Chapter 6
On his way back after finishing a meeting with Dr. Lee, his grandfather’s primary physician, Do-geon took a wrong turn and found himself wandering through some corridor.
That was when a familiar figure came into view.
It was a woman walking with her body held stiffly upright, like a blind person.
Even from a distance, he could immediately tell it was Lee Seo-yeon from her dark navy trench coat and her hair tied up in a single ponytail.
Rather than the simple question of Why is she at the hospital?, he was more curious about why she was walking in such a strange posture.
That was why he had even called her and come all the way here.
“I can’t see…”
Do-geon, with his hands in his pockets, rolled his tongue around inside his mouth.
It was subtly irritating.
Her vacant eyes and the way she kept looking straight ahead somehow gave him a strange sense of déjà vu.
Seo-yeon asked coldly, her tone still sharp.
“Are you following me?”
Her beautiful eyebrows looked as if someone had drawn them with a brush on her slender face. Her eyes had long eyelashes without overly prominent double eyelids. Her nose had a smooth, shining line, and her lips were full and round.
Anyone walking through the corridor would naturally glance at her because she was clearly beautiful at first sight.
Yet her cold attitude, as if she had been given the exclusive right to treat only Cha Do-geon so harshly, remained unchanged.
“No way. I’m actually quite a busy person, you know.”
Seo-yeon lowered her gaze and cut him off coldly.
“Go take care of your business.”
I’m not the type to leave just because someone tells me to.
He sat down on the chair beside Seo-yeon.
“Now that I look at it, I think I have another business to take care of.”
He sat beside her casually and rested his arm over the back of the chair.
“Come on, relax a little. Ms. Lee Seo-yeon, am I going to eat you? You just came from the ophthalmology department?”
Surely this man doesn’t have enough power to contact ophthalmology and look at my medical records. No matter that this is a hospital operated by his group, that would be illegal.
The corners of Seo-yeon’s lips lifted slightly. She intended to soften the atmosphere so she could leave this place quickly.
Receiving a corneal transplant and having regular eye examinations for the rest of her life was not something she needed to hide, but she considered it far too personal to share with Cha Do-geon.
“I had a detailed eye examination because it felt like there was something in my eye. They put eye drops in, and they said my eyes would be like this for about two hours. It’s nothing serious, so don’t worry about it.”
Do-geon’s expression suddenly became deeply moved, and he lifted his back away from the chair.
“Do you know something?”
“Yes?”
“That was the longest you’ve talked to me since we met.”
Ah. This man’s brain really is wired differently from mine.
She had gone to the trouble of explaining the reason, yet he was so ridiculous that she couldn’t control her expression, and a sigh escaped her.
Cha Do-geon seemed to be making his own plans while talking to himself.
Three hours. Three hours.
He repeated the words on the tip of his tongue.
Usually, when someone comes for an eye examination, they’re told to bring a family member or someone with them. Did she come alone? Judging by her eyes, they probably put in dilating drops.
His gaze became sharp as he looked at Seo-yeon.
Does this woman have no family to bring? She said she doesn’t have a boyfriend. With that rigid personality of hers, she obviously doesn’t have any friends either.
Well, that old man probably worked her twenty-four hours a day under the excuse of being his personal secretary.
That nasty old man.
If he loved her like a daughter, he should have bought her at least a small building or something. And instead, he wants her to get married?
Anyway, what a terrible man.
“Let’s go. I’ll take you home.”
Will she be shocked? Will she say, ‘Why would you, Mr. Cha Do-geon? Are you crazy?’
He casually threw out the words and waited for Seo-yeon’s reaction.
Do-geon’s gaze shifted toward her.
Her soft cheek, tinged with pink, and her thin earlobe came into his view.
Her earlobe was so beautiful that the light seemed to shine right through it.
Oops. What’s wrong with me?
His embarrassment lasted only a moment before Do-geon’s gaze was drawn like a magnet beneath her soft jaw.
As he looked at the delicate line of her neck continuing along the light, his breath tightened.
A strange thirst arose inside him.
At that moment, Seo-yeon stood up, and Do-geon was overcome by a strange feeling, as if he had been caught doing something bad.
“Would you take me home?”
She wants me to take her?
Startled by her words, he jumped to his feet. Her unexpected answer made the corners of his lips rise on their own.
“Sure.”
He extended his arm beside Seo-yeon.
“Hold on to me.”
When Seo-yeon’s unfocused gaze turned toward his arm, Do-geon joked lightly.
“Think of me as the most expensive guide dog in the world. Just relax and walk.”
In the end, Seo-yeon’s small hand touched his arm.
Cha Do-geon, did you ever think a day like this would come in your life?
Lee Seo-yeon smiled.
She had smiled only once. Just once.
So why did he feel like he could fly?
The woman who had been as cold as a frost-covered tree on a winter morning was smiling.
And somehow, she looked beautiful.
Am I going crazy?
“You look pretty when you smile.”
Seo-yeon’s cheek, which had been walking while holding his arm, immediately became stiff.
“Why are you making that serious face again? Should I buy you some soft glutinous rice cake? If you watch it stretch and stretch, maybe you’ll learn some flexibility.”
Seo-yeon continued walking while looking straight ahead, her neck still fully exposed. After catching her breath, she asked,
“Are you always this talkative?”
Do-geon, who had been the only one getting flustered, quickly looked away.
“Ask the employees in America. They’ll tell you how quiet I normally am.”
This woman isn’t saying anything again.
In the end, because the person who wanted something had to dig the well, Seo-yeon merely listened while Do-geon continued talking.
Are we complete opposites? Why do I keep changing whenever I’m with this woman?
He admitted defeat in their battle of wills.
Of course, Seo-yeon was the one who had taken the lead.
After accepting his surrender in his heart, Do-geon felt like an idiot for smiling even after losing to someone.
But what was even more unfair was that he didn’t feel bad about it.
He kept doing things he normally never did in front of this woman, and he even felt good about it.
I really must be crazy.
When they reached the car, Do-geon put her in the passenger seat. Then he personally pulled the seat belt out, wrapped it across her body, and fastened it.
She’ll say, ‘I’ll do this myself,’ right?
But the woman said nothing.
Another failed prediction.
As he walked around the car toward the driver’s seat, Do-geon realized that he had never once been able to predict Seo-yeon’s actions or answers.
Me? Cha Do-geon? The man who moves hundreds of billions with a single prediction?
As expected, Lee Seo-yeon. She’s a master.
Seo-yeon remained silent as the car headed toward Yeonhwa-dong.
Then I’ll have to talk again.
“I’ve really been wondering. When you were my grandfather’s personal secretary, were you always like this? Did you keep your mouth shut like you are now and work as a secretary with that proud attitude?”
What was I like in front of Chairman Cha?
Chairman Cha was not simply a boss whom she had served.
He was somewhere between a father and a grandfather.
He sometimes called Seo-yeon his “daughter.” He had cherished her so much that one day, Moon Shin-young, blinded by jealousy, had even called Seo-yeon over and forced her to kneel.
That was how close Seo-yeon had been with Chairman Cha.
Only around him had her tightly closed heart opened.
She laughed a lot.
And laughed again, and again.
But after his death, Seo-yeon’s heart had once again locked itself behind a solid bolt.
And now this man, Cha Do-geon, kept knocking on that door.
At all times, just like now.
“Chairman was the best boss.”
She gave an official answer.
She had given the same answer in front of Moon Shin-young and Executive Director Cha Ji-hwan.
She had also given it to the female employees who spread vicious rumors about her at the company.
Whenever she gave that answer, everyone laughed at her.
So you seduced the old man by throwing yourself at him.
That was always the response she received.
Would you say the same thing?
Holding the steering wheel, Do-geon made a smooth right turn.
As Seo-yeon’s vision gradually returned to normal, she finally examined his profile piece by piece.
A firm jawline and a long, straight neck. Deep eyes filled with light as they looked ahead. Beneath his broad forehead were a refined, beautiful nose and clearly defined lips.
The perfect man, whose profile looked as though a famous sculptor had stayed up all night carving it, opened his lips.
“That’s a shame. If I’d known sooner, I would have asked my grandfather how to become the best boss.”
As expected.
You gave me a different answer from the people who made me kneel, criticized me, and spread unfair rumors about me.
Is that why Chairman mentioned our marriage in his will? Because, in the end, he thought only you would truly understand me? Because you are different from everyone else?
“Careful. You’re going to stare a hole through my face. Then again, it’s not easy to meet a man who looks like me.”
Do-geon, who led an investment company, instinctively began making another prediction.
She’ll answer with either ‘You’re pretty full of yourself’ or ‘You don’t know the meaning of humility.’
Seo-yeon quietly looked away.
“I admit it. You’re handsome.”
Do-geon almost crashed into the car in front of him.
The car moved again.
The woman who had always felt as cold as a frozen winter lake suddenly looked like a flower in full bloom on a spring day.
Her answer was something that absolutely did not suit this woman, so he had failed another prediction.
Yet Do-geon’s lips refused to stay still.
For some reason, a firm belief rose inside him that if this woman said someone was handsome, she would mean it one hundred percent.
Then the woman asked Do-geon in return,
“What about me?”
