The Irresistible Allure
I emerged from the restroom and started walking down the hallway. A woman was standing there, pressed against the wall and staring fixedly at him—Shin Woo-yeon.
“Long time no see.”
I ignored her and walked right past.
“Have you been well?”
The trite greeting rang out, but I didn’t even glance back.
Then the sound of footsteps began to follow closely from behind. Tap, tap, tap, tap. The light, crisp click of the woman’s shoes on the floor sounded oddly unreal. My mind flashed back to the woman’s lively movements on the stairs.
So when I slowed for a moment, the woman— who had somehow caught up—stepped right in front of me. She looked up at me with large, clear eyes.
“You said you wanted me cut, right?”
Indeed, her appearance was enough to make the wild bunch in the restaurant hall go wild.
“So I was fired?”
“Why are you acting like that?”
“You were using casual speech last time, and now you’re speaking so rudely.”
“Because I was seen as a customer this time…”
“Then step aside and don’t block the way.”
Woo-yeon pressed her lips together. Her watery eyes flickered. It wasn’t the look of someone wiping away tears. After all, this woman’s eyes were always moist.
Last time she’d hurled those insults at me with that same face. So no matter what she did, she was still that woman with that appearance.
“You were waiting for me?”
“No, I forgot.”
“You were waiting. Since you didn’t show up, you must’ve hated it and had me fired.”
Je-hyeok gave a low laugh. It was short and dry.
“Do you really think you’re worth making me hate you? How is that so confident?”
“…So you weren’t waiting?”
“Yes, I wasn’t waiting.”
“You weren’t even thinking about it?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t even thinking about that either.”
She was sharp with my words, as if simply annoyed. It was incomprehensible to me that a man would poke at himself with the phrase ‘cut’ and then act clueless about it. Was this just the inherent arrogance and whims of a man?
Woo-hee continued brazenly, the words she had practiced alone several times before meeting Je-hyeok today.
“I did a lot.”
“….”
“I kept thinking about Mr. Woo Je-hyeok.”
The woman’s confession carried weight. Unable to hold back her laughter any longer, Je-hyeok finally burst into laughter.
The corners of the woman’s eyes were tightly drawn as she spoke. With those eyes that glared at him, she was spitting out a confession from her mouth.
Her eyes were exactly the same as the ones I had seen three weeks ago. Not particularly threatening, just still indifferent.
Dry-faced, with an obsessive gaze, her expression seemed to say she loathed him while desperately wanting him. There was no consistency whatsoever. The sincerity didn’t feel like it was just for sex. There seemed to be something deeper.
“So what do you want from me?”
It was a waste of time even to try to uncover this woman’s intentions. What could this tiny, insignificant, cheap woman possibly do to him?
Still, I had often recalled this woman.
The woman had declared that she would have sex with him within a month. She had a particularly provocative appearance and body. For years I had been running an IT company, and work had dried up for a while. Besides, there was still about half a year left until my internship at Wooshin, and I didn’t have much to do anyway.
I had been waiting for this woman to make things more enjoyable for me.
I hadn’t been waiting from the start. I hadn’t especially thought about Shin Woo-yeon with passion.
The thought began with something trivial. While lining up a putt on the golf course, a ridiculous question had suddenly crossed my mind.
‘What kind of trash was it?’
When I had first met the woman at Woo Min-ho’s party, she had called me trash, but what exactly was it?
I sent the useless musings away with the rolling ball. But the ridiculous question kept popping up unexpectedly after that.
After oversleeping, drinking, racing, playing pool, and gambling, and finally dealing with the remaining tasks, Je-hyeok would often think of adjectives that could be attached to ‘trash.’
Dirty, dog-like, despicable, cowardly, vulgar, evil, low, crude, and so on.
No matter which one I attached, it suited him and made me laugh. But none of them felt right. It was a nagging curiosity that pricked at my brain like a thin thorn lodged in my throat.
Heavy trash.
The word ‘heavy’ had come to mind when I was taking a shower in the lounge at the golf course. The moment I thought of one, the adjective that had once been attached to it surfaced automatically.
Trivial and heavy trash.
It had been a difficult problem I had been scratching at for a while. I had finally solved it and felt refreshed. I had even been a bit happy about it, but there was no woman.
She had said she would have sex with me within a month. She had been popping up here and there like a mole. If things were going like this, she should have appeared by now.
Why wasn’t she showing?
The woman who had been trivial and heavy wasn’t any different. So I hadn’t felt sorry, but now that I couldn’t see her, I felt sorry. Especially her provocative appearance and figure.
After all, it wasn’t a common look. If I had known I’d feel sorry later, I should have just slept with her once. The desire had risen late. I had thought, ‘I’ll just do it with her when we meet next time.’
“I actually had a bad cold.”
“….”
“It was quite severe.”
Je-hyeok simply looked down at Woo-hee calmly. He asked nothing and showed no change in expression.
“It’s because I couldn’t bring you a cold. That’s why I couldn’t find you.”
I had finished my prepared words, yet Je-hyeok didn’t answer. He didn’t even smirk at the trick I had prepared for Woo-hee.
When the man remained silent, Woo-hee fell silent too. She looked up at him with her expression and words.
The deadline for Woo-hee’s declaration that she would break off her engagement with Je-hyeok and Ha-rin was now only a month away.
If I sent Woo Je-hyeok away without any significant achievement today, well, that wasn’t the only problem. Now I didn’t know how to seduce this man at all, and Woo-hee was confused.
Should I act like a cheap woman who reveals her money, or pretend to fall in love sincerely? Should I beg for sex outright and cling to him like a rope? No matter what, somehow I had to do it.
As Eun-ju had said, this didn’t suit her. It was the hardest problem she had faced in her life.
Suddenly Je-hyeok let out a faint chuckle.
“Why are you so serious.”
For a moment his face became playful.
“I already told you not to take it so seriously. Be light, be light.”
“….”
“Then I’ll have the heart to play with you lightly too.”
“I’ll be light like that.”
When Woo-hee answered obediently, Je-hyeok took a step closer. The distance narrowed sharply. A smile curved his lips, but he was still the cold, ruthless man.
The man who had said he hated chasing and clinging, hated begging and pleading, hated changing his mind late…
Woo-hee obediently gave the answer he wanted.
“I won’t do that anymore.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then let’s sleep together today?”
The hand that had been teasing her earlobe fell away. In the meantime the onlooker who had been peeking at them had gone into the restroom. However, just before entering the restroom, he had looked startled by Je-hyeok’s words.
“Time’s up right now?”
Woo-hee was also taken aback and couldn’t reply immediately. I hadn’t expected Je-hyeok to give what she wanted so easily.
Je-hyeok checked his wristwatch. The window of the hallway was still brightly lit by daytime.
“It’s during work hours, so isn’t it out of bounds?”
“….”
“So you had me fired, but I’m not even fired yet?”
Was that his intention? Did he want me to have sex with him and fire me?
I hadn’t felt that way when I heard it from Eun-ju. Je-hyeok was casually swinging another man’s livelihood to satisfy his desire. Suddenly desiring it and showing such a cold, dry face. Was that really the man?
The questions in my head multiplied endlessly. I hadn’t been able to understand at all how Je-hyeok had suddenly changed his attitude despite looking at me all along.
But no matter what, it was none of my business what his intentions were. I would just spend one night with the man and make a trap.
“Shin Woo-yeon.”
“….”
“Is it done now?”
Woo-hee closed her eyes tightly and opened them again. Whatever it was.
“I’ll go tell the president.”
I had to move before the whimsical man changed his mind again.
“What kind of excuse?”
Woo-hee’s steps halted. She turned to look at Je-hyeok with an odd expression.
“It’s still work hours. Are you quitting because you’re cuddling with me?”
“…I’ll make sure there’s no one who becomes a problem for Mr. Woo Je-hyeok. I’ll just tell him appropriately that something came up suddenly, so don’t worry.”
Je-hyeok let out an ‘ah’ and smiled. His eyes curved in amusement, yet they didn’t seem sincere.
“Yes. Go do that.”
Woo-yeon turned her body again. Tap, tap, tap, tap. She walked away from me again, her steps brisk on the floor. Her neatly tied hair swayed left and right. The arms and legs visible outside the black uniform looked especially white and slender.
Je-hyeok soon erased his smile. She was an incredibly easy woman. I didn’t know what he would do, but the woman who clung to him with just a few words was simply trivial.