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“Secretary Hong and you, what’s between you?”
“Do you love her?”
“Did you sleep with her?”
As those thoughts reached her, her stomach churned as if boiling from the bottom up, and her whole body felt hot. She hadn’t even known she could so easily conjure up such crude and vulgar thoughts.
“......hee. Yoon Sa-hee.”
“......”
“Sa-hee-yah.”
“Ah!”
It was because of the hand that suddenly touched her.
“Are you alright?”
Surprised by Ji-hyuk’s hand unexpectedly placed on her knee, Sa-hee knocked over the thermos. The tea, hot enough to steam, spilled onto Sa-hee’s calf and foot.
“Come here.”
Ji-hyuk, more surprised than Sa-hee, tried to lift her up. He probably intended to take her to the bathroom to wash it with water.
Ji-hyuk approached without hesitation and wrapped his arm around Sa-hee’s waist. With his other hand, he tried to reach under her thigh. At that moment, Sa-hee pushed Ji-hyuk away. She couldn’t bear it any longer.
“I said I’m fine!”
Ji-hyuk, pushed away in confusion, slowly straightened up. A bleak silence descended around the two of them in an instant.
Ji-hyuk’s heart grew complicated as he quietly looked down at the top of Sa-hee’s round head. He couldn’t understand why she was rejecting him.
Ji-hyuk, having briefly run his hand over his face, knelt on one knee in front of Sa-hee. Their eye level became roughly the same.
“What’s wrong, Sa-hee-yah.”
Despite his efforts to somehow meet her eyes, Sa-hee avoided his gaze, which threatened to tangle with hers.
“Something’s wrong, isn’t there.”
“......”
“Aren’t you going to tell me?”
“......”
“Fine. Let’s go wash up first. You should at least cool it down with water. Or should we go to the hospital?”
“It’s not that bad that I need to go to the hospital.”
“Then.”
“I’m tired. I want to go first.”
Sa-hee immediately picked up her bag and stood up. The way she left without even looking back was almost resentful.
Ji-hyuk quickly reached out and grabbed her. Because he was so anxious, controlling his strength wasn’t as easy as he wanted. Sa-hee, her arm firmly held, barely turned to look at him.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I won’t disturb you, so do your work...! Do that damn work!”
“What?”
Sa-hee’s eyes had already turned red. The moisture welling up made it seem like she would burst into tears any second.
“Whatever you were doing, just keep doing it.”
This time, a sharp edge began to appear in Ji-hyuk’s eyes. His own person kept pushing him away for no reason, so he couldn’t help but get irritated. He frowned deeply and licked his dry lips.
“Make it so I can understand what you’re saying.”
“Let go of me.”
“Am I crazy to let you go like this?”
Sa-hee, with her lips pressed together, avoided his gaze. Then, as if having made up her mind, she looked at him. Her eyes, directly facing him, were blurred with tears.
“What’s your relationship with Secretary Hong?”
“What?”
“Secretary Hong, what’s your relationship with her? I’m asking you.”
No answer came back. Instead, his face was filled with bewilderment.
“What am I supposed to say?”
“It’s not difficult. Just tell the truth.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“......”
“A relationship between a superior and a subordinate. What else could there be? Should there be something else?”
Sa-hee glared sharply at Ji-hyuk. Ji-hyuk’s face, receiving that gaze, also subtly distorted.
“What are you thinking right now?”
“You bad...! You bad bastard.”
“Yoon Sa-hee.”
“There’s a limit to how much you can toy with people. You come home smelling like another woman?”
“What......”
“You and Secretary Hong. You two are having an affair, aren’t you? Am I stupid enough not to know that?”
“What?”
Ji-hyuk, who had been wearing a stiff expression, let out a deep sigh. Anyone could see the disbelief on his face.
“You need to say something that makes sense. Who would meet whom?”
“......”
“Say it again. What did I do?”
“Do you think I’ll be scared if you raise your voice like that?”
A large teardrop fell from Sa-hee’s blurred eyes. Ji-hyuk, watching this, strode closer and grabbed her nape tightly, forcing her to look at him.
“Sa-hee-yah. Am I crazy? Would I look at anyone other than you?”
“......”
“Am I out of my mind? Huh?”
“Heu......”
Now she didn’t need to hold back her tears, nor could she. Sa-hee, who had been sobbing, cried loudly like a child.
“What on earth is wrong with you?”
Sa-hee just shook her head, remaining silent without an answer. Then, suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she began to spill out all her inner thoughts. Perhaps she had a ‘come what may’ attitude.
“Your shirt. Your shirt smelled exactly like Secretary Hong’s perfume.”
“Are you upset just because of that?”
“Just? Did you just say ‘just’?”
“What else is there?”
“It looked like you were together last night too. Am I right?”
“I’m going crazy.”
Ji-hyuk let out a dumbfounded laugh. Sa-hee became even more furious at that sight. Sniffling and wiping away her tears, she glared at Ji-hyuk.
“Do you think it’s just the perfume smell? What about the makeup stain on your shirt, and the clothes you came home in? Those weren’t yours, were they? Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“......”
“What on earth are you? Where did you go and what did you do that you even changed your clothes before coming home, huh?”
Ji-hyuk, watching Sa-hee pour out a torrent of frightening words, sighed. Releasing the hand he had been holding, Ji-hyuk went to the desk and brought something back.
What Ji-hyuk held out to Sa-hee was a rectangular white envelope.
“What’s this?”
Sa-hee, urged by Ji-hyuk’s gaze to take it, opened the envelope.
“This is......”
“You’ll know when you see it.”
She was speechless. What she held in her hand was none other than Secretary Hong’s wedding invitation. Even the groom-to-be was Driver Song, none other than Song Jin-ha.
“The two of them, so the two of you, are getting married?”
“Yeah.”
“No, when on earth did they start dating?”
“How would I know? Looks like they met well on their own.”
She felt like she could cry all her tears out. She had clearly thought her husband was having an affair, but in just two months, the other woman was marrying someone else? And what was the deal with giving the wedding invitation to her lover (as she had been referring to him)?
“The shirt I was wearing was Jin-ha’s. My shirt got ruined, so I changed into his.”
“......”
“It’s resolved now, but until yesterday, it was noisy because of the labor union issue. The wage agreement was the key issue, and the company’s position and the union’s opinions were too different.”
His explanation was this: Around the time when the ongoing labor union protests reached their peak, the festering sore finally burst, turning into violent protests. They had agreed to talk and understand each other, but the union side had changed their attitude in just a few hours.
They said they couldn’t wait any longer and wanted direct communication with high-ranking executives within the company.
“Father is bedridden due to health issues, and no one else is stepping forward. In the end, Executive Director Han and I had to handle it together.”
In the process, there was an unexpected physical clash. He wasn’t directly assaulted, but Ji-hyuk, who had tried to stop those who were fighting, couldn’t leave the scene looking perfectly clean either.
“One of the union members got hit by a picket sign and his head was split open. After taking him to the hospital, I realized my shirt was a mess.”
“......”
“When I came to my senses, I was also a wreck. I was worried you’d worry if I went back like that.”
“So......”
“I should have just told you. I didn’t tell you about the outside affairs so you wouldn’t have unnecessary headaches. I never thought you’d misunderstand this much.”
Misunderstanding. Her face flushed at that word. She had poured out so much emotion, even crying her eyes out, and in the end, it was a misunderstanding. It was a relief and a good thing, but she didn’t know why she felt so embarrassed.
“I understand that it was Jin-ha-ssi’s shirt. I understood. But why the makeup......”
Sa-hee looked up at him with a face that seemed to understand and not understand at the same time. Ji-hyuk laughed like a sigh and began to speak.
“They urgently called me late at night.”
“......”
“Looks like the two of them had a deep conversation.”
“A deep conversation?”
Ji-hyuk shrugged.
“......Ah.”
Only then did Sa-hee understand the meaning and turned her gaze away. A deep and intense conversation must have meant the language of the body. She felt even more awkward than she had already been.
Suddenly, a soft chuckle was heard. Sa-hee turned to look at Ji-hyuk.
“Still, it’s not entirely bad.”
He had been suspected, yet he wasn’t upset?
“You were jealous.”
“Why do you have to bring that up again......”
“Can you say it’s not true?”
Could she say it wasn’t true? She had felt like her blood was running backward, the ground was flipping over, and even her soul was being shattered into tiny pieces.
But she was embarrassed to honestly reveal her feelings as they were.
“I don’t know. I want to go.”
“Go where?”
“Why are you doing this, let go of me.”
Ji-hyuk quickly grabbed her again as she tried to leave her seat. He almost hugged her, wrapping his arms around her body.
“Even after I explained everything, why are you still being cold?”
“Who was being cold?”
“Then why don’t you look at me?”
“Ah, just... just let me go.”
“Why. Are you embarrassed?”
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