REH 14

Chapter 14

“I was just going to help her because she injured her ankle earlier.”

Jaekyung, who had been standing beside them, quickly intervened.

“Chairman, it’s a misunderstanding.”

Yugam didn’t even spare a glance at Jaekyung as she defended Mr. Choi.

“It isn’t a misunderstanding.”

Yugam raised his wrist to check his watch before looking at the math teacher again. The second round of performances in the auditorium had just ended.

“Any contact after regular working hours is clearly a personal meeting.”

His icy gaze and voice made it obvious that Yugam was displeased.

Embarrassed, the math teacher scratched his head and quickly disappeared.

Jaekyung looked back and forth between the retreating Mr. Choi and Yugam, who stood there coldly.

“Why did you have to go that far? What did Mr. Choi do wrong?”

Yugam casually looked down at Jaekyung with both hands in his pockets.

“Haa. I warned you earlier.”

“…What warning?”

“Not to create unnecessary misunderstandings.”

Under the lights, Jaekyung’s face flushed bright red.

“Director Jin, you’ve worked hard.”

After arriving at the airport, Jin Hee-yeon climbed into the waiting vehicle.

“How is Chairman Do? Did the school event go well?”

Hee-yeon had just returned from several weeks of business travel in Europe, and the first thing she wanted to check was how her son was doing.

“It seems the Chairman is paying a lot of attention to the school. Several media outlets also covered the event.”

Director Jin examined the materials an employee handed her.

She had felt uneasy when her son told her he was going to become a director of the Euitae Foundation, but since he had said he had no desire to get involved with the headquarters at all, she had no other choice.

Does he dislike working under his mother?

Now that he had returned to Korea for the first time in five years, she intended to let him do whatever he wanted for the time being.

“But the woman beside him… who is she?”

She had already arranged for him to meet the daughter of a minister with marriage in mind, so the shadow of the woman constantly beside her son bothered her.

“Perhaps she’s his secretary? I’ll check.”

“Doesn’t Chief Kwon handle all of his schedules? Tell him to be careful so he doesn’t become the subject of unnecessary rumors.”

She had called her son several times since bringing up marriage, but he had always cut her off, claiming he was busy.

“Are you able to contact Chairman Do?”

“He’s in a meeting at the moment. I’ve been in constant contact with Chief Kwon.”

After ending his contract marriage and sending that girl out of the house, her son had abruptly stopped taking his medication despite the doctor’s objections.

From that point on, he had shown no intention of listening to his mother.

She had already lost track of how many hospitals he had changed since returning from studying abroad.

Should I make him change hospitals again?

“I’m thinking of sending someone to the Euitae Foundation. Look into it.”

“I’ll find someone suitable who is good at reporting back.”

If her son refused to answer her calls, the only way to keep an eye on Yugam on her behalf was to send someone to the foundation.

She couldn’t make the same mistake she had made five years ago.

Since the accident at the gymnasium the previous night, when a crow had landed on the voltage equipment and caused the power outage, Jaekyung had kept her distance from Yugam.

After seeing him corner Mr. Choi, who had merely come to help her, she had been giving Yugam only short answers whenever he spoke to her.

Moreover, perhaps because of the memory of being pressed so closely against him, the office they shared when they were alone felt suffocatingly silent.

An envelope icon appeared on the right side of her monitor.

Jaekyung clicked on her mailbox and found a file related to an internal audit.

[Foundation Event Expense Expenditures]

The sender was anonymous.

She clicked the attachment, and rows of numbers appeared before her.

Event name, outsourced company, unit price.

There was nothing unusual at first, so she scrolled down without giving it much thought.

Then her hand froze.

She noticed that the same numbers were repeated at specific points.

There were screenshots comparing the event supply prices before and after suspicious revisions, a summary showing repeated contracts with companies owned by relatives, and a chart outlining a pattern of falsely deducting portions of contract teachers’ salaries.

And the approval line…

Every single one bore the vice principal’s name.

Jaekyung swallowed hard as an ominous tension settled over her.

If this is what Yugam told me to investigate, then who sent it?

It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Someone who knew Jaekyung must have deliberately sent it.

Jaekyung quickly transferred the vice principal’s documents onto the USB drive she normally carried with her.

The moment she pulled out the USB, it was pushed by the files stacked beside it and fell to the floor.

Thump.

A small ripple of sound spread through the afternoon-lit office like a drop of water.

Just as Jaekyung bent down to retrieve the USB beneath the desk, Yugam bent down from the opposite side at the same time.

The cramped darkness beneath the desk brought back sensations and memories from their marriage, but Jaekyung pretended not to notice Yugam’s cold gaze.

She reached out to grab the USB, but Yugam’s fingertips lightly brushed against hers.

The memory of the previous night returned, and her heart began pounding from that brief contact alone.

“I’m sorry, but…”

Yugam ignored her and covered her hand with his.

Startled, Jaekyung quickly pulled her arm back, but Yugam didn’t move.

“Chairman. I’ll… pick it up.”

“Then do that. Is there a problem?”

“Please move your hand.”

“I will.”

Despite his words, neither Yugam’s gaze nor his hand moved away from her.

They were frighteningly close.

Jaekyung could almost feel his breath against the back of her hand.

“Mistakes at work are fine.”

Yugam spoke in a low voice.

“…As long as you’re careful about emotions outside of work.”

“Emotions?”

“Like trembling over something insignificant like this. Or hurriedly backing away because you’re trying to avoid me.”

“I wasn’t trembling.”

Jaekyung met his icy gaze with a bold look.

“Even now?”

Because of the cold sensation slowly rubbing across the back of her hand, Jaekyung’s skin prickled from the chill.

“You apparently didn’t realize it. This is what emotion looks like.”

“Then I think you’re the one who should be careful about your emotions, Chairman, not me.”

“I know you’re a gold digger, so I’m always careful.”

“Haa…”

Not that again.

Jaekyung was offended by his ridiculous assumptions and accusations.

Even in the small space beneath the desk, her displeasure was so obvious that Yugam could clearly sense it.

Click.

The door opened, followed by approaching footsteps.

“Chairman! Where are you… What are you doing down there?”

At Chief Kwon’s voice, Jaekyung quickly grabbed the USB and pulled herself free from Yugam’s hand.

“Chief Kwon? You’re here? I dropped something, and the Chairman was helping me.”

“Oh. Is that so? It’s almost time for the meeting.”

Yugam was already standing.

He gave Jaekyung a cold look before walking outside without saying another word.

Click.

The door closed.

Jaekyung hid the USB containing the vice principal’s information inside her bag and finally released the breath she had been holding.

She was beginning to feel that there was a limit to how long she could continue living in the same space as him.

She spent several hours buried in a mountain of documents that seemed never to decrease, no matter how many she read and checked.

Then Chief Kwon returned to the office and approached Jaekyung’s desk.

“A business trip to Jeju Island?”

Jaekyung’s eyes widened at the sudden announcement.

“I’ve been assigned some support work at headquarters. It may be inconvenient, but could you accompany the Chairman, Secretary Seo?”

A trip to Jeju could technically be completed in a single day, but traveling alone with Yugam was clearly dangerous.

After what had happened in the gymnasium yesterday and beneath the desk just now, keeping her distance from Yugam seemed like the best option.

“If it’s a school field-trip destination, wouldn’t it be better for a teacher to go rather than me?”

“You were an assistant teacher, weren’t you? You seem like the obvious choice to anyone.”

Jaekyung couldn’t think of a reason she could use to refuse.

“Of course, it’s a day trip, right?”

“Just a moment.”

Chief Kwon leisurely checked the schedule.

“You said you’re visiting a total of twenty places. A day trip might be difficult. I think you’ll need two days, so you’ll probably have to stay one night.”

Jaekyung’s eyes trembled in surprise.

“Twenty places?”

Considering the meeting time and travel time for each company, even at the absolute fastest, it would take at least an hour per location.

And knowing how persistent Do Yugam was, there was no way to predict how long each meeting would last.

‘There’ll be a time when we have to go to the farm in Jeju together.’

He had fed her those unusually delicious tangerines.

Had he planned everything from the beginning to drag her to Jeju?

Just being stuck in the same office with him made her feel anxious and suffocated.

And now he wanted her to stay by his side for the entire business trip?

Just imagining it made her feel feverish already.

Of course they would use separate rooms, but even spending one night there was too much.

“My dad doesn’t allow me to stay out overnight, so I don’t think I’ll be able to accompany him on the business trip.”

At exactly that moment, Jaekyung’s phone rang.

It was her father, who had been out of contact, almost as though he had been listening in on their conversation.

“See? My dad is very strict. He also pays close attention to my schedule.”

Jaekyung deliberately showed Chief Kwon the screen, which displayed Dad, and answered the call.

“Yes, Dad. I’m at work. What’s the matter?”

“Do you happen to have any money?”

Seojun’s urgent voice rang loudly through the quiet office.

Could he be getting chased by loan sharks again?

As always, money was the problem.

He didn’t even know that Jaekyung had been dismissed from her contract teaching position and had become her ex-husband’s secretary, yet he was calling to ask her to lend him money.

A frustrated sigh escaped her.

Pretending she hadn’t heard him, Jaekyung changed the subject.

“Dad, I’ve been assigned a business trip, and apparently I have to stay overnight. So it’s a little difficult…”

“Don’t worry and go. You’ll get a business-trip allowance, won’t you? Ask them to give you some of it in advance. How many days are you going for? Can’t you extend it by a few more days?”

Jaekyung lowered the volume using the voice button, reducing her father’s voice.