A Pulse She Couldn't Feel

"Wh-what are you saying!"

Why did he keep saying such embarrassing things so casually? Just because he'd suggested they get along didn't mean he could toss out lines like that. His surprise direct hits had gotten to the point where her whole chest was tingling now.

Yun-seo scrambled to her feet, spun around, and fanned at her burning cheeks.

"S-stop it! You must be perfectly fine if you're cracking jokes. Come on, get up."

"No, I mean it. I'm honestly about to die."

"I'm not falling for it."

"Ah... my head's all fuzzy..."

"Up! Now! You're not funny at all."

Even under her scolding, San kept his eyes screwed shut and didn't so much as twitch. The pointless standoff seemed like it could drag on forever, so she issued a cold ultimatum.

"Fine, then I'm leaving."

Without a trace of regret, she turned on her heel and started striding toward the health post. She'd gotten maybe ten steps away when there was still not a sound from behind her.

Finally unable to help herself, she glanced back — and Yun-seo's pupils began to tremble, slowly. San lay exactly where he'd fallen, not moving a single finger.

It was a silence far too heavy to be a joke.

Don't tell me it wasn't a joke. Her stomach dropped through the floor. Yun-seo, drained of all color, sprinted back toward him.

"San! San!"

"Ko Yun-seo blocked my number again."

Kim Jun-young's daily routine, ever since their breakup until this very moment, had consisted of snooping on Yun-seo's private life.

But her social media had been frozen for a full year, and even her messenger profile photo had reverted to the blank default image. Definitive proof that he'd been completely blocked.

"Oh, that doctor ex-girlfriend who got kicked out of the hospital? She's still got a hold on you? I heard she's got a man now. You really don't know when to quit."

Jun-young was irritably scrolling through his message history with Yun-seo when Jang Hee-je, drinking beside him, asked with what sounded like amusement. Flustered, Jun-young frantically flipped his phone face-down on the table.

"Ah, hyung-nim, but she's genuinely gorgeous. Exactly my type, and I put so much time into her — it just feels like a waste."

"How gorgeous? Let me see."

Hee-je held out his hand. He wanted the phone. When Jun-young hesitated, Hee-je let out a long sigh.

"No?"

At that low, weighted voice, Jun-young shook his head quickly. If this redevelopment project succeeded, the chance of a lifetime to join hands with the Jinyang Group might land in his lap. He couldn't possibly get on Jang Hee-je's bad side over something like this.

When the man says jump. Without another word, Jun-young handed over his phone and showed him Yun-seo's photo. Hee-je snatched it up and peered at her image on the screen — then snorted, as if unimpressed.

"Girls this pretty are a dime a dozen."

"Come on, she's something else in person. Her body alone is... anyway, I'll bring her back and introduce her to you properly, hyung-nim."

Jang Hee-je snickered. Just as Jun-young's pride was being crumpled, quite visibly, by that open mockery of a laugh —

"Oh, you've got a call. Some Ko Gang-seok guy."

Hee-je handed the phone back with a raised eyebrow. Jun-young checked the brightened screen. It was the crew he'd sent to Yanggido.

"Ah. One moment, hyung-nim. I should take this — probably about the Yanggido business."

"Sure, go ahead."

Jun-young took the phone and answered, walking to the corner of the room and lowering his voice.

"Yeah, Director Ko. Hello?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. So? Did you get the seal on it?"

"A problem? What kind of problem?"

Jun-young's brow furrowed instantly. What could possibly go wrong out in that dirt-poor corner of the countryside?

The only reason he'd volunteered to head up Dongyoung Construction's Yanggido redevelopment project in the first place was Ko Yun-seo. She wanted to start over but wouldn't take him back, no matter how he pushed. So the plan was to put the enforcers through their paces, scare her a little, then swoop in at the perfect moment to save the day. She'd crawl into his arms of her own accord.

And while he was at it, if he landed the Jinyang Group partnership, he'd win his father's approval and win Yun-seo back. Three birds with one stone.

But things had gotten tangled up. As Ko Gang-seok reported the situation through the speaker, the color curdled on Jun-young's face, bit by bit.

"...Fine. Understood for now. Stand by — I'll call you later."

Jun-young hung up and trudged back from the corner of the room, sighing heavily. Jang Hee-je, tilting his whiskey glass, cast him a curious glance.

"What's the matter?"

"Well... a complication's come up in Yanggido, hyung-nim."

"A complication?"

Hee-je's eyebrow arched.

"Some stranger's interfering, apparently. What do I do? Sounds like a guy who's used to throwing his weight around somewhere. Our boys couldn't even touch him. Could it be him?"

"Must be the doctor's new boyfriend. And here I was wondering. If they're short on hands, just send more guys."

Hee-je clicked his tongue and tipped back his glass.

"But he doesn't seem like just some musclehead either. Apparently he picked apart the loopholes in the consent contracts our boys brought back. He's pretty sharp — this could get thorny. And they say his build isn't exactly ordinary, either."

Click. Jang Hee-je set his whiskey glass down on the table. In an instant, the mockery drained from his face, leaving it utterly blank.

Slowly easing himself away from the backrest, Hee-je leaned his upper body toward Jun-young.

"...What exactly does this guy do?"

"All bluster and no substance, far as I can tell. Probably some drifter who used to rough it somewhere."

"Doesn't look like the type who'd bleed if you stuck him with a knife?"

"I'm... sorry? Why would that..."

At Jun-young's protest, Hee-je's expression hardened noticeably. Without answering, he drained the rest of his whiskey in one swallow, set down the empty glass, and sank deep into the sofa's backrest.

"No reason. Just wondered if it might be someone I know. Can't be too careful — who knows what other dogs are sniffing around out there."

"Doubt it. By all accounts he doesn't look like much."

"And a nobody like that just happens to spot the flaws in a contract?"

"Must've done enforcer work before, I'd guess. Said he puts on a hell of a show in front of women. And he talks in rough dialect, apparently. Definitely not anyone you'd know, Director."

"Is that so."

At that one remark, the tension drained out of Jang Hee-je's rigid face.

His heart, which had lurched violently at the fleeting thought Jang Tae-san?, finally found its rhythm again.

There was no way that man could have survived those treacherous waters — and even if, by some miracle, he had lived, he was a man who would have stormed in to take his head by now. And he was hardly the sort to put on airs in front of some country health-post doctor, of all people.

Besides. A dialect?

That arrogant bastard, born a noble from the cradle, wallowing in filth on some backwater island? Impossible. Yes, he'd wandered from construction site to construction site, claiming he had no interest in management — but that was all just a show, staged for everyone to see.

That's right. Jang Tae-san is dead. By now he'd drifted off somewhere in Chinese waters, or been devoured by sharks until nothing remained of him.

Ding. It was then that the sharp chime of a text notification jolted Hee-je back to his senses. When he checked the name on the screen, his eyes went cold and still.

Hee-je's eyebrow twitched in disgust. So desperate to hand everything of Jinyang over to a grandson who no longer existed.

Stretching his lips into a smooth smile, Hee-je tapped out his reply.

Having sent the message, Hee-je tossed his phone carelessly onto the table.

Tilting his head back to stare at the white ceiling, he let a thin, silent laugh slip from his lips.

No matter how the old man thrashed about, Jang Tae-san would never return now. All he had to do was ride Kim Jun-young's hand and pull the Jinyang Bio new-drug research complex flawlessly into the Yanggido redevelopment zone. The moment he thrust that colossal achievement under Chairman Jang Young-pil's nose, the man would have no choice but to hand over Jinyang's throne.

Jang Hee-je closed his eyes slowly and spoke.

"Jun-young. Move things along, quickly. Whatever you need, tell me right away."

Pale as a ghost, Yun-seo shook San's body. The huge frame didn't budge an inch.

"San! San! Wake up! Snap out of it!"

She looked around, but everyone had already gone home — there wasn't a soul left to help.

He can't really be hurt. He can't be. With trembling hands, Yun-seo seized San's wrist and pressed her fingers to his pulse. Her own heartbeat was pounding so loud in her ears that she couldn't tell whether his pulse was beating at all.

"San, please, come on, wake up...!"

She pressed two bloodless fingers beneath his nose. She focused every nerve she had into her fingertips — but not even the faintest breath reached them.

Even if I tried chest compressions with my own strength, I'd never manage it properly. Gnawing hard on her quivering lip, Yun-seo urgently tilted San's chin up to open his airway. She lowered her own lips onto his to give him rescue breaths.

It was the very instant she was about to breathe into his mouth—