‘Could that man be the landlord?’

It was during the final interview for the company Eun Seo had applied to at the end of that year that she realized her thought upon seeing the man who had abruptly visited the house was correct.

That man was sitting among the interviewers. Along with a nameplate that read ‘CEO Kwon Seung Joo’. It was the exact same name written on Eun Seo’s lease contract.

Once you see his face, it’s impossible to forget. Thus, Eun Seo recognized him immediately, but he didn’t seem to recognize her. There were no such indications during the interview, and it was the same after she was hired and started working.

No matter how little contact there is between a CEO and an entry-level employee, there’s no way they wouldn’t see each other’s faces over 2 years of working in the same building. They ran into each other quite a few times, and there were even occasions when they rode the elevator with just the two of them, without his secretary. Three times at that.

The conversations that took place when it was just the two of them were exactly the same all three times, as if scripted.

There was no trace of the expression that looked like it would crumble at any moment that night. A person who looked like not even a drop of blood would come out if pricked with a needle – no, who didn’t even seem to have a gap for a needle to pierce through. That was CEO Kwon Seung Joo.

So Eun Seo thought, he must not recognize me. Well, he was drunk at the time after all.

There was no reason to pretend to know him when the other person doesn’t remember. There was also no need for her to step up and reveal that she was his tenant.

So except for the one-sided affection she secretly harbored from afar, they were merely a CEO and a low-level employee, or a landlord and a tenant. That was all to their relationship.

‘But why on earth…?’

Eun Seo’s mind became complicated as she looked at the face of the man lying on the hospital bed as if dead.

Kwon Seung Joo had clearly realized in advance that the car was rushing onto the sidewalk. In other words, he had enough time to avoid it. Yet instead of throwing his own body to dodge it, he had pushed Eun Seo out of the way and gotten hit by the car alone.

Thankfully, it seemed someone passing by had quickly reported it. An ambulance arrived before long and Kwon Seung Joo was transported to a nearby hospital as is. Eun Seo had also followed to the hospital in a fluster.

The fortunate thing amidst the misfortune was that the spot where he was thrown after being hit by the car happened to be on top of a pile of fallen leaves that a street sweeper had gathered by the roadside. Although his bruising was severe, thanks to that, not a single bone was broken.

While the unconscious Kwon Seung Joo was being treated by the medical staff, Eun Seo explained what she saw to the police who had come to the hospital in as much detail as possible. According to the police, the perpetrator was being investigated separately at the police station, claiming that the car had suddenly accelerated.

It would be proper to contact his family, but there was no way to know their contact information. Left with no choice, Eun Seo searched the company messenger and called his secretary. She was hesitant to contact a personal cell phone on a day off, but the situation was what it was.

“This is Yoon Eun Seo from the Planning Team. The CEO has been in a car accident.”

Before long, the pale-faced secretary rushed to the hospital in a fluster. Eun Seo explained the circumstances of the accident in as much detail as possible once more.

That she had come to the office for a bit on the weekend because she had something to do, and while greeting the CEO whom she saw standing by the road, she had witnessed the accident.

“I understand.”

However, she ultimately couldn’t bring herself to say that he had pushed her out of the way and gotten hit by the car alone. It seemed they wouldn’t believe her even if she said it.

*

Eun Seo just happened to be next to him the moment the accident occurred. She was neither Kwon Seung Joo’s family nor friend nor anything else. Now that the secretary had arrived, there was no reason for her to continue staying by his side, so after relaying what she had witnessed, she went straight home.

By the time she returned home, it was already late at night, but she couldn’t sleep with this thought and that thought. Her mind was filled with the question of why on earth he had done that.

‘Could it be that he felt a bit sorry towards me?’

Eun Seo quickly shook her head. There’s no way someone who feels sorry would do such a thing.

No matter how much she thought about it, there was no way Kwon Seung Joo could be harboring goodwill towards her. To the extent of risking his own life at that.

The conclusion she reached after much contemplation was that it had simply been a reflexive action in an urgent situation. Wouldn’t it have been the same regardless of whether the person next to him was Eun Seo or someone else?

‘The fact that he instinctively acted that way… does it mean he’s not originally such a bad person?’

The moment she had that thought, Kwon Seung Joo’s cold voice replayed in her ears.

Ah, I don’t know. Eun Seo pulled the blanket over her head.

*

Regardless of the reason, it was true that Eun Seo was indebted to Kwon Seung Joo. If he alone had thrown his body to dodge, it would be Eun Seo lying in the hospital right now.

The next day was Monday. Unable to just ignore it, Eun Seo headed to the hospital early in the morning with a box of juice she had bought. She was planning to visit before going to work.

After yelling at him like that yesterday, she agonized over how to greet the person she was going to see, but when she arrived at the hospital, she was told he was still unconscious.

“What? He still hasn’t woken up?”

The secretary’s face was gloomy as he nodded.

“Didn’t they say he wasn’t seriously injured aside from the bruising?”

“That’s right. Judging from his brainwaves being normal, they’re saying he’s just sleeping, but…”

The accident happened yesterday afternoon. Kwon Seung Joo was known to be someone who slept four hours a day and worked. If it was just ordinary sleep, there’s no way he would sleep this long.

Eun Seo was suddenly frightened. What if he ends up as a vegetable…!

As she stood there not knowing what to do, a woman’s urgent voice was heard from somewhere.

“Where is my Seung Joo, where is my Seung Joo?”

A middle-aged woman with an anxious expression appeared at the end of the hallway. She was accompanied by several people who seemed to be attendants.

Kwon Seung Joo’s secretary, who was with Eun Seo, hurriedly ran over and bowed deeply.

“Madam, you’ve arrived.”

Based on the circumstances, she had to be Kwon Seung Joo’s mother, in other words, the chairman’s wife, but the woman looked surprisingly young. Her long hair that reached below her collarbone was glossy, and not a single wrinkle could be seen on her skin that seemed to glow from within. The body in the elegant dress looked slender.

The chaebol madams Eun Seo had seen in dramas were mostly heavily made up, wore fur, and had flashy accessories, but this woman looked plain and pure. It was hard to believe she had a son in his early thirties.

‘Since I’m an employee of an affiliated company, should I also greet her?’

As Eun Seo hesitated, the madam paid no attention to someone like her and immediately rushed into the hospital room.

“Seung Joo!”

Nearly shoving aside the doctors and nurses surrounding the bed, the woman tightly grasped the hand of Kwon Seung Joo, who was lying as if dead, and called out in a tearful voice.

“Seung Joo, Mom is here. Can you open your eyes for me?”

It was a voice so sorrowful that even Eun Seo, watching from behind, felt her eyes grow hot without realizing it.

At that moment, his long eyelashes trembled as if it were a lie.

“Seung Joo, are you coming to? Hmm?”

As his mother cried out in deep emotion, his eyelids lifted heavily, little by little, very slowly.

With all the medical staff holding their breath and watching, the man who had struggled to open his eyes eventually mumbled.

“Mom…?”

The man who had been unconscious had opened his eyes as if responding to his mother’s desperate calls.

His mother grasped his hand tightly with tears welling up.

“Yes, Seung Joo. Mom is here. It’s okay now.”

However, when he actually saw his mother, he gave her a wary look.

“Who are you, ma’am?”

Shock spread across the beautiful face of the chairman’s wife. But Kwon Seung Joo ignored her and looked around while lying down.

“Where’s my mom? You said Mom is here.”

His mother asked urgently.

“Seung Joo, you don’t recognize Mom?”

The next moment, the man flung away his mother’s hand.

“How are you my mom!”

His mother froze. The medical staff around them were all flustered as well.

“Where’s Mom? Where is my mom!”

The enraged man began thrashing violently. He even tried to jump out of the bed, causing a huge commotion as the nurses pushed down his large frame.

“Tranquilizer, administer the tranquilizer!”

Eun Seo used that chance to slip out of the hospital room.

‘What did I just witness?’

Her heart pounded wildly, feeling as if she had unintentionally glimpsed into the private matters of a chaebol family.

In fact, Eun Seo had also vaguely heard that Kwon Seung Joo’s mother was his stepmother. But to outright yell, ‘How are you my mom, ma’am’ like that.

‘But she seemed to think of him like her own son.’

Thinking back belatedly, there was something strange. The accident happened yesterday, so if she was that worried, why did she rush over only today? There’s no way the secretary hadn’t contacted her much earlier.

‘Then could it be that everything earlier was all a show?’

However, recalling the madam’s face as she held his hand and called out sorrowfully, “Seung Joo,” such a thought didn’t seem possible at all.

‘Ah, she could have happened to be somewhere far away. Like overseas or something.’

It’s also rude to speculate this and that about someone else’s family situation. Eun Seo stopped thinking about it at that point and headed to work.

*

At times like this, it’s faster to ask an expert. After having lunch together, Eun Seo casually took Sun Ah to the break room, handed her a can of coffee, and asked.

“Hey, Sun Ah. You know, the chairman’s wife, our CEO’s mother.”

“Mother, my foot.”

Sun Ah immediately pouted her lips, looking displeased.

“She’s his stepmother, right? Did his birth mother pass away?”

“What, Eun Seo, you didn’t know about that?”

Sun Ah stared intently at Eun Seo with an incredulous look.

“It was a huge deal when we were young, the missing chaebol madam case!”