Collateral
Ye-seo confirmed it with a desolate heart, as if she were trapped inside a thick fog. She was terrified beyond measure, yet she still wanted to know—needed to know—what the absolute worst case would look like.
“If that happens… will someone get hurt?”
She asked the question with the careful dread of someone staking her life on it, yet the man’s expression remained utterly relaxed.
“I’ll find your father—the one who started all this—my way, take back what’s mine, and then I’ll make him pay.”
The answer only confirmed his ruthlessness once again.
“Still, I hope that Jin Ye-seo, at least, doesn’t get hurt.”
“…….”
“But if you refuse to cooperate to the very end… then, since you’re mine, I’ll dispose of you however I please.”
Ye-seo unconsciously clasped her trembling hands together. Even while meeting his eyes with forced courage, she finally lowered her gaze as if every last ounce of strength had drained from her body.
She did not want to imagine how far the “disposal” he spoke of might go. Already she understood that she had no choice left. As unbelievable as it was, she had to accept this bolt from the blue. If she did not want to die, blind obedience was the only answer.
“I won’t… run away. But…”
How was she supposed to accept everything that had happened overnight when none of it felt real?
“Starting when?”
“Now that you understand the full situation, I have to eliminate any possibility of you running. From this moment on, Jin Ye-seo, you are collateral.”
The tears that had been clinging to her lashes spilled over and rolled down her cheeks.
This can’t be real. This can’t be real.
Just imagining it made it hard to breathe. She would have to stay close to this terrifying, unfamiliar man starting right now…
Did that mean she would never have even a moment to catch her breath? Surely not…
Ye-seo lifted her head and pleaded with a desperate face for even one small mercy.
“Sleep… can I at least sleep at my own house? I really won’t run. I promise.”
He was not the sort of man who would listen to pleas, and the atmosphere that followed proved it was better she had never asked.
Executive Director Do Kang-hyun’s expression hardened. He looked faintly—or perhaps thoroughly—angry, until a moment later his face relaxed and one corner of his mouth curved upward.
“If you’re going to be this uncooperative, then I have no choice…”
The words that followed were a bleak warning.
“I’ll press charges against Jin Jae-hwan and seize that house. It’s under his name, so once I dispose of it, you’ll have to leave anyway.”
“…….”
Ye-seo’s lips trembled even harder. No more pleas would come out.
“Will you walk out on your own, or will you hold out until I drag you out by force?”
It was the kind of statement that erased even the will to resist.
“On the other hand, if you comply, I won’t file charges and I won’t touch the house.”
That left her with even less room to defy him.
A half-resigned feeling settled over her. Unable to hide the bitter defeat on her face, Ye-seo spoke through tears.
“When… should I move?”
“Pack by tomorrow. From this moment on, Deputy General Manager Yoon Tae-seok will oversee every step of the process.”
Ye-seo turned to look at Yoon Tae-seok with empty eyes. Even with his friendly appearance, his expression remained perfectly calm, as if he were long accustomed to accepting situations this strange as perfectly natural.
Does everyone who works under Executive Director Do end up like that…? Standing between them, Ye-seo felt as though she were the only normal person left.
“Shall we go, Miss Jin Ye-seo?”
Just as she had entered, Ye-seo left accompanied by Deputy Manager Yoon. Yet the life of the hollow-faced young woman walking out was completely different from the one who had walked in.
“My phone…”
Only after she arrived home did she remember that she had never retrieved her phone from Executive Director Do’s villa. The situation had been so bizarre that she hadn’t had a moment to collect herself.
“Miss Jin Ye-seo.”
Deputy Manager Yoon Tae-seok, who had followed her inside, held out a shopping bag.
“I was just about to give this to you.”
Ye-seo took it without thinking and looked inside. Instead of her own phone, a brand-new one sat there.
Suspicion rose almost at the same instant as confusion. She lifted her head and looked at Deputy Manager Yoon.
“This isn’t my phone.”
“You’ll be using this one for the time being.”
As expected, her sense of foreboding had not been wrong. The reality of having her freedom thoroughly confiscated began to sink in.
Ye-seo’s shoulders shook as she bit her lip.
“This is insane… Then what about mine?”
Was he planning to wait for her father to call the confiscated phone and then pretend to be the daughter in order to catch him?
“Once everything is resolved, it will be returned to you.”
“Once it’s… resolved?”
Did that mean after her father returned and paid back every last won? And when exactly was that supposed to be?
Dazed, Ye-seo stared blankly at the phone Yoon had given her. When she turned on the screen with trembling fingers, of course nothing related to Jin Ye-seo existed on it.
“Um… then could I at least have my phone back for a moment? I need to transfer my friends’ and acquaintances’ contacts… I never backed them up.”
“I’m sorry, but for the time being you’ll also need to refrain from contacting the people around you.”
“What?”
Only a bleak answer she had never imagined came back. Did it really have to go that far?
“How… how can you do this?”
Watching her tear up, Deputy Manager Yoon merely averted his eyes as if the situation were a little awkward.
Standing there in a daze, Ye-seo realized she could expect nothing more from him and looked down at the phone with empty eyes.
Then she opened the contacts list and flinched as if she had seen something terrifying. Only two numbers were saved.
Do Kang-hyun. And Yoon Tae-seok.
“Ha…”
She wanted to burst into loud sobs. In the span of just a few hours, what on earth had happened to her? How could a life be flipped upside down this suddenly?
“You only need to pack the essentials. Most of what you’ll need will already be prepared by tomorrow.”
“Is that so…”
“You don’t need to bring many clothes or shoes either. New ones will be provided.”
At Yoon’s words, Ye-seo hung her head limply and began packing a mid-sized suitcase. She gathered only the absolute necessities, underwear, and comfortable clothes, then went into the room she used as a studio. As she started collecting her art supplies, Deputy Manager Yoon interrupted again.
“You can pack the art materials lightly as well. Everything is already being prepared.”
At that, Ye-seo finally whipped her head around and glared at him with reddened eyes full of resentment.
“How can everything be prepared so meticulously already?”
At this point it felt as if she were under some kind of spell.
“Were you digging into me even before I agreed to Executive Director Do’s demands?”
“We were making preparations in advance, yes.”
“How did you know whether I would accept or not?”
“You didn’t really have a choice, did you?”
“Haa… Right. He said it wasn’t a proposal but a notification.”
Ye-seo clenched both fists. Tears welled up from the sheer humiliation of yielding to blackmail.
“It’s terrifying… really. Just like Dad said… you’re terrifying people.”
“Miss Jin Ye-seo. You don’t need to worry too much. As long as you cooperate well with Executive Director Do, at least your family will remain unharmed.”
“Don’t you realize that kind of talk is even more terrifying?”
What kind of person was Executive Director Do Kang-hyun, really?
How can someone like that even exist in the world? Why did it have to be me who got caught by a man more grotesque than a ghost?
In utter despair, Ye-seo looked around the house where she had lived for so long. Would she ever return here alive?
She packed her art supplies haphazardly, then threw them aside again and decided to take only the unfinished paintings. She had never been picky about tools anyway, and since everything would be provided, she might as well let things fall where they may.
Besides, would she even feel like painting in that kind of atmosphere? Under constant surveillance, what work would bring any joy?
Even now she wanted nothing more than to get rid of the grating presence of Deputy Manager Yoon.
“…I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Without looking back, Ye-seo spoke to him.
“I won’t run… so please leave for today.”
“Is there nothing I can help with?”
“No. I’ll prepare and organize everything myself, so just go.”
“Understood. Bodyguards will take turns watching over you outside the house.”
Her grip tightened on the canvas. She was so frightened and furious, yet the father who had created this entire situation was nowhere to be found. In a voice that sounded ready to cry, Ye-seo said,
“At least choose the right words. You’re not watching over me—you’re surveilling me…”
Her vanished parents. And a life suddenly put up as collateral.
The peace she had once taken for granted no longer belonged to her. That time had suddenly become impossibly distant.
What on earth was going to happen from now on?
The next afternoon, after Ye-seo had finished tidying the house, Deputy Manager Yoon came to pick her up. Behind them followed a car carrying two bodyguards who looked like thugs.
I wasn’t going to run even without all this. They were deliberately applying the kind of pressure that dried a person’s blood.
Lost in fearful thoughts and barely registering the route, Ye-seo suddenly realized they were on the same road as yesterday.
“…This house?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
It was the villa-like house from the day before. When he had said she should live somewhere close to him, he hadn’t meant a nearby house—surely not.
After getting out of the car and following Deputy Manager Yoon to the entrance, a housekeeper bowed politely as if she had been waiting.
“Welcome.”
“This is An Yeo-sa. She will be managing this house from now on.”
Ye-seo awkwardly bowed in return and stepped inside. Looking more carefully today, the overall interior and furnishings seemed to reflect a man’s tastes. The sense of foreboding only grew thicker.
“The Executive Director said he will leave work in time for dinner.”
Ye-seo squeezed her eyes shut. So she had been right. That man would be staying here as well.
“Does the Executive Director usually live here?”
“No. He has a residence in Gangnam, Seoul. This is originally a villa, but he said he will commute from here for the time being. He also said he plans to have dinner with you tonight, so he will leave work early enough not to be late.”
An Yeo-sa delivered the information kindly, but just hearing it made Ye-seo’s stomach churn with tension. Pressing a hand to her spinning head, she muttered,
“He can be late. Please, just let him be late…”
Goosebumps rose at the mere thought. It was unthinkable.
What am I supposed to do… Am I even the kind of person who can sit across from that man and eat? There’s no way food will go down.
Even though he could not have missed her muttering, Yoon Tae-seok pretended not to hear and simply continued with his own remarks.
“The room you will use is upstairs.”
With no other choice, Ye-seo followed Deputy Manager Yoon and the housekeeper up the stairs. The upstairs living area had a completely different atmosphere from the floor below.
Fresh, colorful flowers filled vases placed here and there. Fluttering curtains hung at the windows instead of blinds, and the furniture was in warm tones. The whole space felt brighter and more cheerful.
“This entire floor is a space prepared solely for you, Miss Jin Ye-seo.”
Deputy Manager Yoon looked quite satisfied as he introduced the second floor.
“We deliberately decorated it in a style young women your age tend to like. Do you find it pleasing?”
Why did the more she heard, the more her skin crawled? It didn’t feel like consideration at all.
An Yeo-sa continued the tour.
“This is the bedroom.”
The excessively spacious room contained only furniture suited for sleeping—a large bed, nightstands, a rug—and nothing else. Designed purely for rest and nothing more, the room had a great deal of empty space.
On one wall hung a large painting by a famous artist. It was the kind of piece she had only ever seen at exhibitions, and it immediately drew Ye-seo’s gaze.
“It connects to the dressing room on this side.”
The dressing room alone was far larger than the room she had lived in. Quite a few clothes were already hanging there.
The shelves were full of bags, shoes, and sneakers, and jewelry was displayed inside glass cases.
“Everything has been prepared for you, so please use them freely.”
Ye-seo could not close her mouth. Executive Director Do Kang-hyun… what exactly was he trying to do?
“And that room over there…”
While Ye-seo stood frozen in shock, An Yeo-sa guided her once more. Was it still not finished? Leaving the bedroom and entering the room across the hall, she found a space whose purpose was obvious at a glance.
“You may use this as your studio.”
Now she understood why they had told her to pack her art supplies lightly. There were far more materials here than anything she owned—even things she never used. All of them top-of-the-line.
“Well then, Miss Jin Ye-seo, I’ll take my leave. Feel free to contact me anytime you need anything. For matters concerning this house, you can simply ask An Yeo-sa here.”
To Ye-seo, who stood staring blankly without even looking at him, Yoon Tae-seok offered a greeting by himself and turned to leave.
She had been sitting blankly inside the studio without even unpacking for what must have been over an hour when the smell of food drifted up from somewhere. They were preparing dinner downstairs.
Which meant… the time when Executive Director Do Kang-hyun would arrive was approaching.
Just thinking about it felt like a lead weight pressing on her chest. Realizing he would soon be here, she shifted restlessly under the sudden burden.
Since she was nothing more than collateral, she finally stood up to do something useful and went down to the kitchen on the lower floor.
“I’ll help a little.”
“Oh my, no. Please just rest.”
“I just… don’t have anything else to do.”
“Aigoo, you really don’t have to.”
Even as An Yeo-sa firmly refused, Ye-seo carried side dishes, even forcing an awkward smile at the flustered housekeeper.
Was she trying to get even a little bit into the terrifying Do Kang-hyun’s good graces? If she was collateral, shouldn’t she at least be valuable?
She was just entering the dining room with a dish in each hand when Ye-seo nearly dropped them.
Only a few steps ahead stood a man in a neat suit. It was Do Kang-hyun, just returned home.
Ye-seo froze in place. Her body turned to ice, yet her heart rate only climbed higher.
For some reason, Do Kang-hyun was looking down at her with a slight furrow between his brows.
He wore a deep gray suit different from yesterday’s, yet even at the end of the workday he remained as immaculate and unruffled as when she had seen him at the company. Those sharp eyes were exactly the same—even inside his own home.
This was the first time she had seen him simply standing, and he was extremely tall. His build was large to match, and just the way he stood radiated intimidation.
He was not someone she was happy to see, so greeting him felt absurd. In the end Ye-seo simply stared blankly at him. Do Kang-hyun asked in a stiff tone,
“What are you doing?”
The dishes in Ye-seo’s hands trembled faintly. She set the side dishes carefully on the table and opened her mouth.
“…Helping with dinner.”
Not wanting to look cowed, she answered sulkily and turned back toward the kitchen—only to hear rapid footsteps approaching. Just as she tensed without knowing why—