“Yeonwoo. Hey, so you were here?”
It felt as though I were bound by invisible hands, unable to move a muscle. Yeonwoo merely clutched the wrapping cloth, staring at Cha Yoonseok.
Cha Yoonseok looked at her, his smile brighter than ever.
“Hey, hey. You. You were here. Huh? Yeonwoo.”
She knew the meaning of that expression. It was a grin layered with mounting rage—the mark of a predator who had finally cornered its prey and was ready to sink its molars into the kill.
Cha Yoonseok scanned Yeonwoo up and down, noting the Domyeongjae uniform. Seongheon watched them both, then lowered his gaze to skim through the files on his desk.
Namsong Industrial Development Co., Ltd. Representative: Cha Gil-wook. Vice President: Cha Yoonseok.
Namsong was one of the many subcontractors brought onto the site. This was their first collaboration, and his first meeting with Cha Yoonseok. Since it was impossible to memorize every name involved in the massive bidding process, reviewing the files beforehand was standard procedure.
But for some reason, the name Namsong Industrial Development nagged at him. He pondered it for a moment.
“Yeonwoo. Wait. Okay? As you can see, I’m a bit busy. Wait. Definitely.”
……Right. Namsong Industrial Development.
Seongheon recalled the company name from Yeonwoo’s resume. It was her final place of employment as a secretary before she had resigned and come to Domyeongjae.
He roughly grasped that the man was her former boss, but he couldn’t fathom why she was reacting with such visible terror. Watching Cha Yoonseok, who was still fixated on his demand for Yeonwoo to wait, Seongheon parted his lips.
“Ji Yeonwoo-ssi.”
“…….”
She looked as though she had lost her mind.
“Ji Yeonwoo-ssi.”
When he called her name a second time, Yeonwoo cast a stiff look his way. Seongheon tilted his chin, observing her fragility.
“Follow Manager Hwang and head back. My staff will take care of the rest.”
“…….”
“I said go back. Did you not hear me?”
His tone was firm. Yeonwoo, her face flushed a strained, uneven red, nodded as if bewitched.
As she shuffled past, cowering, Cha Yoonseok clicked his tongue, as if savoring a meal. He looked as if he wanted to drag her out by the wrist, but as a mere subcontractor seeking favor, he suppressed the urge.
“Have a good day, and let’s see each other again. Yeonwoo.”
He said it as a promise; now that he knew where she was, he wouldn’t lose her a second time. Yeonwoo fled the office, her eyes fixed on the floor.
Seongheon pressed the intercom to clear the room, then had Manager Hwang escort Yeonwoo away. While he gave instructions, Cha Yoonseok simply rubbed his chin, waiting.
“Have a seat.”
“Ah, yes. Managing Director.”
Ten minutes passed before the conversation actually began.
*
Thirty minutes had passed since he began sitting across from Cha Yoonseok.
Seongheon leaned back against the sofa, watching the man lay out peripheral documents and ramble in a disorganized mess.
Conversations with contractors were always the same. Small and medium-sized firms, desperate for a conglomerate’s blessing, always arrived fully prepared to emphasize their determination. But Cha Yoonseok was different.
“Ah, is this it? Was it this one? Excuse me for a moment, Managing Director.”
Before they had exchanged more than a few words, Seongheon realized Cha Yoonseok was entirely out of his depth. Nothing was prepared; his tone, cobbled together with desperate bravado, betrayed a complete lack of field knowledge.
Cha Gil-wook, the representative, must have been trying to groom his son for a position, hoping this project would establish the boy’s standing.
“Hello. It’s me. Is this the final version? The Managing Director is asking.”
Cha Yoonseok glanced at Seongheon and made a phone call. It was already the sixth one. Even for simple inquiries, he couldn’t provide a single clear answer, instead berating his staff over the line.
“I got it. Just hang up.”
Putting the phone down, Cha Yoonseok flashed a debauched smile at Seongheon—a face that stood in stark contrast to his own, which lacked that particular oily sheen.
“Oh, Managing Director. My apologies. They say it’s the final document, so I would appreciate it if you could review it in depth.”
Seongheon took the papers.
“It would have been better if the person in charge had come.”
“I apologize. I’m not the type to drag people around. And frankly, I didn’t think the work talk would go on for this long.”
Cha Yoonseok bowed his upper body, rubbing his hands as if out of habit. He sat with his elbows resting on his wide-spread knees, smiling as if to say, *You understand, don’t you?*
Seongheon glanced at him before shifting his gaze to the file. He wasn’t really reading it.
“It must be frustrating to be trapped in here, Managing Director. People like you seem much better suited to a flashy, magnificent city.”
He hadn’t used any profanity, nor had he brought up anything lewd, yet Cha Yoonseok’s voice felt inherently vulgar.
“Have you been to Q-Us, the new place in Cheongdam-dong? They manage the water quality well, so the ‘talent’ is top-tier. I’m on brotherly terms with the people in charge there; I’d like to treat you properly one of these days. Please, spare some time.”
The way he rubbed his palms together—a posture reserved for bowing to a superior—was grating. Seongheon lowered the file.
A tattoo peeked out from beneath his sleeve, snaking up toward his neck. Given the murky, predatory glint in his eyes—a gaze devoid of a single ounce of sincerity—it was clear he was far from a normal man.
Working in the cutthroat construction industry, he occasionally encountered this type. Men who scraped money from the bottom of the world, put up a decent-looking storefront, and pursued nothing but power struggles and graft.
Seongheon grasped the essence of Cha Yoonseok almost immediately. The man revealed himself through his own words, careless and unfiltered.
Realizing Seongheon’s gaze had landed on his ink, Cha Yoonseok laughed heartily and rolled up his sleeves. The blue and red pigments formed a grotesque, crawling pattern that made Seongheon deeply uncomfortable.
“Got a lot of ink, right? My dream as a kid was to be a painter.”
“It looks more like your dream wasn’t being a painter, but being the canvas.”
As Seongheon cut the conversation short, Cha Yoonseok’s eyebrows twitched. Then, he went back to simpering and pulled down his sleeves.
“Anyway, Managing Director, seeing you in person… you’re quite the handsome man. You’re still unmarried, right?”
“I am.”
Cha Yoonseok slapped his knee.
“Man, I don’t know who it’ll be, but the woman who marries you will hit the jackpot. Money, status, and on top of that, this kind of… well, this kind of appearance. You must be popular.”
His tone had become subtly informal.
“How many women must be drooling just looking at you? I’m jealous. You’re lacking in absolutely nothing…”
“Your name?”
Cha Yoonseok trailed off. A surge of rage flared at the perceived arrogance—Seongheon was asking for his name when the business card sat plain as day on the table.
He stared at Seongheon, his face stiffening as if doubting his ears. But he was quickly deflated by Seongheon’s dry, impenetrable gaze.
“It’s Cha Yoonseok.”
“Yes. President Cha Yoonseok.”
“……It’s Vice President.”
“I see. My mistake. It’s been a while since I’ve had a meeting with anyone below a President.”
As Seongheon muttered this, finally checking the title on the card, Cha Yoonseok let out a heavy breath. His insides churned; was this the legendary “gapjil” of the conglomerates?
Did he want to be here? His father was hospitalized with diabetes. He had only come because his inheritance was on the line, and now this golden-spoon heir was sitting there, subtly picking at his nerves.
Watching Cha Yoonseok grow increasingly agitated, Seongheon crossed his legs. Silence stretched between them.
A secretary entered with an urgent matter. After asking for Cha Yoonseok’s understanding, the secretary whispered in Seongheon’s ear. Seongheon nodded.
“I’ll have a cold water. No, make it two cold coffees. One for our Managing Director.”
Cha Yoonseok ordered a drink as the secretary was leaving. His attitude was 180 degrees different from how he treated Seongheon.
Seongheon cut him off.
“Forget the coffee. We need to leave now, so prepare for the meeting.”
“Yes. Understood, Managing Director.”
The secretary replied immediately and vanished.
Cha Yoonseok, denied even a cup of coffee, turned his head slowly to look at Seongheon. Seongheon rolled up his sleeve to check the time, radiating an aura that signaled the end of the meeting.
“I have another engagement.”
“Yes. I seem to have taken up too much of your time. My apologies.”
He was furious, but he had no choice. Cha Yoonseok stood up, brushing himself off. Conglomerate heirs were all the same, he told himself—disagreeable, but powerful. Yielding to them was just the cost of doing business.
Besides, leaving early was a relief. He had to find Ji Yeonwoo.
“I’ll be going now, Managing Director. Stay healthy.”
Cha Yoonseok bowed as if performing for a gangster movie, and Seongheon gave a slight nod.
“Be careful on your way back.”
“Yes, Managing Director. If you grant me the honor of a heart-to-heart talk soon, I will serve you with all my heart.”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if there will be another day to meet.”
As Seongheon drew a line, Cha Yoonseok laughed.
“I’ll be at the site starting today. If I stick to your side persistently, won’t there be an opportunity? Persistently clinging to things is my specialty.”
He would be at the site starting today.
For the first time, Seongheon raised an eyebrow.
“You mean you will be at the site, Vice President?”
“Well, that’s how it turned out. Starting today.”
He intended to sit and wait until he found her. As Cha Yoonseok smiled, hiding his true intentions, Seongheon watched him.
After finishing his boisterous greeting, Cha Yoonseok looked back as if he had forgotten something.
“Oh, and this is just a trivial question, Managing Director.”
Cha Yoonseok stepped closer.
“That female employee who was in the office a while ago. Is she a site employee here?”
Since Cha Yoonseok had mentioned Yeonwoo directly, Seongheon, who had been waiting for this, spoke with calculated calm.
“She is a Domyeongjae employee.”
“Domyeongjae? Ah, that place they say is more enviable than the Blue House. Right, right. So that’s where she was hiding.”
At the word “hiding,” Seongheon let out a slow, steady breath.
“She was someone I was keeping, but she suddenly disappeared. I wondered where she’d gone, and it turns out she was in such an absurd place.”
“Are you saying you were looking for her?”
“Well, yes. She owes me something, but she ran away without giving it back.”
Something owed. Was it money?
Seongheon wondered if Yeonwoo had borrowed money from him. That was the extent of what he could fathom.
“Did she borrow money?”
“No, well, nothing that trivial. I told her to give me her heart, but she wouldn’t.”
Cha Yoonseok scratched his neck and smiled viscously.
“Or was it? Maybe I asked for her breasts?”
“…….”
“Ah, whether it was her heart or her breasts, I can’t remember what I asked for. Maybe because I was drinking yesterday.”
He laughed, as if sharing a joke that powerful men were entitled to tell. Watching him shake with laughter, Seongheon lifted his chin, mirroring his fawning attitude.
*‘There were things in Seoul that were a bit hard to endure, and that’s why I missed my mom. I was planning to rest for a bit before going back up, but things ended up like this.’*
A faint smile emerged on Seongheon’s face.
*‘I’m sick to death of men.’*
“Just a joke, Managing Director. I’m the type who can’t stand a serious atmosphere. I just tried a witty joke.”
“……I see. It must have been hard to endure.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Let’s have a meal sometime soon. At Domyeongjae.”
“Sounds great! Then when…?”
“I’ll convey the schedule through my secretary. Let’s meet then.”
“Yes! I’ll wait with my head on the chopping block! Please contact me!”
Cha Yoonseok replied in a loud voice. Now that they were finally communicating, he felt his cheerful, submissive posture had finally paid off.
It was a truly disgusting attitude, reeking of vulgarity from head to toe.