Chapter 7
“Hello, Ms. Kim.”
Ms. Kim was cheerful and friendly by nature, so she was always happy to see Jaekyung.
“Are you feeling all right? This must be bothering you.”
“I was less flustered because you warned me in advance. Thank you for texting me.”
“You don’t have to thank me. Love for your fellow coworkers is love for the nation. I’m on my way to lunch, so let’s go together.”
“I’m still working.”
Yugam was surrounded by contractors and the vice principal, apparently discussing plans to construct an enormous school garden that would become one of the Uitae Foundation’s landmarks.
Focused on his work, he hadn’t yet noticed that Jaekyung was standing some distance away.
“There’s a rumor going around about you and Chairman Do. They say you two aren’t just ordinary acquaintances. People in other group chats are saying that’s why you were hired as his secretary.”
“I’m only helping him temporarily as a temporary employee.”
If it hadn’t been for Juyoung, Jaekyung wouldn’t have known the source of the rumors circulating around the school. In a way, she was better off knowing.
“Oh, really? You’re so capable, Ms. Seo, so you might even become a permanent employee. It’s still a secret, but apparently I might be hired as a permanent teacher.”
“Really? That’s wonderful.”
Jaekyung congratulated the always diligent and kind Ms. Kim with a bright smile.
Juyoung had been struggling with her father’s hospital bills, so this was genuinely good news.
“It hasn’t been confirmed yet. They say there’s only one position, but I really hope I get it.”
“I always thought you’d get it. You’ve worked so hard.”
“It would’ve been nice if we could both have been hired as permanent teachers. If another position opens up, I’ll contact you right away. I know someone in the administration office.”
“It’s okay.”
Jaekyung had surprisingly found that working with the children suited her, and she had once dreamed of becoming a teacher.
But she had no intention of continuing to work for the Uitae Foundation with Do Yugam as its chairman.
The moment she gave Juyoung a friendly smile, her eyes met Yugam’s.
“I’ll go ahead today. Let’s have lunch together sometime. I’ll contact you.”
Jaekyung’s smile disappeared as she said goodbye to Juyoung and walked toward Yugam, who hadn’t taken his cold gaze off her.
“Distracted again?”
“I’m sorry. If you have any instructions, please tell me.”
At Jaekyung’s polite attitude, Yugam didn’t nitpick any further and returned his attention to his work.
The secretary’s duties were several times more difficult than teaching, but she had no choice but to adapt if she wanted to survive.
Eventually, Yugam, who had been constantly watching her with icy eyes, and Chief Kwon left the school for an external meeting.
Once classes ended and the students’ chatter disappeared from the school grounds where Jaekyung herself had once studied, she absentmindedly gazed out the window and finally let out a sigh of relief.
The red camellia was the Uitae Foundation’s symbolic flower, chosen by Chairman Do of KE Group, who had founded the foundation.
Patience. Sincerity. Integrity.
It was a fitting symbol for Chairman Do’s business philosophy as a self-made man who had built his company from nothing after losing both his wife and child.
As she gazed almost entranced at the unusually abundant spring blossoms, a memory suddenly came back to her like a coincidence.
Her first year of high school, around this time in March, when winter was beginning to give way to spring.
It had been the day Jaekyung had left school early to go to the hospital.
Under a camellia tree covered in vivid red petals, almost as though sparks had burst into flame—
Wasn’t that where she’d found the fallen boy?
‘Hey, are you okay?’
Jaekyung herself had been suffering from what might have been the flu, and she was dizzy and covered in cold sweat. She wasn’t exactly in any condition to support someone else.
‘Don’t tell anyone. ……Please.’
Swaying from a high fever, Jaekyung had taken the boy’s hand.
It was cold as ice.
‘Let’s go to the hospital. You could die.’
Jaekyung herself was so dizzy that she felt as though she might die. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and blinked.
Her vision was blurry, and she couldn’t make out the boy’s face clearly.
‘It’s okay ……if I die.’
Maybe she’d been hallucinating because she was in so much pain.
The boy whose face she couldn’t even remember had disappeared like smoke.
She might happen to run into him someday.
She had lingered beneath the camellia tree several times afterward, but she’d never actively searched for him.
It was simply a vague old memory that came back whenever she saw a camellia tree.
Is he still alive?
Why am I thinking about something so pointless? ……I should just work.
Jaekyung stretched her arms high once and turned her attention back to the monitor.
After working alone in the chairman’s office, feeling inexplicably relieved as though she’d finally gotten rid of a burden, Jaekyung shifted her gaze from the monitor toward the window.
Tap, tap.
Rain was falling against the window, and the entire world outside had darkened.
As Jaekyung prepared to leave work and opened a drawer, she saw the marriage certificate bearing her signature.
It was only her first day at work.
A long breath that she had been holding in all day escaped her lips.
If I finish the work quickly, maybe I can resign even before the three months are up. And then I can get divorced, too.
‘I’ll work as your secretary, so as you said, please settle everything as though the penalty and the marriage never happened.’
She had acted recklessly because Yugam and the vice principal had both kept bringing up the penalty fee and the audit.
She remembered how boldly she’d shouted despite having no real leverage and wanted to crawl into a hole from embarrassment.
Shaking her head at the memory, Jaekyung was about to shut down the computer when she noticed a file folder whose person in charge was the vice principal—the man who disliked her.
She clicked it.
‘Check every single piece of material related to the vice principal from the past ten years. Don’t miss anything.’
Among the tasks Yugam had assigned her, he’d specifically said there were certain matters concerning the vice principal that required closer examination.
There were thousands of files from several years—records of supplies being issued, staff lists, school event schedules, and more.
The sheer number was overwhelming just from looking at the index.
Jaekyung copied only the files related to the vice principal onto a USB drive.
“Phew… I’ll go home first and finish looking through them there.”
After completing the security check, Jaekyung stepped outside the building.
She received a text from her father.
[I’m sorry, Jaekyung. I’ll try to resolve the seizure as quickly as I can.]
She called him, but he didn’t answer.
During lunch, she had gone to the security team office to see her father, but she’d been told he was out on business and couldn’t meet her.
Jaekyung’s hot sigh emerged white in the cold air.
The sky had darkened beneath heavy rain clouds.
She opened her umbrella and was about to step down the stairs when—
“Oh!……”
The moment her foot slipped, a firm hand wrapped around her waist.
The swift embrace made Jaekyung’s breath catch.
“Are you hurt?”
Yugam brushed back Jaekyung’s wet hair as naturally as though they were an intimate couple.
“No. I’m fine… Thank you.”
She pushed against his solid body and stepped away.
In the damp air, it felt as though Jaekyung’s heated heart, her breath, and even time itself had stopped.
“About yesterday.”
Jaekyung looked up at Yugam, who was gazing down at her.
“I heard I told you to leave. Can you tell me why you disappeared?”
She hesitated.
What was she supposed to say to someone who seemed to know nothing, as though he were her identical twin—or someone who had lost his memory?
“The contract payment wasn’t a small amount. What did you spend it on that you’re still so obsessed with making money?”
The contract money was already long gone.
Jaekyung wasn’t ashamed that he’d discovered how poor she was, so she calmly answered his question about the missing money.
“I have debts. A lot of them.”
Perhaps because she was standing so close to Yugam, heat surged throughout her body.
Jaekyung licked her dry lips.
“You have a lot of debt. So you seduced a doctor as well. And after taking money from me, you abandoned me?”
“…That’s not…”
It was a misunderstanding.
Where should she even begin explaining?
She didn’t trust this man enough to open her mouth and make herself sound pathetic.
“You’re exactly the definition of a gold digger.”
“Phew… A gold digger?”
“How much do you need this time to try seducing another man?”
Jaekyung’s face turned deathly pale.
Because of her father, who had once worked as a host, she had always been uncomfortable even hearing words like gigolo or gold digger, and she had spent her life being more wary of men than anyone else.
Now, she was not merely being wronged.
She was furious.
“Who did I seduce? If you’re that suspicious of me, then file for divorce right now. Why keep a gold digger by your side?”
“I don’t think I can let you go that easily when I’m the one who’s been wronged.”
“What exactly were you wronged over?”
She regretted not having kept the secret contract she’d signed with Executive Director Jin somewhere safe.
She thought she had scanned it, so she searched through the file folders, but perhaps she’d already deleted it.
Not a single document remained.
“The fact that all you took from me was a few pennies is what hurts my pride.”
Their marriage had been a contract they had entered into in exchange for money because they each needed something from the other.
Besides, she hadn’t even seen her husband’s face for ten months.
Even having this kind of conversation was ridiculous.
Such things were only supposed to exist between people who loved each other.
“We… weren’t exactly in a normal relationship.”
“Then let’s have a normal relationship, just the way Seo Jaekyung wants.”
Yugam stood two steps below her, bringing their faces almost level.
“We can either keep living together like everyone else, fighting all the time, or we can break up.”
“I didn’t come here as your wife. I came as your secretary. For exactly three months. And I’d appreciate it if you let me go before then.”
“If I don’t like the way you work, you might not be able to get rid of your penalty even after three months.”
“I’ll work hard.”
Her first day had been anything but easy, but Jaekyung answered firmly, her eyes shining with determination.
Yugam frowned as though something about her answer displeased him and stepped closer.
The pressure of his approach made Jaekyung instinctively lean backward.
“Don’t overdo it. If you work so hard that you stand out, it’ll make me not want to let you go.”
“Yes. ……I’ll take it easy.”
“You look disappointed. Do you want me to become obsessed with you? Looks like you were hoping I wouldn’t let you go.”
Not only a gold digger, and now I’m disappointed?
After hearing the absurd accusation that she wanted him to become obsessed with her and refuse to let her go, Jaekyung’s pride was wounded.
A headache throbbed through her temples, and she shuddered.
“Of course not. Ah!”
As she tried to move farther away from Yugam, she almost fell backward.
Jaekyung’s body was suddenly caught in his arms.
“Don’t seduce me too much. If you don’t want to be called a gold digger.”
“……”
“What are you going to do if some sucker actually falls for you?”
