After having a great time at a coin-operated batting cage and saying goodbye to her friends who took the bus, Yeon Woo entered the subway station.

While pulling out her transit card, she felt a vibration and checked her phone. It was a message from Jun Hwi, asking if she needed a ride. She replied that she’d take the subway, and began walking towards the turnstile.

Suddenly, she accidentally bumped her forehead into the back of a man in black clothes, who was preoccupied with his non-working transit card.

Peeking ahead, Yeon Woo noticed he was holding a black card. Known to be issued only to VVIP customers and which Jun Hwi also had, this card evidently had no transit functionality, as those holders rarely used public transport.

Deciding it would be faster to use a different gate, Yeon Woo started to move away. But then, the man with the black card turned around and called out to her.

“Excuse me?” he said.

“Yes, are you talking to me?” she replied.

With an air of arrogance, the man said, “Could you lend me 50,000 won?”

Confused, Yeon Woo responded, “What?”

Ignoring her reaction, he persisted, “Don’t you have money?”

“I don’t,” she replied.

“Then, can you withdraw it for me from the ATM over there?”

His request, so boldly made, struck Yeon Woo as incredibly rude.

She wondered to herself, ‘Do I look that naive?’

She remembered being conned out of 100,000 won at Gangnam station when she was 20 by someone who claimed to be a businessman from Vancouver.

“No, I can’t help you,” she firmly stated.

Trying to bypass him, the man continued to press her.

“I’ll really pay you back. My face is the guarantee.”

The phrase ‘my face is the guarantee’ was a bizarre one that Yeon Woo had never heard before. Curiously, she examined his face – tall and well-built with striking eyes, but that hardly seemed like a valid assurance to her.

“Why should I trust your face? Try using it as a transit card or show it to a taxi driver,” she said dismissively.

The man, clearly flustered, tried to persuade her again, “I’ve just come from the U.S., and I left my phone and wallet at the office. I’ll pay you back with interest.”

Yeon Woo found the whole situation absurd.

‘Does he really think I’m this gullible?’

Proudly, she thought about how she hadn’t fallen for such tricks since that incident in Gangnam.

“Sorry, but no,” she said, determined not to waste any more time.

As Yeon Woo walked past him towards another gate, the man, refusing to give up, tried to stop her once more.

“I really will pay you back. My face is the guarantee.”

Yeon Woo, though intrigued, was not convinced. She looked at him one last time, considering his tall, muscular build and intense eyes, but his appearance did nothing to sway her decision.

“Then, use your face as a guarantee elsewhere. Goodbye,” she said, leaving the man behind as she made her way through the subway station.
“Then try using that guarantee as a transit card, or show it to a taxi driver. Goodbye.”

“If I could catch a taxi, do you think I’d be standing here? This is really frustrating.”

Frustrating? He’s one to talk!

Yeon Woo couldn’t help but let out a deflated sigh. The man, seeing her reaction, furrowed his brow and retorted loudly.

“Hey, look here. What’s with your attitude? I’m not someone you can look down on. Do you know C Pharmaceuticals?”

“Yes, I do. Who in Korea doesn’t?”

“I’m the vice president of C Pharmaceuticals.”

“What…! Really?”

To think he was someone like that! Yeon Woo’s eyes widened in shock, but the man seemed pleased with himself, arrogantly lifting his chin.

“Wow… You’re quite an important person.”

An important con artist, more like.

Yeon Woo knew the vice president of C Pharmaceuticals all too well, as Kwon Jun Hwi had been diligently managing that client since last year.

The real vice president was a gentle, affable man in his 60s, nothing like this imposter, who shared nothing but his gender with the genuine article.

To think he’d pick someone so easily identifiable to impersonate. Even last week, Yeon Woo had seen the actual vice president in her company’s meeting room.

“Okay. Are you satisfied now?”

The man, oblivious to Yeon Woo’s thoughts, smirked confidently.

“Yes, I’m sure now that you’re a fraud.”

“What are you talking about? Me, a fraud?”

“Do you think I’m an idiot? You’re not the vice president of C Pharmaceuticals, you scammer.”

Yeon Woo stood her ground against the man’s brazenness.

The con artist’s face turned an ashen shade of anger.

“You’ll regret saying that.”

“If you live dishonestly and deceive others, you’ll face consequences. I know the real vice president of C Pharmaceuticals.”

“And how much do you think you know?”

“Enough to know that you’re not him.”

The man, annoyed, ran a hand through his hair and stepped closer, causing Yeon Woo to instinctively step back.

“What are you doing?”

He cursed in English and then cornered Yeon Woo with a sinister tone.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“Tell me your affiliation, your name.”