Chapter 2

“The consultation fee is 100,000 won for 30 minutes.”

The atmosphere inside the lawyer’s office in Seocho-dong was as cold as a sterilized room.

I opened my crumpled consultation notes again.

This was already the third rejection today.

The lawyer glanced through the documents and adjusted his glasses with a dry expression.

“Ms. Lee, I’ll be honest with you. A civil lawsuit? We can get you a judgment in your favor. But are you really going to spend money on legal fees just to get a piece of paper?”

“What? If I win, why can’t I get my money back?”

The lawyer clicked his tongue as if I were being foolish.

“That landlord is a figurehead. He’s probably either a homeless person who lent out his name or someone with terrible credit. And he’s unreachable now, right? Nine times out of ten, he’s either in prison or has already fled overseas.”

“Then…”

“What’s the point of suing someone who has nothing? There isn’t even a single penny of property to seize. You’ll just lose the 5.5 million won attorney’s fee. Give up. That’s how you save money.”

5.5 million won.

Eleven times the 500,000 won left in my bank account.

To recover my 300 million won jeonse deposit, I had to catch a ghost called a figurehead landlord.

But even that was impossible because I didn’t have the money for a lawsuit.

I was completely trapped.

After spending the day running around in a daze, it was already 11 p.m.

The office was silent because everyone else had gone home.

Tap, tap.

The sound of my fingers hitting the keyboard was the only sign that anyone was still alive.

I had finished my work a long time ago.

And yet I remained glued to my chair.

The reason was simple.

First, I needed to save every bit of overtime meal and transportation money I could. Maybe eventually I’d have enough for the deposit on a tiny one-room rental.

Second, I absolutely hated going home.

I kept imagining red seizure notices covering my front door.

Every night, I felt as if someone might suddenly start pounding on the door.

The jeonse apartment that had once been my safe haven had already become a prison strangling me.

The cold, empty office, where the security guard occasionally made his rounds, actually felt safer.

I’m hungry…

I had skipped dinner, and my stomach was screaming.

I staggered to the break room.

A shiny Italian espresso machine caught my eye, but I turned away.

What I needed right now wasn’t the elegant aroma of freshly ground coffee.

I needed a sugary drink strong enough to make my head spin.

My hands trembled slightly as I tore open a packet of instant mixed coffee.

If I didn’t want to end up homeless immediately, I had to find some cheap place to stay.

But I had no money.

That meant I would eventually have to take out a short-term loan.

But I had already reached my limit because of my jeonse loan.

What would happen if I borrowed even more?

Could I handle it?

No.

It was impossible.

I could already see the future.

I would struggle to pay the interest as the debt grew like a snowball.

And then, eventually, my credit cards might even get suspended.

The thought of walking through the subway gates on my way to work and hearing the warning beep as I was stopped in my tracks sent a chill down my spine.

“Assistant Manager Lee, did your card get suspended?”

I could almost hear Team Leader Park’s mocking voice.

No one would probably call the company to demand payment from me, but no employee could continue working normally while carrying the label of a person with bad credit.

It would be practically a social death sentence.

My head was buzzing.

The shameless voice of the landlord’s representative from my phone call earlier echoed in my ears like a hallucination.

“Go through the law! Do it legally!”

The law?

For people without money, the law was far away while debt was painfully close.

“Ugh…”

I was pouring hot water into the paper cup when I finally burst into tears.

It was unfair.

All I had done was live honestly and work hard.

All I had done was struggle and save money while everyone else talked about enjoying life.

So why was the world being so cruel to me?

“What am I supposed to do…? What am I really supposed to do…?”

I was clutching the paper cup and trembling with sobs when it happened.

Creak.

The break room door opened.

I quickly covered my mouth and turned away because I didn’t want anyone to see my tear-stained face.

Please let it be the security guard.

Or please just go away.

But the footsteps didn’t stop.

They came toward me.

Steady, heavy footsteps in dress shoes.

A faint sandalwood scent drifted through the air.

The musk scent brushing against the tip of my nose made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up instinctively.

This scent…

“Assistant Manager Lee.”

A low voice entered my ears.

Slowly.

Very slowly, I turned around.

“…Executive Director?”

Kang Seo-jun.

The heir to this company and the man famous for his cold personality was standing in front of me.

His pomaded hair was perfectly neat, without a single strand out of place.

His forehead was so pale and cool-looking, and his nose was sharp as if it had been carved with a sculptor’s knife.

Even his tie knot was perfectly aligned, as though it had been measured with a ruler.

I couldn’t breathe.

Unlike me, worn out from working late, he looked like someone from an entirely different world from head to toe.

His gaze landed on my face and paused for a moment.

…Was that just my imagination?

As if nothing had happened, he looked away and walked toward the coffee machine.

“Are you not going home?”

“Ah, yes. I still have some work to finish. What about you, Executive Director…?”

“Lack of caffeine.”

He gave a short answer and pressed the espresso button.

Whirr-

The sound of the machine filled the silence.

I secretly wiped the corners of my eyes.

But there was no way to hide my swollen eyes.

While he waited for the coffee, his gaze moved toward my hand and then to the crumpled note lying beneath it.

[XX Law Office: No practical benefit from winning / Landlord’s identity unclear]

Oh no.

I quickly hid the note behind my back, but it was already too late.

His eyes narrowed.

“Legal consultation?”

“…It’s a personal matter.”

The sound of the coffee finishing filled the small break room, and a heavy silence fell over the room again.

He picked up the freshly brewed espresso and slowly brought it to his nose as if checking its aroma.

“The landlord’s identity is unclear.”

He took a sip of the coffee elegantly and gave a cynical smile.

“You’re not getting your money back.”

He had hit the exact point I was trying to avoid.

The way he talked about someone else’s misfortune as if it were none of his business made me feel ashamed, but anger quickly rose inside me.

“What does the Executive Director know? Do you have any idea how much I’ve…!”

“I know. I know how that world works.”

Still holding his coffee cup, he turned toward me.

The dark coffee with its rich golden crema in his hand and the cheap instant mixed coffee in my paper cup.

That small difference seemed to brutally reveal the gap between our circumstances.

“You won’t catch them.”

He spoke casually.

“They’ve probably already laundered the money and fled overseas. A lawsuit? You’ll just end up making the lawyer richer.”

“……!”

His words were painfully accurate.

And that made them even crueler.

I couldn’t argue.

It was exactly the hopeless future I had spent all day confirming.

My legs lost their strength.

I grabbed the edge of the table and barely managed to stay standing.

“Then… what am I supposed to do?”

My pride and dignity had completely collapsed.

“They say even the law can’t help me. Everyone tells me to give up. But all my money is tied up in this… I can’t even die because of it…”

His eyes were completely calculating.

There was no sympathy or pity in them.

He slowly looked me over as if he were evaluating whether I was some kind of valuable product.

Then he spoke.

“Do you know what’s faster than the law?”

“…What?”

“Money. And power.”

The air inside the break room suddenly seemed to disappear.

I tried to step backward, but my hips hit the table, leaving me nowhere else to go.

“300 million won.”

The number that came out of his mouth made my breath catch.

At the same time, a chilling question flashed through my mind.

How does he know?

I had never told anyone at the company the exact amount I had lost.

So how did he know that my entire fortune was 300 million won…?

As if he could see straight through my confusion, he casually drove the final nail into the coffin.

“I’ll arrange the money you lost.”

Crinkle.

The paper cup in my hand crumpled under the force of my grip.

Hot coffee spilled over my fingers, but I couldn’t feel the heat.

The coldness radiating from the man in front of me seemed strong enough to swallow even the heat.

“Why…?”

I slowly raised my eyes.

“Why would you do that for me?”

His gaze slowly dropped.

He looked at my trembling fingertips, wet with coffee, before slowly raising his eyes again and locking them with mine.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not doing charity.”

His tone was cold and firm.

“I need something too. Something that money can’t buy, with some very difficult conditions attached.”

“What… is it?”

My voice was as small as a mosquito’s.

Kang Seo-jun leaned down until our eyes were level.

His calm scent rushed toward me and settled deep inside my lungs.

His face was far too close compared to how distant his voice sounded.

I could even see the slight rise and fall of his chest beneath his tie whenever he breathed.

“Clean background. A woman who knows her place.”

His gaze slowly moved over my trembling pupils, my quivering lips, and the hand clutching the crumpled paper cup.

He looked at them for a long time.

Then his lips twisted into a cold, almost cynical smile, as if the way he was looking at me meant nothing.

“And someone who is so desperate for money…”

His eyes slowly traced over me.

“A woman who is ready to put even her soul up as collateral.”

His voice struck my ears like a nail.

“Someone exactly like you.”