Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Late at night, in an empty café, Hyeon-ah Kim was staring at her phone as her lips formed a gentle smirk.

“No wonder he seemed familiar; he’s a prominent figure.” She mumbled to herself.

The guy who had grabbed Yuri Han’s arm and drove her away from the café happened to be Director Tae-jun Seo of Seoin Group. She had stumbled upon this piece of information when she was mindlessly sifting through the women’s magazine at a hair salon one afternoon. Most pages of the magazine were filled with the upcoming nuptials of Seoin Group and Daejin Group.

Hyeon-ah meticulously read through the article. She remembered him perfectly well. After all, how could she forget an attractive face like his?

When exactly was it … the Asian Games a few years back? The wealthy and good-looking shooter who was a hot topic back then happened to be the same person. She also realized that she’d seen him visit Hotel Jinseong a few times, although it was much later that she found out that he did so with an intention to purchase the hotel.

Back then he’d used a different name. Perhaps,  that doesn’t matter so much?

So, what did the Seoin scion have to do with the insignificant Yuri Han? How were they associated in the first place? It was kind of obvious that their relationship was nothing typical. The silence between them felt nerve-wracking and breathtaking to watch. To flirt with a guy like him, Yuri must have a game.

Hyeon-ah leaned back and stared at the ceiling with a cigarette between her lips. As she mulled, she recalled what Yuri had told her.

• In my case, I don’t have any existing memory since my father’s accident all the way through my early years in America. My physician tells me that it’s pretty common for people to lose their memory about a specific person, event, or time period.

Was this all true, or was the story fabricated? Smoke gradually escaped her lips. No memory? … Things are getting very interesting.

Her musing was interrupted by the sound of a door opening.

“I’m sorry but the café is closed for the day.”

As she was turning, she froze at the sight of the unexpected guest waiting for her. Her red lips immediately lifted up into a hearty grin. She did not seem to be startled even in the slightest bit.

“Oh my, I’m seeing so many unexpected faces these days.”

Standing at the door was Hye-seong Jin.

⸙ 

That night, Yuri did everything but sleep. In truth, she had not been sleeping from the start.  Once he had sedately closed the door behind him, and she was certain he had left, did she open her eyes and gazed at the door.

Before he had walked into the room, she was at the peak of researching In-bae Lee’s acquaintances. She was able to acquire most of the information from his fairly ‘active’ social media. Most of it was glorified, but those who knew to read between the lines would sniff out the shenanigans at a glance. The old newspaper reports from Jinseong City and the data from the City Hall collectively offered her abundant facts about the man.

Among Lee’s family, assistants, bodyguards, and election camp members, one of them had to be the owner of the voice she was desperately looking for. That person was most likely the suspect. However, the labor of searching for this mysterious man was intolerably arduous and dull.

A male in his 40s or 50s, relatively tall who happened to live in Jinseong for a significant amount of years: this was basically the only material Yuri had on him. And sifting through the thousands of Lee-followers on social media, matching their pictures with their names was nothing short of looking for a needle in a haystack. After quite a few hours scouring, she recognized a very familiar name.

Sang-gu Park …

Park was a manager at an NGO owned by Lee’s wife. She swore she recognized the name … but from where?

It was at that moment, she heard the main door unlock. She reckoned Tae-jun must have returned. She quickly locked her laptop and lay in her bed. She was hoping he would sleep in his own room just as he had done for the past few days.

As if he was ignoring her hope, the man opened her door. She instinctively shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep. She could hear him walk towards her, and sit at the corner of the bed. His long fingers gently brushed away her hair from her face, then traced along her forehead, nose, and down to her lips … It felt unnecessarily soothing and also uncomfortable and painful at the same time. It felt even more awkward than when she was stripped, legs pulled wide apart, pressed underneath his body.

He had stayed beside her for a long time caressing her cheeks. She couldn’t tell what the man was thinking, but she was constantly on the edge.

After she was left alone again in the room, she blinked. His warmth and aroma lingered in the air.

What if she hadn’t barged into his room to help out a customer that day? What if she’d never pretended to be Hye-yeon Jin? What if she’d never resolved the misunderstanding he had about the father? Then would things have been different? What if … what if ….  

One thought led to another and another until a whole train was formed. The train only got longer and longer ‘til took her far away from sleep. In the end, she had stayed up all night.

She painfully got up to the sound of Ms. Choi waking her up for breakfast. She sauntered to the dining room, then twitched at an unexpected view.

At the table was Tae-jun sitting before her. Why is he here? It was 9 a.m. on a weekday. He should have gone to work hours ago.