FGP 09

Chapter 09

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“What is it?”

Taegun disliked people dragging things out. Knowing his temperament, Kim Sun-woo got straight to the point.

“Seo Hyeon-jeong’s fiancé is the fourth son of Josu Construction.”

“Who?”

Taegun’s eyebrow arched. A fiancé—for a girl who’d just graduated college? And was there even a decent guy in that entire Josu clan?

The finance world had close ties to construction. Even if he hadn’t done direct deals with them, someone in his field knew every major company head and heir, along with their public scandals.

“If I remember right, Josu Construction’s eldest heir was already trouble.”

“Yes, sir. Her fiancé’s the same. Womanizing is the least of it—he’s had plenty of incidents serious enough for criminal charges.”

So was that why she’d clung to him last night, trembling? To avoid this engagement?

It was out of character for him to investigate a woman’s background just because they’d shared a childhood memory—and one night together—but he couldn’t help himself.

“Oppa, you’ll marry me, right? Say it. Hurry!”

The memory whispered like an echo in his mind, and Taegun let out a dry laugh.

Kim Sun-woo gave him a puzzled look.

“Track her movements and let me know. If I call her, she might faint.”

Any woman would be startled if the man from a one-night stand phoned her the next day. Shaking off thoughts of Hyeon-jeong, Taegun picked up the stack of approval documents.

“What do you plan to do when you meet her?” Sun-woo asked, uneasy.

“I need to ask if there’s anything I can do to help,” Taegun said.

After all, she’d once proposed to him as a little girl.

“She’s on the highway toward Gangwon Province in a car driven by Executive Director Jo of Josu Construction,” Sun-woo reported after a quick check.

Taegun looked up sharply.

“I had our people follow them as you instructed. They just took the Gangwon-bound expressway.”

“What’s she going there for in the dead of winter?”

“Probably a trip. They are supposed to be engaged.”

A trip.

Taegun set his pen down and stood, grabbing his jacket and coat.

He had a strong feeling she hadn’t wanted to go. Even when leaving the hotel room that morning, Hyeon-jeong had lingered beside him, as if reluctant to leave. Maybe he should have stopped her then.

And the most important thing: every Josu Construction heir he knew was a total scoundrel.

“Where are you going?”

“Gangwon, first.”

“And once you get there?”

“I’m not sure. Let’s just go.”

The day reminded him of long ago—the day of his fifth-grade field trip, when Yeom Hye-ju died, and the day he and Hyeon-jeong parted.

“Find out which villa Josu Construction owns out there and set the navigation to that address.”

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The scene at the accident site was like a war zone. Taegun thought grimly of what might have happened if he hadn’t left when he did.

As soon as his car merged onto the highway, word came from the tailing team: Jo Jae-seok, driving too fast on icy roads, had lost control and caused a pile-up.

They’d had to escape the chaos and didn’t know the aftermath.

Taegun’s heart plummeted.

Fortunately, the accident site was close to the highway entrance; he reached it in time.

Spotting the car carrying Hyeon-jeong, he rushed to the passenger side, but the door was locked. The driver’s seat was empty—Jae-seok was nowhere to be found.

Abandoning a woman in danger—rage flared to the top of his head.

He slid into the driver’s seat and finally saw Hyeon-jeong, trembling and on the verge of tears. He wanted to comfort her first, but rescuing her came before anything else.

Luckily, the car frame wasn’t too badly crushed.

Her leg was caught, but it looked as though lifting the metal just a bit would free her.

He spoke confidently to reassure her, though he wasn’t entirely sure himself. Keeping her calm was critical.

He wedged several golf clubs between the passenger seat and the glove box and heaved upward. Somewhere nearby another explosion echoed, but his focus stayed on freeing Hyeon-jeong.

Thankfully his secretary, Kim Sun-woo, was right there. While Taegun pried up the car frame, Sun-woo skillfully twisted Hyeon-jeong’s body and pulled her free.

It was a near thing—one fraction less and she might not have escaped, or the injury could have been far worse.

Veins bulging from the strain, Taegun let the golf clubs drop as soon as he saw her slide out of the wreck.

Kim Sun-woo nearly sprawled across the icy highway trying to catch her limp body.

“Hyeon-jeong! Hey, wake up!”

Taegun took her from Sun-woo’s arms, gently tapping her cheeks.

Thick snow whipped across her bloodless face.

“Sir, we should leave right now,” Sun-woo urged.

Even as he spoke, a blast of heat surged from behind them—the fire was spreading fast. Jae-seok’s car would soon be engulfed, the wind only feeding the flames.

Cradling Hyeon-jeong, Taegun sprinted to his own car parked a little way off. Once inside, he ordered, “Turn the heater up.”

Sun-woo cranked it high. Snow was still swirling, a heavy layer already on the ground. With so many collisions ahead, it was impossible to know when emergency crews would arrive—or if they could even get through. The highway was a parking lot.

Fuel needed conserving, but he couldn’t let an unconscious, bleeding Hyeon-jeong freeze.

He laid her carefully across the back seat and examined the wound.

The fabric where her leg had been trapped was torn, the flesh beneath gashed open. The bone wasn’t visible, but blood kept welling out.

“Sun-woo, get a towel from the trunk.”

Taegun always carried workout clothes and spare towels.

Sun-woo returned with a clean towel. Taegun wrapped the wound and tied it tightly with his own necktie.

Sweat poured down his forehead despite the car’s warmth and his awkward position as he dressed the wound.

He wiped his brow and drew her into his arms.

Thankfully, her breathing had grown steadier.

The small body he’d held the night before fit perfectly against him, and only then did Taegun finally exhale in relief.

“When Seo Hyeon-jeong wakes up, how am I even going to explain all this?” he murmured.

He’d planned to give her a scare about one-night stands and lecture her not to trust just any man.

Ironically, he’d ended up being the one to spend the night with her.

It wasn’t the alcohol—he’d been drunk on Seo Hyeon-jeong herself.

“When did you grow up into such a woman?”

He brushed his thumb over her tightly closed eyelids, stroked her tear-stained cheek, and smiled faintly.

“You should have found someone better. Jo Jae-seok is absolutely wrong for you.”

He gently tapped her pretty nose, a bittersweet smile lingering.

The little girl who once vowed never to forget him had lived her life without him. Understandable, but somehow it stung.

“It’s been years.”

He studied her unchanged face before turning to the still-chaotic highway outside. It looked like a battlefield.

Who knew when rescue would come, or how many others needed help. Some might be abandoned, just as Jae-seok had abandoned her.

“Let’s go, Sun-woo,” he said quietly.

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END