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Chapter 9 …
“No, I… I’ll just take the subway.”
Caught off guard by the unexpected face, Yeonwoo took a step back.
Then, worried that someone might see them, she hurriedly glanced around.
From the driver’s seat came Mugeol’s relaxed voice.
“Why do you keep looking around as if someone’s watching?”
“…Well.”
“Get in. This car rides better than the subway.”
Yeonwoo swallowed the obvious reply—that she didn’t need to ride in it to know that—and gave him an awkward smile.
“Then… I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She bowed slightly and turned to leave.
“The price of the pants…”
That single sentence stopped her in her tracks.
“Aren’t you curious how much they cost?”
An awkward silence filled the car.
Since Mugeol already knew where she lived, she didn’t have to give him her address. His car continued straight ahead without hesitation.
Sneaking a glance at him behind the wheel, Yeonwoo wondered what she should say before carefully breaking the silence.
“About the price of the pants…”
“The Jeong Jiyoung you live with.”
“…?”
“Are you close?”
Ignoring her question with ease, Mugeol asked one of his own instead.
At the mention of Jeong Jiyoung’s name, the tension that had tightened Yeonwoo’s chest gradually eased.
Instead of answering, she quietly looked at Mugeol as he drove.
So this is why he asked me to get in the car.
He had said Jiyoung was the woman he was going to marry, so he must have wanted to ask her various questions about Jiyoung.
Then suddenly, Yeonwoo caught an unfamiliar phrase in his question.
“The Jeong Jiyoung you live with.”
“…We don’t live together.”
As always, Yeonwoo spoke in a dry, emotionless voice.
It had always been that way.
Whenever the conversation turned to Jiyoung, she spoke with the voice and expression of someone exhausted… or resigned.
As if her answer had been completely unexpected, a flicker of interest flashed across Mugeol’s eyes.
“But you do live together. In the same house.”
He answered immediately.
To Yeonwoo, those words felt strangely unexpected.
“Yeonwoo, you live with Jiyoung?”
“No, she doesn’t. Chae Yeonwoo just rents a room beneath Jiyoung’s house.”
“Chae Yeonwoo? The girl renting a room in our house.”
“She lives in the semi-basement beneath Jiyoung’s place.”
Ever since their school days, no one had ever said that she and Jiyoung lived in the same house.
She herself had always believed they lived in completely different places, even though they entered through the same front gate.
“…”
Just as Yeonwoo silently stared at him with a peculiar expression, lost in thought—
“Why?”
He shrugged lightly.
“Did I say something wrong?”
As if he genuinely couldn’t understand the issue.
Yeonwoo shook her head.
Then she quickly looked away.
“No. It’s nothing.”
“…”
“And I’m not close with Jeong Jiyoung.”
The fact that she addressed her stiffly by her full name alone subtly revealed the nature of their relationship.
“I see. I’d heard you went to the same elementary, middle, and high schools together.”
“Only the schools.”
“…”
“We grew up in the same neighborhood, so of course we’d end up at the same schools.”
Her curt answer made Mugeol, who had been looking ahead, turn his head toward her.
At that moment, the traffic light turned red, bringing the car to a stop.
“You call it the same neighborhood.”
“…”
“Not the same house.”
There was something meaningful in the expression on Mugeol’s face as he said it.
He stared intently at Yeonwoo’s clear, unguarded face.
“Well, anyway.”
“…”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Jeong Jiyoung that I’ve joined Roydi as an employee.”
Yeonwoo’s eyes widened slightly.
“When you say… for now…”
“…”
“How long exactly?”
She had heard they were going to get married.
Then why keep something like this a secret?
It wasn’t as though it could stay hidden forever.
“I heard… you’re going to marry Jeong Jiyoung.”
“…”
“I don’t think this is something that can stay hidden just because I keep quiet. Of course, I wasn’t planning to tell Jiyoung about you first.”
Yeonwoo continued in a firmer voice than ever before.
“Jiyoung and I hardly talk about my life anyway. I doubt I’ll ever have a reason to discuss work with her.”
“That’s a relief.”
At his reply, Yeonwoo held his gaze for a brief moment before turning forward again.
…Why is he trying to hide his job from the woman he’s going to marry?
She’ll find out eventually anyway.
She was curious.
She wanted to ask.
But the question refused to leave her lips.
It felt far too personal.
They weren’t close enough to ask each other things like that.
And perhaps…
They shouldn’t become that close in the first place.
Yeonwoo quietly kept her mouth shut.
“Just until the day she naturally finds out.”
“…”
“That’s all I intend to hide.”
Instead of replying, Yeonwoo simply nodded.
“Does my presence make you uncomfortable, Chae Yeonwoo?”
At that moment, as the light turned green and the car started moving again, Mugeol asked the unexpected question.
Yeonwoo’s dark eyes, which had stubbornly remained fixed ahead, trembled in surprise.
“Because I’d like to become closer to you, Chae Yeonwoo.”
“…?”
At those added words, her wavering gaze landed on Mugeol’s handsome profile.
After saying that, Mugeol remained silent.
The atmosphere had become too awkward for her to ask about the cost of the pants.
So Yeonwoo simply waited for the car to arrive in her neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Jiyoung lay on her bed with a sheet mask covering her face, absentmindedly swinging her feet.
Just then, Seunghee walked into the room.
Seeing her daughter lounging around, she let out a sigh.
“How long are you going to keep lying around the house like this?”
Here comes another lecture…
Jiyoung twitched her lips and squeezed her eyes shut.
Until a week ago, she had been running a small café gallery inside Seunghee’s art center.
The plan had been to make use of her art major, let her build experience there, and if she showed promise, move her to a larger gallery.
But perhaps because she had never enjoyed working to earn money in the first place, she couldn’t even keep it running for a full year before closing it.
“Aren’t you ever going to get married? Hmm?”
Looking deeply frustrated, Seunghee sat down at the foot of Jiyoung’s bed.
“Why wouldn’t I? I’m going to marry Oppa Mugeol.”
“Oppa… Mugeol?”
Seunghee tilted her head at the affectionate title.
“Since when did Executive Director Kang become your oppa?”
“We decided I’d call him that. Oppa didn’t seem to mind.”
“Well…”
Seunghee sighed.
“I have to admit, you’re good at getting close to people.”
“Exactly. So stop worrying. I’m going to get married. I’ll make you in-laws with the Roydi Group.”
Seunghee let out a small laugh as she looked down at Jiyoung.
“Yes, the marriage itself may be something the families can arrange. But before that, shouldn’t you have a job?”
“…”
“Are you planning to marry as someone unemployed? At least you should have a respectable title when his family introduces you.”
“Why does a title matter? Before the wedding I’ll be the future daughter-in-law, and afterward they’ll call me daughter-in-law or madam.”
“Oh, honestly. Our family already falls a little short compared to Roydi as it is… Even if you can’t surpass Executive Director Kang, you should at least have a career on a similar level.”
Jiyoung, who had been lying there quietly with her eyes closed, suddenly remembered something.
“So now that Oppa Mugeol’s back in Korea, he’s going straight into Roydi headquarters, right? Since Kang Mutae is an Executive Director there, is Oppa returning as an Executive Director too?”
“I don’t think so. I heard he’s taking a break for a while.”
“A break?”
Jiyoung’s eyes flew open.
“Really? Isn’t he famous for being a complete workaholic?”
“Well, after spending years working overseas, it’s only natural that he’d want to rest. Though knowing him, even while he’s on break, all the affiliates will keep calling him in to clean up their messes. He’s just that capable.”
“What kind of break is that? That doesn’t sound like resting at all.”
Nodding, Jiyoung chuckled and got up from the bed.
“Then we should have the wedding while Oppa’s taking his break. We can both be unemployed together, right?”
Watching Jiyoung joke around, Seunghee shot her a glare before smacking her squarely on the back.
“Ow! Why’d you hit me?!”
“I really don’t want to compare you to anyone…”
The moment the word compare came up, Jiyoung’s face instantly hardened.
“But just look at Yeonwoo. Even without a mother, living with her father in a semi-basement apartment, never attending a single private academy, she ranked first in her entire school year all the way through. And now she’s even gotten into Roydi.”
The instant Yeonwoo’s name was mentioned, Jiyoung ripped the sheet mask off her face and shouted.
“I told you not to compare me to that bitch!”
Seunghee looked at her daughter with a pained expression before slowly closing and reopening her eyes.
“Fine. I’m not comparing you. I’m just frustrated. She even earned scholarships from your maternal grandfather’s foundation and got into one of the country’s top universities. But you, his own granddaughter…”
“Those scholarships are for poor kids! What, was I supposed to take scholarship money meant for people who actually needed it?!”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Then, all of a sudden, Jiyoung remembered seeing Yeonwoo walking out of the study with Mugeol the previous day.
She jumped to her feet.
“Has Chae Yeonwoo come home from work yet?”
