Why Were You Watching Me?

Ye-seo could not see Do Kang-hyun's expression from behind, and the uncertainty made her restless. She could not even say why those words had made her start watching his face for cues.

"She looked a little young. Pretty, though."

"Want me to try something?"

"But of all people, she's Executive Director Do's secretary…. Aren't you worried about him noticing?"

"What's Executive Director Do got to do with it? Secretary Jin is his secretary, not his girlfriend."

Even Manager Yoon glanced at the back of the Executive Director at Deputy Choi's remark just now; Ye-seo saw it clearly from behind them.

"Well, of course she isn't his girlfriend, but still—Executive Director Do is somehow intimidating."

"Hmm…. If I make a clumsy move, am I just going to look pathetic?"

"Better if Executive Director Do never finds out."

The conversation was so raw that Ye-seo's face burned. Mercifully, an elevator seemed to arrive in front of them just then.

The two young deputies stepped inside without ever noticing Executive Director Do Kang-hyun. Even as the car rose, Deputy Im's voice continued in a low murmur.

"With the owners, you never know how even an office romance would look. I'd be too conscious of them thinking I only came to work to date."

"That so?"

That was the last of it. By the time Ye-seo's group passed the spot, only the closed elevator doors remained.

Then, for some reason, Do Kang-hyun stopped walking. Ye-seo and Manager Yoon halted with him as if they were a matched set with their boss.

The two secretaries stared at the back of his head, taut with tension, until Kang-hyun turned smoothly around. His sharp gaze locked onto Ye-seo at once.

"Secretary Jin."

Already mortified beyond measure because of Deputy Choi Yeon-jun, Ye-seo blinked at being called.

"Yes."

"What do you think of Deputy Choi Yeon-jun?"

"…Pardon?"

It was a question she had never expected.

Manager Yoon, too, turned to look at Ye-seo with quiet surprise. But he kept his mouth firmly shut and made no move to enter the exchange.

Do Kang-hyun only dug deeper into her embarrassment with a deliberately serious face.

"Why pretend you didn't hear?"

"……."

"You heard it just now too, Secretary Jin."

Ye-seo was the subject of the conversation, so of course she was embarrassed—but when it came down to it, it had only been employees trading worthless jokes. Their talk had been burdensome enough; Kang-hyun's reaction was worse.

"I've never thought about it. Why are you asking something like that?"

"Just answer honestly. I'm asking because I'm curious."

Once again Ye-seo was startled by Kang-hyun, who kept veering into unpredictable, abrupt remarks. Curious about that, of all things.

Deputy Choi Yeon-jun. She had only seen him twice. She had not thought a single thing while looking at him, and yet if he kept pressing—

"Deputy Choi says he likes you, Secretary Jin. Do you happen to think he's all right?"

She could not guess Kang-hyun's true motive for asking, but Ye-seo simply answered honestly.

"No."

For Deputy Choi Yeon-jun's sake as well, it was better to play it simple and look uninterested. Then Executive Director Do would stop caring about the matter and stop asking questions like this.

"I don't even know what kind of person Deputy Choi Yeon-jun is yet."

"Then do you want to get to know him from now on?"

"What? Ah…. No."

It was absurd, but she gave the answer Kang-hyun was probably looking for. He studied her face as if searching it, then turned his body away again.

When he started walking once more in the direction he had been headed, Ye-seo and Manager Yoon fell into line behind him. Leaving nothing but a tangle of unanswered questions about why he had asked such a thing, Ye-seo had no choice but to enter the conference room.

Daily life still felt like walking on thin ice, but the weekdays passed without major incident, and the weekend arrived. It was her third weekend in Do Kang-hyun's house.

Kang-hyun was out all day Saturday. From Housekeeper An she learned he had a schedule with his older brother, Vice President Do Woo-jin, and their father, Chairman Do. The previous weekend he had been busy with meal and golf appointments as well; this one seemed no different.

From what she had observed so far, weekends often meant golf gatherings or family meetings. She was grateful that Do Kang-hyun was a man busy even on weekends.

He was not a talkative man, yet a house without him felt oddly empty. In that sliver of peace, Ye-seo sat down in front of a painting for the first time in a long while.

It was the first time since she had entered this house. Not even three weeks had passed, yet it felt like months.

She had loved painting since she was small. She had heard countless times that she had talent. Graduation had left her facing a blank wall, but if she could have, she would have spent her whole life doing nothing but painting.

And then she had been thrown into work that had never been written in her fate. Here she had little time to begin with, but more than that, she had simply felt no desire to pick up a brush.

Thinking that she could not even paint the pictures she loved because of all this fretting, though, suddenly made her feel wronged. Until her parents disappeared, how thrilling every day's work had been.

So she decided to take up the brush again at once. She hoped that, for these moments of painting at least, she might forget a little of the chaos.

Worry for her parents. Life in a prison without bars. Sudden anxieties crowded her, but she vowed first to finish this painting properly. It was a large-scale piece; it would take considerable effort.

She believed word would come soon, but reunion with her parents—still lost in the fog—might take longer than she expected. And the endless time that would keep flowing in between was too precious to waste.

Like a kind of defiance, Ye-seo cast the suggestion on herself. She would find her parents no matter what, and even if it went a little slowly, she meant to continue the career she had dreamed of.

Ye-seo loaded oil onto her brush and mixed cold gray with indigo on the palette. Across the canvas, already primed in a warm, bright beige, dark blue strokes leapt and sprawled in full bloom.

For some reason the color felt like her own mood since entering this house. A dark blue. Beautiful, yet a little sad.

If I'm sad, the painting is sad. Not painting because I'm sad would only be sadder. It's not bad.

So for now it was all right. The blue laid thinly over the beige ground seemed, somehow, to give off a strangely warm light.

Even after dinner Ye-seo went back up to the studio, and only past nine did she set the brush down. Stretching her stiff arms, she rose from the chair and stepped back a pace to look at the painting.

Even so, she had made more progress today than she expected. Her style also seemed subtly different from before.

Thinking she might drink a glass of juice, she went downstairs and found the staff tidying the house. It was already spotless—why they worked so hard she did not know—but they cleaned at every possible hour.

Ye-seo approached Housekeeper An, who was wiping the sofa table, and asked,

"Is the Executive Director still out?"

"Yes. He should be here soon."

Ah, so that was why they were working even harder. Neither Do Kang-hyun's house nor his office ever showed so much as a speck of dust.

At the news that he would be back soon, Ye-seo quickly grabbed her juice and went up to the second floor. She would have liked ice, but drinking slightly less cold juice was better than running into that man. Honestly, the mere word that he was coming tightened her body with tension until even her appetite seemed to vanish.

When she had climbed all the way to the second floor, Ye-seo glanced out the window without thinking. Beyond the broad garden, lights shimmered.

Car headlights. They stopped near the gate—so it was the sedan bringing Do Kang-hyun.

Even after the sedan disappeared into the garage, Ye-seo did not take her eyes from the window. Leaning against the sill, she held the juice in her mouth and watched the dark direction of the garage.

At last the garage door that connected to the garden opened, and Do Kang-hyun appeared. Without realizing it, Ye-seo gulped down the juice in big swallows. She did not even register the taste.

Kang-hyun was walking across the garden. Soft lighting was already on throughout the grounds, but along the path he took, several more lights came on a step ahead of his feet.

When the man drew a little closer to the house, Ye-seo held her breath for no good reason. It was not as if the sound of her breathing could reach him there.

Perhaps because it felt like spying. She was quietly watching, as if looking at something she should not, when—

Suddenly the man lifted his head and looked up at the window where she stood. Startled, Ye-seo jerked back from the glass and hid. The juice in her hand sloshed and nearly spilled.

Do Kang-hyun had definitely seen her. Even in the dark, their eyes had met—that much was certain.

She had only been looking out a window, yet she felt as panicked as a thief caught in the act. She hurried into her room and stared blankly at the doorknob. She wanted to lock the door, but there was no lock fitted to it.

He wouldn't come up just because I looked, right? Why was I even watching?

From the moment Kang-hyun arrived, the anxiety started all over again. Leaning against the unlocked door, she let a dazed stretch of time pass.

Then at some point she thought she heard a sound from outside. Not far away, either.

What is that?

Ye-seo carefully opened the door and stepped out of the room. The light in the studio was on.

She was certain she had turned it off earlier.

Wondering if she had imagined it, she entered the studio—and stopped short, pale with shock. Do Kang-hyun was standing in front of her painting.

He must have sensed her presence, yet he looked only at the painting. His back was serious, as if he were viewing a work at an exhibition.

It was the first time she had ever seen Do Kang-hyun alone in the studio rather than a bedroom or the second-floor living room.

And of all days, the first day she had painted in this house. As if he had walked in already knowing the painting had changed.

Without turning to look at her, still fixed on the canvas, Do Kang-hyun spoke first.

"Why were you watching me?"