Tonight You'll Sleep Peacefully
“Because it seemed like you were washing up.”
Ye-seo’s eyes went round. She opened her mouth on pure reflex.
“Is there… something you needed to say?”
“No.”
Even seeing how startled she was, the man remained completely unbothered.
“I just wanted to look at your face before I went to sleep.”
He kept murmuring things that made no sense. They had already spent the entire day together. At this point she was starting to worry that his claim about wanting her close by might actually be true.
“…You’re late.”
Her startled heart kept hammering.
“Hoping I’d be even later?”
Come to think of it, his speech had already shortened without her noticing. Ever since he had switched to informal language in the car earlier.
And yet a strange sense of déjà vu lingered. As if she had been hearing him speak casually to her long before that. Why?
Ye-seo stood blankly for a moment, then suddenly remembered she was wearing nothing but a shower robe. She dropped her gaze at once. The loosely fastened front had fallen open, revealing a glimpse of her cleavage.
She snatched it shut, but the hurried motion only left the air more awkward. When she lifted her eyes a fraction, Do Kang-hyun’s gaze was resting on her chest as well.
Did he… did he see?
She clutched the lapels tightly with both hands. His eyes rose slowly until they met hers. Locked together like this, the atmosphere between them grew even stranger.
“…….”
“…….”
Unable to bear the embarrassment, Ye-seo blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Y-you could have just called me downstairs.”
She had never imagined he would climb all the way to the second floor simply to look at her face.
“I could call you. Or I could come up myself.”
“Yes… well, it is your house, Executive Director.”
She had thought he might be coming up to check that she was behaving herself on the upper floor, but he added something even stranger.
“I’ll be coming up often at this hour from now on.”
“This hour…?”
This hour meaning—at night? A chill ran through her as she asked,
“…Why?”
But the man only hung a rude little smile at the corner of his mouth and said nothing. A cold premonition flashed through her at the sight.
“Executive Director. Then… by any chance…”
This sense of familiarity—surely not…
“Did you come up last night as well?”
Kang-hyun looked at her horrified face and did not give her the answer she was waiting for. Instead he lifted a hand and slowly stroked her hair.
“…Tonight you should sleep easy.”
Goosebumps spread downward from the place where his fingers touched her head.
So it… it was real? Not a dream? He came into my bedroom while I was sleeping and watched me?
“This is your home now.”
There was a reason his way of speaking had felt familiar. So she had been hearing the informal speech ever since then.
“…….”
The rude smile on the man looking down at her never wavered. Ye-seo’s trembling eyes could not meet his any longer and fell away.
As if fleeing the spot, she tried to slip past Kang-hyun’s side. But in her fluster she failed to notice the edge of the rug. The tip of her slipper caught.
The moment she staggered, a solid arm wrapped around her waist. Her body, which she had expected to crash to the floor, stopped in midair, caught by that powerful arm.
Even after she regained her balance, Kang-hyun did not let go of her waist. For someone who had just displayed such quick reflexes, he looked down at her with eyes that showed no surprise at all.
It was the first time she had been this close to a man’s face. Her startled heart, given no chance to settle, kept pounding violently.
Because he had pulled her hard against him, her chest was pressed to his body. She almost wished she had simply fallen in an undignified heap. This position was far more mortifying than sprawling on the floor.
She twisted, trying to free herself, but for some reason Do Kang-hyun did not budge. She raised a hand to push him away in a silent plea for release; instead the strength in his arm only increased.
The instant she realized he was deliberately refusing to let go, a faint smile appeared on his face, just as she had expected. Ye-seo pushed again, but she stood no chance against the large man’s strength.
“L-let me go now.”
Only then did she manage to mumble the words.
“Executive Director…”
She was so busy wriggling to escape that she did not even notice how her robe was becoming disheveled.
“…I-I’m not yours yet, you know.”
She had spoken on the verge of tears, yet the man seemed to find it amusing and gave a short laugh. At last he opened his mouth again.
“The more I look at you, the cuter you get.”
Those words only made Ye-seo want to cry harder. Especially when he said them with his arm locked firmly around her waist and his face right in front of hers.
“…Executive Director.”
Looking up at him, she rolled her eyes to the side in a silent appeal.
“My father… he’ll contact me soon.”
Thinking about it now, perhaps it was better that her phone had been taken. Since the money had to be repaid anyway, her father was far more likely to come to his senses when threatened by Do Kang-hyun than when persuaded by his daughter.
“My father will return the money for my sake.”
Even as she said it, Ye-seo herself was not confident. A hundred billion won could shrink a person this small.
Still, she could not simply allow this man to treat her however he pleased because of the money, so she had no choice but to try to reassure him that it would be repaid…
“You think so? Do you really think it will be that easy?”
As if he had seen straight through her attempt at persuasion, the man shot back the question.
“It will be.”
Even just recalling her parents’ faces the last time she had seen them, Ye-seo could still feel a small measure of trust remaining. At the very least, if they were family, that much bond should still exist. Besides, she was the only daughter her parents had raised with such care.
“There’s no chance I’ll become your property… so please don’t do this.”
Even so, the man did not release her waist. His smile only deepened. Ye-seo, the daughter of a criminal, felt no confidence whatsoever in front of this man, while he alone remained endlessly self-assured.
“I’m waiting.”
Suddenly Do Kang-hyun tossed out a remark that seemed to come from nowhere. Ye-seo’s eyes, which had been staring into empty space, turned back to him. Waiting? For what…
“For the money…?”
It was the obvious answer, yet somehow it felt strange. So she wanted to ask.
Do Kang-hyun only gave that unreadable smile, then finally released her. When their pressed bodies parted, the warmth of him vanished.
Looking down at herself and feeling oddly empty, Ye-seo belatedly noticed that her clothes were in even worse disarray than before. She sucked in a tiny gasp and was just about to raise her hands when—
Do Kang-hyun’s hands were faster. In an instant the front of her shower robe was caught in his grip first.
Her rising hands ended up resting on top of his. He had let go of her waist only to take hold of her clothes.
When the terrified Ye-seo, her hands still layered over his, lifted her head, the man’s sharp eyes were fixed without hesitation on the gap in her open robe.
His gaze was aimed precisely at the white skin and the deeper cleavage now more exposed than before. Even the smile had disappeared from his face.
Ye-seo desperately clutched his hands. Instinctively her grip tightened, terrified he might open the robe further.
Kang-hyun’s eyes soon rolled upward to meet her flustered face. The moment her face, looking up at him, flushed hot, his hands surprisingly began to draw the lapels together and close them for her.
When the robe was fastened again, Ye-seo’s eyes only grew wider. Only then did she slowly release the hands she had been gripping so tightly, fearing he might do something.
Do Kang-hyun finally let go of her clothes as well. Ye-seo clutched her lapels tightly once more, determined not to let them fall open again.
Yet she could not feel relieved. Something kept happening between her and this man.
He had not even stripped the robe from her, yet she felt as if something of that magnitude had already been done to her. As if enough shame had already flooded in.
But if he were simply teasing her, Do Kang-hyun’s expression right now was far too serious and sharp. He gazed a moment longer at her dazed face, then turned away without a word.
Even watching him turn, Ye-seo could not set her mind at ease. She did not take her eyes off his retreating back until he had shoved his hands into his trouser pockets and completely disappeared down the stairs.
It was a languid afternoon. Deputy General Manager Yoon Tae-seok followed Executive Director Do Kang-hyun, and Jin Ye-seo quietly followed Yoon Tae-seok. The three of them crossed the twenty-seventh-floor corridor on their way to the executive conference room.
The twenty-seventh floor, where the executives’ offices were located, was carpeted in soft pile, so even their footsteps made little sound.
The air was quiet, but the inside of Ye-seo, walking at the very rear, was anything but. In the few days she had spent as Do Kang-hyun’s secretary, she had not had a single moment of peace.
Then voices drifted from a short distance away. In front of the elevators that stood midway along the path to the executive conference room, two young men were talking in low voices.
Because the corridor was quiet and their footsteps soft, the two men had no idea anyone was approaching. Their conversation was not loud, yet every word reached her ears. The two were Deputy Managers Choi Yeon-jun and Im Ji-hu, who had just visited the executive director’s office a short while earlier.
“The new junior secretary who just joined the executive director’s office—isn’t she way too pretty?”
That was what Deputy Manager Choi Yeon-jun said. Ye-seo flinched and her steps faltered; she found herself glancing unnecessarily at the back of Executive Director Do Kang-hyun walking at the front.
Completely unaware that the person in question was nearby, the two young deputy managers continued their conversation.
“Ahh, Secretary Jin?”
“Yeah, Secretary Jin. Her face is so white. She’s just the right amount of small and cute—exactly my type.”