Chapter 15: The Invitation

At Joyoon’s demand, Jiheum only shifted her eyes to the side and bit her lip.

Though he was her superior and the CEO, perhaps it was because she had only seen him once at the office.

Calling him by name didn’t seem entirely out of the question.

Still, she didn’t have the courage to actually do it.

With Joyoon staring intently at her, Jiheum’s body grew increasingly tense.

Fearing his gaze might drag back memories of that night, she hurried to change the subject.

“But what was it you wanted to tell me?”

“I already said it.”

“Pardon?”

“On that day, did you drink whiskey well?”

The corners of Joyoon’s mouth curved up smoothly.

He looked at her with a beaming expression, as if telling her to figure it out for herself.

While Jiheum’s eyes wavered with a frantic sense of unease, the cocktails were placed in front of them.

Jiheum squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers toyed with the stem of her glass.

He definitely knows.

Following the intuition that swept through her entire body, Jiheum slowly lifted her eyelids.

“Did you… recognize me?”

“Short hair, Yoon Jiheum.”

Jiheum’s movements came to a dead stop.

“I haven’t forgotten you for a single moment.”

The color drained from Jiheum’s already pale face.

Her small shoulders stiffened so rigidly they looked almost painful, but Joyoon did not stop.

“It was the first time I felt such a thrill.”

Joyoon leaned in and whispered into her ear, causing the skin on her neck to prickle and flush deep red.

She was so shocked her brain felt frozen; she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

Jiheum managed to part her lips and shifted her body slightly.

Unable to find the courage to ask while looking at him, she spoke toward the front.

“Then why did you pretend not to know?”

“Because I thought that was what you wanted, Ms. Yoon Jiheum.”

“Ah…”

How humiliating.

Jiheum covered her face with both hands and let out a heavy sigh.

“If you want, I can keep pretending not to know.”

Laughter was laced in his voice.

She tilted her head slightly and saw Joyoon smiling at her.

He seemed so unbothered that it felt somewhat cruel.

She, on the other hand, wanted to vanish into thin air right then and there.

“I think I should go now.”

“Is running away a hobby of yours, Ms. Yoon Jiheum?”

“No, it’s just… I’m so embarrassed.”

Jiheum squeezed her eyes shut and muttered softly.

“What’s there to be embarrassed about? We’re both adults.”

Joyoon’s attitude suggested there was absolutely no issue.

Sure, it’s like that for you. You’re my boss, not my subordinate.

Jiheum bit her lip hard.

If she didn’t, she felt she might scream out, Because you’re the one in power!

Since he had likely spent his entire life as the one in control, there was no way he could understand the fear and dread felt by those beneath him.

“Want to get intoxicated again?”

Pardon? What on earth does that mean?

Jiheum’s lips parted weakly, and her eyes, wide as full moons, turned toward Joyoon.

“Properly this time. Without running away.”

Under his sweet whisper, Jiheum found herself unable to move.

****

Knock, knock.

A knock broke the silence of the small room.

Jiheum, who had barely fallen asleep after tossing and turning until dawn, snapped her eyes open.

“Yes… coming.”

Jiheum struggled to sit up as the door swung open.

As expected, Eumandaek poked her head inside.

In this house, Eumandaek was the only person who would ever come to her room and knock.

“The master is looking for you.”

Jiheum blinked and brushed back her hair.

Gwano was a man who never sought her out.

She couldn’t believe he was asking for her first.

“He said to come to the study. Hurry up and go down.”

“……Okay.”

Answering blankly, Jiheum wiped her face with her hands and threw back the covers.

“I’m busy preparing breakfast. It would be nice if you’d just come down early like usual.”

Eumandaek glared at Jiheum, complaining about being made to walk up and down the stairs, and then slammed the door shut.

Jiheum got out of bed, looking unbothered as if she were used to the harsh closing of the door.

She changed quickly and entered the study to find Gwano flipping through a newspaper.

“You called for me?”

“I heard the blind date ended prematurely. What were you doing that made you come home so late?”

“I didn’t realize you had suddenly developed an interest in my curfew.”

Gwano was the only person Jiheum felt she could openly resent.

Seonju, who made her shrink with guilt, and Jiyoon, whose unpredictable moods were hard to read, were both difficult for Jiheum.

Furthermore, both of them were victims in their own right.

Though, of course, they would never view Jiheum as a victim.

But toward Gwano—the man responsible for her birth—she wanted to direct her resentment and blame without hesitation.

“You little…!”

Gwano bolted up from the sofa and hurled the newspaper he was reading.

The fluttering paper landed with a thud at Jiheum’s feet.

“You’ve grown bold. After ruining a blind date like that, you should be begging for forgiveness, yet you talk back?”

Facing his fierce, glaring eyes, Jiheum felt more like laughing hollowly than feeling afraid.

It was absurd to see a man who had ignored her existence for so long reveal his true colors the moment a marriage deal was on the line.

“Why didn’t you tell the blind date candidate?”

“Tell him what?”

“That I’m an adoptee. Or more accurately, an illegitimate child. That I am your filthy illegitimate daughter, Father.”

Jiheum’s sunken brown eyes were filled with resentment.

She had spent her adolescence consumed by the thought that it would have been better if she had never been born.

Thinking she was mistreated simply because she was an adoptee, she had worked even harder.

She had tried to maintain top grades and lived compliantly, trying to be an obedient daughter who listened well.

But then she found out.

She wasn’t just an adoptee; she was a bastard—something even lower.

No one had bothered to tell her that crucial fact.

If it hadn’t been for her biological mother showing up when she was eighteen, she might have lived her whole life in ignorance, still struggling to be loved.

The reason Seonju treated her like a ghost despite having adopted her, the reason the once-kind

Jiyoon suddenly turned cold, and the way Gwano had looked down on her like a hideous insect from the moment they met…

Everything made sense once she heard the truth from Young-chae.

‘Then, where is my biological father?’

‘What do you mean where is he? You’ve been living with him this whole time.’

‘Living with me?’

‘Yoon Gwano is your real father. You didn’t know?’

Until she was eighteen, she had lived believing her biological father was her adoptive father.

Young-chae had clicked her tongue at the dazed Jiheum.

She had cursed them, calling them cold-blooded for never saying a single word about her real father.

They really are cold-blooded.

They had hidden the truth for over a decade, wrapping the daughter he had sired in the packaging of an “adoptee.”

“Ha! To think a thing like you was even born.”

Gwano, glaring at Jiheum with huffing disapproval, sat back down on the sofa.

He crossed his arms in silence as if he no longer wanted to deal with her.

Jiheum had come to live in this house at the age of four.

From then until today, twenty-five years later, Gwano had always treated her as if she didn’t exist.

To think the first time she was invited into her father’s study was for something as trivial as a blind date.

“I’ll arrange another date soon.”

Gwano spoke toward the wall of the study.

Seeing how he thoroughly ignored her, Jiheum felt no need to respond.

Without a word of agreement or protest, she turned toward the door, but Gwano added more.

“This time, don’t act so unseemly.”

“Unseemly?”

The word slipped out like a monologue.

Too late to take it back, Jiheum turned halfway and looked at Gwano.

“And what does that mean?”

“Are you actually proud of yourself? I’m telling you not to act up like a brazen brat. A human being should at least know shame.”

Jiheum’s clenched fists trembled violently.

You should be the one who feels shame. Did I choose to be born? You, who brought me into the world like this, should be the one to know shame.

“Keep yourself well-wrapped in that ‘adoptee’ packaging. Don’t go around blabbing that you’re a bastard as if it’s some ‘truth’.”

Gwano’s undisguised true feelings gouged into Jiheum’s heart without mercy.

Monday. The office was buzzing.

Jiheum watched Manager Heo Hyeyoung and Heeseung as they left for the meeting room.

She needed to head to the meeting room before she was late as well.

But she felt as if she were glued to her chair, unwilling to move a muscle.

She wondered what had possessed him to come into the office again.

Trouble was etched across Jiheum’s face.

Joyoon had gone over a month without coming into the office after taking over as CEO.

Then, after appearing for the first time last Monday, things had been quiet… had he decided to start coming in every Monday now?

Today was a meeting day, so it was a situation where she couldn’t avoid seeing his face even if she wanted to.

‘Want to get drunk again? ‘

‘Properly this time. Without running away.’

Ah…Startled by the recurring thought, Jiheum covered both cheeks with her hands.

She felt like hiding, remembering how she had stammered and run away instead of demanding to know what on earth he thought he was doing.

“Assistant Manager. Aren’t you going?”

A slightly excited Eunjae approached Jiheum’s desk and spoke.

“Ah, I should. I’m going now.”

There was even a sense of grim determination in Jiheum’s movements as she gathered her materials.