A Coincidence Too Strange

For a moment, Seol-hee wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her. With the green garden stretched out behind him, he existed unmistakably, even in this in-between season. Standing tall in a navy suit amid the lush foliage, he looked like a still from a photo spread—something too vivid to be real. "W-what brings you here?" The words burst out of her before she could even manage a greeting. Her stunned, dazed eyes studied him from a distance. The man, meanwhile, curled the corner of his mouth and asked, "Did you come chasing after me?" Seol-hee let out a shallow breath, trying to steady her racing heart. "How did you… you saw me?" "I did. Standing in front of the elevator earlier." It sounded as if he'd been waiting for her to follow him all along. "You make it sound like I was the one chasing you." "You were." Seol-hee's mouth opened and closed, at a loss for words. What on earth was this man saying? The lazy curve of his lips looked almost playful. The atmosphere was different again from the day he'd handed her his shoes. She smoothed over her flustered expression and cut straight to the point. "You still haven't told me what you're doing here." "I work here." "At the Shinwol Foundation?" "That's right." He certainly didn't look like he was lying. Was a connection like this even possible? What were the odds of running into the same stranger twice by pure chance? If this were before she'd met Jin Dong-chan, the fatalist in her would have called it destiny. But having lost all faith in fate and providence, this strangely tangled thread of coincidence felt nothing but unsettling.

"What about you?" she asked. "I work here too. Today was my first day. But… did you know I'd be working here?" There wasn't a flicker of surprise on his face. As if he'd anticipated this very encounter. His eyes narrowed into thin crescents. "Who's to say? Why would that curiosity matter to you?" The longer they talked, the stranger the conversation felt. "You're so calm about it—like you knew you'd run into me here." She stared at him with open suspicion. She had lived a life where nothing could be taken at face value, and she had come back to the past like a miracle. The wounds inflicted by the man she'd loved had been too deep for her not to feel suspicion blooming toward a man whose presence kept repeating itself like fate. "Do you happen to work in HR?" At her question, the man let out a low, thoughtful hum. "Close enough to call it that." Close enough? Seol-hee turned the ambiguous phrase over in her mind. That was when he raised his wrist and checked his watch. "Lunch is almost over. Surely a new hire can't be late?" Lost in thought, Seol-hee jolted in alarm. "What time is it?" Startled, she unconsciously grabbed his wrist and looked at the watch herself. Less than five minutes of the lunch break remained. She couldn't believe how much time had slipped away. "Oh no—okay, I have to go!" She bolted down the corridor without even a proper goodbye. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw the man waving at her with a face-splitting grin. At that guileless greeting, she almost raised her hand in return—then quickly lowered it. Don't get friendly with him. She darted into the elevator that had just arrived. Once she'd caught her breath, the chance encounter from moments ago resurfaced in her mind. "Strange, that's all." She'd run into him in the least expected place—but that was where it ended. If it was coincidence, there was no need to read anything into it. Seol-hee pushed the moment from her mind and stamped her foot anxiously, watching the floor numbers climb.

Do Yi-hyuk slowly lowered the hand he'd raised toward Seol-hee. His expression had frozen solid, as if the smile he'd worn had never existed at all. He was still staring in the direction Seol-hee had disappeared when his secretary approached from behind. "You two know each other?" The secretary had been puzzled when Yi-hyuk ordered him to add back a candidate who'd been rejected. Now he could sense there was some history between the two of them. "We do. Very… well acquainted." Yi-hyuk lifted his gaze from the spot where the woman had vanished and looked past the central atrium window. A stand of pines, planted when the Shinwol Foundation was first established, filled his field of vision. Their gnarled branches stretched skyward as if daring anything in the world to defy them. "Then why did you reject Ms. Woo Seol-hee in the first—" Yi-hyuk cut him off, his voice low. "I was trying to avoid it. I thought if I kept my distance, everything would be fine." A faint smile ghosted across his lips. It was impossible to tell whether it was scorn or resignation. "And yet…" His eyes remained on the pines. "After all that struggling, all that fighting it." He paused, then let out a small breath. "The moment she offered me a single piece of candy, my resolve came crumbling down." Only then did the secretary remember—the little stick of candy that had sat on Yi-hyuk's desk all morning. Still not looking away, Yi-hyuk murmured, almost to himself. "Since it's already crumbled… this time, I intend to follow my heart." And then, slowly, he added: "Matching my stride to hers… doesn't sound so bad." Very quietly. "From the closest possible place."

A few days later. Seol-hee stood in front of Hotel A's banquet hall. An elegant sign for the Shinwol Foundation Premium Donor Gala had been placed by the entrance. The venue was familiar. The atmosphere, too, resembled her memory of that night. "Wait—this is—" Her shoulders stiffened as she stared down at the sign. Just then, Ye-jun came up behind her and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Seol-hee, is something wrong?" "N-no, nothing." Uncomfortable with the man's hand on her shoulder, Seol-hee edged subtly away. Ye-jun naturally tucked his suddenly empty hand behind his back and smiled as if nothing had happened. "I'm sure the team leader told you—this is our most important VIP event of the year, for the major donors to the Shinwol Foundation. But there's no need to be nervous. Everyone invited is publicly known, so they're all dignified and gracious." "I see." "Let's head in. The team leader and Manager Kang got here early and have been working themselves ragged—we should pitch in too." "Yes." The two of them had stepped away briefly for an external planning schedule and had come straight to the venue. She'd been told in advance that there was an important event on Friday evening, but never in her wildest dreams had she imagined it was that event—the very one lodged in her memory of the past. So this is how I come back here. After her father's death and her wedding day, this was the place that held her most horrific memory. Her feelings were impossible to untangle. Seol-hee followed Ye-jun through the venue entrance. In front of the photo wall, erected for maximum publicity, press photographers and cameramen were already staking out their positions. With the event moments away, the staff bustled about running final checks. Each planning team had its own assignment, but the VIP Premium Donor Gala was the exception—every team in the department threw itself into the event with everything it had. Im Team Leader, who was mid-briefing with the neighboring team's leader, spotted Seol-hee and Ye-jun and waved them over. "Oh, you're here! It's about to start. This one's auction-driven, so pay attention—this is a room where a single mistake is unforgivable. You know that, right?" They gave brief acknowledgments, and assignments were handed out on the spot. Ye-jun would assist with event operations; Seol-hee was tasked with helping the VIP guests arriving in the hall to their designated seats smoothly. "Where's Manager Kang, by the way?" "Manager Kang? She's with the auction item security support team. No one leaves that hall until the auction's over—security protocol. You need something?" "No. Just wondering where she was." Seol-hee had half a mind to ask for a reassignment—wouldn't it be better to stay out of sight?—but that seemed unlikely to happen. Asking Ye-jun to swap felt wrong too; he'd only want to know why, and she didn't feel like inventing a reason. Whatever. It is what it is. Of all things, she'd landed the job that put her front and center before the guests. This Premium Donor Gala at the Shinwol Foundation—the event she had attended before her regression. How had she forgotten? The very night her life had fallen apart. Perhaps what came after had been so horrific that she'd shoved the memory away entirely. And so, the evening of giving began. Seol-hee checked the VIP list and monitored the routes to make sure the ushers could guide guests to their assigned seats without a hitch. Some people recognized her. "Wait—isn't that the employee? The one who was almost going to be Candidate Jin Soo-sung's daughter-in-law?" "The bride who ran out on her own wedding?" The stares began to gather, one by one. Even before her marriage, she had attended plenty of public functions. The people whose faces she'd memorized back then had all turned up, inevitably. Her heart plunged once, hard. If she couldn't avoid it, better to choose enjoyment. That's right. That woman is me. A chill brushed past from somewhere nearby. In the distance, Yeo In-ok was approaching, her precious Jin Dong-chan at her side like a rare jewel she'd raised in silk. On this day, before the regression, her mother-in-law had slapped her brutally across the face—all while draped in that despicable mask called elegance. But Seol-hee's gaze slid right past them and fixed on a woman a short distance away, striding in under the spotlight. Ryu Ah-reum. Jin Dong-chan's current lover. People she never could have imagined together, all gathered in one place. Watching them approach, Seol-hee curled her lips into a thin smile. 'Something interesting might be about to happen.'