Kyung Jun held onto Lee Seung Oh, who was obviously eager to go home, and continued the meeting until late at night. They needed to replace the advertising model and determine the promotional direction for the new product launch.

Did that mean he didn’t want to go home? He wished he could tell Lee Seung Oh to go on his own, visit Hae Sun in Seo Ha’s shabby rooftop room to check if she was doing well, and drink a can of beer while he was at it.

Just as the meeting ended and everyone was exhausted, a message arrived.

It was a simple request. He was going to get up anyway, so he could just tell him to stop by the design department on his way down.

“Lee Ji Soo is probably working overtime. Why don’t you take her home since it’s late?”

He had suggested it to Lee Seung Oh. But Lee Seung Oh glanced at his wristwatch and waved his hand with an annoyed expression.

So he was about to just leave. He was tired, and Lee Seung Oh said he wouldn’t go. If he hadn’t felt something tugging at the back of his mind, he would have just gone straight down to the parking lot.

He shouldn’t have gone.

Kyung Jun thought this as he quickly crossed the parking lot. Behind him, Seo Ha followed with quick steps and grabbed his collar.

“Slow down a bit.”

“Get in.”

Kyung Jun coldly opened the passenger door and got into the driver’s seat himself. Seo Ha looked puzzled as she examined Kyung Jun’s expression.

It was clearly different from usual. He didn’t look directly at Seo Ha, and there were a couple of faint wrinkles between his brows. The car made squeaking noises every time it turned a corner due to his somewhat rough acceleration.

“Excuse me. Secretary Ryu.”

There was no answer even when she called out. Seo Ha was rubbing her still-stinging cheek when she spoke again as the car momentarily stopped.

“What’s wrong? Are you angry?”

Kyung Jun irritably honked at the car in front that didn’t move even after the light changed.

Damn it, he thought. Kyung Jun firmly fixed his gaze, trying not to look at Seo Ha’s left cheek that was red and swollen.

Of course he wasn’t angry. It was none of his business whether Jo Seo Ha got slapped or had her hair pulled by Lee Ji Soo. He was just annoyed.

“Is that why you called Lee Seung Oh? To watch you get slapped?”

“Yes. To watch me get slapped. To see with his own eyes what kind of woman he’s so happily living with.”

“There were plenty of other ways.”

“People react most strongly to the most provocative scenes.”

She was like Yoon Seo Ha again. Yoon Seo Ha crying in the winter rain on the street, not suiting her at all. Yoon Seo Ha staring blankly at her husband kissing another woman.

Yoon Seo Ha barely clinging to life with an oxygen mask over her withered flower-like face. Yoon Seo Ha. Yoon Seo Ha.

“You got slapped for such a stupid reason? By someone like Lee Ji Soo?”

“Why can’t I? Without Lee Seung Oh, Ji Soo is nothing. I can take that team leader position she got through connections without any real skills.”

Her words were spiteful too.

He knew the slap and the pitiful act were all an act. Still, seeing her slapped face was unpleasant and her teary eyes seemed pitiful. Yes, pitiful.

He could see that Jo Seo Ha’s trap had been successful. He himself had come to hate Lee Ji Soo even more the moment he saw her slap Seo Ha’s cheek.

“… Still, this isn’t right.”

The wheels stopped in an alley that didn’t match the luxury sedan. Kyung Jun got out of the car and was about to go up the stairs when he spotted a shabby supermarket and went in.

He put a few cans of beer that must have been stocked who knows when, some ice, and two bags of potato chips on the counter and handed over his card, but the old lady owner asked if he had cash.

“Here.”

Seo Ha reflexively took the plastic bag Kyung Jun suddenly held out and asked.

“What’s all this?”

“Cool your face with the ice. Drink the beer if you’re upset. The chips are snacks.”

The flickering streetlight, too old to work properly, cast light on their heads. Seo Ha held the heavy plastic bag in her hand, while Kyung Jun stood with one hand in his pocket as they stared at each other observantly.

“… You know what?”

Seo Ha’s voice broke the few seconds of silence.

“Secretary Ryu, you’re really a strange person.”

It seemed rude, but just barely not crossing the line. She thought he might be a thief, but he protected the company. He got angry but bought her ice. Even included canned beer.

“No matter how strange I am, I’m not as strange as Jo Seo Ha.”

Kyung Jun blurted out without smiling and turned around.

“Oh, and tell Director Kang I’m sorry I couldn’t come today. Tell her I’ll definitely visit tomorrow.”

“Why can’t you go today?”

“It’s too late.”

Kyung Jun’s car slowly left the dark alley. Seo Ha stood still for a moment, then opened the plastic bag again and licked her lips.

“This should taste good.”

She was just thinking about having a can of beer. How did he know that so perfectly?

Seo Ha climbed the stairs with the plastic bag in hand.

“Yip! Yip!”

“Be quiet, Kim Min Ji.”

Speaking to Min Ji who was barking enthusiastically, she opened the front door and Jae Wook came out dragging his slippers.

“Why are you so late? The caregiver for the lady…”

He trailed off mid-sentence and exclaimed in shock.

“Jo Seo Ha, what happened to your face!”

“It just happened.”

“What do you mean it just happened? Damn it, even Min Ji can tell you’ve been hit! I knew it when I said that damned Kang Yoon was no good. Why is that company so desperate to kill you?”

The last part of Jae Wook’s angry outburst caught Seo Ha’s ear.

“Kang Yoon… wants to kill me?”

Seeming to realize his mistake, Jae Wook quickly changed the subject.

“What I mean is, why are they hitting you! Which bastard was it? Not that bastard who always comes?”

“Don’t try to change the subject when you know it’s not him. What did you mean by what you just said?”

Kim Jae Wook had been watching Jo Seo Ha closely for a long time. If Jae Wook’s knowledge of Seo Ha’s past was truly connected to Kang Yoon and Yoon Seo Ha, maybe they could figure out the reason for the body swap.

“It was just a figure of speech. I’m shocked that a girl who left for work came back beaten!”

“Then, let’s do this.”

Seo Ha calmly tried to negotiate.

“I’ll explain why my face is like this. You tell me why Kang Yoon is so desperate to kill me. Even if I’ve forgotten, it’s my memory, and I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t hear it.”

Jae Wook’s expression hardened coldly. His gaze, wavering as if flustered, landed on Seo Ha’s red, swollen cheek before falling diagonally to nowhere.

“It is your memory, even if you’ve lost it.”

Jae Wook muttered, then cursed and scratched the back of his head again.

“You, the factory you used to work at before. You were fired because of Kang Yoon.”

Seo Ha blinked at Jae Wook. Thinking carefully, she remembered. Wasn’t she fired from her job as an accountant at a factory?

“Because of Kang Yoon? Why?”

“I don’t know the details. Kang Yoon’s side specifically named you and cut off business, and that caused the factory to falter. So you were fired, and then you couldn’t get rehired… No, I don’t know anything else!”

Jae Wook talked to himself, then got angry with himself and roughly locked the front door.

“Just go up quickly. The caregiver left 30 minutes ago, so the lady is alone!”

“Ah, yes.”

There was no time to ask more questions when her mother was alone. Seo Ha hurriedly climbed the stairs to the rooftop room, thinking about what she had just heard from Jae Wook.

Kang Yoon specifically named Jo Seo Ha and unilaterally cut off business? Is such a thing possible? Wait a minute. If it was the factory that lost business then…

It had been an insignificant incident. She was distracted by half a pink macaron rolling around in the car and didn’t pay attention to anything else that day.

−’You know the fabric factory changed, right? They said they sent samples, so check them when you get to work.’

−’Okay. But why did we change? The factory we were dealing with before wasn’t bad.’

It was a factory that had been supplying fabric for steady products for quite a long time. Of course, they would have been highly dependent on business with Kang Yoon, and probably had already produced inventory to deliver in the future.

Managing suppliers was Lee Seung Oh’s job. She thought he must have done it well.

−’The new factory is bigger in scale, and I like it better in many ways.’

If he liked the new factory. What didn’t he like about the factory they were dealing with before?

The product itself was better from the new factory. It was slightly better, but to the point where she wondered if it was worth the trouble of changing.

Anyway, it was true that it was just a tiny bit better, and the existing factory was small which caused some inconveniences, so she just approved it.

Seo Ha stood in front of the rooftop room door. In the old, large mirror leaning against the wall that said it was from some school alumni association, she saw Jo Seo Ha’s face, now familiar to her.

“It was you. The accountant at that factory.”

Seo Ha’s finger touched the mirror. Beyond the cold, hard sensation, it seemed as if Jo Seo Ha was faintly nodding.

Inside the rooftop room she entered, Hae Sun was already sound asleep. Surrounded by an old wardrobe, a sewing box, and several picture frames.

They were all items that had been used by Jo Seo Ha’s maternal grandmother.

After checking her sleeping mother’s breathing, Seo Ha quietly stood up and looked at a frame hanging on the wall. A young Jo Seo Ha and her already aged grandmother were leaning on each other, smiling brightly towards the camera.

“Living just the two of you… You spent all the money on grandmother’s hospital bills. You were fired…”

−’I found out too late and took her to the hospital. But the complications were too severe, it was too late to do anything.’

Ah.

She remembered.

Hair fluttering in the wind. Eyes devoid of light. A brick tightly gripped in a thin hand.

“It wasn’t me.”

That car with the dark tinting that made it hard to see inside was the one Lee Seung Oh had been driving until that very morning. Lee Seung Oh had the authority to cut ties with that small factory, and he exercised it.

“You tried to kill Lee Seung Oh.”

Something seemed to flicker, almost within reach but not quite.

Because of Lee Seung Oh, the factory lost its client, suffered huge losses, and then fired Jo Seo Ha.

Jo Seo Ha struggled to pay for her grandmother’s hospital bills, and after losing her only family member, she came looking for Lee Seung Oh with a brick in hand, only to be hit by a truck.

Here the assumption hit a wall. If Lee Seung Oh really caused Jo Seo Ha to be fired, why didn’t he recognize her at all when they met again?

Seo Ha went outside and sat down carelessly on the wooden platform. She took out a can of beer from the plastic bag Kyung Jun had given her, opened it, took a sip, and pressed it against her swollen cheek. The cool moisture soothed her burning cheek.

“Maybe, Jo Seo Ha.”

Gulp, gulp.

The cold canned beer went down her throat, stinging her Adam’s apple.

“Your resentment might have turned me into you.”