To the Missing Secretary (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 10
“Still, I’m glad. Even if just once, I got to spend time with you, Director.”
It was something she’d always thought utterly impossible.
She’d believed she’d never in her life see him meet her eyes, call her by name, and pull her into his arms.
“That’s enough. That’s all I need.”
She took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
“Director.”
Jae Heon’s eye twitched.
The sight of her red, petite lips moving cautiously was both adorable and sensual at once.
How had he ever managed to look at Ra Jin’s lips before and feel nothing?
Just watching them now made his whole body burn as if it were about to be consumed by fire.
Then, when his gaze met hers—
“I….”
Jae Heon felt a foreboding sense.
As if, at any moment, those lovely lips of Ra Jin’s might speak words of rejection.
Just moments ago, they’d clearly been wrapped in an intense, sticky atmosphere—that much was certain.
Yet in less than a minute, something had shifted. Ra Jin’s expression had changed.
The flame of desire that had matched his own in color and temperature had completely died out, replaced by an inexplicable resolve.
And that resolve, he was certain, wasn’t in his favor.
“Wait.”
Jae Heon raised his hand to stop her.
“Hasty decisions always lead to poor outcomes.”
“No, I’ve already made up my mind….”
“This time, it’s Secretary Sa’s turn to set the terms for me. I’m ready to accept anything you ask. So think carefully.”
At Jae Heon’s words, Ra Jin looked up at him with a curious expression.
“Anything at all?”
“Yes—as long as it’s within what I can offer.”
“How can you say that when you don’t even know what I’ll ask for?”
Their gazes tangled with a teasing edge.
Her provocative look made Jae Heon’s heart pound wildly—so fiercely he feared it might burst.
Why hadn’t he realized sooner that Ra Jin was this captivating?
Originally, he’d sought her out hoping she might cure his insomnia—but now he found himself genuinely drawn to Ra Jin herself.
“As you know, Secretary Sa, I’m not a man of double talk.”
True to his word, Jae Heon always kept his promises.
His unwavering will to accomplish every goal and fulfill every commitment was precisely why Chairman Seo took such pride in his grandson.
“So, once you’ve sorted your thoughts, let me know. I’ll respond as positively as I can.”
“May I ask you something too?”
“What is it?”
“I’m curious… why are you making this offer to me?”
Jae Heon tilted his head slightly and lifted the corner of his lips.
“You know why, Secretary Sa. We match quite well.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“Then, do you have another reason in mind?”
Caught off guard, Ra Jin bit gently on the soft inner flesh of her lip.
Yes, I do. I’ve loved you for a long time, Director.
But she couldn’t say it aloud, so she chose silence instead.
Jae Heon interpreted her silence as agreement and smiled.
“Opportunities to put me at your mercy don’t come often. I trust you won’t let this one slip by—you’re not that kind of person. My judgment is excellent, after all.”
“…”
“I hope you’ll prove just how excellent my judgment truly is.”
On her way home from work.
Ra Jin boarded the bus and stared out the window.
Jae Heon’s proposal kept swirling in her mind.
Could it all be a dream?
Both last night and today.
But his message reminded her clearly—it wasn’t a dream.
“I hope you’ll prove just how excellent my judgment truly is.”
“…Sigh.”
She’d wanted to accept right then and there, but reality’s wall stood far too high.
She could have rejected him on the spot—but she hadn’t.
She simply couldn’t.
She couldn’t immediately turn down Jae Heon—the man she’d secretly loved for seven years—when he so clearly wanted her.
After getting off the bus, Ra Jin turned left and crossed the crosswalk.
Her apartment was about a five-minute walk from the stop.
“I’ll tell him tomorrow. That I’m refusing.”
The answer was already decided.
Delaying it wouldn’t change a thing.
“Ra Jin!”
Seeing Suk Young waiting for her made that truth cut even deeper.
Ra Jin lived in a two-room unit on the top floor of a four-story building, and Suk Young stood right at the entrance.
Her steps felt unbearably heavy as she approached her stepmother, who smiled warmly at her.
“My daughter—it’s been far too long.”
Suk Young gave Ra Jin a light hug. She smelled of roses—the perfume she always wore.
When Ra Jin was little, being held in those arms had felt wonderful.
Now, it only weighed heavily on her heart.
Because this meant there was a favor to ask.
One she couldn’t refuse.
“Have you been well?”
“Mm, well enough. Though, if it weren’t for your father’s situation…”
Here it comes.
Ra Jin took a deep breath and entered the building with Suk Young.
“Shall I make you some tea?”
“No need. You must be tired after work. Go ahead and sit.”
Normally, Suk Young would have allowed time for tea, but this matter seemed urgent.
Ra Jin considered pretending not to understand and delaying things—but gave up the idea.
It wouldn’t change the outcome anyway.
She sat opposite Suk Young.
“They seem quite fond of our Ra Jin over there. They’re so eager to meet you soon—insistently so.”
“…”
“I told them you were busy, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer. Your father owes CEO Jo a great deal, so we can’t just flatly refuse.”
Ra Jin already knew her answer.
“…I see.”
“Could you possibly make time? Your supervisor is your university senior, right? I’m sure you could work something out.”
“…I’ll do it.”
Suk Young’s face brightened. She let out a relieved sigh and clasped Ra Jin’s hands firmly in hers.
“Thank you, Ra Jin. Having you as my eldest daughter gives me such comfort.”
A surge of emotion crashed through Ra Jin’s heart.
Every time Suk Young said things like this, Ra Jin felt both joy and sorrow.
Unlike Yoo Jin, she constantly had to prove her worth—and that loneliness ached.
Would she ever meet someone who’d genuinely ask what she liked, how she felt, or whether she was doing well?
“How are Father and Yoo Jin?”
“Your father’s been busy running around trying to sort things out… As for Yoo Jin, she went to Japan with a friend the day before yesterday—said she wanted to eat udon.”
Ra Jin unconsciously frowned.
“Japan?”
Even if it was close by, it was still an overseas trip—and with the family’s current struggles! Besides, unlike Ra Jin, who’d graduated, found a job, and become financially independent, Yoo Jin was still preparing for employment and paying for everything with their father’s card.
“Didn’t you tell her not to go?”
“Of course I did. But when has that child ever listened to me? Once she sets her mind on something, she won’t rest until she’s done it. Still, they say that kind of personality leads to success later—it’s a blessing, really.”
Watching Suk Young speak with quiet pride, Ra Jin was left speechless.
Wasn’t the situation urgent enough that they had to introduce her—a daughter—to a divorced man eleven years her senior?
Yet Yoo Jin had gone off to Japan on their father’s card—
All because she craved udon, of all things!
Despite their financial hardship, Yoo Jin’s lifestyle and spending habits remained unchanged. And neither Suk Young nor Young Ho had ever criticized her for it.
Ra Jin was always the one expected to sacrifice.
Her role had always been the obedient daughter who followed her parents’ wishes—but not this time. Not when she’d just given up something so precious.
Something so painful and difficult to let go of…
“So, Yoo Jin—who’s unemployed and idle—doesn’t have time because she’s off on a trip to Japan, but I, who’s working hard, must go to the blind date in her place.”
Suk Young froze at Ra Jin’s words.
“Ra… Ra Jin. What are you saying?”
“That blind date—tell Yoo Jin to go herself. Isn’t it her own words that if she doesn’t get a job soon, she’ll just get married instead?”
“Ra Jin! That was just your younger sister speaking without thinking—”
“Yoo Jin and I are the same age.”
Ra Jin clenched her fists tightly under the table.
“Mother… have you ever once truly seen me as your daughter?”
“Wh-what are you talking about?”
“I asked if you’ve ever looked at me for who I am—not as a replacement for the late Yoo Ra.”
Suk Young shot up from her seat and stepped toward Ra Jin.
Slap! A sharp sound echoed, and Ra Jin’s head turned to the side.
“…Ha.”
Seeing Ra Jin’s bitter smile, Suk Young’s eyes widened in sudden realization, and her expression shifted to one of regret.
“Ra Jin… I—I was just too worked up just now…”
“Thanks to you, Mother, I’ve just made my decision.”
Ra Jin looked up at Suk Young with icy eyes.
“I will prove that the Director’s judgment is excellent.”
“Wh-what does that mean, Ra Jin?”
Suk Young asked, but Ra Jin remained silent.
She was tired—exhausted from always giving the answers her adoptive parents wanted to hear.
She could repay their kindness another way.
She’d rather pay them back in cash than let this blind date—clearly the start of ruining her life—happen.
No matter how much they’d saved her life.
No matter how they’d taken in a lonely orphan and given her a family.
She couldn’t endure another moment of them controlling her life.
“I won’t go to that blind date.”
Back in college, Jae Heon had once told her:
“You seem to misunderstand what family really means.”
“What does family mean to you, sunbae?”
“Not someone who controls your life however they please—but someone who supports you no matter what path you choose.”
His words had struck Ra Jin like a slap to the back of the head.
It was so different from everything she’d believed about family up until then.
“So don’t push yourself so hard. No one will notice or care if you’re hurting in silence.”
It was the first time anyone had ever told her not to overexert herself.
That day, Jae Heon had entered her heart and taken root in its deepest corner.
Even if he’d long forgotten it, that memory had become her anchor whenever life grew hard.
Ra Jin took a deep breath and looked Suk Young straight in the eyes.
“Mother. I can’t be Yoo Ra.”
“Ra… Ra Jin…”
“I’m not Yoo Ra. I can’t live my life as a replacement for someone who’s already gone.”
Suk Young’s eyelashes trembled.
“Ra Jin, why are you like this all of a sudden? Where’s my sweet daughter…?”
“Just doing exactly as I’m told, without any will of my own—that’s not being a good daughter. That’s being a doll without feelings or thoughts.”
Ra Jin had never spoken to her this way before, leaving Suk Young too stunned to continue.
“Mother… I can’t live as a doll anymore.”
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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