“I happened to run into her near the company. She said she was going to submit her resume, so I got curious and asked her to show it to me, and she did.”

“Hmph.”

She was the woman who had been lingering around CEO Kang even after being warned and chased away multiple times. Kyung Joon could swear that Seung Oh’s encounter with Jo Seo Ha was not a coincidence.

But why? Was it just to get a chance to join Kang Yoon’s company?

“If you don’t like her, I’ll cancel her acceptance. The acceptance notice hasn’t been sent yet.”

Kyung Joon fell into deep thought.

She was a suspicious woman. However, strangely, he could see Yoon Seo Ha in her. That confidence, tone of voice, and even the design.

“…Let her join the company.”

Seung Oh tilted his head in confusion.

“Didn’t you not like her?”

“As you said, her design is fine. Let her join the company, but let’s make her an intern for three months.”

No matter her purpose in approaching them, three months would be enough time to figure her out.

Kyung Joon neatly folded Seo Ha’s resume on the desk and put it in his pocket. He intended to find out more about what kind of woman she was.

Jae Wook’s spoon, which had been moving diligently, stopped abruptly in midair.

“Kang Yoon? Did you just say Kang Yoon? The clothes designer Kang Yoon?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

Jae Wook stared blankly at Seo Ha with his spoon still in hand. It seemed like he had a lot to say. He also looked like he was forcibly holding back all those words.

Memories and questions that had risen and subsided several times came back to life.

The early winter night that had already darkened all around. Disheveled hair fluttering wildly. Eyes staring emptily at the windshield. And the red brick in her hand.

Why did she jump in front of my car with a brick that night?

“Do I have something to do with Kang Yoon?”

This was Seo Ha’s past as well as Yoon Seo Ha’s past. However, Jae Wook, who seemed to know something, moved his spoon again instead of answering.

“What’s there to have? Just eat the vegetables you like.”

“There’s something. Is it good? Or is it bad?”

“I don’t know. Am I your guardian? I’m just a landlord.”

It seemed that there would be no harvest from further probing. Seo Ha ate a cucumber the size of her finger, dipping it in soybean paste, with her questions still unanswered. The face of Seo Ha reflected in the spoon looked unfamiliar and lonely today.

“A bluegreen Vietnamese skirt. It’s terrible.”

From a designer’s perspective, Seo Ha wore a terribly distasteful outfit that she had laundered cleanly and set out on her first day of work. It was an enormous journey to transfer from a village bus, which she never thought she would ride in her life, to the subway.

“Get on.”

That’s why Jae Wook’s suggestion was slightly appreciated.

“Don’t you have deliveries?”

“I went around early in the morning and came back. I’ll take you and go out again in the evening.”

“Then, based on today, I’ll calculate the gas cost and hourly wage”

“Put away that kind of stuff.”

“Then, I’ll consider it as noblesse oblige.”

“What? Isn’t that a Naver webtoon title?”

“I’ll gratefully accept your favor.”

“The girl’s using difficult words after hitting her head.”

Despite grumbling nonstop, Jae Wook opened the truck door and helped Seo Ha get in. The last time she rode, the smell of cigarettes was strong, but today it was better.

“You can drop me off right there, up front.”

The fruit truck broke through the traffic congestion and arrived in front of the company. Seo Ha jumped off the truck and deeply bowed in gratitude before heading towards the main entrance.

Lee Seung Oh and Lee Ji Soo were watching.

“There’s an employee coming to work on a truck.”

Seung Oh was casually chatting while sitting in the representative’s office chair, looking outside. Ji Soo stretched her head to look down upon hearing Seung Oh’s nonchalant comment.

“…?”

It was too far to recognize the face.

“She’s wearing strange clothes. It looks like an old lady’s skirt.”

However, the presence of the bluegreen Vietnamese skirt fluttering like a flag in the wind was clear even from this distance.

“Didn’t you wear something like that before?”

“Did I? Hehe.”

“Your mother bought it for you. It wasn’t that color, but a lighter… was it blue?”

“How can you remember all that?”

Ji Soo hopped off Seung Oh’s lap.

Of course, she did wear such clothes. She made a bag with a sewing machine at school and, having no money for fabric to make her graduation project, used the leftover fabric her classmates had thrown away.

It was an unbearable poverty.

“I’m going now. It’s time for work.”

“Work hard today, too.”

“Yep. Love you, brother.”

“Me too.”

Lee Seung Oh saved Ji Soo from the swamp of poverty. He gifted her the life that Yoon Seo Ha, the princess her mother used to lament about, had lived and let her live in a luxury apartment with white marble floors instead of a moldy rooftop room.

‘The scariest thing is, you know, Yoon Seo Ha might suddenly open her eyes and sit up.’