TVS 05

Chapter 5

“Pardon? Who are you?”

At a glance, he was a remarkably handsome man.

Yet to Tae-kyung’s eyes, he looked endlessly dangerous.

Of course, Tae-kyung had no intention of doing anything to him.

He had simply acted on instinct, thinking the man might hurt Seo-ah.

Seriously, why do I keep sticking my nose into things when I barely even know her?

As Tae-kyung loosened his grip on Gi-young’s arm, Gi-young, who had been staring at him strangely, immediately rushed toward Seo-ah.

“Ms. Seo-ah!”

“That guy again! Let’s just go, Seo-ah.”

Dong-joo tried to ignore Gi-young as he recklessly charged toward them, but he was one step faster.

“Noona, please, just a moment. I have something to ask Ms. Seo-ah. Please, just for a moment.”

Before long, Gi-young had grabbed Seo-ah by both arms and desperately pleaded with her.

“Ms. Seo-ah, what was Dong-ha like in his final moments?”

“…….”

“Didn’t he say anything about me? Did he?”

“…….”

“Please, say something!”

Seo-ah merely stared blankly at Gi-young as he bombarded her with questions.

“Please, tell me what Dong-ha was like in his final moments.”

“…….”

“Jin Seo-ah! Please!”

With her arms hanging limply at her sides, Seo-ah could only let out a quiet, hollow laugh.

“Kim Gi-young, have you lost your mind? Are you insane?”

Despite Dong-joo’s scolding, he acted as though he could not hear her and continued doing whatever he wanted.

He clung to the poor woman, begging and crying out like someone who had lost his beloved.

So much so that it was difficult to tell who was the wife and who was the mistress.

“Our Dong-ha… my Dong-ha… what did he say…?”

Smack!

Seo-ah, who had merely been pushed around helplessly wherever Gi-young moved her, suddenly swung her hand and struck him hard across the cheek.

“Are you happy?”

Holding his slapped cheek with both hands, Gi-young turned to her with an expression of disbelief.

“Are you happy watching me get fooled by your little act, Mr. Kim Gi-young?”

“…….”

“Was that why you acted like the tragic protagonist at my wedding?”

Her voice was clearer than ever, as though everything had finally fallen into place in her mind.

“Seo-ah, let’s just go. Okay?”

Fearing that things would escalate, Dong-joo tried to separate the two of them.

“Why did you do it? You all knew it was a fake marriage except me. It was going to be Dong-ha’s marriage anyway, so why?”

Despite Dong-joo repeatedly trying to stop her, Seo-ah had no intention of backing down.

“Why? Were you afraid? Afraid that spineless Lee Dong-ha might actually sleep with me? Is that why you kept calling him out every night?”

The color drained from Gi-young’s face.

Perhaps he had intended it from the beginning, but hearing Seo-ah say it directly to him must have brought back the petty feelings he had harbored at the time.

Meanwhile, despite the sharp confrontation between the two, Dong-joo was frantically trying to pull Seo-ah away, as though desperately seeking a way out of the situation.

“Seo-ah, please, just stop…”

“Let go!”

At Seo-ah’s furious shout, the surroundings fell silent.

“You’re just the same, too, Unni.”

Contrary to the force in her voice, Seo-ah’s face was already a complete mess.

What could she possibly call this feeling—something beyond anger, something so indescribable that words could not express it?

To Seo-ah, the two of them were already accomplices.

“Were Kim Gi-young and Lee Dong-ha the only ones who deceived me? Are you saying those two gay bastards were the only ones who lied to me?!”

She was furious and wronged.

Dong-joo was the one person she had believed was truly family. She had thought of her not as a sister-in-law, but as an older sister.

Now she felt as though she had lost even her.

Who am I supposed to complain to about this?

“S-Seo-ah, I’m sorry. I’ll tell you everything later. So please, just not today…”

Seo-ah knew it, too.

Her sister-in-law needed time to grieve over her younger brother’s death.

But where was Seo-ah supposed to receive compensation for her own life?

She had lost her father only two months after getting married, and now she had lost the husband she had lived with for barely six months.

And as if that were not enough, she had discovered that her husband had been involved with another man rather than another woman.

She was barely managing to suppress the rage boiling inside her, but right now, she had no room to consider anyone else’s feelings.

“Let go of me. Before I hit you.”

Faced with this unfamiliar, cold version of Seo-ah, Dong-joo could no longer bring herself to say anything.

Six months ago, she had failed to stop her parents from pushing her younger brother into marriage.

The regret of that failure was finally written all over her face.

As though giving up, Dong-joo slowly released Seo-ah’s arm.

Gi-young was no different. He simply stood there, unable to say a word.

Seeing him like that, the corner of Seo-ah’s mouth twisted upward.

“Are you happy? Until the very end, I wanted to see Dong-ha’s face one more time. How is it? Are you satisfied? Does it make you feel even more sentimental?”

“…….”

“You asked what Dong-ha was like in his final moments, didn’t you? This is my answer. So…”

Gi-young squeezed his eyes shut.

“Please… for my miserable share of this, too… if possible, please live an unhappy life.”

Gi-young buried his face in his hands and burst into tears.

Seo-ah did not want to know what those tears meant.

She did not even want to see them.

She simply wanted to erase this disgusting man from her memory as quickly as possible.

Seo-ah shoved Gi-young’s shoulder as she walked past him.

“Get out of my life, Mr. Kim Gi-young.”

Perhaps he wanted to apologize.

But Seo-ah continued walking straight ahead, leaving behind Gi-young, who mumbled through his tearful voice.

Yet her unsteady body remained tense.

She did not know whether it was the aftermath of nearly falling down the stairs or the rage toward her husband’s male lover, but at the very least, she did not want to collapse in front of them.

Seo-ah tightly pressed down on her trembling thigh with one hand and stubbornly walked out of the funeral hall.

Tae-kyung, who had watched the entire situation unfold, kept his eyes fixed on Seo-ah’s back until the very end.

Then, narrowing his eyes slightly, he smiled silently.

His instinct to stop Gi-young had been exactly right.

Watching them from a distance, he had been ready to step in this time regardless of whether it was meddling or not.

Whether he had fallen for her or not was honestly irrelevant.

His instincts had simply told him to do it.

However, she was an unexpectedly strong-willed woman.

He had thought she was merely a wounded, fragile person, but she was not foolish enough to simply let her wounds remain exposed.

Seeing this side of Jin Seo-ah sparked a certain interest in him.

He quietly murmured,

“Unexpected.”

“What’s unexpected?”

Hee-jun, who had been watching him intently for some time, added his own comment.

“Leave her alone. Her life is already incredibly turbulent, so don’t make things worse for her.”

“How turbulent is it?”

“You saw it yourself and you still don’t know?”

“Don’t tell me you even know that woman? Just what the hell are you, huh?”

“Ah, what do you mean, what am I?! Leave her alone and wait right here. I’m going to bring the car around.”

Hee-jun firmly warned Tae-kyung before turning away.

However, even as he headed toward the parking lot, he kept looking back.

Amused by Hee-jun, Tae-kyung waved his hand for him to hurry up and leave, then chuckled.

Even so, he could not take his eyes off the place where Seo-ah had disappeared.

“If you ignore the appointment as Division Head this time, too, I’m going to quit.”

After leaving the funeral hall, Tae-kyung’s car was driving through the quiet city streets.

As they went, Hee-jun, who was driving, began pouring out his complaints as though he had made up his mind.

“I’m serious. Are you listening? I said I’m quitting!”

Tae-kyung sat with his arms crossed, quietly listening to Hee-jun’s whining before finally speaking in an irritated voice.

“You’re the one who brings up quitting how many times a day?”

“Wow… How can you be like this? Don’t you ever think, ‘Hee-jun must be having a really hard time to act like this’? I followed you all the way to India, Team Leader. India! I endured two whole years there, and you’re annoyed by me?”

Just as Hee-jun said, after enduring two years in India, his skin had become deeply tanned.

Especially compared to Tae-kyung, whose skin was still remarkably smooth and glowing despite having been in India for the same amount of time.

Tae-kyung knew that, of course.

It was probably the result of Hee-jun constantly running around trying to accommodate his notoriously difficult preferences.

And that was not all.

Whenever Tae-kyung was in a bad mood, he would nitpick everything—Hee-jun’s duties, his personal assistance, and even all kinds of research and information gathering.

There had been countless things he had ordered him to do.

“If you want to come back to Korea that badly, then you become the Division Head.”

“Ugh!”

Hee-jun took one hand off the steering wheel and grabbed at his own hair.

Compared to the storm of nagging he had unleashed, Tae-kyung’s ability to infuriate someone with just a few words was a talent in its own right.

Having won the argument, the corners of Tae-kyung’s mouth lifted in satisfaction.

Just then, the car stopped at a traffic light.

Leaning back against the seat, Tae-kyung turned his gaze toward the window.

And there she was.

Jin Seo-ah, standing on a street where fine snowflakes were falling faintly.

Even among the many people walking down the street, Seo-ah alone caught Tae-kyung’s eyes with startling clarity.

Could she be crying?

Her gaze was lowered blankly, making it seem that way.

Should I get out?

No.

What was he even planning to do if he got out?

He had no idea why his meddlesome instincts kept kicking in like this, but right now, everything about her bothered him.

In particular, he could not stop noticing that she was wearing only a thin ivory-colored cardigan without even a proper coat over it.

It was only after the traffic light changed and the car began moving again that Tae-kyung finally regretted his decision.

I should have gotten out.

You idiot.