His cheek is burning. When did it start? Did it get worse when he was catching the breeze on the rooftop? His eyelids had grown heavy along with it. He tried to look unbothered as he stepped into the elevator, and Yun Sena followed him in.
“Will you be okay going home alone?”
“Yeah. I’m just tired. Go back and apologize to your parents for me leaving early.”
“They all know how busy you are, so don’t worry about it. And Mom is completely drunk right now anyway.”
Her mother had lived the life of an entertainer, and she hadn’t come from a family with powerful backing. Perhaps because of that, there had been something subtly isolating about her presence at the banquet. On top of that, the first wife had shown up brazenly, so no matter that she was Chairman Yun’s spouse, people’s attention inevitably gravitated toward the eldest and second son — the prospective heirs.
Yun Sena knew that, and it quietly stoked a simmering resentment in her. Since joining the headquarters, she had consistently produced results and earned recognition from her superiors, yet the positions she could actually rise to were limited. She was fully aware that her role, at the end of the day, was to support her brothers.
As the elevator descended, Yun Sena pressed close beside him and straightened his tie.
“It’s such a shame. On a night like this, I wish we could be together until morning.”
Then she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Maybe I should come along too?”
Heesin glanced at the CCTV camera inside the elevator. He knew that if someone saw and word got out, it would do Yun Sena no good. He quietly tried to remove her arm, and she scrunched her brow with a little whine. The sight of it was so cute that a soft laugh escaped him.
“Don’t tempt me.”
“What about a kiss?”
“You’ll catch my cold.”
“It’s just a body ache.”
The moment they stepped out of the elevator, Yun Sena pulled Kang Heesin into a secluded corner away from the CCTV cameras. She hastily pressed her lips to his and pushed him against the wall. Not satisfied with that, she moved her hand toward his pants. He immediately stopped her hand, and her pretty face turned into a pout.
“Don’t do this. Are you trying to kill me?”
Yun Sena let out a sigh and straightened his disheveled tie, smoothing down his shirt collar.
She said she hated having to part like this. She told him to call when he got home, and to make sure he took his medicine.
“Yeah. I will.”
As if that still wasn’t enough, she pulled him by the waist and rubbed her cheek against his chest.
“It’s such a shame. I wish we’d hurry up and get married. So I can see your face every day.”
In that instant, the photo Im Gyeong had shown him surfaced in his mind. Was she done with the man in that photo? Park Taemin had said something once — that daughters from wealthy families kept celebrity boyfriends as a kind of hobby. He’d asked whether his girlfriend was the same. Did I get angry then…? Or did I just brush it off…?
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
Heesin smiled and said it was nothing.
“I’ll get going. Go back up quickly. Your mother will be waiting.”
“Let me know when you get home.”
“Yeah.”
He pressed the button, and the elevator doors, which had been sitting still, slid open. Even after Yun Sena stepped inside, she waved her hand in that adorable little way of hers. He watched until the elevator came to a stop at the banquet hall floor, then walked toward where he’d parked his car.
He settled into the back seat, and the headache hit him belatedly like his skull was about to split. He opened the glove box to check if there were any headache pills left, but found only an empty box. He called for a designated driver on his phone and leaned his head against the window. He felt more than exhausted — his body seemed to be sinking inward.
How much time had passed? In the middle of dozing off, someone tapped the door twice. He looked outside and saw a man with a gentle face, smiling at him.
“Hello, are you the owner of vehicle 3948?”
“Yes.”
Excuse me for a moment. The man got into the driver’s seat, adjusted the seat forward, and started up the navigation. Then he pulled a hangover remedy from his pocket and held it out.
“You look tired — have this.”
It felt awkward to refuse the man’s kindness. Thank you. He accepted it but didn’t bring it to his lips, instead tucking it into the backseat cup holder. Shortly after, the engine started and the car slowly made a loop around the parking garage. As they approached the exit, he caught sight of people who had slipped out of the banquet midway.
Im Gyeong was among them. When did he come down? Im Gyeong, who had been talking to someone, shifted his gaze in this direction. He instinctively shrank back. The tinted windows were dark enough that his face couldn’t be seen — and yet it felt like he could be seen anyway.
How long had he been standing there…? Did he happen to see what was going on with Yun Sena?
Then he caught himself and let out an incredulous laugh.
So what if he did. Getting worked up over nothing.
The car passed by Im Gyeong. He stood there like that for a long while. Once they pulled out onto the road, Heesin’s eyelids began to droop beyond his control. “Excuse me — if there’s a convenience store or pharmacy nearby, could you pull over for a moment?”
About ten minutes of driving later, the car stopped near a pharmacy. He was relieved to find one still open at that hour. He went in, bought medicine, took it, and came right back out. The driver was outside smoking and talking to someone on the phone. Something about hospital bills — his expression was visibly weighed down.
When Heesin got back into the rear seat, the designated driver ended the call and climbed back in.
Are you feeling any better? The voice asking was kind.
“Could you wake me when we arrive?”
“Of course. I’ll make sure to wake you.”
He shifted around and finally rested his head fully against the window. His eyes slowly opened and closed until he drifted off, and at some point he felt the car come to a stop. The designated driver’s voice felt unreal, like something from inside a dream.
“We’ve arrived. Sir?”
He opened his eyes to the man’s face. The driver handed back his keys and said goodbye, telling him to take care going in. He was about to do just that when the man took a sudden step forward.
Sir, there’s something on your collar.
The man’s hand touched the shirt collar. He felt fingertips brush against his neck.
“I’ll get it.”
Did it get messed up from sleeping…? He reached down to straighten his shirt, and the designated driver smiled and said goodbye again, telling him to get home safe. He was a remarkably kind person, rare to find these days. Just then, the image of the man’s shadowed face in front of the pharmacy — muttering something about hospital bills — flashed through his mind.
“Wait a moment.”
He pulled out his wallet and took out 30,000 won. He would have liked to give more, but that was all the cash he had on him. When he held out the bills, the man’s eyes went wide and round.
“Cabs don’t come by here often. Please get home safely.”
The man gave a small bow and turned to leave. The sound of footsteps. Then a quiet, barely audible sigh. Was the amount too little? Does he think I pitied him? No, so what if it was pity. If someone pitied me enough to hand me free money, I’d be perfectly happy. Maybe he still has enough pride that things haven’t gotten that hard yet. He entertained all sorts of imagined scenarios as he made his way home.
Perhaps his tension had fully unwound, because his body grew suddenly, crushingly heavy — as if boulders had been strapped to him.
“I’m getting old.”
There was a time he’d work through to dawn and then be fine with a bowl of hangover soup and a shot of soju in the morning. He needed to wash up, but now he couldn’t muster the energy to move a single finger. He collapsed onto the bed as if he’d blacked out. His consciousness sank somewhere down below. His position was uncomfortable, but even turning over felt like too much effort. Why am I so sleepy tonight. Is it the cold medicine?
He was sure it was just extreme fatigue. Right up until the moment he opened his eyes in the morning.
He reached for the spot beside his pillow out of habit, but his phone wasn’t where it always was. Something felt off. Heesin barely managed to sit up. His head was foggy and his mind wasn’t fully coming back to him.
…Strange?
Frowning, he looked down at himself. He’d been so exhausted that his tie was still on. No matter how tired I’ve been, this has never happened… He could understand if he’d been blackout drunk, but all he’d had to drink yesterday was a small cocktail. Could it be from the lack of sleep and taking the medicine on top of that?
He glanced around the bedroom. The scene was no different from usual, yet something felt subtly off. He was about to get out of bed when a prickling sense of unease stopped him. He leaned over and sniffed the bed sheet — and his eyes wavered in a way they rarely did.
This time he pressed his nose right in and inhaled deeply.
The faint scent of a woman’s cosmetics was soaked into the sheets — a scent that had no place in his bedroom.
This was his space, and he never brought women here. He always met Yun Sena outside, too. And yet — a woman’s cosmetics. He lifted the duvet and combed through it, but there wasn’t a single trace to be found. He sat there in a daze for a long while before he began to arrive at a conclusion.
It felt like the fog that had been filling his mind was slowly beginning to clear.
He quickly climbed down from the bed and looked for his phone. Then he swept through the apartment as if hunting for fleas. Even though he didn’t clean often, he knew with uncanny precision exactly which item was where. Just to be sure, he checked the floor and the bed again — but he couldn’t find anything like a woman’s strand of hair.
After sitting on the sofa deliberating for a long while, he showered and changed clothes, then hurried down to the building management office. When he pushed open the door, the building manager — who had come in early that morning — recognized his face and greeted him cheerfully.
“Good morning. What brings you by so early?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but would it be possible to check the CCTV? I think someone may have come into my unit last night.”
“At night? Someone came in? Have you filed a police report?”
The manager was startled. Heesin asked again whether it could be checked quickly, just for a moment. Without any further hesitation, the manager guided him to where the CCTV footage was kept.
Let’s see, let’s see — you’re in Building 104, correct? Just a moment.
A moment later, the live footage from the Building 104 elevator appeared on the screen. It was Sunday morning, and the elevator was quiet. He rewound the footage and, using the approximate time he’d arrived home the previous night as a reference point, began reviewing it from that moment forward, one frame at a time.
But no one had gotten off on the 8th floor besides him. He sat there with a blank, disbelieving expression when an unfamiliar woman stepped into the elevator from the first floor. 2 AM? The manager muttered, looking at the woman with long straight hair in a short dress.
“This one rested yesterday, it seems…”
“Do you know her?”
“Sure do. She’s a young woman who lives on the 4th floor. Seems like she goes out for work at night and comes home in the morning. She came back early yesterday.”
The woman got off directly at the 4th floor. And after that, no one had gotten off at the 8th floor either. He could suspect the neighbor next door, but an elderly couple lived there and they rarely went out.
Am I just imagining things…? He had been staring fixedly at the screen when he called for the building manager.
“There’s a CCTV camera facing Building 104, right? Would it be possible for me to see that footage?”
“Ah, that one’s been broken for quite a while now.”
The manager seemed to catch himself and changed it to not that long ago. It was obvious he was worried about being blamed over it.
“But is anything missing? Wouldn’t it be better to report it to the police?”
Heesin thought it over, then rose from his seat.
“Thank you for your help.”
He said goodbye and left, then came straight back home. Just to be sure, he sniffed the bed again — and there it was, faintly, unmistakably. Since when? Since I came in? Or sometime after? His mind was a tangled mess. Just then, a call came in from Yun Sena.
The moment he picked up, an bright voice spilled through the receiver.
“You’re up? How are you feeling? I called last night but you didn’t pick up — must have been asleep.”
Yun Sena sounded elated about something.
He didn’t want to dampen her mood, so he deliberately shifted his tone up just slightly.
“Sorry. I took the medicine and passed out. You sound happy. Did something happen?”
“Listen — don’t be too shocked!”
“I’m listening.”
“Dad said he approves of our marriage!”
His eyes went wide for a moment at Yun Sena’s words. In a voice brimming with excitement, she relayed how her father, just last night, had spoken well of a man named Kang Heesin — and had let it be known that he was open to viewing their marriage favorably.
“…That’s good news.”
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say? You’re no fun. What kind of reaction is that? Am I the only one happy about this?”
Without realizing it, he found himself staring at the disheveled bed. This was what I’d been hoping for. I should be happy enough to dance. So why does it feel this wrong, this ominous.
Suddenly a thought flashed through his mind. Still on the call, he walked over to the living room window this time. He could see the cars parked outside below. He gazed at them and let his voice swell just a little — like a man deeply, genuinely moved.
“I am happy! I’m so happy I could cry.”
