TMBF-04

CHAPTER 4

“……Yes. Understood.”

As soon as the call ended, Kwon-yeol turned and headed toward the café, clicking his tongue softly.

‘This took longer than expected.’

A request to adjust the schedule had come from an affiliate of Sayeong Group, which was jointly developing a project with them.

Since the vice chairman of Sayeong Construction had called personally, it was not something that could be handled by the secretary’s office or the working-level staff, so Kwon-yeol had to deal with it himself.

It looked like a simple schedule change, but in reality, it was a struggle for the upper hand.

The vice chairman, who was also the son-in-law of Sayeong Group’s chairman, was skilled at exhausting people with his sly personality and smooth speech before steering the conversation in a direction favorable to himself.

Still, he did not waste time on pointless talk, so Kwon-yeol had thought he was tolerable enough, until—

“How about the conference room at The Lotus Hotel for the venue? We could have breakfast at the same time.”

“My daughter likes the café there.”

“Oh, and my daughter was promoted to managing director this time.”

“I hope our Managing Director Beom will teach her a lot.”

At the unexpected remark, Kwon-yeol was dumbfounded.

Why on earth was he telling Kwon-yeol to teach his newly promoted daughter?

Perhaps sensing his displeasure, the vice chairman stopped just before crossing the line and let him go.

Kwon-yeol quickened his steps as he returned to the café.

He had the strange feeling that he had left a little child alone near the water.

“……”

Then Kwon-yeol narrowed his eyes.

……A little child.

He thought of Hee-jo, who had been sitting by the window.

Her face had become slender as the baby fat had disappeared.

Her light brown eyes were impossible to fathom.

A well-defined nose.

Lips that were always slightly lifted at the corners.

Straight shoulders beneath a pale, graceful neck.

A delicate body without an ounce of excess flesh.

He could not call her a child, not even as a polite lie.

Yoon Hee-jo, who had once bled as she poured out her sorrow, had grown into an adult who could smile as though nothing was wrong even while drawing the lecherous gazes of foolish men.

……But Yoon Hee-jo was still Yoon Hee-jo.

She was nothing more than the little sister of his close friend whom he had to look after in his place.

Repeating that thought in his head almost obsessively, Kwon-yeol entered the café, only to draw a quiet breath when he saw Hee-jo’s profile as she stared out the window.

With her expressionless face gazing into the distance, Hee-jo seemed to be surrounded by an unsettling air, as though she might disappear at any moment.

Was she always smiling to hide that fragility?

The thought came to him naturally.

Kwon-yeol moved his feet again after pausing for a moment.

“Yoon Hee-jo.”

Normally, she would have noticed his approach and quickly turned her head, but Hee-jo did not look at him until after Kwon-yeol had called her name twice, as though she had just awakened from a dream.

“……Oppa Kwon-yeol?”

“Why do you look like that?”

Kwon-yeol sat across from Hee-jo again as he spoke.

“Were you cursing me or something?”

“……”

Huh.

At Hee-jo’s silence, he narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

“So you really were.”

“……No, I wasn’t.”

“You can’t deny it with that face.”

Hee-jo’s eyes widened for a moment before she touched her cheek with the back of her hand.

Seeing the flustered Yoon Hee-jo, Kwon-yeol found himself smiling without realizing it.

She was always so good at acting like an adult, but at times like this, she was exactly the same as when she was young.

Only now did she seem like the Hee-jo he knew, the young Yoon Hee-jo who was honest about her emotions, and somehow, that reassured him.

At some point, whenever Kwon-yeol looked at Hee-jo, he occasionally felt something boiling hot somewhere inside him.

Whenever that happened, an inexplicable sense of discomfort would slowly rise like a haze.

It made him feel as though he were some kind of shameless beast.

Kwon-yeol furrowed his brow.

“Yoon Hee-jo.”

Tap.

He tapped the armrest with his index finger before speaking, unable to hide his displeasure.

“Don’t tell me it’s because of that idiot bastard from earlier?”

At his words, Hee-jo blinked and focused her eyes.

“That idiot bastard……?”

“The one who was slow with his words but quick on his feet.”

Ah.

A look of dismay appeared in Hee-jo’s eyes as she realized she had completely forgotten about her blind-date partner.

She had a class next Wednesday, so how was she supposed to face Director Lee?

No, Director Lee was not the problem.

The problem was Jin Seo-ryeong, Kwon-yeol’s mother and a director.

Jin Seo-ryeong would already know that the woman who might become Kwon-yeol’s wife had come to see Hee-jo today.

She would know what that woman had said to her, too.

“It was nothing more than an unfortunate accident caused by a series of coincidences.”

When Hee-jo remembered Kim Jeong-yeon casually talking about her brother’s death, the anger she had been suppressing all this time suddenly boiled over.

“So I hope you won’t use that as an excuse to approach Kwon-yeol in the future.”

“If you need money, contact me instead.”

Through Kim Jeong-yeon, Jin Seo-ryeong had been speaking directly to Hee-jo.

You are nothing more than a parasite clinging to Kwon-yeol by using your brother’s death as an excuse.

The headache that had already been throbbing since before she met Kim Shin-woo now rang with a sharp, buzzing sound.

Her eyes and throat grew hot in an instant, as though her temperature were rising.

The composure she had maintained all this time shattered, and her reason began to blur.

“Yoon Hee-jo.”

“For my birthday this year.”

Kwon-yeol and Hee-jo spoke at the same time.

He nodded toward Hee-jo as if telling her to speak first.

Her long silence after what he had said bothered him, but for now, he decided to listen to her.

If, if Yoon Hee-jo really wanted that idiot bastard—

“I want to receive my present early.”

Kwon-yeol furrowed his brow.

His thoughts stopped for a moment at the completely unexpected answer.

“……A present?”

“My birthday is in two weeks, you know.”

“I know.”

Even if he somehow forgot his own birthday, he could never forget Yoon Hee-jo’s.

He could still vividly remember Hee-jae, excitedly asking him to help choose a birthday present for his little sister who was turning twenty.

Three days later, Hee-jae died in his place.

On the twentieth birthday that came a week after the day Hee-jae died, Hee-jo held the necklace and letter her brother had left behind in her arms and cried until she eventually fainted in his embrace.

Every one of those moments was still as vivid to Kwon-yeol as though they had happened yesterday.

But the Yoon Hee-jo sitting before him now was completely different from the girl she had been back then.

It felt as though she had transformed from a girl into a woman overnight.

That must have been why he felt that subtle sensation rising like a haze whenever he looked at her.

Once he dismissed it as such, Kwon-yeol felt a little more at ease and decided to focus on Hee-jo’s request.

It was the first time she had ever said there was something she wanted as a present, because she rarely asked for anything.

“What do you want?”

“If I tell you, can you really grant it?”

“Anything within my means.”

Whatever Yoon Hee-jo wanted, whether it was something tangible or money, Kwon-yeol intended to give it to her somehow, even if it was something that could not be obtained in Korea.

He had long been prepared to willingly give her even his own shares if that was what she asked for.

“Then—”

At Hee-jo’s words, Kwon-yeol’s normally expressionless face cracked in a rare display of emotion.

—

Soft lighting wrapped the space in a gentle darkness.

The calm melody of a saxophone and the low rumble of a bass filled the air, making the atmosphere both relaxed and rich.

This was the jazz bar in the basement of The Lotus Hotel, where the subtle scent of leather rising from the dark green velvet sofas sensually mingled with the heavy aroma of well-aged whiskey.

“Are you satisfied now?”

Hee-jo nodded while clutching her cocktail glass tightly.

“Yes.”

“I’ve always wanted to come somewhere like this at least once.”

Unlike the Yoon Hee-jo who usually wore an inscrutable smile, the one sitting here now could not hide her excitement, repeatedly looking around as though everything was fascinating.

It was almost as if she had returned to the time before Hee-jae’s death.

“Then I think it would be better to move somewhere else first.”

“I want to drink.”

“……Drink?”

“I heard the jazz bar in the basement of this café is famous.”

“I’ve always wanted to go at least once…… Do you have any plans left?”

At the words Hee-jo had uttered in the café, Kwon-yeol could not hide his bewilderment.

Perhaps he was flustered, too.

In any case, Kwon-yeol came down to the jazz bar with Hee-jo, just as she wished.

He was the one who had said he would grant whatever she asked for, after all.

Normally, he should have been reviewing the report he needed to submit at next week’s executive meeting, but his plans had changed.

Strangely enough, however, he was not displeased.

Rather, he could not take his eyes off this ridiculous little brat who had grown into an adult with such a peculiar air about her, finding her incredibly intriguing.

“Do you remember the day Oppa taught me how to drink?”

Kwon-yeol nodded.

“You looked like you weren’t getting drunk, so I thought you had a high tolerance, but then you suddenly collapsed and fell asleep.”

“Just like Yoon Hee-jae.”

At those words, Hee-jo’s cheeks flushed slightly as she gave a small laugh.

“It’s strange.”

“My brother was like that, too.”

Kwon-yeol downed the amber liquid in the glass before him.

When Yoon Hee-jo smiled, something deep in his chest tickled.

For some strange reason.

“Oppa Kwon-yeol.”

Hee-jo, gazing as if hypnotized at the strong Adam’s apple moving up and down, opened her mouth.