The Offer He Refused
“Let’s sleep together.”
“Huh…? What did you just say…?”
Yu-won could not stop herself from asking and immediately bit her lip. Woo-jin despised being asked twice to do anything. Yet this time she had no choice. The words had been so shocking, so far beyond belief, that she could not help but repeat them.
“Are you asking me if I want to sleep with you?” he said, his tone as casual as discussing the weather. The black depths of his eyes revealed nothing. As always, they were still as the sea—calm, unreadable.
Her gaze slid to the crystal decanter on the table, the amber liquid inside. She had lost count of how many times her boss had emptied it. She had stopped keeping track long ago.
There was no way he was drunk. He was the third-generation heir of the Taekyung Group and the CEO of the cosmetics brand Moment.
If money and power could buy anything, perhaps that was exactly what he believed. Looking at his face and his background, it should not have surprised her. Still, she forced herself to ignore the chill that crept through her chest.
“President, if you are feeling overwhelmed by the collapsed investment meeting today, there are better ways to deal with it than this.”
She pulled every ounce of composure she possessed and forced the sentence out.
To her surprise, Woo-jin actually laughed—soft, rare, genuine.
“I had forgotten, but thanks to you, Secretary Shin, I remembered. Yes, that was it. During the day.”
He set the bottle down and poured himself another glass, then slid it across the desk toward her.
“Do you need time to think about it?”
Her voice trembled when she tried to speak. She stopped herself.
“I don’t want to do anything like that with the President. Besides—”
“You have a boyfriend?”
The long, straight fingers gave the rim of the glass a light tap. The nails dug into her palm.
“…I’ll file the rest of the reports tomorrow at the company.”
She kept her face blank and bowed her head. Heat rose in her cheeks, but she refused to let it show.
Just as she straightened, ready to turn and leave.
“You’re not planning to do something just as bad for me, are you?”
The words had not been meant to fall from his lips.
“Something… bad?”
An uneasy premonition settled over her. She pressed her nails into her palm until it hurt, swallowing the panic.
“For a man who comes to the company and acts like this, I should at least do something on a similar level, don’t you think?”
“How do you know…?”
Her heart dropped. She quickly replayed the afternoon. Woo-jin had been gone from the office the entire time.
Why had he not answered the phone? Why had he ignored her so completely?
That afternoon, Kim Seung-ju had burst into the company lobby drunk and loud, demanding to see her. It had been exactly what she had expected when she heard he had been released. She never imagined he would come all the way to the office.
“Ah!”
She had rushed to drag him into the corner, but he swung wildly. His arm connected with her neck.
“He’s a regular. Sorry for the commotion.”
The blow rang in her ears, yet she bowed to the approaching security guards as if nothing had happened.
To make it big and let Woo-jin find out… She did not even want to imagine what would happen next.
“Even after the lobby disturbance, the intranet stayed suspiciously quiet. You really do have a innocent side, Secretary Shin.”
Woo-jin picked up his glass again. He took it down in one swallow, as if the strong liquor had no taste at all.
The unusually quiet office after the midday chaos had struck her as strange, but she had no time to dwell on it. It was simply fortunate.
And now she knew who had caused it.
A wave of shame and despair crashed over her. Then a completely irrelevant question slipped out.
“Did… did you see it yourself?”
“No, I only received the report.”
Woo-jin nodded indifferently. Relief flooded through her like cool water. The thought of showing him something that embarrassing was worse than death.
She wanted to leave this room as fast as possible. Taking hits from Kim Seung-ju had been nothing compared to the shame of being seen in such a state by Woo-jin.
And yet something inside her still longed to collapse under the weight of his “bad proposal.”
How foolish.
She bit her lip in her mind.
As if he had noticed the tremor, Woo-jin set the glass down and fixed her with an intense gaze.
“Well? Have you started thinking about doing something bad with me?”
“No.”
She shook her head firmly, hiding her true feelings.
“You seem quite drunk. Shall I call the manager for you?”
“You know I’m fine better than anyone, Secretary Shin.” The corner of his mouth curved upward, but Yu-won looked away, spine straight. The longer she stayed, the more likely it was that she would do something she could not take back.
“Since you’re not drunk, I’ll go now.” Fortunately, Woo-jin let her leave without protest. She walked out of the office clutching the feeling that she might break at any moment.
After that night, Yu-won rarely had days without melancholy, but tonight was especially heavy. *** The narrow alley lined with crumbling brick walls was lit only by a few flickering streetlamps that barely held on.
When she had first moved here, it had terrified her. People were adaptable, she had realized. Now the sight no longer frightened her. Yet her steps felt heavier than ever that night.
“Let’s sleep together.”
The words echoed in her mind as if Woo-jin’s voice had returned. Just thinking of them made her shoulders tremble.
If she had accepted his proposal and played along, where would she be now? In a hotel room, curled in his arms?
Then perhaps this endless, poisonous love would finally have its ending.
But she and he could never be that kind of people to each other. It was not just about treating her as a one-night plaything.
She opened her handbag and took out her phone. Her finger hovered over the message thread before she finally began typing.
[Investment meeting with F&L officially collapsed. No follow-up scheduled.]
The moment she sent it, the reply chime sounded almost immediately. She ignored it and dropped the phone back into her bag.
When she reached the entrance of the old villa, the path was already dark.
“Hey, Shin Yu-won.”
A large shadow suddenly appeared from the darkness.
“Why so late, girl?”
“……”
The voice sent ice through her veins.
The old sensor light at the entrance flickered, revealing the man. Short hair, black leather jacket, the reek of alcohol.
It was not the first time he had come to the company demanding her. She had prepared for this. She ignored him and kept walking.
His hand shot out and grabbed her arm.
“Let go!”
She twisted hard, but his grip was unbreakable. Her arm throbbed.
“You’re not hurt, are you?”
His sticky gaze traveled down her neck and up again.
“Still running away, Yu-won?”
Kim Seung-ju ran a rough hand through his hair.
“Why the hell do you keep avoiding me?”
“I told you to let go!”
She shoved him with all her strength. He stumbled back, but the way he moved was almost as if he had been expecting it—like he was watching a cute tantrum.
“Missed me while I was gone?”
His eyes had already begun to shine with greed.
“Want to go inside and talk about everything that piled up, or should I just strip you naked right here?”
She ignored him and pulled her phone out again. The moment his hand reached for her shoulder, she held the screen up in front of his face.
“……”
“One more step and I’m calling the police. I put a CCTV at the entrance. It’s recording right now.”
His eyes narrowed at the screen. Then he let out a loud fart.
“What the hell did I do?”
“Trespassing at night plus special coercion. And you’re on parole. You should be careful. Right?”
Her voice was steady, each word clear.
“Who exactly are you threatening?”
But even as she said it, he did not approach again.
“Don’t come here pretending you own the place. I’ll tell Uncle too.”
“Yeah, yeah, so what? Only today?”
He lowered his arm, still smirking. He pointed at the phone with his chin.
“Keep the recording going. I’ll watch it with you in bed later, okay?”
Disgust crawled over her skin, but provoking him further was stupid. She clenched her teeth and waited for him to disappear.
He finally turned to leave. She exhaled in relief.
“By the way, Yu-won.”
He suddenly looked back over his shoulder. He frowned as if remembering something, then twisted his lips.
“That bastard Woo-jin is really playing both sides. You didn’t sleep with him, did you?”
“What nonsense!”
“Oh, our clever Shin Yu-won wouldn’t mix things up like that.”
He grinned and slowly licked his lips with the tip of his tongue.
She held the phone up again.
“Calling the police?”
“Hey, don’t be scary. I’m leaving. See you later, okay?”
He left with a low, mocking laugh, vanishing into the dark.
“Haah—”
Only when his footsteps faded completely did she let out the breath she had been holding and sink down onto the ground.
Kim Seung-ju and his father, Kim Hak-yeon. She had been entangled with them for four years.
Four years ago, those two had been her only options.
Yet today, regret kept pressing in. If she had chosen differently back then, she would never have met Woo-jin. She would not be suffering like this.
*** The next morning, Yu-won arrived at the office even earlier than usual and made coffee.
“Are you asking me if I want to sleep with you?”
Woo-jin’s voice had kept drifting through her head all night. She had stayed awake until dawn, staring at the ceiling.
How was she supposed to look at him now?
While she fidgeted with her coffee cup, deep, steady footsteps echoed down the hallway. She knew those steps instantly.
She could not decide what face to show him, so she lifted her head in confusion.
A thick navy suit, a crisp white shirt with the collar neatly tucked in, and a perfectly knotted tie.
Deep-set eyes, a straight nose, and smooth lips that formed the perfect balance. The face that had shaken her heart from the very first moment.
“President.”
She could not meet his eyes and lowered her gaze.
“Good morning.”
“Yes.”
The reply was short, nothing out of the ordinary. The cold scent of his cologne and cigarette mixed and brushed past her.
What… What was she even thinking?
It was nothing at all.
She stood there stunned long after he had entered his office.
But the intercom interrupted her thoughts.
–Is he in?