Seo Yeo Eun, being a woman, did not want to get into his car.

However, as the trainer managing Cha Do Ha’s image, she had no choice but to ride.

She silently got into the car, and as soon as she fastened her seatbelt, he drove off.

The air inside the car felt tense.

In the car where even the faintest breath sounded loud, Yeo Eun cautiously opened her mouth.

“Please stop right after passing that intersection.”

Her voice was dry at the end.

After sending him off like that last night, she had been on an emotional roller coaster alone.

She had just regained her composure, but she felt a bit resentful towards Cha Do Ha for suddenly appearing and shaking her up like this.

Since this emotion was also something she shouldn’t have, Yeo Eun suppressed her feelings.

To such a Yeo Eun, Cha Do Ha spoke in a cold voice.

“I told you to wait a bit. You have that much patience, don’t you, Director Cha?”

How did he know about her lunch appointment with Cha In Woo?

Yeo Eun turned to look at Cha Do Ha with wide eyes.

At that moment, Cha Do Ha passed the place where she was supposed to get off.

“Director!”

A sharp voice flowed out involuntarily.

“It’s an appointment with Director Cha In Woo.”

“So?”

As if he couldn’t see Yeo Eun’s urgency, Cha Do Ha’s expression remained calm.

“If the subordinate breaks an appointment with the superior… the aftermath is severe. Please let me off. Please.”

She pleaded while looking back at the appointment place they had already passed, but it was useless.

Instead, Cha Do Ha curled his lips as if amused and only increased his speed.

“Is Seo Yeo Eun’s superior Chairman Cha Ji Seop, Cha Hyun, Cha In Woo, or is it me?”

Yeo Eun hesitated for a moment at Cha Do Ha’s question.

Who really was her superior?

Why did she have to dance to their tune like this?

After organizing her thoughts, Yeo Eun answered quietly.

“It’s the Hanju Group.”

Cha Do Ha let out a chuckle.

“So you’ll serve everyone with the surname Cha?”

“Because everyone with the surname Cha, including you, Director, has been tossing me around.”

It was true.

Some held her weaknesses, some her self-esteem, and some her heart, manipulating her as they pleased.

She, having no power, had to dance to their tune without being able to resist even once.

This was the reality of being a subordinate.

“Among them, you’re the worst, Director. You’re not even letting me keep such a small appointment. Isn’t this the tyranny of those in power?”

“Well, is that so.”

She deliberately spoke sharply with a petty heart, but Cha Do Ha’s response was calm.

No, he even laughed softly as if he found it amusing.

“Then, if we compress all those who toss you around into just me, will you look only at me?”

“Pardon?”

Yeo Eun furrowed her brow.

She didn’t quite understand what Cha Do Ha meant.

There was no time to think further. He quickly changed the subject after throwing out those words.

“Aren’t you going to ask why I came all the way here?”

Just as the car stopped at a signal, Cha Do Ha turned to look at her.

Staring straight at him, Yeo Eun carefully opened her mouth.

“You were… coming to work, weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t.”

It was just the words “I wasn’t,” but ridiculously, her heart started racing.

“I have a lunch appointment with a certain member of the National Assembly at 1 o’clock.”

As the center of her chest tightened, her heartbeat became more pronounced.

“Then why…”

“To see Seo Yeo Eun.”

Yeo Eun lowered her head as her lips trembled unknowingly.

“We didn’t see each other after what happened yesterday.”

Her heart became even more tumultuous at Cha Do Ha’s words, grouping her and him as “we.”

But this was as far as it went.

Knowing the bitterness that inevitably followed the sweetness Cha Do Ha threw, Yeo Eun deliberately shook those words out of her head.

“You don’t need to comfort me.”

It seemed that Cha Do Ha, after comforting Kim Hae Ri and coming back, was now trying to comfort her.

While she might be worth comforting, this man so blatantly revealed that she was second in line.

Yeo Eun, having completely erased the flutter in her heart, raised her head.

“The engagement with ST is a project I’m handling.”

That article, it’s normal for it to come out, and it has to.

To turn this man’s heart by November 16th, she needed at least one such device to push him.

And she had to help with that. Because that was her job.

“I think it would be good to start officially creating a story for the engagement announcement now.”

“This is why I get so frustrated.”

Cha Do Ha interrupted her words and pulled the car over to the side of the road.

At his driving, as rough as his tone, Yeo Eun gripped her seatbelt tightly with both hands.

Scanning such a Yeo Eun with sharp eyes, Cha Do Ha continued speaking.

“Seo Yeo Eun has no wavering, too little wavering.”

Leaning his upper body towards her, he slipped his finger under her chin, which had become rigid.

Cha Do Ha’s touch, gently grasping her chin, was hot.

“You should be thrashing about, clinging to me and asking how I could do this to you.”

“Like Kim Hae Ri?”

“Why? Can’t Seo Yeo Eun do that?”

“What right do I have?”

Yeo Eun tensed her body even more at Cha Do Ha’s touch, subtly caressing under her chin.

She didn’t want to tremble.

She didn’t want to reveal the turmoil in her heart.

“You two… are lovers, aren’t you?”

Even if she felt self-loathing at the words she uttered, she didn’t want to play into Cha Do Ha’s intentions of trying to dig into her heart.

“Then what about Seo Yeo Eun? What am I to Seo Yeo Eun?”

Never had those black eyes, languidly approaching and enveloping her lips with their gaze, seemed so hateful.

“You said it yourself, Director. That you… think of it lightly. Isn’t it a kind of… amusement?”

This is the hardest part when being with Cha Do Ha.

Maintaining balance between reality and desire.

Her heart wants to resent him freely like Kim Hae Ri, but reality doesn’t allow it.

She wants to pour out her emotions to him, clinging and crying, asking why he held her so passionately if this is how it would be, but she can’t bring herself to do it.

Because that’s not her role.

“I was taught that when playing a game, one shouldn’t invest emotions.”

To avoid being miserable later, she just needs to hide her heart tightly and be faithful to her own role.

“So I don’t cling. Naturally, you don’t need to comfort me either.”

As Cha Do Ha drew closer as if to kiss her, heat gathered in her eyes as well.

Her breathing became languid at the hot touch that left her chin and tickled below her ear.

Yeo Eun stuck out her tongue to soothe her parched lips and closed her eyes tightly for a moment.

She wanted to maintain her dignity, if only for just one day.

“Then I’ll be going.”

When she lifted her eyelids again, she had hidden the heat.

“I hope your meal goes well too, Director.”

She hurriedly unfastened her seatbelt and opened the door.

“Seo Yeo Eun.”

But she couldn’t easily get out of the car.

Because Cha Do Ha grasped her hand as she was getting out.

“You’ll end up only looking at me.”

She couldn’t bring herself to look back.

Cha Do Ha’s voice, firmly holding her hand, was thick, deep, and gloomy.

Moving his thumb leisurely, he wrote on her palm and then grasped her hand as if crumpling it.

“Among the list of superiors you rattled off, you’ll end up only seeing my name.”

Feeling a tingling sensation running along the inside of her wrist, Yeo Eun quickly pulled her hand away and fled from the car.

* * *

She was a full 20 minutes late for the appointment.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Director.”

One block from the headquarters.

Cha In Woo was waiting in a quiet Korean restaurant.

The food was already served, and Cha In Woo quietly greeted her in front of the cooling dishes.

“If I had known it would be like this, I should have ordered after Yeo Eun arrived. I ordered in advance because I was in a hurry, but now it’s all cold.”

Cha In Woo, speaking with his brow slightly furrowed, expressed his dissatisfaction politely, in line with the image he had built.

He was a man who knew manners.

It was her who was impolite in being late.

“I’m sorry. Something came up on the way…”

“It was Do Ha, right?”

As Yeo Eun trailed off, unable to find words to excuse herself, Cha In Woo mentioned Cha Do Ha’s name.

“The thing you just mentioned. That was Do Ha, wasn’t it?”

While wondering how Cha In Woo knew this fact, Yeo Eun’s chest ached at the unexpected mention of Cha Do Ha’s name.

It felt uncomfortable around her throat, as if she had swallowed a fish bone.

“He called. He said it was his fault you were late, and since you’re being treated to a meal anyway, to feed you well and send you back nicely.”

Yeo Eun’s lips parted slightly at Cha In Woo’s words.

It was unexpected that Cha Do Ha would make such a request.

The discomfort in her throat intensified at this unexpected turn.

Cha In Woo observed Yeo Eun as she moved her lips in discomfort.

“It’s confusing. What Do Ha’s feelings are towards Yeo Eun.”

“There’s nothing like that.”

She found it unpleasant to be viewed in this way, connected with Cha Do Ha.

Cha In Woo should know what role she plays in this project.

For him to be curious about what feelings Cha Do Ha might have for her, isn’t it ultimately an attempt to find fault with Cha Do Ha?

“I’m just… Director Cha Do Ha’s trainer.”

“I hope that’s the case.”

The corners of Cha In Woo’s eyes, as he smiled his characteristic smile, seemed especially gloomy today.

Even his enunciated speech seemed somewhat chilly.

“It would be troublesome if a good woman like Yeo Eun were to become the subject of rumors.”

Yeo Eun’s shoulders stiffened at the words “good woman.”

“I’m not a good woman. I have no intention of becoming one either.”

She could quickly notice that it wasn’t a compliment.

He intends to subtly put down Cha Do Ha while praising her.

It was also somewhat unpleasant that she appeared to be someone who would forget her duty by being swayed by such words.

“And as long as I’m Director Cha Do Ha’s trainer, there won’t be any other rumors. Things will be sorted out well with Kim Hae Ri too.”

“Is that so?”

Cha In Woo smiled faintly as he looked at Yeo Eun drawing a clear line.

“That’s a relief.”

Cha In Woo’s smile, as he spoke in a slow tempo, was quite artificial.

A smile that seemed awkward, as if wearing a mask, and somehow misaligned.

It’s the smile of a person who has much to hide.

“As you know well, Yeo Eun, the Hanju Group is very conservative and not generous when it comes to rumors.”

While it’s unclear what he’s hiding so much, he certainly didn’t hide his sense of competition towards Cha Do Ha.

“No matter how capable one is.”

A strong sense of caution was evident in his quietly uttered voice.

She was in the middle of looking for words to refute while looking at such a Cha In Woo.

“Oh, who do we have here?”

Along with the scent of strong perfume, a shadow fell over their table.

“If it isn’t our Director Cha In Woo?”

The woman with heavy makeup, as strong as her perfume scent, was a face Yeo Eun knew as well.