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Chapter 09
Near the company, N Hotel.
After finishing lunch and returning home, Han-gyeol secretly left the house without Si-won and So-mang knowing.
Parking in his usual spot in the hotel parking lot, he rode the elevator to the top floor and pressed the button.
Ding.
After the quiet mechanical sound, the elevator doors opened.
A luxurious residence suite with minimalistic interior design awaited. A faint diffuser scent lingered in the air, and a full-height window filled the front of the room. Between the fully drawn curtains, a high-rise view of modern buildings blending with the mountains stretched out.
The duplex was designed so that the first floor served as an office desk and dining space, and the second floor contained the bathroom and bedroom.
Documents with personal information of Clover Electronics executives were scattered across the desk, as if someone had just been there.
Han-gyeol walked leisurely past the desk and up the stairs.
Rrrrr. Rrrrr.
[Manager Jo]
His phone rang as if he had been waiting.
“You’ve entered Korea?”
Han-gyeol spoke directly, his voice soft but with an underlying chill.
“-Yes. Executive Director Yoo Jong-min is currently asleep.”
“Why was your entry moved up?”
A hesitant voice came from the receiver, but only briefly.
Being an illegitimate child, Han-gyeol had gone to find his biological father, Chairman Yoo Sang-wook, when he was in elementary school.
At the time, his mother, a model, had hesitated to remarry because of him. She wanted to leave him behind and live a normal, happy life.
<“Surely, you’ll need me.”>
<“I’m smarter than Jong-min hyung.”>
It was a gamble.
He only guessed that his three-years-older half-brother, Yoo Jong-min, might need studying abroad because his grades weren’t good. But Sang-wook, sitting at the head of the table, tilted his head back and laughed boisterously to the point of chills.
From that day on, Han-gyeol was left under Manager Jo’s care. Jo was the perfect watchdog for Sang-wook and Jong-min.
He reported even trivial matters to the chairman, but turned a blind eye when Jong-min mistreated him.
Yet, every human has a weakness. If it wasn’t in the person themselves, it existed in their family. Han-gyeol, after completing his military service, found a way to take control of Manager Jo.
<“Your son seems to be doing business in Korea. I heard he’s spending lavishly. I’ll pay it off for you.”>
<“…I’ll help with anything.”>
<“I look forward to working with you.”>
Manager Jo, quick to calculate, must have realized the hidden hatred beneath Han-gyeol’s words — a plan to eventually consume Jong-min.
And the trigger for that plan was their mother’s death.
Yoo Jong-min was more stupid and incompetent than expected, yet greedy, causing incidents like falling dominoes at the slightest touch.
Gradually, power tilted toward Han-gyeol’s side, and even the previously wavering Manager Jo became fully obedient to the new master.
“-It seems like someone is trying to check on the launch ceremony.”
Han-gyeol sneered and asked in a low voice, “And the chairman? I doubt he’d allow coming to Korea.”
“-Yes. He thinks it’s just a vacation visit.”
Han-gyeol let out a cold sigh, gripping the side table beside the bed. Veins on his hand bulged.
“Yoo Jong-min won’t be staying in Korea. As you know, I have many things to protect here.”
“Continue being my eyes and ears for now.”
Han-gyeol emphasized every word as he openly declared the battle for management rights.
“Remove the surveillance on Yoo Jong-min. Report only what’s necessary. The rest, handle as you see fit.”
“-Yes. Reports will be handled the same as in the U.S., without mentioning those people.”
“And the chairman?”
“-He visited the memorial park yesterday, as reported.”
Han-gyeol’s expression cracked. The emotion in his tightly closed eyes and heated breath was unmistakable hatred.
“It’s too late now.”
Even Manager Jo, unable to respond, held his breath. The call ended, and Han-gyeol drew back the curtain beside the bed.
On a corkboard were photos of his half-brother Jong-min and his father Sang-wook. Branching from Jong-min’s photo were images Jo had provided: photos of women beside him, of partying, even lobbying from rival companies. Things that could immediately strangle Jong-min.
But it wasn’t enough.
“I’ll push him off the cliff so he can never climb back.”
Han-gyeol coldly pressed a bright red thumbtack deep into Jong-min’s neck in the photo.
Rrrrr. Rrrrr.
[Choi Ye-won]
So-mang, lying on the bed after lunch, reached for the phone.
“-Baek So! Emergency, emergency!”
“Why?”
“-Can you work at the café tomorrow? There’s a large dessert order, and the part-timer can’t handle it alone. Please? Huh?”
“…Part-time job?”
Ye-won’s pleading was oddly welcome. Weekdays were busy after work, but weekends were different. Tomorrow morning, only Han-gyeol and she would be home.
<“I won’t marry you, oppa.”>
Despite her brave words, her heart was fragile like a thin blade of grass.
Even holding hands. Even eye contact. Even a brush of shoulders.
Excitement overwhelmed her.
“I’ll go next week too… or maybe I should just keep going for now?”
Her body tingled thinking of Han-gyeol. Needing cold water, So-mang got up and headed to the kitchen.
“-Did you fight with Si-won oppa again?”
“Later. I’ll tell you when we meet.”
The discussion about living together and carpooling had gone long.
“I’ll definitely go tomorrow.”
Ye-won urged curiously, but a customer’s call ended the conversation.
“Where are you going?”
Ah! Startled, So-mang dropped her phone.
“Where did you go?”
Sweating from exercise? Not a drop. She couldn’t take her eyes off him.
“Hmm. Walk?”
Han-gyeol shrugged and picked up the dropped phone.
“Thanks.”
“Mm.”
Was he giving it or not? Han-gyeol held the phone tightly, slowly drawing it toward him.
“By the way, I heard you had a blind date.”
“That…”
How did he know? Panic briefly overtook her.
“Why are you curious?”
So-mang tugged the phone sharply, breaking their lingering eye contact.
Han-gyeol, unusually smirking slyly, loosened his grip.
Oops! She leaned back as his arms grabbed her waist.
Her heart raced. She wasn’t sure if it was fear from nearly falling or excitement from being held.
“Let go.”
“No.”
The more she struggled, the tighter his grip became.
“Why did you have a blind date?”
Looking down at her, he had a daring expression.
“My husband is right here.”
“W-Who’s your husband!”
“Me.”
The confident answer froze her. Han-gyeol smirked subtly. Was it a joke or serious? Her mind raced.
“Stop teasing me! Did Si-won oppa tell you I had a blind date?”
“No. I saw it myself.”
Impossible. Her eyes darted.
“How? Were you in Korea all along?”
“But did your taste change already?”
“Boring and not great,” Han-gyeol said, bending slightly toward her. He seemed to know her taste better than anyone.
Her pride was strangely scratched.
“I like smart people. Lawyers, accountants… people with brains.”
“Oh. Not the face, but the brain?”
Han-gyeol’s hands left her waist abruptly. The emptiness was immediate.
“I wasted coffee for nothing.”
“Coffee?”
Han-gyeol muttered slyly. So-mang stiffened.
<Why would a man spill coffee…?>
Could it be…
“Did you spill coffee, oppa? On my blind date?”
“Your blind date? Have you already gotten close?”
His serious expression made her eyebrows twitch.
“Coffee… that was you, right?”
Han-gyeol didn’t answer, disappearing with Si-won’s call, looking sullen like a jealous person.
Yoo Han-gyeol being jealous? That could never happen.
