Chapter : 16
The parking lot behind the police station.
A black sedan stood there, its imposing frame exuding an air of authority.
When I sat in the passenger seat, he closed the door and returned to the driver’s seat.
Click.
The moment the car door closed, the sounds of the outside world abruptly disappeared. The characteristic metallic, fishy smell of the police station was nowhere to be found. Instead, Seo-jun’s heavy, distinctive scent quickly took over the space.
Perfect silence.
A suffocating stillness filled the car.
Seo-jun didn’t start the engine right away. He simply gripped the steering wheel.
His long fingers were clenched so tightly around the leather steering wheel that his knuckles had turned white.
“……”
It was awkward.
Just moments ago, inside the station, he had shouted that I was ‘his person’ and even spoken informally to me, telling me, ‘Let’s go.’
But now that we were alone, where had all that overwhelming confidence gone?
Only a strange silence remained.
He roughly tugged at his tie and loosened it.
Then he lowered the window slightly and let out a long sigh toward the outside.
“Haa…”
The tips of his ears reflected in the rearview mirror were faintly red.
He cleared his throat and spoke, still keeping his eyes on the window.
“Oh, and…”
“…Yes?”
“About speaking informally back there.”
After a brief pause, he casually threw out the words.
“I apologize. It was an act.”
“Pardon…?”
“I judged that a certain degree of ‘method acting’ was necessary for the perfect execution of the contract. It was intended to create a dramatic effect to prevent the value of my collateral as a creditor from being compromised. I hope there will be no misunderstanding.”
Acting.
Performance.
Those words stabbed me right in the heart.
Ah.
So that’s how it was.
Those gentle words he had said at that desperate moment—“Are you okay?” and “Let’s go.”
They had all been calculated business strategies.
I understood it logically, but strangely, a corner of my heart felt empty and hollow.
Even the warmth that had surrounded my wrist moments ago had merely been part of his contractual ‘duty of protection.’
“…Ah. Yes. Thank you. You saved me, thanks to you.”
I nodded, desperately hiding my bitterness.
That’s right.
This man was Executive Director Kang Seo-jun.
The embodiment of efficiency who never wasted even a single minute or second.
But I noticed something.
The hand gripping the gear shift was trembling ever so slightly.
‘…For acting, his hand sure is trembling a lot.’
Whether it was acting or sincere didn’t matter.
The ‘performance’ he had shown me today was the greatest scene of my entire life.
Vroom—
The engine smoothly came to life.
The car glided out of the police station.
I took a deep breath as I watched the gray building disappear through the window.
Maybe it was because the tension had finally been released.
Suddenly, my body began to tremble with chills.
I hadn’t noticed it earlier because of the anger and fear.
But now that everything was over, my body was reacting on its own.
I was so cold that my teeth began to chatter.
‘No. Don’t let him notice.’
I pinched my thigh, trying to stop the trembling.
I didn’t want to show weakness in front of Executive Director Kang.
I’d boldly promised that I would earn my keep, and now I was trembling like an aspen over something like this.
Ding, ding.
A sharp mechanical sound broke the silence inside the car.
The seatbelt warning.
‘Oh, right.’
Cold sweat ran down my spine.
Kang Seo-jun was sensitive to noise.
If this irritating sound continued, it was obvious it would get on his nerves.
I hurriedly grabbed the seatbelt.
The clip kept missing the buckle.
My hands wouldn’t cooperate.
Because my fingertips were trembling, the metal tongue kept slipping past the buckle.
Ding, ding, ding.
The faster the car went, the more frequently the warning beeped.
It felt like a countdown urging on my incompetence.
‘Please… just go in.’
I could feel Seo-jun’s gaze from beside me as he drove.
The thought that he might think I was pathetic made it hard to breathe.
Tap. Click.
I missed again.
My hands no longer felt like they belonged to me.
An uncontrollable vibration, like a malfunctioning machine, traveled up my arms and spread throughout my entire body.
“Haa…”
Seo-jun’s short sigh squeezed between the warning beeps.
I flinched and lowered my head.
“S-Sorry. I’ll fasten it right away. My hand is just a little slippery…”
With trembling hands, I grabbed the belt again.
Screech—
The car pulled over to the side of the road, and my body lurched forward before sinking back into the seat.
The warning sound stopped.
But an even heavier silence descended.
“Executive Director…?”
I turned my head in surprise.
Seo-jun had unfastened his own seatbelt and turned his body toward me.
“Stay still.”
He roughly took the seatbelt from my hands and, with a familiar movement, inserted the clip into the buckle.
Click.
His face was right in front of mine.
He was so close I could see his eyelashes.
His scent suddenly enveloped me, making my head spin.
“Thank you…”
I spoke in a barely audible voice.
He would start driving again now.
I tried to turn my head toward the window.
But he didn’t move away.
His gaze was fixed on my hands resting on my lap.
My two hands were tightly interlocked, desperately trying to hide their trembling.
The knuckles of my pale hands were shaking so pitifully that it hurt to look at them.
“Your hands.”
“…Yes?”
“What’s wrong with your hands?”
“Ah… It’s nothing. I’m just… relaxing after the tension.”
I hurriedly tried to hide my hands between my legs.
It was embarrassing.
My mind was perfectly fine, but my body was acting on its own.
I hated it.
I had wanted to appear composed, at least in front of him.
As I lowered my head, suppressing the tears threatening to spill over, something large and warm covered both of my hands.
“Executive Director…?”
I was so startled that I stopped breathing.
Compared to my ice-cold hands, his were incredibly warm.
The moment that heat touched me, the trembling in my fingertips subsided as if by magic.
He didn’t let go of my hands.
Instead, he held them even more firmly, interlocking his fingers between mine.
“Stop trembling.”
His low, firm voice resonated through the car.
“Those pieces of trash will never come anywhere near you again. My lawyers will stomp them so thoroughly they won’t even be able to pick up their bones.”
He looked straight into my eyes.
His gaze was persistent and intense, as though he was holding onto my trembling eyes.
“From now on, no one will be able to look down on you. I won’t allow it.”
In that instant, it felt as though the wall I’d built firmly around my heart came crashing down.
He had called it acting.
He had called it business.
But the warmth of his hand holding mine right now, the look in his eyes as he gazed into mine…
There was no way I could believe it was merely acting.
‘Why is this man…?’
Why did he keep crossing the line?
He was supposed to be nothing more than a thoroughly calculated partner.
So why did he keep looking at me as though I were truly ‘his person,’ someone he had to protect completely?
It was dangerous.
It felt as though I was the only one desperately clinging to the boundary that said we were nothing more than contractual partners.
If I allowed myself to be deceived by this kindness, I felt like I would be the one who ultimately fell apart.
“Sniff…”
The dam I’d been holding back finally burst.
At the police station, I’d been too embarrassed.
In the car, I’d been too tense.
All the emotions I’d stubbornly forced down finally pushed their way up my throat and burst out.
Biting my lips didn’t help.
Tears streamed down my face, falling beneath my chin.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I wasn’t going to cry…”
I lowered my head completely.
But the tears wouldn’t stop.
The despair of losing 300 million won.
The loneliness of having to fight alone.
And the relief.
All those emotions became hopelessly tangled together.
“Uhhh… sob….”
In the end, I burst into tears like a child.
It was ugly.
My nose was probably running, and my eyes must have been swollen.
I didn’t want to show such an embarrassing side of myself in front of this perfect man.
Tap.
I felt a heavy weight on top of my head.
Seo-jun pulled me toward his shoulder.
My forehead touched his broad shoulder.
He didn’t say anything.
He didn’t tell me to stop crying.
He didn’t tell me I was being noisy.
He didn’t offer any hasty words of comfort.
He simply held my hand tightly and quietly offered me his shoulder until my crying subsided.
I could feel his shirt becoming damp with my tears.
‘This must be Italian fabric…’
The dry-cleaning bill alone would probably cost hundreds of thousands of won.
What if the salt from my tears left a stain?
The calculator in my head was screaming, but my body wouldn’t move away.
His shoulder was too warm.
It felt like the only wall I could lean against.
Pitter-patter.
Raindrops began falling one by one outside the window.
With my face buried against his shoulder, I thought.
A year from now, when this contract ended, would I really be able to live without this warmth?
‘This is dangerous.’
A debt heavier and more frightening than 300 million won was accumulating.
A debt of the heart.
One that could never be repaid with money.
Seo-jun’s hand gently stroked the back of mine.
That rough touch seemed to say:
It’s okay.
I’m here now.
Everything will be all right.
I held his hand back like a lifeline and closed my eyes.
For this moment, this cramped car was the safest emergency exit in the world.
