TVS 09

Chapter 09

“Actually, this might work out for the best. Kang Tae-kyung is crazy about women. If you play up your looks and the fact that you have no experience, he might really start talking without you even having to try.”

Se-yeon spoke as though this was actually a good thing.

However, Seo-ah could neither agree nor disagree with her words.

She could not ask outright either. How could she ask how Se-yeon knew? Or whether she knew that Dong-ha was gay?

Without saying anything, Seo-ah studied her cousin’s face.

But perhaps it really had been her imagination. Se-yeon’s expression was the same as always—simply the concerned expression of an older cousin worrying about her.

Of course. There’s no way Unni would…

Seo-ah shook her head vigorously, as though trying to cast away the impure thoughts.

Just then, Se-yeon began rummaging through her bag, as if she had something to show her.

“Seo-ah, wait a moment. There’s something I want to show you.”

Se-yeon took a photograph from her bag and placed it on the table.

“I don’t know who took it or for what purpose, but someone high up at Taeyu Motors gave it to me.”

Seo-ah pulled the photograph toward herself and examined it. Her eyes trembled violently.

The person in the photograph was none other than Dong-ha’s father, Lee Se-jung, the representative director of Dong-ha Motors.

“Why…? Why is Father-in-law there?”

Se-yeon took the photograph back, checked something on it, and then held it up in front of Seo-ah again.

“See the date? It was exactly a year ago. That means he had already met someone from Taeyu and discussed something with them back then. A year ago was before the confidential information from Wonjeon Electronics was leaked.”

Seo-ah slowly nodded, her heart pounding as though it might burst.

She did not know who the person standing with her father-in-law was, but in the photograph, which showed the person from the waist up, the man was wearing a Taeyu Group badge on his jacket.

“You said someone you know gave this to you?”

“Yes. Apparently, that person also received it from someone else as a tip.”

Whether Se-yeon’s story was true or not was no longer important. At the very least, the scene captured in the photograph could not be a lie.

Seeing her father-in-law looking as though he had planned everything with Taeyu in advance made Seo-ah feel as if her heart were being torn to pieces.

Seo-ah remembered her father, who had opposed her marriage to Dong-ha from the very beginning.

There must have been a reason her father had opposed the marriage, even when Wonjeon Electronics had been given a chance to avoid shutting down.

If I had swallowed my pride back then and rejected the offer, wouldn’t things have been better than they are now, even if Wonjeon Electronics had closed down?

If I had done that, wouldn’t Dad still be by my side now?

You stupid woman. You unbelievably foolish woman. Because of you, because of your stupidity, Dad… Dad…

Seo-ah’s anger turned toward herself.

And now, there was nothing she would be unwilling to do.

“Unni, I’ll do it.”

“Are… are you sure you can?”

Se-yeon asked in a worried voice.

“Yes. I can do it.”

Although Seo-ah answered calmly, her reddened eyes were filled with a mixture of countless emotions.

“All right. Let’s give it a try.”

Seo-ah quietly nodded at Se-yeon’s sympathetic expression.

Once again, it seemed that Se-yeon’s performance had succeeded in deceiving the only person watching.

But Seo-ah did not know.

No matter what happened inside that hotel room, Se-yeon actually had no interest in it whatsoever.

All she wanted was simply some woman—any woman—whom she could get involved with Kang Tae-kyung.

One week later, Se-yeon’s red sedan stopped at the rear entrance of the largest hotel in downtown Pyeonghan.

Sitting in the passenger seat was Seo-ah, looking completely different from usual.

Her long, straight hair had been curled into voluminous waves, and her face was covered in such heavy makeup that it was difficult to remember what she looked like without it.

She looked awkward and completely out of place, as though the woman named Jin Seo-ah had been neatly erased.

Se-yeon looked her over and smiled with satisfaction.

“Today, you’re ‘Rin,’ who works at ‘Edge.’”

Seo-ah slowly nodded.

“I heard Kang Tae-kyung went up to his room thirty minutes ago, so you can go up too.”

Se-yeon placed a pen-shaped recorder she had prepared in Seo-ah’s hand. It was an old-fashioned black recorder that began recording when the center of the pen was pressed.

“Just leave it on, in case anything happens. They might say something that could serve as evidence.”

Seo-ah’s face was visibly tense as she accepted the recorder.

The day had finally come when she would actually meet the Kang Tae-kyung she had heard so much about from Se-yeon. One slip of the tongue and everything would be over.

She tightly clasped both hands, trying to calm the anxiety that refused to subside.

Watching her, Se-yeon lightly patted her hand.

“Don’t worry too much. There’s no way you’ll get caught. Even if Kang Tae-kyung calls Edge himself, we have someone on our side, so don’t be too nervous.”

Someone on our side…?

Perhaps she meant there was someone who would claim to know Rin?

Se-yeon had probably said it to reassure her, but somehow, those words did not help ease Seo-ah’s anxiety.

“Ah… okay.”

“Seo-ah, don’t forget. Kang Tae-kyung is the one holding the truth.”

Seeing the uneasiness in Seo-ah’s expression, Se-yeon quietly smiled as she emphasized her purpose and motivation.

“Yes. I know.”

Seo-ah forced the corners of her mouth upward into an awkward smile, and Se-yeon nodded.

“Good.”

The sympathetic expression of an older sister toward her younger cousin was merely an added touch.

In front of Tae-kyung’s hotel room.

For ten minutes already, Seo-ah had been unable to press the doorbell of Room 2101.

She thought that if she delayed any longer, she might end up failing before she even began. Yet her trembling finger simply refused to obey her.

“Phew… I can do this.”

She kept repeating words of encouragement to herself.

Finally, she gathered her courage and reached toward the doorbell.

At that exact moment, the door to Room 2101 suddenly flew open.

“……?!”

So startled that she instinctively stepped backward, Seo-ah’s heel wobbled beneath her.

“Huh…?”

At that moment, the man who had opened the door grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her forward.

“What is it?”

Relying on the strength of his firm grip, Seo-ah managed to regain her balance on her twisted ankle. Then the man’s rough voice came down from above her head.

“Who are you?”

His voice was somewhat irritated.

Apparently, he was displeased by the sudden presence of a woman blocking his doorway.

Flustered by his tone, Seo-ah swallowed hard, forced her throat to work, and raised her head.

“Ah, yes. I, I’m…”

And the moment she properly faced the man before her, Seo-ah doubted her own eyes.

She definitely knew this face.

Huh? Where have I seen this man before? His name was…

While Seo-ah stood there blankly in silence, the man raised one eyebrow, clearly growing irritated.

Then he repeated the unfinished words she had just spoken.

“You’re?”

“……Gasp!”

As the voice she had just heard overlapped with the man standing before her, Seo-ah finally remembered his name.

“Ka… Kang Tae-kyung!”

Without even realizing what she had said, Seo-ah stood there in a daze for a moment.

“‘I’m Kang Tae-kyung?’ Who are you supposed to be? I’m Kang Tae-kyung.”

The man mocked her, piecing together the fragments of her words in an openly displeased tone.

“……What?”

“I’m Kang Tae-kyung, not you. No matter how I look at you, there isn’t a single thing about you that resembles me.”

“Ah…”

Seo-ah lowered her gaze, desperately trying to organize her confused thoughts.

So this is the Kang Tae-kyung Unni was talking about? Then who was the man I saw at the funeral?

“I’m Kang Tae-kyung. You asked who I was.”

As the memory resurfaced, Seo-ah squeezed her eyes shut.

That voice had definitely belonged to this man.

The musky scent of his cologne, his long, narrow monolid eyes, and his tall stature that made it impossible to tell whether he was an athlete or a model.

It had only been for a brief moment, but the Kang Tae-kyung in her memory and the man standing before her were undoubtedly the same person.

Just then, Tae-kyung finally spoke after watching the dazed woman before him.

“Are you a spy?”

His unexpected question startled Seo-ah, and she looked up.

“What?!”

“I mean, did you come here to spy on me? For something like that, though… your style is a little too much.”

Tae-kyung’s gaze traveled up and down her body.

Although the top she was wearing had long sleeves, it was a sheer bolero that ended above her waist. Because of that, the short slip dress underneath appeared even more revealing.

Only now, under his blatant gaze, did Seo-ah seem to become aware of her own appearance and snap back to reality.

“I’m… Rin.”

“Rin?”

“Yes. Edge sent me.”

Even as she gave him the name of the establishment Se-yeon had told her to use, Seo-ah was anxious that he might remember what had happened at the funeral.

Because of that, she kept her head lowered while only raising her eyes to sneak glances at him, which actually made her behavior look even more suspicious.

However, Seo-ah herself did not realize this.

After carefully observing her for a while, Tae-kyung asked dryly,

“How long have you been working?”

Strangely enough, Seo-ah felt relieved by his question.

Since he was asking something like this, she assumed he did not suspect that she was undercover.

“I-I’ve only been working for a few days. It’s my first time… serving a customer, sir.”

Even though she was relieved that he did not seem suspicious, she still could not speak properly.

Her heart continued pounding, and even her breathing became unsteady.