Chapter 10
Thud, clatter.
The sound of the pen rolling across the floor lingered for longer than expected.
However, neither Yuju nor Haesung turned their heads.
It was as if only the two of them were left in the world, with each other suspended at the very edge of their gazes.
“……”
At that moment, Haesungās dark eyebrows twitched briefly. A fleeting glance lingered near Yujuās lips before scattering away.
He immediately tilted his head back as if nothing had happened, but an unmistakable, raw amusement bled heavily into the upper body that leaned toward her once more.
Leaning diagonally across the low table, resting his chin in his palm, he brought his face closer to Yuju.
“This is getting interesting. You’re going to handle me?”
Haesung curved the corner of his lips crookedly and narrowed his eyes.
A subtle scent tickled the tip of her nose every time he moved, but Yuju didn’t even blink.
“……Did I just hear things?”
Bending down to pick up the pen, Ihyeon muttered in a baffled voice.
“You heard correctly. It’s a matter that requires cooperation.”
Replying indifferently, Yuju smoothed down her cuffs. Ihyeon grabbed the back of his neck and let out a hollow laugh.
“Cooperation? Are you talking about Ha Gyungmoās movements right now, or are the two of you moving in together? I told you to go catch Ha Gyungmo, why are you two trying to catch each other?”
At Ihyeonās outburst, Yuju’s brow narrowed minutely.
“Where on earth did you even get the idea to live with Team Leader Do?” “It’s for operational efficiency. The fastest and most certain way.”
Haesung spoke up.
“I suppose so.”
It was a tone where agreement didn’t sound like agreement at all.
“Fast, and certain.” “……” “And intimate, would be even better.” “Naturally, it will be intimate.”
A joint camp is the most rational transit route, so why are they all acting like this?
Yuju replied calmly, but inwardly she still couldn’t fathom their reactions.
“Did a joint operation mean rubbing shoulders under one roof? I’m new to this field, so I wouldn’t know. Are you planning to merge paperwork, too?”
Ihyeon pressed the back of his neck with one hand. His tone feigned ignorance, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding that he caught her drift.
“Do we need to?”
Yuju asked back, looking genuinely puzzled. She couldn’t understand why he was bringing up administrative procedures that only complicated things and did nothing to help carry out the operation at this stage.
“Team Leader Chae.”
As Haesung spoke, Yuju’s gaze, which had been directed toward Ihyeon, shifted back to him.
“May I ask a question?” “Go ahead.” “Are we currently cooperating or not?” “Isn’t that why Team Leader Do is in this seat?”
Yuju answered as if it were obvious.
If not under the pretext of cooperation, Yuju had zero reason to waste precious time on Do Haesung.
As if he had anticipated that reaction, Haesung lightly rested one hand on the table.
Tap, tap. His fingertips tapped against the desk in an irregular rhythm.
“If opening my master bedroom counts as cooperation, I’d gladly oblige.”
Yuju was momentarily taken aback by those words.
“Just the two of us, very intimately, day and night?”
She felt that their conversation was subtly veering off track.
Just the two of us? Day and night?
Only then did Yuju realize where their questions were heading, and how they diverged from the pretext she had laid out.
Ah.
Yuju slowly shifted her gaze from Haesung to Ihyeon. Ihyeon was supporting the back of his neck, letting out a sigh.
To share the same misunderstanding meant they were ultimately painting the same picture. Even the scenes unfolding in their heads were identical.
Yuju cast another stealthy glance at Haesung. Resting his chin on the armrest, Haesung merely raised the corner of his lips, waiting for Yuju’s reaction.
That gaze seemed to say, “Go ahead and make your excuse.” Yuju felt a cold sweat run down her spine.
Sensing that thinking any further about it would spell trouble, Yuju cut her thoughts right there.
“……Team Leader Do.” “Yes.” “I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
For a split second, the corners of Haesung’s handsome lips twitched like a spasm.
“A misunderstanding.” “Yes.” “Me?” “Yes.”
Though a chill ran down her spine at his low, clipped tone, Yuju straightened her back resolutely.
“You too, Director.” “What did I do?”
Ihyeon asked back, raising his eyebrows in bewilderment.
“If there’s a misunderstanding, please clear it up.”
Resting his chin on the armrest, Haesung slowly lifted the corners of his lips and said quietly.
Yuju took a short breath. Tension crept into her shoulders under Haesung’s unyielding gaze. She frantically thought of various excuses, but in the end, only a single sentence slipped past her lips.
“I never said I wanted to live with Team Leader Do alone.”
Yuju continued crisply. For a moment, the air froze strangely.
At those words, Ihyeon dropped his hand from the back of his neck with a stiff face. His brow was creased into a handsome frown.
“Why are you only mentioning that now?” “I said so from the beginning. Let’s live together, as a group.”
As Ihyeon let out a sigh and grumbled, Yuju added with an aggrieved expression.
“That ‘we’ includes both teams. All nine of us.”
Ihyeon swept his entire face down with his palm.
The self-reproach of ‘Am I the only piece of trash here, am I the only one with a dirty mind?’ was glaringly obvious on his face.
Haesung chuckled briefly at that. There was almost no sound; just his broad shoulders shaking minutely once.
Pressing the back of his hand firmly against his lips to lower his gaze, he couldn’t hide the corners of his lips curving upward into an arc, seemingly dumbfounded by Yujuās bizarre and brazen idea.
“Since when has the unit of ‘we’ been so expansive?” “It was the ‘we’ of We Are the World.” “……” “Because the global village is one.” “I suppose so.”
Haesung gave a short nod. It was an attitude that felt very light and devoid of lingering attachment.
It sounds so cool just listening to the wordsā
At that exact moment, Yuju noticed that the tip of Haesung’s jaw was tightly clenched. Global village my foot, that was the expression of a man holding onto a whole cartload of lingering resentment. Even while nodding, Haesung looked thoroughly unconvinced.
Haesung’s gaze, trailing past his low-subsided laughter, tenaciously mapped out Yuju’s face.
The gaze, lingering heavily as if it wanted to devour that brazen expression with just his eyes, soon slowly drifted away as if with a hint of regret.
“……Right. Whole-team joint lodging. Nine people. So, you’re planning to move into the Songdo safehouse?”
After watching the strange current flowing between the two for a good while, Ihyeon finally couldn’t hold it in and let out a short sigh.
“The Director will arrange it for us.” “What?”
Ihyeon irritably yanked off his glasses.
“That place lacks mobility. It’s too far from the Gujong Cathedral.” “……” “We need an unofficial safehouse. You probably won’t be able to get approval from the Vice Director anyway. You know where the reporting line goes the moment all of Black Core is put on that roster.”
Ihyeon closed his mouth for a moment.
“So…… you’re asking me to buy you a house right now?”
“I’m asking you to arrange it under the Director’s name.” “That’s the same thing!” “It’s different. It falls under the Director’s registry, the Director’s property tax, and the Director’s comprehensive real estate tax brackets. Think of it as preparing for your retirement fund?” “She’s finally lost it. She’s definitely out of her mind.”
Ihyeon slowly covered his face with one hand. His temples were twitching violently, as if a genuine headache was washing over him.
On the other hand, Haesung beside him shook his shoulders once more. This time, he didn’t even bother hiding his mouth with the back of his hand like before. He didn’t look like he had any intention of hiding an outright burst of laughter.
“……Team Leader Do.”
Ihyeon finally glared at Haesung through his fingers.
“Yes.”
Haesung met his gaze unconcernedly. Playfulness still lingered in his eyes.
“Control her a bit.” “Team Leader Chae’s point makes sense, though.”
Haesung smiled and leaned his head slightly toward Yuju.
The corners of his lips were still curved in an arc, but his gaze beyond the playfulness was sharp somewhere. It lingered persistently, as if determined to peer right through the thoughts Yuju was trying to hide.
“……Just stay still.”
At Haesung’s unflappable attitude, Ihyeon gritted his teeth with a feeling that his soul was leaving his body. When he muttered low, Haesung finally shut his mouth obediently.
After swallowing his laughter quietly for a moment, Haesung looked back at Yuju.
“……”
Yuju tried to gauge Haesung’s inner thoughts, but the mysterious smile left at the edge of those lips only grated on her nerves.
Ultimately, Ihyeon hollowly pulled his hand away from his face. Then, passing by Haesung, he cast his gaze toward Yuju, who was looking back at him with total brazenness.
“How much?”
A voice heavily laden with resignation slipped out.
The tension drained right out of Yuju’s shoulders.
She neatly folded both hands over her knees and bowed her head forward by precisely 15 degrees.
It was the posture of a subordinate more respectful than any other in the world.
“After taxes…… about a year’s worth of the Director’s performance bonus?” “In your imagination, what is my annual salary, around 10 billion won?” “Roughly 800 million won.”
At that instant, Yuju’s folded waist straightened out stiffly as if measured by a ruler. A covert ambition quietly seeped into her eyes.
800 million.
A piety born of capitalism wrapped tightly around her entire body without a single gap.
An amount that would make one naturally drop to their knees and stir up religious faith where none existed before.
It was a figure that would make calling Ihyeon ‘our father’ for the rest of her life not nearly enough.
Pft. Haesung’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily as a low, deep chuckle spilled out.
He didn’t even show a hint of trying to reel the sound back in. With the corners of his eyes folded into arcs, he simply stared piercingly into Yuju’s face.
Faced with the number 800 million, Chae Yuju had straightened her back and brought her hands together in front of her.
Haesung lightly propped his chin with the back of his hand, keeping his gaze locked on Yuju.
In his life, he had seen all sorts of people.
He had seen people who threw around 800 million without batting an eye, and he had seen people who crumbled over smaller sums of money. But a person who applied to both categories at once? She was the first.
It was a peculiar thing. To dismiss it as simply funny didn’t cut it; for some reason, he didn’t want to look away from her.
The playfulness had vanished before he knew it. Instead, that space was filled entirely with the thought that he wanted to delve deeper into this woman.
