ANS 27

Chapter: 27

In the afternoon, just as Jian had told him, there was an executive meeting.

It was an important occasion because it was the first meeting after Taejun had officially taken charge of his duties.

Seonwoo Group was gradually expanding its business areas, starting with China, Southeast Asia, and France.

Recently, they had announced plans to expand large-scale new investments while preparing to enter the American and Dubai markets.

In particular, since Taejun had been in charge of related work in the United States, everyone seemed to have expectations for him despite gossiping about whether he was a parachute hire.

If he made even the slightest mistake, it was obvious they would pounce on him with their eyes wide open, so Taejun tried his best to prepare everything perfectly.

The executive meeting was held in the large conference room.

Taejun let out a small breath between his lips and opened the conference room door before stepping inside.

The moment he appeared, sharp gazes that were closely watching him flew toward him.

“Hello.”

“Yes.”

Taejun greeted them first, but only a brief response came back.

Well, no matter how they reacted, it was not something Taejun needed to concern himself with.

They were executives who had worked at Seonwoo Group for a long time, so even if they considered Taejun an outsider, he could understand why.

However, openly showing their feelings like that was unpleasant.

Regardless, Taejun sat in his seat and looked over the materials Jian had prepared for him.

A little later, Junghoon’s secretary entered the conference room first.

“The chairman is coming.”

At those words, everyone straightened their clothes and sat up properly.

“Hello.”

At the executives’ greeting, Junghoon nodded and sat down at the head seat.

The meeting soon began.

Taejun displayed the prepared materials on the screen and stood beside it.

“Seonwoo Group has chosen the American housing business as its direction for expansion. Since it is a new business sector, there are concerns about the initial investment costs, but because Seonwoo Group possesses outstanding technology among domestic construction companies, we expect the real estate development business to establish itself as one of our main businesses in the future when considering its potential value growth.”

Having lived in the United States for quite a long time, Taejun had many regrets about the housing business there.

Even if he had not been appointed as the division head, he had intended to report on this matter and proceed with the project, so he had a considerable amount of data to support his proposal.

Because of that, Taejun felt more confident than pressured.

“Do you have any questions?”

Although he received sharp questions, Taejun answered them calmly, giving them responses that exceeded what they wanted.

Perhaps even those who had intended to nitpick had nothing to say, as they tightly closed their mouths.

“That concludes my presentation.”

The meeting ended successfully, just as he had prepared.

Taejun knew that this was only the beginning, so he decided to push himself even harder and work more diligently.

Because Junghoon had trusted him and guided him, he wanted to repay that trust by putting in even more effort.

After all the executives left the conference room, Taejun stood up from his seat.

Checking the clock hanging on the wall, he saw that it was 5:30 p.m., almost time to leave work.

When he had talked with Jian in his office that morning, he had told her to keep her evening free.

He thought he could just go to the office and finish up his work before heading out, so he started walking.

But then the conference room door opened with a click.

When he turned his head, Junghoon’s personal secretary was standing there.

“The chairman is calling for you.”

Why now, of all times?

Although he answered that he understood, Taejun felt uncomfortable.

He disliked being late for an appointment with someone, but more than that, he felt he knew the reason Junghoon was calling him.

Of course, there was probably more to discuss regarding the American housing business, but he could not shake the feeling that something else would be the main topic.

He had a bad feeling it would be about the blind date with Jinsol, which had already been mentioned once at dinner the previous evening.

“Please go in right away.”

After taking the elevator up and being guided to Junghoon’s office, Taejun entered with an indifferent expression.

Junghoon welcomed him with a satisfied look.

“You worked hard preparing for this.”

“Thank you.”

At first, their conversation began with matters related to the meeting.

But before long, Junghoon brought up the real reason he had called Taejun.

“The blind date is set for Saturday evening at 7 p.m. at the Marriott Hotel.”

Even so, it was such a one-sided announcement that Taejun’s mouth fell open.

“I clearly told you that I’m not interested in marriage.”

His voice sank low because his resistance was strong.

However, Junghoon did not look like he intended to change his words at all.

“It seems you didn’t take what I said yesterday seriously. To put it more coldly, with only your current background, it will be difficult for you to carry out the business you are trying to pursue. At worst, you may even have to step down from your position as the person in charge.”

“……”

“I hope you will consider marriage as a stepping stone for your business and pay attention to securing a proper background.”

Since he was saying such things while referring to a project Taejun had spent a great deal of time and effort on, Taejun found it difficult to come up with an appropriate response.

What Junghoon said was not wrong, but he hated that the person involved was Jinsol, and more importantly…

……Jian’s hurt expression kept appearing before his eyes and disappearing.

The image of her only staring at him with tears gathered in her eyes bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

‘What does Seo Jian mean to me?’

He tried to dismiss it like that, but it was not as easy as he wanted.

He wondered if he should lie and say he was seeing someone, but if Junghoon tried to find out who it was, that would only make things worse.

His thought that he alone should be the only one to make Jian unhappy had not changed.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Seven o’clock. Make sure you keep the time and go.”

But it seemed Junghoon had no intention of compromising.

A deep shadow fell over Taejun’s face.

6:30 p.m.

Although Jian had heard that the executive meeting had ended long ago, Taejun still had not appeared at the office.

Because Taejun had told her to keep her evening free after work, she had finished her tasks exactly at six.

‘It’s a little awkward to start working again now.’

She could not just sit there doing nothing, so Jian only fiddled with the innocent mouse.

‘This won’t do. I should at least go to the restroom.’

As she sat there, time seemed to pass far too slowly, so Jian got up from her seat.

She took her phone and sat inside a restroom stall, hoping to waste a little time before coming back out.

“Sweetheart, can you talk?”

About ten minutes later, just as she was about to open the door and leave, a very familiar voice echoed through the restroom.

It was Mijin, her former team leader.

Mijin often used the word “sweetheart” for people she liked, as a way of showing closeness.

Jian did not know who she was talking to, but she did not want to run into Mijin even for a moment, so she removed her hand from the doorknob.

‘Why now of all times?’

Because of that, she had no choice but to accidentally overhear Mijin’s conversation.

Afraid that she might be discovered, Jian held her breath and froze completely without moving.

“I called because I had something interesting to tell you. Why did you leave work first? This kind of thing is more fun when you talk face-to-face.”

It seemed she was going to gossip about someone again.

Jian shook her head without realizing it, wondering if that was really so entertaining.

She even felt sorry for Mijin, thinking that she must have such a boring life if this was how she spent her time.

Jian did not know what the person on the other end said, but Mijin laughed like a witch.

“I heard Seo Jian went to work in Director Lee’s car together this morning?”

“……!”

At the mention of herself, Jian’s expression stiffened.

She had believed that no one had seen them because they had gone straight down to the underground parking lot, so the shock was immense.

But more than that, her heart pounded wildly at the thought that someone might have also discovered her getting into the elevator and kissing Taejun in his office.

“As expected, a long tail eventually gets stepped on, right? She acted so seriously saying it wasn’t true and denied everything, tsk tsk. If they came out in the same car in the morning, what else could it mean? It means they spent the night together.”

Taejun had misunderstood the same thing before.

The breath escaping from Jian’s delicate nose trembled.

“I heard she got into the department head’s car after the company dinner last time too. She must be really busy moving between this man and that man every night. If she gets pregnant, there won’t even be a way to know whose child it is.”

“Hahaha.”

As Mijin’s laughter faded away, Jian’s fists clenched tightly.

She had unintentionally given strength to a ridiculous rumor, but she could not blame anyone else.

With Yuhyun, nothing had happened at all, so she could simply ignore it.

But the rumor with Taejun was different.

She could not guarantee that no one else would ever notice, and she was already tied to Taejun through their relationship as partners.

‘Should I be grateful that no one saw the decisive scene of us walking out of the same hotel?’

The filthy feeling of being thrown alone into a dark place where not even a single ray of sunlight could enter only left her with self-loathing.