The Unanswered Call
"My phone. Where's my phone?"
So-hyun's hands trembled violently as she walked toward the bed where she had flung her phone.
She snatched up the device wedged in the corner of the mattress and dialed Do-heon.
The ringtone droned on and on, yet he never picked up.
"Why won't you answer the damn phone?! Please, just pick up!"
So-hyun clutched the phone in a grip of pure anxiety, but he never answered.
"What the hell are you doing not answering? Do you want to watch me lose my mind?"
Whatever vile imaginings were racing through her head, So-hyun's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. Thick tears streamed down her face as she snatched the car keys from the vanity.
Buzz. Do-heon's phone had already rung several times, yet for some reason he refused to answer.
"Director, it seems the calls keep coming."
Han-su ventured the remark carefully, suspecting Do-heon's entire attention was fixed on Hye-won leaning against his shoulder.
"I know."
The fact that he knew and still refused to pick up made it clear the caller was So-hyun.
She phoned several times a day, and whenever Do-heon ignored her she would call Han-su instead.
Sure enough, the moment the thought formed, Han-su's own phone began to ring. Glancing at Do-heon's expression, he quietly flipped the device face-down.
"But Director... why didn't you tell me?"
Han-su asked while tapping his fingers on the steering wheel in time with the radio.
"Tell you what?"
Do-heon, who had sat motionless for a full hour so as not to wake the sleeping Hye-won, asked back.
"That you assigned bodyguards to Miss Han Hye-won. I had no idea. I ended up resenting you for nothing."
He had been deeply disappointed that Do-heon had let Hye-won walk back into danger without stopping her—never realizing bodyguards had already been dispatched as a precaution.
"You could have just sent me. If you'd told me, I would have gone myself."
"Are you strong, Secretary?"
"Pardon?"
Han-su shot Do-heon a look in the rearview mirror that clearly asked what on earth that meant.
"I asked if you're strong."
"Ah. When it comes to strength, I'm actually—"
His body was pathetic. After an hour of playing with his kindergartener nephew he needed two full days of bed rest. A total weakling.
And yet this frail excuse for a man had dared talk about bodyguard duty without a shred of fear.
If that paper-thin frame had been grabbed by those bastards, he would have been torn to shreds. By now he would be lying in pieces on the roadside, a complete wreck.
The involuntary, painful image made Han-su's breath catch in his throat.
"Ugh."
So that was why.
Only then did he grasp Do-heon's deeper intention. He gave a full-body shudder and clamped his mouth shut, focusing solely on turning the wheel.
Do-heon's car, having driven straight through the downpour, entered the hotel parking garage.
"Please put me down, Teacher."
From the moment she left the car, Hye-won had been carried in Do-heon's arms into the elevator, and the embarrassment was killing her.
It was a VIP elevator, so mercifully no one else was present, yet even being seen like this by Han-su mortified her. She knew Do-heon was treating her like something precious only out of pity, yet the discomfort in her chest refused to ease.
"Why would you want to get down? Opportunities like this don't come often. Our Director is absolutely not the type to scoop up a woman just because she's hurt. If the female staff at the company saw this, they'd collapse from envy of you, Miss Hye-won."
Han-su rattled on cheerfully, his face lit with excitement, spouting words that could have been either insults or praise.
"I can walk."
"You're saying that looking like this?"
Do-heon's sharp rebuke made Hye-won clamp her lips shut.
She could imagine exactly how she looked without needing a mirror.
Cradled in his arms and unsure where to rest her gaze, she rolled her eyes this way and that until they finally dropped downward.
"Lean on me."
The moment Do-heon's voice turned firm, Hye-won promptly rested her head against his chest.
The low, heavy tone made Han-su tense as well; he kept glancing over and blinking rapidly.
In the silence that filled the elevator, only Do-heon allowed the corner of his mouth to curve upward.
She was adorable, resting quietly in his arms like a baby. Like a gentle little puppy.
Ding. The elevator stopped. Do-heon stepped out into the corridor and followed the direction Han-su indicated.
The instant they entered the room, Han-su flung the curtains wide open.
"What kind of autumn rain falls this hard?"
He muttered while staring at the rain that showed no sign of stopping, then located the first-aid kit provided in the room, set it beside the bed, and called Do-heon's personal physician.
"I'll wash up first."
Hye-won spoke as Do-heon headed toward the bed.
"Can you manage?"
"Yes."
Do-heon, impatient to examine her injuries, hesitated only a moment before walking into the bathroom. As she said, it made more sense to rinse off the rainwater first and then receive treatment.
"It'll be better if you sit here to wash."
He carefully lowered the injured Hye-won into the bathtub, draped his wet jacket over the sink, and rolled up his sleeves.
He himself was soaked from the rain, yet he had no attention left for his own state.
His mind held only worry for the wounded Hye-won.
Kneeling on one knee beside her, Do-heon turned the hot-water lever first.
Seeing her curled up as if chilled, he decided the warm water should come first.
"Teacher, your clothes are completely soaked too."
The fabric of his shirt clung so tightly that the lines of his shoulders and chest showed through clearly.
Every time he moved, the veins stood out along his solid forearms and the backs of his hands.
Hye-won, who had been staring without realizing it, felt her face heat for no reason and quickly lifted her head.
"Is Miss Han Hye-won worrying about me right now? You, worrying about me."
Do-heon laughed with an incredulous expression, and Hye-won's face flushed as if she had been caught peeping.
"What if you catch a cold, Teacher?"
"Is the water temperature okay?"
Do-heon dipped his hand into the gradually rising water.
Just that simple immersion made his body feel languid.
Deciding it was enough, he straightened the upper body he had been leaning over—and met her eyes without meaning to.
Her cheeks were flushed a deep red. Moisture clung to her pupils, making them look soft and wet. The tension seemed to have left her; she looked a little drowsy.
Tiny beads of sweat gathered on the bridge of her small nose and rolled down toward her slightly parted lips. Do-heon's gaze followed without his consent, and his Adam's apple bobbed hard.
A few seconds of silence passed.
The knock that shattered the brief, dizzying stillness created by that fleeting eye contact belonged to Han-su.
"Director! The president of Central Hotel is here."
Do-heon shook off the dazed look in his eyes, stood, and arranged the toiletries along the rim of the tub so she could reach them easily.
"Call if you need anything."
"Yes."
Hye-won nodded as if telling him not to worry and to go ahead.
When he stepped out of the bathroom, Seon-gyu was waiting by the door.
Oh Seon-gyu. A friend Do-heon had met during their study-abroad days in the United States, and the president of Central Hotel.
"Who is it?"
Seon-gyu asked, jerking his chin toward the bathroom.
"What are you looking at?"
Do-heon blocked the view with his back and shut the door first.
"Who is she? I need to know who she is if I'm going to cover for you."
"What exactly are you covering?"
Do-heon shot him a look that said he was talking nonsense and walked past him into the sitting area.
"So-hyun showed up earlier. She demanded to see the CCTV out of nowhere—do you have any idea how awkward that was for me?"
So-hyun had been in a state of extreme agitation, like a wife who had come to catch her husband in the act of cheating.
Her eyes had looked ready to tear out anyone's hair who got in her way.
The memory of those chilling pupils made Seon-gyu give a full-body shudder.
"Is this place some kind of love nest? Do you people just show up at my hotel whenever you feel like it and make my life hell? A few days ago Sang-hyun's girlfriend barged in screaming that she knew he'd brought another woman and demanded I break the door down. Today Jeong So-hyun shows up telling me to pull the CCTV. I'm sick of being a hotel president. Why don't you take over? You've got the money. You know you're the only one around me who can handle an operation this size."
It was Do-heon who steered the conversation back on track when Seon-gyu's rant began to wander.
"So what did you tell So-hyun?"
"What do you think I told her? I said CCTV isn't something just anyone can look at, that even I as the hotel president can only view it with the police present, and I sent her packing with some half-assed excuse. Be honest. Who is that woman? She's the one who was here with you until this morning, right? Huh?"
Seon-gyu asked again with a face that looked ready to die of curiosity, but Do-heon remained silent.
A man who had been so obsessed with work that he considered even meeting women a waste of time had spent an entire week here with a woman—of course Seon-gyu was going out of his mind with questions.
"Why are you so curious?"
"Wouldn't you be curious if you were me? The great Jeong Do-heon brought a woman! Until a week ago I genuinely thought you were gay. You had so little interest in women I really believed it. And then you show up with a woman? At a hotel, no less. Would it be normal for me not to be curious? Huh? Sure, you broke off an engagement once, but even that wasn't a relationship based on love."
"Does the hotel have a hair salon? If it does, send someone good at cuts up to the room."
Do-heon cut him off before he could finish.
"Hey!"
Seon-gyu bellowed, having never gotten the answer he wanted. By this point the woman's identity was driving him completely insane with curiosity.
"What."
"Is she a sugar baby? Is that why you won't answer?"
"What the hell kind of bullshit is that!"
This time Do-heon roared.
Even knowing the words had slipped out of Seon-gyu's mouth without thought, rage surged up in an instant.
It felt like an insult to Hye-won, and he could not stand it.
"If she's not, just say she's not—why get so angry? It's scary. That's why you should talk. When you won't tell me anything, of course my mind goes to dark places."
Seeing Do-heon turn this serious with him for the first time, Seon-gyu's voice shrank of its own accord.