Chapter 1: Hello, You Who Forgot Me

“Here. These are tomorrow’s meeting materials. Can you organize them for me?”

Stretching an arm over the partition, Ji-hyun casually tossed a stack of documents onto Yoon-kyung’s desk.

The thick file landed heavily on the back of Yoon-kyung’s hand as she typed furiously on her keyboard. The impact pressed random keys, filling her screen with a string of typos.

“It’s for tomorrow’s meeting, so I need it finished before then.”

Adjusting the blue-light glasses perched on her nose, Yoon-kyung looked up.

“That isn’t my job.”

“Kang Yoon-kyung, you always give the same answer.”

Even though she knew it would never work. Amused by Yoon-kyung’s response, Ji-hyun laughed.

“We’re just too busy. You’re different from the rest of us.”

“I have plenty of work that has to be finished today as well.”

“That’s your problem.”

“Am I supposed to care about yours too, Gwak Ji-hyun?”

The two women’s gazes collided in midair.

“Come on, just help me out. Maybe it’s because of the cold, but I’ve had a headache all day.”

Funny thing to say while drinking an iced coffee in this weather.

“If I were actually good at this kind of work, I’d do it myself. But I’ve only been here six months.”

She might as well have claimed her fingers hurt. Her time at the company had absolutely nothing to do with typing meeting materials.

“You know people like you are exactly what this company needs.”

“As I said, I—”

“This is really important. Kwonseong Group is coming tomorrow.”

Cutting Yoon-kyung off, Ji-hyun deliberately mentioned Kwonseong.

The warmth vanished from Yoon-kyung’s face.

At the same time, Ji-hyun let out a bright, satisfied laugh—a smug laugh dripping with superiority.

“I heard someone from Kwonseong was coming. So it’s tomorrow?”

“I wonder who it’ll be. It can’t possibly be Executive Director Kwon Do-heon himself, right?”

The employees standing beside Ji-hyun spoke his name.

“My fiancé is way too busy for that. Besides, I’d rather not meet him at work. A fiancé should stay a fiancé—I don’t want to see him because of business.”

With an ostentatious smile, Ji-hyun fiddled with the engagement ring on her left ring finger.

“This is for our company—and for Kwonseong as well. You’ll do it for me, right?”

Without even waiting for an answer, Ji-hyun thanked her and dumped the work on her desk.

The two female employees beside Ji-hyun cautiously glanced at Yoon-kyung’s workspace.

Despite arriving earlier than everyone else and leaving later, her desk was always buried under unfinished work. There was always half-eaten kimbap or a sandwich sitting beside her keyboard.

Her desk, tucked into a windowless corner where even the office lights barely reached, was darker than anywhere else.

The pitiful woman the CEO and the princess had blacklisted.

That was Yoon-kyung’s reputation around the company.

“I’m telling you, he’s been so busy since coming back to Korea that I’ve barely even seen him.”

The women who had briefly felt sorry for Yoon-kyung immediately turned their attention back to Ji-hyun.

“I guess having such a capable fiancé can be a problem too.”

“If it were me, I’d feel insecure.”

“I mean, he’s perfect. There’s nothing he’s lacking.”

They eagerly chimed in, praising both Ji-hyun and Do-heon.

Everyone in the company knew that getting on the bad side of the CEO’s younger sister meant ending up treated exactly like Yoon-kyung.

That was why nobody really talked to her anymore.

“Still, he calls me every single day. He’s so sweet.”

Instead of returning to her desk, Ji-hyun remained standing there, deliberately continuing to talk about Do-heon where Yoon-kyung could hear.

“I thought he’d be the cold, distant type.”

“He is—with everyone else. I actually have to tell him not to be so indifferent.”

“I guess even if someone loses their memories, their body still remembers the person they loved.”

At the employee’s comment, Yoon-kyung’s fingertips twitched.

At the same time, Ji-hyun’s smile disappeared, replaced by an icy stare.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that…”

“What are you apologizing for?”

Ji-hyun’s expression softened again as if nothing had happened.

“If he still can’t remember after three years, then he probably never will. It’s unfortunate, but if those memories could disappear that easily, maybe they weren’t all that precious to begin with.”

She looked directly at Yoon-kyung as she spoke.

“But it’s fine. I’ve filled that missing past with so many wonderful memories that I don’t even regret it anymore.”

“R-right. The past is just the past. What matters is the present.”

“Executive Director Kwon must be incredibly busy after returning home.”

Only after the three women finally walked away did Yoon-kyung remove her hands from the keyboard.

She had stopped typing long ago.

Her monitor showed nothing but gibberish.

Ji-hyun always left this behind.

As long as Ji-hyun’s jealousy and hostility continued, neither the endless workload nor the childish harassment would ever stop.

Even after stealing the most precious thing Yoon-kyung had, she still wanted to take away every last scrap of happiness.

Yoon-kyung pressed the Delete key.

The letters disappeared almost as quickly as she’d typed them.

If only human emotions—and the memories attached to them—could be erased just as easily.

She smiled bitterly to herself and closed her eyes as a familiar face surfaced in her mind.

These days, even when she pictured him, she no longer burst into tears.

After deleting every typo, she absentmindedly stroked the tumbler sitting beside her mouse.

Three flowers were painted on it.

The moment her fingers touched the flower in the center, the employees who had gone out for lunch flooded back into the office.

The once-silent room instantly filled with noise.

“So… what happens to us now?”

“What do you mean? Honestly, we’re lucky Kwonseong acquired us.”

“Still, even if they’re the parent company, wasn’t confiscating everyone’s laptops a little much?”

Standing in front of the water dispenser in the break room, Yoon-kyung quietly filled her bottle while the Marketing Team chatted behind her.

It was her department, too.

“I heard someone from Kwonseong’s coming tomorrow. Think Executive Director Kwon Do-heon will come? Apparently he personally oversees every company they acquire.”

“Someone at his level doesn’t come to places like this. He gives orders and signs approval forms. He’ll just send someone underneath him.”

His name kept coming up.

The emotions she’d barely managed to suppress began to stir once more.

Yoon-kyung already knew Do-heon had returned to Korea and taken over as head of the Corporate Strategy Division.

She knew because Ji-hyun had bragged about it endlessly before he even returned.

And because there was someone who had desperately not wanted him to come back.

The thought made her frown.

Just then, her phone vibrated.

She checked the screen.

<You didn’t forget about tomorrow, did you?>

Pretending she hadn’t seen the message, she slipped her phone away and left the break room.

Since the break room on her floor was under renovation, she’d come upstairs for water.

Opening the emergency stairwell door, she headed back downstairs.

“First…”

She mentally organized everything she needed to finish first.

Then, as she pushed open the door—

Her eyes met a man standing in front of the elevators.

“Kang Yoon-kyung?”

“…Senior Kyung-min?”

They recognized each other at the same moment.

Surprised, they instinctively stepped closer.

“What? You work here?”

“Why are you…?”

“I came on business. I was originally supposed to come tomorrow, but the assignment changed.”

“Oh.”

So he was the one coming from Kwonseong.

She nodded in understanding.

“How have you been? It’s been years.”

“I’ve been… getting by. Weren’t you in Human Resources?”

“I was back then. I transferred departments a while ago.”

“To where?”

“Corporate Strategy.”

“You’re still doing well for yourself.”

“I wish. I only came because I was accompanying the Executive Director.”

“The Executive Director?”

“Ah… well…”

Realizing what he’d just let slip, Kyung-min glanced nervously at her.

“Executive Director Kwon Do-heon.”

The instant the name left his lips—

Yoon-kyung froze.

Of course.

She’d even quit because of what happened three years ago.

Why would she be happy to hear his name?

Kyung-min silently cursed himself for his carelessness.

“I’ve been working as Executive Director Kwon’s secretary for the past three years.”

“I… see.”

Forcing an awkward smile, Yoon-kyung tightened her grip on the tumbler.

Her hand trembled.

“I should get back to work now, Senior…”

“Secretary Kim.”

The tumbler slipped from her hand.

Clatter!

It hit the floor with a loud crash.

The lid popped off, sending water splashing across the hallway.

The tumbler rolled across the floor before finally stopping against the wall.

Yoon-kyung, however, could not move.

The voice behind her—

Her racing heart, every nerve in her body, recognized its owner before her mind could.

How… do you breathe again?

She was breathing.

Yet somehow, she couldn’t catch her breath.

The strength drained from her rigid body while the pounding of her heart grew so loud she thought she’d go deaf.

Or… is the ringing in my ears starting again?

“Executive Director.”

Kyung-min looked past Yoon-kyung toward Do-heon.

He had simply been waiting for his superior, who had gone to the restroom.

“Let’s go.”

Do-heon walked past her.

Yoon-kyung remained rooted in place, unable even to turn her head.

His voice was exactly the same—

Low.

Firm.

But his scent was different.

It wasn’t the scent she remembered.

Her trembling arms slowly wrapped around her own shoulders.

He hadn’t touched her.

Yet the place where he’d passed by throbbed as though their shoulders had collided.

Kyung-min looked back and forth between the fallen tumbler and Yoon-kyung, silently apologizing with his eyes.

But Yoon-kyung saw only Do-heon’s retreating back as he disappeared through the opposite door.

A scent she’d never known.

Hair cut shorter than it had been three years ago.

A back that never looked back.

And—

You, who no longer know me.

“…Ha.”

The moment both men disappeared from sight, the strength finally left her legs.

She collapsed onto the floor.

The situation she’d never dared imagine—not even in her dreams—had unfolded before her without warning.

He was the person she’d longed to see more than anyone.

And the one she’d hoped never to meet again.

Because Kwon Do-heon…

…was the lover Yoon-kyung had lost in the accident three years ago.

The man who had once been her entire world.