The Other Reason

The man's lips slowly curved upward. It looked like a smile heavy with meaning, and Ye-seo grew even more anxious.

"There is. Another reason. There are two reasons, after all."

The moment he said there was another reason, Ye-seo startled. She couldn't have said why, only that some instinct whispered it would be better if no other reason existed at all.

"The first reason I keep Ms. Jin Ye-seo this close is, as you already know, so I can keep an eye on my collateral."

Ye-seo's eyes went wide. Right in front of her, the man never dropped that shameless gaze as he delivered the next answer.

"And the other reason is... because you're pretty."

"……."

"Because I want to be at Ms. Jin Ye-seo's side."

"…What?"

This time Do Kang-hyun even wiped every trace of amusement from his face as he answered.

"Even if the first reason weren't there, I'd still keep you beside me simply because I want you there."

"……."

The second reason he tossed out so casually made even less sense than the first. Coming from a man who treated her like an object, like a toy, the words were thoroughly strange. Yet Do Kang-hyun looked perfectly self-assured, as if he had merely stated an obvious fact.

And his expression was so unexpectedly serious that the answer almost felt like the truth. A strange urge rose in her to believe him.

That can't be…

Ye-seo's mouth fell open in shock. Without thinking she shrank back, trying to put more distance between them. All she managed was to press against the car door.

She whipped her head around toward Chief Yoon in the passenger seat. He was still staring at his phone screen exactly as before. When she flicked her eyes left to the rearview mirror, the driver still wore the same mild expression.

Neither of them so much as twitched, as if they had never heard the absurd reason that had just been spoken. Ye-seo felt as though she alone was going mad.

They're all insane.

"Even if I am your collateral… you're… toying with me. Please don't lie."

He was a man she simply could not grasp. If only she could pretend she had never heard his answer. If only she could dismiss it as some playful mockery of her own naïve question.

But at her words his eyes only glittered more fiercely. His mouth settled into a heavier, tighter line.

"Why would it be a lie?"

At last the man reacted.

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

The light in Ye-seo's eyes as she watched him went rigid. He, however, remained completely natural throughout.

"I've never once joked with you."

He denied it with easy composure. Ye-seo felt the urge to fling the door open and leap from the moving car.

Even while she reeled in confusion, Do Kang-hyun's eyes calmly studied her. Perhaps what was truly hard to escape was not the car but that relentless gaze.

What does that look mean? His claim that he wanted to be near her overlapped with that tenacious stare. She did not want to draw any strange conclusion about the meaning in those eyes. Still, she was beginning to suspect she had fallen into the hands of a genuine madman.

He was not simply frightening. She could not decide how on earth she was supposed to take the things Do Kang-hyun said.

Ye-seo turned her face away as if fleeing and fixed her eyes straight ahead. She folded her hands neatly in her lap and stared forward, pretending she had heard nothing.

Kang-hyun continued to watch her profile alone as she chose silence. Her shoulders hung limp, making them look even more slender than usual.

She had pulled her hair—bangs free—back into a single knot; her rounded forehead was white and clean. The fine strands that slipped free along its edge made her look all the more delicate.

Her nose, moderately high, softened into a gentle curve at the tip rather than a sharp one. Her small but full lips held a faint flush of red. Those large black eyes, as if filled with despair, looked especially moist; long, thick lashes cast shadows over them.

She was twenty-four—an adult, yet young enough that one could still call her a little girlish. And yes, she did look about that young.

The day before yesterday, when she had first come to the office bare-faced in a sweatshirt and jeans, she had seemed even younger; today, dressed in what people called an office look, she appeared a touch more mature. Even so, Jin Ye-seo was still far younger than Kang-hyun. Being younger might make her simple, or it might make her harder to handle. Perhaps she would prove more stubborn, less willing to compromise.

But that was fine. In the end Jin Ye-seo had come to Do Kang-hyun, and she would continue to do so.

"Remember this well. I never say anything frivolous to you."

Ye-seo's lowered lashes lifted. The focus in her eyes sharpened, yet she still refused to look at his face and kept staring straight ahead.

"And whatever I set out to do, I always carry it through exactly as I intend."

Those words mattered. At them the woman's shoulders gave a faint tremor.

Beeeep—

Just then a horn blared and the brakes slammed hard. Some car ahead had cut in without warning. The driver's face blanched as he twisted around toward Executive Director Do.

"I'm sorry, Director. Are you all right?"

But Ye-seo's eyes had gone wider than the driver's. More than the horn or the sudden stop, she was startled by Do Kang-hyun's arm that had shot out to bar her path and the hand that now rested on her shoulder.

He shielded me in that split second?

Do Kang-hyun gave the driver neither glance nor answer; his sharp eyes examined only Ye-seo. Through the thin blouse the large hand on her shoulder carried a startling heat that left her flustered.

"I… I'm fine."

She carefully raised both hands and lowered his arm. Only then did Do Kang-hyun turn a murderous glare on the driver and open his mouth roughly.

"Fuck, can't you drive properly?"

"I-I'm truly sorry, Director."

The driver was the one who had been cursed at, yet Ye-seo stiffened even more. She felt endlessly embarrassed, as though the man had been scolded extra hard because of her.

At least for a few hours that evening she could be free of Do Kang-hyun. He had a dinner engagement with Chairman Do and his wife and had gone to the main house.

Fortunately he did not take Ye-seo along to meet his parents. Watching the man keep her hidden even from those closest to him, she thought it over.

On the surface she was merely the newest secretary in the executive director's office, so there was no real reason to bring a secretary to a private family gathering. Still, for someone who had dragged her into even the board meeting from the very first day and kept her so obsessively close, leaving this gap felt a little unexpected.

Then does the Chairman not know his son is forcing through something this absurd? From what her father had said, they too were the terrifying owners of Museong, so they might be every bit as unreasonable. Even so, she wondered whether there was some separate reason he refused to show her to a family that would already know one another's immoralities.

Is he hiding me? She knew nothing of the relationships among them, so she could only guess.

In any case, thanks to it Ye-seo finally breathed a little more freely that day. Even the dinner An Yeo-sa and the other women prepared sat a little better in her stomach without Executive Director Do present.

The house without its master felt unusually quiet. The staff never raised their voices even in his absence; they spoke to one another only in soft murmurs.

Ever since they had seen him stop Ye-seo from helping with the meal in front of An Yeo-sa the day before, they treated her with even greater caution. An invisible wall stood between them, and beyond the necessary exchanges there was nothing left to say.

Ye-seo spent the hours until nightfall in her room. When the air grew stuffy she considered stepping out to the garden for a breath of fresh air, but at this hour the guards' eyes would find her the moment she appeared, so she stayed inside.

Because Director Do's car had gone to the main house, she had had to ride back from the company with those strange bodyguards as well.

The day had been far too long. How many more such days would she have to endure before this chain finally broke?

It was past ten and Do Kang-hyun still seemed not to have returned. Hoping she would not have to face him again that night, Ye-seo went into the bathroom.

Perhaps she had stayed under the water too long. When she finished showering she felt thirsty. Still in her bathrobe she left the room to fetch a bottle of water from the refrigerator on the second floor.

But the moment she quietly opened her door she nearly screamed. In the faint light outside, a dark figure of a man sat leaning against the console table, hands thrust into his pockets.

Under the dim illumination the sharp shadows made Do Kang-hyun's bold features stand out even more clearly. His deep-gray suit looked darker still.

When she appeared he rose from the console. Then a heavy, low voice rolled out.