Chapter 25
Villain in Love
An Unwelcome Guest
“Yeonwoo. Wow, so this is where you were?”
She felt as if she were bound by invisible hands, unable to move an inch. Yeonwoo stood frozen, clutching the silk bundle in her hands, her eyes fixed on Cha Yunseok.
Cha Yunseok beamed at her, looking more delighted than ever.
“Woooow, you. You were right here. Huh? Yeonwoo.”
She knew exactly what that smile meant. It was a smile layered with long-simmered rage, a mark of victory from a predator that had finally sunk its teeth into the neck of the prey it had been relentlessly hunting.
Cha Yunseok scanned Yeonwoo from head to toe, taking in the Domyeongjae uniform she wore to the site. Meanwhile, Seongheon watched both Cha Yunseok and Yeonwoo before lowering his gaze to scan the documents.
Namsong Industrial Development. President: Cha Gilwook. Vice President: Cha Yunseok.
Namsong Industrial Development was one of the many subcontractors deployed to the site. It was their first time working together, and this was Seongheon’s first meeting with Cha Yunseok. Since it was impossible to memorize the names of every company participating in the construction through the bidding process, it was essential to familiarize himself with the details before such meetings.
However, he wondered for a moment why the name Namsong Industrial Development sounded familiar.
“Yeonwoo. Wait for me. Got it? As you can see, I’m a bit busy. Wait. Definitely.”
…Right. Namsong Industrial Development.
Seongheon recalled the company name he had seen on Yeonwoo’s resume. It was the last place she had worked as a secretary, the place she had resigned from just before coming to Domyeongjae.
He could gather that this man was her former boss, but he couldn’t understand why she was reacting this way. Watching Cha Yunseok emphasize his command for Yeonwoo to wait, Seongheon opened his lips.
“Ji Yeonwoo-ssi.”
“…….”
She seemed to have lost her senses.
“Ji Yeonwoo-ssi.”
At the second call, Yeonwoo turned a stiff gaze toward him. Seongheon lifted his chin slightly, observing her state.
“Go back with Manager Hwang. The other staff will handle the remaining tasks.”
“…….”
“I said go back. Can’t you hear me?”
When he spoke in a firmer voice to Yeonwoo, whose face was flushed as if it might burst, she finally nodded as if snapping out of a trance.
As Yeonwoo walked past him, hunched over, Cha Yunseok made a clicking sound with his tongue. He wanted nothing more than to grab her by the wrist and drag her out of there immediately, but as a subcontractor who had come to make a good impression on Seongheon, he couldn’t afford to act recklessly.
“Get home safe today, and I’ll see you again. Yeonwoo.”
Cha Yunseok bid her goodbye, his words a promise that now that he knew where she was, he wouldn’t let her escape a second time. Yeonwoo left the office with her eyes pinned to the floor.
Seongheon pressed the intercom to send the secretaries to the dining hall and then sent Manager Hwang and Yeonwoo on their way. While Seongheon gave out instructions, Cha Yunseok merely rubbed his chin.
“Please, have a seat.”
“Ah, yes. Vice President.”
Their conversation finally began ten minutes later.
Thirty minutes had passed since they sat down across from each other.
Seongheon sat with his back against the sofa, looking directly at Cha Yunseok, while Cha Yunseok rambled on, pushing various peripheral documents forward.
Conversations with subcontractors always followed a similar pattern. The position of a small to medium-sized enterprise clinging to a conglomerate for a chance at success was bound to be the same. To somehow appeal that they had staked their company’s survival on this project, firms would make exhaustive preparations just to secure an audience with Executive Vice President Nam Seongheon.
“Ah, is it this one? Was it this? One moment, please, Vice President.”
Before they had even exchanged a few sentences, Seongheon realized that Cha Yunseok was not a field professional. He was completely unprepared, and unlike the meticulously prepared documents, his speech—clearly rushed and improvised—lacked any technical knowledge of the site.
“I got it. Just hang up for now!”
“Oh, Vice President. My apologies. They say these are the final documents, so I’d appreciate it if you could review them in depth.”
Seongheon took the documents Cha Yunseok held out.
“It would have been better if the person in charge had come.”
He spoke as if he were looking into the heart of the matter, only to be met with a smile that asked for understanding.
Seongheon glanced at Cha Yunseok before turning his gaze back to the file. It wasn’t as if the words were sinking in deeply.
“It must be stifling for you to be cooped up like this, Vice President. A man like you belongs in a glamorous, grand city.”
Cha Yunseok didn’t use any profanity or say anything explicitly provocative, yet his voice alone felt vulgar.
“Have you been to the new place, Cures, that opened in Cheongdam-dong? They manage the guest list well, so the ‘water’ is quite good. I’m on close terms with the people there—we’re like brothers. I’d like to host you properly sometime. Please, make some time for me.”
The specific gesture of rubbing his palms together, used when bowing to a stronger opponent, grated on Seongheon’s nerves. Seongheon lowered the file and looked at Cha Yunseok.
The tattoo glimpsed through the gap in his sleeve seemed to extend all the way up to the nape of his neck beneath his shirt collar. Seeing the desire and hedonism reflected in his dull pupils, which held not a speck of sincerity, Seongheon figured the man wasn’t exactly normal.
Working in the rough and tumble construction industry, this was a type of man he saw from time to time. Men who pulled money up from the bottomless depths of the underworld, hung up a fine-looking sign, and naturally pursued things like power struggles or money laundering.
In a world where—once you descended through subcontractors and their sub-subcontractors—various threats and lobbying ran rampant, invisible to the eyes of a conglomerate, it was a market where it was difficult to do business with only ambition and passion.
Seongheon quickly figured out what kind of human Cha Yunseok was. Even without trying to find out, Cha Yunseok naturally revealed himself through a few words from where he sat.
Realizing that Seongheon’s gaze had landed on his tattoo, Cha Yunseok laughed heartily and rolled up his sleeves. The blue and red pigments formed a bizarre pattern that was unpleasant to look at.
“I have quite a few drawings on my body, don’t I? My dream as a kid was to be a painter.”
“I think your dream was to be a canvas, not a painter.”
When Seongheon countered as if cutting the conversation short, Cha Yunseok’s eyebrows twitched minutely. Then, he started smirking again and pulled his sleeves down.
“By the way, Vice President, seeing you in person, you’re quite the handsome man. You’re still single, right?”
“I am.”
Cha Yunseok slapped his knee.
“Wow, I don’t know who she’ll be, but the woman who marries you will hit the jackpot. It’s hard to have money, status, and a ‘wacku’—I mean, looks like this. You must be popular, Vice President.”
His speech became slightly more casual.
“I bet there are so many women drooling just looking at you. I’m jealous. You don’t lack a single thing….”
“Your name is?”
Cha Yunseok trailed off. He felt a sudden surge of anger at Seongheon’s arrogance in asking for his name when his business card was sitting right there on the table.
He stared at Seongheon with a hardened expression as if he couldn’t believe his ears. However, he was quickly intimidated by Seongheon’s dry gaze, which looked as though not a single drop of blood would spill even if pricked with a needle.
“It’s Cha Yunseok.”
“Right. President Cha Yunseok.”
“……I’m the Vice President.”
“I see. My mistake. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a meeting with anyone below the rank of President.”
As Seongheon muttered this while finally checking the title on the business card, Cha Yunseok let out a heavy breath. He felt his insides twisting, wondering if this was the legendary ‘power tripping’ of a conglomerate.
It wasn’t like he wanted to come here. His father, President Cha Gilwook, had been hospitalized due to complications from diabetes. He had only come because his father threatened not to leave him a single cent if he didn’t, and now he was sitting across from a silver-spoon chaebol who was an expert at power tripping and rubbing him the wrong way.
Watching Cha Yunseok grow increasingly uncomfortable, Seongheon sat with his legs crossed. They merely stared at each other. How long had the silence lasted?
A secretary entered with an urgent matter to deliver. After asking for Cha Yunseok’s understanding, the secretary approached Seongheon and whispered in his ear, to which Seongheon nodded.
“Get me a glass of cold water—no, two cold coffees. One for the Vice President, too.”
As the secretary was leaving, Cha Yunseok ordered drinks. His attitude was now completely insolent, 180 degrees different from how he treated Seongheon.
Seongheon cut him off.
“Forget the coffee. I have to leave now, so prepare for the meeting.”
