Do Joon quickly withdrew his hand that was wrapped around Tae Yeon’s waist and his hand that touched her cheek.

Tae Yeon’s face flushed red at the sudden touch.

“I’ll wash up first.”

As Tae Yeon tried to leave the room, Do Joon held her back.

“Jin Tae Yeon, can you reconsider what you said earlier?”

“What do you mean?”

“About using separate rooms.”

“……”

“And about commuting separately.”

Do Joon added the reason for making such a request.

“I’m asking because I think rumors might spread that we’re not getting along.”

“Sigh. Alright.”

“Thank you.”

Do Joon was right. If they lived separately and used different rooms because of such a trivial emotion, it was bound to spark rumors that the couple wasn’t getting along.

Tae Yeon entered the bathroom first, leaving behind Do Joon who was smiling at her.

It had been an especially tiring day.

[This is the timeline separator]

As soon as Do Joon arrived at work, Secretary Choi followed him in.

“Director, I think you should see this.”

Do Joon took off his jacket and gestured to place the tablet PC on the table.

After sitting deep in his chair, Do Joon picked up the tablet PC. They were photos of Tae Yeon taken by paparazzi and sent until now.

“I’ve seen these before.”

“If you turn to the next page, you might be surprised.”

As Secretary Choi said, Do Joon checked the next photo and was silent for a while.

Do Joon finally took his eyes off the tablet PC and chuckled softly.

“Interesting.”

The photo Secretary Choi showed was a family photo of Tae Yeon.

He knew Tae Yeon had an elder sister, but this was the first time he had actually seen her face.

Even during the family dinner before the wedding, Tae Jin hadn’t shown up.

“Is this woman Jin Tae Jin?”

“Yes. She’s madam’s elder sister.”

Do Joon narrowed his eyes and zoomed in on the photo.

“They said they were twins.”

Tae Yeon and Tae Jin looked more alike than he had thought.

“Huh.”

Do Joon let out a low sigh as if in disbelief.

Do Joon looked closely at Tae Jin’s enlarged face and then tilted his head back as if dumbfounded.

“Since Jin Tae Jin didn’t attend the family dinner, you naturally wouldn’t have known her face, Director.”

Do Joon’s brow furrowed deeper at Secretary Choi’s words.

The family dinner was in place of a wedding ceremony.

Even though his elder brother Hae Joon didn’t attend either, their relationship was so bad they were almost enemies, so that could be understandable.

Why didn’t Tae Jin attend the family dinner?

It was a fact he hadn’t been curious about at all back then.

“I hear that Cha Shin Dairy is trying extremely hard to hide the fact that madam and Jin Tae Jin are twins.”

Do Joon chuckled as if in disbelief.

“Hide it?”

“I hear that madam and Yoon Tae Jin always attended different schools.”

Do Joon nodded slightly as if telling him to continue.

“Yoon Tae Jin spent most of her time abroad.”

“They sent only one daughter to study abroad when they’re both their daughters?”

Do Joon also pointed out that part, curious about it.

“I’ll investigate in more detail.”

“Please do.”

Do Joon stared intently at the photo sent by the mysterious person on the tablet PC.

Just by looking at the photo, he couldn’t tell if this woman was Tae Yeon or Tae Jin.

Although no one had deliberately deceived Do Joon, he felt like he had been completely fooled by someone.

“If I had investigated first as Secretary Choi said, I might not have had to return to Korea.”

The woman in the photo he had believed to be Tae Yeon all this time could be Tae Jin.

A sense of relief along with absurdity followed.

Secretary Choi bowed deeply and apologized.

“I should have looked into it without your knowledge, I’m sorry.”

“No. It’s not your fault either, Secretary Choi.”

As he kept looking at the photo of Tae Yeon and Tae Jin side by side, it felt like a tangled thread was unraveling.

“Secretary Choi, then the protagonist in those photos delivered to our side……”

“Yes. There’s a high possibility it’s not madam, but her elder sister.”

“Huh.”

“Even after you came to Korea and spent time with madam, ridiculous photos were taken, weren’t they?”

“That’s right.”

That explained it too. If it wasn’t Tae Yeon but Tae Jin, that is.

Only then did he seem to understand why Tae Yeon had shed tears in front of him yesterday.

“She must have felt wronged.”

At first, Do Joon had thought Tae Yeon was acting when she pretended to be weak in front of him yesterday.

However, when he saw Tae Yeon even begging him to please investigate her, Do Joon thought he might be misunderstanding something.

“Why do you say that?”

“It’s nothing. Continue.”

Secretary Choi went on to recite information about Tae Yeon’s family.

And as if he had something more to say, he hesitated for a while before carefully speaking up.

“Um, Director.”

“What else is there?”

“I was debating whether I should tell you this.”

“What is it?”

“According to what I found out……”

Do Joon’s brow furrowed deeply upon hearing Secretary Choi’s words.

He said that the relationship between Tae Yeon and her parents wasn’t very close.

He also conveyed that it was extremely rare for them to have family meals outside with both Tae Jin and Tae Yeon at the same time.

Do Joon’s expression was very complex. He looked as if he was worried about someone, then suddenly seemed angry.

“You’ve worked hard investigating, Secretary Choi. Don’t miss anything about the person sending photos to our side either.”

“Yes, Director.”

After Secretary Choi left, Do Joon kept rubbing his face with his hand.

“Haah.”

He felt sorry, thinking that his words must have been an indelible wound to Tae Yeon.

Do Joon, who had been restless, got up from his seat. And he headed towards Tae Yeon’s office.

[This is the timeline separator]

At the same time.

Do Joon entered Tae Yeon’s office where she was concentrating on work.

Everyone stood up to greet him when they noticed him, creating a commotion.

At that sound, Tae Yeon slowly raised her head, which had been fixed on the monitor. There was Do Joon, walking towards her while staring only at her from afar.

‘Surely he’s not coming for me.’

But that ominous premonition was immediately proven right. Do Joon, who stopped next to Tae Yeon, called her in a low voice.

“Assistant Manager Jin, are you busy?”

“No. Director, do you have something for me to do?”

“Let’s talk for a moment.”

Do Joon turned first and went outside.

Team Leader Park, seeing Do Joon suddenly come and call for Tae Yeon, didn’t know what to do.

“Assistant Manager Jin, quickly follow the Director.”

Although she naturally thought they would go to Do Joon’s office, the place where Do Joon’s footsteps stopped was the rooftop garden.

After confirming there was no one around, Do Joon turned around.

Looking at Tae Yeon who had followed without knowing why, Do Joon abruptly apologized.

“I made a misunderstanding. I called you because I wanted to apologize properly.”

“Pardon?”

Tae Yeon looked up at Do Joon with round eyes.

Do Joon stroked his chin with one hand and then took out his phone from his jacket pocket. And he held it out to Tae Yeon.

“If you look at the photos inside, you’ll understand why I said those things.”

Tae Yeon, still with a dazed expression, took the phone Do Joon handed her.

As she flipped through one, two pages, Tae Yeon chewed on her lower lip.

The photos Do Joon showed contained images of Tae Jin and her boyfriend Chan Woo.

Tae Yeon asked while trying to suppress her slightly trembling hand.

“Where did you get these photos?”

“I don’t know either.”

“Pardon?”

Do Joon took a step closer and spoke in a small voice.

“These are the first photos that were sent to me when I was in America.”

Do Joon showed Tae Yeon the first photo he received and continued speaking.

“And after that, photos like these were sent periodically.”

Tae Yeon also looked very flustered.

“Who on earth……”

“We’re in the process of finding out.”

Tae Yeon, who had been quietly listening to his story, slowly raised her eyes to look at Do Joon.

“Were you perhaps blackmailed because of these photos?”

Pff– Do Joon laughed.

Tae Yeon, with a very serious expression, fired the same question again.

“Tell me in detail. Are you really being blackmailed?”

Do Joon nodded. Tae Yeon covered her mouth with one hand and let out a low sigh.

“Why didn’t you report it?”

“They said they would send these photos to Chairman Cha, so I couldn’t readily report it.”

“Ah……”

It was now that she understood everything – why Do Joon had asked her if she had a hidden man.

“It’s my elder sister.”

“I know.”

“Did you come back to Korea because of these photos?”

“You could say that.”

Tae Yeon couldn’t easily speak up. She knew well how passionate Do Joon was about KK Entertainment in America.

Tae Yeon cautiously spoke up.

“If it weren’t for these photos, you wouldn’t have had to come to Korea…… Don’t you regret it?”

“Regret, huh.”

Do Joon crossed his arms and stared at Tae Yeon’s face, which was completely tinged with worry.

“Are you worried about me?”

“Huh? Ah, yes. Since you left KK Entertainment and came to KK Foods.”

“At first I did feel it was a shame, but not anymore.”

What could this mean now?

Since Do Joon was much taller than her, Tae Yeon had to lift her head quite high.

The sun was behind Do Joon’s head, making it difficult for her to open her eyes properly to look at him.

Seeing Tae Yeon keep closing her eyes, Do Joon smoothly moved to the side. And he stretched out his hand over her face to create a shadow.

“Because I can enjoy married life.”

“……”

“I’m also doing a lot of things these days that I probably wouldn’t have experienced if I had stayed in America.”

She was about to ask what kind of things he meant, but stopped herself.

Tae Yeon handed back Do Joon’s phone that she had been holding.

“What do you plan to do now?”

“Catch them. Those rats.”

Tae Yeon nodded as if agreeing with his opinion.

“If you need my help at all, please let me know.”

At those words, Do Joon was about to draw the line saying there would be no such thing, but stopped.

He suddenly remembered what Secretary Choi had said in the office earlier.

“You haven’t seen your parents in a long time, have you?”

“Pardon?”

“Since you’ve been stuck with me since I came to Korea, it seems like you haven’t even been able to call your parents properly.”

Tae Yeon unknowingly bit her lower lip hard. Even if Do Joon hadn’t been around, she rarely called President Jin anyway.

Do Joon then casually asked as if he had thought of something else strange.

“Come to think of it, shouldn’t you have spent time with your mother-in-law and father-in-law on your birthday?”

“No. My parents are so busy……”

Unlike usual, Tae Yeon’s voice was trembling faintly. Do Joon’s eyes narrowed sideways, catching that moment.