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Chapter 10 …
“What are you trying to do?!”
Seunghee grabbed Jiyoung’s arm as she looked ready to storm down to the basement apartment.
“Of all places, Roydi.”
“What?”
“I’m talking about Cha Yeonwoo. It just doesn’t sit right with me.”
At the cryptic remark, Seunghee pulled Jiyoung back down into her seat.
“Did something happen?”
“I told you yesterday. I saw Cha Yeonwoo coming out of the study with Oppa.”
“Vice President Kang already explained everything.”
“Even so, I still don’t like it.”
Jiyoung started to rise from her seat again, but Seunghee watched her with a slightly hardened expression.
“Make sure she knows one thing for certain—that Vice President Kang is the man you’re going to marry.”
Jiyoung had expected her mother to tell her not to stir up trouble in the family and to stay quiet, so she looked surprised.
“Yeonwoo needs to know that clearly too.”
“You’re right. I should tell her again. Of all things, she had to join the company of the man who’s going to become my husband… Though I guess there’s no way someone at the very bottom like Cha Yeonwoo would ever cross paths with an executive like Oppa Mugeol.”
Seunghee stood up and firmly gripped Jiyoung’s shoulders.
“…Don’t tell her he’s part of the Roydi Group.”
“Why not?”
Jiyoung frowned.
“That’s just how people are. If someone feels completely out of reach—far above them—they don’t even bother entertaining any hopes.”
“…”
“If it’s a tree you can’t climb, the smartest thing is not to look at it in the first place. Smart as Yeonwoo is, she knows that too.”
“But still. It’s not like Oppa Mugeol and Cha Yeonwoo would ever have any connection…”
Suddenly, Jiyoung stopped mid-sentence.
“…Ah.”
A look of realization crossed her face.
“Wait… because she joined the Roydi Group?”
“Exactly. Maybe it’s better if she never finds out.”
“…”
“If she discovers that the executive director of her own company—the man who always felt so distant—is actually your fiancé living right upstairs…”
She’ll start feeling psychologically much closer to him.”
“So… the connection between Oppa Mugeol and Cha Yeonwoo that you’re talking about… is me?”
“That’s right. It could be you. Or it could simply be the Roydi Group.”
“Oh.”
Understanding dawned on Jiyoung, and her face stiffened.
“If she knows he’s an executive at the company she works for, she’ll naturally want to see him again at work and think about him more often. And once the wedding preparations really begin, he’ll probably come by this house from time to time.”
“…”
“Whenever that happens, Yeonwoo could easily strike up a conversation with Vice President Kang by saying, ‘Vice President, I just joined your company as a new employee.’ She’d have plenty of excuses to talk to him because of work.”
“…”
“And Vice President Kang might also pay a little more attention to her if he knows she’s one of his company’s new hires.”
As Seunghee continued speaking, Jiyoung bit her lip irritably.
None of it had even happened yet.
And yet, in Jiyoung’s mind, Cha Yeonwoo and Mugeol were already standing together.
Her eyes blazed with jealousy.
“I think we’d just be giving the two of them an excuse to get closer.”
“…That could happen.”
“If he’s just some second-generation chaebol who runs a conglomerate with no connection to her whatsoever, she wouldn’t even be interested. There’d be no reason to.”
“…”
“He’d simply be someone from a completely different world.”
Speaking calmly, Seunghee narrowed her eyes uneasily before adding,
“And while you’re staying home doing nothing these days… if the driver’s daughter, who’s the same age as you and rents the basement apartment, gets hired by a major corporation like theirs…”
She hesitated noticeably before saying the next word.
“…People might start paying attention to her. They might compare the two of you…”
The word compare was spoken with particular care.
Jiyoung nodded as she listened, then suddenly frowned and started walking.
“Now that I think about it, you’re right, Mom. We’d just be giving people something to gossip about. She should be off work by now, shouldn’t she?”
While Yeonwoo was still wondering what she should say, Mugeol’s car had already entered her familiar neighborhood.
“You can just drop me off here.”
She felt awkward being dropped off right in front of the house, so she thought it would be better to get out here.
But Mugeol remained silent.
“Um… Mr. Mugeol…”
Before she knew it, his car had already come to a stop right in front of Jiyoung’s house.
Looking troubled, Yeonwoo glanced once at the closed front gate, then back at Mugeol.
“Anyway… thank you for bringing me home.”
Thinking it would be best to leave as quickly as possible, she immediately grabbed the door handle.
“Please text me the price of the pants!”
Just as Yeonwoo hurriedly leaned toward the door—
“Am I going to eat you?”
“…!”
Mugeol gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
His warm, soft touch made her eyes widen.
“You should at least unbuckle your seatbelt first.”
“Oh.”
As he spoke, Mugeol leaned across the passenger seat.
Yeonwoo froze instantly, pressing herself tightly against the seat.
His warmth and the sound of his breathing washed over her like waves.
“…!”
His broad shoulder came so close that it almost brushed against her arm.
The tension spreading from her toes made her unconsciously hold her breath.
But Mugeol simply reached toward her side without a word.
The instant his firm fingertips lightly grazed her waist—
Yeonwoo’s heart dropped straight to the pit of her stomach.
Click.
The crisp sound of the seatbelt releasing echoed clearly through the car, heavy with tension.
“Ah… th-thank you.”
Yeonwoo swallowed hard, her lips moving awkwardly.
The moment his mountain-like frame withdrew, her cheeks flushed bright red.
As Mugeol casually turned his head, his gaze landed on her face, now as red as a ripe tomato.
“You can get out now.”
A faint smile curved at the corners of his lips.
Yeonwoo hurriedly bowed her head and practically stumbled out of the car.
Instead of entering through the large front gate, she immediately opened the tiny side door hidden between the garage and the main gate—a door so inconspicuous that anyone who wasn’t looking carefully would never notice it.
Watching her disappear through it, Mugeol’s eyes darkened.
“Haa…”
Meanwhile, after hastily getting out of the car, Yeonwoo lightly bit her lip.
She still couldn’t shake off the lingering thrill from the moment Mugeol’s large body had leaned over her.
Lost in thought, she opened the small gate and stepped into the garden.
Then—
“What are you doing?”
Jiyoung’s voice rang out unexpectedly.
Yeonwoo flinched.
It felt as though she’d been caught doing something wrong.
Jiyoung had been heading toward her own house but turned around and walked over instead.
“Did you take a taxi home?”
She looked suspiciously toward the headlights still shining outside the gate.
“Well…”
Not knowing how to answer, Yeonwoo hesitated.
Jiyoung quickened her pace.
Please… just let Mr. Mugeol’s car leave already…
Unlike the panic burning inside her, the headlights continued illuminating everything behind her.
Will Jiyoung recognize his car? What if she does?
That’s why I asked him to let me off farther away…
At this point, Yeonwoo almost resented Mugeol for insisting on bringing her all the way home.
“What is it? Why aren’t you answering?”
Jiyoung roughly shoved Yeonwoo aside, blocking the doorway as she poked her head outside.
The moment she stared at Mugeol’s car, her expression stiffened.
“Well…”
Just as Yeonwoo parted her lips to explain—
“You got a boyfriend?”
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like Jiyoung recognized the car.
At that moment, Mugeol’s car began backing up.
“Huh?”
Then it slowly drove into Jiyoung’s garage.
Jiyoung stared blankly at the car before looking from the vehicle now completely inside the garage to Yeonwoo’s equally shocked face.
“…Isn’t that the car you came in? Who is this?”
At that moment, Mugeol calmly stepped out from the driver’s seat after parking.
The instant Jiyoung saw him, she gasped.
“Oppa?”
Then her sharp eyes slowly shifted to Yeonwoo.
“What are you?!”
She glared fiercely at Yeonwoo and shouted,
“You came here in Oppa Mugeol’s car?!”
If Yeonwoo explained what had happened, she’d have no choice but to tell Jiyoung that she and Mugeol worked together at Roydi.
Remembering Mugeol’s request not to tell anyone for the time being, she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
Then—
“What exactly are you talking about?”
Mugeol walked toward them, his face now cold and expressionless—completely different from moments ago.
The icy aura that Yeonwoo had never once seen while they were together radiated from him.
“Who rode in whose car?”
