To Catch You

As he stepped into the office, the documents arranged with meticulous precision on the desk greeted Jeha. The perfect alignment of every corner and line revealed the organizer’s personality at a glance.

He picked one up and skimmed it absently, only to furrow his brow. In the car, Juhee had mentioned seeing the files he’d been reviewing in the study. What had been an overwhelming stack of unchecked material was now condensed into a few crisp, perfectly organized pages.

Her claim of excelling at document tidying hadn’t been empty talk. The workload had shrunk so dramatically that tasks that should have taken days could now be finished in one.

“No wonder they were all desperate not to let her go.”

Her previous boss, Han Taemin—any sharp-eyed executive would covet talent like hers. That was probably why she had quit with such confidence.

Jeha tossed the file aside and perched on the edge of the desk. Whenever his body felt stiff, he skipped the elevator for the emergency stairs. That was how he had encountered Gong Juhee several times before.

Today he had unintentionally overheard the entire conversation between the two women. The more he replayed it, the more absurd it became, until a low laugh slipped out.

“This is entertaining.”

Han Taemin, who had thrown her away only to try scooping her back up. Gong Juhee, who had etched an unforgettable night into his memory yet behaved like a stubborn frog. Their circumstances were their own; none of it changed anything for him.

Han Taemin had discarded Juhee. Jeha had picked her up. And together they had spent the night.

He had warned her not to do anything she couldn’t take responsibility for, yet she had still come into his arms. In that case, she would have to take responsibility. Running away was not an option.

When she had announced she was quitting, he hadn’t answered. Yet she had taken it upon herself to assume his silence and complete the handover.

At that moment, Jeha’s phone rang. Seeing his mother’s name on the screen, he could already guess the situation. His father, whose courage was as small as his liver, could never stay out more than two nights. His wife would have been waiting for him with fire in her eyes.

It seemed his parents had finally crossed paths.

“Yes, Mother.”

Jeha cut his mother off calmly. “I’ll take care of it.” He knew that if Juran—who showed mercy to no one except her husband—intervened, Juhee’s mother would not escape unscathed.

“That snake too?”

“Haven’t I always handled things?”

Juran fell silent at his smiling reply.

“In return, you’ll permit whatever method I choose, correct?”

“Yes. Bring your father back to his proper place so he can’t entertain any foolish ideas.”

After ending the call, Jeha opened the location app on his phone. He tapped the brightly displayed dot marking Juhee’s position and chuckled.

“She really is a secret klutz.”

She had prepared the handover documents but failed to sever the one connection she needed to cut.

Seated at his desk, Jeha opened the approval files first. Since the app was active, he would clear the urgent work before leaving. Exactly one hour later, he strolled out of the office with a relaxed stride.

Now that he had his mother’s permission to marry, he was going to catch his prospective bride.

Completely unaware that Jeha was coming for her, Juhee was drinking with Yeji.

“Wow, I’ve never finished a whole bottle of Western liquor because of Gong Juhee before. It’s strong, but it goes down clean.”

While Yeji sipped slowly, savoring the whiskey, Juhee was throwing it back in one shot after another. After she emptied three glasses in quick succession, Yeji snatched the glass from her hand.

“Hey, why are you drinking expensive whiskey like it’s cheap soju?”

That other night she had emptied four bottles and blacked out completely. So today she had brought four bottles of the same proof to Yeji’s shop—not the expensive one she had shared with Jeha, but close enough.

At Juhee’s frightening pace, they were already on the second bottle.

“So I won’t lose again.”

Her deadly serious answer made Yeji stare at her in disbelief. “You know you’re a total nutcase, right? Well, I’m the only one who knows that. Anyway, slow down! You’re gonna pass out again.”

“That’s why I need to train my stomach and liver.”

“You quit your secretary job, didn’t you? Is your CEO seriously going to make another drinking bet with you?”

Juhee looked as if she had been slapped. “Oh… right. I did quit.”

She had expected quitting to feel liberating. Instead, the sense of injustice, sorrow, and anger was so sharp it brought tears to her eyes.

Yoon Jeha’s gaze—those eyes that had approached without hesitation, touched her body, and claimed to remember that night vividly—had still burned with heat.

Yet even with desire blazing in his eyes, he had let her walk away when she said she was quitting. Was he satisfied after sleeping with her once? Or had it been boring because she had been stiff as a log instead of skilled? Maybe he had expected her to cling to him, and when she offered to leave first, he had simply thought, Good riddance.

All sorts of thoughts swirled through her mind, but she felt no regret about not being desired as a woman.

What Juhee truly wanted to ask him was something else entirely: Had she held no value to him even as a secretary?

Perhaps it was the rush of alcohol, but a hot knot rose in her chest. She hadn’t resented Han Taemin this fiercely even after his betrayal. Juhee filled her empty glass again.

“Then let’s drink to celebrate quitting. I’m going to finish all four bottles without blacking out. Even in my dreams, I’ll win the bet next time.”

“Doesn’t living like that suffocate you? Don’t you feel like you can’t breathe? People need to know how to forget in moderation, accept defeat gracefully, and move on.”

Yeji watched Juhee drink in silence with a pitying gaze. The Juhee she knew stayed sharpest and most rational in the worst situations. Even after learning of Taemin’s betrayal, she had shed silent tears but calmly searched for the next path forward.

Now that same friend was unraveling without any plan, drinking as if possessed by the ghost of someone who had died from lack of alcohol. Once Juhee set her mind on something, she followed through with stubborn determination; taking the glass away would be pointless.

Yeji decided she needed to shift her focus somehow.

“Gong Juhee, do you seriously not remember a single thing about sleeping with the CEO?”

The hand lifting the glass to Juhee’s lips froze. Yeji cheered inwardly—Nice!—and quickly snatched the glass away.

“You slept with a man who looks like he was made to ruin women and you remember absolutely nothing? That’s impossible. I have so many questions.”

“You have a husband. Why are you so curious?”

“Because I married an ordinary guy, so I’m living vicariously through you. Why else?”

“......”

“Be honest. You remember at least a little, don’t you?”

Instead of answering, Juhee’s face flushed a soft pink. The color was faint, but against her nearly translucent skin it was obvious.

Oh? She clearly remembered something.

“You sneaky girl, I’m dying here. Answer me.”

“......”

“Aha, you’re invoking your right to remain silent? Fine. Should I tell you about my nights with my husband instead?”

As a five-year married woman, Yeji spoke so bluntly that it made one’s face burn. Even when Juhee told her to stop because she didn’t want to know, Yeji only grew more mischievous, determined to tease her.

“I really don’t remember. But… it didn’t seem bad.”

Pressing the back of her hand to her heated cheek, Juhee murmured.

Yeji’s eyes sparkled as she rested her chin on the small table. “Why didn’t it seem bad?”

After her first kiss with Taemin, she had instinctively tensed and shrunk away whenever they were alone, afraid he would press her again before she was ready.

But with Yoon Jeha, she hadn’t.

“When I saw him again the next morning, I didn’t shrink away.”

Not when he stood before her, not even when he touched her without hesitation.

“When our eyes met, my heart raced. Even the lightest contact made me feel hot all over.”

Those burning eyes watching her, the solid body pressed against hers, the languid hand sliding up her thigh. Even without clear memories, her body seemed to have responded on its own.

“Juhee, that’s just because your CEO is ridiculously handsome.”

“......”

“When I saw him, my heart raced and I felt hot too. It’s not just you—every woman would react that way.”

Come to think of it, she wasn’t wrong. Yoon Jeha was the kind of man whose mere presence could make any woman tense.

So it wasn’t just me. As Juhee let out a small sigh, Yeji continued.

“Why didn’t you just ask him to look at you one more time? You already slept together once. He wouldn’t be cold enough to refuse, would he?”

“It was a promise I made first. I have to keep it even if a knife is at my throat. What boss would trust an employee who can’t even keep a trivial promise?”

It wasn’t that the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. But without the bond of marriage, that position clearly wouldn’t last.

A mistress. A secret relationship.

In those arrangements, the one without leverage always lost. Jeha would be fine, but she—who had quit in disgrace—would face a broken career.

After everything I built…

“Then since you already slept with him, why not at least enjoy being a chaebol’s girlfriend for a while? Just to piss off that bastard Han Taemin!”

“Maybe I should have.”

Juhee gave a weak smile and reached for the bottle with a limp hand. Even that looked pitiful, so Yeji snatched the bottle, filled Juhee’s glass, and asked, “So what are you planning to do now? Go back to your old boss?”

“I thought about it, but I think I’ll just leave Korea.”

“…What?”

“I’ve saved quite a lot, and I can speak five languages decently. Once the house sells, I’ll combine the money and travel from country to country. If I find a good place, I might settle down. Don’t you think I’d do well?”

Yeji nearly spat out her drink.

Juhee was her one and only friend, just as Yeji was Juhee’s. And now her only friend was planning to leave the country? No—why?

That betrayal bastard Han Taemin who deserved to be beaten to death, that annoyingly perfect third-generation chaebol CEO. What did those men matter? Her friend had lived with fierce determination—how could she quit her job and abandon Korea because of them?

Ah, now Yeji needed a drink too.

Emotion surging, she grabbed the bottle from Juhee’s hand and filled her own glass to the brim.

Juhee was at her friend’s tteokbokki shop again today.

Parking on the shoulder and turning into the familiar alley, Jeha let out a soft laugh.

“As expected, she only knows one thing.”

The man was Han Taemin. The friend was Seo Yeji. Her only activity and hobby had been work.

But the man had betrayed her, the friend had a husband, and she had quit her job.

So what was left for Gong Juhee?

Becoming her one and only didn’t sound so bad. The problem was that becoming that one and only was harder than he had expected.

She had already given him her first time and her body; it would be convenient if she would hand over her heart too. Yet she kept drawing lines and calculating everything. Wasn’t it exhausting to live so rigidly, always keeping what needed to be kept? As he felt every time, she truly had no flexibility.

Lost in thought, he walked until the sign for Honey’s Tteokbokki came into view.

Lightly stroking his chin, Jeha stopped in front of the entrance and pulled out his phone. Just in case she had changed locations, he decided to check again.

At that moment the door opened and Juhee’s friend stepped out.

She spotted him, flinched, and stepped back before quickly straightening her posture.

The first time she had seen him, her eyes had been filled with the same rapture one might show a favorite idol singer. Now those eyes were sharp and glaring.

“We’re closed.”

“I came to see Secretary Gong.”

“What should we do? There’s no one here by that name.”

So she was going to play dumb.

“Seo Yeji, I came knowing everything.”

Jeha spoke her name in a soft, low tone. For a split second, the woman’s narrow eyes melted with ecstasy. Then she shook her head hard, snapping back to her senses.

“If you already know, then… then what are you going to do about it?”

“I suppose I’ll have to consider firing the secretary who has such an excellent friend.”

At the word “firing,” the woman flinched and hunched her shoulders. But she quickly lifted her chin and shot back.

“Juhee quit her job, you know?”

Who decided that? Jeha muttered inwardly, then answered with perfect composure.

“It was a one-sided notification. As far as I’m concerned, I never gave an answer.”