Chapter – 61
At the message steeped in murderous coldness, Seol-ah’s body trembled.
She was once again faintly startled by his thoroughness—how he avoided leaving even a trace of personal emotion on the company messenger and instead replied via a phone message.
In the end, Ruby, who had been fired, did not come to work from the very next day.
The night before, after all the other employees had gone home and the office lay dark and empty, Ruby came back alone and secretly packed up all her belongings.
As she placed her personal items one by one into a large box—leaving all company property where it was—Taewook, the only one remaining, stood watching her.
As the team leader responsible for the team, Taewook stayed until the very end of a team member’s departure, standing motionless like a stone with both hands in his trouser pockets.
After finishing packing with trembling hands, Ruby bowed deeply to Taewook.
“Team Leader, thank you for everything. I’ll be going now.”
Taewook nodded once, his eyes utterly indifferent.
“You may go.”
At that cold, cynical lack of emotion until the very end, Ruby turned her back, carrying the box.
Tears fell drop by drop, but she bit her lip tightly, unable to let it show.
I couldn’t even confess my feelings to the team leader I loved. To be fired in disgrace like this… If only I could have told him how much I liked him before leaving, I wouldn’t feel so full of regret….
But now was not a situation where she could confess.
To a team leader who cherished the company and the team above all else, she was being expelled for violating labor laws.
After Ruby left, the empty space was quickly cleaned up by the janitorial staff.
Meanwhile, the other female employees were reassigned to different departments.
Ranjeong, who had been close to Ruby, submitted her resignation, saying she would quit as well. The other women, whose livelihoods were at stake, had no choice but to accept reassignment.
Disciplinary notices had already spread throughout the company, so employees in other departments whispered whenever they saw them.
“Isn’t that Assistant Manager Kim who just transferred here one of those employees?”
“Really? One of the ones who bullied the new hire?”
“Yeah. These days, not many people bully others at work. They’re not kids. Honestly, unbelievable. And Team Leader Choi Taewook is supposed to be super strict and thorough, right?”
“Exactly my point. The nerve they had. They really had guts. Guess justice still exists—good is rewarded and evil punished.”
The murmuring voices and the wary looks. Add to that the unpleasant rumors already circulating.
Some couldn’t bear the discomfort and pressure of the situation and chose to resign voluntarily.
In the Management Support Team, as many seats as had been left empty by the transferred female employees were filled by new staff drawn from other departments.
Handpicked by Taewook himself—only those he deemed talent worth cultivating.
As the future CEO who would lead JK Corporation, it was time for Taewook to focus even more on discovering talent, growing the company, and preparing for management succession.
The remaining employees, along with Seol-ah and Jungwook, mingled with the new team members and prepared for a fresh start.
After dealing with the Park Ruby incident, Taewook became unbearably busy.
He had rushed back from a business trip earlier than scheduled, and with all the work that had piled up while handling the incident, he was working late every single day.
At that very time—
At the family home, Buhyeon was pounding her chest in frustration.
No matter how long she waited, there was still no word from her eldest son. She was nearly sick with anticipation.
Sitting on the sofa in the living room, Buhyeon received a call from a friend who had just attended her eldest child’s formal family meeting, which only made her sigh repeatedly.
“Ugh… this is so frustrating. Taewook said he was seeing someone for a few months and that he’d tell me once things were decided. What on earth is going on?”
Her eldest son was well past marriageable age, yet he had kept women at arm’s length for so long that her heart was burning to ash.
And as if that weren’t enough, her friend just had to brag about attending her child’s engagement meeting.
“When is this ‘decision’ supposed to happen? Is it really true that he doesn’t have anyone, like Jungwook said, and he just made it up because I kept nagging him?”
It had been years since Taewook declared he would never marry, hammering nails straight into her heart.
Honestly, if he’d just gone and had an accident somewhere and come back with a child already on the way, that would almost be better.
If only Taewook—so rigid and principled—could be mixed half and half with Jungwook, who drifted through life like the wind and clouds.
Buhyeon waited with desperate hope.
Hoping Taewook would make a decision soon.
Hoping he would retract his vow of lifelong bachelorhood and bring home a decent young woman as soon as possible.
If he married and settled down, Chairman Hoechan, who was gradually growing old, would finally begin the formal process of handing over management to Taewook.
Really—having sons doesn’t mean they understand how their parents’ hearts burn like this…
Buhyeon simply kept her phone close, waiting for a call from Taewook.
“……”
And near the staircase leading to the second floor, a man stood watching her.
Jungwook pretended to head upstairs while eavesdropping on Buhyeon’s muttering.
Rolling his tongue slowly inside his mouth, Jungwook closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again and placed his foot back onto the large spiral staircase.
These days, Jungwook found himself lost in thought more often than not.
Lately, he’d barely had any time alone with Seol-ah.
With the workplace bullying incident and the subsequent personnel reshuffling, the Management Support Team had been in constant turmoil.
Seol-ah and the remaining employees were busy getting to know the new team members—having lunch together and spending break times with them.
Jungwook was part of that group too, of course, but he felt frustrated and restless that he could no longer spend time alone with Seol-ah like before.
To make matters worse, Taewook would sometimes take Seol-ah along to lunches with other team leaders, which unsettled Jungwook even more.
A team leader bringing a single team member to a meal meant something different—or at least, it could.
Even today, seeing Seol-ah return from lunch with Taewook, her face bright, Jungwook’s gaze turned cold.
Hyung, my feelings for Seol-ah are sincere. You keep saying nonsense about me stealing your woman, but I genuinely like her, regardless of you.
I was the one who comforted her when she was being ostracized. I was the one who stayed by her side and gave her strength.
And now, only after everything was over, his brother was calling her into his office every day under the pretext of an investigation—acting like he cared. It rubbed Jungwook the wrong way.
His anxiety and impatience grew. At this rate, he really felt like his puppy might be taken away by his brother.
I need to make the first move.
With that resolve, Jungwook went to the family home, determined to tell Buhyeon right away.
“Mother.”
He would drive the nail in—make it public so it couldn’t be undone.
“There’s a woman I like.”
Buhyeon had already been on edge over Taewook’s lack of news about women.
So when her younger son suddenly said he liked someone, she was startled.
“What? You have a woman you like? Someone you like?”
“Yes. She’s a good woman who helped and looked after me when I was just an intern. We often spent time together at work. I think she has feelings for me too.”
“Oh my, that’s wonderful. Then what about Yoo Ah-young from Hye-kyung Foods—the woman you went on a blind date with? Is that completely over?”
“Unfortunately, my feelings for Ah-young ended a long time ago. But with this woman, my heart keeps going toward her endlessly. I want her more and more, and I don’t want to miss her. That’s why I want to introduce her to you.”
