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Episode 12
What kind of Siberian tundra situation was this?
The atmosphere had turned so cold it felt like the air itself had frozen solid.
Startled, Iryeong blinked her wide eyes and parted her dry lips, but no words came out.
“Deputy Manager Baek Hyun-wook?”
Seo Ijun’s fierce gaze and sharp tone cut through the silence like a blade—almost as if he were jealous.
“When did you get back from your business trip?”
He was a completely different person from the one who’d been with her alone earlier.
“Just now. It happened to be lunch hour, so I came straight to the cafeteria.”
Hyun-wook responded smoothly, without a trace of panic.
The only one bewildered by this tense situation was Iryeong herself.
“Did you come to eat too, Executive Director?”
“I still have to eat to stay alive, don’t I?”
Ijun fixed his piercing stare on the two of them sitting side by side and sat down across from them.
He’d arrived late for lunch, only to witness a scene he couldn’t unsee. The moment he spotted the two sitting together from afar, something twisted violently in his gut. He’d shoveled rice onto his tray and rushed over here without a second thought.
“You two, go ahead and eat.”
He picked up his chopsticks, but when he saw the lonely pile of plain white rice on his tray, he suddenly realized how ridiculous he must look.
“Um, Executive Director. Your tray is empty.”
“So what?”
He snapped at Hyun-wook’s innocent comment without meaning to.
“This is enough for me. You two keep eating.”
He fixed his gaze on the rice, poking at it distractedly.
Iryeong couldn’t stop glancing at Ijun.
She wanted to ask—Do you know about the rumors too? What do you think of them? Could we even announce our engagement in front of everyone like this?
But his icy expression kept her silent, forcing her to chew on her thoughts instead.
“Ms. Chae Iryeong, aren’t you eating?”
“…Huh? Ah, no. I’m full, so I’ll stop here.”
She suddenly realized he was staring directly at her, arms crossed, face clearly displeased.
“Deputy Manager Baek.”
She turned to Hyun-wook.
“You asked if I had a boyfriend, right?”
Her voice was soft but deliberate, like she wanted someone else to overhear.
“I don’t.”
It was the truth—nothing to hide, and nothing messy to add.
“You don’t? Really?”
Hyun-wook’s face lit up as if he’d been waiting for this.
“Yes. I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Glance. Iryeong couldn’t help but steal a quick look at Ijun.
She couldn’t deny it—his reaction was the only one that mattered to her at that moment.
“Then, Ms. Iryeong, think seriously about my confession, okay? I treat my girlfriend really well.”
Hyun-wook was bubbling with excitement, but Iryeong didn’t even hear him.
She shoved a heap of meat into her mouth to avoid looking at Ijun, even as her heart pounded in fear of his unreadable reaction.
And yet, she couldn’t take her eyes off his face.
Does he even know how good-looking he is?
Even his blank expression was annoyingly handsome, and she found herself staring, utterly mesmerized.
I must be weak to good looks…
She felt herself slipping helplessly into the depths of his charm.
His background, his face, even the way he made love—everything about him was impeccable. Which made her wonder all the more: Why did a man like that propose to me?
“So, Ms. Iryeong? How about it? Will you go out with me?”
Hyun-wook’s excited voice snapped her out of her daze.
“I’m sorry, Deputy Manager. I don’t think I can date anyone right now.”
“But you just said you don’t have a boyfriend. So why not?”
Iryeong shut her eyes tightly, took a deep breath, and blurted it out:
“I–I may not have a boyfriend, but I do have a husband!”
She practically shouted it like a madwoman, then bolted from the cafeteria before the aftershock could hit her.
“H-Husband…?”
He’d just been rejected by a married woman?
Hyun-wook was too stunned to even hide his disbelief.
“Executive Director, you heard that too, right?”
He turned to Ijun, who was sitting calmly, as if to confirm the absurdity of what they’d just witnessed.
But in Ijun’s eyes, a strange gleam was beginning to burn—brighter than summer sunlight glinting off white sand.
“She said she has a husband, yes. I heard it very clearly.”
His voice wasn’t just amused; it was downright cheerful.
“Could that even be true? She probably lied because she doesn’t like me, right? You think so too, don’t you, Executive Director?”
Hyun-wook looked pitiful, practically on the verge of tears.
Things had escalated in a way Ijun hadn’t anticipated. If he’d known, he wouldn’t have gotten so irrationally angry earlier.
“I don’t think that’s the case.”
“What do you mean it’s not? Are you saying what she said is true?”
Hyun-wook bit his lip, desperate to deny it.
“I happen to know that ‘husband’ guy very well.”
“Wh-What? You—you know him?”
But Ijun no longer even saw Hyun-wook’s shocked face.
“Ms. Chae Iryeong,” he murmured, looking toward the direction she’d run off in, a crooked smile playing at his lips. “She’s kind of cute, sometimes.”
“Wh-What? C-Cute?”
Hyun-wook was dumbfounded. Who calls a married woman cute?
And seeing a rare smile on the Executive Director’s face only made him feel like this was the unluckiest day of his life.
Iryeong left work exactly on time and stopped by the department store before heading home. The cold wind reddened her cheeks and ears, but she didn’t care.
“Hoo…”
She exhaled deeply, letting the icy air fill her lungs before stepping into the silent house.
It was as uncomfortable as ever. This house had never once given her a sense of warmth.
Still holding her shopping bags, she sat on the sofa and focused on the ticking of the wall clock.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. The sound was especially grating today.
“…”
She pressed her lips together and inhaled slowly. Her chest ached with a familiar tightness.
Tonight, she planned to tell her parents that she had someone she was going to marry.
But after their last disastrous conversation, tensions between them were high, and her thoughts were a tangled mess.
Will they be happy? …Yeah, they probably will.
If she got married and moved out, they’d be able to dote on her younger brother Jungmin all they wanted, without worrying about her. That alone would probably please them.
“Ha…”
The thought gave her a headache, and she tilted her head back, eyes closed.
The ticking grew louder, needling her nerves.
She fidgeted with the shopping bag handles to distract herself, but it only made her feel worse. Old emotions she’d tried to suppress came bubbling up.
“…I guess my stepmother will be the one sitting in the parents’ seat at the wedding, huh?”
Inevitably, her mind wandered to the wedding and her stepmother.
“If Mom were still alive… none of this would be happening.”
If her real mother had been there, this house wouldn’t have been so suffocating. She wouldn’t have accepted Ijun’s proposal so impulsively either.
“It’s got to be better than here. It has to be…”
Whether life by Ijun’s side would be heaven or hell, she couldn’t know yet.
“He said we’d live with his family. It’ll be different… It has to be different.”
She had no romantic expectations about the marriage. Ijun’s proposal was, after all, just an escape route.
And yet, her chest felt tight, like something was stuck there.
She clenched the bag handles, trying to shake off the discomfort, but it was no use.
The house was silent. Lonely. Damnably so.
“It’s not like this is anything new.”
She had no memories of her real mother. She’d died before Iryeong was even old enough to roll over in bed.
During the years she needed parental warmth the most, her father had been practically absent.
She’d only come to understand his circumstances as an adult, but whenever she remembered her childhood self, a pang of sorrow hit her.
At kindergarten talent shows or elementary school entrance ceremonies, she’d always been alone. Her father, a single man struggling to raise a daughter, couldn’t attend weekday events.
She’d acted like she didn’t care, but she’d envied the other kids’ flower bouquets and secretly cried into her pillow at night.
Back then, she’d thought it was normal. Now, looking back, she just felt sorry for that lonely little girl.
“What’s wrong with me…”
She’d decided to step aside for the sake of her father, stepmother, and their precious son.
So why did her heart still feel so unsettled?
‘About Jungmin… He’s a high school senior now. Don’t you think it’s time he came home?’
She remembered her father’s request after a long time—and how it had weighed on her heart ever since.
She’d rejected it out of petty jealousy toward a boy barely nineteen.
‘Since we’re always busy at the shop, I was hoping you could look after Jungmin sometimes.’
She’d grown up alone. So why should he get to be protected? Her head understood—but her heart refused.
“I’ll just be the bad daughter, then.”
Her only real ‘wrongdoing’ was opposing her father’s remarriage.
She’d rebelled when he rushed into marriage during her chaotic college entrance exam period, all because of Jungmin’s elementary school enrollment.
He hadn’t cared when she entered school or graduated, after all.
“…Anyone would think I’m the outsider here.”
Her father’s kindness, which she’d never received, was reserved for Jungmin. The bitterness had warped into anger long ago.
“I’m so sick of this. I’m going to lose my mind.”
With feelings like this, it was hard to be sure about the marriage. But she had more than enough reasons to leave this house.
She wanted to escape to someone who didn’t know her past—Seo Ijun—and finally breathe. Maybe even find a little hope.
“Executive Director Seo Ijun. Seo Ijun… Mr. Ijun.”
She whispered his name, which had once felt awkward but now gave her a strange sense of strength.
He’d said he’d be the one she could rely on. Just saying his name already made her feel lighter.
‘Oppa. Oppa works too.’
A man who told her to call him however she liked, so she’d feel comfortable.
She wanted to lean on him a little. Just a little. To finally set down some of the burdens she’d carried alone.
