Chapter 59.2

Chapter 59.2

For Seoryeong, Lee Wooshin didn’t seem like just a conservative superior opposing office romances or a capricious person with strong likes and dislikes. Sometimes, his anger had an extremely personal edge.

She had clearly seen how angry he was over the crumpled note. Is it normal to berate and drive someone so hard over a note scribbled while dozing off?

How long have we even known each other?

Is it really normal to invade my privacy like this, to put me under a microscope?

No matter how much she thought about it, the impression of his reaction being overly sensitive didn’t disappear.

“Instructor, you’re particularly harsh and strict with me.”

The issue he was especially unforgiving about was her ‘sex.’ The fact that she was a ‘woman’ and had ‘promiscuous’ plans she couldn’t speak of to others.

This culminated in the torture training, making Lee Wooshin even more personal, defensive, and obsessive.

Especially when she showed obsession with her husband or refused to give up, he would mock or ridicule her.

Is this really appropriate behavior towards a mere agent?

She would no longer be fooled by his facade of disliking her as she is a female trainee and finding her stubborn and a hindrance for the company.

Why does he react so sharply to topics like women, sex, and husbands?

“Instructor, are you married by any chance?”

“…!”

“Not necessarily married, but a deep relationship or something like that.”

The grip on her hand loosened for a moment.

Until now, she never felt the need or urge to ask the instructor personal questions, but the situation had changed. Seoryeong started negotiating with the weakness she had noticed in her opponent.

“So, have you… broken up now?”

There must be an origin to this skepticism, whether it’s emotional manipulation or skill.

She felt an odd sense of sympathy for him, given his similar past failures, but pitying someone wasn’t what was important to her right now

Her voice grew more cautious.

“So, did your… wife have an affair?”

He stared at her deadpan.

“Did she keep a list of men like I do?”

As soon as she finished speaking, a sharp breath escaped from somewhere. With a fierce expression, Lee Wooshin shook Seoryeong’s hand off. He had been holding her so tightly in that short time that his palm was damp with sweat.

Once again, he covered his eyes with a face that seemed to say he was at his wit’s end. His Adam’s apple moved hastily, and his jutting jaw looked tense.

Right. Right. Han Seoryeong arrived at a plausible conclusion. His eyes, always flaring with anger as if it were personal, suddenly made sense. Even a man like him was not immune to relationship issues.

“I heard somewhere that the aftereffects of divorce are similar to the psychological trauma experienced by soldiers returning from the Vietnam War.”

“Agent Han Seoryeong.”

His warning voice fell sharply.

“I’m sorry about your wife.”

“Leave it at that.”

“But don’t take it out on me. I am not your woman.”

“…!”

A fierce temperament briefly flashed across his previously cold face, but it was also gradually fading away.

His face, now devoid of any emotion, looked strange, like leftover leather. He stood motionless at a suitable distance.

“If you find the way I live distressing, you might as well go to a hospital and seek counseling. It’s your insecurities that are trying to control me, not mine.”

“…”

“It’s not my problem; it’s yours.”

Seoryeong drew a firm line.

“I’m not the woman you’ve been with in the past.”

“…”

“I know I stand out in the unit, but don’t confuse and harass me because of it. I have no reason to be insulted and controlled by you outside of the field.”

“…”

“If you have a grudge against someone, you can just grab them and kick their ass, why are you doing this to me when I’m doing my best, what a waste of face.”

Seoryeong pushed him away and finally got out of bed. She ignored her aching body and walked briskly to the infirmary door.

She looked back at him, who was still stiff with an expression she couldn’t tell if he was smiling or not, and drove the final nail in the coffin.

“I think you should go out and get a date.”

“…!”

“Get a new relationship, have fun with someone nice and cute, and have sex. Paranoia, anger management disorder, and lack of desire are only going to make it harder for you to meet a good girl.”

“Then I’ll let you find my husband as you wish. That’s my condition.”

It was you who dared to make a deal with my husband. You dared to use my husband as leverage to control me. Seoryeong returned the choice to him, hiding her rising anger. Just like the paper he once tore and crumpled, she rendered his proposal useless.

She rushed out of the infirmary and headed straight for the shower, glancing back to make sure he wasn’t following her, but he was far away and the small door was silent.

That afternoon, she receives a call that Channa is awake.