Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Heejae looked down at the popsicle in her hand.

She had grabbed it without thinking. She used to like this? And Kim Sewon not only knew that, but had bought them for her constantly?

“Was I… pretty close with Kim Sewon?”

Heejae looked back at Bongsoon. Right now, Bongsoon wanted nothing more than to sew her own mouth shut.

Don’t go talking nonsense to that girl.

Sewon’s warning had belatedly come back to her.

He hadn’t just said it a few days ago. He had given her the exact same warning eleven years ago. Bongsoon remembered him shaking like a leaf, his school uniform soaked in blood. She slammed the cash drawer shut.

“The top student in school and a little thug? Yeah, right! I thought he was using those popsicles to bully you.”

A thug… Even Heejae couldn’t imagine herself hanging out with someone like that. He was exactly the type she despised.

But if even a thug like him had saved her on the bridge, would things have been different?

Would nineteen-year-old Kang Heejae have opened up to him?

Heejae tossed the wrapper into the blue trash can outside, lost in thought.

Bongsoon leaned over the counter, craning her neck.

“You still haven’t gotten your memories back, have you?”

“…No. They say most people with amnesia never recover their memories. Not that I’ve ever really tried.”

She didn’t mention the brief flashes of memory she’d had. Bringing the popsicle to her lips, she murmured half to herself.

“There was probably a good reason I forgot.”

She had never looked back, always thinking that way. So why were things suddenly surfacing? Why was she suddenly so curious?

The cold, sweet popsicle did nothing to ease her heavy mood.

Heejae pulled the popsicle away, wanting to ask about the relationship between Sewon and Hyunsu. Judging by Kim Sewon’s attitude at the village hall, they seemed to know each other well.

Ring!

The supermarket phone rang loudly. Startled, Bongsoon scrambled to snatch up the red receiver.

A voice with the same thick accent as Bongsoon’s leaked through the receiver.

“Dammit, didn’t I tell you to be careful!”

But the voice was quickly drowned out by Bongsoon’s shouting. After exchanging a few more words, Bongsoon hung up, her face pale. She rushed out from behind the counter.

“H-Heejae. I have to run out real quick. Watch the store for me.”

“What?”

“I’ll be right back, I swear. Do me this favor, okay?”

Heejae hurried after her, protesting that she couldn’t watch the store. But seeing Bongsoon sprint away in a panic, she stopped, unable to call her back.

It sounded like someone got hurt… A few minutes should be fine.

Heejae glanced back at the empty store, then sat on the long wooden bench out front and crossed her legs.

She didn’t even know the prices, so sitting inside felt awkward. She figured she would just turn away any customers from out here.

Insects buzzed in the stifling heat. As she sat there, a few trucks rumbled past.

While some residents were packing up and moving out as ordered, a row of red banners protesting the demolition hung across the street.

Should she just head back, or wait a little longer?

As she stared at the passing trucks and banners, lost in thought, a man approached.

“Haven’t seen you around. You, an outsider?”

She looked up at the greasy voice. A massive frame filled her vision.

For a second, she thought of Kim Sewon, who was built like a door, but it wasn’t him.

Wearing a sly smirk, Sangcheol naturally slid onto the bench next to her.

“Damn, you’re gorgeous. You from Me Too?”

Me Too was the name of the cafe down the road. Calling it a cafe was generous; he was essentially asking if she was a call girl. Heejae didn’t answer.

Sangcheol cleared his throat, embarrassed. He brushed back his hair, subtly showing off the expensive watch on his wrist.

“Oppa is asking you a question, and you’re staying quiet? Baby.”

Baby. It was an incredibly embarrassing title to hear at thirty. When Heejae let out a dry laugh, Sangcheol immediately brightened, thinking the ice had broken.

“Judging by your face, you aren’t from Me Too. Those girls swoon when you call them baby. So where is our baby from? Seoul?”

“…I’m pretty sure you’re younger than me, Yeom Sangcheol.”

Heejae had already reviewed the Geumseong D&C personnel roster handed to her by Secretary Oh, whom Hyunsu had sent. She had paid especially close attention to those deployed in the field.

She remembered a warning mark next to the profile of Sangcheol, who held the title of director.

So this was why.

“So, should I call you ‘baby’ now?”

Realizing the woman he was hitting on knew not only his name but his age, Sangcheol quickly slid his butt back.

“Wh-what are you…!”

“Is Geumseong always this slow to process things?”

A deep shadow fell over Heejae’s face as she turned toward Sangcheol.

“Or did you not bother warning your subordinates because you thought I’d just quietly go back?”

Heejae wasn’t asking Sangcheol, not now and not a moment ago.

Turning her head forward, she slowly traced her gaze up the crisp suit pants of the man who had appeared before her.

“CEO Kim Sewon?”

Heejae asked Kim Sewon, who was looking down at her with a crooked posture.

Belatedly noticing his presence, Sangcheol leaped up in terror.

“C-CEO!”

Sewon’s lowered eyes shifted slowly.

At his cold look, which seemed to ask why he was still in this neighborhood, Sangcheol fidgeted like a dog that needed to piss before frantically bowing over and over.

“W-well then, keep up the good work, CEO!”

Heejae let out a soft laugh as she watched him quickly scurry away.

“I knew it was bad, but this is even more of a mess than I thought.”

It was common knowledge that Geumseong Group was the successor to Geumseong Future Development, which was notorious for operating as a gang of thugs.

To shed the image of a gangster company, the group’s chairman, Kim Eubeom, had supposedly handed a single demolition company to his precious only son and filled the headquarters with professional executives.

In reality, he had probably entrusted the dirtiest business to the son he trusted most.

Heejae pushed the melting popsicle into her mouth and looked up at Sewon.

“Fuck.” A low curse suddenly slipped through his teeth. “Lawyer Kang, you really have no fear.”

When Heejae silently bit down on the tip of the popsicle, Sewon twitched an eyebrow in annoyance.

“I let the dogs loose, so why the hell are you wandering around?”

He slowly pulled his hand from his pants pocket and lightly wrapped it over the back of her hand holding the wooden stick.

“What if you get bitten?”

Heejae’s eyes widened at the sudden contact, then quickly narrowed again.

Blue veins bulged on the back of Sewon’s hand. An absurd laugh escaped his twisted lips.

To think he’d get hard just from her sucking on a popsicle.

Look at that face, fuck.

Sewon pressed the tip of the popsicle against Heejae’s soft lower lip. He wondered if she would make this exact face if he shoved his dick into her tiny mouth.

Of all the things to eat, she had to choose something so fucking suggestive. The white, melted liquid pooling on her red lips looked so much like cum that he couldn’t stop his filthy thoughts.

The hair clinging to her ears and the nape of her neck with sweat was more than enough to fuel his dirty imagination.

Above all, her face played a part. It was fucking exactly his type. No, it was a face that would create a preference where there was none.

Suddenly remembering how Sangcheol had been staring at her mouth just like him, Sewon’s thick eyebrows twitched.

“What would you have done just now if it weren’t for me, our dear Lawyer Kang?”

“What…”

As she spoke, Sewon pushed the popsicle a little deeper between her slightly parted lips.

Her red tongue darted out on reflex. Watching her lick the melted surface and swallow the thin saliva pooling in her mouth, Sewon felt a tight pull in his lower abdomen, as if his dick were being sucked.

She wouldn’t even be able to take half of his.

Even though she had no intention of giving him anything, Sewon agonized over it alone as he shoved the popsicle—which wasn’t even half the size of his dick—deep into her mouth.

“You’re clueless. That piece of shit earlier looked like he was dying to shove his dick in here.”

“…”

“And I saved you.”

Heejae bared her teeth to bite down on the popsicle filling her mouth, but Sewon yanked it out first. He took a bite of the popsicle, now glistening with her saliva, making sure she watched.

“Still not happy to see me?”

As Sewon smirked with the broken piece in his mouth, the hanging leaves of the zelkova tree swayed behind him.

With the rustle of the leaves, the fierce man in front of her suddenly looked like an innocent boy.

Heejae’s chest tightened strangely.

Whether it was a projection of her memory or something else, that innocent face nudged the tiny speck of conscience left inside her.

That was why she swallowed the questions she had been about to demand, touching her throbbing throat.

Averting her eyes from him, Heejae naturally changed the subject.

“There’s only one reason I’d be happy to see you, CEO. Have you thought about it?”

Sewon sat down in the spot Sangcheol had just vacated and replied. “I’ve been thinking about other things. For example…”

“Forget it.”

Anticipating his next words, Heejae quickly cut him off.

She wasn’t that clueless, and seeing the prominent bulge straining against his tight pants, there was no way she could mistake his meaning.

She had no desire to hear aloud what she was trying so hard to ignore.

She had no intention of asking for the popsicle back when he was already eating it as if it were his, so they had nothing left to discuss.

Heejae tried to stand up. But he easily grabbed her wrist, and her hips were pulled right back down.

“Ah…!”

“How much is Ha Hyunsu offering to pay you?”