Chapter 10. Say You Can’t Do It
When Yoonkyung returned to her desk, she picked up her headphones, ignoring the increased number of people around her and their gazes.
She understood that a company was an organization and things like this could happen, but she had also been informed without her consent. As far as understanding the situation went, she wasn’t any different from the people staring at her.
Yoonkyung put on her headphones. If she couldn’t escape their gazes, at least she wanted to escape the noise.
‘There’s no point forcing yourself to understand something that doesn’t make sense anyway. Just stay where you are.’
When she had heard it, she’d wondered what he was talking about.
But he had been right.
“……You’re teaching me something again.”
That was so like Kwon Dohyun.
Yoonkyung gave a weak smile.
She held the mouse, then paused for a moment before picking up her phone and opening her call history. At the very top was an unsaved number—the most recent call.
It was Dohyun’s.
Yoonkyung silently stared at the eleven-digit number.
Dohyun was in charge of this project.
She hadn’t expected him to personally get involved, even if he was going to oversee things. And she certainly hadn’t expected to work with him here, somewhere that wasn’t even Kwonseong.
When she had wanted it, her wish had never been granted.
Now that she could see the face she’d longed for, it felt almost like a cruel joke from God, telling her to look at him as much as she wanted.
Otherwise, there was no way such unbelievable coincidences could keep happening one after another.
Forcing herself to cut off the thoughts drawing her attention, Yoonkyung clicked on a file. When her phone began ringing, she checked the caller.
It was Seonghee.
Jihyun had probably told her exactly what she’d threatened her with in the conference room. Yoonkyung could already picture it.
She pressed the decline button and tried to continue working, but Seonghee persistently called her again.
Yoonkyung immediately switched the phone to silent and turned it face down.
After changing the title of the saved file, Yoonkyung stood up.
She casually shoved her phone into the back pocket of her pants and left the office. Because of the hectic morning, she had completely missed the time when she usually went to collect the mail.
Standing in front of the elevator and waiting for it to arrive at her floor, Yoonkyung instinctively turned her head when she heard the doors open.
She immediately regretted it.
She had locked eyes with Ji-cheol, Jihyun’s older brother and the CEO of KD Health.
What a day.
Yoonkyung bowed her head toward Ji-cheol and swallowed the exhaustion rising inside her with a sigh.
“…….”
“…….”
The two stood silently in front of the elevator.
They weren’t close enough to have a conversation, nor did they have anything to talk about.
“Jihyun cried in front of me.”
Apparently, she hadn’t been imagining it.
“Because of you.”
It seemed there was now something she could discuss with Ji-cheol without having to come up with a subject herself.
“What could one powerless junior employee possibly do to make her cry?”
“You met Kwon Dohyun.”
“…….”
“You’re not answering.”
“I was wondering which of the two times you meant.”
Ji-cheol slowly turned his head toward Yoonkyung.
In other words, the two of them had met more than once.
“I saw the email. You were the only one selected. Did you ask them for it?”
“It isn’t the kind of place where one employee can ask for something and simply get it.”
“You seem to know a lot about it.”
“More than you do, at least.”
Ji-cheol’s eyebrow twitched.
“As you know, I have experience working at Kwonseong.”
“Tell them you can’t do it.”
“If I say I can’t, will they accept it?”
“Then you can quit.”
Yoonkyung let out a small laugh.
They really were siblings. They even said similar things.
When Dohyun had been in America, they had put shackles on her in case she got any other ideas. Now that he had returned to Korea, they wanted to remove her from his sight.
Of course, she’d anticipated something like this, which was why she had signed a contract with their father back then.
“Rather than me quitting this company, it seems more likely that Ms. Gwak Jihyun could join the TF team. You could use your influence as the CEO and put her on the team.”
“…….”
“Oh. Even as the company CEO, you can’t do that?”
No matter how much Ji-cheol was the CEO of KD Health, the consequences of his incompetence had already placed even the management rights in Kwonseong’s hands.
The way he blindly followed Kwonseong’s proposals, despite being the CEO, made the situation obvious.
At present, Kwonseong—and Dohyun, who stood at its center—held absolute and unquestionable power.
“Then why don’t you ask them for a favor for your only sister? If the CEO asks, they might listen.”
“You’re being insolent.”
“I’m only making the suggestion because you seem to care about your sister a lot.”
“If you’re hoping that Kwon Dohyun might regain his memories, you’d better come to your senses.”
“If they’re memories he needs, he’ll remember them somehow. If not, then he won’t remember them, just as you want.”
Ignoring Ji-cheol’s gaze, Yoonkyung took out her phone. Seeing the countless missed calls and messages, she let out a silent scoff.
“You’ve been beside him for three years. What have you been doing if you couldn’t even win his heart?”
Jihyun had merely taken the place beside Dohyun because he had lost his memories. She hadn’t even earned his interest, let alone his heart.
Unlike her, Yoonkyung had somehow continued running into Dohyun and gained his attention, to the point that it seemed strange.
That was what irritated and unsettled Jihyun.
It was the reason Jihyun and the people around her were becoming increasingly sensitive.
“A legitimate meth—”
“Those aren’t words that should come out of the mouth of someone whose very existence is a negation.”
Ji-cheol cut Yoonkyung off.
She raised her head and looked at him.
His gaze was still the same—like he was looking at something filthy and disgusting.
Yoonkyung had once believed she was such a person herself.
But not anymore.
‘You’re strong, and you’re a girl who shines brighter than anyone.’
The Kang Yoonkyung who existed after meeting Dohyun—not the Kim Yoonkyung she had once been—wasn’t like that.
So even if every person in the world thought of her that way, she wouldn’t waver.
The love she’d received from Dohyun had never been something so insignificant that she could doubt herself because of a single person’s gaze.
Everything he had given her remained inside her heart.
It was heavy and solid enough that she wouldn’t be shaken in any moment.
“The elevator’s here. Aren’t you getting on?”
Unlike Yoonkyung, who smiled calmly, Ji-cheol’s brow furrowed.
He looked her up and down before stepping into the elevator, his face showing deep displeasure.
“Ha……”
Yoonkyung stood there without avoiding his gaze until the doors closed, then finally released the breath she’d been holding.
Remembering the way his eyes had traveled over her made her feel sick.
“……Who’s the disgusting one?”
Yoonkyung wrapped one arm around her opposite shoulder and shrank into herself.
It was completely different from the confident attitude she’d shown moments earlier.
After taking several deep breaths, her shoulders eventually drooped helplessly.
She hadn’t expected anything different, but honestly, dealing with both siblings acting like this at the same time was exhausting.
“So what happens to Ms. Kang Yoonkyung now?”
“Judging by her reaction, she didn’t know. Don’t tell me she knew and deliberately……!”
A female employee leaving the office suddenly met Yoonkyung’s eyes in the reflection of the elevator doors and hurriedly shut her mouth.
First Gwak Jihyun, then Gwak Ji-cheol, and now Gwak Jihyun again.
If this was intentional, Yoonkyung almost wanted to applaud them for doing such an effective job.
“You usually work during lunch. I guess you’re going to eat.”
Jihyun approached Yoonkyung with her arms crossed.
She and two other female employees had just left the office to have lunch.
“Look at how your attitude changed just because you got into the TF team.”
There was no need to waste her breath explaining that she was going to collect the mail she’d failed to pick up.
Yoonkyung let Jihyun’s sarcasm go in one ear and out the other as she stared at the rapidly rising numbers on the elevator display.
She wanted to spend as little time as possible in the same space as Jihyun.
Maybe it would be better to take the emergency stairs.
“Are you ignoring me?”
Angered by Yoonkyung’s disregard, Jihyun grabbed her shoulder.
“I thought you were talking to yourself.”
Yoonkyung knocked Jihyun’s arm away.
The female employees watching them looked at Yoonkyung in surprise.
“Did you just hit me?”
“You grabbed me without permission.”
Yoonkyung stared directly at Jihyun’s face.
Just as Ji-cheol had said, it seemed she really had been crying. The skin beneath her eyes was red.
“……You’re laughing?”
Jihyun was already furious.
When Yoonkyung raised one corner of her mouth in a smile, Jihyun’s expression hardened and she shoved her forcefully.
Yoonkyung’s back struck the elevator doors.
She stared at Jihyun in disbelief.
“Move.”
“Why should I listen to you?”
“You might collide with someone inside……”
The elevator arrival chime sounded, and Yoonkyung stopped speaking.
“Move, qui……”
Jihyun felt that she wouldn’t be satisfied until she saw Yoonkyung fall.
She wanted to see Yoonkyung sitting on the floor in front of her. Only then would she feel relieved.
Jihyun hated the woman standing before her so much that, when the doors opened, she shoved Yoonkyung hard through the opening.
The solid wall against Yoonkyung’s back disappeared as her upper body tipped backward, causing her to lose her balance.
“……Ah.”
The elevator doors she’d thought had disappeared suddenly moved back and firmly caught Yoonkyung’s back.
Yoonkyung instinctively lowered her head.
In her field of vision appeared the hem of a pair of suit trousers and a man’s dress shoes.
The doors supporting her back moved, and the force of them enclosed both of Yoonkyung’s arms.
Realizing that someone was holding her, Yoonkyung hurriedly turned her head.
“I’m sor……”
Her eyes met Dohyun’s.
Yoonkyung’s mouth fell open, and she froze.
