Chapter: 09
It’s Best to Avoid Dirty Things
Seol-ah walked toward Yuri in heels so high that they looked intimidating. After briefly looking Yuri up and down in her robe, she stepped right up to her. Before Yuri even had a chance to move, Seol-ah slapped her across the cheek.
Smack!
“Ah.”
Yuri’s vision flashed, and her left cheek burned. A vivid red mark remained on the cheek where Seol-ah’s hand had struck her.
“What the hell are you doing…?”
“That’s punishment for ignoring my calls. How dare someone like you….”
Before Yuri could finish speaking, Seol-ah cut her off and spat out what she had to say. Her jawbone stood out conspicuously, as if she were clenching her teeth tightly.
“Hah.”
Yuri let out a hollow laugh, unable to believe what had just happened. Who was the one who actually deserved to be slapped here?
“You…. Are you laughing right now? You’ve gotten pretty bold in the few days I haven’t seen you.”
Seol-ah couldn’t hide her bewilderment when she saw Yuri snicker. She was the one who had slapped her, yet Yuri’s ridiculous reaction had caught her off guard.
Seeing Seol-ah’s flustered expression, a faint curve appeared at the corners of Yuri’s lips. The cheek she had just been slapped on still felt unfairly sore, but the moment she met Seol-ah’s wildly trembling eyes, she felt a strange thrill.
“I think the person who deserves to be slapped is you, Director. And since I’ve already submitted my resignation, I don’t believe I have any obligation to answer your calls.”
“What resignation? Without my permission? I told the head of HR to put it on hold, so come back to work.”
As expected, Baek Seol-ah was a lunatic who would never listen to reason.
Yuri was the only person who had ever put up with that filthy temper of hers. So how disappointed must Seol-ah be now that Yuri was quitting?
As Yuri rubbed her still-tingling cheek, she actually thought this might work out for the better. Since she had already been hit anyway, she might as well put the blame for everything on Seol-ah.
“If you were in my position, could you continue working under someone who slept with the man she was supposed to marry and then lost her temper and slapped you? I can’t.”
“Ah, damn it! That…. I already told you it was nothing. It was just a momentary mistake because I was drunk.”
There she went again, spouting whatever ridiculous nonsense she wanted. Yuri could only sigh inwardly in disbelief.
“Really? Then even if I slept with Vice President Park Hoo-shin, you’d still be able to keep me as your secretary, wouldn’t you?”
Since Seol-ah kept saying things that were completely hypocritical, Yuri thought she needed to hit her with a direct blow. So she deliberately brought up Hoo-shin’s name.
He was the one thing Seol-ah still hadn’t managed to have.
“W-what did you say? How dare someone like you even mention Hoo-shin? Ha! You’d have to say something remotely believable before I could even play along!”
Seol-ah shouted at Yuri. She couldn’t believe Yuri would dare mention Park Hoo-shin as if she were even in his league.
Park Hoo-shin was a man who didn’t even blink at ordinary attempts at seduction.
Seol-ah had tried everything she could think of to seduce him. The men around her would fall for her as soon as she gave them a slight smile….
So why? Why was Hoo-shin the only one who showed absolutely no reaction? Seol-ah was practically burning up inside over it.
Hoo-shin was the hardest man for Seol-ah to obtain in her entire life. That was why she had even been willing to accept a marriage of convenience.
She didn’t care if it was nothing more than a marriage in name. No matter what happened, she was determined to become that man’s wife.
And yet this inexperienced woman, who had never even properly dated a man, thought she could do something with Hoo-shin? To Seol-ah, Yuri was nothing but laughable.
Yuri stared straight at Seol-ah, who was blatantly looking down on her, and opened her mouth.
“Why? Are you saying that because you think I couldn’t do it?”
Yuri still couldn’t tell her what had happened between them. Since she had already signed the contract, everything private concerning Hoo-shin had to remain confidential.
She wanted to tell Seol-ah right then and there that she had slept with the Hoo-shin she wanted so badly, and ask her how she felt about it. But Yuri simply kept her mouth shut.
“You, of all people? As if. Crawl back while I’m still asking nicely. If you don’t want to get married, then don’t. I’ll explain things to Mom for you.”
Seol-ah’s face looked anxious, but she didn’t mention Hoo-shin again.
She needed to put Yuri back under her control and make use of her as much as she pleased while pretending to be generous. So instead, she subtly pressured Yuri by invoking the person she feared most—Joo Sang-hee.
“……”
Whether Seol-ah’s strategy had worked or not, Yuri’s body stiffened for a moment.
Just thinking of Joo Sang-hee made Yuri instinctively flinch with fear.
Unlike Seol-ah, Joo Sang-hee possessed an invisible power that could render Yuri completely helpless. Perhaps because she had controlled Yuri since childhood, Yuri’s body reacted before her will could.
Yuri pretended to remain calm and clenched both fists.
“…There’s no need for that. I’ll go see Madam Joo myself and tell her.”
“What?!”
Seol-ah was momentarily speechless at Yuri’s unexpected response.
No matter what the situation was, Yuri had always obeyed her mother, Joo Sang-hee.
Seol-ah knew that better than anyone. Whenever there was something she couldn’t resolve herself, she would tell Joo Sang-hee everything, and in the end, she always made Yuri listen.
Had the shock of finding out about Yuri’s relationship with Hyun-woo finally made her lose her mind?
“You…. You really have gone crazy. Don’t tell me you actually fell in love with Hyun-woo?”
Yuri clearly didn’t love Hyun-woo.
She had said that the marriage had been arranged because her mother had made a deal with Chief Secretary Jang Moon-soo…. Had Yuri developed feelings for him in the meantime?
In fact, Yuri’s marriage had been something Seol-ah herself had asked Joo Sang-hee for first. She just hadn’t known that Jang Hyun-woo would be the man involved.
As usual, she had brought Yuri along to one of the parties where third-generation chaebol heirs occasionally gathered. Once the atmosphere had become lively, Seol-ah deliberately flirted with Hoo-shin in an attempt to seduce him.
Then she sensed something only another woman could have noticed.
For just a moment, Hoo-shin’s gaze, which was normally indifferent toward women, had settled on Yuri.
The look in Hoo-shin’s eyes when he looked at Yuri was distinctly different from anything Seol-ah had ever seen before.
What was that?
Although it irritated her, there was an indescribable quality to that strange gaze. Seol-ah could sense something distinctly masculine in it.
There was no way an inexperienced woman like Yuri would make the first move on Hoo-shin. But what if Hoo-shin approached her first?
Suddenly frightened, Seol-ah decided she had to make Yuri a married woman. No matter how interested he was, Hoo-shin wouldn’t be able to do anything with a woman who already had a husband.
Yuri spoke to Seol-ah, who was staring at her with a displeased expression.
“Of course not. As you know, my marriage to Jang Hyun-woo was Madam Joo’s decision. I was an idiot for following her wishes. Love? I don’t know what that feeling is, but it certainly isn’t what I feel for Hyun-woo.”
“Exactly. If you don’t love him, then why did you suddenly change?”
“Because it was dirty.”
“What?! You… seriously!”
Seol-ah’s face suddenly flushed red with anger. She raised her hand again and swung it toward Yuri’s cheek.
But before it could reach her, Yuri caught Seol-ah by the wrist.
“Ah! You! What do you think you’re doing? Let go!”
“Once was enough. I don’t think there’s any reason for me to let you hit me again.”
“Ha…. You’re quite something. Are you confident you can deal with the consequences of doing this to me?”
Seol-ah’s arm trembled as she glared fiercely at Yuri.
“I was taught that when something is dirty, the best thing to do is avoid it. I’ll never work under you again, so please leave. Before I call the police.”
Yuri released Seol-ah’s wrist and walked toward the front door. She opened it wide and watched Seol-ah.
“You? Ha. You’ve really lost your mind. Fine, let’s see you try. Do you seriously think you can go anywhere else? I’ll do everything I can to block you, no matter what company it is. So you’d better be prepared!”
“Don’t worry. I’ve already decided where I’m going.”
“Give me a break. Where do you get off lying to me? Ah, poor Mom. She took in an orphan with nowhere to go, and this is how you repay her kindness…. Fine. I’ll wait and see where you end up.”
Seol-ah picked up the tote bag she had casually tossed onto the sofa and walked straight out the front door.
The moment she left, Yuri immediately closed the door.
When the sound of the automatic lock finally stopped, Yuri sank down onto the entryway floor. Her body, which had been forcing itself to endure everything, trembled like a leaf.
Even so, the sense of liberation from finally escaping Baek Seol-ah was more exhilarating than anything else.
＊＊＊
After arriving at work, Hoo-shin spent the entire morning frantically reviewing newly submitted proposals. He didn’t even leave his office for lunch, making do with a sandwich and coffee.
“Ha, this is way too intense for the start of the new year.”
Hoo-shin leaned his head back as if trying to loosen his stiff neck and checked the time.
It wasn’t until almost quitting time that he finally had some breathing room. After stretching his stiff body, he stood up and turned toward the window, where the sun was already beginning to set.
Looking down from the high-rise at Seoul, which was growing dark so quickly because it was winter, he suddenly felt like going home.
The random, absurd thought made Hoo-shin let out an incredulous laugh as he murmured quietly,
“There’s no one waiting for me at home…. How ridiculous.”
Suddenly, he remembered Yuri sleeping in his bed that morning.
“…I wonder if Jin Yuri got home safely?”
She was the first person who had ever slept in his bed. He had never let a woman stay at his home before.
There was no way he hadn’t realized that she had suddenly tried to meet him under the pretext of the contract. The clumsy way she tried to hide it while pretending otherwise had been obvious to Hoo-shin.
She was surprisingly awkward in many ways.
Hoo-shin found it amusing to watch her, so even though he knew what she was doing, he pretended not to and played along.
However, Yuri’s unexpectedly bold behavior, awkwardly trying to seduce him while throwing out such an outrageous condition, had ultimately caused him to lose his rationality.
The fact that the great Park Hoo-shin, who had never so much as blinked at countless temptations until now, had completely fallen for an innocent, inexperienced secretary was astonishing even in retrospect.
Naturally remembering the night he had spent with Yuri, Hoo-shin felt somewhat annoyed.
“Jin Yuri, now that I think about it, she hasn’t contacted me once all day. Shouldn’t she at least have said she enjoyed the meal?”
After checking the metal watch on his left wrist, Hoo-shin quickly turned around.
He slipped on the suit jacket he had left hanging on the coat rack, strode over to the office door, and opened it.
