Whispers of Autumn Wind (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 11
A few days after Jeong Se Hyun’s visit, Ga Eul entered the empty office and muttered under her breath.
“Well, of course. I thought he’d started showing up at normal working hours for a few days—but turns out that was just a fleeting whim. He’s always scolding me for being late, yet look at himself.”
She had just returned from training a new part-timer at the convenience store.
The female newcomer, completely unfamiliar with convenience store work, struggled to stay focused, causing the training to take longer than expected. She seemed far more interested in the store’s owner than in actually learning the job.
After finishing the training, Ga Eul set aside expired products and removed outdated promotional posters still hanging around. She also checked inventory displays and overall cleanliness, repeating the same tasks at two other stores.
Yet even after all that, the owner still hadn’t come downstairs from the second floor.
“President, seriously—even if you are the boss, you’ve still got to have some conscience. It’s already afternoon by other people’s standards.”
Just as Ga Eul began lecturing as if the owner stood right before her, his voice drifted down from the stairs.
“Did you finish what I asked you to do?”
Ga Eul’s mouth snapped shut. Startled that he might’ve overheard her, she hurried back to her desk.
“Right here.”
She handed him the compiled report on an Indian conglomerate.
The owner flipped through the pages nonchalantly, then paused on the section summarizing the group’s financial status, studying it intently—only to flip through the rest haphazardly. After skimming the final page, he tossed the file carelessly onto Ga Eul’s desk.
“Shred this using the paper shredder—make sure you use the paper shredder.”
Ga Eul’s jaw dropped. She was too furious to even speak. Was he really throwing away, after barely glancing at it, the report she’d spent two full days meticulously compiling?
“No critical corporate information would ever be publicly available online like that. Just get me a cup of coffee.”
Seemingly reading her expression, the owner muttered this and flopped onto the sofa.
“I drove way too late last night—I’m exhausted.”
Ga Eul scowled at Ki Dae Woong sprawled on the sofa, then stomped off toward the breakroom. Then don’t even ask me to compile reports. She’d gone to great lengths—even tracking down materials published by a U.S. securities firm—and this was the thanks she got?
“Se Hyun will be here soon.”
“Why does Jeong Se Hyun keep coming over so often?”
Having completely forgotten their earlier agreement to pretend they’re dating, Ga Eul grumbled irritably. Every time Se Hyun came by, she’d have to report it again to Woo Jin’s father.
She’d faithfully passed along to Woo Jin’s father the information that the owner and Jeong Se Hyun were planning to acquire TS Tech—since the owner seemed to want exactly that. Still, knowing she was engaged in such underhanded conduct weighed heavily on her conscience.
As Ga Eul set a cup of coffee down in front of Dae Woong, Se Hyun walked into the office.
“Hello, Attorney.”
“Hello, Ms. Ga Eul. May I also have a cup of coffee, please?”
Both Ga Eul and Se Hyun greeted each other politely, as though they’d entirely forgotten their pretend-relationship arrangement. Se Hyun picked up the coffee cup placed before Dae Woong and brought it to his lips while speaking.
“Get up. It’s almost time for our appointment.”
“Ugh, tell them to wait!”
Ki Dae Woong groaned as he struggled to sit up from the sofa. Ga Eul retreated behind the partition, glancing at the owner with an exasperated look—only to lock eyes with him instantly. She quickly forced a polite expression onto her face.
“Mohidra sent a representative all the way from India to Korea. If we can’t even keep a simple appointment time here in Korea, what kind of impression do you think that’ll leave?”
At the mention of “Mohidra,” Ga Eul’s ears perked up.
Mohidra was precisely the company featured in the file she’d spent two days laboriously compiling, only for the owner to skim it lazily before tossing it aside—and which now sat on her desk, soon to be fed into the paper shredder.
“President, I’ll go run to Saemaeul Bank.”
Ga Eul placed the freshly brewed coffee before Dae Woong as she spoke.
“What for? Do we even do business with Saemaeul Bank?”
“You told me specifically to shred this document using the paper shredder, right? I’m borrowing theirs—the shredder at Saemaeul Bank. A friend of mine works there.”
Ga Eul waved the Mohidra file in her hand, as if to remind the owner that their office lacked any expensive equipment like a paper shredder.
“Do that after we get back. Stay on standby—I might need you to run an errand.”
Definitely smells fishy. Ga Eul rolled her eyes. It practically screamed, “Please eavesdrop on our conversation!”—which meant, in turn, “Then report it to Woo Jin’s father,” right?
She’d tested the owner by claiming she’d run to Saemaeul Bank—to see whether he truly wanted their conversation to leak. And the result confirmed: *yes*.
She now felt certain the owner knew she was reporting his activities to Woo Jin’s father. Since when had he begun suspecting her? Had he known from the very beginning? Even as she dismissed it as unlikely, a chill crept into her chest.
“Is Mohidra definitely capable of acquiring Shinshin Motors? Remember how Edison Motors backed out of acquiring Ssangyong Motors after failing to make the final payment? If Mohidra’s acquisition of Shinshin Motors falls through, we, as their intermediary, will suffer massive repercussions.”
“Mohidra is one of India’s largest conglomerates, with total assets exceeding 130 trillion won. It makes no sense for them to collapse a 60-billion-won acquisition due to lack of payment capacity. You know how desperately Mohidra wants to enter the automobile industry—after their rival acquired several prestigious sports car manufacturers, Mohidra couldn’t help but panic.”
Dae Woong brushed off Se Hyun’s concerns.
“True—since they also lost the airline acquisition bid to a rival, they’d naturally be determined to secure Shinshin Motors this time.”
“Exactly—so we hold all the leverage. We can afford to play it cool.”
“How did you even get connected with Mohidra’s chairman? Didn’t Mistri’s chairman personally select you to handle the Shinshin Motors stake acquisition?”
“Back when I worked at ‘S&B,’ I once assisted the chairman with a personal investment. When I told him I’d be relocating to Korea and couldn’t oversee his affairs anymore, he asked me instead to assist him with matters here in Korea.”
After finishing his explanation, Ki Dae Woong downed the entire cup of coffee in one gulp. Ga Eul had heard of ‘S&B’ before.
America’s largest investment firm. Working under the owner, she’d naturally picked up that much—but she was still surprised to learn he’d once worked at such a prestigious company. Just how much about him remained unknown to her?
“Well then—shall we go?”
“You’re going dressed like that?”
Unlike Se Hyun, who wore a neat suit, Dae Woong was dressed in a shirt and cotton pants—the shirt, haphazardly tucked in, badly wrinkled from lying on the sofa.
“I’ll just buy something on the way.”
Dae Woong rose from his seat with an air of indifference.
“Ms. Han Ga Eul, the coffee was great—I’m starting to worry I might become addicted to instant mix coffee.”
Se Hyun stood up as well.
“We’ll be late, so go ahead and leave—no need to wait.”
Without even glancing at Ga Eul, Dae Woong stepped outside.
“President.”
After a brief hesitation, Ga Eul dashed out of the office and called after him. She wanted to confess—right then—that she intended to report the conversation they’d just had to Seon Woo Jin’s father.
“I have something I’d like to tell you.”
“Tomorrow.”
The owner waved his hand dismissively, clearly annoyed, and got into Jeong Se Hyun’s car parked out front. Ga Eul watched the car drive away, then returned and sank down onto the floor.
All her courage had drained away. His allowing her to overhear their talk felt like a warning.
*I know what you did last summer. If you plan to pull the same stunt this summer, you’d better rethink it—and at the very least, let me know what you’re plotting against me.*
Ga Eul sighed. Had the owner perhaps given her a chance to come clean? Yet the fact that he wouldn’t even meet her eyes made that hard to believe. She abruptly stood up and began cleaning the office. When her mind was tangled, moving her body was the best remedy.
* * *
After finishing her tutoring session, Ga Eul slowly trudged home, stopping at a convenience store to buy a bottle of soju. Today, she’d decided to drink—she was genuinely craving alcohol.
She’d been let go from every tutoring job she’d held. Though each family gave different excuses, they were just that—excuses. Most likely, Woo Jin’s mother had pulled strings behind the scenes; otherwise, they wouldn’t have all coincidentally terminated her services simultaneously.
Ga Eul believed Woo Jin’s mother was retaliating because she’d failed to cleanly sever ties with Woo Jin.
After all, those tutoring positions had originally been arranged by Woo Jin’s mother—so even though the benefactor had revoked her gifts, Ga Eul couldn’t bring herself to resent her. Still, her heart ached.
For a while, Ga Eul stood motionless outside the convenience store. She couldn’t go home—not today. It was her grandfather’s death anniversary, and Han Myeong Ho—her paternal uncle—would be visiting.
Convinced that her father had squandered the inheritance he was entitled to under the guise of running a business, her uncle always bullied Ga Eul and Han Gyeo Wool whenever he saw them.
Avoiding him had become an unspoken rule for the two sisters, neither of whom could endure his abuse. Gyeo Wool, too, would use “evening self-study” as an excuse to return home only after her uncle had left.
Ga Eul aimlessly wandered back to her office. Though the owner had said he’d be late, he still hadn’t returned—the entire building was pitch black, even the second-floor residence where he lived remained dark.
Inside the office, Ga Eul didn’t turn on the lights. She wanted to hide in the darkness.
Once her eyes adjusted, she went straight to her desk and sat down. Popping the cap off the soju bottle, she poured its contents straight into her mouth. Her throat and esophagus burned; heat even rose in her empty stomach.
After finishing the entire bottle, Ga Eul slumped face-down onto her desk. She felt unusually drained—perhaps from skipping dinner, or maybe from being dismissed from tutoring.
“The kids kept saying they wanted to keep learning from me, and their mothers asked why I was quitting—saying now that their children had improved, they’d send them to prestigious cram schools and elite-university prep classes. So my lessons were just prep for elite-university prep classes? Is that what this is?”
She sat up again, tilting the soju bottle toward her mouth—but nothing came out. Only then did she recall she’d already emptied it. Shaking the bottle uselessly once more, she placed it back on the desk.
“Well, maybe it’s for the best. I had to cut ties with them eventually anyway.”
She lay down again and began singing. A nostalgic trot spilled from her lips—her father’s favorite song, he’d once told her, which *his* father—the grandfather—had also loved dearly.
“Life is truly unpredictable—I never imagined I’d be the granddaughter of a wealthy heiress. So now I’m going to quit this company too. But if I leave, what’ll the owner do? Well, he’ll just hire someone new, of course. Unless he fixes that terrible attitude, no employee will last long—only someone like me could possibly endure it. Actually, if I weren’t drowning in debt, I’d have spat and walked out ages ago.”
Feeling the alcohol take hold, Ga Eul muttered to herself—when suddenly, her body froze. She was sure she’d just heard a groan-like sound. Every hair on her body stood on end; a chill raced down her spine—she couldn’t even scream.
“Uuuh…”
The noise came from the sofa. Someone else was in the office. Terrified, Ga Eul switched on her phone’s flashlight and shone it toward the sofa.
“President?”
There lay Ki Dae Woong, sprawled across the sofa—apparently passed out again after drinking. Ga Eul exhaled in relief and approached him.
“President?”
She tried waking him to help him upstairs, but he remained deeply unconscious. Peering closely at his sleeping face, she grumbled,
“President, you really are useless to the very end—even when I came here just hoping to catch my breath, you stole even that space from me. But hey—President, do you know something?”
Ga Eul paused and silently stared down at his face. Lit by the dim phone light, his closed eyes gave him an unexpectedly gentle appearance. Since he was asleep—and she herself was intoxicated—perhaps now was the right moment to voice what she’d kept bottled up inside.
So she opened her mouth.
Male lead first thought she played hard to get, only to realize she
really disliked him
Short intro:
What she can’t stand the most is the streets full of effeminate men, especially that so-called top beauty whom she avoids at all costs.
Shen Yaoxing looks at Jiang Mingyue, who keeps approaching her with coy shyness.
Shen Yaoxing: Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up!
She fears nothing in heaven or earth, except for him getting close to her.
*
At first he thought she was just using the trick of feigning indifference to attract his attention. Later, he learned that she truly despised him.
This dealt a heavy blow to Jiang Mingyue, and he vowed to make her, like everyone else, fall at his feet in worship!
***
Synopsis:
Before transmigrating, Shen Yaoxing only wanted to find a reliable man to spend her life with. Who knew that after transmigrating, she would become a reliable woman herself…
A forced misandrist, highly skilled, and reliable female lead
vs.
An initially aloof and arrogant, later morbid, obsessed male lead
_____
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