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Chapter 04
“Ma’am, please, just once more—.”
“Is it that hard for you to understand what I’m saying? If it hadn’t been for Song Chaeyoon, this accident would never have happened in the first place. My son was injured because of you!”
“…….”
“Leave while I’m still being polite. If you come here again, I won’t stay quiet. Unless you want to see your elderly grandmother driven out of her hometown, keep your mouth shut and live quietly. Do you understand?”
On the day Mu-hyun, newly discharged from the hospital, came down to the villa to piece together his lost memories, Chaeyoon was quietly summoned by his mother and subjected to what was essentially a threat disguised as a request.
A threat telling her never to appear in front of Mu-hyun again.
It was unfair, but not entirely incomprehensible.
After the first accident, her son had come to the villa to recover—only to be involved in another car accident and even lose his memory. The shock to Mu-hyun’s mother must have been immense.
And at the time of the accident, Mu-hyun had been driving Chaeyoon’s car. Perhaps she wanted someone to blame.
Then, right after Mu-hyun left, even his fiancée showed up. At that point, Chaeyoon had no choice but to let go of the last thread of hope she’d been clinging to.
“Mu-hyun and I promised to marry each other when we were children. To put it simply, there’s no place for someone like you to squeeze in.”
“That can’t be true. Oppa never said anything like that—not even once…”
Jin Hayoung sneered at Chaeyoon, who was shaking her head in disbelief.
“Why would he bother explaining all that to some girl he was just playing around with? Looks like you got the wrong idea just because he treated you nicely. Wake up. Know your place. And have a little shame.”
“…….”
“If you really think about it, this accident happened because of you. If it weren’t for you, Mu-hyun wouldn’t have gone out driving such a cheap, lousy car. Don’t you think?”
“…….”
“I could hold you—or your grandmother—responsible for the accident, but I’m holding back for Mu-hyun’s mother’s sake. If I step in and blow this up, she’ll suffer even more.”
“…….”
“So don’t even think about hovering around Mu-hyun under the excuse of helping him recover his memories. Live quietly. As if you’re dead. Got it?”
That was the moment Chaeyoon finally faced reality.
Mu-hyun, who had lost only his memories of her because of the accident.
Mu-hyun’s mother, who despised her.
And a woman named Jin Hayoung, who claimed she would marry Mu-hyun.
There was no space for Chaeyoon to wedge herself between them.
And, just as Mu-hyun’s mother and Jin Hayoung had said, this accident might really have been her fault.
She hadn’t stopped Mu-hyun when he insisted on coming to pick her up on that rainy day.
So the only thing she could do was step back quietly and live as if she didn’t exist.
While Chaeyoon tried to bury Mu-hyun—and her memories with him—deep in her heart, Mu-hyun visited the villa several more times. Not long after, she heard that he had left for the United States.
When she heard the news, she thought that was the end of everything between them.
Believing they would never cross paths again—not even by chance—she buried him deeper and deeper in her heart.
Yet here they were, meeting again like this.
“I didn’t stay here just to hear things like that.”
A bitter smile formed on Chaeyoon’s lips. As she wondered if it really was time for her to leave Yangpyeong, a cold heaviness settled in her chest.
“I found one! Look, oppa—it’s a four-leaf clover!”
“Really? Let me see.”
“Here, see? Four leaves, clear as day. Wow, I couldn’t even find one when I was a kid—how did I manage to find one now?”
“You found it because you’re with me. I’m lucky.”
“Oh, really? Then why hasn’t someone as lucky as you found even one yet?”
“One bit of luck is enough.”
“What nonsense. The more luck, the better!”
At the woman’s exasperated words in his dream, Mu-hyun chuckled. The woman, meeting his smiling face, burst into clear laughter as well.
When he woke up in that state, Mu-hyun realized he was still smiling and made a baffled expression.
“What kind of childish dream is that….”
Despite his grumbling, his mood wasn’t bad. As if infected by the woman’s smile from the dream, a grin kept slipping out.
Searching for four-leaf clovers in the backyard of the Yangpyeong villa.
Something he hadn’t even done as a child—yet the Mu-hyun in the dream had the body of the adult he was now.
And the woman who was with him…
As Mu-hyun absentmindedly tried to recall her face, his brow slowly furrowed.
He clearly remembered her jet-black bob haircut and slender shoulders, but her face was blurry, as if it had been erased.
Tsk.
A dream was just a dream. Still, annoyed at himself for trying so hard to remember her face, he clicked his tongue irritably.
A moment later, Mu-hyun sprang out of bed and headed into the bathroom, turning the shower on full blast as if he were trying to wash the dream away with cold water.
An hour later, perfectly dressed in a suit, Mu-hyun headed down to the parking lot.
Just as he sat in the driver’s seat, his phone rang. Seeing that the caller was Junho, he answered.
“What is it?”
—Chief, where are you right now?
“In the parking lot. About to head to work.”
—Please stop by Bangbae-dong first. The Director is looking for you.
Being summoned by his mother on a weekend morning already made him feel tired. Mu-hyun asked, his tone displeased,
“What for?”
—She said she wants to have breakfast together.
“You know I don’t eat breakfast.”
—It’s a bit hard for me to say that to her myself. You should tell her directly, Chief.
“…….”
—Then I’ll see you at the office.
A secretary hanging up before his boss—unbelievable.
Mu-hyun stared at his phone, irritation written all over his face.
But he couldn’t exactly call Junho back to give him an earful. Junho might be his secretary at work, but outside the office, he was just a high school friend.
That had been the very first condition Junho set before agreeing to work as his secretary.
If anyone was at fault, it was his mother, who had given personal orders to a regular employee early on a weekend morning.
With a mix of irritation and resignation, Mu-hyun started the car.
Thirty minutes later, Mu-hyun arrived at his parents’ house in Bangbae-dong. As he entered, his mother’s secretary greeted him.
“Welcome, Chief.”
“Where’s my mother?”
“She’s in the garden. Would you like breakfast?”
“Coffee—no. Never mind. I’ll be leaving shortly, so don’t prepare anything.”
Turning toward the garden as he spoke, Mu-hyun found it strange that even the secretary knew he didn’t eat breakfast, yet his mother pretended not to.
Of course, he had a guess as to why she’d summoned her breakfast-hating son this early on a weekend morning.
Yes. That must be it.
Pausing before opening the garden door, Mu-hyun twisted his lips into a crooked smile at the sight beyond the glass.
Jin Hayoung, the daughter of DS Construction’s CEO, was sitting affectionately across from his mother.
She was a woman his mother had had her eye on as a future daughter-in-law for quite some time.
Even as other candidates fell away one by one for various reasons, Jin Hayoung had held her position firmly—proof that she knew very well how to please his mother.
Well, that explained why she was sitting in the garden so early on a weekend morning.
As Mu-hyun looked at the two women smiling warmly at each other, his eyes grew cold.
He had no intention of marrying Jin Hayoung.
It wasn’t because he harbored some childish fantasy about marrying for love.
If he were to marry, Mu-hyun wanted a partner he could respect—not someone like Jin Hayoung, whose exterior and interior were completely different.
She was the kind of woman who could wear any mask to get what she wanted.
When they were young, Mu-hyun had witnessed her gossiping about and ostracizing other children who were close to her under the guise of friendship—more than once.
After that, he had kept his distance from her, yet his mother still seemed unaware of her true nature.
While talking with Mu-hyun’s mother, Director Lee Sun-ok, Jin Hayoung kept glancing in his direction. When she finally noticed him standing by the door, her mechanically polite smile instantly brightened.
She said something to Director Lee and rose from her seat. Director Lee, turning her head, also spotted Mu-hyun and smiled.
