"Director Jeong, Miss Choi Jumi is here." Gwangmi announced. "Please enter."
"Oh my, she's here. Come take a seat, Jumi", her father called out to her.
Jumi walked across the room, bowing her head as a form of greeting to the other people in the room.
Yes, It's him. It's that guy from before. That creepy guy is the one from the Café. What is the probability that we overlapped meeting three times in a row by coincidence? Since becoming independent, I haven't visited my parents' house even once, and it hasn't even been a few days since I started feeling this strange stalking sensation. I know it's him but...
What were the chances of meeting the same person over and over again wherever she goes? Should she really see that as just plain coincidence? It wasn't a big deal that something like this has happened before, so was she being too sensitive?
It's the same man! I'm sure of it!
"Ahem!", her father cleared his throat, scowling at her. Jumi was startled.
"It seems like she had a casual meal with a 'friend'. Here, have a glass of your favorite wine." Jumi's father poured a drink for her.
The regular at my Café, the guy who made eye contact with me at the bar, and the guy behind me today...
They're all the same person!
What's happening?! He's absolutely stalking me!
"Stalking? Having a stalker? That can be a real pain and headache. If the evidence is not clear, it's not easy to get them punished, and even if you have clear evidences, the penalties are usually too light. Anyway, this damn law is so unfavorable to women."
I didn't feel this anxious even when Hye-seon said that, but now...
Could it be a coincidence? Am I overreacting? Just because it happened to me before.
"I'm just sticking close by you, monitoring you as your father. If you decide to get married, you can go out and live your life the way you want to. However, you're still unmarried so you do as I say! That's right, girl. Don't you know how difficult the world is? Be prepared to be independent but if your strong will and stubbornness won't last long, give it up as early as now! Don't get into trouble for doing something that shouldn't be done, and if you just quietly do as this father tells you to, your life will be guaranteed. Why is it so difficult to do that, and you want to go like a dog with its tail on fire? If you just do as I say, life will be easy for you . Why are you running away like a headless chicken? It's pathetic!"
"If anything untoward happens to you and the second you start whining and I hear a complain coming out of your mouth that you are having a hard time, I'm selling the Café and the villa in Hannam-dong all at once. If you're ready for that, then go ahead and move out."
Those were her father's parting words to her when she left their family mansion a few years ago.
It was really hard to get my father's permission, but if he finds out about this, he'll tell me to move back home quickly. How did I get in this predicament? My determination to go against my father's wishes clashes with his personality. The same stubborn characteristic that I got from him.
I can take back what I've said 100,000 times over the day I left home for good. Father asked If I'm certain with my decisions... Oh yes, I'm most certain. Yet, that independence is on a brink of collapsing.
It has been just a few days since I started feeling like something was off, anyway. Maybe I should wait until I'm more sure...
While Jumi was deep in thought, she felt the eyes of everyone around them on her. She raised her head slowly, only to see her father glaring at her for being absentminded in front of his Boss' presence. It was as if fire would spew out of his eyes at any moment.
Those eyes were reprimanding her which meant... 'What are you doing not paying attention?'
The man sitting across from her now changed. Jeong Yoongyo was in the space now where Lee Tae-just was supposed to be. Yoongyo lifted the corners of his mouth slightly and raised his glass of whiskey, as if he was mocking her father's words. His eyes were ice cold steel. Eyes that weren't filled with warmth and had never not had a single enemy in his life, if one were to use a metaphor, those eyes were the doors to hell.
When she came to her senses, Yoongyo was also looking at her with a rather strange expression. It was clear that the man was talking to her and she wasn't minding him.
"...friend."
The sound of the wine pouring into a wineglass and that word shook her from her thoughts.
"Oh! Sorry? I didn't catch that. What did you say?", Jumi asked, startled from her reverie.
To come to her senses, Jumi straightened her head, which had been tilted at an angle and stared directly at him.
"I said that it seems that you're quite close with that 'friend' of yours, Miss Choi", Yoongyo asked in a low voice that sounded foreign to her.
The reddish lips of this man move, holding a new glass of whiskey. It looked like he was reciting it one more time, but spoke softly as she never heard him before. She was a little nervous because his expression seemed to have some kind of intention that she didn't know about.
Is he upset?
She observed him as his strong neck moved as he swallowed his drink. It was an unconscious gaze on her part. The man's piercing eyes never left hers. Her eyes were drawn to his whiskey-covered lips. He asked what the gaze meant by slightly raising his chin.
Jumi got flustered that she blushed. She had to answer his inquiry.
"Ah... yes. We're quite close. That's right."
Her father's angry eyes suddenly flew at her direction, spitting fire. Jumi quickly became smaller at his silent anger as she was asked for not being able to answer properly. It was because her mother was at stake.
I'm a poor fish caught in the net, but anyway, I ended up tricking my father into a match-making game by my mother. So now I'm the one who's going to be reprimanded. Why did mom have to do something that shouldn't be done?
"Oh! I just went out to get some fresh air and we were here for a quick dinner though. I didn't expect to run into you like this."
Why the hell am I explaining to this man?!
Never would've imagined that the date that started on a wrong foot would lead me to meeting him again. However, I don't need to worry too much. It's not like I cheated on him. But why is my heart beating so fast and my hands...
"H-how have you been, Director Jeong? I've been meaning to get in touch with you. I-I was planning on contacting you."
Of course, it was an unspoken lie. Jeong Yoongyo, knew that fact better than anyone else, laughed out loud and smirked.
Wait... he had dimples?!
It wasn't visible before because he never smiles properly and just raised the corners of his mouth. The dimple creeping on both side of his cheek felt somewhat obnoxious. Dimples on that cold, hard face. A face equipped with a variety of handsome features though.
The corner of his mouth would twitch up, but he never smiled properly before... so I never noticed. So he gets dimples on that stern face? He's really got it all, huh? Looks, wealth and stature.
Yoongyo glanced at Jumi's empty wine glass and lifted the wine decanter. She lifted her empty glass as he gestured to pour it.
"You probably drank the same wine with your close friend. Would you like to drink some more?"
"Oh sure, I would love to. It's all right. Thank you."
It was clear that the man who emphasized those two words did not believe the words 'close friend'. He must be guessing the difficult situation she was in, even if he didn't know it.
However, the man didn't elaborate on the topic any further. Jumi felt it the last time they were together, that this man strangely seemed to be able to read through people's mind, but he wasn't the type to bother asking questions.
Is it because he is the type of person who is indifferent to everything, or did he know that it would be better to just keep his thoughts to himself?
Conversations about business between the men continued, and stories about their unknown world were exchanged. Executive Director Choi sometimes filled her empty glass wine and hoped to include his daughter in the conversation. She was too tired from the previous confrontation to respond enthusiastically.
The stalker who seemed to be hovering around her for several days was so annoying that she couldn't even think straight and drink her favorite wine anymore.
Should she ask her mom to look into it? All around her were her father's people. Well, if her mom's finds out, she would be more difficult to deal with than her father, no less. Her mom was also deeply opposed to her independence. While she was alone in her thoughts, the setting on the table changed a couple of times.
Although the center of all conversations was directed at Director Jeong Yoongyo, the talk was mainly in the form of a one-sided conversation with the man just occasionally responding. As he drank whiskey, he only sometimes responded with random questions, and in fact, he listened to the other person pouring out with words that sounded like it seemed bothersome for him to respond.
The man's hazel eyes were sharp to say he was patiently attentive, but his eyes were too indifferent to say he was listening.
Then, suddenly her eyes met his across the table, who was silently holding another glass of whiskey.
He was holding the glass that way that night, too. The man's hazel eyes were not as passionate as crashing waves, nor were they quiet and silent, but it seemed as if she was looking at a deep sea being swept into an abyss. Eyes that cannot be measured or read.
His gaze upon her lingered quite persistently. It was unlike him, who doesn't know her personally, but his eyes cling towards her like a dark shadow, as if he were looking right into her soul. Jumi turned her head away because she can no longer endure his penetrating stare.
The cigarette burning between his long fingers burned tediously. All these different conversations right now was irksome. The people sitting around the table did not notice his boredom, were still busy talking. There was a war about business going on all around this man, but it felt as if Director Jeong Yoongyo was standing alone in a space where nothing was happening and there was no need to lose energy and pour out any emotions.
He's a man who seems to be accurate in everything that he does, and who doesn't seem to even look at anything unless it's valuable.
Well, I don't know if it's Hyeseon's influence, but I wonder why am I making such meaningless assumptions when I don't even know this man. More than that, what does it all mean to a gangster?
"Jumi, would you like to eat dessert? It's your favorite truffle cheese—"
"No dad, this wine is enough."
"You don't come home these days. Your mom had a lot to say to you when she sees you."
Her father smiled quietly and continued to subtly ask questions about her work situation and about why she had not been seen in their family home.
"For a business to succeed only the owner, who has started the business, is busy." Jeong Yoongyo suddenly declared.
Executive Director Choi's sigh was deep.
Naturally, the cigarette between his teeth was placed back on the table. The end of her gaze once again landed on that man, Jeong Yoongyo.
Even though she had not committed any crime against him, or took advantage of whatever caught her eye and she felt like she wants to disperse right away as if she was a felon.
"You told me you enjoyed yourself on our date."
"I beg your pardon, what?", Jumi asked, confused.
"You must enjoy yourself with quite a lot of people."
"Oh no! That's—"
"There seem to have a lot of pleasant encounters."
It was only a little later that Jumi realized that he was saying this to her. After telling him a ridiculous lie about having fun that day, he was quietly criticizing her for appearing in front of him once again tonight just after having dinner with another man.
"Oh, erm..."
"You see, my daughter is really shy. She isn't outgoing and doesn't talk that much. She's always been reserved and has a quiet personality..."
"She didn't seem quiet, though. I bet she isn't shy but it's not about that."
"What?", Jumi frowned, totally dumbfounded now.
Jeong Yoongyo signaled the end of the meeting by extinguishing the cigarette he had smoked not even a few times in the ashtray. The men at the table, who understood what he meant with that gesture, quickly left their seats and prepared to leave, too.
"Oh, you're leaving now? What are you doing Jumi? You should get going as well." Her father nudged her.
"Oh, okay."
Jumi's eyes caught a glimpse of him putting on his coat. Whether it's because he's much taller than the men they're with, or because of his broad shoulders, she can't help but focus her eyes on him whenever she turn her head.
I have nowhere to focus my eyes here.
She also wanted to get out quickly. It was getting uncomfortable.
Jumi stood among the men in the VIP elevator and observed him from his back for the first time.
Even if I hit it with my fist, it would be like a child's baseball bat bouncing on that wide back.
Jumi felt uncomfortable being bathe in that silence, so she continued to think about nothing else. Her body, tired from the several glasses of wine she drank, was looking for a place to lean on, but there was no way she could find such a place in an elevator filled with big, burly gangsters everywhere.
She was breathlessly looking at the dashboard of the elevator heading down to the lobby. She feels like she's getting sick from the alcohol she drank. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally faced the outside air. She followed behind the men and walked with them towards the lobby.
If it weren't for my father, I would have just taken a taxi since Tae-ju left and be gone from here. This is really inconvenient. Geez, this is so awkward. Oh, I just want to leave and can't wait to get out of here.
"Dad, I'll get going now. I'm leaving first. I will take the cab." Jumi whispered to Wooseok, who was walking silently behind his boss.
Since she was an uninvited guest who came without warning in the first place, she didn't want to linger with them any longer.
Her father gave her a knowing glare.
'Don't you have something to tell me before that?!'
"O-oh, no... I don't—"
Jumi knew what it meant but she would not want to stay like this and ride in a car with her father to her parents' house. Thinking about having a three-way meeting with her parents already makes her head hurt.
I was planning to leave quietly, but my father didn't even respond. Those eyes seemed to have a lot to say. As if he has no intention of letting me go like this. If we were left alone, my father would probably ask me about what happened tonight. About who Tae-ju is. It's okay if he'll just ask but knowing him, I will definitely be reprimanded.
"Get home safely, Director Jeong."
"Take care, Boss."
The dark suited men bowed their heads towards Jeong Yoongyo. Jumi who stood behind those men did the same, looking at the ground with bloodshot eyes and bit her lower lip.
I shouldn't have listened to mom and gone on that blind date without telling dad. Now I'm going to be in big trouble.
Suddenly, the Director they were bowing to stopped in his tracks and turned around.
"Miss Choi Jumi."
At the sound of her name resonating clearly, Jumi lifted her gaze from the ground. The mysterious man when combined with the quiet darkness of the night is the same dangerous man who would be useful to be around, spoke to her.
"You're leaving, too. I'm heading towards the direction of your home. It's on the way. So why don't you get in the car? I can give you a ride."
I couldn't understand at once whether it was a recommendation or an order.
"Huh?"
Yoongyo blinks his eyes blankly and his slightly irritated eyebrows show that he doesn't want to wait for her answer. Jumi knew this much at once. This man won't ask twice. Just like he did that last time.
"On second thought, since Executive Director Choi is here anyway, I guess there's no need to do that. I'll leave now. Let's go."
"Ah- wait! Yes, Director. Let me ride with you."
I run quickly towards the car. No, I jumped in it a little too forcefully. I never even had second thoughts. Anyway, I wanted to go home in peace rather than go straight to my parents' house and listen to both of my father and mother nagging me.
The man moved his long body into the backseat. Watching his bodyguard closing the door quietly behind her as if he had been waiting, Jumi became anxious.
Jumi glanced behind as the car started to move away and saw that Wooseok didn't like the idea of her driving home in this man's car.
"If you're headed the same way, could you drop me off where you did last time?"
Jumi's throat hurts from not talking for a long time. As soon as the car door closed, the car left the hotel without delay. A silence deeper than this night settled into the car.
"Thanks for giving me a ride." Jumi sat next to him anxiously.
"Don't you think you should say thank you more politely?"
"I'm deeply grateful. Thank you very much."
Jumi grabbed her handbag tightly. There was nothing else to say in this awkward situation, so the silence surrounding them was even more deafening. There was no reply to the difficult thank you message. Suddenly, she made eye contact with the man beside her in the passenger's seat who was looking at her through the rear-view mirror.
Come to think of it, why did he help me? Unlike last time, he drank too much whiskey tonight. Is he already drunk after a few glasses of whiskey? But to what extent?
Jumi glanced at the seat next to her, where not even the sound of quiet breathing could be heard.
The eyes of the hypnotic man who was looking at her crookedly were fixed on her from the beginning. She flinched. His eyes seemed cold, as if there's no emotion left in them. Eyes filled with emotions that are not particularly favorable. It's as if the emotions to show such kindness doesn't even exist.
But that only makes me more intrigued. Why?
"By the way, why did you help me?", Jumi asked with curiosity.
"Did I? I didn't know that. I was unaware that I was helping you."
He knew right from the beginning that she was in a tough spot after being caught on a blind date without her father's knowledge. The trouble she would have experienced as she was discovered having dinner with another man and suddenly found herself in the presence of Director Choi.
He also knew that I wasn't enjoying myself all that much.
It's just my guess, but being in that awkward position wasn't that fun.
"That's a lie."
He smirked.
Even when he secretly mutters his response, he never smiles. He didn't say anything anymore. He is a quiet, reserved man. No, it doesn't seem like there are no words to tell, but couldn't he at least talk to her?
Jumi doesn't really like guessing.
Maybe I'm reading too much to it? There's no reason this cold-hearted guy would ever want to help me. He made me wait three hours on our blind date, and then he was cold and put me on the spot. I shouldn't let my guard down so easily.
He seemed to have no intention of talking further, which made him use his reasoning skills no more.
Jumi shook her head to clear her mind.
"You can drop me off over there."
I have to go home quickly. Ah, finally. I can't wait to rest properly.
"Your skirt."
"Sorry?"
As Jumi was wrapping up the clustered thoughts in her head and leaning back quietly, she tilted her head towards his direction as his words fell out of nowhere.
The words coming out of his mouth seemed strange. Did he say skirt?
"What's wrong with it?"
Jumi move her eyes to follow his gaze. She was on her way to get out of his car, when she noticed that the hem of her skirt was trapped under his thigh.
"Oh! How did it get there..?"
Jumi pulled the soft flares of her dress neatly together and adjusted her grip, conscious of his gaze still directed at her. As she was tagging the hem of her skirt, his hand carelessly rested on the side of her thigh came into her field of vision. A watch that looked as expensive as the man was visible between the sleeves of his coat.
Ugh, why did my skirt have to get stuck at a time like this?
She was startled as his long, large fingers helped her tag her skirt away from him and turned her head away from him, blushing profusely. His nearness unnerved her. This man seemed to be sarcastic, but for some reason, he didn't say anything or look at her anymore.
"Thank you for the lift. Have a safe ride home. Good night and goodbye."
As he nodded, Jumi bowed her head, and walked towards her apartment building without looking back. She quickly entered the entrance code and went up the stairs.
Haa, I was scared out of my mind. I thought I was going to die with anxiety. He's a scary person to be around with. I was so nervous. Just sitting next to him made me feel terrified. What an intimidating guy. Anyway, how can I explain to dad about what happened tonight? What should I even say to my father?
"Ah!"
The cell phone she was holding fell down the flight of stairs. A subtle cracking sound was heard.
"Oh no, come on! Damn it! Nothing's going my way today!"
As she went down the stairs to retrieve it, pulling her flowing scarf off, she heard the sound of a rustling down jacket coming from above.
Jumi froze.
Huh! There's somebody up there!
What should I do? Call the police? Or just run?