Chapter : 01
“An intern?”
“……?”
She had been feeling under the weather since morning because of menstrual cramps. Just as Sea stepped out of the company infirmary, a low, languid voice came from behind her.
Was he calling me?
Sea quietly turned around and saw a broad-shouldered man walking toward her with long strides.
His neatly styled hair and impeccably fitted suit immediately caught her attention.
“Hello, Director.”
Yoon Je-eon, the director.
He was the man who had transformed Taesang Estella, once a non-core affiliate of TS Group, into one of its flagship businesses. He currently headed the Strategic Planning Division here.
Their only interaction had been when they exchanged greetings on her first day at work. She had never had a chance to speak with him separately.
He was so tall that she had to tilt her head back to look at him, and from the moment she had first seen him, she had felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if she had seen him somewhere before.
Of course, there was no way they could actually have any connection.
“Where have you been?”
“To the infirmary for a moment……”
“Ah, the infirmary.”
All of a sudden, Je-eon began taking off his jacket.
Sea stared at him, unable to understand what he was doing.
“Take this for now. I think you should tie it around your waist.”
The oversized jacket caught the edge of her vision, but she couldn’t figure out why he was offering it to her.
“My waist? Why all of a sudden……”
“Hm.”
Je-eon sighed and stepped closer.
At the same time as a fresh, grassy scent drew near, his warm breath brushed against her ear.
Sea flinched and instinctively hunched her shoulders.
“I’m in a bit of a hurry, so I hope you don’t misunderstand this as sexual harassment.”
Before she even had time to react, the sleeves of his jacket were tied around her lower abdomen.
It happened so quickly that she hadn’t even had a chance to move away.
“Take care, then.”
Only after he walked away did Sea notice the dark-gray jacket properly.
That was when she finally realized that menstrual blood had stained her skirt.
“……Oh my God.”
Her quiet murmur trembled slightly.
Without even having time to feel embarrassed, Sea placed a hand over her chest.
Her heart was beating so fast that it felt as though the pounding had penetrated straight into her ears.
Her face grew hot from the unexpected closeness and the scent of him that lingered like an afterimage.
“What’s that around your waist? Isn’t that a man’s?”
The moment she returned to the office, someone approached her.
Lee Hyeong-seok, her senior mentor.
Sea gave him a vague answer.
“I borrowed it because something came up.”
“What happened all of a sudden? More importantly, if you walk around looking like that, people might get the wrong idea.”
“……”
“And the person who lent it to you is a little questionable, too. You asked to borrow something, and he just willingly gave you his own jacket? Who is he? Someone from your hiring class?”
He looked as though he might go confront the man if his rank was lower than his.
When Sea had first joined the company, Hyeong-seok had been particularly kind to her.
He had told her to feel free to ask him anything she didn’t know, day or night, and had even offered to make time to take her out for dinner.
Of course, Sea had never accepted.
After being turned down repeatedly, Hyeong-seok’s attitude gradually became rather sharp.
“Our division director.”
“Our…… Y-Yoon Je-eon, the director?”
“Yes.”
At the unexpected name, Hyeong-seok’s expression gradually hardened.
“There was something on my skirt, and Director Yoon noticed it while passing by, so he lent me his jacket.”
“Ah…… really? Hmm, I see……”
With his reactions seemingly malfunctioning, Hyeong-seok scratched the back of his neck like he had been bitten by a mosquito.
“Director Yoon really is…… quite kind, isn’t he? Right?”
Hyeong-seok gave an awkward smile and returned to his desk.
Sea was about to sit down as well, but she carefully straightened the jacket first, worried that it might get wrinkled.
[You know what I said earlier. I really only said that because I was worried. I didn’t mean anything bad by it. You know what I mean, right? Haha.]
Perhaps feeling guilty about inadvertently badmouthing Je-eon, Hyeong-seok sent her an additional explanation through the company’s messenger.
[Yes, I understand.]
Sea sent back the brief reply and closed the window.
She worked all day with Je-eon’s jacket tied around her waist.
Every time she sat down or stood up, she was acutely conscious of whether the jacket might become wrinkled. Whenever her fingertips brushed against its smooth fabric, the image of Je-eon kindly lending it to her would suddenly flash through her mind.
Even while getting on and off the subway on her way home, she had the strange feeling that she wasn’t alone.
It was an unfamiliar emotion that she couldn’t quite put into words.
After walking for about fifteen minutes from the subway station, Sea reached a narrow, dark alley.
Only when she neared the end of the alley did an old villa come into view, its paint almost completely peeled away.
Sea lived there with her aunt’s family.
Click, click.
With every step she took, old memories slowly began to surface.
On days when she felt particularly unwell, like today, memories of her mother inevitably filled her mind.
Around the time she entered middle school.
[When you run out of money, just text me. Never call…… Okay? Live your whole life resenting your mother.]
Her mother had left the house after leaving behind a single note and six months’ worth of rent in cash.
A single mother, she had frequently dated various men.
Perhaps she wanted to find some comfort from the painful reality of her life through such relationships.
<Sea. I think you might get a new stepfather. This time, it’s for real!>
One of those relationships eventually became serious, but it turned out that the man already had another woman he was supposed to marry.
Consumed by betrayal, her mother turned to alcohol.
<How could he deceive me? How could he do this to me! I’ll never forgive him!>
After cursing the man to her heart’s content, she eventually ended up desperately clinging to him.
And then, leaving even her daughter behind, her mother ran away with him.
Just as the money for living expenses was running out, the hospital contacted her.
—Ms. Kim Jumi passed away today at 10:54 a.m.
The cause of death was acute alcohol poisoning.
It didn’t take Sea long to understand what it meant that her mother, who had abandoned her own child to choose love, had turned back to alcohol.
Her mother had never managed to become that man’s first choice.
“Phew……”
Her chest felt unbearably tight.
“I’m home.”
As Sea opened the front door and stepped inside, her aunt and housemate, Kim Hyemi, came out of the master bedroom.
“You’re back this late?”
“Yes. You haven’t gone to bed yet?”
“I was about to, but I heard someone come in. But what’s that around your waist?”
“Ah, this……”
Sea fiddled with the knot of the jacket.
She had forgotten about it for a moment, lost in memories of her mother.
“I’ve never seen that jacket before.”
“Something got on my skirt, so I borrowed it from someone at work.”
Hyemi added bluntly,
“It’s not like you two are close, is it?”
“What?”
“I mean the employee who lent you the jacket. Judging by the size, it looks like a man’s. You’re not involved with him, are you?”
Sea found the intention behind the question somewhat strange, but she didn’t bother asking.
“No, we’re not.”
“Then that’s a relief. You know you’re not at an age where you should be dating men yet, right?”
“……?”
“Unless you want to live like your mother did, don’t ignore what your aunt says.”
Sea’s face burned at Hyemi’s words, especially because her aunt rarely brought up her mother.
Hyemi’s way of speaking had always been ambiguous.
Her tone was difficult to read, as though she was worried about her without actually seeming worried.
Come to think of it, she’d been like that from the very beginning.
After Sea’s mother died, she had ended up living in an orphanage. In the year before she was due to leave, an aunt she hadn’t even known existed came looking for her.
She hadn’t changed much from how she was now.
<You’re Sea, right? I’m your mother’s older sister. Your mother and I haven’t had anything to do with each other for a long time. Your mother was a walking time bomb, you know.>
There wasn’t even the slightest hint of sympathy or compassion in her words.
<Do you have somewhere to go after you leave? If you don’t, you can come with me.>
<Did you come because of my settlement money? There’s not much.>
<Would you believe me if I said no?>
<……>
<If you’re going to stay with us, just contribute to the household expenses every month.>
Sea had been worried that her aunt might take her settlement money, but back then, she had been more afraid of being thrown into the world all alone.
There were four people in her aunt’s household: her aunt, her uncle, and her two male cousins.
Perhaps because her cousins were both large men, the house looked cramped even for four adults.
Fortunately, the eldest, Jun-seong, had recently moved out because of work, so Sea took over his room while attending university and working part-time.
From the moment she moved into her aunt’s house until now, Sea had continued paying her share of the living expenses.
When had it started?
When had that one phrase, always accompanied by the monthly household expenses, begun to sound less like an obligation and more like a small gesture of concern?
And even now—
“Don’t take it the wrong way. I genuinely…… want you to live differently from your mother.”
