chapter 21
[I’m craving some nice clam stew today. Clock out and come with Seung-oh.]
It was already a gloomy afternoon. After reading Ok-soon’s message, Jisoo’s expression soured.
Even if she gave a hundred concessions and agreed to go straight over after work, put on an apron, and cook the clam stew—that part was fine. The problem was that Jisoo couldn’t eat clams at all.
“Clam stew, seriously?”
Her small grumbling happened to be overheard by Jeong-eun, who was passing by.
“Clam stew?”
“Huh? Ah, yeah.”
Jisoo flipped her phone screen down and smiled sweetly.
“My mother-in-law. She says she’ll make us delicious clam stew today and wants us to come over.”
“Wow. She’s so thoughtful.”
“I guess I’m blessed with in-laws.”
“I’m honestly jealous.”
The former team members who used to shriek about her acting like a legal wife while the real Mrs. Yoon was living and breathing—they had all been replaced long ago.
The people here now either didn’t know that Lee Seung-oh’s ex-wife was in a vegetative state, or knew and pretended not to. Either way, Jisoo didn’t care.
Instead of cleaning other people’s houses, she had a cleaning lady hired. The luxury brands she once dismissed as “shallow vanity” now wrapped her from head to toe.
When she walked into the office, everyone stood and greeted her. They acknowledged and even praised all the designs that Yoon Seo-ha had maliciously rejected.
Perfect life. So what if I have to make clam stew? I’d be cooking dinner anyway.
That evening.
Jisoo lugged heavy bags of ingredients and groaned as she rang the doorbell.
Click.
The massive iron gate opened.
To Jisoo, this house was Cinderella’s palace. A stone path through manicured grass. A small pond with koi fish, pine trees, a parasol and table for afternoon tea.
She had come so many times, using “I’m here to see Mom” as an excuse—just to step into that palace.
The dress of “the princess of this house” she had once borrowed was more modest than expected. The embroidery was slightly torn, but it smelled soft and pleasant.
How pretty must the owner be? Like a fairy-tale princess, surely kind as an angel. She was a designer—so cool. Maybe they could even become friends.
But the moment she first saw the owner and her husband, Jisoo’s thoughts completely changed.
Acting so elegant just because she was born to the right parents? If I had married that man, I’d treat him a hundred times better.
That dress was now hanging in the dressing room—shredded to pieces. She didn’t throw it away, because seeing it torn made her feel just as good.
“I’m here!”
“Oh, Jisoo? Your mom’s in the kitchen. Go on.”
Ok-soon yelled without even looking up, her voice mixed with the sound of the TV.
“Huh? My mom is here?”
“It’s nicer to eat together.”
Jisoo hurried to the kitchen. Her mother, Nan-ju, who had spent her life working in other people’s homes, was still wearing an apron, busy boiling broth.
“Mom!”
Nan-ju flinched violently at the sudden shout.
“Goodness! Why are you screaming?”
“What are you doing here?”
“What do you think? Did you buy the clams? Give them here so I can clean them. Sit and rest. Is your husband coming late?”
“He’ll be here soon. I’ll do it—Mom, you should rest.”
“Oh please. Everything’s ready. Just need to wash the clams and toss them in.”
“I said I would wash the clams!”
“Fine, then wash the chives instead.”
Jisoo trimmed the chives in cold water while Nan-ju scrubbed the clams in salted water.
“Don’t come anymore, Mom. Just eat at home alone.”
“It’s easier for you if I come.”
Cooking, cleaning, laundry—even weeding the garden.
Even though Nan-ju was no longer the housekeeper, she still came two or three times a week to do all of it.
Just as she said, these were all things Ok-soon would normally dump on Jisoo.
“…Just endure a little longer, Mom.”
Once Yoon Seo-ha died, everything would be solved. Her shares and assets would all go to Seung-oh, and once Jisoo registered the marriage, her mom wouldn’t have to worry she’d be abandoned.
Jisoo put on an apron and worked hard to make clam stew. But when dinner was finally served, she filled herself with rice and kimchi instead.
Even when they dated, if she made soft tofu stew with clams, she had to eat rice wrapped in seaweed. Nothing had really changed.
“Ah, that was good. I’ve been craving clams.”
Seung-oh hummed a tune as he drove. Jisoo asked cautiously:
“H-hey, oppa.”
“Hm?”
“Can we… maybe… start with a wedding first?”
“You’re at it again.”
At a red light, he turned and jokingly frowned at her.
“I told you—we’ll do everything once we file the marriage. Don’t trust me?”
“I-I do… but still, people at the company might think…”
“Yoon Seo-ha isn’t even in her coffin yet. Having a wedding first would look worse. Anyway, how are the new hires?”
“They’re good. E-except for one.”
“One?”
“You know. The high-school-grad intern.”
“Jo Seo-ha? Why?”
“She has no sense of boundaries. She doesn’t know what she should or shouldn’t say.”
“Hm.”
“I swear—sometimes she’s so smart that it feels like she’s pretending to be clueless just so she can say whatever she wants.”
“Oh, really.”
“And whenever she touches something, it gets messed up, so I told her to just sit still. Guess what she did? She started sitting there drawing designs. An intern.”
“She designed?”
Seung-oh, who had been responding mechanically, suddenly showed interest at the word design.
“Yes. There are s-so many senior designers—”
“Bring it.”
Jisoo stopped talking and stared at him.
“What?”
“She already made designs. Bring them to me tomorrow.”
“There’s nothing special…”
“I hired her because of her design. Bring them to my office tomorrow.”
Ugh, shouldn’t have said anything.
Jisoo leaned back in her seat, too hungry to argue.
“Hello!”
Seo-ha entered the design room cheerfully. The welcome she got was lukewarm at best.
“….”
“Uh… hi.”
Not that she cared.
She sat and opened her design notebook immediately. As usual, she planned to relax and draw until work ended.
“Intern Jo Seo-ha!”
Lee Jisoo waved from her seat, putting extra emphasis on “intern.”
“Yes?”
“Bring me your designs.”
People who had been busy suddenly lifted their heads and stared. Seo-ha froze.
“My… designs?”
“You spent all day drawing yesterday. I’ll take a look. Bring them.”
Bad feeling.
“One moment.”
Seo-ha quickly tore out several pages from her notebook and hid them, then brought only the remaining part to Jisoo.
“Hmmm.”
Barely glancing at them, Jisoo jerked her chin toward Seo-ha’s desk.
“Sit and wait. I’ll look through them.”
Very bad feeling.
Soon after, Jisoo stood up with the notebook. When nobody was paying attention to her, Seo-ha quietly followed.
– Ding.
The elevator doors closed with Jisoo inside. Seo-ha watched it rise until it stopped at the top floor—the CEO’s office—then returned to her seat.
Meanwhile, inside the elevator, Jisoo’s hands moved fast.
“Let’s see. Not this. Not this. This is too good.”
She plucked out every promising sketch, hiding them in a separate file.
When she finished, she tucked the stolen file behind a potted plant and casually walked into the CEO’s office.
“I brought Jo Seo-ha’s designs.”
“Give it here.”
Seung-oh opened the notebook immediately.
But he was disappointed. The basics and sense were decent, but nothing stood out. It even looked worse than the portfolio she submitted.
“Nothing great, right?”
Jisoo put on a sympathetic face.
“She’s never learned properly. I’ll try to teach her, but… honestly, she’s so bad at work that it won’t be easy. It’s only been three months, so the other designers don’t pay attention either.”
“Yeah. Nothing catches the eye. Looks worse than her portfolio.”
His expression was deeply disappointed. Jisoo felt immense relief.
“Told you it was nothing. Don’t worry—there are plenty of designers.”
She reached to take the notebook back.
– Knock knock.
Someone knocked outside.
“May I come in, sir?”
It was Ryu Kyung-joon.
“Come in.”
Kyung-joon entered—holding the hidden file Jisoo had stashed behind the plant.
“Sorry to interrupt. I found this in front of the elevator.”
He walked past Jisoo and placed the file on the desk.
“I believe Lee Jisoo dropped this.”
Jisoo kept a poker face with all her strength.
“This? N-not mine.”
“No, I just watched you drop it behind the plant. Then I picked it up.”
That fox. She was watching?
Jisoo clenched her teeth internally.
“O-oh, that. Give it to me, oppa. It’s nothing, I just put it there temporarily because it was annoying to carry.”
“Wait.”
Instead of handing it to her, Seung-oh opened it.
Inside were sketches. Torn from someone’s design notebook.
“…”
He reopened the notebook he just closed. The paper, the drawing style, the torn shapes—it all matched perfectly.
“Honey—no, Team Leader Lee. Why are Jo Seo-ha’s designs in a separate file?”
“I w-wanted to pick out the good ones… S-since you’re so busy, I thought—”
“Excuse me.”
Kyung-joon suddenly reached in and snatched the notebook.
“What are you doing?”
“I’d like to examine it. Sir, may I?”
Seung-oh nodded, removing any excuse for Jisoo to protest.
Kyung-joon carefully aligned the torn pieces and flipped through the notebook. Even a stranger could tell: the torn pages were MUCH better than the ones left inside.
“But there’s more missing.”
He touched a torn edge.
“Some pages are gone entirely.”
“S-she probably tore them out because she drew poorly. Or didn’t like them…”
“The portfolio she submitted was much better than this. If she didn’t like them, wouldn’t she tear the ones that are still here?”
“H-how would I know?”
Kyung-joon shut the notebook firmly.
“I’ll take this for thorough review.”
“W-what authority do you have?”
“Board director authority.”
Holding the notebook, he strode out—planning to inspect the design room himself and find the rest of the stolen pieces.
