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“Could it be that investor back then was Secretary Won?”
“Strictly speaking, it wasn’t me but the CEO.”
Secretary Won’s round face began to bead with sweat, looking very troubled.
“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s go, I’m hungry. Secretary Won, you can take the driver and go home.”
“Yes? What about your car?”
“I can walk, or take public transportation.”
“Yes? No, I didn’t know you knew how to use public transportation...”
Secretary Won’s voice, as he was about to ask if he knew how to use it, was cut off by Seok-kyung’s cold gaze.
“I’ll, I’ll take responsibility for getting her home.”
Eun-chae quickly interjected.
“But because the CEO’s face is so well-known, people will recognize him, won’t they? It could lead to tiring situations.”
“Honestly, are you talking about those two behind us?”
Seok-kyung pointed with his finger at two men standing a short distance away.
The two men in black suits looked away awkwardly when Seok-kyung pointed at them.
“Who are those people?”
Since they were people she had never seen before, Eun-chae tilted her head and asked.
“Bodyguards.”
“Bodyguards?”
“Apparently, I’m an important figure in the group now or something. Honestly, wasn’t I always an important figure? Annoying.”
Seok-kyung pouted.
“They were the team that guarded my father. Now that I’m the CEO, they’re guarding me.”
Eun-chae nodded, recalling the men who had followed President Baek like shadows during his commute.
She wondered if their cold-looking impression, which seemed out of place for secretaries, was due to that.
“I’ll take good care of the bodyguards without getting rid of them, so don’t worry and go home. If necessary, I’ll get a ride in the security team’s car.”
Secretary Won pondered for a moment with an anxious face.
But in the end, it was Seok-kyung’s defeat.
“I’m starting to regret becoming the group’s CEO.”
Seok-kyung grumbled, gripping the steering wheel.
In the end, Secretary Won and the driver took public transportation home, and the car keys were in Seok-kyung’s hand.
“You’re doing all this for my sake, aren’t you? Is the security team following us okay?”
“You don’t have to worry. I told them our destination, and they’re the kind of people who would keep up even if we were racing through downtown.”
Seok-kyung said with a smile to Eun-chae, who was checking the car following them in the rearview mirror.
“More importantly, your hand.”
“Yes?”
“Give me your hand.”
When she placed her left hand on his outstretched right hand, he tightly intertwined their fingers and placed their joined hands on the gear shift.
“Don’t ever take it away.”
“Yes?”
“Why? Don’t you like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it... it’s hot, isn’t it? You’ll get sweaty.”
“What does it matter? It’s not like I haven’t seen you sweat before.”
That’s not what I meant.
Eun-chae’s face suddenly flushed at the subtle gaze Seok-kyung cast her while driving.
He was always trying to hold her whenever he had the chance, so even these veiled jokes made her body react first.
Anyway, his words about never letting go continued in the movie theater and the café.
Finally, when they arrived at the restaurant and sat facing each other, he reluctantly let go of her hand, looking disappointed.
Eun-chae felt inexplicably happy as she wiped her hot, sweaty hand on a napkin.
“I brought you to my favorite restaurant for now, but I’m not sure if you’ll like it.”
“It’s delicious.”
Eun-chae cut the aged tenderloin steak into small pieces with her knife, savored it, and then replied.
“I realized I don’t know anything about what you like or dislike.”
“We can get to know each other little by little. First of all, this steak is a definite yes.”
She replied with a smile to Seok-kyung’s words, which were tinged with regret and disappointment.
Clinging to the past was too difficult. This time was too precious to spend it in regret and sorrow.
“There’s so much I want to know about you too. Let’s get to know each other slowly.”
“Okay.”
Seok-kyung nodded.
“Oh, I was thinking on the way here. That car accident you were in before, was it a big one?”
“Accident?”
“Yeah. That accident I never properly asked about because I was always busy.”
Eun-chae smiled softly.
About four years ago, in the spring. Eun-chae was on her way to the practice room by car for her piano practice.
Since she had become the daughter-in-law of the Baek family, she naturally had a driver, and it was a clear fact that he drove safely.
But driving safely wasn’t something you could guarantee just by being careful yourself. A truck driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel crashed into Eun-chae’s car at an intersection.
The truck had hit the right side of the car where she was sitting, and her hand got caught between the crumpled vehicle, severing a nerve.
“Can you see the faint scar here?”
Eun-chae held out her right hand to Seok-kyung.
A long, faint scar remained between her index and middle fingers.
Seok-kyung took her hand, examined the scar, and slightly furrowed his brow.
“Is it to the point where you can’t play the piano at all?”
“No, it’s not like that.”
She quickly brought her hand back, shaking her head at his worried expression.
“It was insufficient for me to continue as a pianist. Even now, I’m not very good at delicate tasks like writing.”
“Still?”
“I stopped the rehabilitation therapy halfway through.”
“Why?”
“Because I... didn’t have the money...”
Eun-chae lowered her head, trying hard not to lose her smile.
To avoid any aftereffects from the surgery, she needed to receive rehabilitation therapy for more than a year, but not long after the surgery, her father went bankrupt, so she didn’t have the means.
After divorcing Seok-kyung, her health insurance also switched to a regional plan, increasing the burden even more.
“I wanted to open a piano academy, but my mother objected... Seok-kyung-ssi?”
Eun-chae quickly smiled and raised her head, trying to change the mood, but she froze.
With a pained expression, Seok-kyung stared at her, his lips pressed tightly together.
“What’s wrong?”
“I... I should have taken care of you...”
From his expression and tightly clenched fists, his self-directed anger was palpable.
Eun-chae reached out and covered his fist with her hand.
“Don’t blame yourself. Back then, you were being considerate of me in your own way.”
She spoke, recalling what Seok-kyung had told her the night she had confessed everything to him.
His words, that he hadn’t approached her because he thought she was in an unwanted marriage, had been difficult to hear, but she understood.
Just as Seok-kyung’s face was softening slightly, Eun-chae’s phone rang from her bag.
“Just a moment.”
Taking her phone out of her bag, she saw “Mom” as the caller ID.
So, it had finally come.
Eun-chae sighed softly and answered the phone.
“Yes?”
-Yah! Are you getting back together with Baek Seok-kyung? I just saw the news and I’m beyond shocked!
Her mother asked in a booming voice.
“Mom, I’ll call you back in a bit...”
-I’m against it! I absolutely won’t let you go back to that family! Do you hear me? I knew it was suspicious when he suddenly came over with gifts and whatnot...
“Mom, I’ll call you back later. Bye.”
Eun-chae quickly hung up and gave Seok-kyung an awkward smile.
Since her mother’s voice had been loud enough for him to hear everything, Seok-kyung also gave Eun-chae an awkward smile in return.
“I want to meet your mother.”
“Yes? Why Mom?”
“Why...? We’re getting back together, so of course, we need to get permission from your mother and father.”
“Um, Seok-kyung-ssi.”
Eun-chae bit her lip slightly with a troubled expression.
She was nervous because she knew he would be angry about what she was about to tell him.
“What is it?”
“I have no intention of getting back together with you.”
“...What?”
“Not yet.”
“What are you saying? You have no intention of it?”
As expected, Seok-kyung jumped up and asked back.
“I love you, and I’m grateful that you love me too. But I don’t know anything about you.”
“I said we could get to know each other from now on.”
“Yes. Let’s get to know each other slowly from now on. But since I don’t know anything yet... just getting back together because I like you is no different from four years ago.”
“Lee Eun-chae.”
“It’s no different from just liking a celebrity on TV.”
She loved Seok-kyung, but she didn’t really know what kind of person he was yet.
Their physical chemistry was amazing, but other things might not match.
She didn’t know if they had the same sense of humor, if they grieved over the same things, or if they were angry about the same things. She knew nothing.
“Isn’t just me enough?”
“I’m just asking for time to get to know you. So that I can be sure that I can spend my whole life with you.”
“That’s too much, Lee Eun-chae.”
Seok-kyung gave a hollow smile.
“All I need is you...”
“I’m sorry.”
She was truly sorry, but Eun-chae couldn’t help it.
________________________________________
Seok-kyung fully understood Eun-chae’s feelings.
She had fallen in love with him the moment she first saw him, and she had even married him based on her fantasy of him.
But she had gained nothing. She hadn’t received his love, not even his respect.
So, getting back together with him just because she loved him was, in a way, a gamble for her.
He was disappointed, but it couldn’t be helped.
That was how Seok-kyung defined Eun-chae’s feelings.
However, he couldn’t just sit idly by and endlessly hope that she would make up her mind for sure.
So, he decided to make an effort in his own way.
He planned to resolve, one by one, the things he hadn’t been able to do for Eun-chae until now.
Today, he was heading to her mother’s house with Eun-chae.
Eun-chae hadn’t wanted to take him to her mother’s until she was certain about her feelings for him.
There were two reasons for this: one was that she didn’t want to give her mother false hope and make her excited for nothing, and the other was that she was worried Seok-kyung, who didn’t know much about her mother yet, might be disappointed after meeting her.
However, because he had persistently pleaded with her for several days, Eun-chae had finally given in.
On the condition that they absolutely wouldn’t talk about getting back together, she took him to her aunt’s house.
“Who is it?”
Eun-chae waved her hand at the sight of her mother abruptly opening the front door through the gap in the gate.
“Please open it for me.”
“It’s me, Mother. Baek Seok-kyung.”
As soon as the gate opened, Seok-kyung quickly bowed deeply to her mother.
“It’s been a long time. How have you been?”
“Why are you two together?”
Ignoring his greeting completely, her mother asked Eun-chae.
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