Chapter 11

The instant she took Team Leader Park down, Kim Do-hee locked in a triangle choke and crowed in triumph.

“That’s exactly why I told you not to underestimate a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.”
“Some athlete you are, not a thought in your head about fighting fair! Agh, every bone in my body.”

Park Jae-man pounded the training-floor mat with a thick palm, and only then did Do-hee release the hold, snorting.

“This isn’t a sport. Where’s the fair play in ‘you die so I can live’? Keep that up and you’ll be the one who goes in the ground first.”

She was still shooting him a sidelong glare when her smartwatch buzzed insistently.

“What does the CEO want this early in the morning? Team Leader, you lost, so the clean-up’s on you!”

Park Jae-man shook his head as he watched her go running off in delight.

“That one’s going to live alone her whole life. No chance of her ever getting married.”

Her roughness was beside the point. The real problem was that only one man in the whole world could satisfy Kim Do-hee’s sky-high standards.

And every bit of that was the fault of Park Jae-man’s own boss, that sinner.

Standing in front of the CEO’s office, Kim Do-hee cleared her throat and knocked. The moment permission came, she strode briskly inside.

“You called for me?”
“Why are you in that state so early in the morning.”

Abashed by Jun-hyeok’s rebuke, Do-hee scratched at her cheek and explained.

“I did a bit of sparring with Team Leader Park.”

She gave an awkward laugh. Jun-hyeok shook his head.

“You seem to be bored. Time you stopped resting, then.”
“Oh? Is there a new project for me?”
“There’s one unofficial job.”

‘Unofficial’ could mean two things. It might be work that hadn’t come in through the company, or it might be the kind of work that must never get out. Honestly, whichever it was, Kim Do-hee stood ready to follow any instruction of Jun-hyeok’s at any time. To her, Han Jun-hyeok was both the lifeline and the compass of her life. The respect she had once felt for him had piled up layer upon layer and swelled into outright adoration, which was a headache.

“I’ve been itching for something to do anyway.”

Jun-hyeok let a snort of laughter slip at her hearty answer. Thinking how lucky she was to get to see that handsome face with her own eyes, Do-hee raised her voice.

“Give me the order, whatever it is!”

At that, he held out a file in front of her.

“It’s a personal matter. That file has all of her particulars and everything you need to watch out for. Memorize it quickly.”
“Yes, sir!”

“She’s a person known to the world at large as visually impaired, so bear that in mind and support her accordingly.”

For a moment Do-hee was puzzled. When it came to work, CEO Han Jun-hyeok loathed wasted words above all else. If someone was visually impaired, then they were simply visually impaired, so why had he tacked on ‘to the world at large’? That was worth thinking about.

While she was still mulling it over, Han Jun-hyeok dropped a bombshell in an offhand tone.

“She also happens to be the person I’m about to marry.”

Kim Do-hee doubted her own ears. It had been so long since she’d last stood face to face with Han Jun-hyeok alone that she wondered if she was hearing things.

“I’m counting on you.”

His mouth didn’t move in the slightest, yet his eyes seemed to hold a smile. Do-hee knew what that expression meant.

Han Jun-hyeok was serious.

They had been moving along in the car for a good while when Seo-ha’s phone vibrated and broke the silence. Holding a fingertip upright, she ran it across the smooth screen and pressed the spot where she felt the vibration.

— Incoming call. Mother. Answer button.

Recognizing the familiar synthetic voice, Seo-ha tapped twice and took the call.

— Where are you, right now?

Cha Mi-yeon’s voice had an edge all the way through it.

Leaving without a word had been Seo-ha’s own quiet act of resistance. Given the circumstances, though, it was unlikely to cause much trouble, because right now she had a perfectly good excuse to hand.

“Han Jun-hyeok-ssi sent someone for me. It came up suddenly, so I wasn’t able to tell you.”

— Oh, so that’s all it was. You vanished and gave me a fright. He did say he’d send someone for you, and he’s certainly been quick about it.

“Yes. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you beforehand.”

— That family must be desperate not to lose you. What could you do when they practically kidnapped you? Since it’s come to this, go and enjoy yourself.

Cha Mi-yeon had turned generous all of a sudden. Seo-ha ended the call, thinking she had no idea whether she would even be able to come back. Han Jun-hyeok was that unpredictable to her, like a ball with no telling which way it would bounce. She couldn’t say for certain, but the odds were good that today, too, things wouldn’t go the way her adoptive mother wanted. Seo-ha meant to do her own part to raise those odds.

“The traffic is unusually bad today.”

Kim Do-hee had apparently waited for the call to end, and her tone was apologetic.

“It isn’t anything urgent, so please don’t worry about it.”

Even as she said it, Seo-ha turned the question over: was a ‘marriage registration’ really urgent for her or not? Strictly speaking, it was certainly more pressing for her than for Han Jun-hyeok.

This is no time to be taking it easy. What are you going to do if that man turns out to be fickle?

A proposal out of nowhere like this one was proof enough that Han Jun-hyeok was an impulsive man. What kind of card she was to someone like that, Seo-ha couldn’t even guess.

I hope I’m just a card he plays lightly and throws away.

Only then could she carry out her hidden plan without a hitch, and without feeling the slightest guilt. When the moment came to end this meaningless marriage, both of them would step out of their families’ shadow and be completely free. Since Han Jun-hyeok was hurrying the arranged marriage along with no particular distaste, he seemed to be thinking the same as she was, which was at least some reassurance.

“Are you uncomfortable somewhere, by any chance?”

At Kim Do-hee’s question Seo-ha put on an awkward smile. She must have been so deeply lost in thought that her expression had darkened.

“No, I’m fine.”

She wasn’t just being polite. The car seemed to be a full-size sedan, with a roomy cabin and a smooth ride.

Seo-ha deliberately let her body relax. Once she met Han Jun-hyeok, she would stiffen up again without meaning to. Yet for all her effort to break the chain of thought, something Kim Do-hee had said came back to her out of nowhere.

‘CEO Han Jun-hyeok….’

So Kim Do-hee’s superior was Jun-hyeok. Even so, it nagged at her a little that what lay between the two of them didn’t feel like a simple matter of boss and subordinate. The mere fact that Jun-hyeok had called Kim Do-hee by her given name hinted at how close they were. There was a great deal Seo-ha wanted to know, but she could hardly pry openly, which was frustrating.

Her mind in a tangle, Seo-ha hesitated a moment before putting a question to Kim Do-hee.

“Um, if it isn’t rude of me, might I ask what sort of work Han Jun-hyeok-ssi does?”

Do-hee let out a short breath, much like a sigh, and answered coldly.

“It seems you don’t even know what the CEO does.”

Even someone as slow as she was could not miss the barb at the end of that remark. Still, it probably sounded like a reproach only because of her own sense of inadequacy, since for all the talk of marriage going back and forth, everything she and Han Jun-hyeok knew about each other had been picked up on the surface.

It is a strange situation, isn’t it.

There was no need to take on pointless awkwardness with someone whose face she would have to keep running into, so Seo-ha quickly chose to apologize.

“I only caught something about him working in security; honestly, I don’t know the details. I’m sorry if my question made you uncomfortable.”

Do-hee seemed to realize she had been a little touchy and reluctantly added a brief explanation.

“He runs a private security and close-protection company called ‘Shield One Secure’, which provides high-end private security services. I work there myself.”
“Ah, I see.”

A close-protection company fit her picture of Han Jun-hyeok quite naturally.

Her curiosity was still unsatisfied, but a subtle, unintended hostility was drifting off Kim Do-hee, and Seo-ha gave up on asking anything more. Perhaps Do-hee had already heard about Seo-ha’s relationship with Jun-hyeok from the man himself. If so, her attitude actually made sense. An acquaintance told out of nowhere that he meant to marry a blind woman would naturally be displeased; that was only human. Even with family circumstances as the explanation, an ordinary person would find it hard to understand.

The awkward air was still hanging between them when a call came through to Kim Do-hee, and she excused herself with a word to Seo-ha.

“Kim Do-hee speaking. Yes, Park-sunbae.¹ We’re near Hakdong Intersection, so we’re nearly there. We’ll arrive shortly.”

Most likely the company, then. But as the call went on, Do-hee’s voice grew more and more serious.

“What are you talking about?! All right, understood for now. Read me the address and I’ll head straight there.”

From Kim Do-hee’s side of the call alone, there was no telling what had happened.