The Play's Unruly Ending
Even though Shin Noel had just been standing right there in front of her, Tae-yeon had introduced him to Hyun-seo as if he were a complete stranger. This was the first time the two men were facing each other. Of course Hyun-seo already knew everything about Noel, but Noel himself had no idea what was really happening.
“Noel oppa, you know who he is, right? The one I told you about before—the guy who lives in the basement of my mom’s building……”
“I know. The son of my mother-in-law’s landlord. And the sales-team deputy, Shin Noel, at our company.”
Noel felt awkward sitting there, but the fact that this important executive had remembered him oddly pleased him. It would be a wonderful thing for someone at the level of general manager to look out for the lowest-ranked deputy in sales. But this wasn’t the place for that kind of gratitude.
No matter the job, he was the husband of the woman he loved. So how uncomfortable and difficult was this situation? Noel made sure his words stayed clear.
“I just came to grab some coffee. I ran out of coffee at home.”
Tae-yeon tensed even more at Noel’s words. After the last time they met in Itaewon, she had warned him not to do anything that could spark bad rumors. Today’s visit was exactly the kind of thing that could cause talk. She tried to sound as natural as possible.
“Noel oppa brought roasted potatoes, but when I suggested we have coffee together, coffee just happened to run out at home.”
“Noel oppa?”
The title again? Tae-yeon glanced at Hyun-seo’s eyes and laughed as if nothing was wrong at all.
“Yes. Because he’s my friend oppa, I’ve called him that since I was little.”
“Ah. So that’s why you’re here alone with him to drink coffee.”
Noel nodded as if he understood everything, but his tone was dripping with sarcasm he couldn’t hide. Tae-yeon gave an awkward smile and tried to slip away.
“I’ve finished my coffee. Should we go? If you come, Mom will be happy.”
Even as Tae-yeon stood up, Hyun-seo showed no intention of moving. He looked at the man in front of him and asked.
“Will you bring the potatoes?”
“Yes. We’ll share them.”
Hyun-seo stared at Noel’s simple reply for a long moment, then stood and walked to Tae-yeon’s side. He stopped in front of the display case full of freshly baked cakes and cookies and said,
“Give me everything from here to there. Cookies, cake, and the candies on this side too.”
“Yes.”
The owner, excited that business would end quickly today, wrapped the cookies and cakes at lightning speed. The box was overflowing. Hyun-seo carefully placed the cake box into Noel’s arms and spoke.
“We’ll share this. Please take it home. It’s my thanks for baking the potatoes for my mother-in-law.”
The amount was far too generous to accept, yet Noel accepted it with a grateful bow.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to go this far.”
“I’m the kind of person who multiplies what I receive. Since you were so kind to my wife and her family, this is the least I can do.”
Tae-yeon let out a small sigh from the side. Hyun-seo handed her a box as well and said,
“This one is for Mother.”
How was she supposed to eat all of this? But Tae-yeon could say nothing that would make the situation look bad. She carried the heavy boxes of cake and cookies outside. Choi Hyun-seo walked beside her, but he seemed like a person from another world. What on earth could bridge that strange gap?
The car ride was noisy enough with just the cake box and snacks. At the first-floor apartment, Tae-yeon’s mother came out to greet them. As they entered the rooftop room, her mother looked at Hyun-seo in surprise.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t visit you for so long.”
“Oh, what are you talking about? I’m doing just fine. What matters is that our Tae-yeon and I get along well, and that you raise Yun-woo well. Yun-woo really is growing up beautifully.”
Hyun-seo looked genuinely sorry in the face of Kyung-ja’s warm welcome.
“Yes. I’ve been coming home very late, and I’m sorry to Tae-yeon often. Tae-yeon has worked so hard to raise Yun-woo.”
“Oh? Is that so? It’s fine. Tae-yeon is a woman who does big things. You should understand that.”
Kyung-ja looked at Tae-yeon as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“I’m not sure that’s true.”
Tae-yeon’s sudden words made Hyun-seo’s eyes widen in shock. What did she mean?
Kyung-ja was startled as well.
“Oh, what kind of talk is that?”
“I have my own mother back home. I want to say what I want to say. No matter how busy things get, if I stay at my mother’s, I don’t want to go home.”
Hyun-seo felt completely lost at Tae-yeon’s reaction. Earlier, when he had seen her sitting across from Shin Noel at the café, he had thought it was just discomfort. Now he had no idea what she was doing. He frowned.
“Tae-yeon-ah.”
“Why do you keep calling me? You know I’m angry, don’t you? That’s why you came all the way here.”
Hyun-seo, with nothing left to say, simply watched her and changed the subject.
“Mother, I’m sorry. I feel like I haven’t done enough for you. I’ll take you home quickly today and make it up to you.”
Tae-yeon had no desire to follow Hyun-seo anywhere. The memory of that meeting at the café still lingered. Before, when she had met Noel before the wedding, he had relentlessly pressed her with psychological pressure not to do anything that could cause public rumors.
Anyway, it was all just theater. Whether Hyun-seo called her Tae-yeon-ah or she called him you, or even husband, it was all just acting on the stage of theater.
Tae-yeon looked at Hyun-seo with a cold expression and said,
“No matter how late it is, I have to keep living while watching my son grow up. How can you only look at your son’s sleeping face? Don’t you have any love for your son?”
Kyung-ja turned deathly pale.
“What kind of words are those? How dare you push a man like that.”
“Mom, how obedient I’ve been. I want to say what I want to say because I trust in my mother.”
Hyun-seo realized the situation for what it was. So it was all just theater, and it was all in, all out. He squeezed Tae-yeon’s hand tightly.
“Tae-yeon-ah, I’m sorry. I really was wrong. What can I do? Want to go shopping? I’ll buy you whatever you want. Tell me. Necklace? Bracelet?”
The conversation was becoming increasingly strange. As they kept throwing lines back and forth while pretending it was theater, the situation was becoming impossible to resolve. At the same time, the man who tried to solve everything with money, even while acting, was despised.
“Money can solve everything?”
Tae-yeon turned her head and muttered softly, but Kyung-ja smacked her on the back.
“Tae-yeon, what kind of words are those? Is this about money? It’s the heart! The heart! Go quickly.”
“Mom, I don’t want to go.”
Tae-yeon didn’t want to look at Hyun-seo’s face. After all, both the meeting with Noel at the café and everything they had said here would become a problem if they were alone. Unlike when she had been blocking him, she now wanted to just stay here and sleep.
“I’m not not going. Hurry up and go get what you want to buy, and come home to Yun-woo. Even on a day like today when you came this early, you always say you’re late. Hurry up.”
“Mom, I don’t want to go.”
“I said hurry up.”
In the end, she was pushed out the door. As they stepped outside, Tae-yeon unconsciously glanced at Hyun-seo’s eyes. Hyun-seo had immediately hardened his expression the moment they left the house and said nothing.
After all, they were both acting. If he tried to say something to her, she wouldn’t stay quiet either.
But Hyun-seo was the kind of executive who was difficult, uncomfortable, and made her feel watched. When the car they had been waiting for arrived, Hyun-seo got into the back seat while Tae-yeon tried to sit in the front.
“Where do you want to sit? Here.”
Tae-yeon had no choice but to sit beside him after he tapped the seat beside her. The moment she sat, Hyun-seo grabbed her hand tightly. He brought his lips close to her ear and whispered in a low, dark voice.
“Our deputy’s confidence has really grown, hasn’t it?”
The words were sweet, yet she didn’t know why sweat was dripping down her back. His touch felt burning hot. What on earth was he going to do in the car?
“CEO-nim.”
“Why? You were calling me by other titles earlier. Husband. You. They sounded good, didn’t they?”
He pressed his lips even closer and ran his tongue over her earlobe. Her shoulders involuntarily shrank. His hand stroked the curve of her waist, then slipped underneath. When it found the exact spot even through her clothes and pressed, she gave a startled cry.
“Why, don’t you have anything else to say? Deputy.”
“I have nothing more to say. CEO-nim.”
Tae-yeon, who had once again become the perfect subordinate, tried to secretly pull her hand away, but the hand holding hers didn’t budge. Instead, it pressed precisely on the sensitive point. She couldn’t push it away or resist even though his strokes were lewd.
His fingers moved smoothly between the seat and her body. The sensitive area grew wet, and her chest tightened.
“Haah…… mm, mm…….”
She couldn’t help but sway her hot body, yet Hyun-seo kept moving his fingers while reading the newspaper and said,
“Take us to the Partie Maison in Cheongdam-dong. Follow what I said.”