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Chapter – 09
The Right Attitude in the Face of Distrust
A few days ago, during lunchtime.
Do-kyung had called Gyeo-ul out separately, saying they needed to get their story straight.
“Alright, let’s draft a scenario based on the 5W1H principle.”
“5W1H. Sounds good.”
“Who, when, where, how, what, and why.”
He’d even brought his laptop – a full-scale project preparation had begun.
“Who? Us. That’s easy. When should we start? From our first meeting.”
“Our first meeting…”
That day, over several pages, the two of them meticulously planned everything: from their first meeting, to the second, to the countless subsequent encounters, and even the incident that cleared Gyeo-ul of her unjust accusations.
Now, rummaging through her memory, which held all that information crammed into it, she spoke smoothly, careful not to sound like she was reciting a script.
“The first time we met was four months ago. You said you were heading home after finishing some late-night work and happened to see me still in the office.”
“I was curious who this impressive person was, staying later than me, so I struck up a conversation. After that, we sometimes worked late together, had dinner together. And as we got closer… Actually…”
Pausing mid-sentence, Do-kyung looked down at Gyeo-ul with a smile and spoke in a soft voice.
“…I pursued her. She was just so pretty when she was working hard.”
That wasn’t a line they had rehearsed.
Startled by the unexpected ad-lib, she looked up at him, her face flushing red. His smile deepened a little.
Unlike his mother, who watched the two of them with a pleased expression, Seok-yong remained deeply suspicious.
“This guy hasn’t dated once in the last ten years, and now he’s dating someone just because he thought she looked pretty working late? Do you really expect me to believe that? Why? Didn’t Director Jung work late too? And Team Leader Park? Weren’t they pretty enough?”
“He gives them bonuses for being pretty. Performance bonuses. He’s just giving something different to our even prettier Cha Gyeo-ul.”
“Something different? Hah.”
Seok-yong let out a short scoff at Do-kyung’s feigned innocence, glaring at him with sharp eyes.
The gaze wasn’t directed at her, but since she was an accomplice, Gyeo-ul flinched and averted her eyes. At that moment.
“I can’t believe it. I absolutely cannot believe it!”
Seok-yong’s voice, filled with distrust, rang out. Startled, Gyeo-ul furrowed her brow slightly.
She couldn’t understand why he would distrust his grandson’s introduction of his girlfriend this much, let alone get angry about it.
As expected, Do-kyung retorted with a sneer.
“It’s not that you don’t want to believe it, is it?”
“What?”
“This is ridiculous. You would have welcomed anyone I brought with open arms, and now you’re saying you don’t believe it?”
“You…! You little…”
“Be honest. You just don’t like me introducing a girlfriend.”
Seok-yong’s breathing grew ragged as he struggled to continue, too agitated to speak. Alarmed by his labored breathing, his parents rushed over urgently.
As they frantically pressed the call button to summon the medical staff, Ha-kyung shoved Do-kyung back.
“Out, Kim Do-kyung.”
Angry, he grabbed Do-kyung by the collar and dragged him out. At the same time, the hospital room door opened and the medical team rushed in.
Should she follow them out, or stay here?
Hesitating for a moment, she eventually decided to wait for Do-kyung outside the VIP room. She quietly stepped out and leaned against the wall.
‘What is going on? Is their relationship that bad? He said this was a fake relationship to make his grandfather happy…’
Gyeo-ul firmly believed that.
She also thought that was why, before visiting the hospital, he had taken her to the department store and personally picked out clothes, shoes, and even a bag for her – to show his grandfather a pretty and nice girlfriend.
But the two men she’d just seen seemed to have a worse relationship than any grandparent-grandchild pair she’d ever witnessed.
She couldn’t quite grasp the situation. Maybe it was because she was just a regular employee and he didn’t approve of her?
In the meantime, the medical staff finished their intervention and filed out of the room. At the same time, the two brothers opened the emergency exit door and stepped back into the hospital corridor.
Gyeo-ul’s face filled with shock when she saw Do-kyung.
His clothes, where Ha-kyung had grabbed his collar, were completely disheveled, and one of his cheeks was red, as if he’d been hit.
His expression was utterly contorted as he gingerly touched his reddened cheek with his large hand.
Startled, Gyeo-ul ran over to him.
“What happened? And your cheek? Did you fight?”
“I got hit, one-sidedly. You can see he’s perfectly fine, right?”
“No, but how could he do that to his own brother…!”
Gyeo-ul shot a sharp glare at Ha-kyung, who was standing there with his hands in his pockets, completely unscathed. Then she straightened Do-kyung’s loosened tie and tidied his disheveled clothes.
“Let me see. …It’s red. Since we’re at the hospital anyway, get it treated before you go home.”
“I’m fine. More importantly, how is Grandfather?”
“The medical team came and went a little while ago… but I was outside, so I don’t really know the situation.”
Do-kyung took her hand as she looked up at him with a worried expression. He lowered it gently and looked at the closed hospital door with a somber face.
He regretted having let his emotions get the better of him and revealing his true feelings to his grandfather, who hadn’t believed him a moment ago.
Even though he knew his grandfather wouldn’t believe him at once, his distrust and harsh tone had reminded Do-kyung of all the discrimination he’d faced, and the words he couldn’t hold back had spilled out.
It was a familiar pattern in their relationship.
So he had expected today to end simply, like always, with his parents’ interference or his own avoidance.
But he had overlooked the fact that his grandfather, though sitting relatively upright in bed, wasn’t in the same physical condition as before. Do-kyung blamed himself for having been overly emotional.
He felt he needed to apologize directly, seeing his grandfather’s condition, to ease his own mind.
“I’ll go see Grandfather for a bit. Wait here for a moment.”
“Okay.”
Do-kyung went inside, and once again, a heated gaze fell upon Gyeo-ul who was left alone.
She finally realized who the owner of that prickling gaze she’d felt when greeting his mother earlier was. Gyeo-ul turned to look at Ha-kyung.
‘Why is that person glaring at me like that?’
At the same time she had the thought, Ha-kyung spoke.
“I don’t trust you.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t believe that you’re my brother’s girlfriend, but even if you are dating for real, I don’t trust you, Cha Gyeo-ul.”
Gyeo-ul’s lips pressed firmly together. The man before her radiated an unshakeable aura of distrust in every way: his gaze, his tone, his attitude.
She forced her mouth shut, which was itching to retort in kind, and desperately recalled the contents of the contract.
Do-kyung’s voice, saying that ‘the family’ needed to believe them.
‘That family includes him, right?’
If so, she had to show a proper, demure appearance, following the established concept for now.
As she struggled to suppress her rising temper, Ha-kyung continued his baseless accusations toward her, who remained silent.
“How are we supposed to know what your ulterior motives are for approaching him?”
“Ulterior motives?”
“It’s obvious. A third-generation chaebol, good-looking, capable too. There have been plenty of women, not just you, who approached him intentionally, hoping to get something.”
This time, her mouth fell open slightly. She had never in her life been treated like a con artist, or in crude terms, a gold digger, by anyone.
Raised to be a righteous person by her parents, she had occasionally told white lies, but she had never maliciously deceived or played a trick on anyone. Gyeo-ul’s patience was wearing thin.
“At least you should be on a similar level. Tch. A woman with nothing worth looking at.”
“Hah, hah…”
His final jab made Gyeo-ul’s face burn with anger.
Unable to suppress her innate temper any longer, she was just about to raise her voice when someone wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back.
Startled, she turned around to find Do-kyung staring coldly at Ha-kyung.
“Who are you talking to like that?”
“What? You’re being rude to your hyung!”
“This person is here to greet the elders as my significant other. I didn’t bring her here to listen to that kind of trash talk from you.”
Gyeo-ul nodded vigorously in agreement, backing up his words.
Ha-kyung let out a hollow laugh at the sight of two pairs of eyes that were now far from gentle, clearly hostile. They made a well-matched pair, indeed.
Do-kyung continued to warn him.
“I let that one punch slide earlier because I was partly at fault, but I won’t tolerate you treating Gyeo-ul disrespectfully.”
“What are you going to do if you can’t tolerate it?”
The moment the provocation ended, Do-kyung lunged at Ha-kyung. But Gyeo-ul quickly reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Hold on!”
“Let go.”
“I said hold on! This is a hospital. The elders are inside too.”
Eventually, he took a deep breath and backed down.
“Can you just let that slide? Are you okay with hearing things like that?”
Gyeo-ul shook her head firmly at Do-kyung, who was questioning her as if demanding an answer. She then turned to face Ha-kyung. He was still glaring at them.
Gyeo-ul, with her hands in her pockets, turned fully to face him, who stood there askew, and simply stared at him in silence.
