Shattered Glass, Steady Heartbeat

Damn. Did she catch on that I'm using Grandfather as an excuse to take her on a date? Ruby chewed it over, mildly irked. The part about wanting to see the old man again wasn't a lie, so how had she seen through him so easily?

"Ah. Ruby doesn't know yet, does he."

Haeseo's voice, tinged with sudden melancholy, landed a beat too late.

"Grandfather passed away. Three summers ago."

"What?"

Thud! Startled, Ruby jolted upright and cracked his head squarely against the underside of the table. The impact rattled the whole table, and one of the neatly arranged spoons clattered down right in front of him.

"Ugh."

"Oh no, are you okay?"

Haeseo dropped to all fours and crawled under the table toward him. She'd been reaching for the fallen spoon, but then caught sight of Ruby wincing far harder than she'd expected, and the sight startled her.

Her heart hammered. He'd already lost his memory from one blow to the head — and now he'd gone and smacked his head again. Surely this wouldn't send him regressing all the way back to middle school… would it?

"You're not dizzy or anything, are you— mmph!"

The moment the frightened Haeseo drew close to his face, Ruby's scrunched expression vanished as if it had never existed, and he yanked her into a fierce embrace. Tight enough that every inch of their bodies pressed flush together.

"Wh-what's gotten into you?"

"You've been through a lot."

The sudden force pulled her off balance, and Haeseo squirmed, tapping him lightly on the shoulder — right up until she heard his voice brushing against her ear.

It already felt like a distant memory. She'd received her share of condolences from everyone around her, after all. And yet this one belated word of comfort settled into her more deeply than all the rest — was it the hand gently patting her back? Or the solid weight of that big body curling itself down, hunching small just to wrap around her?

Come to think of it, Haeseo hadn't been held by anyone since her grandfather died. The person who had always done the holding was Grandfather.

Against her cheek, his firm chest thudded with a steady heartbeat. Her own heart always felt anxious to her, but listening to someone else's brought a drowsy, melting kind of calm.

"I get it now. Why you became my secretary."

"You already know why. You scouted me yourself, Boss—"

"Mm."

Ruby pulled his face away from her shoulder and arched an eyebrow. Right. Go on then, tell me. She pressed her lips shut and waited.

"It's because Mr. Wi's still watching over you."

"……"

"He passed the job to the next person who'd look after you after him, didn't he? Wow. I'd better do a really good job. Mr. Wi's going to be watching me every single day."

Haeseo's small, round face was reflected in the depths of Ruby's light-brown eyes, glittering with certainty.

It had been those same eyes, back then too. That winter, three years ago.

Several terrible timings had collided all at once that day.

Haeseo had only just begun her work as a Personal Secretary, and still green to both the company and the customs of high society, she'd been wound tight with nerves. It was the year-end season, when private gatherings multiplied, and Ruby's cousin Kang Ijun had been among the guests at that particular party.

It was also the first birthday of her late grandfather's since his passing. And it was the day she first told Ruby that her grandfather had died.

"You look off today. What's wrong?"

"N-nothing at all. I'm fine."

Haeseo had never dreamed she'd be that despondent. She hadn't known that the first birthday of a loved one's after their death would cut so piercingly deep.

Ruby, walking beside her, shot her a sideways glance.

"Give Mr. Wi a call or something, at least."

"I'm sorry?"

"It's his birthday today, isn't it?"

"Ah……"

Haeseo readjusted her grip on her handbag.

"Grandfather passed away. This summer, actually……"

On any ordinary day she could have delivered it flatly, but the words snagged halfway out of her mouth. It must have sounded like she was on the verge of tears. Flushing with embarrassment, she stole a look at his face — but Ruby simply gazed straight ahead, expression unchanged.

I suppose it isn't exactly shocking news. Fair enough — no one could be expected to react to the death of every single servant. But even thinking that, her chest ached. It stung, pointlessly, that his death was nothing to him.

Afraid the tears would spill, she bit the inside of her lip.

"Wait here a second."

He parked her by the doors of the party hall and went inside. Was it because she was an underling that she couldn't follow? Then why on earth had he made her dress up so much in the first place?

Haeseo bowed her head and struggled to swallow the tears down — and a pair of men's dress shoes entered her field of vision.

"You came in with Baek Ruby, didn't you. So you're the new secretary he picked up?"

"……"

"Or are you his lover? Doesn't seem like it, seeing as he left you out here."

She knew who it was from the voice alone. Kang Ijun — the cousin on Ruby's father's side who had come around often back when Chairman Baek was still married. He'd visited Baekrimjae exactly once, and the moment he'd spotted Haeseo, he'd started pestering her. But the instant he learned she was the gardener's granddaughter, he'd walked off as if it had never happened.

For Haeseo — who could barely bring herself to raise her voice at anyone — that had been a genuine mercy.

They were the same age, and perhaps because of that, he harbored an enormous competitive streak toward Ruby. Or to put it precisely: an inferiority complex. Which was exactly why he'd come scurrying over the second Ruby left her alone.

She should have lifted her head and greeted him pleasantly. That was her job. But she couldn't. Her face simply refused to cooperate. And so she committed the rudeness of ignoring Kang Ijun outright.

Besides, there was every chance he'd recognize her. She had no desire to hear the sneer — 'What, seriously? Turns out she's the gardener's granddaughter after all that.' — not now. She would rather die than watch her precious grandfather be flattened and crumpled small in a place this glittering.

"Are you ignoring me right now?"

"……"

"Hey! Who the hell do you think I am? Shit — hey. Lift your head."

Haeseo only bowed it lower and held on. It was sheer stubbornness — she just hoped Ijun would lose interest and wander off. But she could feel eyes gathering around them at the sound of his booming voice. She squeezed her eyes shut just as rapid footsteps came rushing closer.

"Damn it, Baek Ruby, there's a limit to how far you can swagger around riding on your name—!"

Splash. Then came the sound of something like a basin of cold water being thrown. It was so close that Haeseo's head snapped up in shock.

"Oh my. What on earth—"

The onlookers who'd been watching the standoff murmured. But all Haeseo could see was Ruby's broad back blocking her view. Ijun's face was hidden completely from sight.

"B-Baek Ruby."

"Been a while, Ijun."

Ruby wiped a line down his jaw, drenched in red wine. Faced with those eyes gone glacial, Ijun's gaze dropped without his permission.

The same age, yet a fifteen-centimeter gap in height meant it always ended this way — with him looking down.

'Fuck…… This is such bullshit. If only I'd been the tall one.'

That wasn't the problem at all, but Ijun gnawed on it anyway. And if your eyes are up that high, watch where you're walking. Scared the hell out of me, slamming into me out of nowhere.

The glass he'd been holding aloft had tipped entirely, wine flooding down Ruby's lower face and staining his chest crimson.

Anywhere Baek Ruby wasn't, Ijun could swagger all he liked — but he was never, not once, a match for the man himself. Wasn't it the same for his father? Just don't cross Ruby, and scrape together whatever crumbs fall your way.

But how was he supposed to dodge when Ruby came barreling into him like a water deer? Ijun's eyes rolled, torn over whether an apology was actually called for — and Ruby calmly lifted the empty glass from his hand.

"Ah, sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Clearly. Try keeping your head on straight."

"Huh? Wh—"

"You're such a pathetic little nobody, you can't even figure out where to stand."

Ruby let the glass slide from his fingers to the floor. Crash! It shattered at Ijun's feet, shards skittering in every direction.

"Oh. Look at that. It broke. What are we going to do with you, Ijun, clumsy as ever?"

Ruby pressed his dress shoe down hard on the broken glass — then planted it squarely on top of Ijun's polished shoe. Press. Grind. He ground his heel into the man's instep like stubbing out a cigarette, and Ijun went white as a sheet, unable to move a muscle. The premium calfskin was left carved up with a web of ugly scratches.

"I warned you back then, remember."

Ruby laid a hand on Ijun's shoulder and tilted his head. The low whisper at his ear reached Ijun and no one else.

"I told you — a punk who doesn't know his place shouldn't go poking around where he doesn't belong. Get caught one more time……"

The warning — it was unmistakably that one, from Baekrimjae. Inexplicably sullen back then, Ruby had cornered him behind a tree, cleverly out of every adult's line of sight, grabbed him by the collar, and whispered: roll your eyes at me one more time, and next time I'll stab you.

Ijun flinched and glanced down — brilliantly gleaming shards of glass lay strewn on all sides.

"I-I'm sorry!"

The apology shot out of him on pure reflex. Baek Ruby really did it — whatever it was. That was the difference between him and Baek Ruby. Fresh off a broken engagement, the man had become something even more chilling: a hunting dog with no leash left to hold. Ijun stumbled backward, putting distance between them.

"Ijun. Were you that curious about my every move? Then come ask me directly sometime. You can pay your respects while you're at it."

Ruby straightened up at his leisure and flashed an easy smile.

"And from the look of it, you didn't manage a single sip of that wine. I'll send a bottle over to your place one of these days."

"N-no, that's……"

Ijun's mind spun in circles. The wine was plastered all over the venue right now — what kind of move was this? Mocking him as a beggar compared to Ruby, was that it? Or — shit — was he threatening to turn this into a family scandal?

"Don't worry about it. There's plenty inside. I'll head back in and drink my fill."

Throwing a parting glance at Ijun's retreating back, Ruby issued the order to his secretary in a flat, clipped voice.

"Book a hotel room upstairs and have a change of clothes brought up."

"……Yes, sir."

Haeseo bowed deeply, then hurried out of the event hall.