Chapter 17
Strange rumors had followed him, but Yugam himself had cared about nothing except classes and the library.
A man with a clean private life who focused only on work.
That was exactly Jiwon's ideal type.
She had been told that if she endured one year managing the Jeju hotel, she would be promoted to vice-president level at headquarters.
She was bored and stressed from working late nights.
Now her eyes sparkled as she looked at Yugam.
“Right. This is your family's hotel.”
Yugam barely looked at her.
His gaze was as cold as always.
“You coming here makes our hotel shine.”
Jiwon smiled brightly.
“Visit more often.”
He's even more handsome than a few years ago.
She couldn't stop looking at him.
With his perfectly fitted suit, he looked even more impressive.
But Yugam's attention was entirely somewhere else.
“Oh, right.”
Jiwon stepped closer.
“You heard I got promoted to executive director, right?”
She smiled.
“Where does KE Group hold its events or employee workshops these days? I'll give you a special promotion.”
Then she added,
“Make some time for me.”
“If it's about headquarters business, contact the company directly.”
Yugam turned away.
“I'm leaving.”
“Wait, Oppa!”
Jiwon called after him.
“I'll contact you!”
She watched him with the expression of someone who had just been rejected.
Meanwhile, Jaekyung quietly moved behind a large sofa and leaned against the lobby wall.
They must be close because their families know each other.
Just looking at Jiwon's polished appearance and elegant behavior, Jaekyung could tell she came from an important family.
Nothing good would come from revealing her own existence.
She remembered something classmates from chaebol families had told her at the international high school.
“You have no idea how fast rumors spread among chaebol families.”
“Around here, keeping your mouth shut is enough to get promoted.”
Jaekyung suddenly became worried that her existence might reach Director Jin's ears.
She bent slightly and carefully started walking toward the elevator.
“Seo Jaekyung.”
Jaekyung froze.
Yugam's voice echoed loudly enough to fill the quiet lobby.
“Why aren't you coming?”
Then he added,
“Can't walk? Want me to carry you on my back?”
Jaekyung flinched.
He told her to cooperate quietly until the contract ended.
Did he have no sense at all?
She was desperately trying not to get caught by Director Jin.
Yet Yugam behaved as though none of her efforts mattered.
“I'm coming.”
Jaekyung answered as quietly as possible, worried someone might hear.
She lowered her head and tried hiding behind the suitcase.
But there was no way she could remain invisible.
Jiwon narrowed her eyes.
Seo Jaekyung?
Yugam's attention had been directed toward that woman from the beginning.
The unsteady suitcase suddenly lifted into the air.
Jaekyung's face was exposed.
“Give me the bag.”
Yugam took it.
“It's heavy. Why are you carrying it?”
Jaekyung felt like a soldier who had lost her shield.
Even the suitcase she had been hiding behind was gone.
She shook her damp hair forward, trying to cover more of her face.
“Chairman, you should go ahead.”
“Does your boss have to carry all your luggage too?”
“Give it back. I can carry it.”
Then Yugam frowned.
“Is the leaf on your head decoration?”
He plucked a leaf from the top of her hair.
Jiwon stared carefully at the woman with wet hair standing directly in front of Yugam.
What's their relationship?
She had heard he was traveling with an accompanying secretary.
Jiwon examined Jaekyung closely.
Clear skin.
Intelligent yet sorrowful eyes.
Delicate features.
A slim jawline.
She was obviously beautiful.
Her neat clothes were slightly disheveled.
And the two of them looked less like a boss and secretary and more like lovers having a sharp little argument.
There's no way he's working this late at night with a woman this beautiful.
Were they rolling around in the grass somewhere in the rain or something?
Back in college, even when tall, voluptuous white women approached Yugam in bikinis, he never even looked at them.
And now he was going upstairs to a hotel room with a female employee this late?
They can't actually be dating, can they?
Jiwon wanted a better look at the woman.
But Yugam's broad shoulders blocked her view.
A woman's intuition is never wrong.
Something felt strange.
And unpleasant.
Jiwon wanted to meet Yugam with marriage in mind.
If she waited too long, some random woman might steal him.
She immediately called her mother, Madam Kim.
The elevator doors opened on the top floor.
Jaekyung stared.
Did they combine the entire floor?
Floor-to-ceiling windows looked directly out over the ocean.
The suite had to be at least one hundred and sixty square meters.
But when Jaekyung saw how close the two bedrooms were, she sighed.
“Chairman, you should rest.”
Yugam looked at her.
“Already thinking about resting?”
Then he pointed toward her bags.
“Secretary Seo, organize your things and come out.”
“What?”
Jaekyung blinked.
“I was going to find another place to stay.”
It was late, but she still intended to look for another hotel.
A safe distance between them mattered more than inconvenience.
“This business trip costs a fortune.”
Yugam stared at her.
“And you think you have time to sleep?”
He continued,
“Compile everything we inspected today and make a comparison report.”
“I can probably do that alone.”
Yugam's brow rose.
“So an ordinary secretary is going to handle everything without listening to the chairman's opinion?”
Even Yugam, who had spent the entire day moving nonstop since dawn, let out a shallow breath.
He looked tired.
“No.”
Jaekyung shook her head.
“I meant I'd organize everything neatly so you could review it afterward.”
“Do it with me.”
Jaekyung couldn't argue.
Not after accepting five times the standard travel allowance.
Rrrrrumble... BOOM!
Lightning flashed outside.
Heavy rain hammered the windows even harder.
Going out in weather like this to find another hotel would be a complete waste of time.
Jaekyung stared helplessly at the rain.
Yugam turned toward his room.
“Stop watching the storm.”
He glanced back.
“Take a shower and come out.”
Jaekyung looked down at her sweat-soaked, rain-drenched clothes.
There was no excuse left.
It was past midnight.
Soft lighting filled the huge VIP room.
Yugam loosened his tie and dropped onto the edge of his bed.
He knew Jaekyung had spent the entire day consciously avoiding him.
She reacted so obviously that even the slightest touch made her flinch.
It would have been stranger not to notice.
“Chairman, go ahead.”
He had known she was struggling behind him earlier.
He had deliberately pretended not to notice and kept walking.
Now the sound of water falling in the distant bathroom bothered him.
The shower stopped.
He heard the faint sound of a towel patting wet hair.
Then bare feet touching the floor.
Soft slippers being put on.
Every tiny sound awakened memories of different nights inside Yugam's head.
Back then, he had been taking powerful medication strong enough to stiffen his muscles.
He couldn't remember everything.
But after meeting Jaekyung again, broken fragments of memory had started fitting together like a puzzle.
Five years ago.
Director Jin hadn't known whether to believe Monk Godeok.
She had always been anxious.
Chairman Do had collapsed again.
Then Yugam himself had fainted on school grounds during his first year of high school.
Nobody had been healthy.
After years of psychiatric medication, Yugam had been too exhausted to resist anything.
So when Director Jin arranged the marriage, he agreed.
Their first night.
Yugam hadn't been curious about the bride Director Jin had brought.
Without speaking, the woman had pulled the blanket toward herself first.
The strong sedatives he had developed a tolerance for made his memories hazy.
His body had been weak and numb.
In the darkness, Yugam asked,
“...Does it hurt?”
Not seeing her face had made it easier.
They couldn't see each other's expressions.
That had been a relief.
Keeping the lights off was part of the contract.
In the silence, their fingertips touched first.
Then the backs of their hands.
Yugam had been so sensitive to physical contact that touching anyone was difficult.
But the woman's smooth skin and subtle scent didn't feel unpleasant.
Slowly, hesitantly, Yugam pulled down the thin fabric covering her body.
He couldn't see her.
But her body heat was unmistakable.
Because Yugam suffered from severe cold sensitivity as a side effect of his medication, Monk Godeok had selected a woman whose body burned like a furnace.
The woman's hot breathing gradually quickened.
She moved against Yugam's freezing body.
“Mmm...”
Her heat melted the breath inside Yugam's frozen chest.
The blanket, which had initially moved only slightly, had long since fallen to the floor beneath their increasingly intense movements.
Yugam's hand repeatedly wrapped around the slender woman's waist and touched places hidden from everyone else.
Days passed.
The bedroom lights always remained off.
He had liked that their relationship existed only through a contract.
There was no need to know her face or even her name.
There was only warmth, without identity.
The bed was wide.
There was always an awkward distance between them.
Yet every night, Yugam's icy fingertips and cold breath cooled the woman's burning body.
Whenever they touched, both of them seemed to melt instantly.
At dawn, when the night ended, they turned their backs to each other exactly as their contract required.
As their ten months together approached its end...
Twenty-year-old Yugam began thinking about his wife all day.
A strange tingling feeling built inside him, almost like dating someone.
He started wondering what expression she wore.
One night, he took Jaekyung's hand and dragged it across his jaw.
“Touch it.”
Her fingers moved slowly.
“It's rough.”
“My wife should shave me.”
“I don't know how to shave... and it's dark.”
“Then turn on the light.”
“If we turn on the light... that's against the contract.”
Even those short conversations had started making him excited.
He had begun waiting for them.
Surely it isn't love.
Would our relationship change if I saw her face?
That was why he hadn't looked.
Every morning, his wife was already gone when he woke up.
Sometimes he wondered whether she had secretly looked at his face.
But he never asked.
Then came one particularly unusual night.
Unable to endure his curiosity anymore, Yugam removed the blindfold covering his sleeping wife's eyes.
For the first time, he looked at her face.
“Pretty.”
A small nose.
Full lips.
Everything he had learned only through his hands was exactly where he imagined it.
She looked almost like a sculpture he had created himself.
