GITDS 09

Chapter 9

“……Yes. I was looking over some blueprints.”

Jungwon was secretly surprised that Han Tae-kyung was still at the company, but she answered as casually as possible and stepped into the elevator.

She calmly pressed the button for the first floor and looked toward the closing doors.

He asked again.

“Until this late?”

“Yes. It just happened that way.”

Tae-kyung narrowed his eyes as he looked at Jungwon’s back.

He remembered what Chaewon had said earlier.

“Even if you offered her an annual salary in the hundreds of millions of won, that’s still strange. I’m suspicious of why that woman came back to Haesin. Her father died because of a design accident, and she herself was heavily suspected of being an industrial spy after supposedly selling blueprints. In such a small industry, how could someone like that simply come back? How thick-skinned do you have to be to do that?”

Tae-kyung quietly looked at Jungwon standing in front of him before casually asking,

“Are you managing to adjust to the company?”

At the low voice coming from behind her, Jungwon slowly turned her head and met his eyes.

She answered briefly.

“Yes.”

“That’s good to hear.”

After Tae-kyung’s words, silence settled inside the elevator.

Jungwon turned her gaze forward again and pressed her lips together.

“You really did come to Haesin just for the money?”

At his voice again, Jungwon looked back at him.

She tilted her head slightly.

“You really have a talent for making people repeat themselves, Chairman.”

“If money was your only concern, I thought there would have been plenty of other options.”

“It’s not every day that you’re offered an option that pays this much. And the only thing I know how to do is build ships.”

Perhaps he had only been asking because he was genuinely curious.

Whatever the reason, Tae-kyung didn’t speak to Jungwon anymore.

During their short conversation, the elevator had already arrived at the first floor Jungwon had selected.

The moment the doors opened, Kyle’s words suddenly came back to her.

— Do you know the easiest way to deceive someone? It’s to win the heart of the person you’re trying to deceive.

— I’m telling you to win Han Tae-kyung’s heart.

Jungwon glanced at Tae-kyung behind her and thought.

What Kyle said wasn’t wrong.

If I seduce him and make him mine, hearing the truth about what happened that day would be incredibly easy.

Besides, finding out the security key for the program and handing it over to Kyle along with the blueprints wouldn’t be difficult either.

Come to think of it, wouldn’t a man like Han Tae-kyung be the perfect man to fall in love with—whether the love was real or fake?

Perhaps unaware of the dark thoughts running through her mind, Tae-kyung spoke to her again.

“Are you not getting off?”

Instead of answering, Jungwon turned around and met his eyes.

The elevator doors closed behind her.

A huge wave of emotion surged through Jungwon as she looked at him.

Slowly, she moved her lips.

“If you’re not busy, would you like to have a drink with me?”

It was the first time in her life that she had ever made such a bold move.

“Cheers!”

Jungwon clinked her soju glass against Tae-kyung’s and smiled faintly.

He seemed uncomfortable sitting across from her, glancing around at his surroundings before looking back at her.

Jungwon raised her glass as if telling him to drink.

“Ah… It’s bitter…”

Jungwon had brought Tae-kyung to a pojangmacha in the alley near the company.

She had visited this place several times in the past, so she comfortably took a seat, ordered soju and several dishes, and began drinking with a more relaxed expression than the one she usually wore at the office.

As time passed, both of their faces became flushed from the alcohol.

“Still, I’m surprised. I thought you would say no.”

She had impulsively suggested drinking together because she figured she should at least try something, just as Kyle had told her.

But Han Tae-kyung had accepted her suggestion much more easily than she had expected.

Jungwon frowned slightly as she looked at him, curious about what was going on behind that cold expression.

Perhaps sensing her gaze, Tae-kyung raised his head and met her eyes.

“Do you like places like this?”

“I don’t mind them.”

Come to think of it, Do-jin had told her something.

Han Tae-kyung hated receiving attention and special treatment simply because he was the third-generation heir of a chaebol family, so he had gone into the field and learned the work from the bottom up.

Perhaps because of that, although his appearance was so cold and imposing that he seemed difficult to approach, he had always been kind to the employees.

Whenever someone achieved good results, he never hesitated to praise them.

Even when they made mistakes, he encouraged them by telling them it was okay.

Come to think of it, Han Tae-kyung really is an impressive and upright person.

Can I really do something like this to a man like him?

A thought she had never allowed herself to have before suddenly came to her mind.

Jungwon felt her breath catch.

She quickly picked up the glass in front of her and emptied it in one gulp.

“Come to think of it, why haven’t you asked?”

“Asked what?”

“Why I asked you to have a drink with me.”

At Jungwon’s question, Tae-kyung paused for a moment before answering quietly.

“Just… You looked like someone who didn’t want to be alone.”

At his words, Jungwon’s eyes trembled like waves stirred by the wind.

She had thought she had been hiding her loneliness so well that no one could see it.

So how had he known?

For nearly four years, Jungwon had done nothing but run forward, never looking back.

She had only one goal:

Protect the sister she had left.

She had lived that way, believing that having the luxury to look back at her own feelings was nothing more than a waste of time.

Jungwon quietly stared at Tae-kyung’s profile as he silently drank.

He filled Jungwon’s empty glass and asked,

“Why do you like building ships, Ms. Min Jungwon?”

“Because they’re fascinating.”

Tae-kyung stared at her as she answered immediately, without even a moment’s hesitation.

As though wondering why he would ask such a basic question, she put a dried-out piece of carrot from the side dish into her mouth and continued.

“Don’t you think they’re fascinating, Chairman? I think it’s amazing that such a heavy ship can float on the ocean. How is that even possible? I’ve wondered about it since I was little. So I thought I had to find out that secret for myself. My father… Ah, never mind.”

Having naturally brought up her father while drunk, Jungwon shook her head several times as though she had made a mistake.

Watching her, Tae-kyung quietly murmured,

“I hate ships.”

“What?”

“Isn’t it funny? That someone who makes ships could hate ships to death.”

Jungwon blinked, wondering what he could possibly mean.

Didn’t he go into the field because he liked ships?

Besides, he had told her himself that he wanted to build the greatest ships in the world—ships that no one else could even hope to compete with.

She had thought the alcohol had softened his expression somewhat, but seeing Tae-kyung’s face harden coldly again, Jungwon spoke playfully.

“I heard something about you. Apparently, you’re one of the top ten people in the world when it comes to making money from selling ships.”

“What does that have to do with—”

“So you can’t hate ships. You need to keep succeeding so I don’t get fired and can keep working.”

At Jungwon’s sarcastic tone, Tae-kyung let out a small laugh.

She narrowed her eyes at him and mocked him.

“Yes, go ahead and laugh as much as you want. I think I’m funny too.”

“Why do you think that way?”

“Because I left Haesin like that and then came crawling back because I needed money.”

Tae-kyung simply stared at her without saying anything.

Jungwon hadn’t said it because she wanted comfort, so she wasn’t bothered by his silence.

What she found ridiculous was her own situation—sitting here drinking with Han Tae-kyung, determined to somehow deceive him.

Jungwon suddenly let out a small laugh.

She rested her chin on one hand and began folding down the fingers of her other hand one by one.

“Shameless. Disgusting. What did you come back to steal this time? No conscience. No sense of shame.”

“……”

“Those are the things I’ve heard all day today.”

After Jungwon finished speaking, a brief silence passed between them.

Tae-kyung emptied his glass and refilled it before speaking.

“Didn’t you say you don’t care what other people think?”

“I did. But I’m still human.”

The alcohol was quickly taking effect, and she slowly blinked as she looked at him.

Tae-kyung lifted the glass in front of him and drank it in one gulp.

Then he wiped his lips and quietly murmured,

“What happened back then… I’m sorry.”

Jungwon’s eyes widened.