from his brow in relief.

But Leeheon was staring grimly at the changing numbers of the elevator.

CEO………………sir?

Surely he was just saying it.

The confession earlier had certainly been quite a sensation, but this was a man who had probably received at least three confession letters a day since he was young.

He wouldn’t break off his engagement over something as trivial as that……………… right?

If the CEO got married, he’d probably work less and go home earlier.

And then Dohyeon could finally start leaving work on time for once.

The CEO would get married, and he would get off work.

That was their happy ending, wasn’t it, CEO?

Right?

Wasn’t it?

It had to be.

It absolutely had to be…!

Dohyeon wiped the sweat from his forehead over and over, desperately trying to regain his peace of mind.

The ominous feeling refused to go away.

Leeheon’s perfectly immaculate appearance, which had never once been disheveled, had completely changed over the past few days.

The front of his shirt was partially undone, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

Even his normally neat hairstyle had become slightly tousled, with several strands of hair falling over his forehead.

He looked almost like a male lion lying in the middle of a vast grassland.

There was something sexy and languid about him now, giving off the unmistakable air of a bad man.

“CEO, as I mentioned yesterday, there are several matters you need to approve by the end of this week.”

Thwack.

The rubber ball left Leeheon’s hand, struck the wall, and bounced straight back into his palm.

“The most urgent matter is the investment approval for the new business. It’s an additional twenty billion won………………”

Thwack.

Once again, the ball struck the wall.

While Dohyeon continued his report, there was no response from Leeheon.

Only the ball kept traveling back and forth.

Had he become so obsessed with work that he couldn’t even spare time to exercise, forcing him to combine work and exercise?

With this work machine, it was entirely possible.

Dohyeon took a deep breath.

“CEO? Why are you suddenly playing with a ball?”

“Oh, this? I just found it good for relieving stress.”

He threw the ball again.

Thwack.

Then caught it.

“Why are you suddenly doing something like this, of all things? It’s not really like you………………”

“What was it that made me me?”

“What?”

Plop.

Apparently bored with it now, Leeheon tossed the ball onto the sofa and straightened his posture.

“What happened with the information I asked you to find?”

“Ah, that.”

Dohyeon flipped through his planner.

“Her name is Lee Dan-ah. There are four members in her family, and she’s the eldest of two daughters. She graduated from Hanguk University and joined our company’s Public Relations Office two years ago.”

Lee Dan-ah………… Hanguk University………… Public Relations Office………….

Leeheon repeated Dohyeon’s words in his mind, engraving each piece of information into his memory.

“She’s diligent and has never been late even once. She gets along well with her colleagues, and she has a good reputation for always treating her superiors respectfully.

After work, unless she has plans to meet friends or exercise, she tends to go straight home.”

“She bought a three-month gym membership but only went for two weeks and hasn’t gone back since.”

“Is she sick?”

“No. She’s, uh, perfectly normal……………… I think.”

One of Leeheon’s eyebrows rose at an angle.

Going to the gym for only two weeks after paying for three months was considered normal?

“We confirmed that she currently doesn’t have a boyfriend.”

Good.

She didn’t have a boyfriend.

Was that only natural?

Because she liked him?

Leeheon nodded.

But then no further information came.

“Is that all?”

“Ah, yes. Nothing particularly unusual came up……………… She’s ordinary. Extremely ordinary.”

Under Leeheon’s unwavering gaze, Dohyeon began flipping through the documents again, even though there was clearly nothing more to find.

“Uh……………… sh-she eats well, too. Her eyes are clear, so she seems to sleep well……………….”

“Where?”

“Huh?”

“Where does she eat well?”

“What? Well……………… wouldn’t she eat at the company cafeteria?”

“Are you asking me?”

“She’ll…………… I’ll find out.”

“Forget it.”

Leeheon stood up.

“I can find out myself.”

“What? What do you mean…………… CEO? Where are you suddenly going?”

By then, Leeheon was already standing at the door.

He turned back toward Dohyeon.