🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 6
She briefly considered just going back, but she didn’t want to look like she was avoiding him.
Seokyung walked in with her head held high.
Taeo, who had just been pouring coffee, let his gaze linger on her.
“Aren’t you overdoing it? You should get some sleep while working.”
He held out the coffee he had just poured toward Seokyung and laughed low.
“If you collapse on PT day, I’d feel too guilty.”
Seokyung stared blankly at the cup in front of her, then replied coldly.
“That won’t happen, so you can save your worries.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
Taeo, holding the coffee, took a step closer.
“Next Thursday, we’re going on a site inspection to the resort.”
“What?”
“Since it’s not completed yet, Hyunjin only allowed one vehicle. We’ll go in my car, so don’t be late.”
Seokyung’s brow furrowed slightly.
“You’re saying I have to ride in the Division Head’s car?”
“Why? Are you scared of riding alone in a car with me?”
“Scared? Great, saves on gas.”
Seokyung raised the corner of her mouth without backing down.
“Instead, please drive safely to the resort site. I’m a bit of a nervous person.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
A fine smile spread across Taeo’s lips.
“I’ll make you so comfortable you’ll want to ride only in cars I drive.”
What bravado.
As Seokyung stood there as if she had no intention of taking the coffee, Taeo lightly grabbed her wrist and wrapped her hand around the cup.
When their hands touched in the process, Seokyung flinched without realizing it.
“Drink it. If you collapse, I’ll have no one to compete with, and that’d be a problem.”
Taeo left the break room after saying only what he wanted to say.
Left alone, Seokyung alternated her gaze between the wrist his touch had brushed and the warm coffee.
But Han Taeo, didn’t he come to get coffee?
* * *
Finally, Thursday morning, the day of the resort site inspection.
The sky was overcast, as if it might pour rain at any moment.
Seokyung arrived on time and waited for Taeo’s car.
Soon, a black SUV stopped in front of her.
“You came on time without being late. I was going to leave you behind if you were late.”
“I figured you would.”
“Get in. I’ll get you there safely, so don’t worry.”
He gestured toward the passenger seat with his chin.
As Seokyung got in, he started the engine.
As expected, riding in Taeo’s car together was unbearably uncomfortable.
The car was filled with silence until they left Seoul.
Seokyung, feeling awkward, pulled out the proposal, but she couldn’t concentrate at all because of Taeo’s presence beside her.
Eventually, giving up on reading the documents, Seokyung turned her gaze out the window.
“Is the proposal coming along well? Every night beyond the blinds, your passion was blazing.”
Taeo broke the silence and spoke first.
“Yes, well, thanks to you.”
“Thanks to me… I’d like to hear specifically what was so thankworthy.”
“You must enjoy receiving empty compliments.”
“They’re not empty compliments. I even yielded Chairman Park’s information and the wallet.”
Taeo paused for a moment, then added casually.
“Plus, I’m providing excellent visuals you can see just by turning your head.”
“What?”
“Team Leader Joo, you keep glancing my way in the office all the time.”
“When did I ever glance! It’s just that with only a glass wall between us, I can see you by turning my head. I wasn’t looking on purpose.”
Taeo’s lips curved long as he glanced sideways at the flustered Seokyung.
“Don’t get so worked up sitting right next to me. It makes you look cute.”
“What are you saying. We’re competitors. Get a grip, Division Head Han Taeo.”
“Right. I should get a grip.”
Taeo laughed low.
“It’s been so long since I had a woman in the passenger seat that I’m really not doing well.”
Seokyung turned to him with an incredulous face.
“We’re not going on a date. If you don’t want to get hit while driving, shut that mouth and focus on driving.”
“I’d like to, but.”
Taeo’s gaze briefly dropped.
“I’m bothered that Team Leader Joo has been gripping the handle like a lifeline for a while now.”
Only then did Seokyung realize she was tightly clutching the ceiling handle. She let go with a start, and Taeo laughed low.
“Can’t trust my driving? Or is it because I’m on your mind?”
At some point, when it was just the two of them, his speech had naturally become more casual.
“If it’s the latter, it’d be much more interesting, but don’t worry even if it’s the former. I’ll make you so comfortable you’ll want to ride again.”
Seokyung narrowed her eyes as if trying not to get caught up in his tricks.
“But why are you speaking casually?”
“Oh, was I?”
Taeo replied nonchalantly as he turned the steering wheel smoothly.
“There are only the two of us in the car, so it’s fine to speak casually, isn’t it?”
“Are we close enough for that? We’re just coworkers, so keep your manners.”
“Just coworkers…”
The end of his voice sank slightly.
“That’s hurtful. I thought we were people who shared a somewhat deeper narrative than that.”
As Taeo murmured low, gripping the wheel with force, Seokyung’s voice turned cold as ice.
“Deeper narrative? You’re overly mistaken. Division Head Han Taeo is nothing but an unpleasant memory I want to erase.”
She was utterly displeased that he brought up the past.
After a heavy silence swept through, Taeo spoke again after a long while.
“Six years have passed. Am I still that hateful and detestable to you?”
“That won’t change no matter how much time passes.”
At Seokyung’s icy answer, Taeo closed his mouth to avoid giving her greater wounds and shock.
He merely smiled bitterly to himself.
The car fell into silence again.
After driving silently for a while, the car had somehow turned onto the winding mountain roads of Gangwon Province.
The sky, which had been clear just moments before, had now settled into an ashen gray, and thick fog was spreading rapidly across each mountain ridge.
Seokyung looked out the window with an uneasy heart.
The trees swaying in the fierce wind seemed to warn them to turn back right now.
Eventually, Seokyung broke the silence first.
“The weather doesn’t look good. Is it okay to keep going?”
At Seokyung’s worried voice, Taeo subtly raised the corner of his mouth.
Thick tendons rose on the back of his hand gripping the wheel.
“If you’re scared, we can turn back now. What’ll it be, should I let you out here?”
“You’re telling me to get out here alone and go back?”
“You don’t trust me, do you. In a place like this, is being with me better than being alone?”
This was the side of Taeo that Seokyung hated most—seeing through the opponent’s weakness and mercilessly attacking at the moment they were most vulnerable.
Seokyung glared at him with displeasure and snapped.
“I’m not in the mood for jokes. I can’t see anything ahead because of the fog—is it really okay?”
Seokyung was right.
The thick mountain fog had thickened to the point of swallowing the SUV’s hood.
Taeo increased the wiper speed, but the rain striking the windshield grew thicker and obstructed the view.
Sssss—
Even the music from the radio turned into crackling noise and cut off.
A strange sensation, as if cut off from civilization, swept through the car.
“Hmm, the road is worse than I thought.”
Taeo murmured low and shifted gears.
At that moment, the car lurched heavily and rattled.
With the sound of sudden braking, the car came to a stop.
“Are you okay?”
Taeo urgently wrapped his arm around Seokyung’s shoulder.
The hot warmth from his large palm passed through her thin cardigan and reached her fully.
“…I’m fine. But why is the car doing this?”
“I think the wheel fell into a mud pit.”
Taeo turned off the engine and unfastened his seatbelt.
In the narrow car, the sound of the seatbelt unfastening rang unusually loud.
As he leaned his upper body toward Seokyung to check the situation outside the window, Seokyung gasped and pressed herself deep into the seat.
Danger signals blared from her head—no, from her chest.
Too close.
Seokyung, frozen like ice, stared at him with only her big eyes blinking.
Taeo, who had been checking the outside through the car window, turned his head toward her.
The distance between them became close enough that their lips would touch if either tilted their head just slightly.
A brief silence passed, and Taeo’s low voice resonated in Seokyung’s ear.
“We can’t move until the rain stops.”
Seokyung stared at him, holding her breath.
I must be crazy. The other person is Han Taeo, who only knows his own interests!
