Just Wait a Few Days

Deputy Yoon hurried forward at once and spoke up.

"It's the Executive Director's personal matter, Ms. Jin Ye-seo."

"Ah… yes."

Ye-seo let her interest drop again and turned her attention to the dessert. She felt needlessly embarrassed, as if she had asked something she shouldn't have.

With a listless expression she poked her fork at the lemon sherbet crowned with mint leaves, undecided whether to eat it. It looked almost too pretty, and ordinarily it was a dessert she adored.

But Do Kang-hyun had gone on about bare skin, and now…

Kang-hyun watched her quietly. The woman sitting there with that innocent face that knew nothing seemed preoccupied by the command to keep her body at a level pleasant against bare skin; once again she was not eating properly, lost in thought.

As if determined to show defiance against the order not to lose weight and to eat well, she was picking at the dessert again. Even that contrary streak of hers looked endearing.

"You hate everything I say anyway, don't you, Ms. Jin Ye-seo."

Startled by the sudden, contextless remark, Ye-seo jerked her head up. Their eyes met and Kang-hyun gave a crooked little smile.

"In a few days you'll be submitting under me anyway."

Clink. The fork slipped from Ye-seo's nerveless fingers and dropped into the dessert glass.

"A few days… what do you mean?"

If it had been nothing more than his usual flirting she could have pretended not to hear. But those words—a few days—drove straight through her mind like a blade.

Was some vile scheme really unfolding exactly as this man claimed? And in a mere few days, at that.

The smile on the man watching her felt more sinister than usual today. In a sly, low voice he soothed her.

"Just wait a few days. I'll tell you everything you're curious about, Ms. Jin Ye-seo."

Kang-hyun rose without erasing that leisurely smile. Pulling his gaze from the dazed Ye-seo whose mouth still hung open, he looked at Deputy Yoon, who had promptly stood after him.

"Let's head back in, Deputy Yoon. You've gotten even busier today because of what just happened."

A few days had been slipping past, yet the day Do Kang-hyun had spoken of still did not seem to have arrived. Nothing had happened, after all.

Ye-seo had spent those days captive to his words, her blood running dry with dread. Then today—Friday—she was able to leave work earlier than usual.

Do Kang-hyun had left the office around four because he had plans with friends in the suburbs of Seoul that evening. At the same time he dismissed the secretaries as well.

Executive Director Do even waved off the driver and drove himself to the gathering, and Ye-seo came home.

Riding back in the same car as the thug-like bodyguards had been uncomfortable, but once she arrived what waited for her was a quiet house where she could be without Executive Director Do.

Since starting at Museong, this was the first time she had left work while the sky outside was still quite bright. The weekday leisure that had once been familiar, back when she lived only for painting, now felt strangely awkward—as if she had become a proper office worker without noticing.

For the unknown rookie artist Jin Ye-seo there had been anxiety about the future and a quiet daily life that seemed to drift along peacefully. For office-worker Jin Ye-seo there was a monthly salary, and in exchange weekdays that were no longer free.

Even if it was only a prison where she remained trapped while drawing a paycheck from Do Kang-hyun. Her former life was growing ever more wistfully distant.

Still—today Do Kang-hyun was not here. Her insides had been in an uproar for days and she was anxious no matter what she did, so she ought to throw herself into painting.

Thinking that, Ye-seo climbed the stairs, stepped into the bedroom—and recoiled in shock.

"Mrs. An? What… are you doing?"

For some reason Mrs. An was staring at Ye-seo's laptop. Startled by Ye-seo's voice, she hastily snapped the lid shut and spun around.

"Ahaha, Secretary Jin, y-you're already back?"

"What were you just doing?"

Dumbfounded by the unexpected sight, Ye-seo asked.

"Ah—ah, I just thought the laptop was pretty and that my daughter would like one too. I was only looking around a little."

"…What?"

Who turned on someone else's computer just to "look around"? No matter how she spun it, the situation was strange.

Mrs. An's flustered face made it even more suspicious. Ye-seo did not have to look far to name the culprit.

"Did Executive Director Do order even this?"

"Ah… I'm sorry, Secretary Jin."

"So it was that after all."

Seeing Mrs. An unable to say yes or no and offering only an apology instead made everything obvious. After confiscating her phone, what else was he trying to dig up now? Had her father sent an email because he couldn't reach his daughter by phone?

"Hah… Even the staff in this house are as frightening as their employer, I see."

"Um… but actually it wasn't Executive Director Do. Deputy Yoon… asked me to…"

Well. Do Kang-hyun was the sort who would simply demand to see it himself without needing to send Mrs. An.

Watching Mrs. An correct the record so that Kang-hyun would not be misunderstood—clearly terrified of being scolded by him even now—Ye-seo thought, so he really is that frightening. Being scolded by Deputy Yoon would be a hundred times better.

"But you didn't get anything, did you? I don't keep anything on auto-login, so even accessing my email accounts would have been difficult."

Ye-seo felt her stomach turn at the realization that Deputy Yoon—whom she had been working face-to-face with until mere moments ago—had been ordering such a sordid thing behind her back.

"What exactly is Deputy Yoon so curious about?"

The frustrated Ye-seo asked, but Mrs. An could not lift her face.

"Hah… You don't have to answer. I'll just ask him myself when I go in tomorrow."

"I'm sorry. Truly…"

"Or I could ask Executive Director Do later. After all, anything Deputy Yoon does is probably just an offshoot of Executive Director Do's bigger picture."

"Se-Secretary Jin! Could you p-please not tell Executive Director Do?"

At the mention of asking Executive Director Do, Mrs. An jerked forward in a near-panic. Seizing even Ye-seo's hands, she trembled and teared up. What on earth was Executive Director Do?

"I'll give you the money I was supposed to receive from Deputy Yoon too, Secretary Jin. So please. All right?"

So Deputy Yoon had even paid her separately to do it.

"I-I don't want to be thrown out of here. Executive Director Do is a difficult man, but nowhere else pays as well as this place…"

Her mind a tangle, Ye-seo closed both eyes and let out a long breath.

The tastes of the alumni bastard hosting today's gathering were, without exception, not to his liking. The venue, the music, even the liquor. The place selected by a man who loved noisy parties was a cruise ship with a pool.

The DJ party unfolding on the water after leaving land had the music turned blatantly loud—perhaps because there was nothing around them but black water.

Kang-hyun did not care for dark, noisy places. Even a large cruise felt somewhat stifling once you were confined on it.

Still, plenty of people liked the gatherings this friend arranged, so attendance was always high when invitations went out. Today, too, it looked like more than fifty.

Separate from personal taste, Kang-hyun himself accepted more than half the time when this friend invited him. With so many people coming, there was often something to be gained.

For instance, when someone he needed to meet happened to be present, the way it was today. Since it had become hard to carve out separate time once everyone grew busy, days like this were opportunities.

Escaping the racket on the deck and heading below, he spotted the person he had been looking for. Park Chae-yoon—an alumna who had gone through middle and high school with him.

"Oh! Do Kang-hyun!"

They noticed each other at the same moment, and Chae-yoon raised her hand high first. Beside her were people Kang-hyun knew and people he didn't, mixed together, but all of them seemed to recognize Do Kang-hyun. Every face welcomed him as warmly as Chae-yoon's did.

After exchanging a round of suitable greetings, Kang-hyun sat down right beside her.

"I figured you'd be stuck somewhere like this."

"Did you? Why?"

"Because you don't like noisy places either."

"Hahaha! So that's why you came down too?"

Chae-yoon, whose energy was already a little elevated, burst into loud laughter as if the sense of kinship with Kang-hyun delighted her.

"That guy's tastes are hard to get behind even after more than ten years of putting up with them."

"Looks like everyone likes them except us. Let's drink here together, Kang-hyun."

"At least today's liquor is a bit better."

With a grumpy look Kang-hyun filled his own glass with ice and liquor. Chae-yoon cackled again and lifted hers.

"This is exactly why the kids are most scared of you—you're so picky."

Kang-hyun clinked his glass against the one she held and shot back,

"You're not scared of me, Park Chae-yoon."

"Me? I'm the one who finds you the most difficult!"

Chae-yoon giggled. Kang-hyun brought the glass of dark-brown liquid to his mouth and asked,

"Is that so?"

"Of course. I even confessed to you and got rejected—how difficult do you think that makes things?"

"Ancient history."

Chae-yoon alone gazed blankly at the side of Kang-hyun's face as he spoke of it so casually without even looking at her. Simply sitting there holding a glass, the man looked elegant without trying.

She could not help liking him. He would never know how much she had suffered because of him back then.

"Still—among the alumni, the only guy I ever liked was you."

"That's surprising."

At Kang-hyun's half-hearted reply as he slowly swallowed his drink, Chae-yoon bristled.

"Why is it surprising? Of course there were others outside of school, but is it surprising that it was only one among the alumni?"

"You have so many friends, and a long time has passed. It wouldn't have been strange if you'd had a thing with someone else."

There had been plenty of alumni couples who got together and broke up. Even here tonight there were newly formed pairs.

"If that's so natural, then how surprising should it be for you? You never showed interest in any of us!"

Besides her, plenty of girls had liked Do Kang-hyun. But she had never once seen him take an interest in anyone.

"Not among you."

Chae-yoon's eyes flew wide at that.

"Then that means there was someone somewhere else? I ask you every time I see you whether you've got a girlfriend. You've never once said yes—what is this!"

From their teenage years all the way to thirty-two, Do Kang-hyun's private life had always been wrapped in a veil.

"Was I the only one who never saw? Or did you just never bring anyone around?"

"No one ever saw."

"Really?"

Chae-yoon still looked as if she had a dozen more questions burning. As Kang-hyun drank in silence, clearly wanting to spare words on the subject, she grew more impatient.

"Is it ongoing right now, by any chance?"

"Nothing I'd call ongoing."

"Then it started and ended in the meantime?"

"Not that either."

Chae-yoon's mouth fell open in pure shock. Not dating, not over—then what on earth?

"What—what? Don't tell me Do Kang-hyun is pining all by himself?"

It was an undeniable fact, so Kang-hyun only smiled faintly and kept drinking. At that reaction Chae-yoon covered her mouth with her hand, eyes even wider.

"Unbelievable."

"Anyway, I have something to say today."

Kang-hyun had no desire to linger on the topic and shifted to the real reason he had sought her out.

"No wonder Do Kang-hyun came looking for me first of his own free will. It's work talk, isn't it?"

"I'll recommend a young artist to you."