Chapter : 02
A large man slowly looked Yoon Seol up and down with his characteristic languid, expressionless face.
Then, when a raindrop fell and soaked her raincoat, the man’s smooth brow narrowed slightly.
He looked exactly as handsome as he had on the morning she left him.
“Ah. Should I have asked first whether you could handle what happened in Italy as well?”
“…….”
“Let’s deal with both theft and an affair at the same time.”
There was no doubt he was talking about her. Yoon Seol avoided his heated gaze.
She couldn’t have an excessively private conversation with a client standing right there.
But the man ducked down anyway, even refusing the umbrella his subordinate tried to hold over him.
Their eyes inevitably met.
Just making eye contact with him made her whole body feel captured, and her breath caught in her throat.
The intimidating presence he gave off simply by existing was exactly the same as it had been three months ago.
“Attorney Seo Yoon Seol. I’m saying I’ll retain you. Will three hundred euros do?”
“That thing back then…! I couldn’t help it. …I’m sorry.”
Yoon Seol finally managed to open her lips and admitted her wrongdoing.
On the day she left Italy.
Just before leaving his mansion, Yoon Seol belatedly realized that she was completely broke.
How am I supposed to get to the airport?
She had canceled all her credit cards, and all she had left was her plane ticket to Korea and a single 10,000-won bill.
She could change the date of her flight and return to Korea, but there was one problem:
She had no money for a taxi to the airport.
Then she remembered the shelf in the man’s dressing room.
There were always a few banknotes lying there alongside his car keys and wallet.
Yoon Seol secretly returned to the dressing room and picked up the bills with trembling hands.
It was the first time in her life she had ever touched someone else’s money.
I’ll definitely pay you back later…! I’m really, really sorry.
There appeared to be several thousand euros in the stack of bills.
Her conscience wouldn’t allow her to take all of it, so she only took 300 euros—enough for transportation.
She was about to leave the dressing room when her conscience pricked at her.
So she carefully unfolded the 10,000-won bill she had put in her pocket and left it behind.
I-I’ll give you this, at least.
Of course, it was nowhere near enough to cover 300 euros.
So she couldn’t exactly argue when Han Do-geon accused her of theft.
She didn’t know whether he would believe her, but if she ever met him again, she had intended to apologize and pay him back.
She just never imagined that she would meet him like this—while protesting, drenched from head to toe in rain and looking utterly miserable.
“I know I did something wrong to you, Executive Director. And I know I owe you money, too.”
Yoon Seol checked the time before continuing in a trembling but composed voice.
It would soon be time for the evening rush of employees leaving work.
“But I’m really sorry, but right now… it’s a little difficult. Could we meet and talk again later?”
The lips of the handsome man facing her curled upward dangerously.
He looked as though he was thoroughly entertained.
“Attorney! Over there!”
At that moment, her client urgently called out to Yoon Seol.
Among the people pouring out of the main entrance of Hyunsin Construction, she spotted a man conspicuously looking around.
“Oppa Hojin…! Please don’t avoid me. Okay?”
The client’s sudden shout caught Yoon Seol off guard.
The startled man immediately began running in the opposite direction.
“W-wait! Just a second! It’ll only take a moment…!”
Her flustered client threw down her placard and ran after him.
“I-I’m sorry, Executive Director! I’ll go for now! I’m really, really sorry!”
Flustered herself, Yoon Seol hurried after her client.
Splash, splash.
She kicked through puddles as she ran, splattering dirty rainwater all over Do-geon’s clothes.
The subordinates who came running up behind him saw the grime splashed across his suit and anxiously held out handkerchiefs.
“……Ha.”
Do-geon waved them away and watched the little yellow raincoat rapidly disappearing into the distance.
He let out an incredulous breath.
It was absurd.
A little chick.
This was the first time anyone had dared to leave Han Do-geon all alone and run away.
Twice, no less.
Once in bed.
And now again.
Three months ago, she’d treated the night she spent with him as though it were worth nothing more than a single 10,000-won bill.
If she was going to take advantage of him and run, she should at least have paid a proper price.
Fuck. Ten thousand won… No. Minus 300 euros, was it?
He wasn’t particularly curious about why Yoon Seol had run away.
If he wanted to, he could turn the whole world upside down and find one tiny woman.
There was only one thing that bothered him.
After the passionate night they had shared, the crumpled 10,000-won bill she had left behind had strangely provoked his competitive spirit.
“You committed a crime, and you’re still going to act like this.”
The placard lying abandoned at his feet was utterly ridiculous.
Specialists in affair cases.
He was extremely curious about how Seo Yoon Seol would behave now that she was going to become deeply and persistently entangled with him through an affair.
As he swept his rain-soaked hair back, he used his phone to photograph the contact information printed on the placard.
“We’ll be seeing each other often, Attorney Seo Yoon Seol.”
Ironically, the rabbit he’d intended to hunt down someday had walked straight into his territory of its own accord.
It was time to properly begin the rabbit hunt he’d postponed for a while.
The Next Day
Yoon Seol entered the café Dabang with an exhausted expression.
“Americano?”
The owner—and her friend—Jung Hye-won took her order automatically from behind the counter.
“Yeah.”
“Three shots?”
“No. Venti size, four shots.”
“Why do you look so exhausted? What happened yesterday?”
“Yesterday… I just ran around a bit.”
She and her client had chased Manager Kwak desperately, but they’d ultimately lost him.
So technically, all she’d done was run.
It was her first case, and she’d really wanted to resolve it successfully.
But her exhaustion wasn’t entirely because of the sudden chase.
She had barely slept because she’d unexpectedly run into that man, Han Do-geon.
“Geez. Wake up already.”
“Mmm.”
Yoon Seol brushed aside her friend’s nagging and took her coffee to the innermost seat.
She set down her laptop bag and tote bag beside a large palm plant, in a sunny corner, and pulled something out.
Seol Law Office.
Once she placed the nameplate on the table, she was officially at work.
Where would a broke law-school graduate get the money to rent an office?
After pestering Hye-won for several days, Yoon Seol had finally opened her law office in a shop-in-shop arrangement in the corner of the café.
Apparently, turning places like hospitals and banks into café-style spaces was trendy these days.
Well, it worked for her.
With that little act of self-consolation, she opened her laptop.
Once again, her work inbox contained nothing but useless messages.
Your requested report has been successfully processed.
“…….”
She habitually clicked the familiar subject line, having received it so many times.
Is this a drunk-driving hotspot?
The drunk-driving killer’s daughter is a lawyer again.
It hurt to see the malicious comments she’d reported all over again.
They were comments posted on the reviews of her law office on an online portal.
“Even filing lawsuits is a pain.”
At least when she handled lawsuits for other people, she got paid.
Besides, anyone who knew her personal information was probably either a law-school classmate or an acquaintance.
She didn’t even have the energy to become estranged from people she knew.
…Drunk-driving killer.
Every time she saw the horrible nickname attached to her father, who had passed away earlier that year, her heart turned cold.
Her father, who had been the head of Hyunsin Group’s legal department, had gotten behind the wheel after drinking heavily.
A man who had never once driven after drinking in his entire life.
Why on earth had he done it?
That day, her father took the lives of two young fathers.
He also ended his own life in vain.
And because of that, Yoon Seol’s life collapsed in an instant.
After paying for the streetlights and facilities her father had crashed into and providing compensation to the victims’ families, all their cash was gone.
Then the law school she had attended on a scholarship for the “Proud Alumni’s Children” demanded that she return the scholarship money.
She even had to sell the apartment she had inherited.
Hey, Yoon Seol. Honestly, I’m kind of embarrassed by you, you know?
I can accept that you’re not affectionate and don’t have that sweet, melting charm. But, huh? Fuck, there’s nothing I can do about being embarrassed!
The boyfriend who had promised to marry her had proudly announced his engagement to another woman and abandoned her.
She could have endured all of that.
But the terrible crime committed by the father who had always taught her to live honestly and according to principle…
That was a wound far too deep for Yoon Seol.
“……Enough depressing thoughts first thing in the morning.”
Click.
Yoon Seol deleted the email, opened her word processor, and began working on a document.
She was so absorbed in her work that she didn’t notice the atmosphere of the café changing.
“Welc—”
Hye-won, who normally greeted customers brightly, stammered as a group of men came pouring into the café.
Yoon Seol didn’t notice any of it and remained focused on her work.
A dark shadow fell across her laptop.
Only then did Yoon Seol look up.
She nearly screamed.
“Attorney Seo Yoon Seol.”
Han Do-geon, accompanied by several men dressed in black, sat down in the chair opposite her with one corner of his mouth tilted upward.
“Executive Director…!”
The fact that the man had suddenly appeared again, just like yesterday, was both astonishing and unsettling.
“I came because there’s something you owe me.”
Ah.
That’s right.
Of course she had to pay him back.
Coming to her senses, Yoon Seol opened her tote bag and took out her wallet.
“I-I don’t have much cash on me. If you give me your bank account number, I can transfer it—”
“Let’s say the money is one thing. Are you planning to transfer the virginity you took from me through the bank as well?”
The man chuckled and cut her off mid-sentence.
“The X you unwrapped is non-returnable now, Seol.”
The familiar way he called her Seol, just as intimately as he had in bed that night, sent a chill rushing through her.
“You be my lover, and keep using it.”
“……!”
“That’s how you pay back virginity. Diligently, slowly, with interest included.”
