Chapter 15
“What Are You Looking At”
“Why are you here again?”
Dohyun’s words were flat, his expression unchanged, as though Hira’s presence were nothing more than an inconvenience.
His eyes flicked toward her for a heartbeat before returning to the monitor.
“Oppa!
That’s so cold of you!
Do you know how many months it’s been since I last came?
And after all those years of following you around like a puppy, don’t tell me you didn’t feel even a little empty without me!”
Her voice rang through the office, sharp and high, making his temples throb.
Dohyun squeezed his eyes shut for a brief second as dizziness washed over him.
Like a puppy?
At least a puppy is cute.
This feels more like a wild fox clawing at me.
Her shrill tone was something he’d never gotten used to.
“Is that so?
No wonder it’s been so quiet.”
“How could you ignore me like that when I left you so many messages?
Not even one reply!
Who does that?”
Her voice cracked, threatening to spill into tears.
Her eyes shimmered, brimming, like she might break at any moment.
Dohyun pressed a thumb hard against his temple.
He’d long since stopped being fooled by this act.
Those tears… always on cue.
She knows exactly how to weaponise them.
Everyone else falls for it.
Everyone except me.
When Hira cried, the world bent around her.
People rushed to comfort her, to give her what she wanted.
Everyone except him.
At first, he’d thought her obsession would burn itself out.
That sooner or later, she’d find someone else, someone she actually loved, and all of this would stop.
But instead, her fixation had only deepened.
And still he couldn’t bring himself to cast her aside completely.
Because of that night… damn it.
That night, on the rooftop… the image lingered, no matter how hard he tried to shake it.
A girl teetering on the edge, hollow-eyed, ready to leap into the void.
That broken gaze had branded itself into his memory.
To Hira, he was her saviour, the man who’d pulled her back from the edge of death.
And maybe, in a way, she needed to believe that.
She needed something anything to keep her living.
Fine.
If clinging to me is what it takes for you to keep breathing, then cling.
I’ll bear it.
That had been his decision back then.
The only mercy he could offer.
But even mercy had limits.
This isn’t love.
This is a chain.
And every day it grows tighter.
“You know I don’t answer messages.
And I told you don’t show up here unannounced.”
His tone sharpened, carrying the weight of authority, his voice pitched low.
Hira shrank at once, the heat in her defiance cooling, her bravado folding inward.
She always did when he lowered his voice like that.
Maybe it was fear, fear that he might truly cut her off, that she’d never see him again.
Fear of losing her last anchor.
But it never lasted.
Sooner or later, she came back, crashing into his world the way she always did.
“You’re heartless.
Don’t you even worry about me?
You haven’t seen me in months, and you ignored me when I called drunk and begged you to pick me up.
I’m a national star now everyone in the country adores me.
And you?
You’re the only one who treats me this way!”
Her words spilt out in a rush, half-pleading, half-accusatory.
“You’ve been busy with your own work.
And when you drink, your manager takes you home.
Why should I add myself to the mess?”
Finally, Dohyun’s eyes shifted away from the screen.
His gaze settled on her steady, unflinching, cold.
Enough.
No more games.
If she keeps this up, she’ll find out exactly how little of me she actually has left.
The moment of joy was brief Hira flinched under Dohyun’s cold gaze.
His eyes said it all: stop bothering me and get out.
“Don’t look at me like that.
I just came to see your face and leave today.”
That was a welcome change.
After the scolding she’d gotten the last time for insisting on dinner together, she no longer clung to him so persistently in the office.
Still, she had pulled outrageous stunts before like threatening to wait for him in the car until he came out.
Now that things were different, he needed to put a stop to that as well.
What weighed on Dohyun’s mind was Lee Yeon, sitting outside.
Even if she was only his wife in name, even if they’d promised to respect each other’s privacy under their contract, wasn’t this crossing a line?
To sit here, in plain sight of her, alone with a woman who openly pursued him it was uncomfortable, to say the least.
“Next week, it’s that day, isn’t it?
You’ll… take me with you?”
At her words, Dohyun’s eyes slid toward the desk calendar.
A plain white calendar, nothing but numbers except for a single red circle.
“No.”
His refusal was sharp, final cutting the air with no room for argument.
“Alright.
I’ll go, then.”
He answered only with a curt nod.
Hira’s shoulders sagged as she turned and left.
After the storm had passed, Dohyun rolled his neck, tension prickling down the back of it.
Then his gaze returned to the red circle.
His eyes, fixed on the date, were as cold and rimed with frost as midwinter.
When Hira was gone, Lee Yeon blinked up at the ceiling, her eyes sore.
Ugh, my eyes are going to fall out.
At this rate, she’d end up looking like a flatfish.
The whole time Hira had been inside, every bit of Lee Yeon’s attention had been chained to the two of them in that office.
She hadn’t been able to focus on work at all.
She told herself she was just curious.
How did Dohyun treat Hira?
Until now, it hadn’t mattered who went into that office, Hira, Assistant Kang, any woman, it had never bothered her.
So why am I noticing it now?
“Secretary Yoo, has Jung Hira left?”
Startled, Lee Yeon jumped.
Yeonjeong’s face had suddenly popped into view without a sound.
“You scared me, Assistant Kang.”
“How could you not hear my heels?
There aren’t many people this noisy, you know.”
Her delicate voice made Lee Yeon’s brow crease on instinct.
God, that voice grates on me.
“So, Hira’s gone, right?”
“Yes, she left.”
“Ah, what a shame.
I thought I’d finally get to see her today!”
Yeonjeong twirled her hand in disappointment.
Though Hira had dropped by to see Dohyun several times, Yeonjeong had always missed her for one reason or another.
“I just wanted to see her face, even from a distance.”
She’d told Lee Yeon she’d been a fan of Hira since her rookie days.
Figures.
Drawn to her own kind.
Looking at them now, they really are cut from the same cloth.
“Next time, you have to tell me you’re coming!
Got it?”
Yeonjeong’s tone was sharp, bristling with irritation clearly annoyed she hadn’t gotten to see Hira again.
“If I’m not too busy,” Lee Yeon replied with a careless shrug.
Who exactly is she ordering around?
Ridiculous.
If she wants to see her, she can make the effort herself.
Her answer carried the obvious meaning that she had no intention of accommodating Yeonjeong.
Catching the undertone, Yeonjeong narrowed her eyes and gave Lee Yeon a once-over, from head to toe.
Then, as if she’d spotted a flaw, her eyes lit up.
“Your hair’s already loose and messy, and now that blouse is a high neck?
Just looking at you makes me feel suffocated.
Wouldn’t it be better to tie your hair back at least?”
And so, Yeonjeong’s nitpicking began again.
Here we go… let’s see how far she takes it this time.
Lee Yeon clamped her mouth shut, meeting Yeonjeong’s stare with a blank expression.
“If you’re going to look so slovenly, isn’t that a serious insult to the Vice President you serve?”
Yeonjeong pressed, her eyes wide and accusatory.
“The one being insulting right now is you, Kang Daeri.”
At the sound of that deep, weighty voice behind her, Lee Yeon’s head lifted.
“V–Vice President…” The stiffness drained from Yeonjeong’s proud neck, and her head bowed almost involuntarily.
“You’ve been making comments about her clothes for a while now.”
“…”
It seemed Dohyun had noticed Yeonjeong’s constant remarks about Lee Yeon’s appearance as well.
The air felt heavy, suffocating.
Lee Yeon swallowed hard, the sound loud in her own ears.
“I’m her direct superior, and even I don’t say anything.
So what gives you the right to lecture my secretary?”
His words fell like a chill mist settling over the ground, cold and cutting.
Lee Yeon’s heart hammered wildly in response.
Why… why are you defending me like this, Vice President?
Her chest ached from the erratic pounding of her heart sometimes slow, sometimes frantic, each beat pressing tight against her ribs.
Why are you doing this…?
It would’ve been better if he had just ignored me like he always does.
Why act differently now and make my heart… waver like this?
My secretary.
Why does that single phrase send my heart into a frenzy?
“You look more improper than she, Deputy Kang.”
It sounded almost like he was scolding Yeonjeong for wearing that low-cut blouse.
“Now get back to work, Deputy Kang Yeonjeong.”
Her name at the end carried a sharp warning.
Yeonjeong bowed her head in embarrassment and hurried away, clearly shaken after being put in her place so openly by Dohyun.
I should have pulled myself together too, but my chest was still pounding.
I could only gape at him, wordless, as I stared.
The whole world seemed to turn white, leaving only Dohyun in my sight.
He glanced back at me, caught by my gaze, and cleared his throat awkwardly.
“What are you staring at like that?”
You, obviously.
There’s no denying it now my heart has gone mad.
My cheeks had been burning red for a while already.
“I’ll be back,” he said.
I barely managed to whisper, “Yes,” in reply.
After Dohyun left, summoned by Gapsu, the deputy vice-president’s office felt strangely heavy.
Even when he was gone, the air clung to me awkward, tense, suffocating.
Eventually, I forced myself to move, stepping into his office to tidy up his desk.
Gathering scattered pens back into the case, stacking documents neatly it was just a small ritual to close out the day.
As I swept my gaze over the desk, my eyes caught on the calendar.
One date was circled in red.
It stood out too much to be ordinary.
What is this?
Some kind of occasion?
I flipped through the pages before and after. Nothing else was marked.
Now that I think about it… he usually takes time off around this time every year, doesn’t he?
Halfway through cleaning, I stopped, sat back down, and opened the company messenger to text Sujin.
[ Sujin, are you at your desk? ]
[ Yep, what’s up? ]
Thank god her reply came back instantly.
[ Do you happen to know when the Vice President’s mother passed away? ]
[ Hmm… not the exact date, but I know it was in the summer. ]
That confirmed it.
The red circle was his mother’s Memorial Day.
“If he asks me to come along… would he really take me with him?”
It would be the first Memorial Day since our marriage.
Shouldn’t I go and pay my respects?
He hadn’t mentioned anything about it, but I wanted to be there and wanted to go with him.
From what I’d heard, neither Deokho nor Gapsu had ever once visited Mih-jeong’s resting place.
Every year, Dohyun went alone.
Was it the date itself that wei
ghed on me… or just the thought of him going there all by himself?
Either way, I couldn’t shake it.
Alright, let’s just do it.
I submitted a vacation request for Monday the day of Mih-jeong’s memorial.
