MHD - 38

Chapter 38: That Night, Our Night (1)

[“I’ll be a little late.”]  

The message from Jae-hyuk arrived just as Hee-soo entered the room. She had hurriedly crossed the lobby and followed the familiar path to his suite—her third visit already.  

The suite looked no different from her previous visits. True to its occasional use as an office, a few reports from last month and half-written notes were scattered on the desk.  

After taking off her coat and draping it over her arm, Hee-soo sat demurely on the sofa, waiting for Jae-hyuk.  

“Did you see it? That huge bouquet he was holding.”  

As she sat quietly in the room, the whispers of people she’d overheard earlier in the elevator came back to her.  

“That’s Vice President Lee Jae-hyuk, right? I couldn’t look directly because our eyes might’ve met.”  

“Yeah, that’s him! I saw him at an event here once. How could anyone forget a face like that?”  

“He has more presence than any celebrity!”  

The women hadn’t recognized Hee-soo, who had concealed her face with large sunglasses and a thin scarf. Though she pretended to be uninterested, bowing her head slightly, the mention of “Jae-hyuk” caught her attention, and she instinctively held her breath.  

“It seems like he came prepared, not caring if rumors spread. A matchmaking meeting at Yeonwoon-am, can you believe it?”  

“Did you see the woman he was with? She was stunning.”  

“Whether she’s gorgeous or not, she must be from a wealthy family. I envy whoever she is.”  

The chatter continued until they got off on a floor below where Hee-soo had pressed her button.  

As much as she wanted to follow them and demand answers, Hee-soo restrained herself and sent Jae-hyuk a message after entering the room: “I’ve arrived.”  

She wanted to confirm whether she had misunderstood their plans. Hadn’t he replied to her earlier message confirming today’s meeting?  

In the same building, at the same time, it was hard to believe that Jae-hyuk was meeting another woman before seeing her.  

Re-reading Jae-hyuk’s message about being late, Hee-soo suddenly felt her strength drain away. Leaning back against the sofa, she let out a long sigh.  

Being late meant he was spending more time with another woman before coming to see her.  

Her chest tightened painfully.  

At this very moment, somewhere in this building, Jae-hyuk was probably sitting across from another woman, smiling and speaking kindly to her—the same eyes that had gazed at her, now directed toward someone else.  

The mere thought made it hard to breathe. To calm her racing heart, Hee-soo pressed down firmly on her chest with four fingers.  

“By the way, I have a woman I’m going to marry. I’m telling you this so you don’t get the wrong idea.”  

He had said he had a woman to marry, then mentioned a matchmaking meeting. Hee-soo recalled Jae-hyuk’s face when he had made his “proposal” to her earlier that day.  

His expression had been calm and composed—almost indifferent.  

When he spoke of “time to part ways,” it sounded more like he was asking for “time to be disappointed in her.”  

“I wasn’t completely unaware…”  

Her long sigh faded, and silence returned. The suite, located on one of the uppermost floors, was eerily quiet, with no noise seeping in from outside.  

Tick, tock.  

Somewhere, the faint sound of clock hands moving echoed softly.  

As the second hand ticked away, Hee-soo absentmindedly began counting—”one, two”—only to lose track and start over. Eventually, she stood up.  

If she had to wait anyway, it would be better to distract herself with work rather than dwell on pointless thoughts.  

Hee-soo pulled out the scriptbook from her bag.  

When she opened the first page of Kang Jae-min’s screenplay, she was startled. She had only intended to skim through it, but she soon became engrossed, unable to tear her eyes away.  

The female protagonist was a ballerina.  

There was no way she couldn’t empathize. Just as she had felt while filming The Fall of Paradise, Kang Jae-min’s female leads often bore some resemblance to her own past.  

The one-line summary described a ballerina who, after injuring her leg, finds redemption through the person who ruined her life.  

As Hee-soo flipped through the script, her hand paused midway.  

[“Seo-eun — Leave me alone. I want to forget everything. You, and the me who loved you. I want to erase it all as if it never happened. I hate you. I loathe you for making me like this.”]  

Hee-soo’s gaze lowered as she read the lines.  

Tak. Without realizing it, she closed the scriptbook. The words felt too piercing, as if they had read her mind, and she couldn’t bear to continue.  

Once the book was closed, the title of the film finally caught her eye.  

[“Working Title — My Beloved, Whom I Despise”]  

Once upon a time—and perhaps still—she hated Jae-hyuk. Even now, resentment lingered in her heart.  

And yet… despite everything, she still harbored feelings for him—for Lee Jae-hyuk.

Lost in the hazy memory, Hee-soo closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the sofa. She was thinking of Jae-hyuk—how he had smiled at her despite his bruised and swollen face after being beaten by his father.  

---

A bluish bruise marked his forehead, and a scab clung to his lip. Jae-hyuk’s once delicate and fair face was now grotesquely swollen.  

Hee-soo’s brow furrowed as she watched him groan in pain, tears welling up in her eyes. She had heard he’d been severely beaten, but she hadn’t known his forehead had been cut open.  

According to Kim Po-dae, blood had gushed from Jae-hyuk’s wound, halting the beating temporarily, and later an ambulance had taken him to the emergency room.  

“Just stay still. Let me finish applying this.”  

Hee-soo gently dabbed antiseptic over the two stitches on Jae-hyuk’s forehead.  

“Aah…!”  

“Sorry. It’s because of me.”  

“Tsk. I wanted to meet you after getting the stitches removed, but…”  

Despite his ghastly pale complexion, Jae-hyuk smiled as if nothing were wrong.  

“It’s not your fault, so don’t think like that. I just couldn’t stand it anymore and stepped in.”  

“…I was fine.”  

“Fine? After being bullied by those girls for years? How could you say you were fine?”  

Hee-soo didn’t yet know all the details.  

The girls who had tormented her had gradually stopped coming to practice, and some even quit the ballet troupe. She had thought it strange until a few nights ago, when Kim Po-dae had rushed to her with news: “Young Master Jae-hyuk confronted every one of those girls who were bullying you, and Chairman Lee is furious! Why did you let this happen? You know how terrifying the chairman can be! You shouldn’t have gotten involved with Young Master Jae-hyuk!”  

“What do you mean…?”  

“Oh no, I’m so scared. A father who beats his own child until he bleeds? What if his anger turns toward you? What should we do, Hee-soo?”  

Nothing else mattered to Hee-soo except Jae-hyuk being hospitalized after such a brutal beating. She even planned to confess to the chairman that everything was her fault, despite not fully understanding how terrifying the chairman truly was.  

For days, she anxiously waited for Jae-hyuk to contact her, pacing near the back gate each night in hopes of finding a way to reach him without drawing attention.  

Kim Po-dae scolded her a few times when she noticed Hee-soo crying alone in her room. Then, one night, Jae-hyuk finally came to the annex.  

It had been exactly a week since the incident. As always, they sat side by side on the rock at the secluded corner of the annex.  

The area was so dimly lit that even the streetlights barely reached them. Hee-soo relied on the faint glow from afar as she carefully changed the dressing on Jae-hyuk’s forehead.  

While Hee-soo cut gauze and secured it with adhesive tape, Jae-hyuk remained as still as a statue, barely breathing.  

“All done.”  

Hee-soo gently pressed the edge of the bandage and pulled away from Jae-hyuk’s forehead. Only then did she realize how close their faces had been.  

Heat rushed to her cheeks, burning hot. She turned her face to hide her flushed cheeks, but Jae-hyuk caught her hand.  

“Hee-soo.”  

He called her name softly.  

Was it moonlight or starlight that bathed his face? Perhaps it was merely the distant glow of building lights. Whatever the source, the light made Jae-hyuk’s eyes sparkle like galaxies captured in a pure-hearted manga hero’s gaze—beautiful and radiant.  

Slowly, Jae-hyuk parted his lips and spoke the words Hee-soo had only imagined hearing.  

“I like you.”  

“…”  

She couldn’t utter a single word.  

Her heart leapt with joy, yet she couldn’t reveal her feelings. As Kim Po-dae had warned, becoming romantically entangled with Lee Jae-hyuk was something she shouldn’t do. She wanted to remain as someone he cherished like a younger sister, forever misunderstood in that way.  

She didn’t know how to handle emotions beyond that.  

“…I don’t know what to say. I’m scared of the chairman, and I don’t think we’ll work out.”  

Though she rejected his confession calmly, deep down, she hoped he would persist. If he did, she thought she might give in and fall helplessly into his arms.  

“It’s okay. I like you, so you don’t have to do anything. Just stay as you are.”  

Jae-hyuk’s words were soothing, as if he had read her mind. Despite her sulky response, Hee-soo knew her face was still flushed and warm.  

“What do you mean?”

“You can be scared, you can be afraid, and you don’t have to accept me right now.”  

“What do you mean? Are you saying it’s okay even if I don’t respond to your feelings?”  

“Yeah. Do whatever you want. No matter what you do, I’ll still like you.”  

Thump. Something inside her suddenly began pounding fiercely, sending tremors through her chest.