Chapter 35
The day dawned.
Fortunately, the room was warm enough that I didn’t feel particularly cold even without covering myself with a blanket.
The sleeping arrangement, which I thought would be uncomfortable, wasn’t as bad as I expected.
“Did you sleep well, Oppa?”
“…Yes, I slept well, thanks to you.”
“But why didn’t you come into my blanket? Unlike other Oppas, our intern Oppa is… fine with me♥”
“…..”
Let’s say I was a crazy guy who was aroused by women.
If I had given in to Jeong Da-ram’s seduction yesterday and gone under her blanket, I would have been found as a corpse in the thatched house the next day.
“Since it’s morning, I should be going now.”
“Already? Won’t you at least have breakfast before you go?”
“That’s alright.”
Bow
I finally escaped from Jeong Da-ram’s house.
“See you at the agency! O-ppa~♥”
Let’s never meet again!
With Park Yeon-jeong’s thorough boundary-setting.
I found a bus stop not far away, and fortunately, a village bus heading toward Park Yeon-jeong himself caught my eye with perfect timing.
Pssssssh.
With the distinctive sound of air being released from the bus, my footsteps didn’t head straight to the front door of the bus like last time.
I started looking around at the exterior of the bus.
I shouldn’t repeat the same mistake as before.
The bus driver, who was watching this behavior with a strange look, reprimanded me.
“If you’re not getting on, I’m leaving!”
“…I’ll get on.”
Thankfully, this bus had a normal route number.
After boarding the bus, I turned on my working navigation app and checked the distance to my home.
-1 hour and 20 minutes remaining to my destination.
…I came far.
Afterward, I had to transfer buses about four times before I could return to the vicinity of Seongsu Station.
Of course, to avoid Kim Ha-eun’s possible radar network, I could only get off the bus after moving a few more stops.
*****
“…She’s beautiful.”
“…Oppa, let’s break up.”
Beauty that instantly captivates the attention of passing men.
Not empty words spoken for the sake of being heard, but sincere admiration escapes from people’s mouths.
-She’s pretty.
-She’s beautiful.
-Isn’t she a celebrity?
Sparkling gazes as if they’ve seen something beyond human.
Or, the snow-white skin like white jade and hair as white as snow reminiscent of a snow woman appearing in folk tales.
It was more than enough to attract the eyes of everyone on the street.
“…Seongsu Station, Exit 1.”
Eyes like glass beads scan the surroundings.
Lee Sang-moo stared for a while at a black-haired woman waiting for someone next to Exit 1 of Seongsu Station.
“…Kim Ha-eun, employee?”
“Yes?”
The black-haired woman responded to the small sob of the woman.
“What are you… waiting for someone… in a place like this?”
“…Oh! Ma-Manager!”
Kim Ha-eun, realizing belatedly that the person in front of her was her company superior, immediately bowed at a 90-degree angle.
“Yes, yes! I was w-waiting for someone!”
“…Since you always… seemed to be alone, I was worried. But… you have an acquaintance.”
Lee Sang-moo took a shallow breath as if relieved.
“Ma-Manager, what brings you to a place like this…”
Kim Ha-eun trailed off and changed the subject.
“…If you don’t mind, would Kim Ha-eun… also like to come?”
“…Pardon?”
Lee Sang-moo’s story seemed to omit quite a lot of content, including unnecessary details.
“…Is your time… okay?”
“Yes, yes!”
Kim Ha-eun didn’t know what was going on, but there probably isn’t an intern who could refuse a superior at work… no, someone as high as a managing director asks an intern like herself to go somewhere.
Lee Sang-moo checked the time on her wristwatch.
12:42 PM.
“…The timing is good.”
With a satisfied face after checking the time.
“Let’s… go.”
Following Lee Sang-moo’s footsteps, Kim Ha-eun followed her as well.
The place Lee Sang-moo’s steps were headed to.
<Seongsu Station Exit 1>
With the thought of ‘surely not’, Kim Ha-eun watched the situation, but Lee Sang-moo didn’t move toward the escalator going up to the station without hesitation.
Lee Sang-moo began climbing the stone stairs next to it.
Her voice flowing out like a small recitation:
“…Fifteen… twenty-one… thirty-two.”
“…”
It didn’t take long for that ‘surely not’ thought to turn into confirmation.
“…Forty-four.”
The murmuring of people that had been heard until just now subsided.
Rather than saying it subsided,
A dark space that makes one feel as if only silence had existed in this place from the beginning.
The space created by the absence of noise made one nervous about every small movement.
And the one who broke that empty silence was none other than
Lee Sang-moo.
“…Ha-eun, this is your… first time here, right?”
“Yes, yes?!”
“…Or not?”
“Ah, yes… this is my first time too!”
“…”
“…”
She thought she shouldn’t be caught.
Purchasing items from the Ghost Story story General Store, which is treated as illegal contraband within the agency, skips the disciplinary referral and goes straight to severe punishment.
But…
Kim Ha-eun is originally a woman who can’t lie to save her life.
Lee Sang-moo’s cold gaze fiercely shot through Kim Ha-eun, enough to freeze her entire body.
‘…Have I been c-caught?’
Thinking that her lie had been discovered, Kim Ha-eun sensed she couldn’t avoid disciplinary action within the agency.
If that happened, not only would she be unable to meet the one she loves so much for a while,
She didn’t want to burden him by being a woman without even a respectable job.
Of course, the love that he has for me wouldn’t change.
Also, she didn’t want to lose this large company that had accepted her, Kim Ha-eun, among so many other companies.
‘…Y-yes, let me just be honest about everything.’
Isn’t there a good system in society where even if you’ve committed a crime, your sentence is reduced if you show a sincere attitude and confess first?
Kim Ha-eun took a deep breath and steeled her resolve.
To become a woman who wouldn’t be ashamed when meeting him again.
“…Manager, actually I!”
“I see… so it is… your first time.”
“…Pardon?”
“…But, did you have… something to say… to me?”
“Ah, no! It’s nothing! I-I was just saying that I’m excited since this is my first time here!”
Kim Ha-eun’s lie had worked.
Her lie, which had never fooled anyone until now, had worked on none other than her company superior.
Kim Ha-eun let out a shallow sigh of relief.
And so their footsteps…
Soon stopped in front of an old shop in a space filled with silence.
Slide.
What Lee Sang-moo witnessed after opening the sliding door and entering the building was…
Slurp!
“…Ramen?”
“Oh! Come in.”
The owner of our Ghost Story General Store, Jang Sa-hyeon, greeted customers with his mouth full of ramen.
He temporarily moved the pot of ramen he was eating to the side table and greeted the visitors who had come to his store after a long time.
“It’s been a while, Department head Lee Sang-moo.”
“Now I’m… a Managing Director.”
“What?! Has that much time passed already? Time really flies… huh?”
Jang Sa-hyeon noticed a familiar face standing behind Lee Sang-moo who had visited his store after a long time.
Our leading actress transformed a fresh romantic scene with a male customer in his store into a thriller genre in an instant.
“That person behind you is…”
“!!!”
Shake-shake-shake-shake-shake!
Kim Ha-eun quickly shook her head horizontally from behind Lee Sang-moo.
??
This sign was like an SOS sent to none other than Jang Sa-hyeon, the owner of the Ghost Story General Store.
“…Ah, she’s a new… employee at our company. She said this is her… first visit… I would appreciate it if you… would look after her.”
“…I see.”
“…”
Kim Ha-eun remained silent.
And she hoped that the sign she had sent had been well received by Jang Sa-hyeon.
“…That wouldn’t be possible.”
“!!!”
It’s over.
For a moment, she felt her heart sink. She would be branded as a woman without even a respectable job to her love.
Of course, he would still love her despite that.
This won’t do.
It seemed that Kim Ha-eun’s desperate feelings hadn’t reached Jang Sa-hyeon.
If that’s the case…
Eliminate the witness.
Just as Kim Ha-eun was about to take out a box cutter from her pocket without any hesitation, at that moment…
“Isn’t it natural to give special treatment at every moment to someone who might become a regular customer of our store in the future?”
“…”
Kim Ha-eun stared blankly at Jang Sa-hyeon with a dumbfounded expression on her face, and he smiled with the characteristic eye smile of a merchant.
“Thank you.”
“…”
Fortunately, the situation just now seemed to have been smoothed over well.
Jang Sa-hyeon immediately asked why they had stopped by his store.
In particular, he spoke to Lee Sang-moo first.
“So, Managing Director, what brings you to visit our store after so long… Now that you’ve reached the position of Managing Director, you could surely purchase better items from the agency without coming to this shabby general store.”
In fact, Lee Sang-moo’s visits had become less frequent since she took on the position of Managing Director.
But today, she didn’t come here to buy an item.
“…Today, it’s different… reason.”
“I’m curious about why our Managing Director would visit a place like this.”
The reason someone as high as a Managing Director visited this place, according to Jang Sa-hyeon’s thinking, a few reasons flashed through his mind.
-Information about or purchase of cursed items that cannot be obtained from the GRA agency.
-Information about a specific person.
And the question Lee Sang-moo asked him was…
“…I’m looking for… someone.”
Bingo.
“Ah, well well. You know very well that customers’ personal information is as precious as life itself to merchants, just like cursed items, don’t you, Managing Director Lee Sang-moo?”
“…”
Jang Sa-hyeon swallowed dryly at Lee Sang-moo’s cold, piercing gaze.
But soon after, Lee Sang-moo took something out from the pocket inside the coat she was wearing.
Swish.
She gently placed one object she had taken out onto the counter.
“…Isn’t this a credit card?”
“…1 billion.”
“…Pardon?”
“It’s a card… with no… limit. It will be processed… immediately.”
“…”
“…Is it not… enough?”
“How could it not be! You’re our customer!!”
Jang Sa-hyeon quickly tried to take the card placed on the counter, but…
Tap!
A snow-white hand gently landed on top of the card.
“Of course… if you answer… my question properly.”
“Yes! Ask away! Who that person is, where they live, how many wives they have, what their blood type is, what their MBTI is, the length of their precious th…”
“Has anyone… purchased ‘The Taste of Death’… in the past few days?”
When Lee Sang-moo received the report from Choi Kang-in,
She had been informed that the ‘black flame man’ had used the item ‘The Taste of Death’.
The unknown man mentioned in other reports also disappeared near Seongsu Station, so I thought he might have visited this place.
And if there is a record of someone who recently purchased the taste of death here, there’s a high possibility that person.
“…The taste of death? Do you happen to know how many days ago it was?”
“…It was about 2, 3 days ago.”
“…”
With Lee Sang-moo’s question, the person who came to Jang Sa-hyeon’s mind was narrowed down to just one.
A young male customer who recently purchased the taste of death and might possibly bring him a large sum of money in the future.
“…Director Lee Sang-moo. No, Ms. Lee Sang-moo.”
“…Yes?”
“Let’s pretend this never happened.”
“…As expected, was the amount… insufficient?”
Of course, he couldn’t deny that statement.
Rather than the immediate 1 billion, Jang Sa-hyeon had smelled a scent of money from that man that he had never experienced before.
“I don’t think I have anything more to tell you. I’m sorry.”
“…I understand. I’ll… visit you again next time.”
Lee Sang-moo retreated more easily than expected.
Jang Sa-hyeon had loosened his tongue expecting her to be more persistent, but felt a small regret at her quick surrender.
There was one thing he wanted to ask.
“May I ask why you’re looking for him?”
“…I’ve become interested.”
“…Romantically?”
“…Perhaps, yes?”
“I’m envious. To think someone has caught our Lee Sang-moo’s attention. That person should pay three times more in taxes.”
…Nod.
Lee Sang-moo gave Jang Sa-hyeon a short bow and stepped outside the store.
And the black-haired woman who had been standing behind like a scarecrow, blankly watching the current situation.
“…Am, am I the only one who doesn’t understand?”
“Since you’re already here, why don’t you look around at some items?”
That day, Kim Ha-eun unexpectedly purchased several items from the Ghost Story Story General Store.
…
‘So what’s really going on here?’
Kim -eun, feeling as if the conversation had progressed without her knowledge, experienced a strong sense of alienation.
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