Only for the Two of Them (5)
From early morning, Lee Hwayang received something from a woman dressed in a black suit.
“Madam. This is the information on student Seo Eunwoo that you requested.”
“As expected of Manager Kim. To obtain this in just a single day.”
Lee Hwayang accepted the file with a satisfied smile.
“Not at all. It’s not as if he were the son of some major conglomerate chairman. Digging up the personal details of an ordinary middle school student is child’s play.”
“Okay. Good work for now. I’ll call you again if I need anything else.”
The woman addressed as Manager Kim bowed politely out of courtesy and left the hospital room.
Alone once more, Lee Hwayang opened the file she had been given and began to read.
Name: Seo Eunwoo.
Age: fifteen.
Ordinary family, ordinary school. He maintained fairly high grades, yet had never ranked inside the top three.
Even skimming the rest of the details, he came across as just another unremarkable middle school student one might find anywhere.
But knowing his true identity, Lee Hwayang found that very ordinariness chilling.
This plainness was nothing less than a deliberate disguise meant to conceal who he really was.
Just how thorough a person must he be…?
At the same time, a sense of pride stirred within her.
If someone like that had gone so far as to reveal his identity for her daughter’s sake, wasn’t it fair to say he had already more or less fallen?
Ah, of course, the boy himself still seemed completely unaware of that fact.
She wished he could have seen the expression on his own face when she asked him to take responsibility for her daughter’s life.
Well… then again.
In his eyes, Soyoung must have been the ideal woman. It would have been stranger for a man not to fall for her. And if that girl ever set her mind to it, all the more so.
“You’re going to have the surgery?!”
A short while later, right around lunchtime, Seol Hanyong and Seol Soyoung burst into her hospital room.
The reason was that word had reached them of Lee Hwayang’s conversation with her attending physician about agreeing to the operation.
Seol Hanyong took his wife’s hand and sighed in relief, saying how glad he was.
Yet somehow his wife’s expression remained far from bright.
“Honey.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“It’s noisy. Step outside for a moment.”
“…….”
At his wife’s words, Seol Hanyong put on a sorrowful face and quietly left the room.
Outside he was a charismatic father, yet before his family he shrank into something endlessly small.
Watching him go, Seol Soyoung let out a soft snort of laughter.
That was when it happened.
“Soyoung. Come sit beside Mom for a moment, will you?”
Lee Hwayang patted the bed where she sat.
Seol Soyoung wordlessly took the indicated spot.
And then, without warning, Lee Hwayang pulled her daughter into a tight embrace.
“Mom…?”
Seol Soyoung looked at her with startled eyes.
But she made no move to pull away.
“I’m sorry, Mommy’s sorry.”
As the apologies kept coming, her mother’s arms somehow felt warmer than usual today.
In truth, her mother had done nothing wrong. Even the decision not to undergo surgery had come from worry for her daughter.
Understanding her daughter’s heart, Lee Hwayang offered her apology; understanding her mother’s heart in turn, Seol Soyoung could only shake her head.
And so the two mother and daughter who resembled each other so closely held each other tightly for a long while, and a brief silence settled over the room.
What broke that silence was Seol Soyoung’s question.
Until yesterday her mother had been agonizing so seriously over the surgery. What on earth had made her reach such a firm decision overnight?
She was desperately curious.
At her daughter’s question, Lee Hwayang gave a bitter smile.
She had clearly promised to keep everything that happened yesterday a secret…
Yet seeing her daughter staring at her with eyes full of curiosity, her resolve seemed to weaken a little.
Well…
Surely he would understand if she shared just a tiny bit?
Her conscience twinged slightly, but Lee Hwayang was, above all else, on her daughter’s side.
“Actually, Writer 927 came to visit me yesterday.”
“…Writer 927?”
The moment the name of Writer 927 left her mother’s lips, Seol Soyoung’s gaze wavered.
“Why would he come to see you, Mom…?”
“He asked me to believe in you, Soyoung. He said you were stronger and more wonderful than anyone… Even Mom could tell how much he cares for you.”
Watching Lee Hwayang speak of Writer 927 with such a gentle smile, Seol Soyoung was genuinely surprised.
That expression meant she had taken a liking to him, at least to some degree.
And somehow it made her a little shy.
Stronger and more wonderful than anyone.
…So that was how he thought of her.
With faintly flushed cheeks, Seol Soyoung asked the next question.
“What kind of person was he?”
“Well…”
Lee Hwayang trailed off slightly.
She was carefully considering how to describe him without crossing any lines.
But looking at her daughter’s pure, girlish face, a good idea came to her.
“Someone who suits you perfectly. Mom is sincerely rooting for the two of you.”
Suits you. Rooting for you.
There was no way her daughter could miss what those words meant.
And so Seol Soyoung…
“Is that so? I’m glad.”
…offered a faint smile.
The earlier flush was gone.
In its place was only the beautiful, captivating Seol Soyoung of everyday life.
Seeing her daughter’s face change so abruptly, Lee Hwayang thought to herself:
As expected of her child.
If a moment ago she had worn the face of an innocent girl, now it was practically the face of a predator eyeing its prey.
And looking at that expression on her daughter’s face, she recalled a certain conversation she had shared with Writer 927 at the end of last night.
‘Instead, I’ll watch how things go for the next three years. If even then Miss Soyoung’s feelings haven’t changed, I’ll have to seriously consider the proposal you made, Madam.’
Somehow he seemed to believe that Soyoung’s heart would change after a few years.
But could he still say such a thing after seeing the face her daughter wore right now?
And once her daughter set her sights on someone, there was no chance she would let him slip away—or allow him to leave.
He had said he would only watch for three years, but well…
Looking at the faint smile on her daughter’s face, Lee Hwayang doubted it would take nearly that long.
Meanwhile…
At the headquarters of JYB Entertainment.
Thanks to Fly High, JYB’s prestige had soared right along with it.
Opinions were even circulating that it was no longer one of the Big Five agencies, but rather one of the Big Two.
In particular, the four idols who had starred in the drama—including I Dahye and Kang Haneul—had seen their recognition skyrocket, and the groups they belonged to were reaping enormous benefits as well.
If they simply solidified their position from here, JYB stood a very real chance of becoming the most famous entertainment company in Korea.
However.
Baek Junyeong, who ought to have been overflowing with joy at the company’s explosive success, could not bring himself to smile.
Of course he wanted to throw his head back and laugh with abandon.
The problem was a certain trainee who visited the CEO’s office every single day.
Ah, she wasn’t a trainee anymore.
Baek Junyeong looked at the blonde girl sitting on the sofa in the middle of the room.
With her official debut just around the corner, she was memorizing the lyrics to the title track with a bright, sunny smile.
Yet from Baek Junyeong’s perspective, that sunny smile only felt terrifying.
“Ahem!”
Baek Junyeong cleared his throat once, trying to drop a hint to the unwelcome guest.
I Dahye paid him not the slightest attention… or more precisely, she simply ignored him.
…What kind of company had no sense of hierarchy at all?
Baek Junyeong thought that and shed tears inwardly.
“Um… Dahye. How long are you planning to stay here?”
“Until he comes.”
Well, I’m screwed.
At I Dahye’s shameless reply, Baek Junyeong let out a sigh.
Here, “he” of course referred to Seo Eunwoo, the boy he had introduced to I Dahye as JYB’s successor.
He could roughly imagine what had happened.
With that natural gift for toying with people and that shameless attitude that was the very definition of a bad boy, he must have completely enchanted their innocent Dahye.
The problem was that Eunwoo had declared he would not set foot in JYB again unless something special came up.
Of course I Dahye still knew nothing of that truth.
The reason she kept visiting the CEO’s office these days was precisely because his figure had completely vanished from JYB lately.
Because of that, I Dahye had come to regret it.
If I’d known it would turn out like this, I should have at least exchanged numbers beforehand.
With no phone number and no proper contact information, she had been coming to Baek Junyeong—the person most closely connected to him—clinging to even the faintest hope.
Yet every time she asked him what was going on, he kept dodging the subject, so I Dahye had settled in for the long haul.
“Haha. Dahye, I give up.”
Baek Junyeong had finally had enough of this suffocating war of nerves. He made a decision.
“Ha… finally?”
“Yes. I’ll tell you the truth now. Your persistence is something I can proudly—”
“Cut the theatrics. Why do you keep dragging it out? Just spit it out already.”
“Ahem! …He’s gone abroad to study. Our successor.”
The moment the words left his mouth, I Dahye rose from the sofa and, for some reason, began walking slowly toward Baek Junyeong.
Then she shoved her face right up to his and…
“Ghk!”
…without any warning grabbed her own CEO by the collar and yanked him forward, shouting at the top of her lungs.
“What?! Why are you only telling me something that important now!!!”
Baek Junyeong beamed.
Well, of course—he had only just made up the excuse.
By the way, how the hell was this girl so strong?
It was getting a little hard to breathe…
“Where?!”
“W-wait a second!”
“Where did he go?! Why can’t you answer me!”
Baek Junyeong truly could not answer that question.
The tightening clothes were genuinely choking him, so he couldn’t open his mouth.
“Heaven…”
“How is our successor supposed to go there? Don’t go killing perfectly healthy people with that ominous talk!”
At the sudden appearance of such a random place, I Dahye shook his collar even more violently.
No, you’re the one killing the perfectly healthy person right now…
And so CEO Baek Junyeong, who had nearly reached the gates of heaven before somehow managing a desperate tap-out and barely surviving, lived to tell the tale.