Chapter 86
86. The Watchers
2023.07.25.
Manila Airport.
Just when it seemed like summer was finally over, it was summer all over again. As soon as Tae-joon stepped out of the airport's interior doors, sweat beaded on his forehead.
The official reason for the business trip, as reported to his superiors, was to handle the aftermath of a factory worker's death at the Philippine branch. But Tae-joon had another secret mission. The first was, as he had told the TF Team members, to visit Nukum and Iaks and carefully assess their situation. And the second was related to So-eun's father.
"I'm looking for my dad. I heard he's in the Philippines, but we lost contact a long time ago. So, I asked the Philippine embassy to contact me if they find him."
In fact, So-eun's words the day before were the reason he had quickly arranged this trip to the Philippines. He needed to understand the circumstances surrounding Han Hong-gyu, Han So-eun's father's death, and deliver any news he could to So-eun.
He would deliver the news of her father's death in a way that would hurt her as little as possible. To put an end to everything with that. To prevent her from worrying about a number that wasn't even saved on her phone.
So that all of this would finally become a thing of the past.
Because all of his planned activities were secret missions, he had to move with constant vigilance.
Tae-joon thought that after this trip, he should stay by So-eun's side for a while. She seemed very disappointed that he had assigned her a private bodyguard without her permission, so he needed to earn back some points by staying by her side again. He had a lot to do, but he was so eager to return to Korea that it was a problem.
\
So-eun spent a busy morning.
Meeting with customers with various stories, lunchtime was approaching. She had arranged to meet the private bodyguard who had been protecting her for the past few days outside the company, so she hurried with her work.
11:50 AM. As she waited for the last customer of the morning, she saw a tall woman in a black suit enter the waiting room. She had a sophisticated air that made it difficult to guess her age. She had heard that the bodyguard was a woman, and seeing her not taking off her sunglasses even indoors, So-eun vaguely thought, "Could that be her?" and greeted the last customer who sat before her.
"Hello, I'm Han So-eun, the AS technician."
The last customer was a mother. She quickly pulled her son, who was wandering around, onto her lap and handed over her phone, complaining.
"My child somehow figured out the password, unlocked it secretly, and then reset it himself. And now he says he's forgotten the pattern..."
"Did you register an account?"
"What's an account?"
"If you have an account registered with K Electronics, we can unlock the pattern."
"I don't really know about that. Do I have one? I don't really remember."
"I'll check for you."
So-eun took the information entered by the customer and searched for the account. But nothing was found.
"Ah... it seems like you don't have an account."
"Then what do I do now?"
"Because of security policies, we don't offer a service for this. You'll have to do a factory reset."
"Factory reset... does that mean resetting the phone? Will the phone numbers and photos registered here be deleted?"
"Yes. That's the only way."
"The phone numbers are okay, but not the photos..."
The mother looked distressed. The child, who was sitting on his mother's lap and touching various things on the desk, also looked subdued and hid his hands under the desk.
"I really can't... all sorts of photos from when my child was six years old are in here."
"Didn't you back them up separately?"
"I didn't... is there really no other way?"
Hesitating at the customer's plea, So-eun rummaged through her drawer and took out a piece of paper. It was a paper with several clusters of nine dots, like a phone pattern. So-eun handed the pen and paper to the child.
"You know how to connect the dots, right? Can you draw any shape like you're drawing a phone pattern?"
The child drew a pattern in the top row. So-eun nodded and continued to ask.
"Draw another one. Keep going. I'll give you candy if you do them all."
When initially entering a pattern, you have to draw the same shape twice. The fact that the child had not forgotten the pattern he had drawn once and redrew it to create a lock pattern meant that it was a structure familiar to the child's hand or eye. So-eun decided to trust the child's unspoiled habits.
It was a method she had tried and failed before, but this time it might succeed.
The child sat patiently and drew 20 pattern shapes. The child preferred shapes that went around in circles and liked to connect all the dots without leaving any empty spaces.
So-eun glanced over the pattern shapes and drew a new pattern on the phone, referring to them. The customer made a sullen face. The team leader, who had finished his morning work, also strolled over and sniffed at what So-eun was doing.
Five pattern inputs. Eventually, a 30-second waiting time was created due to continuous input prevention.
And then another five times. The customer quickly became distrustful of So-eun's primitive solution.
"Will that work?"
"It's unlikely to work... but it might."
"..."
"If I can't do it, try to unlock it with your son. That's the only way to save the photos."
Two waiting times. So-eun thought that if she failed this time, she would have to give up and drew another combination.
"Oh! Oh! Oh my goodness!"
On the 14th attempt, the lock was magically unlocked. The customer's eyes, which had been showing distrust until just now, widened with joy.
"How did you figure this out?"
"I was just lucky."
"Oh my, how can there be someone like this? Oh, thank you so much! Park Do-bin, say hello quickly!"
"Thank you. But what about the candy?"
"Do-bin, you can't change your mom's phone password without permission from now on. Got it?"
"Yes."
So-eun handed the child the candy and got his promise.
Seok-hwa, who had been sitting quietly in the middle of the waiting room, got up from his seat and walked away leisurely. When he reached the front of the Mobile Service Team, he briefly lowered his sunglasses and looked at So-eun. Although it wasn't by the book, Han So-eun had shown a clever side when dealing with a customer who was making a vague request. The result was good, so she deserved praise.
The little girl from 20 years ago had really grown up beautifully. It was as he had expected.
Han So-eun's aunt, who had received the child from Seok-hwa 20 years ago after receiving child support, didn't seem to have taken good care of the child. He had received reports that she had grown up in difficult circumstances, but there wasn't a shadow on her face. If they weren't entangled in such a fate, Seok-hwa would have stepped in and supported her relationship with Tae-joon, as she was such a decent-looking girl.
Seok-hwa nodded slowly and left the waiting room.
The reason Seok-hwa visited the central service center while Tae-joon was away was, of course, to see So-eun, but nominally it was an excuse to meet with Secretary Song Mun-gyeong, who had worked with him for a long time.
During lunch time, Secretary Song Mun-gyeong came down to the first floor and greeted Seok-hwa.
"The sunglasses suit you well, CEO."
When Mun-gyeong greeted him playfully, Seok-hwa put his index finger to his lips. With that one reaction, the quick-witted Mun-gyeong understood everything. The fact that CEO Kim Seok-hwa was standing here alone without a bodyguard or secretary meant that he had other business. Since Director Kim Tae-joon was away, that business was easily guessed.
The two moved to a restaurant that Mun-gyeong had booked in advance.
Seated, Seok-hwa brought up So-eun first. He didn't reveal how he had come to know about So-eun, and spoke as if Tae-joon had confided in him about their relationship first. There was no need to confess the ill-fated connection between Han So-eun and his family.
Mun-gyeong, who had been listening to Seok-hwa's story in silence, was bothered by Seok-hwa's displeased expression. It was because Mun-gyeong had been viewing Seok-hwa in such a good light.
Mun-gyeong had thought that no matter what kind of woman Tae-joon brought, the generous and tolerant CEO Kim Seok-hwa would welcome her. Even if the rigid Chairman Kim Jae-pil opposed it, she had believed that CEO Kim Seok-hwa would definitely support Tae-joon, but you can't know everything about people.
Still, Mun-gyeong didn't lose hope and carefully conveyed her opinion.
"CEO, you know about my relationship with my husband, right?"
"How could I not? You've been dating for 10 years."
"Actually, we broke up a lot in the middle. There are things I was too embarrassed to tell people."
"..."
"Our late mother, after making her son a doctor, was so furious that he was trying to steal someone who was working as a secretary for a group executive. I broke up with him several times because it was so hard. I even met other men... but in the end, I always came back."
Mun-gyeong's wistful smile deepened as if she was picturing those days in her head.
"My husband came to see me a week after my mother passed away. He told me to live with him now."
"..."
"In the end, our mother passed away without even seeing her grandson. It's a son, they say."
Mun-gyeong gently rubbed her belly, which was quite swollen as she was six months pregnant.
"CEO, you know too, right? No matter what you do, time is faster than any action you take. We can't beat people who are younger than us."
\
At the same time, So-eun, who had contacted the bodyguard, met the bodyguard for the first time outside the company building. It wasn't the tall woman she had briefly seen in the waiting room. She was younger and more muscular, and she wasn't wearing sunglasses.
The bodyguard greeted her with a slightly embarrassed expression, as she had been secretly following So-eun all along.
"I was so surprised to hear that you were a woman."
"Yes. The customer insisted that it had to be a female bodyguard, so I was assigned."
Ah. Yes. That person would do that.
"Has it been difficult for you?"
"There hasn't been much physical work. It was okay."
"Thank you for protecting me all this time. I wanted to say that."
"It's my job."
The bodyguard nodded shyly, as if she had never received such a greeting before.
Now, the bodyguard would no longer secretly follow So-eun, but would accompany her. The bodyguard had a car, so So-eun could get a ride in the bodyguard's car when she left work.
The trouble of having to guard her house while So-eun stayed at home remained the same, but she felt like she had lifted a lot of weight off her mind. So-eun also felt relieved.
So-eun, who had returned after having a meal with the bodyguard, diligently continued her afternoon work.
Around 3 PM, when there were fewer people, the internal phone rang.
"Mobile Service Team."
[Is that Assistant Manager Han So-eun?]
The voice coming from the receiver was somehow a familiar man's voice.
"Yes."
[This is President Oh Gap-soo. I need you to come up to the president's office right now.]
It was Oh Gap-soo, the CEO of K Electronic Service.
So-eun paused at the sudden order.
[Come up quietly without showing any reaction.]
