A Man Who Knows Too Much

For over ten minutes after the storm had swept through, a heavy silence filled the car.

Tae-kyung let out a short sigh and spoke.

"Let's call it a night. I'll be in touch soon."

At his low voice, Seo-ah held her breath, lost in thought for a moment. There was no way around it now—she had to find out whether Kang Tae-kyung was truly behind the Won Electronics incident.

Her hands clasped tightly in her lap, she slowly turned her head toward him.

"Director."

"Yes."

"Do you, by any chance…… know Won Electronics?"

Tae-kyung's hand, which had been reaching for the navigation screen, froze for an instant.

"You don't? Then what about Lee Se-jung, the CEO of Dongha Motors?"

Barely a few dozen centimeters apart, their gazes locked.

Tae-kyung, looking as if lost in thought, asked after a moment, "What is it you want to know?"

"It's…… the relationship between you, Director Kang, and Dongha Motors."

"Heh."

The faint scoff that escaped him grated on Seo-ah's nerves.

"This is a really important matter to me, so……"

"Then let me ask you something too."

"I'm sorry?"

He opened his mouth, his eyes fixed squarely on her.

"Do you know Seo Won-ho, the director at Dongha Motors?"

Seo Won-ho. He had originally been the leader of Sales Team 1 at Dongha Motors, but after Lee Dong-ha's death, he had taken over the vacant seat.

For Seo-ah, who knew nothing about the inner workings of the company, the name meant nothing.

Is this Seo Won-ho the Director Seo he mentioned earlier?

Leaving her struggling for an answer, Tae-kyung pulled out his phone.

Having sent the message, Tae-kyung sank back into silence. A few minutes later, when Hee-joon's reply came through, he dialed the number. After several rings, the call connected.

"Among the girls you have there, is there one called 'Lin'?"

"……!"

Seo-ah nearly jumped out of her skin but barely managed to hide it. It had never occurred to her that the man would call Edge directly.

As she sat there in wordless tension, a faint voice drifted over from the other end of the line.

—Yes, but may I have your membership number? Lin has already left for the day……

Click. Having confirmed what he needed, Tae-kyung hung up, then let out a hollow laugh he couldn't hold back.

"Well, what do you know—she really is one of their girls, Miss Lin?"

Seo-ah, who had been trembling with anxiety, allowed herself a brief moment of relief. She was also somewhat taken aback that there really was a person who could vouch for Lin's existence, just as Se-yeon had said.

But what exactly had he been trying to confirm?

Tae-kyung swept back the hair that had fallen across his forehead and turned his gaze to her.

"We've established you're not a fake hostess."

"……"

"The establishment Seo Won-ho tried to shove me into today was Edge."

Shove you into? Wasn't he supposed to have already been enjoying himself there and called for a girl afterward as the second round?

She'd known something was off from the moment they first met. She had been relieved that he knew the club's name, but no matter how she looked at it, this wasn't a situation where anyone had actually been expected to show up.

While she was turning the question over in her mind, Tae-kyung spoke again.

"Were you aware that Seo Won-ho is Lee Se-jung's most trusted confidant at Dongha Motors?"

"Yes…… I'm sorry, what?!"

The sudden revelation threw Seo-ah into confusion. A man she'd never even heard of—a man who was supposed to be the company's closest confidant to the former CEO? Just how were things actually playing out behind the scenes?

"You didn't know? The one who sent Miss Lin to my room today was Seo Won-ho, after all."

"Ah…… yes, well."

Seo-ah was going out of her mind with frustration at knowing nothing. I have to answer—but what do I say?

Just as she was hemming and hawing, he went on.

"Seo Won-ho is essentially in charge of Dongha Motors' publicity. 'Publicity' being the polite word for it—he handles their dirty corporate entertaining."

"……!"

So that was why Kang Tae-kyung had suspected me of being a spy. If Director Seo's role was really what he described, then his suspicion made a certain amount of sense.

But what came out of his mouth next was, to Seo-ah, genuinely shocking.

"And that man took the seat after Director Lee Dong-ha died."

'……?!'

This man—he knows Dong-ha?

"There were already plenty of rumors about embezzlement and the like. Doesn't it strike you as a little strange that Lee Se-jung would put a man like that into his own dead son's chair?"

"……"

With no way of knowing how far the man's information network extended, Seo-ah had no choice but to stay silent.

If he knows Dong-ha, does he know we were married, too? Then what about Se-yeon? The scheme she and I planned—does he know about that as well?

Just as the confusion in her head began to curdle into fear, Tae-kyung's voice continued.

"His son dies in an unexpected accident, yet Lee Se-jung's conduct has been suspicious from the start. And then, in the middle of all that, Jin Seo-ah—the daughter of Won Electronics' CEO—suddenly walks into my room as a bar hostess on Director Seo's orders…… Look at it from your side. Doesn't the whole situation seem a little off to you?"

Wait a moment. The daughter of Won Electronics' CEO……?

Seo-ah's brow knitted tight in an instant.

"Yes…… yes? Hold on. Director, what did you just say……"

He knows who I am?

She could understand him knowing her name, given everything that had happened at the funeral. But how did he know she was the daughter of Won Electronics' CEO?

The moment her vague fear of his reach had become reality.

"Why so shocked? I received a report on Jin Seo-ah's identity through my executive secretary, and for an executive of Taeyu Motors not to know Won Electronics—one of our own partner companies—that would be stranger, wouldn't it?"

Of course. Kang Tae-kyung was the second son of Taeyu Group itself. What ordinary person could dig up that kind of information about a woman they'd crossed paths with once, at a funeral?

And yet one thing still didn't add up. If he had known all of this from the beginning, why hadn't he said so sooner? Kang Tae-kyung had clearly known that Dong-ha and she were husband and wife—so why had he simply watched and waited?

Suppressing the tangle of her feelings, Seo-ah spoke.

"You knew everything…… and you just stood there watching me make a fool of myself? Why?"

At her words, the corner of his mouth curved up in a peculiar way. It somehow looked irritated.

"Weren't you pretending not to know me either? Fair's fair—let me ask. Why did you do it? You recognized me from the start, didn't you? And then you acted like nothing was happening……"

For an instant, Tae-kyung's eyes wavered. Was he recalling what had happened inside the room?

Jin Seo-ah, who had pressed her lips miserably against his while telling him her tragic story like something out of a dark fairy tale—the girl who had suddenly thrown her arms around his neck.

"Before you start pointing fingers, explain yourself—what your relationship with Seo Won-ho is, and whether you're a spy or not."

In truth, Tae-kyung was right. Seo-ah had made the first move, after all.

But she found herself reeling from a betrayal she couldn't quite explain. Inside that room, she had thrown herself at him—because at the time, she'd had no other choice.

"I recognized you at the door, and there was so much I wanted to ask about my father. So I pretended to know Director Seo when I didn't. I was afraid I'd get thrown out."

"You really do work there, then?"

After a brief hesitation, she nodded.

"Why did you start? That line of work."

At Tae-kyung's question, Seo-ah confessed in a flat, even voice.

"I needed the money. I got kicked out of my apartment, my parents' house went to auction, and what I earn now doesn't cover it."

It wasn't a lie. She hadn't truly become a hostess, but money had grown desperately tight since her father's death.

"What do you do?"

"Private vocal lessons. I studied in the UK until my marriage, and I went straight from coming back to Korea into the wedding. So for a music major like me, this is about all I can manage these days."

Tae-kyung nodded. Then, jaw tightening, the hard line of his face flexed before quickly easing.

"I despise Director Seo Won-ho. And I have my doubts about Dongha Motors as a company. So sooner or later, I intend to deal with them. It doesn't sit well with me."

The matter-of-fact tone made Seo-ah realize, once again, just how much power this man held.

That didn't mean she entirely believed him yet. But provoking him would accomplish nothing. With nothing she could uncover on her own, Kang Tae-kyung was, if anything, a man with far more to gain on her side of the board.

First, she needed to learn more about this Seo Won-ho. In the photograph Se-yeon had shown her, someone wearing a Taeyu Group badge had stood beside Lee Se-jung. Could Seo Won-ho have been the go-between in that meeting?

To find out, she needed Kang Tae-kyung.

"Everything I told you in the room was the truth. And everything I've said tonight, too."

Tae-kyung gave an odd, unreadable nod, then fixed his eyes straight ahead.

"Fine. If you're the daughter of Won Electronics' CEO, then you're the last person who should ever be shaking hands with Dongha Motors."

"……"

Somewhere along the way, his manner of speaking had softened.

"I'll believe that you're not a spy, Miss Jin Seo-ah."

Can I really take this at face value? Seo-ah wasn't sure whether she could trust the words of a man who had so relentlessly tested her.

Then a short, sharp laugh escaped him.

"Judging by that expression, Miss Jin Seo-ah doesn't trust me one bit yet."

Apparently her body had been so rigid that every flicker of her face had shown plain as day.

"Wh-what? No, of course not."

Flustered, Seo-ah rubbed the forehead she'd been scowling into and let her words trail off vaguely.