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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Then and Now
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Yeongin went to work at Hyesung Entertainment's office.
She was scheduled to start at SL Entertainment the following Monday.
She glanced into the CEO's office and saw CEO Kang lying on the sofa, covering his eyes with his arm. Yeongin set her bag down on her desk, then went to the CEO's office, knocked on the glass door, and entered.
"You're in early?"
CEO Kang lowered his arm and opened his eyes, his face looking utterly miserable.
"My wife never makes me hangover soup. My stomach was upset, so I came out to get some hangover relief and just came straight to the office."
"Why would she make hangover soup for a husband who comes home drunk every single day?"
"Why do you always say the exact same thing as my wife…?"
Yeongin deliberately made a groaning sound as she sat down lightly on the sofa opposite him, where he had sat up.
CEO Kang's bleary eyes suddenly widened.
"Oh, right, Yeongin."
"Yes?"
"Do you know that Cha Seonghyeok is Chairman Cha Hyeonung's son?"
"I do."
"Ah, you do…."
His awkwardness lasted only a moment before CEO Kang's eyes sparkled with interest.
"Seeing as he came to SL Entertainment, it looks like he's fallen out of favor with his father, huh?"
"No, he hasn't."
"He hasn't?"
"He came voluntarily."
"Why?"
"I wonder."
She knew why, but she couldn't say.
*To see you every day.*
Recalling what Seonghyeok had said yesterday, Yeongin was once again swept up in a strange emotion.
"How did you know he came voluntarily and not because he fell out of favor with his father?"
"He told me himself."
"When you two talked alone at the company yesterday?"
"…"
Yeongin gave an awkward smile and nodded.
"You two weren't even together for five minutes, but in that short time, you talked about your college part-time job and how CEO Cha came to SL Entertainment voluntarily?"
"We only talked about those two things."
"Oh, really?"
CEO Kang, who had been tilting his head with a skeptical expression, changed the subject.
"Didn't you drink much yesterday?"
"I only had a few drinks."
"Good. I was too drunk to look after you, so you couldn't get drunk too."
Yeongin let out a snicker, as if finding it absurd.
"You talk as if you ever looked after me. You're always the first one to get drunk, CEO."
Yeongin never drank enough to get drunk unless she was with trustworthy people.
However, yesterday, despite feeling a strong urge to drink because of someone cheerfully chatting about himself, she didn't drink enough to get drunk, not because there was no one trustworthy, but because she didn't trust herself.
She was afraid she might reveal her true feelings to Cha Seonghyeok. Afraid that the relationship she had so painstakingly severed might be rekindled.
Though she didn't want to admit it, the belief that she would be safe with Cha Seonghyeok, and that he would protect her no matter what, remained.
"Get more rest. You look awful."
Yeongin stood up, trying to shake off the image of Seonghyeok's face she had seen in the taxi last night.
***
On her first day at SL Entertainment.
Yeongin coincidentally met Haeyun, a junior colleague she had worked with for nearly two years at Hyesung, in the parking lot. Haeyun was a junior she was fond of, despite being a bit chatty, because she was quick-witted and efficient at work.
"Team Leader, I'm a little nervous."
"Me too."
"Oh, come on, you're lying. You're not someone who gets nervous about things like this."
"I really am."
She truly was. In a different sense than Haeyun, she was nervous because she didn't know how Cha Seonghyeok, who had been quiet until now, would act.
The two women shared their small weekend stories as they walked towards the elevator. But in front of the elevator stood a tall man.
Yeongin recognized him at a glance and stopped dead in her tracks.
"What's wrong?"
As Haeyun looked back at Yeongin with a worried expression, the man, sensing their presence, turned his head.
The person waiting for the elevator was Seonghyeok.
"It's nothing."
Yeongin quietly replied and approached him. Then, with a calm face, she greeted him first.
"Hello, CEO."
"Are you starting work today?"
"Yes."
"Come on in."
Seonghyeok, who had stepped into the arrived elevator first, pressed the 8th floor button for the CEO's office and the 5th floor button for the management team, one after another.
Yeongin, who followed him in, introduced Haeyun to him. Just as the calm Seonghyeok and flushed Haeyun finished their greetings, the elevator stopped on the 5th floor.
The two women nodded respectfully to Seonghyeok and stepped out of the elevator. Haeyun clung to Yeongin's arm, making a fuss.
"Wow, I had an idea from what CEO Kang said, but he's the most handsome non-celebrity I've ever seen! No, wait, he's so refined, he's much cooler than most celebrities!"
"It's not that much…"
Yeongin forcefully suppressed the urge to agree and quickened her pace.
***
After a hectic morning, Yeongin went down to the company cafeteria with Haeyun.
The other team members had already finished their meals and returned to the office. The two of them were eating separately because Yeongin's team leader meeting had ended late.
"Next time, don't wait for me, just eat first."
"Oh, come on, I wasn't even hungry. Hurry up and get in line."
Haeyun playfully pulled Yeongin along.
Just as the two, having received their glistening unagi donburi and settled at a window seat, picked up their spoons, a low voice was heard.
"May I sit here?"
Yeongin and Haeyun's heads simultaneously turned to one spot. Where their gazes met, Seonghyeok stood holding a square tray.
"Of course. Please, have a seat, CEO."
While Yeongin hesitated, Haeyun quickly vacated her seat and moved to the next one. Seonghyeok and Yeongin naturally ended up sitting across from each other.
"You're having a late lunch."
Yeongin, having regained her composure, responded calmly.
"You're late too, CEO."
Formal conversation flowed, and they began their meal in earnest.
"If you're free this evening, how about the whole Team 5 goes out for dinner?"
"I have a prior engagement."
Yeongin cut him off so coldly that a flustered Haeyun quickly interjected, adding an explanation.
"Our whole team was invited to actor Ji Seungchan's birthday party. They mostly invited us as an extra because they wanted Team Leader Chae there, though."
Yeongin's brows furrowed slightly.
"Haeyun, why are you explaining things in such detail that the CEO wouldn't even be curious about?"
Seonghyeok firmly denied it.
"No, I am. I'm very curious. Please continue."
Haeyun glanced back and forth between the two, unsure whose words to follow.
"Ah, um, so…"
It was a moment that required careful judgment.
***
That evening, Seonghyeok left the company and went to a lounge bar in Sinsa-dong.
It hadn't been open long, but it had rapidly become famous as many celebrities frequented it.
He sat near the entrance and waited for about five minutes before a man with short bobbed hair and horn-rimmed glasses arrived.
"Don't they have private rooms here? What's with this chaotic seating?"
The man, Yun Jisang, Seonghyeok's closest friend, looked around and sat opposite Seonghyeok.
For the past three years, both of them had been in the US, and Jisang had returned to Korea two weeks before Seonghyeok.
"It feels stuffy."
Jisang's expression turned serious as he peered at Seonghyeok's face.
"Did you develop some kind of anxiety?"
"Anxiety?"
"Are you sitting by the entrance because you want to be the first to bolt outside if there's a fire or something?"
"Uh, no."
"Then are you hoping people passing by will take a look at you?"
Seonghyeok scowled.
"What are you talking about?"
"Then why are you sitting in a crappy spot like this?"
It was the first time the two of them had met in such an open space where an unspecified number of people happily passed by.
"Just because."
Seonghyeok dismissed Jisang's complaint with a single word and poured whiskey into the empty glass that had been pre-set.
Jisang emptied his glass in one gulp and leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.
"When are you going to show me Yeongin?"
"Who are you to act so familiar?"
"Can't I act a little familiar?"
"Yeongin is close with me, not with you, so why do you care?"
"Are you sure you're close? Not just briefly close in the past?"
"We'll be close again soon."
Jisang found it highly amusing to tease Seonghyeok, who always made a fuss whenever Chae Yeongin's name came up.
"I'm dying to know who the woman is who voluntarily made Cha Seonghyeok come to the boondocks."
Compared to SL Group's Management Planning Division, SL Entertainment was certainly a backwater.
"If you were going to do this, why did you stubbornly hold out for three years?"
Seonghyeok calmly accepted Jisang's reproach.
"I regret it. That's why I'm not going to let her go this time."
Until now, he hadn't been certain. Was it really true that he couldn't forget Chae Yeongin, or was it just an illusion he had nurtured on his own?
Now he knew for sure. He had just wasted time unnecessarily.
"That's your situation, but Ms. Yeongin might not like you."
"No way. What woman wouldn't like me?"
He scoffed, but in truth, Seonghyeok had never once heard Yeongin say she liked him.
Yeongin always drew a line with the honorific "senior" and formal speech. Perhaps that's why he felt even more thirsty.
One thing was certain: Yeongin didn't dislike him.
Then and now.
Nevertheless, he had coldly turned away as soon as he heard her say they should stop meeting, because his pride was hurt.
It was a fit of pique because he felt like he was the only one clinging to a woman who so easily spoke of breaking up. But now was different from then.
He wasn't so foolish as to not know that if he didn't hold onto the woman he hadn't forgotten for three years, he would regret it for the rest of his life. Wasting time was enough for now.
"I wish I were born a woman so I could scoff and tell you that a guy like you is nothing special."
Jisang grumbled with a sour expression. He only said that, but Cha Seonghyeok was a guy who could sometimes make even another man fall for him, so he wasn't confident.
But suddenly, Seonghyeok's face hardened.
"Let's go."
A flicker of bewilderment crossed Jisang's eyes.
"Go? I just got here?"
Seonghyeok stood up as if he hadn't heard anything.
His gaze was fixed over Jisang's shoulder, on Yeongin, who was being supported by Haeyun.
