“Uh, Yoon Seo Ha? Why are you asking the intern Jo Seo Ha about that?”

“I don’t know. The team leader just asked me what you talked about, so I answered.”

Seo Ha’s gaze briefly flicked down to Ji Soo’s feet before returning to her face.

“I’ll be going now.”

Ji Soo trembled alone in the empty conference room. She seemed to understand why Ryu Kyung Jun had asked that intern if she knew Yoon Seo Ha.

“I, I said she was un, unlikable from the start.”

They resembled each other.

Not in appearance, of course. They didn’t look alike at all. But the atmosphere they occasionally exuded somehow reminded her of Yoon Seo Ha.

“It’s unpleasant…”

It was truly a chilling and unpleasant thing.

Ji Soo abruptly stood up, went to her desk, and packed her bag. There was no way she could finish the rest of the day’s work in this state of mind.

“I’m leaving first.”

“What? Where are you going all of a sudden?”

“Something urgent came up.”

The place Ji Soo headed straight for was the hospital. Usually, she would visit Hae Sun’s room and pretend to be Yoon Seo Ha, putting on all sorts of airs, but today Ji Soo’s steps led her to Yoon Seo Ha’s room.

-Knock knock.

She knocked on the door in case there was a caregiver inside. There was no sound from within.

Ji Soo quietly opened the door and stepped inside.

Yoon Seo Ha was lying on the bed in the middle of the room. The sight of her stubbornly clinging to life like a zombie, with oxygen masks and IV drips all over her body, made Ji Soo nauseous.

“Yoon Seo Ha.”

Half relieved and half enraged that Yoon Seo Ha was lying here like a corpse, Ji Soo spoke in a small voice.

“Just die already. Even if you wake up, you can’t do anything. Your mother has lost her mind, and your brother is going to sell the company. If you just die, several people would be at ease, so why are you so desperately clinging to life?”

Of course, Yoon Seo Ha didn’t respond, and only the irritating sound of the machines prolonging her miserable life could be heard. Ji Soo glared at the steadily moving heart monitor screen before taking a step closer to Yoon Seo Ha.

Yoon Seo Ha remained lying there, as if asleep or dead, with the translucent oxygen mask on.

Ji Soo’s hand touched the heart monitor. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she suddenly removed it.

At first, it was quiet. But then.

-Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-

The heart monitor, which had been peacefully flowing, began to fluctuate loudly and rapidly. Startled, Ji Soo quickly reattached the oxygen mask and fled from the room.

“That was close.”

Ji Soo let out a sigh of relief as she watched doctors rushing to Yoon Seo Ha’s room.

At that very moment, in the office.

“…Miss? Are you alright?”

Seo Ha’s eyes snapped open at the voice calling her.

What happened? She had clearly been working just a moment ago.

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling dizzy?”

Joo Hye Ji asked worriedly. Slowly raising her head, Seo Ha rubbed her oddly numb forehead while looking around. She was still in the office, sitting at the workstation next to Hwang Joo Hee.

“What, what was I doing?”

“You suddenly collapsed forward. It’s a good thing you were sitting at the desk. Do you have anemia?”

“Ah. I see.”

Seo Ha made up an excuse about having anemia and stood up from her seat.

“I’ll go get some water.”

Cold sweat broke out on her back, and her heart was pounding. Seo Ha rubbed her chest area as she tried to recall the scene that had just flashed by like a hallucination.

“It was definitely… a hospital room.”

Her chest felt tight, and she was having trouble breathing. She tried to open her mouth to shout, but no sound came out. It was exactly like when she had briefly woken up in the hospital room in Yoon Seo Ha’s body.

Then for a moment, just a very brief moment, she opened her eyes.

Lee Ji Soo was reaching out with a terrified expression. The very next instant, Seo Ha came to her senses in the office.

What was that? A hallucination?

Seo Ha took a sip of cold water, still feeling dazed.

Wait.

Didn’t Lee Ji Soo leave earlier with her bag?

Looking at the clock, it had been almost an hour since Ji Soo left. That was just about the time it would take to get from here to the hospital.

[This is the timeline separator]

Lee Seung Oh left work early after receiving a call from Lee Ji Soo. Kyung Jun, who still had work to do, stayed behind at the company, and thanks to that, he enjoyed a rare peaceful evening.

“They sure do take their incentives well with this level of sales.”

He could grumble to himself while looking at the documents.

Though he might not have realized it himself, Kyung Jun was sincere about protecting this company. The pretext of ‘satisfying Chairman Ryu to sell to Taeyang Group’ had long since evaporated.

-Ring ring. Ring ring.

An unwelcome phone call rang out. Kyung Jun cleared his throat and pressed the answer button.

“Yes, Chairman.”

[Cut the acquisition price in half for the next negotiation.]

Chairman Ryu issued an abrupt order without any context.

“You mean half of the price you initially proposed?”

[That’s too much for the current performance. It’s an opportunity to buy cheap.]

“They won’t sell at that price.”

[Do I have to spell out every little thing for you!]

Chairman Ryu, who had exploded in anger, spat out irritably.

[When the second half sales drop and the financial statements are a mess, they’ll sell. Make it so they can’t hold out without selling! Isn’t that your job!]

That was the end of the conversation between father and son. Kyung Jun silently stared at the phone that had been coldly hung up, then placed it face down beside him and resumed shuffling through the documents.

Unlike before, the words didn’t register well in his eyes.

-‘I’m loved.’

The memory of Yoon Seo Ha mumbling with a half-slurred pronunciation came to mind.

-‘I’m my mom and dad’s pride and treasure. I don’t need a husband or anything. I’ll live happily with mom again, grow our company, and show my brand to the whole world.’

Yoon Seo Ha always sparkled like that. It was so enviable and irritating. Ever since Kyung Jun was a very young child.

Kyung Jun’s mother was a washed-up actress.

The money she had earned during her heyday had long since run out, and all that remained was her pride and fading beauty when she met Chairman Ryu. She seemed to hope to live an idle life as the mistress of a chaebol chairman, but was a businessman so easy to deal with?

Chairman Ryu had all but chased her abroad when she became pregnant, and even cut off her living expenses, so it took several years before she could barely manage to return to Korea.

Kyung Jun had never experienced parental love. He was skinny from not eating properly and much shorter than his peers.

“It’s because of you. My life is in this state because of you! If only you hadn’t been born!”

His drunk mother always yelled at Kyung Jun.

“Stop, stop. You’ll ruin your voice if you keep yelling. Here, take this and go buy some tteokbokki.”

The men who flirted with his mother would pull out a 10,000 won bill from their pockets and toss it to him.

Kyung Jun couldn’t even eat that tteokbokki.

“Hey, what did you do with the money you got earlier? Hand it over.”

The crumpled 10,000 won bill was for his mother.

Meanwhile, he attended a good school. Kyung Jun thought that might be a different form of love.

But his mother said with exasperation,

“Your father will come looking for you someday, won’t he? You need to look useful then so I can get my money’s worth for giving birth to you.”

At that school, Kyung Jun saw Yoon Seo Ha.

Unlike Kyung Jun, who was always timid and alone, Seo Ha was always surrounded by friends wherever she went. Even the teachers who subtly avoided Kyung Jun would smile brightly whenever they saw Seo Ha.

He envied that so much. Beyond envy, he felt spiteful and deliberately splattered paint on Seo Ha’s pretty clothes.

“What are you doing!”

Seo Ha, who had been quietly minding her own business before getting hit by the paint attack, shouted loudly. As all eyes focused on them, Kyung Jun also froze in shock.

“What are you going to do about this? My mom bought me this as a birthday present!”

It was the first time anyone had seen Seo Ha so angry. It was surprising and scary, but strangely, there was an odd sense of satisfaction.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were there. I was just going to rinse the brush…”

“Don’t lie! You made eye contact with me! Pay for it. I said pay for it!”

Seo Ha’s dress was visibly expensive and high-quality. Kyung Jun, as always, was wearing shabby pants and a t-shirt that his mother had gotten from somewhere, fidgeting nervously in front of Seo Ha.

Then, a miracle happened.

“Seo Ha. That’s not right. Kyung Jun said he was sorry.”

The homeroom teacher, who always doted on Seo Ha, took Kyung Jun’s side.

“That’s right. Don’t be like that. Kyung Jun is a pitiful child.”

“Be nice to Kyung Jun, Seo Ha.”

“You can always buy another dress.”

Friends chimed in from here and there. Even Yoon Seo Ha gave a apologetic look to Kyung Jun, who was standing there bewildered.

“I’m sorry, Kyung Jun. I must have seen wrong. Don’t worry about the paint, it can be washed off.”

“Oh, oh, okay…”

Having ruined her pretty clothes and even receiving an apology, Kyung Jun felt extremely uncomfortable.

Kyung Jun lingered around Seo Ha for days. It was difficult to catch her alone since she was always surrounded by friends.

Perhaps she noticed his gaze. One day, Seo Ha approached Kyung Jun.

“You have something to say to me, don’t you?”

She smelled very nice.

“Uh… y-yes.”

Kyung Jun stuttered, his face turning red. His small heart was pounding, and he had trouble speaking.

“Um… About that time, the paint. Your dress… I actually did it on purpose. I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I already knew. But…”

Seo Ha took a step closer with a bright smile and whispered.

“Try doing something like that one more time. I’ll dunk your head in a paint bucket.”

“…?”

Kyung Jun stared blankly at Seo Ha, wondering if he had heard correctly.

“Did you just say that?”

“Yes. You heard me clearly, right?”

Seo Ha smiled brightly again, then turned and shouted as she ran away.

“Bye, Kyung Jun! See you tomorrow!”

Watching Seo Ha’s retreating figure flutter away like a butterfly, Kyung Jun muttered.

“… She really was an unlikable kid. Yoon Seo Ha.”

The next semester, his mother couldn’t pay the tuition, and Kyung Jun had to transfer to a different school.

The intense memory faded with time. By the time Kyung Jun had gone through elementary school, middle school, and become a high school student, his mother had passed away.

Chairman Ryu, whom his mother had waited for her entire life, only sent someone to bring Kyung Jun after the funeral was over. It was as if he had been waiting for his mother to die.

Kyung Jun worked tirelessly to prove his worth to Chairman Ryu. He studied until he got nosebleeds trying to catch up on his studies, which lagged far behind his brothers’, and entered the company as a low-level employee to learn the practical work.

“If I can successfully acquire this…”

Kyung Jun looked around the office anew as he closed the documents. It was a company he had worked so hard for under the pretext of acquisition.

Kyung Jun got up with a bitter expression and left the office. Due to the late hour, the lights were off on each floor as the elevator descended.

Except for one floor.

“Who left the lights on? Don’t they know how to save company electricity?”

Kyung Jun grumbled as he pressed the button for the floor below and got off the elevator.

When he climbed the stairs, he found that it wasn’t just the hallway that was lit. The office a bit further in was also as bright as day, and rustling sounds could be heard.

It was the design room.

Kyung Jun’s feet moved on their own, as if drawn by something, towards the design room.