Chapter 9
As expected. Oh Hye-joo already knew.
With the information network of a chaebol family madam, it was perhaps only natural.
“Isn’t it awkward? Isn’t it uncomfortable working like that?”
“Ah… I’m fine.”
“It must have been shocking. So you’re working in the same team now? You have to see his face every day.”
“Yes, but the Prosecutor is the type who only focuses on work… so there’s no personal friction.”
“Did Woo-kyung perhaps volunteer to go to the place where you are on purpose?”
The roundabout question carried the implication: Are you two meeting again? This seemed to be the real point.
“No. That’s not it.”
At her calm but firm denial, Oh Hye-joo’s eyes widened slightly.
“Really? Sorry. I got my hopes up for nothing.”
“There’s no need for you to apologize at all.”
Oh Hye-joo gently tucked a strand of Eun-jae’s hair, blown loose by the wind, behind her ear.
“I thought Woo-kyung had only come back to Korea temporarily. But then he suddenly applied to return to work, so I wondered if it was because of that.”
She smiled softly, adding that her son was so reticent he never opened up about anything deep.
“Our Eun-jae, you’ll have a hard time with such a difficult boss. My son’s personality isn’t ordinary, you know? Just staring at someone can freeze them solid.”
Looking at the crowd heading into the prosecutors’ office, Oh Hye-joo stood up from the bench.
“If it ever gets too hard, just tell me. I’ll pull some strings and transfer you somewhere else.”
For a fleeting moment, Eun-jae wavered. The offer was exactly what she desperately needed right now.
But she couldn’t keep relying on Oh Hye-joo any longer. Eun-jae shook her head with a calm smile.
“Thank you just for saying that.”
She changed the subject by bringing up the black mini dress Oh Hye-joo had brought.
“You always take such good care of me… But can I really pull off something this bold?”
“You know Baek Hae-na’s taste. She orders piles of things like this but never actually picks them up. It’s only the chauffeurs who suffer.”
Baek Hae-na was Woo-kyung’s half-sister and Oh Hye-joo’s biological daughter.
“Wear it when you want to look especially pretty. It’s about time our Eun-jae met someone nice, don’t you think?”
Would such a day ever come? A day when she could smile comfortably by someone else’s side… someone who wasn’t him. Would it really come?
“Thank you for always looking out for me, Madam Chairwoman.”
Hiding the bitterness, Eun-jae gave a faint smile.
After briefly asking after the Do-young Group Chairman’s health, the two ended their short meeting.
Eun-jae firmly refused the driver’s offer to carry the bags all the way inside the building and hurried in.
“Call me often!”
Oh Hye-joo watched until the slender figure completely disappeared from view.
“…But don’t actually call. You’re like a leech.”
Muttering the addition under her breath, Oh Hye-joo turned the corner with rough steps.
“I’m busy as hell, and I came all the way here for nothing. Fuck.”
The moment she got into the waiting car, she shoved a cigarette between her lips and lit it, irritation clear in every movement.
“So in the end, even Jung Eun-jae doesn’t know. Why the hell Baek Woo-kyung suddenly lost his damn mind and decided to stay in Korea.”
Hoo. Exhaling thick smoke, Oh Hye-joo chewed over the pointless conversation from moments ago.
“Nothing’s ever easy. Did that jinxed bitch rub off on me and bring me bad luck too?”
Jinxed, indeed. An illegitimate child who, thanks to a face and brain better than most, managed to completely ruin her life—Jung Eun-jae.
No matter how much she thought about it, Baek Woo-kyung falling for such a bottom-feeder was like a second chance given by God.
The first chance had been when Baek Woo-kyung threw away his position as group heir to become a prosecutor.
If he had just disappeared, the only legitimate direct descendant left to inherit the group would have been the daughter she herself gave birth to.
After the coronation, she would rise to the position of queen mother.
But that plan was now in danger of collapsing.
“I went through all the trouble of shipping him overseas. What wind blew him back, tsk.”
With the Chairman on his deathbed, had Woo-kyung suddenly regained interest in group succession?
That was what she feared most. Both the Chairman and her husband the Vice Chairman would hand over every single share to Baek Woo-kyung without hesitation if he asked.
Then the twenty-plus years she had endured in this suffocating household, next to a husband who chased women, would all have been for nothing.
Oh Hye-joo pressed hard against her throbbing temples.
“Have you found a company to tail Baek Woo-kyung?”
The secretary in the passenger seat answered in a dying voice.
“Well… since he’s a current prosecutor, no one is willing to step up and dig into him… I’m sorry.”
“Are they all idiots? Missing a chance to make money.”
After venting her full frustration, Oh Hye-joo inhaled the cigarette down to the filter and closed her eyes.
…Baek Woo-kyung. She wanted to get rid of that damn son of the ex-wife as soon as possible.
For now, she would have to watch and see what happened between him and that jinxed girl.
Her mind spun busily in every direction, complicated and restless.
Tak-tak-tak. In Baek Woo-kyung’s office, only the sound of keyboards filled the otherwise silent space, as usual.
Ahem.
Chief Kim cleared his throat loudly to break the quiet atmosphere. At the same time, he exchanged meaningful glances with the administrative staff over the partition—looking very suspicious.
“Um, Prosecutor! I have a question!”
The administrative staff poked his head out, grinning as he opened his mouth.
“Do you prefer beef, sir, or pork?”
“I prefer beef.”
“Ahh. I see.”
Having said his piece, Woo-kyung lowered his eyes back to the documents.
The administrative staff, who had been waiting for the next question while wondering why he’d asked something so random, looked awkwardly at Chief Kim.
“Uh, Prosecutor, I also have a question.”
This time, Chief Kim asked gravely.
“Do you prefer soju, beer, or perhaps soju-beer mix? Or hard liquor?”
Only then did Woo-kyung’s raised gaze sharpen, reacting at last. What’s the real point?
“When is our office having a company dinner?”
“That’s right! Our ‘Baek Office’ needs a time to get to know each other better. Haha!”
‘Baek Office’ was the affectionate nickname for Baek Woo-kyung’s team, Chief Kim added.
“As you probably know, Prosecutor, these days MZ generation people do lunch dinners a lot too, right? And since our Baek Office happens to be a bit free at the moment—”
“Gasp, Chief!”
The administrative staff startled and hurriedly stopped him. Even Eun-jae’s eyes widened.
“Oh? Ahhh! Right. Saying we’re free is forbidden.”
There was a kind of jinx in the prosecutors’ office: whenever someone said they were free or had breathing room, something urgent would immediately come up. Saying “free” was practically a taboo word.
As Chief Kim belatedly clamped his mouth shut—
A loud phone rang at that very moment.
“Yes, this is Prosecutor Baek Woo-kyung’s office.”
The administrative staff who answered glanced at Chief Kim with a tearful face.
“Ah… an emergency arrest case? …Yes. Police investigation finished? …Ah. Right now? They’re transferring it right now?”
Chief Kim silently screamed and clutched his head. The brief moment of freedom was over.
Eun-jae let out a hollow laugh and turned her head.
Then her gaze tangled with his impassive eyes.
“…”
Was it camaraderie, or something like that? These days, she could at least meet his eyes for a short moment.
“Investigator.”
“Yes, Prosecutor. I’ll contact the police for the case summary and materials, request access to the shared drive, and set everything up so you can review the evidence.”
She answered instantly, perfectly grasping his instructions.
“Shall I reserve an interrogation room that allows recording?”
This time, even she thought to herself: I did that properly. His neat eyebrows lifted slightly.
“Do that.”
The small pfft laugh he let out almost sounded like praise for doing well—if that wasn’t just her imagination.
The faint smile soon disappeared from Woo-kyung’s face as he turned back to the documents.
“…Yes.”
Her reply came one beat late, because she had been tracing the faint dimple still lingering on his right cheek in her mind.
…Why am I like this?
I decided not to hold on to lingering feelings.
Eun-jae quickly moved to steady herself. She called the police station, wrote emails, prepared cooperation requests—shaking off stray thoughts through work.
Things proceeded smoothly. Access permissions were approved quickly too.
But the problem came from somewhere else.
While accessing the shared drive and looking through materials, Eun-jae’s clicking suddenly stopped.
The suspect who had been emergency-arrested was someone she knew well.
‘That’s Professor Yoon!’
It was unbelievable. On the screen was the personal information of the professor who had been her advisor during the short time she attended law school.
“Oh my. The suspect is a law school professor?”
“Huh? Then he must be at least a former judge or prosecutor—how did he end up committing a crime and getting emergency-arrested?”
At the conversation between Chief Kim and the administrative staff, Woo-kyung’s eyes slowly lifted from the documents.
“…”
After looking at the monitor, he froze for a moment. Then his gaze met Eun-jae’s again.
Professor Yoon Deok-jung of Korea University Law School, a criminal law expert.
He was also the mentor Woo-kyung respected the most.
