-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: What Are You Staring At?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Why are you here again?”
An Do Hyun spat out the indifferent remark without a flicker of change on his face.
He glanced at Hee Ra for a brief moment before quickly shifting his gaze back to the monitor.
“Oppa! Don’t be like that, it hurts my feelings! I haven’t come looking for you in months, and you ask why I’m here again? I used to follow you around like a puppy every day, and now that I’ve suddenly disappeared, you must feel empty without me!”
An Do Hyun’s head throbbed at Hee Ra’s shrill shouting echoing through the room.
A sudden wave of dizziness hit him, and he slowly closed and opened his eyelids.
At least a puppy is cute.
It felt like a fierce vixen was clawing at him. Her sharp, piercing voice was something he could never get used to.
“Really? That explains why it’s been so quiet.”
“I left you so many messages—how could you not reply to a single one!”
Hee Ra’s voice trembled at the end. Her teary eyes looked ready to overflow any second.
An Do Hyun pressed his temples firmly.
He was no longer fooled by Hee Ra’s theatrics.
Whenever she started sniffling, most people around her would give in to whatever she wanted.
But An Do Hyun was different.
He had the seasoned experience from repeated encounters. Now, he just looked at her impassively, thinking, *Here we go again with the act.*
At first, he thought her stalking and obsession would eventually fade.
Yeah, she’ll stop once she meets someone she likes, or time will heal it.
But Hee Ra’s fixation on him only grew worse with each passing day.
Still, he couldn’t bring himself to harshly push her away.
That day, the image of her precariously standing on the rooftop kept nagging at him.
The moment the little lost soul, abandoned by her mother bird, decided to throw herself away—the unfocused gaze they locked eyes on—made him unable to be heartless.
Hee Ra seemed to see An Do Hyun as her lifesaver.
It looked like she was blindly clinging to that belief just to have some reason to keep living.
*Fine, if it gives her any reason to endure, let her do as she pleases.*
That was the best An Do Hyun could do as someone who had seen the depths of despair in that girl on the cliff’s edge.
After that, he tried not to pay her any mind.
But now, he felt she was starting to cross the line.
An Do Hyun had been trying to be patient.
He hoped she would realize on her own that what she felt wasn’t love, but obsession, and waited for that moment.
He hadn’t expected it to take this long.
“You know I don’t reply. And I told you not to show up at the office unannounced.”
Truth be told, An Do Hyun really hated it when Hee Ra barged into the company out of nowhere.
He believed in separating work and personal life, but Hee Ra didn’t care about that. Whenever he didn’t respond to messages or show his face, she’d come storming in.
Her excitement from his scolding tone and low voice quickly subsided.
Hee Ra always shrank back a little when An Do Hyun lowered his voice.
Probably because she feared he might completely cast her aside. That they’d become strangers who could never face each other again.
She seemed scared of being abandoned, of losing the pillar she relied on.
But it only lasted a moment.
Time would pass, and she’d come to the office again, doing whatever she pleased as if nothing had happened.
“Oppa, you’re so heartless. Don’t you worry about me at all? It’s been months since you’ve seen my face, and you ignore me even when I’m drunk and ask you to pick me up. I’m a national actress now, you know! You’re the only one who treats me like this.”
Calmed by An Do Hyun’s cold tone, Hee Ra began listing her grievances.
“You were busy with work, that’s why. And your manager picks you up when you’re drunk. Why would I add to the worry?”
An Do Hyun finally shifted his gaze from the monitor to Hee Ra.
Her brief joy faded as she flinched at his icy eyes.
His gaze was saying: *Stop being a nuisance and get out already.*
“Don’t look at me like that. I just came to see your face today.”
It was welcome news midway through.
After he’d harshly scolded her for insisting on dinner together before, she stopped clinging in his office. Though she’d sometimes threaten to wait in the car or pull other nonsense, stubbornly refusing to back down.
Now that the situation had changed, he needed to put a stop to that too.
What bothered An Do Hyun was Yi Yeon sitting outside.
Even if she was a nominal wife and they’d agreed to respect each other’s private lives, wasn’t this a breach of propriety? Putting on a show of chatting alone with a woman who followed him around because she liked him, right in front of her eyes, felt quite uncomfortable.
“Next week’s that day, right? Are you… taking me with you?”
At Hee Ra’s words, An Do Hyun glanced at the calendar on his desk.
On the plain white calendar marked only with numbers, there was a single circled spot.
“No.”
An Do Hyun rejected her flatly, as if it was absolutely out of the question.
“Got it. I’ll go.”
Instead of replying, An Do Hyun nodded once.
Hee Ra turned away with slumped shoulders.
After the typhoon had passed, An Do Hyun rolled his neck with a crackle to relieve the stiff ache in the back of his head.
Then, his eyes moved to the red circle.
The gaze fixed on the date was as cold as if frost had settled over it.
* * *
After Hee Ra left, Yi Yeon blinked up at the ceiling, her eyes aching.
Ah, my eyes are gonna fall out.
She felt like she’d end up cross-eyed at this rate.
While Hee Ra was there, Yi Yeon’s every nerve had been focused on the two in the office. She couldn’t get any work done.
Yi Yeon was just curious.
About how An Do Hyun treated Hee Ra.
She’d never cared before if Hee Ra, Assistant Manager Kang, or any other woman was in the office. So why was she so aware of it now?
“Secretary Yu, did Jeong Hee Ra leave?”
Yi Yeon jumped at Yeon Jeong’s face suddenly appearing without warning.
“You scared me, Assistant Manager.”
“How didn’t you hear my heels? With someone that noisy around.”
Yeon Jeong’s thin voice naturally furrowed Yi Yeon’s brow.
Ugh, so annoying.
“So, did Jeong Hee Ra leave?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Ah, what a shame. I thought I’d finally get to see her today!”
Yeon Jeong wrung her hands regretfully.
Hee Ra had come to see An Do Hyun a few times before, but Yeon Jeong had missed her due to various reasons.
“I wanted to at least catch a glimpse from afar.”
Yeon Jeong said she’d been a fan since Hee Ra’s unknown days.
Birds of a feather flock together, huh? Now that she looked, the two had very similar vibes.
“Tell me for sure next time she comes! Got it?”
Her tone was sharp with disappointment and irritation at missing Hee Ra again.
“If I’m not busy.”
Yi Yeon shrugged as she replied.
Who’s she bossing around? No way—I’ll come see her if I want to!
In short, she had no intention of telling her.
Catching the drift, Yeon Jeong glared up and down at Yi Yeon.
Then, as if spotting something, her eyes lit up.
“Your hair’s down, making you look stuffy, and that high-neck blouse too. Don’t you feel suffocated just looking at it? You should at least tie your hair up.”
Yeon Jeong’s nitpicking started up again.
Determined to see how far she’d go, Yi Yeon clamped her mouth shut and stared blankly at her.
“Isn’t it a huge breach for the Vice President’s secretary to be so disheveled?”
Yeon Jeong said, glaring straight ahead.
“The real breach is coming from Assistant Manager Kang right now.”
Yi Yeon lifted her head toward the heavy voice coming from behind Yeon Jeong.
“V-Vice President.”
Yeon Jeong’s neck, which had been rigidly tense, automatically bowed.
“I’ve noticed you picking on her clothes for a while now.”
“…….”
It seemed An Do Hyun had witnessed Yeon Jeong frequently criticizing Yi Yeon’s outfits.
In the suffocating air, Yi Yeon swallowed dryly as she listened.
“I’m her direct superior, and I haven’t said a word. Who are you to give advice to *my* secretary?”
As the cool words settled like mist on the floor, Yi Yeon’s heart pounded fiercely.
Why was he stepping in to defend her?
Slowly, then quickly, irregularly—her erratic heartbeat made her chest ache.
*Why are you doing this, Vice President?*
Just ignore me like always. Why do something you’ve never done and mess with my feelings…?
*My secretary.*
How could those two words make her heart race like this?
“And your own attire seems more improper.”
It felt like he was scolding the deep V-neck blouse Yeon Jeong wore.
“Go back to your duties now. Assistant Manager Kang Yeon Jeong.”
A strong warning laced the last call of her name.
Yeon Jeong bowed her head deeply, gave a quick greeting, and scurried away.
Having been properly embarrassed in front of An Do Hyun, she seemed to have snapped to attention.
Yi Yeon needed to pull herself together too, but with her heart still unsettled, she just gaped at him, mouth agape.
The world turned pure white, filled only with An Do Hyun in her vision.
An Do Hyun cleared his throat awkwardly at Yi Yeon staring blankly at him.
“What are you staring at?”
*You.*
Her heart must be going crazy.
Yi Yeon’s cheeks had long been flushed red.
“I’ll be back.”
She barely managed a faint “Okay.”
In the Vice President’s office, empty now that An Do Hyun had left at Gap Su’s call.
Yi Yeon, unable to shake off the awkward, tense feeling for a while, finally snapped out of it and went in to tidy his desk.
To wrap up the day, she gathered the scattered pens needing approval and put them in the case.
As she roughly sorted the documents, her gaze casually swept over the calendar.
One particularly glaring red circle.
With a woman’s intuition, Yi Yeon sensed it wasn’t an ordinary day.
What is it? What day?
She flipped through the surrounding months, but they were spotless.
*Come to think of it, he does take vacation around this time every year.*
Pausing her tidying, Yi Yeon returned to her seat and messaged Su Jin internally.
[Su Jin, you at your desk?]
[Yeah, what’s up?]
Luckily, Su Jin was at her desk and replied promptly.
[Do you know when the Vice President’s mother passed?]
[I know it was summer, but not the exact date.]
It was confirmed. The circled date was his mother’s death anniversary.
“Would he take me if I asked to go together?”
It was the first anniversary since they married. Yi Yeon thought she should go pay respects too.
An Do Hyun hadn’t asked her to come along, but she wanted to step up anyway.
She’d heard that neither Deok Ho nor Gap Su had ever visited his mother Mi Jeong’s columbarium.
An Do Hyun went alone every year.
Was she bothered by the anniversary, or by An Do Hyun going to pay respects alone and lonely?
Whatever. Let’s try asking first.
Yi Yeon put in a vacation request for that Monday, Mi Jeong’s anniversary.
