Dry Monsoon - chapter 1.4

“I’m sorry. None of our staff found a pair of high heels on the 10th floor. We will contact you after we file a lost and found report.”
Ji-eun had already asked a few times, but the concierge’s attitude remained impassive. She couldn’t sleep a wink last night. She put down the phone and pressed against her sunken eyes.
When she thought about it, only the roomkeepers would pick up the lost shoes; it was merely common sense. What kind of crazy bastard would take someone else’s shoes just by seeing them?
While pacing around her room, she suddenly thought of Soo-wan. He might have found them while on his way back to his room and decided to take them. If he had a clue, he wouldn’t have abandoned them if he knew they were hers.
He had gotten completely wasted and made a scene yesterday, but he wanted to keep her shoes shamelessly.
“Ah, I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Ji-eun slipped on the pair of sneakers she brought for the tour, grabbed her phone and wallet, and opened the door. Manager Yoon had sent a message to come down for breakfast a few minutes ago. But she couldn’t take a step out of the door.
Standing in front of her room, a man glanced between the doorbell and Ji-eun, then cocked his head to the side with a smile.
“Lee Ji-eun, is that right?”
“That’s right, but…what’s the matter?”
Her gaze immediately set upon the high heels held in Kwon Lee-hyun’s hand. They were the pair she lost last night. As her face turned stiff with hope, Lee-hyun lifted up her shoes.
“You must be the owner.”
“Yes. How did you…”
“By chance.”
“Thank you.”
She snatched back her shoes as if he had stolen them and looked up at his face, holding her breath. From up close, Kwon Lee-hyun looked different from yesterday. Ji-eun wasn’t short, but he was tall enough to the point where she had to fully tilt her head back to look at him properly. Moreover, his immaculate suit and rugged features gave off the impression that he was an ascetic man. A perfect man, as if every single bit of hair and cufflink were calculated.
“Look, if you have something to say…”
For some reason, she felt overwhelmed and scratched her neck when she spoke.
“I’d like to talk about business.”
“Business?”
“To be exact, I’d like to request a design from you. May I come in?”
Two secretaries came up behind him and greeted her. They seemed to be waiting for Kwon Lee-hyun’s instructions. Ji-eun instinctively looked back at the messy room. Lee-hyun smiled at her distress.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be accompanied by my secretaries. I’d rather we talk in a place without any eyes.”
“But the room is a little…”
“I can’t help it if you’re uncomfortable, but it won’t be good for you to draw your colleagues’ eyes.”
As he spoke, his slight impatience was not concealed. It was an extremely typical reaction from someone of his class and stature to be unfamiliar with waiting. Ji-eun was conflicted about how to handle the situation.
When she looked up and made eye contact with the two secretaries behind him, the expressionless people forced a smile and nodded their heads.
It seemed like Kwon Lee-hyun did not come to return the shoes that she had dropped on the 10th floor as she had expected; rather, the point of contact was to request a design from her. Staring at Ji-eun’s eyes, which were full of doubt, he waited patiently.
As the troubled woman bit the skin on her lips, he scrunched his brows.
Ji-eun only stepped back a little.
“Then, come in.”
“Excuse me.”
Lee-hyun took a step forward before she could say anything else. He was a man who was used to being in command. The atmosphere changed as soon as he walked into the room. The two secretaries who followed behind scanned the entire room with a device in their hands. They started from her bed, suitcase, bathroom, then to the window curtains.
Embarrassed, Ji-eun asked what he was doing, but he didn’t answer.
“It’s clean.”
When the secretary in a neat suit and silver-rimmed glasses reported to Lee-hyun, only then did he speak.
“Only Secretary Kim stays.”
“Yes.”
Lee-hyun looked around Ji-eun’s bright room and sat down in an empty armchair. It was the only single sofa in the room. Standing idly by him, her butt hit against the edge of the bed.
He looked at her with his cat-like eyes and softly smiled.
“Don’t be so wary. It was just for precaution.”
“Still, it’s my room…the wiretap inspection was a bit uncomfortable.”
She frowned as she spoke, and she was a bit surprised by her raised voice.
“You must know who I am.”
“I saw you at the event yesterday.”
“Then, the conversation will be quick.”
Kwon Lee-hyun slowly crossed his legs and placed his hands over them.
“Lee Ji-eun, you designed the villa for the painter, Kim Eung-soo.”
Ji-eun’s eyebrows wrinkled when she heard the unexpected statement. She tried to guess Lee-hyun’s intentions, but he was hard to read.
“No. There was also Senior Lim…”
“That’s very different from what I know.”
For a moment, his eyes narrowed. Everyone seemed to know. Maybe…
“Well, apart from that. What does it have to do with you?”
“There’s a place I’d like for you to design.”
Her eyes widened with doubt.
“Don’t be so surprised. I had always planned to ask Painter Kim’s villa designer to do it from the very beginning. We need a design that will satisfy the owner’s needs.”
Ji-eun raised up a hand to stop him and asked a question.
“Wait a minute. What about subcontractors or affiliates? This situation is a bit sudden…I’m someone who has nothing to do with SR…”
“That’s why I’m proposing this to you. It’s a very, very personal request.”
The more she talked to him, the more confused she became, and her mouth began to dry up. She rolled up the bedsheets and looked away first. Ji-eun was convinced that he had overheard Lim Soo-wan’s drunken tirade last night, but it still didn’t make sense for him to visit her.
What’s so great about Painter Kim Eung-soo’s villa design that it resulted in the start of a secret project…?
The personal request made her feel a bit uncomfortable and plunged her into thought.
“Are you worried?”
“Yes.”
Kwon Lee-hyun cocked his head at her stern answer. Then, he leaned his body over and laid his voice low, as if to seduce her.
“I know you have an architect license. I’ll give you a temporary office. Of course, it will be in SR. You only need to design the blueprint. After that, SR will take responsibility for your employment.”
“……”
“From what I see, the place you’re currently working at doesn’t seem to be very helpful. Turnover is easy.”
His attitude towards other people’s livelihood was like lukewarm coffee – the worst temperature of the world’s worst coffee. Ji-eun could picture how he thought of her. She was just a person to whom he had no need to pay attention to – worthless and meaningless. Nobody would care whether she was thrown away after being used.
After completing her work with proper pride, she’d be put in some place somewhere in the SR Industrial Development Department. After that, she’d take her hands off, knowing that she had successfully fulfilled her responsibilities.
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I can.”
There was a slight crack on his face, shortly followed by a measured ruler-like smile. He raised his chin and looked around. Then he smiled, revealing his teeth. It was a patient smile.
“Why?”
“If I accept the job, you’ll investigate me, right? It’s a kind of census. You said it was confidential…”
“Yes, I will. I have a duty to know Lee Ji-eun from head to toe.”
“Then I can’t do it. I hate being investigated. Besides, it seems dangerous. I’m sorry.”
Fifty percent of what she said was sincere. She was thinking about changing jobs, but not right now. Besides, she didn’t like his way. The way he spoke snared people, and his gaze aroused tension.
As his eyes grew more persistent, the embarrassed Ji-eun rose from her seat as her phone went off.
“I think breakfast is almost over. Are you not going down? I keep getting calls.”
He rose from his seat after her. Then, he walked past Ji-eun and grabbed the door handle.
“By the way, did you have a meal before you left that day?”
Ji-eun’s lowered eyes raised to meet his.
After a pause, he opened the door and tilted his head at an angle.
“Judging from your expression, it seems like you just left. Anyway, secrets like this one will eventually become poison. To Lim Soo-wan and you, Lee Ji-eun.”
I’m not a pushover.
She doubted her ears, but Kwon Lee-hyun had clearly said so. Feeling a little dumbfounded, she stared blankly at Lee-hyun’s back as he left. It wasn’t until he and his two secretaries disappeared from her sight that Ji-eun noticed the presence of a cell phone ringing in her grasp.
“You’re not coming down? There’s only 20 minutes left!”
“Manager, I’ll pass breakfast. I’ve lost my appetite.”
After letting Sun-woong’s nagging flow out the other ear, she hung up and immediately made a call to Korea. The long tone rang out as she waited. Her father, Lee Jin-tae, answered the phone.
“What is it?”
“I have something to ask you. By any chance, Kwon Lee-hyun…does he know my face?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden? How would Executive Kwon know your face?”
“You didn’t show him any pictures? Didn’t you tell him my name?”
“I told him your name. What happened? Did you meet Executive Director Kwon?”
Ji-eun let out a sigh. She relaxed her shoulders and sat down on the bed.
“No, I asked because I was suddenly curious. Mom told me you sent more money.”
“Owning a building is power nowadays. Do you honestly believe they won’t increase other fees while raising the deposit by a few thousand wons? Tell her to just save that money for now, and don’t ask for money later.”
“I will.”
“So when are you coming?”
“The day after tomorrow. By the way…I think it would be better not to meet Executive Director Kwon…”
“What? You…what are you talking about!”
“Just, I mean—uh, um…I don’t think this is right. Dad, I’ll call you when I get back to Korea.”
“Lee Ji-eun! Answer properly!”
She moved the loud-pitched phone away and pressed the end button. Her father was a man who betrayed her mother, but he couldn’t stop loving her.
She didn’t know whose hands the money from his wallet went through to her mother’s bank account, but it’s unlikely that her stepmother was unaware of it.
If he approved the deposit, the meeting with Kwon Lee-hyun would also go through his hands.
Ji-eun got up and went into the bathroom, only to find herself looking haggard. She turned on the cold water and pitifully washed her face.
Only then, a face worth seeing was reflected in the mirror. Ji-eun let out a deep sigh and looked back into her room at the high heels with the front nose broken off.
“You searched for them.”