ADT 02

Chapter 2

The Surest Revenge

“…I can no longer work for you after today. I’ll submit my resignation as soon as I get to work.”

At Yuri’s unexpected words, Seol-ah opened her eyes wide and raised her voice.

“What?! Are you crazy?”

“No. I’m perfectly sane. And I’m calling off my marriage to Jang Hyun-woo as well, so don’t worry about me and do whatever you want.”

Yuri desperately held back her trembling body, which was shaking from the tips of her toes. Then, pretending to be perfectly fine, she even bowed politely to Seol-ah before closing the door and walking out.

“That, that… crazy bitch. Jin Yuri, you! Stop right there!”

She could hear Seol-ah screaming at the top of her lungs, but Yuri didn’t look back as she opened the front door and stepped outside.

“Huh…. Disgusting.”

Only after leaning her back against the closed door did tears finally fill Yuri’s eyes. But she desperately blinked them away, refusing to cry. Then, as if nothing had happened, she brushed off both hands and walked toward her car with an indifferent expression.

Hyun-woo, who had hurriedly thrown on some clothes and chased her outside, grabbed Yuri’s shoulder just as she was about to get into her car.

“Where are you going? I told you I wanted to talk.”

Yuri roughly pulled his hand away.

“You disgust me. Take your hand off me.”

“What? Ha…. Fine, I understand how you feel. That’s why I’m asking you to talk to me.”

Hyun-woo felt that Yuri’s behavior toward him had gone too far.

Even if I made a mistake, how dare she shake my hand off like that?

A curse almost slipped from his mouth, but he clenched his molars so tightly that his jaw stood out. He desperately suppressed his temper, but he couldn’t hide his displeased expression.

The moment Hyun-woo touched her body, Yuri felt goosebumps all over. She thought she would vomit if she had to look at his shameless face any longer, so she quickly opened the driver’s door.

Hyun-woo grabbed both of Yuri’s shoulders and forcefully turned her around to face him.

“Ah. That hurts.”

“I’m sorry. We really just made a mistake because we were drunk. We’ve been like an older brother and younger sister since we were young, so Seol-ah used to rely on me whenever she had a hard time. She was having an especially difficult time yesterday, so I was comforting her, and then we had a few drinks….”

“That’s great. Keep comforting her from now on. With your body, too.”

Yuri found it disgusting that Hyun-woo was trying to convince her so shamelessly and confidently that what happened was nothing serious. Only now did she realize that the kind and gentle way he had always treated her, smiling all the while, had been a lie.

Now that she had come to her senses, regret and resentment washed over her. She wondered why she had lived so foolishly all this time.

As expected, Hyun-woo, who had been acting submissive only moments ago, immediately revealed his true nature after just one sarcastic remark from her.

“Hey! What makes you think you’re so great? You don’t have a damn thing. Honestly, where are you going to find a man like me and get married? Seol-ah will be getting married soon anyway, so let’s not make this into a big deal. It’ll be a headache if Madam Joo and my father find out.”

“Then marry Baek Seol-ah. What makes you so great, anyway? You’re in no different position from someone like me who has nothing, since you can’t marry the woman you love.”

“……”

Yuri had never once expressed her true feelings out loud. Perhaps because he was caught off guard by the fact that she had seen right through him, Hyun-woo could only blink without saying anything.

Hyun-woo had loved Seol-ah since they were young. But her father was the chairman of Royal Hotel, while his own father was her father’s secretary. Just as Yuri had said, because of their difference in status, he couldn’t even dream of dating her, let alone marrying her.

So, in the end, they were both in the same boat.

Hyun-woo stared blankly at Yuri, seeing this direct side of her for the first time. He seemed to think that pushing her any harder might cause a bigger backlash, so he decided to back down for now.

“Well, yeah…. Like you said, we’re in the same situation. So please understand this one time. It won’t happen again.”

Hyun-woo’s excuse, which barely even qualified as an excuse, made Yuri’s anger rise to the top of her head.

“No. I can’t understand. How can someone who’s about to get married do something like that…. You know how shameless you’re being, right?”

“First of all, I’m really sorry. So let’s just let this go this once.”

“No. I’m not getting married.”

Yuri shook Hyun-woo’s hand off with all her strength, quickly got into her car, and locked the door. Then she immediately started the engine.

“Jin Yuri! Have you gone crazy? Get out right now!”

Bang, bang.

Yuri ignored Hyun-woo, who was pounding on the window with wild eyes, and stepped on the accelerator. Hyun-woo was startled by the sudden movement and quickly pulled his body away from the car.

“Those crazy people. How can they be so shameless…. Sob.”

Her anger had reached its limit, and tears she had been holding back without realizing it finally spilled down her face. She felt like she was going crazy from the injustice of it all.

More than the fact that they had cheated on her, what made her furious was that they had been playing her for a fool.

As hot tears ran down both her cheeks, Yuri quickly wiped them away with her hand.

Her mind was a mess and her stomach churned, but for the first time, she had finally said out loud everything she had kept bottled up inside.

At that moment, she felt an incredible sense of relief, as if a blockage inside her had suddenly burst open.

She had always thought about the things she wanted to say only in her head. She had always swallowed those impulses and kept her mouth shut.

She never imagined that the day would come when she could speak her true feelings without the slightest hesitation in front of Seol-ah and Hyun-woo.

Why had I endured everything all this time when it was so easy to speak up?

Yuri decided that from now on, she would never hold herself back again. She would pay them back in exactly the same way they had hurt her.

But how?

Yuri, lost in confusion as she thought about it, shook her head hard.

At that moment, Seol-ah’s cruel words flashed through her mind.

‘What? Are you upset? Then why don’t you try doing the same thing? Though I doubt you’re capable of it.’

Right. Just because someone tells me to do something, does that mean I can’t?

Yuri’s desire for revenge suddenly burst into flames.

The man Seol-ah desperately wanted, to the point of going crazy over him.

Park Hoo-shin!

Could seducing that man really be the surest revenge against Seol-ah, just like she said?

A dangerous thought crossed Yuri’s mind.

10 years ago.

The first time Yuri met Hoo-shin was at Seol-ah’s birthday party after Seol-ah had entered university.

He was a man who never showed his emotions, maintaining an expressionless face the entire time.

Looking at him, Yuri had the strange feeling that she was looking at herself.

She saw her own life in him—a life where she had hidden her true feelings behind a mask and pretended to be someone she wasn’t.

His first impression was visually perfect, but there was so much coldness about him that it was difficult to find even a trace of humanity.

At one point, their eyes briefly met, and Yuri felt as though he was looking her up and down.

Feeling afraid to meet his eyes properly, Yuri secretly glanced at Hoo-shin.

But contrary to her expectations, his gaze was directed somewhere else.

That’s strange…. Did I imagine it?

Yuri had grown tired of staying beside Seol-ah, who was too busy enjoying herself to notice anything around her, so she headed to the quiet second-floor terrace to get some fresh air.

She thought nobody was there, but Baek Young-soo was there instead. He was the son of Chairman Baek Do-hoon’s ex-wife and Seol-ah’s stepbrother.

Young-soo, who usually flirted with Yuri as well, was probably drunk because he openly blocked her when she tried to leave.

Looking at Yuri with unfocused eyes, Young-soo cornered her against the wall and restrained her with both hands and his body.

Yuri was terrified when Young-soo came closer as if he intended to forcefully kiss her.

She tried to scream and struggled to escape, but because of the loud music, her resistance was useless.

Ugh. No….

Just as his disgusting breath and the reeking smell of alcohol were about to swallow Yuri’s lips—

“If you’re going to drink, go sleep it off quietly.”

“Urgh. You bastard. Who the hell are you?”

In an instant, Young-soo’s body was pulled away from Yuri, and Hoo-shin appeared before her.

With one hand shoved into his pocket and the other gripping Young-soo by the back of his neck, he stood there.

An indescribable sense of relief filled Yuri when she saw him.

Yuri was too shaken to even thank Hoo-shin. She simply ran as far away from that place as she could.

After that day, Yuri began paying attention to even the smallest glance Hoo-shin gave her. Without realizing it, she developed a habit of secretly stealing glances at him.

Before she knew it, she had begun secretly admiring him in her heart—the young master of a chaebol family.

But when they met again after graduation, he had become Seol-ah’s fiancé.

Whenever Seol-ah, who was obsessed with shopping, found something she thought would suit Hoo-shin, Yuri, as her secretary, had to immediately deliver the gift to him.

Seol-ah’s orders came regardless of time or place, and there had even been times when Yuri had gone alone to his house late at night to deliver something.

That day, Yuri stood alone with Hoo-shin for the first time since the terrace incident.

She felt his gaze focused entirely on her.

Then she had to hear a shocking remark whose intention she could not understand.

‘Ms. Jin Yuri, I guess you’d even die if Director Baek Seol-ah told you to.’

‘What? What kind of nonsense is that…?’

At the same time as Hoo-shin casually said those words, his blatant gaze quickly traveled from Yuri’s face down to her toes.

A sudden heat rose through her body.

‘I’ve always felt this way, but it seems like you’ll do anything Director Baek Seol-ah tells you to. Just look at today. You came all the way here this late at night because she sent you on an errand to a house where a man is alone. What do you think I might do to you?’

Hoo-shin stared directly at Yuri with a mocking smile.

‘I… I’m simply faithfully carrying out my duties as Director Baek’s secretary. I have never done anything that would warrant being harassed by the Vice President like this.’

‘Interesting. I think I’m the one who’s been harassed by Jin Yuri.’

Hoo-shin took a step closer and brought his face right in front of Yuri’s, making direct eye contact with her.

Feeling overwhelmed, Yuri immediately looked away.

‘…I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve delivered the item Director Baek told me to give you, so I’ll be leaving now.’

When Yuri hurriedly turned around, Hoo-shin quickly grabbed her arm.

‘You don’t seriously think I didn’t notice you secretly watching me all this time, do you?’

‘Ah….’

Yuri’s face turned bright red.

It felt as though he had discovered her deepest embarrassment.

She had been so careful.

She had never imagined that he had noticed.