The Woman Who Stole My Flower
Chapter 32
Chapter 32
#32.
“Come to think of it, apartment names are all in English these days, so it is tricky.”
Watching her dad believe her without the slightest suspicion, Yeon-seo imagined what it would have been like if he had seen Kang Joo-heon just now. How thrilled he would have been—ecstatic enough to faint.
He was a player her dad adored so much, so why wouldn’t she want them to meet? But Joo-heon and she were never going to work out anyway, and it would only cause hurt later. It was better to prevent them from ever crossing paths in the first place.
Feeling as though she was only piling up more things to feel guilty about toward her dad, Yeon-seo quietly swallowed a sigh.
*
That was why Joo-heon had pulled out an autograph board yesterday, only to tuck it back away in the end. He couldn’t possibly give a mere scrap of paper to Jeong Yeon-seo’s father, of all people.
So this morning, the back seat of Joo-heon’s car was loaded with all sorts of memorabilia: the custom cleats he had worn during the Champions League final, the match-worn jersey from their FA Cup victory, and the official match ball he had received to commemorate reaching the Round of 16 in the last World Cup. He had packed everything in earnest, intending to meet her father in person and sign them on the spot.
In addition, he had brought nearly ten of Gloucester’s newly released treble-commemorative jerseys. Just in case her father wanted to hand them out to his friends.
Yet without even catching a glimpse of the man’s face, he had been chased away at the door.
“Of all teams, Everpool…….”
Joo-heon muttered blankly. Was this how Romeo felt when he fell in love with Juliet? Why, of all teams, did Yeon-seo’s father have to be an Everpool fan?
Having played on the pitch himself, he knew all too well how fiercely Everpool supporters despised Gloucester players (and of course, the feeling was mutual). How many boos and jeers had he endured from Everpool fans over the years? Jokes aside, whenever he scored at their home stadium, he sometimes genuinely feared for his life.
If her father was an Everpool fan, it was only natural that Yeon-seo had fought so desperately to keep him out of sight.
‘What am I supposed to do…….’
Though they hadn’t even met yet, getting on her father’s bad side was the last thing he wanted. As he racked his brain in anguish, a sudden thought flashed across Joo-heon’s mind.
‘Wait. What if I play for Everpool?’
His contract with Gloucester was up anyway. Anticipating his free agency, countless clubs—not just from the English Premier League, but from Germany, France, Spain, and Saudi Arabia—had already sent in offers. Everpool was among them, though naturally, he hadn’t given it a second thought. There was no reason to join the sworn enemy of the club he had devoted a decade to.
But Jeong Yeon-seo’s father was an Everpool fan.
Joo-heon recalled what happened when Luís Figo, a legend for FC Barcelona, transferred to their bitter rivals, Real Madrid CF. Back then, Figo suffered every imaginable indignity at the hands of enraged Barcelona fans. Whenever Real Madrid played away at Barcelona’s home stadium, the home crowd showered him with trash and poured down boos in unison. One fan had even hurled a severed pig’s head onto the pitch.
If Joo-heon signed with Everpool, he would undoubtedly be branded the second Figo. The faces of Gloucester fans shuddering with betrayal rose before his eyes as vividly as if he were seeing them in person.
His future father-in-law was precious, of course, but how could he betray the home fans who had poured their hearts into supporting him for the past ten years? The fans who, even now with his contract expired, were relentlessly flooding social media begging him to return to Gloucester.
“Hyung. You said there was an offer from Everpool, right?”
“Well, theirs was the first to come in. They’ve been in touch steadily lately, too.”
Ho-jin answered. Naturally so. From Everpool’s perspective, the player they ground their teeth over the most—and craved to steal away above all others—was Kang Joo-heon.
“Why do you ask, though? You planning on becoming Figo?”
The fans who had cheered for him for ten years, or his future father-in-law!
“I’m going crazy…….”
As Joo-heon thumped his head against the wall, Ho-jin stared at him with wide, startled eyes.
*
Yeon-seo only went upstairs in the afternoon when Kang Joo-heon came into the office, working her usual shifts in the morning. On the morning following the sports day, she arrived at the PR Office as usual, but the atmosphere in the office was somehow strange.
“Hello, good morning.”
Even when she greeted them, instead of returning her greeting, people avoided her gaze.
“Is something wrong?”
No one answered when she asked. Wondering why everyone was acting so weird, she was heading to her desk when the Head of the PR Office waved her over.
“Manager Jeong Yeon-seo. Come over here for a second.”
Unsure of what was happening, she walked over to find Manager Sung Hye-eun and several staff members from the Management Support Office gathered around the PR Head’s desk.
“What’s going on?”
While everyone hesitated to speak, Assistant Manager Hong said awkwardly,
“About yesterday’s sports day. The truth is, one of the prizes for the women’s soccer tournament in the afternoon was missing.”
“So what did you do?”
“One person couldn’t receive theirs, of course. We smoothed it over by promising to give it to them later, so it was handled quietly for now.”
“What went missing?”
“The championship prize.”
Yeon-seo asked in surprise,
“You mean the Apple Phone?”
“Yeah.”
Even then, Yeon-seo didn’t realize what this was about. She simply thought how unfortunate it was that the most expensive item, of all things, had vanished.
“Where could it have gone? Have you not found it yet?”
“Well, about that…….”
Assistant Manager Hong trailed off.
“Yes?”
When Yeon-seo asked again in confusion, the PR Head spoke up.
“So we’ve been asking each employee who moved boxes that day. And it turns out the only people who carried them alone were Assistant Manager Hong Hyun-joo from Management Support here and Manager Jeong Yeon-seo—just the two of you.”
That was true. Assistant Manager Hong had been carrying them alone at first before Yeon-seo went to help, and after Hong went upstairs upon being summoned by Manager Sung Hye-eun, Yeon-seo had carried them alone.
Only then did Yeon-seo sense something was amiss.
“And……?”
“Assistant Manager Hong Hyun-joo was caught on the 20th floor CCTV going up empty-handed, but Manager Jeong Yeon-seo, as luck would have it, there are no security cameras on the executive floor…….”
Her vision went dark.
“Are you… suspecting me right now?”
Being framed as a thief at work. Her voice trembled uncontrollably.
“No, it’s not like that! It’s not a cheap item, so we can’t just let it slide, and we have to look for it either way. That’s why we’re asking Manager Jeong Yeon-seo if you happen to know anything.”
“Of course I don’t!”
Forgetting that she was speaking to a department head above even her team leader, Yeon-seo raised her voice.
“What on earth would I have done with it?”
Never in her life had she touched someone else’s belongings, nor had the thought ever crossed her mind. Even on that day, she had only stared at the box for a while because the Apple Phone looked nice, never once imagining pocketing it.
“I met Director Kang Joo-heon in the parking lot that day and went up with him. If you ask the Director, he’ll tell you I wasn’t carrying anything.”
Though she trembled to her fingertips from sheer injustice, Yeon-seo tried her best to speak clearly and distinctly. She hadn’t done it, and she would never take the blame for something she didn’t do.
“According to the CCTV, you went up once before that in between.”
“That was to use the restroom!”
Just then, one of the employees from the Management Support Office spoke up unexpectedly.
“By the way, Manager Jeong Yeon-seo, did you get a new phone?”
It was a new male employee junior to Yeon-seo.
“I’m really interested in phones. When I saw yours a few days ago, I thought you were using quite an old model.”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward Yeon-seo’s hand. Only then did Yeon-seo realize she was holding her phone.
……The new phone she had received from Joo-heon yesterday.
The PR Head asked,
“Manager Jeong Yeon-seo, when did you change your phone?”
“……I changed it yesterday.”
Even to her own ears, her voice sounded flustered. She could feel that something was going horribly wrong.
“Could you show us where you bought it, like a card statement or purchase receipt?”
There was no way she had anything like that. She had received it from Joo-heon.
“It was a gift.”
“From whom?”
“That’s…….”
Countless thoughts flashed across her mind in a split second.
If she revealed she had received a phone worth two million won, what would people think of her relationship with Kang Joo-heon? Naturally, they would think something was going on between them.
Kang Joo-heon was already embroiled in a scandal not long ago over the hickey incident. If word got out that he had gifted a smartphone to his female secretary, anyone would find it suspicious.
“…….”
Yeon-seo felt the blood drain from her face. No matter what, she could never tell the truth.
“Manager Jeong Yeon-seo.”
Hye-eun, who had stayed silent until then, spoke cautiously.
“Manager Jeong Yeon-seo isn’t that kind of person. Don’t take the blame for something you didn’t do—just be honest with us. Who gave it to you?”