Chapter 2
After successfully securing the contract following the demonstration and taking commemorative photos with the ministers, Sa-heon climbed into the back seat of the waiting black sedan.
“Let’s go to the hospital.”
“Understood.”
Perhaps the exhaustion from nearly a week of barely sleeping was finally catching up with him. Sa-heon closed his eyes and rested his head against the seat before giving Chief Secretary Choi Kang-hoon another brief instruction.
“And buy a bouquet of flowers on the way.”
“Yes.”
At Sa-heon’s single remark, the schedule changed immediately. Ji-an fastened her seat belt and quickly reorganized the rest of the day’s plans in her head.
After driving for some time, the car entered central Seoul and stopped at a flower shop near the hospital. Chief Secretary Choi Kang-hoon excused himself before getting out, but Ji-an hurriedly unfastened her seat belt.
“Chief, I’ll go.”
“Ah, then—”
“No.”
Sa-heon, who had kept his eyes closed the entire time, cut him off.
Ji-an stopped halfway through getting out, while Chief Secretary Choi Kang-hoon gave a slight bow as though he understood and quickly stepped out of the car.
In the end, only Executive Director Lee Sa-heon and Ji-an were left inside.
Unable to bear the awkward silence, Ji-an stole a glance at Sa-heon through the rearview mirror. Without opening his eyes, he muttered,
“What are you doing?”
“…Yes?”
“Why aren’t you getting out?”
“Are you talking to me?”
“Who else would I be talking to?”
Didn’t you just tell me not to get out?
Ji-an couldn’t bring herself to say that aloud. Instead, she awkwardly lifted the corners of her lips.
Sa-heon slowly opened his eyes and looked directly at her.
The moment her gaze met his pitch-black eyes, the back of her neck suddenly felt hot, even though neither of them had said anything particularly strange.
His unreadable gaze slowly traveled down over Ji-an’s flushed cheeks and neck.
“Tsk.”
He clicked his tongue briefly and looked away. Then he pulled out his wallet from his inner pocket, slipped a credit card between his fingers, and held it out to her.
“It’s fifteen minutes by taxi from here to the company.”
In other words, he was telling her to go back to the office and work first.
“I don’t think there’s any need for Secretary Han to accompany me to the hospital.”
Don’t waste time following me around like a puppy.
“…Yes? Ah! Right. Yes! Understood.”
The card he handed her felt unusually smooth and heavy.
Ji-an ran her fingers over the raised engraving on its surface before giving a small bow.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
Sa-heon took a black umbrella from the back seat and handed it to her.
“Take an umbrella.”
“An umbrella?”
Ji-an accepted it reflexively, staring at it in bewilderment before looking out the car window.
Come to think of it, the weather forecast had said it would rain from late afternoon. Sure enough, the sky had already turned dark and gloomy.
“Thank you…”
Ji-an murmured her thanks, but Sa-heon was already absorbed in his phone, processing work with his usual indifferent expression.
“…very much.”
For some reason, she suddenly remembered how he had stood confidently before hundreds of people only a few hours earlier.
The steady voice he had used as he spoke with confidence.
The unwavering gaze.
Even now, while he was doing nothing more than checking his emails, his cold, sharply defined features seemed particularly striking.
“Then I’ll head back first, Executive Director.”
“Go ahead.”
Only then did Sa-heon lift his head.
Their eyes met in midair.
His eyes seemed especially dark today.
Feeling strangely self-conscious, Ji-an hugged the umbrella to her chest and hurriedly opened the car door.
Just then, Chief Secretary Choi Kang-hoon, who had returned after purchasing the bouquet, saw Ji-an spring out of the passenger side as though a spring had been attached to her.
“Secretary Han. What’s going on?”
“Ah…! I’m going to return to the office and work on the report.”
“That’s a good idea.”
A rare, satisfied smile spread across Choi Kang-hoon’s otherwise expressionless face, which resembled that of an android robot.
Chief Secretary Choi Kang-hoon was in his mid-thirties, and the rumors that he had once served in the special forces seemed believable considering his extreme lack of emotional expression.
Yet he actually smiled when she said she was going back to work first.
They say a madman works beneath another madman.
Apparently, it was true.
Click.
The driver’s door shut, and the car soon pulled away without hesitation.
Ji-an bowed toward the departing car, then straightened.
Pitter-patter.
Right then, raindrops began falling one by one onto the top of her head.
Ji-an opened the black umbrella.
Perhaps because it belonged to him, the umbrella was unusually large and heavy.
He looked exactly like the kind of man who would leave someone standing on the street in the rain without caring whether they got soaked.
And yet, once again, he had taken care of her in a place she never would have expected.
……He really was an impossible boss to understand.
For some reason, the area around her heart felt strangely ticklish.
Ji-an deliberately tightened her grip around the umbrella handle.
After arriving at the hospital, Sa-heon stepped out of the back seat and gave a brief instruction.
“I’ll go up alone, so Chief Secretary Choi, please wait here.”
“Understood.”
Sa-heon held a bouquet of lilies in one hand and headed toward the VIP ward with long, confident strides.
He flung open the door.
Inside, his second older brother, Executive Director Lee Jae-seong, was lying on the hospital bed with both legs tightly wrapped in bandages.
“You look like a mummy.”
Sa-heon gave the bouquet a little wave as he smiled smoothly.
At the sound of his voice, Jae-seong’s eyes snapped open.
“You—you…! You crazy son of a—!”
“You were worried about today’s contract, weren’t you? I successfully closed the deal in your place, so you don’t need to worry.”
“You fucking lunatic! You psychopath! Sociopath! You crazy bastard!”
Jae-seong’s face turned bright red as he screamed almost hysterically.
Sa-heon placed the bouquet beside the bed, then pressed the call button for the nurse.
“Could you give him a sedative? I think my brother is about to start foaming at the mouth.”
A doctor and several nurses soon rushed into the room. They restrained the struggling Jae-seong by force and administered the sedative.
“Let go! Don’t touch me! You—do you even know who I am?! Let me go! Aah! I said let go!”
“Tsk, tsk. How unfortunate.”
Sa-heon shook his head as though genuinely concerned while watching his second older brother scream at the top of his lungs.
Yet his expression was smiling as happily as anyone could.
“Lee Sa-heon…… You…”
Jae-seong’s resistance didn’t last long.
After receiving the sedative, his body gradually went limp, and he finally fell silent.
Sa-heon lowered his gaze and looked down at him.
“So why did you have to get into a traffic accident right before such an important contract, Executive Director Lee Jae-seong?”
……Because of you. Do you really think I don’t know?
“Me? This is unfair.”
Jae-seong swallowed as he felt his tongue becoming numb.
Surely it wasn’t an animal anesthetic instead of a sedative?
It was an utterly absurd thought, but if there was anyone capable of having something like that administered, it was the bastard standing right in front of him.
“I should have gone… I should have…”
Unable to let go of his regret, Jae-seong trailed off.
His eyes fell upon Lee Sa-heon, standing beside the hospital bed.
His neatly slicked-back hair, clean-cut lips, and dark eyes filled with confidence naturally inspired trust even in strangers.
When he smiled, he looked almost like a mischievous young man.
But when his face became expressionless, he gave off an impression colder and more ruthless than anyone else.
Unlike Jae-seong, who had inherited his mother’s comparatively small and slender frame, Lee Sa-heon possessed a solid, athletic build.
And whenever he wore a suit over that physique, it fit him perfectly, giving him the appearance of a professional model.
Only his brothers knew that beneath that flawless exterior lay the heart of a devil.
“You really are devoted to the company. That’s our Executive Director for you, I suppose?”
Sa-heon adjusted the angle of the hospital bed and gave him a benevolent smile.
Even without saying it outright, it was obvious that he was in an exceptionally good mood.
“No one else may know, but I know.”
Jae-seong’s eyes reddened with indignation as he ground his teeth.
“I know this was your doing.”
It had been a miserable life as the second son.
He had always been caught between his eldest brother, who was six years older and constantly pushed him around, and his youngest brother, Lee Sa-heon, who was four years younger yet far more clever—and therefore far more threatening.
