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Chapter 05
His mother’s smile was burdensome, and Jin Hayoung’s smile was irritating.
Even so, he couldn’t just turn around and leave, so Muhyeon let out a dry sigh and opened the door leading to the garden.
“Muhyeon.”
Jin Hayoung, who had somehow already come out to greet him at the door, called his name shyly.
“It’s a weekend morning—coming out this early must be tiring, right?”
When Muhyeon walked past without responding, her expression darkened in an instant. He went straight up to Madam Lee.
“Why did you call me?”
“For what reason? I called you to have breakfast together.”
“You know I don’t eat breakfast. And if you’re going to call me over for something like this, call me directly. Don’t bother my secretary.”
At her son’s far colder-than-usual attitude, the smile that had filled Madam Lee’s face disappeared.
Looking at Muhyeon, who had frozen the once-warm atmosphere of the garden in an instant, Madam Lee wore a hurt expression.
“You’re busy on weekdays. If I don’t call you like this on the weekend, I can’t see you at all. Do you really have to talk like that?”
“If you wanted to see me, you could have called me when there weren’t any guests.”
“This child—why is Hayoung a guest? You know how close she is with your mother. We even went swimming together this morning—”
“Then you can have your meal with Ms. Jin Hayoung. I’ve shown my face, so I’ll be going now.”
“Muhyeon! Hey! Seo Muhyeon!”
Madam Lee raised her voice at him as he turned away, but Muhyeon didn’t stop walking.
Just as he reached the door leading into the mansion, Jin Hayoung hurried after him and called out.
“Muhyeon, if you leave like this, the director will—”
Haah.
Muhyeon turned his head, letting out an annoyed breath.
“You said you’re close. Then Ms. Jin Hayoung can comfort her.”
“…Of course I will. But I also came because I wanted to see you, Muhyeon.”
“If you want to see me, does that mean I have to oblige?”
“……”
“Play your little friend games with my mother. I’m not interested.”
At his plainly annoyed words, Jin Hayoung’s eyes reddened.
She said she’d gone swimming at dawn—yet when had she done her makeup? Even her mascara was perfectly applied, and tears welled up in her eyes, just barely visible.
At that moment—
As Jin Hayoung lowered her head with reddened eyes, another woman’s face overlapped with hers.
Song Chaeyoon’s face—bare, pale skin, large eyes, biting her lip tightly as she looked up at him.
Why is this so random?
Startled, Muhyeon opened the door and went inside without a word.
Unaware that the two women left behind stared at his back with entirely different expressions as the door closed behind him with a click.
By the time Muhyeon arrived at the office, Junho, who had come in early, was waiting for him.
Junho followed him into the office and placed two bottles of water on the desk.
“You came early.”
“There was an uninvited guest.”
“Ms. Jin Hayoung?”
As Muhyeon took off his jacket and hung it up, he frowned and turned to Junho.
“You knew? That Jin Hayoung was in Bangbaedong?”
“I only suspected. I heard she’s been swimming at dawn with the director lately.”
“If you’d told me beforehand, I wouldn’t have gone.”
“If you hadn’t gone, I would’ve been the one in trouble.”
At Junho’s calm reply, Muhyeon let out a baffled sigh. He knew what Junho was like when he hired him, yet sometimes the man still got on his nerves.
“Did you have a good trip to Yangpyeong?”
Junho asked as Muhyeon sat down and rolled up his shirt sleeves. When Muhyeon ignored him, Junho changed the question.
“Did you meet Song Chaeyoon?”
At the sound of her name, Muhyeon’s fingers paused on his sleeve.
Earlier, Song Chaeyoon’s face had overlapped with Jin Hayoung’s—now his body reacted just from hearing her name. He had no idea why.
Seeing Muhyeon frown in confusion at his own reaction, Junho tilted his head.
“You didn’t meet her?”
“Why?”
At Muhyeon’s sharp reply, Junho tilted his head the other way.
“If you don’t feel like answering, you don’t have to.”
Watching Junho turn away coolly, as if he’d asked only out of courtesy, Muhyeon’s expression grew complicated.
He had no idea how to explain that ever since meeting Song Chaeyoon yesterday, a vague sense of discomfort hadn’t left him.
“Song Chaeyoon—you said you’ve never met her, right?”
Muhyeon asked awkwardly just as Junho was about to open the office door.
Junho turned around as if he’d been waiting for that. It seemed his indifference had been just an act.
“I’ve only seen her in photos. Same as you.”
Of course. Junho had only started working as his secretary two years ago and had never been to the Yangpyeong villa.
But ignoring all that, Muhyeon continued.
“What did she look like?”
“She looked innocent. At least in the photos.”
From the start, Junho had said it was unlikely that Song Chaeyoon was the chairman’s mistress—no matter how he looked at her, she didn’t seem the type.
But Muhyeon hadn’t listened. He’d decided to confirm it with his own eyes, and in the end, he’d gone to Yangpyeong alone.
“You didn’t meet her?”
“…I did.”
“And?”
“She looked like she’d break something just by tripping over a stone.”
Muhyeon muttered, recalling Song Chaeyoon’s large eyes and pale face.
As images followed one after another—her gaunt shoulders that even a loose T-shirt couldn’t hide, skin so white it looked almost translucent—his expression twisted on its own.
If she really were the Seongil Group chairman’s mistress, she should’ve at least wrung him dry—yet she looked like she hadn’t even been fed properly…
Naturally, Junho had no idea what Muhyeon meant.
“Pardon? What exactly are you—”
“Never mind. Nothing unusual before lunch today, right?”
“…No.”
“Don’t disturb me until it’s time to leave.”
“Understood.”
Reading Muhyeon’s expression, Junho didn’t ask any more questions and left the office. He knew that when Muhyeon looked like that, no amount of probing would make him talk.
Once the office fell quiet, Muhyeon opened a report. But no matter how long he stared at it, the words wouldn’t register.
Instead, his mind was filled with Song Chaeyoon’s eyes, brimming with tears.
Until last night, it had only been a vague discomfort.
But after seeing Jin Hayoung’s reddened eyes overlap with Song Chaeyoon’s, her image refused to leave his mind.
“I’m going crazy.”
In the end, Muhyeon closed the report and stood, walking over to the window.
He had no interest in women.
Even when he saw voluptuous women, he rarely felt sexual desire, and he’d never really felt the need to marry. He’d been like that since childhood.
But his mother seemed to believe his indifference toward romance and marriage stemmed from the two accidents he’d had.
Three years ago, Muhyeon had been in two car accidents.
In the first, he broke his leg. In the second, he lost his memory.
He hadn’t lost much—only the five months he’d spent recovering at the Yangpyeong villa after the first accident were gone.
But to his mother, two accidents in one year, with memory loss the second time, meant something in her son’s emotional core must be broken. Otherwise, how could a physically healthy man have no interest in women at all?
So she constantly tried to set up situations with women like Jin Hayoung, hoping he’d show some interest.
At first, Muhyeon had advised her not to waste her efforts. But it was useless. His mother’s obsession with her only son had always been persistent.
Eventually, he’d stopped resisting and simply watched her do as she pleased. After all, there was no chance he’d ever marry one of the women she brought around.
And yet—
Into his otherwise peaceful life—aside from his mother’s nagging—a woman had forced her way in. A woman he’d spent less than thirty minutes facing.
“If Mother knew this, she’d be jumping for joy.”
Muhyeon muttered bitterly.
He didn’t like that a woman he barely knew—possibly even his grandfather’s mistress—was stealing his time and emotions. It annoyed and unsettled him.
Even more so because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t drive Song Chaeyoon from his mind.
Haah.
Staring out the window with a frown, Muhyeon muttered absentmindedly.
“Maybe I should just buy the Yangpyeong villa.”
If he offered ten times the market price, the woman would surely be satisfied.
He’d heard that Song Chaeyoon had been kicked out of the school where she worked as a contract teacher for seducing men.
If she’d done that, money must have been her goal anyway—there was no way she’d refuse a high enough price.
If he got rid of her like that, then completely remodeled the Yangpyeong villa and erased every trace of Song Chaeyoon, maybe this unpleasant, unsettling feeling would finally disappear.
Yes. That would be best.
Having made up his mind, Muhyeon walked back to his desk and pressed the intercom.
