The condition set by Chairman Oh Kyu Baek was for Ga Eul to graduate from university as soon as possible and join the group. As this was also what Ga Eul wanted, the deal was easily concluded.

Gyeo Ul objected, saying his elder sister had wanted to continue studying, but Ga Eul calmed him down. She said you can’t have everything you want, right? It’s better to take what you can get when you can get it.

Ga Eul also moved into the house arranged by Chairman Oh. It was an apartment close to Gyeo Ul’s school. Ga Eul no longer needed to go to Ki Dae Un’s office. Still, Ga Eul continued to go to the office.

Somehow, it felt like her connection with Ki Dae Un shouldn’t end just yet. It would be a shame to let go of the ‘businessman Ki Dae Un’ she had only recently started to see. If she had discovered this side of him earlier, she could have learned much more while working under him.

Moreover, it seemed wasteful to let her acquired ‘Ki Dae Un handling skills’ go to waste. For various reasons, Ga Eul decided to keep going to the office until she returned to school, determined to ‘milk’ Ki Dae Un for all he was worth.

“Why are you here again? Is there anything to eat here?”

Dae Un’s gruff voice greeted Ga Eul as she entered the office. Unusually, Dae Un had come down to the office early.

“The same words every day, aren’t you tired of it? Just be honest and say you’re glad to see me. You were waiting for me, weren’t you?”

“Not for you, for your lunchbox.”

Ga Eul pouted but placed the lunchbox in front of Dae Un without any sign of displeasure.

“Don’t hire anyone else because I’ll continue working part-time here even after I return to school. One capable part-timer like me is enough to handle all the work here and more.”

Ga Eul said confidently while opening the lunchbox for him. Dae Un ignored her words and picked up his chopsticks, admiring the lunchbox.

A neatly arranged lunchbox with bulgogi, seasoned bellflower root, young radish kimchi, and spinach side dish. There were even cherry tomatoes on one side. It was clearly packed with care by her grandmother. No wonder Ga Eul’s voice was filled with pride.

Dae Un first moistened his throat with the dried pollack soup from the soup container.

“Ah, that’s good.”

He couldn’t help but exclaim.

“You told your grandmother that I drink a lot, didn’t you?”

Dae Un mumbled with his mouth full of food. Yesterday it was bean sprout soup. Even Dae Un, who had lived in America for a long time, knew that dried pollack soup and bean sprout soup were typically eaten after heavy drinking.

“Do I really need to tell her that? It’s common knowledge in the neighborhood.”

Ga Eul feigned innocence, though she had specially requested it from her grandmother.

The lunchbox was Ga Eul’s grandmother’s way of expressing gratitude for resolving the issue between Gyeo Ul and Ga Eul.

Ever since the day Gyeo Ul had caused the assault incident, Ga Eul had been bringing an insulated lunchbox to work without fail. These days, Dae Un lived for the taste of these lunchboxes. Today too, he had come down early to wait for Ga Eul’s arrival time.

“Eat slowly. I told you to have proper meals instead of just jajangmyeon. Should I find you a restaurant that serves home-cooked meals?”

Ga Eul asked, watching the amount Dae Un was eating with a pitying look.

“No thanks. Jajangmyeon was the food I missed the most while living in America.”

Dae Un made up an excuse. He didn’t know why Ga Eul’s grandmother’s lunchboxes were so delicious. If he had to say, maybe it was because it wasn’t store-bought food? He had eaten enough of that to be sick of it.

“There must have been jajangmyeon in America too.”

“The taste is different.”

While continuously bringing food to his mouth, Dae Un thought it might be good to keep employing Ga Eul.

He had planned assuming Ga Eul would quit the company when she moved in with her maternal family. But maybe keeping her employed would be more advantageous for achieving his goals.

As Dae Un was thinking this, Ga Eul suddenly asked,

“Sir, you weren’t really planning to acquire TS Tech, were you?”

“Kuk, what?”

He almost choked. Ki Dae Un gulped down some soup to calm his startled throat.

“The newspaper reported that Shinhwa Electronics is acquiring TS Tech. It was a small article, but still.”

“Seems like the heir position of Pyeongan Group is tempting, huh? Since when did Han Ga Eul start paying attention to even small business news?”

“Since you let me overhear your conversation with Jung Se Hyun.”

Ga Eul’s answer was clear and concise.

“I wondered why you let me hear it, knowing I would relay it to Woo Jin’s father. The answer was simple. You wanted it to reach someone’s ears. Figuring out who that was was beyond my abilities though.”

In fact, she had a rough idea now, but Ga Eul held her tongue.

“Quite the detective, aren’t you? Go make some sweet coffee.”

Ki Dae Un, having finished eating, put his feet up on the table and leaned back on the sofa.

“You should exercise too, sir. You’re at the age where you might start getting a belly. No proper job, drowning in alcohol, and now a belly on top of that. What woman would like that? Then marriage is out of the question.”

Ga Eul chattered as she went to the pantry.

“What’s there to worry about? I have you. You said you liked me. Said you wanted to date.”

Ki Dae Un replied leisurely, but still glanced at his own stomach.

“Don’t trust me too much. How can a person’s heart stay the same? It changes, you know. That’s why I decided to date Attorney Jung Se Hyun. Though I haven’t been able to act on it due to lack of time.”

Behind the partition, Ga Eul didn’t see Dae Un’s face harden at her words.

“Woo Jin seems to have heard the news about my newfound chaebol grandfather too. He told me to ask my grandfather to send me to study abroad. Said it shouldn’t be a problem if my grandfather is the chairman of Pyeongan Group.”

Dae Un also couldn’t see Ga Eul’s face become gloomy outside the partition.

“It seems Woo Jin can’t accept that we’ve broken up. I’ve already dumped him. I’m the granddaughter of Pyeongan Group now. I think it’s okay for me to have higher standards.”

Dae Un fell into thought. He sensed sadness in Ga Eul’s voice despite her brave words. Something must have happened to Ga Eul. What foolish thing had that idiot Seon Woo Jin done again?

Ga Eul was recalling the email she received yesterday. It was from an unknown person with the subject line ‘Please let go of Seon Woo Jin.’

The email had several photos attached. In the photos, Woo Jin was smiling broadly with his arm around some woman’s shoulders.

Ga Eul’s gaze lingered longer on the large ‘MIT’ letters on Woo Jin’s T-shirt than on his smiling face. That made her feel sad.

Another photo showed Woo Jin sitting on the edge of a bed looking disheveled, with a woman in underwear lying next to him. The rest were similar photos. Ga Eul had closed the email with trembling hands.

Ga Eul was feeling down because of Woo Jin. Not because he was dating someone new, but because he was clinging to her while dating someone new.

The Woo Jin she liked shouldn’t be that kind of person. The Woo Jin she liked was a good person.

Ga Eul shook her head vigorously. She was trying to shake off the gloomy thoughts, but then worried that dandruff might have fallen into the freshly brewed coffee.

The boss can drink some coffee mixed with her dandruff. After all, he used her to leak information. Even though he said he couldn’t date her, he still thought of her as a card to use when needed.

“The vice president of Shinhwa Electronics is your uncle, right? And the head of strategic planning is your cousin. Are they the people you’re trying to catch?”

So Ga Eul changed her mind and asked what was on her mind. Dae Un frowned as he took a sip of the coffee Ga Eul had brought. The sweet coffee tasted bitter. The problem was that Han Ga Eul’s mind worked too well. Han Ga Eul was already approaching the truth.

“You know, curiosity killed the cat.”

“That’s a Western saying. This is the East. Here, knowledge is power. Usually, people don’t leak information through spies with good intentions. So, the information you leaked through me wasn’t meant to benefit the person who received it, right?”

“Ignorance is bliss.”

“Then is Shinhwa Electronics going to collapse now? Surely such a large company won’t collapse over something like this? I told Woo Jin’s father that you were trying to acquire TS Tech. But when the truth came out, Shinhwa Electronics had acquired TS Tech. Woo Jin’s father is a director at Shinhwa Electronics.”

Dae Un made a dismissive gesture as if annoyed, but Ga Eul was persistent.

“So what I’m saying is, you’re an even more impressive person than I thought. Shinhwa Electronics acquired TS Tech after hearing that you showed interest. Doesn’t that mean they trust your judgment that much? A major company like Shinhwa Electronics.”

Indeed, flattery works wonders. Ga Eul saw the corners of Dae Un’s mouth turn up slightly. If she praised the boss a bit more, maybe she could get something out of him? Ga Eul decided to push a bit further.

“Why do you want Shinhwa Electronics to collapse? I heard you’re the grandson of Shinhwa Group’s Chairman Ki Heung Sik.”

“Why would Shinhwa Electronics collapse? They won’t even flinch at this. They’ll take a hit, but that’s all.”

For the first time, a proper answer came from Dae Un.

“So you’re aiming for the Shinhwa Group heir position.”

“No, I’m not.”

Dae Un closed his eyes as if to say no more, but Ga Eul moved even closer and crouched down beside the sofa.

Ga Eul knew that just skirting around like this wouldn’t get her anything from Dae Un.

That’s why she hadn’t learned anything despite being by the boss’s side for the past year. While Shinhwa Electronics executives were using spies to figure out the boss’s thoughts. So now she needed to enter the boss’s world.

“But why are you trying to take down your uncle and cousin? If leaking that you were going to acquire TS Tech wasn’t meant to hit Shinhwa Electronics, then it must have been to hit those executives, right? Are you trying to make your uncle and cousin fall out of favor with your grandfather?”

Dae Un sighed deeply with his eyes closed. Han Ga Eul’s mind worked too well. To the point of figuring out things she didn’t need to know, or rather, shouldn’t know.

Dae Un was contemplating how much he should tell Ga Eul. But something happened that eased his dilemma.

The office door burst open and a voice shouted,

“Elder brother Dae Un!”

Dae Un sat up abruptly. At the same time, a woman in unusual attire rushed towards Dae Un, making a sound like a dolphin’s cry.

“Elder brother Dae Uuun!”

The woman who had rushed in jumped into Dae Un’s chest, wrapping her arms around him.

“Mi O, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Jung Se Hyun, who had entered behind her, said with a grin. Dae Un clenched his fist while trapped in Jung Mi O’s arms.

He felt like punching Jung Se Hyun’s grinning face for bringing Jung Mi O here.

But Mi O detached herself from Dae Un’s chest as quickly as she had embraced him. Jung Mi O pointed at Ga Eul with her garishly painted nails and said,

“Is that her? My rival?”