Chapter 14

Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province.

Night arrived early in the rural village where the golden glow had faded.

“Lived a good life today, too.”

Jung Youngwon, the owner of Youngwon Snack Bar and Jung Woojung’s father, stretched his back broadly while looking up at the deep blue sky. The apron wrapped around his sturdy physique pulled taut.

Youngwon Snack Bar. The moment the blue signboard bearing those four characters was switched off, the surroundings were swallowed by absolute darkness. Stray bugs that had lost their way became completely blind and wandered the empty air.

This place, furnished with about ten wooden tables, sold hangover beef bone soup and congealed ox blood soup despite the misleading name of a snack bar. Drawings made with crayons hung on the newly painted white walls, and various types of succulents lined the windowsill in a row.

After looking around the store briefly with only the kitchen lights on, he sat down at the counter. As he often did, he intended to sleep in the small back room of the shop tonight. The smile soon spread across his face as he stared at his cell phone, perhaps waiting for a call.

-Unit.

“What is a guy who’s getting out soon calling every day for?”

-Ah. Have some pity on a guy about to be discharged, Sergeant.

Youngwon burst into laughter at the senior sergeant’s whining. Then he asked about his daily routine or meal menu. Sharing trivial daily life with his son, Jung Oh-taek, who was on the verge of being discharged from the military, had somehow become a familiar end-of-day routine.

Oh-taek’s voice telling him that his final vacation schedule before discharge had been set was brimming with excitement.

-I’ll stop by Seoul and head down together with Woojung-pal.

“Why Seoul? Go bother your noona.”

-Our President Jung really doesn’t get it. People living alone need to be given a wake-up call once in a while. Especially clueless kids like Jung Woojung.

“Clueless, you brat. Don’t insult my daughter.”

With Oh-taek playfully letting out a sigh saying that a daughter-fool didn’t even know his daughter was a fool, he ended the call with a salute slogan.

The dark screen reflected the ajussi with a buzz cut who loved gukbap. He smiled gently, creating wrinkles around the corners of his mouth.

“I should make braised short ribs next weekend.”

Since the weather is nice, visiting the kids’ mother wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

With both arms draped loosely over the armrests, Youngwon sat for a moment as if savoring the lingering emotion, then stared blankly at the framed photo placed like a talisman. A frame clean without a single speck of dust. The happy family of four contained within it were all frozen in their childhood.

Ten-year-old Jung Woojung, four-year-old Jung Oh-taek, his wife Kim Hee-won. And Jung Yeong-won.

“Hee-won.”

A call without a response. Yet, it was a name he called every single day, as if 13 years hadn’t passed.

“Honey.”

Reaching out to grip the frame, Youngwon traced the face of the smiling woman. When a hazy fingerprint smudged the glass, he rubbed and wiped it clean with the hem of a t-shirt pulled from inside his apron.

“She’ll be fine, right? Our Woojung.”

The gaze looking at young Woojung was mixed with worry and affection.

“Keep a good eye on her so nothing goes wrong, will you. Ah, geez…… for not even letting her rest in peace over there.”

A bitter smile scattered softly.

The face of his daughter, who had been thrilled about getting hired at a major corporation, was still vivid. As was the devastating despair of that day when he couldn’t sincerely congratulate her.

She had said it was the place of her dreams since she was a student, so when he found out it was an affiliate of Jaeyang Group, he wondered if it was a joke played by the heavens. It felt like the spite of the gods, too. He knew better than anyone how desperately she had wanted a job, working part-time throughout her college years to help pay for tuition. He couldn’t bring himself to dissuade her by saying she shouldn’t go there. Above all, wasn’t it wrong for a child’s future to be altered by the affairs of adults?

The only comfort he took was that the chairman of a large conglomerate wouldn’t meticulously look into the personnel records of an affiliate employee, and that someday the day would come when she would leave Jaeyang and change jobs.

After all, any fear would eventually vanish with time.

Even a tedious rainy season has an end. A fierce typhoon eventually passes by.

So this too shall pass.

Just as it always had.

Picking. Pecking.

For some reason, Woojung’s chopstick movements were lackluster. Even her expression, occasionally glancing somewhere, lacked any real energy. Where her drooped gaze landed, Ha Yun-sang was invariably there.

Ju-shin, sitting diagonally from the next table, propped his head on his arm and slowly stroked his straight eyebrows. Muttering quietly to himself, There she goes digging her own grave again.

The braised chicken served on a large plate had already been half-cleared by the others gathered around the table. Even though lunchtime was well past, the employees continued their meal leisurely.

For the launch of Jaeyang Food’s ambitious new business project—a dining brand—the PR team and the planning team had been eating lunch together for days. The ostensible reason was visiting competitor franchises.

They were planning to form a TF (Task Force) by gathering the right people from each department, and everyone seemed eager to belong to it. The rumors that headquarters was fully supporting it made them even more so. In other words, regardless of the business’s success or failure, just getting a foot in the door meant perks would pour in.

If the only daughter of a restaurant owner, who lacked all ambition, was wearing a miserable expression at this crucial moment when everyone was burning with enthusiasm—

“Even with rumors spreading far and wide! Come clean, Ha Yun-sang. You’re dating Assistant Manager Im from the support team, right?”

All because of the scandal surrounding Ha Yun-sang that had been making the office buzz since the morning.

“Haha. I’m telling you, I’m not.”

Since he was a figure eyed by many, it wasn’t the first or second time groundless rumors had popped up, but feeling a pang of hurt every time she heard them was unavoidable. Not even being able to show it and suffering in secret. That was the destiny of unrequited love.

“Not? Assistant Manager Im didn’t exactly deny it, you know?”

“Did she confirm it, though?”

“Look at this, look at this. There’s definitely something going on, right? Right?”

“Oh my, if you’re all done eating, let’s get up now, everyone.”

Manager Kang clung to it tenaciously. The confirmation shot pierced straight through Jung Woojung.

Sigh. Letting out a low sigh and tapping her feet repeatedly under the table, Woojung forced a smile toward Yun-sang, who suddenly caught her eye. Even after that, he consciously looked back at Woojung. Bundling Kim Ju-shin, who was staring fixedly at her, right along with him.

On the way back to the office, Ha Yun-sang was once again cornered and interrogated by Kang Jin-sung. In everyone’s hands was a cup of coffee chosen according to their personal taste.

Walking slowly at the very end of the procession, Woojung felt her field of vision instantly become comfortable. Thanks to the shadow blocking the piercing, midday sun.

Lifting her head to the right, she saw Kim Ju-shin with his gaze fixed straight ahead, sipping casually from a plastic straw. Since she wasn’t in the mood to make conversation, she glanced at him briefly and buried her lips in her cup. At that moment, an unconcerned tone pierced her ears out of nowhere.

“You like him, don’t you? Assistant Manager Ha Yun-sang.”

“Cough…….”

Whether she had gone down the wrong pipe, fits of coughing broke out continuously in her narrow throat.

Ju-shin snatched the cup from the hands of the woman whose face had turned beet red as she heaved her chest, brought it right in front of his eyes, and put his lips to the lid without hesitation. A lukewarm vanilla scent lingered on the tip of his tongue. Whatever Jung Woojung ate always tasted sweet.

Meanwhile, clearing away the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, Woojung smiled like a broken action mask.

“Mwahaha! No way.”

Clutching the vanilla latte that had returned to her with both hands, she denied it once more.

“I really don’t! I don’t know why you’d think that.”

Catching her breath.

“It’s not like that.”

She nailed it down firmly. Kim Ju-shin remained unimpressed.

“They say denying something three times makes it a strong affirmation.”

“…….”

Her fluttering lips clamped tightly shut. Her pace slowed down a little, too. By now, the group was already far enough ahead that they weren’t even visible.

Rolling her eyes and searching for an excuse, Woojung timidly broached the subject.

“It’s not that I like him…….”

“Not that.”

“Just…… he was my mentor and had a lot to learn from, so I just admire him, that’s really not that kind of feeling at all.”

I’m sure you do. Scoffing inwardly, he merely cast an indifferent gaze her way. Her spirited voice continued busily.

“My goal is this. To make Ju-shin-ssi feel the exact same feelings I felt toward my mentor.”

Ju-shin’s head tilted as he listened quietly. Brushing the corners of his mouth with the hand holding the top of the plastic cup, he seemed lost in thought for a moment before his diagonally lowered gaze turned to look at Woojung. Taking in her lips being chewed raw from anxiety, her rolling eyes, and her bobbing Adam’s apple.

Before long, the corners of his long-drawn mouth crooked upward.

“Then do I, like, fall for my mentor, too? And like them in secret?”

Ah. Unrequited love isn’t really my constitution. The voice speaking as though it were quite troublesome was embedded with a deep chuckle.

“Really…… I told you it’s not.”

Whether it was because her junior’s attitude was vexing, or because getting caught was embarrassing. Her sulky face grew redly flushed. Watching that face as if enjoying it, Ju-shin dropped a hint.

“If you’re interested, let me know.”

“……?”

The very second she lifted her slightly lowered head, he lowered his face smoothly, resting his wrists on both of her shoulders.

The exquisite facial features drawing close and the refreshing scent of fabric softener. The unfamiliar weight pressing down on her shoulders descended upon her unannounced like an accident.

Stiffening rigidly, Woojung held her breath without realizing it. It was a measure taken in secret so that her hot breath wouldn’t touch his skin, just in case her own respiration reached him.

Remaining frozen without even being able to part her lips for that reason, his half-lowered eyelids slowly opened to reveal grey pupils. In the pupils seen up close, the iris patterns were vividly clear.

And the moment she realized that looking at them felt a little uncomfortable. His red lips parted slowly with a wet sound and whispered affectionately.

“I’ll help you, I will.”