Tae Ha disappeared after telling Eun Seo to wait.
Eun Seo waits endlessly for Tae Ha while watching people coming and going. At this rate, the bookstore will close. Thinking that.
Tae Ha hurriedly moved his steps. Somehow there was something that had caught his eye earlier.
The place he found was the T Jewelry store.
Tae Ha, catching his breath from rushing, immediately found the employee from earlier.
“The item the lady from before said was pretty, what is it?”
* * *
23 million won.
You’ve gone mad. Finally.
Tae Ha swallowed a hollow laugh and turned the steering wheel sharply. Among the glances pouring to the left is Eun Seo’s.
And in his arms is a ring.
A beautiful ring with aquamarine and diamonds beautifully set.
It’s the second time he’s bought something for a young woman with his own hands. The first and second, both for Song Eun Seo.
Why? Out of pity and sympathy?
Alright, let’s say the boots were like that. Those damn shoes, faded and worn from long use.
If he hadn’t seen that, he wouldn’t have bought four pairs of boots.
But, the ring?
[Her eyes sparkled when she saw this ring. If you give it as a gift, she’ll probably be overjoyed.]She’ll be overjoyed, yes, maybe he lost his senses at those words.
It must have been like the sky-blue aquamarine set in the center. Song Eun Seo’s eyes.
They must have sparkled like a clear spring. Eyes so transparent and pure that you want to dive deep inside and lie there.
Was he willing to pay 23 million won just to see that? Just for one of those smiles.
Tae Ha cast his gaze at Eun Seo’s fingers, demurely folded on her lap. White fingers, almost transparent under the dazzling lights passing through the window.
It would probably suit her quite well.
“Did you buy some clothes?”
Eun Seo seemed to flinch a little.
Depending on how many outfits, she might feel grateful or sorry. That’s probably what she’s thinking.
If he had known, should he have given a limit of ‘how many’? Maybe then she would have looked a little less apologetic.
“Two outfits. There are a lot of clothes in the dressing room.”
“Did you part with Chae Won early?”
“No. Before going to the jewelry store earlier.”
That was somewhat better. At least it meant Jung Woo and Eun Seo weren’t alone for too long.
“Next time, go with me.”
Eun Seo turned her head towards Tae Ha with a ‘why’ look in her eyes.
“It seems like you couldn’t choose freely. There weren’t many shopping bags.”
“I bought everything I needed. Thank you. This is only the second time I’ve bought things at a department store. I guess that’s why it felt awkward.”
“Then what about the first time?”
“A long time ago, I was tutoring, and the student’s grades improved really well. Their mother bought me clothes because their grade level went up three steps. And a meal too.”
Eun Seo’s expression was bright as she said this. Her words also sped up a little. As if that memory had been quite good among her life experiences.
Would Song Eun Seo make an expression like this later when she remembers today? It was an expression he wanted to capture, enough to wish she would.
“But I sold them, soon after.”
Her dark eyelashes blinked slowly.
“Oh, the person who came with you earlier. That Yoo Ha Eun, is she your friend?”
Eun Seo tensed up after asking.
Did I ask something I shouldn’t have?
[A person receiving your father’s generous sponsorship.]If she was close enough to shop together on his day off, she must be more than just a friend.
Curiosity beyond mere interest spread like wildfire, and she asked him shamelessly. But it seems she did something unnecessary.
Suddenly, she didn’t want to hear that answer.
“Why?”
Of all things, he chose to counter-question. She had to answer with no way out. The sin of asking first.
“Because she’s pretty.”
A snickering sound was heard.
“Are all pretty people my friends? By that logic, Song Eun Seo would be my best friend.”
She could see the corners of his mouth loosening under his sidelong glance.
Eun Seo felt her cheeks getting hot for some reason and lowered the window.
* * *
The car stopped in the center of Seoul, lined with buildings. There was no sign of a bookstore anywhere.
“Where is this? It doesn’t seem like there’s a bookstore.”
“The company. The hotel headquarters.”
Right next to the building he called headquarters was the GK Seoul Hotel. That hotel, befitting its status as Korea’s top revenue earner, had an impressive presence.
“Even if we go to a bookstore now, it seems like it would close soon. Let’s just get a few books I need urgently from the office. You’ll need the work manual too. You have to start work next week, and you can’t always learn from Manager Han. Ah, Manager Han is Song Eun Seo’s direct supervisor.”
“I, I start work next week?”
This was news to her. She thought she would start much later.
“Yes. Team Leader Choi has already informed HR. You just need to register your fingerprint on your first day.”
When he tapped his card on the elevator, it went straight up to the 18th floor.
Eun Seo followed him out. As he moved, the lights in the corridor turned on and off one by one. If she had come alone, it might have been quite scary, but his back was stronger than the darkness.
In front of the office was the secretary’s office and a U-shaped open secretary desk.
“Team Leader Choi works inside the office, and Manager Han is outside. Song Eun Seo, you’ll work at the desk with Manager Han.”
Tae Ha closed the office door. He turned on the desk lamp and flipped a switch, and a soft indirect light settled warmly in the office.
The inside of the office was neat, and one wall was filled with books, reminiscent of a library. And from the right side of the wide desk, the Seoul cityscape entered like a picture through the L-shaped wide front window.
Tae Ha pulled a few books from the bookshelf and put them on the desk. Then he took off his coat and suit jacket in order and hung them on the chair.
Eun Seo, watching Tae Ha take off his clothes in order, also took off her coat and folded it on the sofa.
“Here, the books.”
The books were spiral notebooks.
“Look at that first. It’s an overview of my work, so you’ll roughly understand the organizational chart and what the organization does. Start with that.”
Tae Ha was already opening the cap of his fountain pen and pointed to the chair opposite the table for Eun Seo. To look through all this and get a rough understanding would take at least a few hours.
“Usually, even temporary presidential secretaries come on secondment from other departments. So Song Eun Seo’s hiring is quite groundbreaking, and there will probably be talk. Endure it. Think of it as earning money.”
“Yes.”
“And.”
Tae Ha looked at Eun Seo for a moment, then took out a sky-blue case tied with a ribbon from his pocket and pushed it towards Eun Seo with his index finger.
“This is a gift.”
Her gaze stopped. The blue box was the one she saw at the jewelry store earlier.
She couldn’t guess his intention. His neatly closed lips were too calm, and she couldn’t process the words he had just uttered in her brain.
However, she could guess that it was not something she could simply accept.
Why is he doing this?
Sometimes he’s very cold, and sometimes he’s very kind. While considering him a con man, he doesn’t spare his generosity, but it didn’t feel right to dismiss his actions as mere sympathy.
The house, the job. And today’s gift too.
If he does the same to ‘Yoo Ha Eun’, who would have occupied the seat next to him for more than half a day, with arms full of shopping bags, then this is.
“Your kindness, no, your joke is going too far.”
At her words, the fountain pen that had been busy moving over the documents stopped.
She took back ‘kindness’ and dismissed it as a ‘joke’. The joke has gone too far? The kindness that became a 23 million won joke.
The effort he had put in, running hard lest the store close and he might not be able to buy the item, had become mere play to Eun Seo.
“Don’t you think the interest is excessive?”
There was no trace of a smile on his face.
“Why are you doing this? The clothes and cosmetics, okay, I thought that could be. I thought, since I’ll soon be working under Kwon Tae Ha, me working at the desk could soon be Kwon Tae Ha’s face, but no matter how I think about it, this…”
“Just, because your smile is pretty. I want to see it.”
“It seems you don’t think I’ll misunderstand.”
“You’re not smiling.”
“I’m too grown up to smile.”
“Whether you misunderstand or see the truth, do as you wish. I told you I wonder why I’m doing this too.”
“Kwon Tae Ha, no, Mr. CEO. I’m really worried, so I’m telling you this. What are you thinking will happen if I end up liking you? This is criminal.”
The woman who had only been digging tunnels wasn’t weak after all, as she spoke with quite forceful eyes.
“Are you shaken? Enough to feel it’s criminal?”
Hmm. Tae Ha put down his fountain pen and interlocked his fingers on the desk.
“…No.”
“Then keep it. Think of it as a welcome gift if you like. Sell it if you want.”
“It’s burdensome.”
“If it’s burdensome, then feel burdened.”
“What do you mean?”
“Feel burdened and do well for me. As a secretary or whatever. Understand?”
Tae Ha smiled gently. At that smile, Eun Seo’s breath caught, and she lowered her eyes somewhere around his deep navy tie.
“I want to be comfortable.”
“Comfortable? With me?”
“Yes. I’ve always lived difficultly. I want my mind to be at ease at least. I don’t like being uncomfortable. Like now.”
She didn’t want to be swept up in this thought and that thought, this expectation and that expectation. After all, she was in the middle of a lawsuit with Tae Ha, and it was she who would be thrown out.
Even though only civil proceedings are going on now, if things don’t go well, they might proceed with criminal charges for the sake of clean paperwork, and even if not Tae Ha, she didn’t know what situation might arise by his father if he knew about the current state of affairs.
She had to become strong. She couldn’t give up her life getting carried away by needless expectations.
That was Kwon Tae Ha’s position, and that was her position.
On the first day, when she went to meet Kwon Tae Ha, the sneers around Tae Ha were the vivid gap between him and her.
“Like friends?”
“Not that far.”
“I’m not a comfortable person. I told you, people get scared just looking at me.”
“Do you want me to be scared looking at you, Kwon Tae Ha?”
“I want you to tremble.”
Tae Ha pushed his chair back and walked out from behind the desk. Eun Seo took a few steps back, overwhelmed by his momentum.
“Like this.”
He took one step closer.
That one step, the sound of his footstep shook the silence, and his breath could be felt at close range.
A short breath escaping through red lips pierces the heart.
The gaze locked so close that breathing becomes difficult is quiet. No, precarious. If the man breaks the distance like this, it feels like she would be submerged in that breath and never be able to escape.
Another step.
Again, the distance disappeared.
That distance she had barely managed to keep.
“Or like this.”
With the last syllable, the footsteps stopped and all distance vanished.
The window blocked behind her no longer allowed retreat. Trapped between the window and the man, Eun Seo bit her lip. Eun Seo clenched her fists so tightly that nail marks were deeply imprinted on her palms.
With all her might.
Otherwise, she felt like she would embrace the man’s neck right there, just like in that dream.
The neat teeth marks imprinted in white fully revealed her tension.
“Don’t bite your lip. It makes me want to do something else.”
The Male Lead’s Obsessive (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: She is his lifelong obsession, to the point where he was willing to be a third wheel, scorned by society, just to wedge his way into her relationship with her fiancé.
Synopsis:
Cold-hearted and indifferent female lead + Scheming and subservient CEO male lead
Summary:
Rong Xiu’s biggest regret in life was missing out on Fan Xia.
He secretly loved Fan Xia for 7 years.
Watched her go public with her boyfriend.
Watched her kiss her boyfriend at their wedding.
Until that man blissfully nestled in Fan Xia’s arms, obtaining everything he could only dream of.
The crazy jealousy stripped away his hidden secret love, layer by layer, burning like wildfire.
Fan Xia, how can I have you!
【Reading and Trigger Warning Guide】
1. Female dominant, male submissive, male pregnancy
2. Male lead schemes his way to the top, male competition