Chapter : 6
A week had passed before I knew it.
Life in the penthouse was more peaceful than I had expected, and at the same time, fiercely demanding.
Every morning, I woke up at 5 a.m., prepared a breakfast that felt like preparing for war, and went into the executive director’s ‘royal food taster’ mode.
“Today, it’s kimchi stew.”
“…Thank you for the meal.”
Our conversations were short, but the results were undeniable.
At first, Kang Seo-jun had barely picked at his food with his spoon, but one day, he even mixed his rice into the spicy pork sauce and ate it all. In the end, even the palate of a third-generation chaebol was equalized in the face of the irresistible sweet-and-salty combination.
Could that have been why? The reactions at the company were also unusual.
“Doesn’t Director Kang look healthier these days?”
I heard the female employees whispering in the pantry. I perked up my ears while making a cup of instant coffee.
“I know. He used to look so pale, but these days, his skin is practically glowing.”
“Is he taking some kind of herbal medicine? Or… is he dating someone?”
Pffft. I almost spit out the coffee I was drinking.
Dating? What dating? It was all thanks to my cooking, you idiots. The power of MSG, red pepper powder, and carbohydrates!
‘This is satisfying.’
The fact that my employer, whom I had been practically fattening up, now had a healthy glow to his face made me feel relieved. At least it seemed like I was earning my 300 million won.
But that peace didn’t last long.
As usual, after finishing breakfast, Director Kang went into the dressing room.
I cleared the table while waiting for him to come out. I could do the dishes after work, but I couldn’t miss the carpool to the office.
“Phew….”
A deep sigh came from inside the dressing room. Normally, he would come right out, but five minutes had passed without a sign of him.
‘What’s wrong?’
Could he have an upset stomach? Maybe the stir-fried squid I made earlier was too spicy.
I quietly approached the dressing room and saw that the door was slightly open.
“Director? Are you ready—”
I couldn’t finish my sentence and stopped in my tracks.
In front of the full-length mirror, Kang Seo-jun was struggling with his tie. Two ties were sprawled across the floor.
“Damn it.”
He irritably yanked at the knot. His usual razor-sharp appearance was nowhere to be seen. Instead, his hair was disheveled and his brow was deeply furrowed.
“What’s wrong?”
When I spoke in a whisper, he turned around in surprise.
“Ah. Assistant Manager Lee Da-eun.”
He cleared his throat and grabbed the tail of the tie.
“I have an important meeting today, but I don’t like the knot. The dimple keeps collapsing.”
The dimple. The little crease beneath a tie knot, like a dimple on a cheek. Apparently, he was having trouble getting that detail, considered the finishing touch to a suit’s fit, to look right.
“Should I call Secretary Kim?”
“No. He’s probably already waiting in the parking lot. I’ll just do it roughly and go.”
As if resigned, he tried to tie it casually. But his fingertips were trembling ever so slightly. For a perfectionist like him, that sloppy knot would probably bother him all day.
The moment I realized that, my body reacted before my brain could.
“Wait a moment.”
I strode over and stood in front of him.
“I’ll do it for you.”
“What?”
“Just stay still. I’m good at this.”
Out of habit, I grabbed the tie around his neck.
Back when I had been taking care of my ex-boyfriend, I had tied that jerk’s tie hundreds of times whenever he went to job interviews. Apparently, the effects of that damn early training were still with me.
With familiar movements, I loosened the tie and wrapped it again. I brought the wide end over the top, looped it around once, and slipped it neatly through the inside.
“Could you lift your chin a little?”
He obediently raised his head.
I rose slightly onto my tiptoes and tightened the knot. I pressed firmly into the center of the knot with my index finger to create a dimple, then pulled the tie snugly upward.
“There.”
It was perfect. Seeing the deep, elegant dimple—good enough to be featured in a textbook—made me strangely proud.
“How is it? Perfect, ri—”
The moment I smiled in satisfaction, I found it hard to breathe.
We were too close.
The back of my hand, still holding his tie, brushed against his firm chest. I could feel the steady thump, thump of his heartbeat even through the single thin layer of his shirt.
Trying to hide my embarrassment, I looked up.
Our eyes met.
It wasn’t an ordinary moment of eye contact. It felt as though the air itself had stopped.
“……”
With even the sound of our breathing gone, the only thing I could hear was the ticking of the clock in the living room.
His normally cold, sharp eyes seemed to grow strangely deeper.
His gaze passed over my eyes, traced the bridge of my nose, and settled on my lips, which were parted defenselessly.
His pupils had darkened, like a predator staring down its prey.
His Adam’s apple bobbed heavily.
My heart pounded.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
This was dangerous.
It wasn’t something I could simply dismiss as ordinary excitement. It was an instinctive alarm—the warning of a herbivore standing before a predator.
An overwhelming sense of intimidation, as if I might be devoured.
‘I need to get away.’
My rational mind was sounding an alarm. But my feet wouldn’t move.
I couldn’t move at all, as though I were bound by his gaze.
“…You’re good.”
His voice was lower than usual, and the resonance seemed to travel all the way down to my collarbone, sending a shiver through me.
“You seem to be quite skilled with your hands.”
“Ah, yes. Well… I practiced a lot because of my ex-boyfriend.”
I’m crazy. Lee Da-eun, why would you bring up your ex-boyfriend right now?
I wanted to bite my own tongue.
His eyebrow twitched fiercely.
The heated atmosphere plummeted to freezing point in an instant.
As if someone had poured ice water over him, he stepped back, almost knocking my hand away.
“I see. So you’re experienced.”
It almost sounded as though I could hear the fragile atmosphere shattering into pieces.
“We don’t have time. Let’s go.”
He snatched up his jacket and turned sharply, leaving the dressing room.
A cold breeze seemed to blow from his back.
I rubbed my trembling chest.
What had that been just now? Why had the atmosphere suddenly changed like that?
As expected, chaebols were impossible to understand. Their moods went up and down so unpredictably. It was a roller coaster of a roller coaster.
I forced strength into my trembling legs and followed him out.
Inside the elevator, a suffocating silence hung in the air.
I secretly glanced at my reflection in the mirror. My cheeks were flushed.
‘I’m crazy. Why is my face so red?’
It was simply because a handsome man had been standing so close to me, and my body had reacted instinctively. Or maybe my blood pressure had risen because I had been startled by that murderous intensity earlier.
Don’t get the wrong idea.
That man wasn’t my husband. He was my gigantic ‘moneybags’ who held 300 million won and an apartment in his hands. The moment I mixed emotions into this arrangement, I would truly become the ‘lower party’ and end up being dragged around by him.
‘Get a grip. This is just business.’
I shook my head, trying to cool myself down.
When we arrived at the underground third-floor parking lot, I saw the black sedan Secretary Kim had waiting for us.
“Get in.”
Rather than opening the rear door for me, he slipped inside by himself.
What terrible manners.
I opened the opposite door and got into the car.
Secretary Kim glanced at me through the rearview mirror and greeted us.
“Director, your tie looks great. Your style is a little different today.”
He spoke brightly, trying to change the chilly atmosphere, but Kang Seo-jun answered curtly while staring out the window.
“Someone did it for me.”
“Who? Madam?”
“…Just drive.”
He hadn’t said yes, but he hadn’t denied it either.
I awkwardly leaned my head against the window and pretended to sleep.
The car smoothly left the parking lot.
It was thirty minutes to the office.
I had to endure this awkward atmosphere for the entire ride.
I don’t know how long I had been sitting there, enduring the atmosphere that felt like it could freeze at any moment.
Five hundred meters before arriving at the company.
The familiar routine began.
“Stop here.”
At Seo-jun’s command, the car stopped at the entrance to an alley.
“I’ll go in first.”
I hurriedly opened the car door like someone who had been caught stealing.
If anyone found out that I was commuting to work with Seo-jun, my company life would be over that very day.
I had to run the 500 meters at full speed like I was carrying out a covert espionage mission, arriving at the company drenched in sweat before scanning my employee ID.
This was the price of receiving 300 million won and an apartment.
I could endure it…
“Assistant Manager Lee Da-eun.”
I was just about to close the car door when he called me.
“Yes?”
He was still resting his chin on his hand while looking out the window.
His reflection in the glass showed no expression.
But his fingertips were persistently fiddling with the dimple I had made in his tie.
“The thing you did earlier wasn’t bad.”
“…Pardon?”
“Do it again tomorrow. My tie.”
He tossed the words out casually.
“I’ll count it as part of your working hours, too.”
I stared blankly at his profile.
The tips of his ears, warmed by the morning sunlight, were red—just like the day he had ordered kimchi stew.
My heart sank again with a heavy thump.
‘…What was that? That was kind of… human.’
The man who was always like a robot had reacted like that over something as simple as a tie.
Maybe he was a simpler man than I had thought.
“…Yes. Understood.”
I answered quietly, curling the corners of my lips into a smile.
The menu I had ordered for tomorrow morning was refreshing beef radish soup.
And the additional option was a tie.
‘Good. I think I know how to handle him now.’
For some reason, I could suddenly see hope that I might actually make it through this one-year project safely.
“Have a good day!”
I cheerfully closed the door and started running.
The sound of my heels behind me felt much lighter than yesterday.
