A Familiar Gesture

Surely he hadn't overheard what she and Minho had been talking about. Nerves strung tight, Jae-kyung yanked her hand free of Minho's and stumbled back a step.

"I have to go. Oh — right, your engagement ring is at my office. I'll bring it back next time, I promise. No, actually, I'll mail it to you."

"Return it? What's that supposed to mean? We're holding the ceremony this year."

"Secretary Seo! The Chairman's looking for you — the event's starting, hurry over!"

At Manager Kwon's frantic beckoning from across the grounds, Jae-kyung waved back in acknowledgment. She had to end this three-month relationship with Minho, and quickly.

"Minho, there's going to be no wedding. And — we're breaking up. Got it? We've broken up. I'm sorry."

"What? Break up? Jae-kyung!"

Jae-kyung delivered her notice of separation as though it were nothing at all. She had said she was sorry, yet she hadn't spared even a backward glance as she hurried away — and watching her go, Minho became certain that something terrible had happened to Jae-kyung.

If she can't even wear the expensive proposal ring I gave her as she pleases, then getting out from under that chaebol family's threats must be no easy thing. Right now, for the sake of our love, I'm the only one who can help her.

"You were looking— hah... —for me?"

Jae-kyung arrived in front of the main building, shoulders heaving as she fought to untangle her ragged breathing.

Yu-gam let his gaze travel down the short-sleeved workout clothes that left little of her curves to the imagination, and frowned in open displeasure.

"What have you been doing, running around all by yourself?"

"There were inspections I— hah... —needed to do."

"Was there really that much to verify? The booths behind the field still need checking. Come with me."

The booths at the back — the very place she'd been with Minho only moments ago. To single out that exact spot, as though he'd been keeping watch over her all along.

"No, I've already inspected that area. It's been tidied up nicely — not a speck of dirt anywhere."

As if he couldn't bring himself to believe a word of it, Yu-gam's steps began to carry him toward where Minho was. If the two of them came face-to-face there was bound to be a scene, and having just declared the breakup, Jae-kyung had no idea what Minho might blurt out. She was cornered.

"Chairman, you need to move to the stage. The opening ceremony starts shortly."

Mercifully, Manager Kwon's schedule report brought Yu-gam's steps to a halt.

"Secretary Seo. Divide the grounds into sections and have the staff manage their facilities thoroughly. No child gets hurt — see to it."

"Yes, sir."

Still shaky from the close call, Jae-kyung let out a breath of relief and, putting on a show of composure, relayed the chairman's instructions to the staff group chat. She was hardly alone in her frenzy; the entire faculty and staff were run ragged inspecting an event of this scale, with outside dignitaries invited on top of everything else.

She had skipped lunch to confirm the next item on the schedule, and was returning the greetings of the students she'd taught for the past month when—

"Teacher Jae-kyung! Please run the relay for our class. Our homeroom teacher came down with something and can't run."

She was only an assistant teacher, but the Class 1 students, who had taken to her warmly, swarmed around her the moment they spotted her, delighted to see her.

Unable to refuse the children, Jae-kyung secured Manager Kwon's permission and ran through some light stretching with them beside the track.

The homeroom teacher of the neighboring class came over to speak to her.

"Teacher Seo — if you fall, I'll be right there to catch you, so don't let it weigh on you."

"Coming from you, Teacher Choi, that alone is encouraging."

Jae-kyung laughed, a little embarrassed — and then she saw him: Yu-gam walking down from the VIP seats, his face glacial as he ran a hand along his jaw.

A sudden wave of déjà vu crashed through her memory.

The sight of Yu-gam's old habit — that slight stroke of the jaw — dredged up the memory she had buried. Her mouth went dry with tension.

As though he'd caught the tremor beneath her composure, Yu-gam drew near without a word.

"Secretary Seo. Are you unaware that private banter during work hours is forbidden?"

"I wasn't bantering."

Paying his warning no more mind than a passing breeze, she brushed past him. She could feel his gaze on her back, sharp enough to sting, but she made her way to the starting line and explained the running order and the safety rules to the students.

"That male teacher — what's his name?"

Manager Kwon turned to look at the man beneath the chairman's frosty stare — the chairman stood with his arms crossed, displeasure written all over him.

"Ah... that's Mr. Choi Woo-soo, in charge of first-year mathematics."

Manager Kwon, who had every teacher's face committed to memory, reeled off not only the man's name but his address and marital status as well.

"Keep that teacher away from Secretary Seo. He seems determined to keep digging for the chairman's office's secrets."

"I— what? Mr. Choi, of Class 2? Confidential matters?"

Manager Kwon, one to take the chairman's word as law, produced his work tablet and added the mathematics teacher to his watch list.

Yu-gam, for all that his warning had been so brazenly brushed aside, never took his attention off Jae-kyung as she stood surrounded by students. She was laughing openly — so brimming with life that she seemed almost a stranger. It was an expression he had never once seen on her face.

"Teacher, our class has to take first place!"

"Honestly, I don't know that I have it in me. What do I do?"

"Hey! Don't put pressure on the teacher. ...So, second place, then?"

The children's chatter and their fresh, bright smiles coaxed laughter out of Jae-kyung, free and unguarded.

She would have to live up to their expectations. Perhaps it was the week of sleepless nights and skipped lunches, but her energy was low and her body felt off.

She was in the middle of a demonstration run with the students when it happened. Her foot caught on the high ridge of the sand pit, her body pitching forward — and her ankle gave way without warning, a crack, then the sound of a muscle seizing.

"Teacher! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. It'll pass with a little rest."

Declining Teacher Choi from the neighboring class, who had come to help, she limped off the track.

Jae-kyung sat down on a bench and pressed her palm around her ankle. The teachers' words she'd caught on the field kept grating in her ears.

"Teacher Seo — what's the story with the chairman's secretary?"

"Got in through the back door, obviously. The chairman is completely wrapped around her finger."

"Looks like she roped him in. You really can't judge by appearances, I always say. She seems so demure."

Only the audit office knew the true nature of the relationship between Yu-gam and Jae-kyung. But there was no telling when word might spread that they were, legally, husband and wife.

Minho, and now the staff as well — all this needless fretting, and fatigue came crashing over her. She leaned her head back against the bench and let her heavy eyelids fall shut.

"You should be more careful. Does it hurt badly?"

A deep shadow fell across her, and Jae-kyung's eyes drifted open. Yu-gam stood over her, looking down with that ever-blank face and those cold eyes.

"Get up."

It was an order.

He seemed to think she was malingering. Pride would not let her look sickly in front of Yu-gam, and so Jae-kyung rose from the bench with stubborn resolve.

Her ankle throbbed and buckled beneath her — and everything after that happened too fast for even her memory to hold on to. A cool touch bracing her waist, a crisp, clean scent at her back, a breath grazing the edge of her ear.

"Lean on my arm."

The low voice grazed her earlobe as Yu-gam wrapped her in both his arms.

"Ah—! You're not letting go?"

"If I do, you'll fall."

At that deep blue gaze looking down at her, Jae-kyung's heart lurched into a wild rhythm.

"Let... let go of me. Quickly."

His firm arms dropped abruptly from her waist.

"Eek!"

Dropping into a heap on the grass, Jae-kyung could only wish, in her mortification, that Yu-gam would remove himself.

"You all right?"

Asking the woman sprawled in the grass whether she was all right? His capacity for empathy was unquestionably broken.

"I'm fine, so go on ahead, Chairman. ...I'll follow shortly."

Head bowed, Jae-kyung waved him away — please, just go. Every moment spent in this man's company was one humiliating, mortifying situation after another.

"When people say they're fine, it usually means they're not."

Just go. Please.

It was a twisted ankle, nothing a medicated patch couldn't fix.

"Go to the nurse's office. Shall I carry you?"

"No. I can manage on my own."

Yu-gam gathered up the still-refusing Jae-kyung into his arms and supported her along. If she kept squirming in his embrace, someone was bound to get the wrong idea — so Jae-kyung gave up resisting and followed him quietly to the nurse's office.

"Twenty minutes of icing and it'll settle right down."

The school nurse set a cold compress on the ankle Jae-kyung had stretched out as she perched on the cot.

"Only twenty minutes?"

Yu-gam eyed the nurse with evident disbelief.

"Yes, twenty. The muscle's simply been startled — all it needs is for the swelling to go down. Any longer than that and it can actually damage the skin."

"It'll take an hour before that goes down, at least. Don't bother going back out. Rest here."

"I'm perfectly fine. I'll sit a moment and be on my way. Your guests will be looking for you, Chairman — please, go ahead."

Sitting on the infirmary bed, Jae-kyung looked up at him, pleading. The children were waiting for her; she meant to have the ankle tended quickly and still make her race.

If only Yu-gam would slip out quietly — and where on earth was Manager Kwon? Why had no one come to fetch the chairman?

Yu-gam, hands buried in his suit pockets, was immovable.

At the chairman's imperious decree, neither Jae-kyung nor the nurse could muster another word.

What a strange exercise of power.

The nurse shook her head slowly, regarding Jae-kyung with open pity.

"Aigoo, how lucky you are, Teacher Seo. He really does dote on his secretary."