You're Not Easy, Am I?
Gong Juhee arrived at Seohwa Motors at eight in the morning. As she stepped out of the private elevator, one of the secretary team employees approached her.
“I’m sorry, but who…?”
“Hello, Hye-ryeong.”
“Director Gong? Is that really you, Director?”
The employee stared at Juhee with wide, disbelieving eyes.
The black blouse buttoned all the way to the neck and the white pencil skirt that fell just below the knee were both items Yoon Jeha had bought her the day before.
Since something major was happening, she couldn’t afford to upset his mood. She had taken extra care with her appearance before coming in, but there was nothing she could do about the reactions around her.
With an awkward hand, Juhee smoothed her clothes and asked calmly, “You didn’t recognize me without the glasses. Do I look that strange?”
“Strange? You look incredibly beautiful!”
After giving a light greeting to the secretaries who were staring at her in a daze, Juhee headed toward the CEO’s office. Yoon Jeha was sitting with his long legs crossed on the head seat of the sofa located in the center of the spacious office.
“I remember telling you to come in the afternoon.”
“I came early because I have something to tell you.”
Jeha narrowed his eyes as he watched Juhee sit down on the right-side sofa with perfect posture.
“Are you here to hand in your resignation just because your little trick of ignoring your superior got found out?”
“I have no intention of resigning.”
“If not resignation, then the employment contract?”
“That’s not it either.”
When both guesses missed the mark, Jeha fell silent. His expression suggested he was pondering what other reason there could be.
“May I speak?”
Jeha let out a short laugh as if he had heard something amusing. “Why even ask? You’d say it anyway even if I told you not to.”
“Representative Yoon Jeha.”
When her calm voice trembled faintly, the smile vanished from Jeha’s face.
After taking a brief moment to steady her breathing, Juhee closed her eyes tightly and then opened them again. Her gaze, now much steadier, fixed on him.
“Will you marry me?”
Jeha didn’t laugh. Nor did he look particularly surprised. He simply ran his fingers slowly along his jaw with an indifferent expression, his eyes drifting toward the window outside.
He looked as if he were lost in thought, or perhaps simply savoring solitude.
Then he turned his head back toward her, his gaze calm.
“I didn’t know Secretary Gong liked me.”
His voice was as dry and detached as his eyes.
“There probably isn’t a woman who wouldn’t like a perfect man like you, Representative. However…”
At the look in his eyes that urged her to continue, Juhee finished her sentence.
“You’re not my type.”
Jeha tilted his head back, then looked forward again.
There sat a woman with elegant poise.
Clear eyes, a gaze so transparent it felt cold, and soft, petal-like crimson lips pressed together.
Her face turned people’s insides upside down yet held not a single trace of emotion.
“Then what is Secretary Gong’s type? Han Taemin?”
Watching Juhee stubbornly remain silent, Jeha let out a short laugh. It was funny to see a woman who said he wasn’t her type yet still proposed marriage.
Perhaps that was why his words came out crooked.
“I didn’t expect you to think bigger than Taemin. Not satisfied with being secretary director, now you want to claim me too.”
Her long lashes lifted calmly, and Jeha’s face was reflected in her clear, chilly eyes.
“If I wanted to have you, Representative, could I?”
Gong Juhee had always been like this. She would strike without warning and leave him speechless.
Jeha wiped the amusement from his face and lazily swept back his disheveled bangs. Rejecting a ridiculous proposal like this should have been simple.
“The reason you proposed to me.”
Yet he couldn’t.
He should have been able to ignore her, but he couldn’t. He should have been able to cut her off, but he couldn’t. Just like how he had ended up keeping her by his side.
“Let’s hear it first.”
He was so curious about the reason for this proposal that even he found it absurd.
But the first words Juhee spoke were completely unexpected.
“Your father, President Yoon Seok-ho, is currently at my house.”
She spoke in a steady, measured tone, as if reading from a report.
That the woman her mother was involved with was his father’s mistress. The conversation she had overheard. Even the astonishing future plans the two had after their divorces.
Jeha listened with a seemingly indifferent face, but the more he heard, the more ridiculous it became.
He had known since childhood about his father’s wandering lust, which kept him on the fringes of the Yoon family. The father who changed partners as easily as eating meals, the mother who pretended not to notice, and the child left neglected, receiving resentment from both sides.
In his early years, the family discord had been a wound, but at some point it had grown dull. He had simply accepted it.
It was easier to pretend his problematic father didn’t exist. When he left Korea, it was a relief not to have to clean up after his cheating father in place of his mother.
Yet how long had it been since he returned to Korea before his father caused another accident? And of all people, with Juhee’s mother, even talking about divorce.
It was obvious his mother would be calling soon.
Overwhelmed by rising irritation, Jeha asked gruffly, “So the solution is for us to get married to stop their marriage?”
“There’s the easiest and surest method. Why go through unnecessary trouble?”
“I’m not particularly inclined to marry for such a trivial reason.”
Then she would have to give him a reason that actually appealed to him.
For example, even if it was a lie, something like saying she liked him.
Who knows, he might just fall for it like an idiot and agree to marry her.
“If you marry me, I will become your perfect secretary for twenty-four hours a day.”
Jeha had been mistaken. Juhee wasn’t proposing marriage right now. She was making a business offer. And a very one-sided one at that.
“What does Secretary Gong gain from this marriage? Do you want to run a subsidiary instead of staying a secretary?”
“I simply need a solid position that allows me to stay by your side for a long time.”
Ha, and you expect me to believe that.
Jeha felt irritation rising at Juhee, who hid her true feelings until the very end.
“You’re not easy, am I?”
At Jeha’s blunt words, Juhee’s eyes wavered. Those trembling eyes seemed to whisper that this marriage was her one and only desperate, urgent solution.
“I reject the proposal.”
Juhee closed her eyes tightly. Watching her eyelids quiver, Jeha earnestly hoped she would finally reveal the reason she clung so stubbornly to being a secretary, and now even to marriage.
“It may be the one desperate thing for you, but for me there are countless reasons not to.”
But Jeha’s expectation that rejecting her would force her to reveal her true feelings was completely off the mark.
Slowly opening her eyes, Juhee rose with a calm face and gave him a light, polite bow as if the proposal from moments ago had never happened.
“I have committed a discourtesy.”
Discourtesy, my ass.
Just as he was about to say something in his disbelief, Jeha’s cell phone rang.
After checking the caller ID, he gestured for Juhee to leave.
Only after the door closed quietly did Jeha answer the call.
“Yes, Mother.”
It was the first conversation between mother and son since he had come to Korea.
Without any warning, Yang Ju-ran, the youngest daughter, burst into the Seohwa headquarters. In the office where even Chairman Yang had canceled a meeting to come, Ju-ran and Jeha sat together.
“If Father had properly treated him as a son-in-law and accepted him as family, this wouldn’t have happened. My son wouldn’t have grown up receiving such treatment either.”
Chairman Yang silently listened to his daughter’s sharp outpouring of resentment and criticism.
For a long time, his son-in-law had been steadily having affairs. The partners kept changing, the relationships never lasting more than a month, always returning to the same place. The unchanging pattern that seemed designed to draw attention elicited no reaction from his daughter.
But now the son-in-law had stayed out all night for the first time. He had even sent a message saying he wanted a divorce.
“This is all because of you, Father.”
At his daughter’s resentful words, the past flashed through Chairman Yang’s mind like a panorama.
Ju-ran, born late in his life, was a precious daughter he cherished more than his own eyes. He had raised her with utmost care, and she had grown into a daughter more perfect than anyone could ask for. How could he possibly welcome it when she brought home a man who worked at a bar and said she wanted to marry him?
His daughter had gone on a hunger strike and ended up in the hospital. In the hospital, she had even tried to jump from the rooftop. In the end, he had no choice but to allow the marriage, but he could not help hating the son-in-law who had bewitched his precious daughter. When Chairman Yang treated him coldly, his children and relatives openly ignored the son-in-law as well.
He had thought the son-in-law would grow tired and ask for divorce on his own, and that his daughter’s feelings would cool.
But things did not flow according to Chairman Yang’s will, just like company matters.
Even while having affairs, the son-in-law never demanded divorce, and his daughter’s love for him twisted into obsession.
And the resentment they felt toward each other turned toward their only son. The grandson who received no parental love was openly ignored by relatives as well.
By the time the busy Chairman Yang noticed, too much time had already passed.
That was why, to Chairman Yang, Jeha was the most painful finger on his hand.
“What do you lack that you keep holding onto such a worthless man? Let him go already.”
No matter how hard he looked, his son-in-law had nothing but decent looks. He couldn’t work, wasn’t devoted to his family, and had a weak, indecisive personality. When he sent him abroad to make something of him, the man stubbornly refused, saying he would rather die.
“Even you are saying this, Father?”
“Come to your senses! How can you hold onto someone whose heart has already left!”
Chairman Yang, unable to hold back any longer, raised his voice, his eyes widening. His daughter had never shown her pain on the outside even if her heart was rotting inside. Now hot tears were streaming down her face like rain. Those tears tore at Chairman Yang’s heart once more.
“Even if he comes looking, don’t let him into the house. Throw him out. And don’t even think about negotiating the divorce for me. That’s what I came to say today.”
Though she couldn’t control her tears, Ju-ran rose with elegant grace. Jeha, who had remained quiet until then, escorted his mother out and quietly signaled to Chairman Yang with his eyes.
He would talk with his mother, so his grandfather shouldn’t worry.
After the two left, Chairman Yang let out a long sigh.
In the car, Ju-ran didn’t say a single word. She didn’t even glance at Jeha.
Just as the car entered the garage, Jeha’s cell phone rang.
The caller was Haena’s older brother, Seok-hoon.
After telling the driver to take his mother inside, Jeha answered the phone.
“What.”
“I’m meeting Taemin for drinks tonight. You should come too. Before Taemin becomes a married man, the three of us should get together for old times’ sake.”
Jeha’s brows furrowed.
It had only been a few hours since Gong Juhee proposed to him.
And now marriage?
Suppressing the turmoil inside him, Jeha asked casually, “Han Taemin is getting married?”
“What? He still hasn’t told you?”
“……”
“Taemin is about to become my brother-in-law. Our family’s little princess’s long-time crush has finally come true. As soon as they set the wedding date, Father even got that guy a new car.”
Jeha asked again, doubting his ears.
“Who is Taemin marrying?”
“My sister Haena. They met on a blind date and hit it off right away. They’re rushing the wedding at full speed. Want me to explain more?”
He hadn’t heard wrong.
It wasn’t Gong Juhee marrying Han Taemin. It was Joo Haena.
The situation was turning quite interesting.
“Didn’t Taemin say he was going to marry Juhee?”
Seok-hoon’s laughter rang in Jeha’s ear.
“That was ages ago. And doesn’t Taemin have big ambitions? A guy like that went abroad to study, came back, and is rising through the ranks. As if he’d actually marry a secretary.”
So that was why he had thrown her away.
The truth that had been submerged beneath the surface was slowly rising.
Han Taemin, who had abandoned the woman who supported him for so long for the sake of ambition. And Gong Juhee, who must have felt betrayed by him.
“Of all the women out there, why did Han Taemin choose your sister?”
No one knew better than Han Taemin what kind of scars Joo Haena had inflicted on Juhee. How could he have made such a decision that was worse than an animal’s?
“Your words are a bit harsh, aren’t they? What’s wrong with our Haena? She was raised delicately and can be willful, but she’s such a good girl.”
“Bullshit. If your sister is a good girl, then I’m Jesus.”
Silence flowed from the other end of the phone. No matter who Seok-hoon was, he wasn’t in a position to talk back to Jeha. In this world, even among friends there was a clear hierarchy. That was how things worked here.
The only reason they got along was because their grandfathers were connected, and Seok-hoon had an easygoing personality. If Jeha felt like it, they hung out. If not, he cut him off. That was all.
“I’m hanging up.”
Only then did Seok-hoon clear his throat a few times before giving Jeha the answer he wanted.
“Instead of you, Taemin is the one meeting Haena and getting married. There’s the promise our grandfathers made, and the corporate partnership to be formed. A pheasant instead of a chicken. But our Haena threw a tantrum saying it had to be Taemin or nothing.”
“……”
“From Taemin’s perspective, it’s a jackpot. He gets a beauty and fulfills his ambitions. This whole world runs on business marriages anyway. It’s not bad for me if my brother-in-law is my friend either.”
Seok-hoon said a few more things after that, but Jeha didn’t hear them.
“Let’s drink another time. I’m a bit busy right now.”
After ending the call, Jeha fell into a pleasant dilemma.
Now, Gong Juhee, what should I do with you?