BR - 55

“Something I desire most right now has appeared, and it’s something I can only fully obtain by having the Baekdo Group.”

“What is it that you can only get by having the Baekdo Group? What on earth is it?”

“One person’s heart.”

“One person’s heart?”

Chairman Baek frowned and questioned her. “Who is it? Is there someone so great that they’re worth the value of the Baekdo Group?”

“Yes, Grandfather. It’s the person whose heart I can only win by having the Baekdo Group.”

“Hmm...”

At Seok-kyung’s answer, Chairman Baek groaned and fell silent.

“I’ll think about it.”

Chairman Baek’s reply after a long pause was neither affirmative nor negative.

“No. Don’t just think about it, please give me your support.”

“You brat. Even when asking for the CEO position, there were so many things to consider and I had to get approval from the board of directors. Did you really think you’d get an easy answer when asking for the entire Baekdo Group?”

Seok-kyung shook her head.

She knew very well that her words to Chairman Baek were nothing more than a childish demand.

Still, like Chairman Baek said, she needed to convey that he, who had shown lukewarm interest and attitude towards the group’s affairs until now, desperately wanted the group.

If the Baekdo Group disappeared from him as Eun-chae worried, she would be nothing and unable to protect her, so she definitely intended to make the Baekdo Group her own.

So that she would never worry. So that she could unconditionally rely on and trust her.

“Please.”

Seok-kyung bowed her head towards Chairman Baek with earnest sincerity.

To turn back even the slightest inclination of Chairman Baek’s heart towards someone else instead of him.

________________________________________

She thought the longing for Seok-kyung would fade with each passing day, but instead, it only grew deeper.

Her concentration at work also decreased, and she often found herself blankly staring out the window or at the monitor, frequently getting scolded by Assistant Manager Lee.

Today, after another round of scolding from Assistant Manager Lee in the afternoon, a company dinner was arranged at the mediation of the section chief who had briefly come out of his office.

“Come on, let’s drink and let it all out. This guy has a bit of a temper, Eun-chae-ssi, please understand.”

Section Chief Kim said, filling Eun-chae’s glass.

Eun-chae hadn’t wanted to join this gathering, but she had reluctantly come because they said it was also a congratulatory party for her joining the company.

Whether it was because she had only managed to eat a few pieces of grilled tripe, which she wasn’t very good at eating, or because she had drunk several shots of soju in a row, her vision became blurry.

“I’m going to get some fresh air for a moment.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

Eun-chae went outside the restaurant and hid in a deserted alleyway, leaning her back against the wall.

As she exhaled, the smell of alcohol felt nauseating.

“Huh? What are you doing here?”

Assistant Manager Lee, who seemed to have come out of the restroom located at the end of the alley, spotted Eun-chae and asked.

“I just wanted to get some fresh air.”

“Fresh air?”

Assistant Manager Lee looked around with slightly unfocused eyes and then slyly approached Eun-chae.

“You weren’t waiting for me, were you?”

“Excuse me?”

“No, I mean, you followed me out and waited because I came out, right?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

Feeling a strange sense of unease, Eun-chae strongly felt the need to get away from Assistant Manager Lee.

As he took another step closer to her, she tried to leave the alley, but he grabbed her wrist tightly.

“Hey, Lee Eun-chae-ssi. Why are you being like this? A young man and woman can just get along, you know.”

“Let go of me!”

“I told you to stay still!”

As Assistant Manager Lee’s hand swung through the air, Eun-chae squeezed her eyes shut and flinched.

She was terrified at the thought of being hit.

But Assistant Manager Lee’s hand, which she thought would reach her, didn’t even touch her and was trembling in the air, held by someone else.

“You bastard, what are you doing!”

Assistant Manager Lee let go of Eun-chae’s wrist, rolled his eyes, and shouted loudly.

Eun-chae turned to look at the person who had cast a shadow behind her.

“S-Seok-kyung-ssi?”

His face wasn’t clearly visible as he stood with the streetlight behind him, but Eun-chae could recognize Seok-kyung. The scent of the forest that lightly brushed the tip of her nose in the breeze was definitely him.

“Get behind me.”

“Yes?”

“Hurry!”

Eun-chae quickly hid behind Seok-kyung’s back.

“What is this, you two? Are you in that kind of relationship? With that innocent face, you ended up having a man after all..., ugh!”

Assistant Manager Lee couldn’t finish his sentence and tumbled backward. He fell onto a pile of trash bags, covered in dirt and dust, and the trash spilled out onto him from the burst bags.

“Hey, you... I won’t let this go, you bas..., agh!”

“You won’t let it go? What are you going to do if you don’t?”

Seok-kyung kicked the charging Assistant Manager Lee, sending him rolling on the ground again. Then he approached Assistant Manager Lee and forcefully pressed his chest with his shoe.

“Do you know who you just laid your hands on?”

“Get off, I won’t...!”

Still not coming to his senses, Assistant Manager Lee flailed his arms, so Seok-kyung this time stepped on his hand.

“Try again. I’ll crush this hand completely so you can never use it again.”

“S-stop it!”

Eun-chae grabbed Seok-kyung from behind with trembling hands and pulled him back.

His strength was overwhelming, and he didn’t budge, but she had to stop things from escalating somehow.

“S-save a per...!”

As Assistant Manager Lee tried to call out for help loudly, seeing an opportunity, Seok-kyung kicked his side.

Seok-kyung crouched down in front of Assistant Manager Lee, who was curled up in pain and gasping for breath, and took out a business card from his pocket, placing it in Assistant Manager Lee’s hand.

“Contact this number when you come to your senses. With your boss.”

Seok-kyung finished speaking, turned around, grabbed Eun-chae’s hand, and led her out of the alleyway, putting her in the Maserati parked on the street.

Looking back at the alleyway from inside the car, she saw Assistant Manager Lee hunched over, getting out of there and entering the restaurant.

“Ah, my bag...”

Suddenly realizing she had left her bag at the restaurant, she was startled, but Seok-kyung picked up her bag from the backseat and handed it to her.

“Here, your bag.”

“Oh, how...?”

“I asked a staff member to bring it. Okay?”

Eun-chae nodded. Tears streamed down her knees as she nodded.

The thought of what might have happened if Seok-kyung hadn’t been there and the relief that the situation had been resolved made her so overwhelmed that she couldn’t stop crying.

Suddenly, she felt Seok-kyung’s large hand on her head, and without a word, he stroked her hair.

While she cried, he drove to her officetel.

“Go up. I’ll be going now.”

“Um...”

Without realizing it, she grabbed the clothes of Seok-kyung, who was about to turn away after taking her to the entrance.

“Can’t you just come up to my place with me? I’m scared...”

She suddenly became afraid that Assistant Manager Lee might be waiting for her at her apartment after she opened the door.

He might have come to her address, written on her resume, to take his anger out on her.

“Ha-”

Seok-kyung, letting out a long sigh, took Eun-chae’s hand and entered the building, getting on the elevator.

As soon as he opened the front door of the officetel, Seok-kyung went inside first to check.

The shabby studio apartment made her feel ashamed, but he didn’t seem to care.

“No one’s here. Lock the door tightly and don’t open it for anyone.”

He’s leaving.

Eun-chae felt like blood was gushing from her heart.

“Earlier...”

She stopped Seok-kyung, who was turning around.

“Thank you for earlier. But how did you know to come?”

“...I was just passing by.”

There was no way that was true.

Seoul wasn’t that small of a place. For him to coincidentally pass by and find her just as she was about to go through something terrible.

But Eun-chae didn’t ask further.

If she heard him say that he still couldn’t forget her, she felt like she would truly collapse today.

So instead.

“Don’t ever come looking for me like this again.”

She ended up saying harsh words again.

“Rest.”

Instead of saying “I understand” or “I will,” Seok-kyung simply told her to rest and left.

Eun-chae closed the door, locked it, and sank down to the floor in the entryway.

The tears that had stopped on her way home flowed again with a different meaning.

She had missed him so much, but because she had met Seok-kyung in a way she hadn’t wanted, she felt sad, annoyed, and yet endlessly happy, so her tears wouldn’t stop.

Afraid that her sobs would leak outside, she quickly bit down on the sleeve of her blouse.

The next day, she went to work with fear about how she should face Assistant Manager Lee, but for some reason, the president and Section Chief Kim were at the office.

And Assistant Manager Lee wasn’t to be seen.

A sudden fear gripped her, wondering if he had been hospitalized due to what happened yesterday.

“Hello?”

“Oh, Eun-chae-ssi. Welcome.”

The president and Section Chief Kim, who had been huddled together talking, awkwardly smiled and greeted Eun-chae.

“Why are you two here so early? Where’s Assistant Manager Lee?”

“Oh, Assistant Manager Lee..., he resigned.”

“Yes? Resigned?”

Eun-chae asked back, surprised.

For someone who had been coming to work just yesterday to suddenly resign?

“Yeah. An investor joined our company. And that person said there were too many employees...”

“An investor?”

“Yeah.”

“Could that investor’s name be Baek...?”

“Hmm? What about Baek?”

The president tilted his head and asked back.

Wasn’t this Seok-kyung-ssi’s doing?

“No, it’s nothing.”

Eun-chae shook her head and sat down at her desk.

For Assistant Manager Lee to be fired and someone to invest a large sum of money in the company the very next day after what happened yesterday...

It was clearly something related to Seok-kyung, but the president’s attitude was confusing.

“Don’t worry about it. That investor gave him a generous severance package, so he’s probably happily planning a trip somewhere right now.”

Section Chief Kim said, chuckling.

So, was it really nothing to do with Seok-kyung-ssi?

Eun-chae reluctantly dismissed her suspicion.

To connect everything to Seok-kyung was clearly an overreaction.

Anyway, the fact that she wouldn’t have to see Assistant Manager Lee again, just in time, made her feel much lighter.