TUW | CHAPTER 14

Chapter 14

“Half Air, Half Nasal Tone” 

“Perfect!

That’s it!”

“Yes, exactly!

That expression is wonderful!”

Inside the studio, the camera shutters fired off without pause.

“Our Hira, how on earth do you manage such a range of expressions?

I love it!”

The photographer’s voice bubbled with excitement as his finger refused to leave the shutter button.

Hira, in response, lifted the corners of her lips into a soft smile.

“Such a fresh, feminine vibe it fits the concept perfectly.”

Bathed in compliments, Hira posed gracefully for the luxury brand’s pictorial.

Her beauty wasn’t the kind that overwhelmed it was gentle, pure, and luminous.

A delicate prettiness that made people comfortable rather than intimidated.

Recently, she had been chosen as the official model for a brand every actress dreamed of representing.

It all began when she stole the spotlight playing the heroine’s friend in a recent miniseries.

The role, though secondary, drew more attention than the lead herself.

In short, Hira had risen to stardom.

“Hira, hold that, look, it’s perfect!

Let’s take a few more shots.”

“Photographer, if you keep praising me like this, I won’t be able to stop smiling.”

She flashed an angelic grin so sweet it seemed incapable of malice and spoke in a playful, singsong voice.

The entire studio erupted into laughter at her words.

Wherever she went, Hira was the mood-maker.

She never let fatigue show, always encouraging the staff, always bright.

On long shooting days, she even bought snacks out of her own pocket to make sure no one went hungry.

In the industry, she was famous as the angel without wings.

“Last cut, right?

Thank you for your hard work!”

Finally, the shoot wrapped.

Guided by her manager, Jisoo, Hira climbed into the waiting van.

Jisoo had been with her since her debut, always by her side.

“What time is it?”

Gone was the soft, graceful tone.

Hira’s voice turned sharp, impatient.

“Midnight. Why?

Planning to call him again?”

“Ugh, I’m going crazy!

I miss him so much, I could die!”

She ruffled her hair in frustration, her expression raw.

How many weeks no, months had it been since she’d last seen him?

“You know how it is, unni.

Even if I call, he barely answers once out of ten tries.

Unless I go to him, I hear nothing.”

Her pouty lips jutted out in protest.

“But you were gone, remember?

Filming overseas.

I’m sure even the vice president must have felt your absence.”

The new movie had taken her to Canada for over two months.

She had only just returned to Korea, immediately diving into a whirlwind of schedules.

Tonight, she had planned to finally see Dohyun but a last-minute change in the shoot had ruined that hope.

“Tomorrow.

I’ll see him tomorrow, no matter what.

Unni, make sure my schedule is clear!”

After parting with Jisoo, Hira entered the lobby of her apartment building.

“So exhausting.”

Inside the elevator, she leaned her back against the wall, letting out a long sigh.

As soon as she stepped into her apartment, she tossed her bag onto the sofa with careless force.

“Today really wore me out.”

It had been far too long since she’d seen Dohyun’s face the one thing that never failed to heal her.

At her desk sat a small square box.

She opened it, pulled out a cigarette, and placed it between her lips.

Click.

The flame caught.

She inhaled deeply, then exhaled a slow stream of smoke.

“Fuuuh…”

If the public could see her now, they would faint in disbelief.

This image clashed so violently with the pure, angelic persona she had built.

“I thought I’d die.”

There were only two things Hira relied on:

Ahn Dohyun.

And cigarettes.

The longer she went without seeing him, the more cigarettes she consumed.

No matter how many she smoked, though, one need remained unsatisfied.

Loneliness.

Her apartment was cold in the winter, chill in the summer utterly devoid of warmth.

Her father, who had struck it rich in real estate, never shed his coarse, violent temperament.

He beat her mother habitually.

Hira grew up watching her mother’s body covered in bruises, her eyes red and swollen from endless tears.

Verbal abuse, physical abuse her mother lived broken, barely clinging to her sanity.

The only mercy: her father never laid a hand on Hira.

Still, she had been forced to witness her mother’s suffering day after day.

For Hira, her mother had been a friend, a confidante, the only shield she had.

Even when her mother’s mind faltered, her love for Hira had been unquestionable.

But then, one day, the person she trusted most abandoned her.

Her mother succumbed to depression and took her own life leaving Hira behind.

If she had truly loved her daughter, Hira thought bitterly, if she had truly cared shouldn’t she have endured, no matter what?

At just seventeen, Hira had barely begun to process her mother’s death when she was crushed by a terrifying question: How am I supposed to live now?

She felt abandoned, betrayed yet the longing for her mother consumed her.

When thoughts of not wanting to live filled her every breath, she climbed to the school rooftop.

For a fleeting moment, she considered ending it all.

One step forward, and the pain would stop.

On that day, when grief clouded all reason and she longed to follow her mother into the dark, it was Dohyun who pulled her back.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Just that.

A single, ordinary sentence but to Hira, it struck deep.

Those words, urging her not to do it, still echoed in her chest.

Maybe it was from that moment on.

She began to believe this man could protect me.

The girl who no longer wished to live started to change.

Being near Dohyun made her want to stay alive.

Simply sitting by his side calmed her heart.

Dohyun never embraced her, but he never pushed her away either.

Perhaps it was pity.

He, too, knew the ache of a missing mother, so he could never be cruel to Hira.

And Hira knew that.

That was why she clung to him, why she refused to let go of the last rope holding her together.

At least, there was one stroke of luck: Dohyun had never once shown interest in another woman.

Hira knew it as well Dohyun had never seen her as a woman.

But if he ever were to marry someone, Hira was certain the odds were in her favour.

The thought of Dohyun always slipping out of reach made her blood boil with frustration.

She crushed out her cigarette and hurled it into the bathroom trash.

Her flushed face and heavy breaths betrayed her simmering anger.

Tomorrow.

I’ll go see him no matter what.

That night, in a room that felt darker than usual, she hugged a stuffed doll tightly to her chest and drifted into uneasy sleep, trying to soothe her restless heart.

“Who did you say is here?”

“Miss Jung Hira, sir.

She’s on her way up now.”

Even the front desk was used to her by now, waving her through without question.

For a celebrity, lingering too long in a public lobby was dangerous.

And since she was known as an acquaintance of Dohyun’s, no one stopped her.

“I see,” Lee Yeon replied, setting the receiver down.

“Why is she here again?”

From what Lee Yeon could tell, Dohyun never seemed particularly happy to see her.

He never agreed to meet when she called.

Eventually, she would lose patience and barge into the office like this.

“Haah…” Lee Yeon sighed quietly and glanced toward Dohyun, who was seated at his desk.

For some reason, I don’t feel like telling him she’s here.

Normally, it was always Lee Yeon’s duty to inform him right away whenever Hira appeared.

But today, she felt an unfamiliar resistance.

She didn’t want to see Dohyun talking to another woman.

It was the first time she had ever felt like this.

Why was her chest tightening like this?

She only wanted him to eat the food she made, to enjoy it without restraint.

That was all.

But Hira wasn’t just anyone she was a famous actress.

Could Dohyun really be unaffected by her?

Hira was already on her way up.

There was no more time to hesitate.

Lee Yeon had to report it.

Lee Yeon rose weakly from her chair, her body drained of strength, and walked to the office door.

She knocked softly.

“Vice President, actress Jung Hira has come to see you.”

Her voice carried no energy at all.

“Why is she here again?”

Dohyun’s brows knitted into a frown.

And strangely, that reaction lifted Lee Yeon’s mood.

She knew she shouldn’t feel pleased about something like this, but she couldn’t help it.

When Dohyun murmured his acknowledgement, Lee Yeon closed the door behind her.

Almost at once, the sharp rhythm of heels echoed down the corridor.

Hira had arrived her steps growing louder, closer.

“Hello.”

The woman bowed nearly ninety degrees, a perfectly polite gesture.

Lee Yeon, of course, bowed in return.

Yes, an actress was an actress, no matter where she was.

In person, Hira’s features were sharper, more striking than any camera could capture.

Her figure, sculpted and disciplined, practically announced, I am a celebrity.

Even from far away, people would know she’s famous, Lee Yeon thought, her lips unconsciously jutting into a small pout.

“Yes, hello.

The Vice President is on a call right now, so you may have to wait a little.”

In truth, if Hira just turned her head, she’d see that Dohyun wasn’t on the phone at all.

But Lee Yeon had no intention of connecting them immediately.

“That’s fine.

I’ll wait.

I have plenty of time.”

When Hira smiled, her eyes all but disappeared, her dimples cutting deep into her cheeks.

If angels walked the earth without wings, surely they would look exactly like her.

The radiance of that smile was so contagious that even Lee Yeon felt the corners of her own lips twitch upward.

No.

Don’t.

Put them down.

“You know I really like you, Secretary Yoo, right?”

The same line, yet again.

“Ah… yes.”

“When I first heard that Dohyun-oppa had a female secretary, I was shocked!

Pretty secretaries seducing their bosses isn’t exactly rare, is it?

All those slim figures and doll-like faces, desperate to hook a successful man.”

Mm-hmm, sure.

Lee Yeon didn’t bother listening.

She only nodded, mechanically.

“But you’re different!

I’ve never seen a secretary like you.

Always dressed so modestly, long sleeves, trousers… You keep things strictly professional!

And your looks are so… honest!

I really feel I can trust you.”

Honest looks, was it?

Hira had a remarkable talent for sugarcoating insults with a smile.

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Short and firm was the best way to handle this sort

of talk.

Just then, Dohyun gestured from inside, signalling her to let Hira in.

“You can go in now.”

Beaming like a flower in full bloom, Hira swept into the office.

The moment the door opened, her syrupy, half-air, half-nasal voice rang out:

“Oppa~~~!”

Lee Yeon’s eyebrows twitched, and even long after Hira disappeared into the office, they kept twitching in irritation.