Seung-jo returned to his room, suppressing his irritation, and took a shower first.
The outdoor pool at Jeju Seoryang was filled with seawater. The salt that had dried onto his skin made his already unpleasant mood feel even more uncomfortable.
“‘I look forward to working with you’?”
Seung-jo gritted his teeth quietly.
Even after their eyes had met directly, Sonamu hadn’t shown the slightest sign of being shaken.
He was the only one who had been so nervous that he’d nearly forgotten the hotel employees were watching.
With a troubled expression, he reached out. Shower gel with the scent of dried fruit pooled into his palm from the automatic dispenser mounted on the marble wall.
The hotel’s amenities had recently been changed to suit his preferences.
Previously, the hotel had provided amenities from a French luxury brand, but they were more likely to end up in customers’ toiletry bags than actually being used. It was a form of customer service, but it was wasteful.
Besides, he hadn’t liked the fragrance or texture.
Coincidentally, as part of a campaign to reduce disposable products that had been spreading throughout resorts and hotels, Seoryang had stopped providing disposable toothbrushes and shower products.
After thoroughly washing away his unpleasant mood, he left the bathroom wearing only his underwear.
Because the early heat had arrived this year, the air conditioner was already running.
Seung-jo entered the study separated from the bedroom and opened the laptop on the desk. The guest list Team Leader Jang had sent was still waiting for him on the screen.
“So, the guest from Lis Chevong…”
Among the guest names rapidly appearing beneath his dark, deep eyes, he occasionally spotted familiar ones.
Most were famous celebrities or members of wealthy business families. His brows drew together slightly whenever he recognized their names.
But apart from them, everyone else was either an ordinary guest or a member of the hotel. There was no one he could specifically identify as the guest dispatched by Lis Chevong.
The moisture on his body gradually dried under the dry air from the air conditioner.
Lost in thought, Seung-jo tapped his fingertips against the smooth tabletop before eventually calling Team Leader Jang.
[Yes, Director.]
Team Leader Jang answered before the ringing tone had properly finished, his voice as respectful as ever.
“No matter how many times I look, there doesn’t seem to be anyone I can identify as the guest.”
[We’re also trying to determine their characteristics through Lis Chevong’s social media.]
“Hmm… But, Team Leader, do you happen to know the contact number for the head of the Jeju hotel’s Human Resources Department?”
A CEO asking for the HR director’s contact information was practically the same as announcing his intention to interfere with personnel matters.
Team Leader Jang, who was quick to catch on, lowered his voice considerably.
[Yes, I can find it immediately. But if you tell me what’s going on, I may be able to handle it at my level.]
Seung-jo gently rubbed his smooth jaw and tilted his head slightly.
“Then, what about the lounge performers? Are they also handled by the HR department?”
[No. The performers are short-term contract workers, so the lounge manager contacts them directly and reports to the finance department.]
“The lounge manager handles them personally?”
[Yes.]
Only then did Seung-jo begin to understand how Sonamu had managed to get here.
The lounge manager must have heard that unusual name and simply laughed it off without thinking much of it.
If the manager had been even slightly interested in the Korean business world, there was no way she would have heard the name Sonamu without becoming suspicious.
‘Namu contacted me and asked to break off the engagement. At least she has a conscience, I suppose… I was worried they might refuse to accept the breakup and keep begging us to reconsider. Seung-jo, you can relax and focus on your work. Since the reason for the breakup was on Ms. So’s side, we ended things quietly without filing a claim for compensation.’
It had been his mother, Choi Hee-hyun, who had informed him about the broken engagement.
At the time, Hanbin Heavy Industries was on the verge of bankruptcy due to various difficulties, including trade sanctions from China.
Just before the company went bankrupt, Sonamu had contacted Mrs. Choi herself and asked to break off the engagement. Seung-jo had no choice in the matter.
But his engagement to her had been arranged when he was twenty-one—a promise made thirteen years ago.
He had never cared about what kind of financial promises had been exchanged between their families because of their engagement.
‘Who do you think you are to ask me to break off our engagement?’
He had contacted Sonamu in Paris on the very day Hanbin Heavy Industries received its bankruptcy ruling.
‘Thank you for agreeing to break off the engagement. You certainly took your time saying it.’
Her tone had been perfectly polite, but the woman’s voice clearly revealed how much of an inconvenience the whole matter was to her.
It was the first time in his life that his pride had been shattered so completely.
How dare you treat me like this after everything we had been through!
‘I’m sorry if I hurt your pride.’
Apologizing was easy for her, too.
There wasn’t even the slightest trace of sincerity in her voice, and somehow, he was the one who became more furious.
‘Sonamu.’
‘Yes. Go ahead.’
Her obedient tone only made him feel more frustrated, as though he were shouting at a wall.
‘You should have asked Seoryang for help. If you’d just put your pride aside for once, gone to Seogeumjae, and begged Grandpa…!’
‘Begged?’
‘Grandpa would have found some way to take care of at least the debt.’
‘…Mr. Kwon Seung-jo.’
At Sonamu’s soft yet authoritative tone, the hand gripping the phone began to tremble.
He still vividly remembered the expression on his secretary’s face when she brought him coffee and saw him trembling with anger.
‘I have no intention of marrying into your family if I have to go that far. I was never interested in this marriage in the first place. So… don’t cross the line.’
After that day, Sonamu even changed her phone number and disappeared.
He knew she was preparing for a degree at the Paris Conservatoire, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to go looking for her.
Yes. Just as Sonamu had said, he hadn’t been interested in this marriage either.
He had only been angry because he had been the one who had been dumped.
“Team Leader Jang.”
[Yes.]
Coming out of his thoughts, Seung-jo stretched out his long legs and casually rested them on the desk.
He leaned his chair halfway back, causing his half-dried hair to shift and reveal his straight forehead.
“Then, could you deliver my opinion to the lounge manager in Jeju on my behalf? Make it clear that it’s an opinion from the upper management.”
[Of course. How should I convey it?]
The coldness in his body began to heat up again.
It was because he had remembered Sonamu’s shameless, composed face.
“I heard a new performer arrived today… Sonamu.”
The elegant-looking man continued in a cruel tone.
“Tell her to fire that woman. She’s dismissed.”
A beautifully colored non-alcoholic cocktail was placed in front of Namu, who was sitting beneath the air conditioner to cool the sweat that had soaked through to her scalp.
“I’m really sorry. It happened so suddenly.”
The lounge manager, Han Ji-hee, looked good with her short hair. Namu glanced at the name tag hanging from her pocket before giving her a faint smile.
“It’s all right, Manager Han. I should have checked one more time before coming down.”
“Haah, I really don’t understand why such an order suddenly came down.”
Namu took a sip of the brightly colored drink. It had a strange flavor, almost like the cheap snacks she’d eaten as a child. Even the color reminded her of them.
“Anyway, it was our mistake, so they said they’ll provide accommodation and a flight ticket to Seoul. So I hope you’ll think of it as a chance to enjoy a little hotel vacation. I’m really sorry.”
The manager repeatedly apologized with the polite attitude she would normally use with a customer.
“It’s really okay. I wasn’t planning to perform for the money anyway. There are only two of those pianos in all of Korea, so I came because I wanted to play it.”
At Namu’s calm response, the manager let out an even deeper sigh.
“Let’s definitely meet again if we get the chance. There must be some kind of misunderstanding.”
“Yes. Thank you for looking out for me, Manager.”
Namu quietly looked at the woman’s face before giving her a sweet smile.
Perhaps she’d received a call, because the manager fiddled with the earpiece in her ear before answering quietly and getting up from her seat.
The manager lowered her chin slightly in what seemed like a farewell gesture, and Namu bowed her head as well.
Her long, slender fingers tucked the strands of hair that had fallen along her jawline behind her ear.
After the manager disappeared, Namu let out a short sigh.
It had seemed strange from the moment Seoryang had contacted her to ask her to perform.
No matter how unrelated the business division was to Kwon Seung-jo, Seoryang was still Seoryang.
In the end, someone must have recognized her.
‘Then, could it have been that director? Maybe the CEO… Kwon Yi-hyun? Kwon Tae-jo? Or…’
Namu recalled the man’s profile she had caught a vague glimpse of earlier.
Moderately tanned skin, a straight forehead, and a sharply defined nose.
Below it, the deep philtrum and outline of his lips remained as a faint afterimage in her memory.
‘It couldn’t have been Kwon Seung-jo.’
Beyond the window on the right was the sea, while on the left was the indoor lounge overlooking the lobby.
Namu pressed firmly against her eyelids before slowly scanning the occasional guests passing by.
They all had dark hair and different hairstyles, but their overall atmosphere was quite similar.
Their facial features still looked somewhat blurred, like people in an unfocused photograph.
Tiredly scanning the people around her, Namu turned her attention back to the beautifully colored cocktail.
The manager had told her to stay for a few days, but she planned to return to Seoul tomorrow morning.
Rather than spending time here alone, she thought it would be better to go back to Seoul and meet Lee Jun-yeop.
‘Then, shall I go…?’
Leaving more than half of the cocktail untouched, she picked up her handbag and loose sheets of music before getting up.
She also remembered to take the room key the manager had given her earlier.
Perhaps because she’d been unnecessarily tense, she felt more exhausted than usual.
After retrieving her suitcase from the front desk, she habitually lowered her head slightly and walked briskly.
The splendor of Jeju Seoryang might have easily distracted her, but this was a familiar place to her.
So she reached the guest elevator without getting lost even once.
Just as she reached out to press the button for the upper floors, the strength suddenly drained from her arm for no apparent reason.
The strap of the handbag hanging from her shoulder caught around her elbow, and the sheets of music in her hand fell to the floor.
Ha…
Namu stared blankly at the sheet music scattered across the marble floor before hurriedly crouching down to gather it.
Perhaps she’d been cut by the thin paper, because the tips of her fingers stung.
Without even realizing that the elevator doors had opened, she continued gathering the music.
Then she noticed one sheet being stepped on by the tip of a man’s shoe and reached out.
“I’m sorry, but could you move your foot?”
Instead of answering, the man casually pushed the sheet toward her with the toe of his shoe.
The sharp imprint of his straight-tip dress shoe remained clearly visible across the sheet music.
Rude.
Namu frowned and raised her head.
The man wearing a dark navy Brioni suit was definitely someone she knew.
The same man she’d met at the beach lounge a few hours earlier.
He was unusually tall, with clean, sharply defined features. The fact that he wasn’t unfamiliar made him even more unpleasant.
The man bent down and picked up the last remaining sheet of music.
“Here.”
Namu accepted the sheet he held out and placed it on top of the others.
Then she lightly clenched her stiff fingers and dipped her head.
“Excuse me.”
She then passed by him and stepped into the elevator.
Rrrr—
The wheels of her suitcase rolled across the floor.
As she searched for her key card to press the button for the sixth floor, she glanced toward the doors as they opened again.
The man stepped into the elevator and touched the card key in his hand against the slot.
The sixth-floor button lit up automatically.
Then the doors slowly began to close.
Namu stared at the card key in the man’s hand with a sense of disbelief.
The elevator, which she had never once thought was narrow, suddenly seemed to be overwhelmed by the man’s presence.
Something felt strange.
‘Where did my key go?’
Standing in the corner of the elevator, Namu searched through her handbag.
Above her head came a faint sigh filled with irritation.
“Are you looking for this?”
