The Game Begins
“Mr. Woo Je-hyeok.”
She had called out his name, but the moment she did, his phone rang.
It was Je-hyeok’s.
From the other end of the line came a faint, sycophantic voice: “Representative-nim, Representative-nim—”
While she waited for the call to end, Woo-hee looked at Woo Je-hyeok with indifference. His reply to the caller was generally short, yet far more polite than the tone he used with her. Between those monotone words, the man occasionally laughed.
Woo-hee waited for the call to finish. But the conversation dragged on longer than she expected. Even with her standing right in front of him, Je-hyeok showed no sign of wanting to hang up.
At some point he had turned his body completely away from her and ceased even glancing her way.
“What happened with the project we discussed the other day?”
If there was a person right in front of you, etiquette demanded you end the call quickly. She felt as if she had become a ghost.
Woo-hee gazed at the cold profile of Woo Je-hyeok, then lowered her eyes. Among the blue grass she spotted ants crawling. To Woo Je-hyeok, was she no more than an ant skittering past?
Je-hyeok had been the one to speak to her first. It was he who had asked for her name first, and it was he who had proposed sex first.
And now he had forgotten her name and spat out insults, treating her like cheap trash. The kind of contempt she had never experienced before stirred the depths of her stomach.
Finally the call ended. The instant it did, Woo-hee lifted her head. The man who had treated her like a ghost for so long spoke before he passed her by.
“Honestly, ever since that day, I’ve kept thinking about you.”
“……”
“You keep appearing in my dreams, Mr. Woo Je-hyeok. Not once, but many times. Even after I wake up, you keep replaying in my mind. That’s why I followed you. Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you. This is the first time I’ve felt this way. I think I’ve started to like you, Mr. Woo Je-hyeok.”
One lie and the next flowed effortlessly. Once she said it, it wasn’t difficult at all.
Every word had been taken from what Ha-rin had said to her. The few months of Ha-rin’s remarks had been roughly stitched together. If she disliked acting like a cheap woman who threw money around, she would pretend to be sincere and lure him in. She did not want her long-held goal to be ruined over this man, this trash.
“That’s why I regretted not accepting the proposal you made that day. I decided it was better to do something than keep regretting alone. So…”
She had planned to continue lying, ignoring his sincerity, but Je-hyeok laughed. A long, bright laugh rang in her ears. A sense of déjà vu washed over her.
’Will I catch this man’s disease?’
Back then too, Je-hyeok had laughed like that. The same feeling from that time stirred her chest.
Yet the man’s laughter did not stop. Woo-hee felt worse. She glared at him again, but Je-hyeok laughed as if even that expression amused him.
“Ah, sorry. I haven’t heard such a desperate confession in a long time.”
He was cheap, and now even outdated. The muttered words carved a line into her heart. Another new kind of humiliation had been added to the list.
“But I have no interest in women who chase me because they like me.”
She had bent her pride and pretended sincerity, yet the man who had spoken to her was still mocking her.
“…You said you wanted to sleep with me.”
Je-hyeok looked at her as if asking whether that was true.
“Did you just happen to like the uniform?”
It seemed he was referring to the uniform she had worn back then. Selecting absurd, rude answers was apparently this man’s specialty.
“Or maybe I was just that bored back then.”
I want to break this man. In that moment, such a surge of emotion rose inside Woo-hee.
Separately from the obligation to sleep with Je-hyeok, she wanted to crumple this trash of a man like trash. She wanted to dirty that slippery look. She wanted to crush every last thing of his and return the humiliations she had received until now.
Wrong desires surged wildly. The emotions that had been boiling felt uncomfortable. The discomfort overwhelmed her; she turned her face away. Gazing at the dazzlingly white wall, she gently closed her eyes, then opened them and turned back to Je-hyeok.
“My name is Shin Woo-yeon.”
Je-hyeok’s eyebrows rose slightly. His face looked as if he was saying, “What?”
When they met again, he had planned to correct the name he had used. That time’s Shin Woo-yeon was only one character different from her real name, Sun Woo-hee. She hadn’t wanted to accidentally draw suspicion and ruin the situation.
Originally it was Shin Woo-yeon, but she had feared telling the real name to a strange man that day after drinking, so she had lied.
But since Je-hyeok had already forgotten even the name Shin Woo-yeon, there was no need to correct it.
Still, Woo-hee decided to tell him anyway. She had to carve into him that her existence was no better than an ant.
“Remember this.”
“Remember?”
“Within the next month, you and I will sleep together.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“…Well.”
Je-hyeok laughed again, a long laugh this time. His expression finally showed he was enjoying it. Seeing that face, relief rose inside Woo-hee.
She had managed to bait the interest of this trash of a man. There was even a tiny satisfaction in the thought that perhaps she had carved her existence into him after all.
At the same time, she carefully imprinted everything she learned about this man. Je-hyeok, when dealing with women, clearly put his own interest and amusement first. The moment he felt it slipping even a little, he would turn away without mercy.
“Are you challenging me?”
After laughing for a while, Je-hyeok spoke in his usual polite tone.
“Yes. Please do your best. Still, it would be good if you kept your word, Miss Shin Woo-yeon.”
“……”
“I dislike women who chase me because they like me, but I dislike even more those who cross lines without understanding their place and make things unpleasant for both sides.”
“……”
“Choose your timing and place carefully. Match your place to Miss Shin Woo-yeon’s.”
“Huh?”
Feeling forced to answer whether she had understood, Woo-hee nodded.
Once again their eyes met in the autumn sunlight. Je-hyeok’s gaze was as if he were watching something strange.
That look was unpleasant, but she felt a strange desire not to lose. She lifted her chin and looked straight back at the man.
She vowed never to look away first. Je-hyeok’s eyes curved into a playful, mischievous smile.
“Why so serious?”
She had once thought his eyes were pitch black, but up close like this, the man’s irises had a strangely reddish tint. Deep crimson-brown eyes. Eyes like a swamp.
“…You’re so light.”
“Ah, are you trying to balance it?”
He had mocked her light attitude, but he answered playfully again.
No matter what she said, he treated it as an insult. He acted as if nothing could ever damage him.
“It seems interesting to watch.”
The man tilted his head sideways and casually evaluated her while standing close. The more he acted that way, the stronger the desire to leave a mark on him burned inside Woo-hee. The man who kept igniting a fire inside her was unfamiliar and uncomfortable, yet she did not avoid his gaze as she had vowed.
Suddenly Je-hyeok brushed her fist. Startled, Woo-hee flinched and pulled her hand back. His eyes showed that her reaction was amusing.
“Relax.”
“……”
“If you carry yourself so heavily, I can’t play lightly on this side.”
Even so, he made it clear that he would only play lightly, drawing a clear line.
Anyway, he had said he would play lightly, hadn’t he? What else should she say to draw in the man’s interest even more? While she was pondering, Je-hyeok’s phone rang again.
“I’ll go.”
With an absentminded voice he straightened his bent body. One hand stayed carelessly in his pocket, the other raised his phone to check the message.
Then he looked at her again. Moments ago he had seemed amused, but now his gaze pierced her like irritation.
“Play with me more?”
The tone was cold. A capricious man. Only now did she realize that the advice to choose timing and place had meant to leave this place.
Woo-hee calmly turned around. Instinctively she knew it was time to retreat. While turning, she briskly brushed her hand against the back of the man’s hand that had touched her.
But she had no idea where exactly this place was. It was Je-hyeok who had brought her here on a whim.
She turned back again. The man was now on the phone once more. When he noticed her gaze, he looked up. Before their eyes could meet again, Woo-hee turned her head.
She walked as if an exit would appear. In that mindset she headed toward wherever the eye could see. Even if the feeling of being chased was disgusting, she had to endure it.
Today had yielded no significant harvest. Still, when they met again, Je-hyeok would not ignore her as he had today. He would not coldly drive her away as he had today.
So for today, this would be enough.
She had thought it would be easy since he was trash, but it was far from easy. The deadline she had set left only two months. Within the first month she would create an affair with Je-hyeok, and in the next month she would make the engagement loose.
Wandering through the gallery exit, she thought about it. How could she provoke the worn-out interest of this man? Just one night of sex would be enough to satisfy him. Yet capturing this man’s heart was far more difficult than she had imagined.
It happened while she turned a pillar of the building. Woo-hee stopped walking for a moment and looked inside the gallery made of white walls.
At that instant, her mind flashed to Je-hyeok’s strange family history. The story of how his wealthy father had thrown away endless riches and a guaranteed future for a poor pianist.
Next came the image of the man watching her outfit with no emotion.
From a party hosted by Woo Min-ho, a woman had spoken the words that pierced Je-hyeok in an instant. Recalling the similar women shown in the photos Myeong Eun-ju had displayed, Woo-hee remembered Je-hyeok’s words that the uniform had been his taste.
Perhaps Je-hyeok was now tired of his previous tastes. Then what new taste would spark his interest again? Blood could not be deceived, after all…