TTL 8

Chapter 08

Childhood Friends

“It’s been quite a long business trip, hasn’t it?”

Eunji’s sleek, blunt bob, cut to match her jawline, shone with a healthy gloss.

Thanks to her weekly visits to the dermatologist, her fair skin had a subtle glow, without a single blemish or visible pore.

Exuding wealth through nothing more than her flawless complexion, Ham Eunji walked in and took her place in the middle of the kitchen.

“It’s been a whole six months, but your welcome seems a little lacking. I’m hurt~.”

At Ham Eunji’s joking remark, hurried greetings erupted from all directions.

“Welcome back, CEO!”

“Did you have a good trip?”

Everyone was busy bowing their heads. Even Park Saran, who had been extremely nervous at Eunji’s sudden appearance, forced a smile and bowed.

“Welcome back, CEO.”

“It’s been a while, Chef Park Saran. You look prettier than before.”

“Oh, compared to you, CEO, I’m nothing more than dirt beneath your feet. I can’t believe you’re complimenting someone like me. I don’t know what to do with myself!”

“I’m sure that’s flattery, but it’s still nice to hear.”

“Flattery? I’m telling the truth, CEO!”

Although Park Saran had ruled over this place like a queen bee as the head chef’s mistress, she couldn’t hold her head high in front of Ham Eunji.

She bowed to the powerful and bullied the weak. Watching Park Saran’s sycophantic behavior, Gaeul couldn’t help letting out a quiet scoff.

Ham Eunji had been making eye contact with each employee as she greeted them. At the sound of Gaeul’s scoff, she paused.

Her bright red stilettos stopped right in front of Gaeul. Their eyes met for a brief moment.

“……”

“……”

A moment of silence passed. Within that silence, Ham Eunji’s sharp gaze seemed to examine Gaeul carefully.

“……There’s a face here I haven’t seen before. You look familiar, though.”

“Oh, I requested additional staff six months ago, and I personally hired her as our newest junior chef. I reported it to you by email right away, and you approved it yourself, CEO.”

“Did I……?”

Ham Eunji tilted her head and stared at Gaeul’s face.

Deep down, Gaeul had hoped Eunji would recognize her. She wanted to greet Eunji naturally and find an excuse to enter her office.

Inside the office safe—or, more precisely, in the space beneath it that only her father knew about—

She wanted to search for traces of her father that might still be hidden there.

“But have we met somewhere before? Why does your face seem so familiar?”

“……”

“What did you say your name was?”

At last, Ham Eunji’s eyes fell on the name tag pinned to Gaeul’s left chest.

The moment she read Gaeul’s name engraved on the gold name tag, Eunji looked back at her face, as if confirming something else.

The bright smile on her face began to crack.

“You……!”

The moment Gaeul met Eunji’s trembling eyes, she knew.

She recognized me, Ham Eunji.

However, Gaeul deliberately pretended not to notice.

That was because Eunji’s expression revealed anxiety before any sign of happiness at their reunion.

You haven’t changed at all.

Gaeul briefly recalled the past.

Her connection with Ham Eunji began when she was five years old. That was when Chef Yeon Gaesomun and Han Taegyu, who ran a small distribution business, became business partners.

The two men shared a friendship tighter than most family bonds. They each had a daughter of the same age, and the families would often meet and travel together.

Gaeul and Eunji graduated from the same kindergarten, entered the same elementary school, and even ended up in the same class.

They had been childhood friends and inseparable best friends.

Even when Gaeul inexplicably grew distant from her other friends, she never felt lonely because she had Eunji.

“Gaeul, I hated how Seohui and Haneul talked badly about you, so I cut ties with them first.”

“……You didn’t have to go that far.”

“Of course I did! You’re my best friend, Gaeul. As long as I have you, that’s enough for me.”

“Thank you.”

Their contact was cut off when Gaeul entered the summer vacation of third grade and her father’s troubles began, forcing her to live at her grandmother’s house. However, she and Eunji continued to talk on the phone.

The last time Gaeul saw Eunji was when Ham Taegyu visited her grandmother’s house to pay his respects.

Gaeul had been playing gonggi with Eunji on the wooden veranda, enjoying their long-awaited reunion, when her grandmother’s desperate cries rang out from outside.

“You know better than anyone that my son isn’t the kind of person who would do such a thing, Taegyu! Please save my son! Please save Somun, Taegyu!”

“Well, Mother…… I’m afraid it’ll be difficult. The evidence is too clear. That rascal won’t even confide in me.”

“Oh, dear! What was that boy thinking?”

“That’s why I’m looking for it, Mother. Evidence that Somun isn’t the culprit.”

“Thank you, Taegyu.”

“That brings me to something I wanted to ask, Mother. Do you happen to know where Somun kept anything important, like his recipe book or diary?”

However, her grandmother replied that she didn’t know.

“……I know.”

“Hm? Gaeul, what did you say?”

“I know where Dad’s secret safe is……”

Before she could finish speaking, the door opened, and Han Taegyu, whom Gaeul had always called Uncle, stepped out of the room.

The moment Han Taegyu noticed Gaeul, his eyes narrowed slightly. They gleamed with a cold, sticky shine, like the eyes of a snake staring at its prey—a scene she had once seen in a fairy tale.

“I…… don’t know, either.”

An instinctive fear rose in her young heart, and she lied.

Han Taegyu soon looked at her again with the kind eyes of a caring uncle and pressed some pocket money into her hand, just as he had handed an envelope to her grandmother.

Gaeul was sad to part with Eunji, but for some reason, Han Taegyu frightened her. She wanted the father and daughter to leave as soon as possible.

“Goodbye, Eunji. See you again.”

“We won’t see each other again. This will be the last time.”

“……The last time? Why?”

As they said their final goodbyes, Eunji took Gaeul’s hand and smiled sweetly.

The gentle words she whispered into Gaeul’s ear pierced her heart like a dagger.

“It’s because of your dad, isn’t it? You’re a murderer’s daughter. You’re creepy and scary. I hate you.”

“……!”

“From beginning to end, there wasn’t a single thing about you that I liked. So this works out perfectly, doesn’t it?”

The cruel confession Eunji had made that day often appeared in Gaeul’s nightmares and tormented her.

That autumn, her father died by suicide while in prison, leaving Gaeul and her grandmother alone in the world. The young Gaeul desperately forced herself to forget Eunji.

She did not question her father’s death until she turned eighteen.

“Yeon Gaeul…… Are you really the Yeon Gaeul I know?”

Ham Eunji asked again, as if she needed to make sure.

Gaeul slowly smiled and nodded. Since Eunji had acknowledged her first, there was no reason to avoid her.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“……!”

“It’s really been a long time, hasn’t it?”

Even after Gaeul greeted her, Eunji’s stiff expression showed no sign of relaxing.

Sensing something strange, the people around them began whispering.

“Do they know each other?”

“What? Were they friends?”

Only then did Ham Eunji force a smile and speak in a delighted voice.

“Oh my goodness, Gaeul!”

She pulled Gaeul into an embrace, her voice trembling as if she were overjoyed.

“H-How did this happen? How did you end up working here?”

Gaeul hugged her back just as firmly and replied in much the same way.

“You know what this place means to me.”

“……”

“Of course, I didn’t know you were the CEO here.”

That was a lie.

She had gritted her teeth and worked her way up to this point, turning down good positions elsewhere to come here for one reason alone.

I’m glad you’re the one in charge here.

Ham Eunji was the CEO of Suragan.

Gaeul couldn’t shake the feeling that Han Taegyu and Ham Eunji were connected to her father’s death in one way or another.

The only way to access the office where her father’s safe was located, and the only way to get close to the father and daughter, was to enter Suragan.

“We’ll be seeing each other often from now on. Please take good care of our Suragan.”

Ham Eunji stepped away from Gaeul, ending their reunion with an awkward smile.

Her eyes, now cold and lifeless, soon turned toward someone else.

“Chef Park Saran? Come see me in my office for a moment.”

The CEO’s office on the third floor of Suragan.

The door burst open with a loud bang as Eunji stormed inside. Her tightly fitted tweed jacket rose and fell as she struggled to control her breathing.

She tossed the clutch bag she had been carrying onto the desk and placed her hands on her hips.

Her heart was pounding irregularly, a mixture of shock and anger making it impossible for her to calm down.

How did Yeon Gaeul end up here?!

Since this subsidiary had been running smoothly on its own, Eunji had never paid much attention to it. Now, she felt as though someone had suddenly dumped a bucket of cold water over her head.

Yeon Gaeul’s unexpected appearance sent Eunji’s mood plummeting.

It had always been like this.

That girl had always appeared wherever she went, acting as though she were the main character and stealing everyone’s attention.

The boys Eunji liked, her teachers, and her friends—all of them had paid attention to Yeon Gaeul first.

On top of that, everyone acknowledged Gaeul’s extraordinary sense of taste, which had crushed Eunji’s own dream.

“Gaeul has an absolutely perfect palate! She can identify every ingredient just by tasting something.”

“She’s amazing! She’s going to become the best chef ever.”

Eunji had once dreamed of becoming a chef just like Gaeul. However, after suffering repeated disappointments and growing consumed by jealousy, she eventually gave up.

To Eunji, Yeon Gaeul had always been the source of a deep and bitter inferiority complex.

And nothing had changed.

Even now, fifteen years later, Gaeul had managed to ruin her mood in an instant.

I just need to get rid of her.

If Gaeul disappeared from her sight, these wretched feelings would fade away, too.

And Eunji knew exactly who could handle this problem better than anyone else, without Eunji having to get her own hands dirty.

“CEO, you said you had something to tell me……”

Park Saran, who had followed her inside, cautiously began to speak.

“Chef Park Saran, there’s something I need you to do for me. Would that be all right?”

“What would you like me to do?”

“I want to…… do something about Yeon Gaeul.”

A wicked glint flashed through Park Saran’s eyes.

Watching that look, Eunji curled the corners of her lips into a sweet smile.

“I want to get rid of her.”