Chapter 73: Chapter 73

The Country Life Diary of a Gangster's Secretary - c73

“Hey, Park seems to be looking like a zombie these days? Did something happen?”

“I ran into him earlier in the break room and casually asked, and it seems like he had some issues with his girlfriend.”

“Huh? Weren’t they totally inseparable?”

“Well, you see……”

Around the end of lunchtime, the employees who went up to smoke were having a private conversation. The employee who was about to speak looked around and continued after confirming that no one was around.

“Apparently, Park’s girlfriend kissed another person.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. But it wasn’t something Park’s girlfriend wanted. An acquaintance they knew suddenly created a mood and bam! Kissed her on the lips.”

“Oh my.”

The two employees looked around the rooftop again. They were being cautious since they were carelessly talking about someone’s private matters.

“So the girlfriend hid it from Park and recently confessed. Apologizing. But imagine how complicated Park must feel. They’re trying to forget it all and act normal, but it doesn’t seem to be easy.”

“Hey, but isn’t the bastard who suddenly kissed her the bad guy?”

“Exactly! Even if he didn’t know she had a boyfriend, doing that when he knew is just being a trash. No matter what, you don’t covet someone else’s girl. Park must be feeling terrible inside. He was saving up his measly salary to buy her luxury clothes and all. He wore worn-out clothes himself and had no interest in brand names.”

The two continued their sharp criticism of that acquaintance and ended the conversation by saying they should buy Park some drinks since he must be feeling down. The two slowly disappeared from the rooftop.

It was the time to start work in the afternoon after lunchtime. The rooftop was very quiet.

And the one smoking cigarettes in the corner of that quiet rooftop was none other than Ihyeok. The two people who just went down probably had no idea. They wouldn’t have expected the CEO to be hiding in a place they thought was empty.

Ihyeok took a deep drag of the cigarette filter.

Having become the bad trash bastard who kissed someone else’s girlfriend, Ihyeok couldn’t shake off his complicated feelings.

Some time ago, Ihyeok ended up kissing Hyeseong, who might have had a partner. Quite passionately at that. In fact, he had been frantically avoiding Hyeseong since then.

Partly because he hadn’t found a clear answer on how to solve the atrocity he committed, but mostly because he was afraid of the contempt he would receive from Hyeseong.

That kid had stronger moral beliefs than anyone else. So from Hyeseong’s perspective, suddenly kissing him without knowing if he had a girlfriend was very close to an immoral act.

Last night, when Hyeseong asked him with a sharp tone why he kissed him, it even sent chills down his spine.

He didn’t want his relationship with Hyeseong to go awry because of that, and above all, he didn’t want to confirm through that conversation that Hyeseong really did have a partner.

The only good shield Ihyeok could choose in response to Hyeseong asking for a reason was ‘mistake’. In fact, it was still a difficult problem for himself as well.

Why did he kiss Hyeseong that day? What on earth was he thinking?

All he could remember was Hyeseong’s flesh showing through his wet clothes, his subtle pheromones. And above all else, the sight of Hyeseong’s face turning completely red, saying he was embarrassed. That was truly……

“Pretty.”

Ihyeok threw the cigarette into the ashtray.

Even normally, there were times when he thought Hyeseong was pretty or cute, but it’s not like he wanted to kiss him or anything.

But at that moment, honestly, even without drinking, he felt like he lost his mind. The intense emotions of his heart seeming to stop, time moving slowly, and then beating like crazy were still vividly remembered.

Thinking back to that moment, he felt even more guilty about making such an excuse to Hyeseong.

But unexpectedly, Hyeseong, who he thought would pour out criticism, smiled at him saying he had expected it.

In fact, looking back, that reaction was an understandable behavior. Hyeseong wanted to hide that he was an omega and for some reason, he didn’t seem to want to tell Ihyeok about the existence of his lover.

But there was one more thing that bothered Ihyeok.

Ihyeok wasn’t sure if what Hyeseong said was true or not. Well, they do say that alphas in heat do all sorts of things. But the problem was that Ihyeok kissing Hyeseong wasn’t something close to that kind of instinct.

Of course, it’s true that the pheromones Hyeseong emitted at that time did contribute to provoking Ihyeok. But that was it; the will to devour those red and small lips was entirely his own.

Something was definitely strange. Ihyeok was struggling in a swamp of emotions he had never fallen into before in his life. Raising the name of Taesung was the most important thing to him.

He had told Hyeseong not to act like an adult and to date like a young man, but in reality, Ihyeok wasn’t much different.

He had built a wall with dating. It became even more so after becoming the CEO of Taesung Construction. Seongjin sarcastically asked if he had become a workaholic, but it wasn’t because of some grand belief. He just had no interest.

But he really had no idea why he was reacting to Hyeseong like this now.

Ihyeok flicked his innocent lighter. Just as his thoughts about Hyeseong deepened, he felt a vibration. The caller was Secretary Han.

“Yeah, I’m coming in now.”

– Ah, yes CEO. Could you possibly come a little early?

Her voice sounded a bit flustered over the receiver. Unlike Hyeseong, Secretary Han was not good at hiding her emotions. Whenever a difficult situation arose, it quickly showed on her face and she made more small mistakes. At first, he intended to promote her to head of the secretarial team and place new personnel under her, but it was difficult to do so because of this.

“I’m on the rooftop. I’ll be right there. What’s going on?”

– Ah, Director Jeong from Daehyun has come to see you.

Ihyeok, who was grabbing the rooftop door handle, paused for a moment. Then he said he understood and hung up the phone. Just thinking about Hyeseong was overwhelming enough, and now Daehyun was bothering him too.

When he went down to the CEO’s office, Secretary Han was pacing restlessly outside the door.

“Ah, CEO.”

“Is he inside?”

“Yes.”

“It’s fine, Secretary Han. Go take care of other work now.”

Ihyeok lightly pushed open the door to the CEO’s office. Then the tall man pacing inside the office turned his head with a smile.

“Ah, CEO Kwon.”

Light brown hair with sharp eyes. But his eyes were drooping, so he didn’t give off a cold impression at all.

“It’s been a while, Director Jeong.”

Jeong Se-jin, a director at Daehyun Construction and the second son of the current chairman. He smiled brightly and held out his hand. Ihyeok lightly responded and pointed to a seat.

“I apologize for coming without notice.”

“No, it’s fine. I was surprised, but you must have had an urgent matter to come suddenly and look around the room without the owner present.”

The corner of Ihyeok’s mouth slightly rose. But no one could miss the thorns hidden in those words.

Daehyun Construction was currently one of the companies evaluated at the highest level even among construction companies in Korea. Its history in the construction industry was not short, and it had been at the top of the construction company’s construction capability evaluation amount for a while by winning big orders both domestically and internationally.

However, now they were hearing different stories. While other companies were gradually gaining strength, Daehyun’s reputation was not the same as before. Those who criticized harshly went as far as to say that these days, everything Daehyun touches fails.

That story intensified even more starting from the Haein City redevelopment incident. Daehyun and Taesung clashed until the end over the redevelopment contract, but in the end, Taesung was victorious. From that point on, the evaluations of the two companies diverged drastically.

One as a promising company, and the other as a place whose reputation had already completely faded.

“We tried to contact you several times, but it wasn’t easy to get through.”

Jeong Se-jin lightly laughed and smoothly avoided the thorns Ihyeok threw.

Ihyeok didn’t have a big grudge against Daehyun. Well, they were a competitor, but nothing more, nothing less. Some officials went around saying that Daehyun does a lot of dirty tricks behind the scenes and that it will all be revealed someday, but honestly, for Ihyeok, who had a past as a gangster, it didn’t feel like a big problem.

However, his impression of Daehyun completely changed after that scandal incident. To think they would create such a ridiculous rumor with a city councilor’s daughter to exclude Taesung from the redevelopment project.

“I tend to hold grudges longer than I thought.”

If it weren’t for Hyeseong, it would have been difficult to quickly investigate the truth of the matter and take action. After that, Ihyeok didn’t know what kind of deal the city councilor and Daehyun made, but he was able to escape the suspicion without much damage.

“I guess you still have that incident in your heart. I also wanted to apologize.”

Jeong Se-jin sighed shortly with a regretful expression.

“It’s a misunderstanding that the reporter who took your photo and released the scandal was from Daehyun’s side, CEO Kwon.”

“Is that so?”

Ihyeok looked down at the teacup emitting a herb scent with an apathetic face. He was very curious about what Hyeseong was doing right now.

“It’s true that the reporter had ties with Daehyun in the past, but he has nothing to do with the scandal. The ties were already cut off long before.”

They must have given the same explanation to the angry city councilor’s side. Daehyun had probably already prepared all the excuses before causing the incident. An easy way to cut off the tail if things don’t go well.

“I see. Well, if that’s the case, I guess I clearly misunderstood.”

Ihyeok wore a mechanical smile. Not that he believed it, but there was no reason to continue a pointless fight with Jeong Se-jin here. No matter how much their reputation had faded, they were not a company to be taken lightly in the construction industry.

“I’m glad the misunderstanding has been cleared up. I’d like to treat you properly next time. Would a meal be alright? Our chairman is also very concerned. He feels bad for causing trouble to Taesung.”

“Let’s set a date.”

Having achieved his desired goal, Jeong Se-jin glanced at his watch and got up from his seat. Ihyeok also slowly rose from his chair.

“By the way, congratulations on the Haein City redevelopment project. I feel like my congratulations are too late.”

Jeong Se-jin held out his hand again.

“Thank you for the congratulations. As it’s a project we obtained through hardship, we plan to work hard. Even Daehyun’s share.”

More and more force was put into their clasped hands.

“I’ll be looking forward to it. To see what kind of wonderful results you’ll achieve.”

The two men grinned. And as if on cue, they both began subtly releasing pheromones. It was an act close to a kind of performance for two alphas to instinctively show that they are superior to the other.

“Then I’ll get going. See you next time.”

Jeong Se-jin maintained his relaxed smile until the end.

“Ah, and this is a personal curiosity.”

Jeong Se-jin, who was about to leave, suddenly turned around.

“I don’t see that secretary who was always by your side. I thought he was always with you.”

Jeong Se-jin was certainly sharp. He even remembered Hyeseong’s existence, whom they didn’t encounter much, and noticed that he wasn’t here now. Moreover, Secretary Han must have guided him and served him, so even more so.

“My secretary is currently on leave. For personal reasons.”

“Ah, I see.”

Jeong Se-jin gave an excessive apology for asking about personal matters and finally left the CEO’s office.

Ihyeok clicked his tongue in displeasure as he smelled Jeong Se-jin’s pheromones that lingered heavily in the room.@@novelbin@@