This Time, I'll Be the One Who Devours Them
Lee Gyeong-eun watched Kim Seong-ho stare blankly at the diary and asked carefully,
"Seong-ho… is something wrong with it? Do you not like it?"
"No. Not at all. I like it very much."
Kim Seong-ho took the diary from her hands and smiled brightly.
"I'm just so happy. That's why I blanked out for a moment."
"Really? You're happy?"
Whether it was the word itself or the look on his face, Lee Gyeong-eun lit up and smiled.
"I thought you would. Knowing you're happy makes me happy, too."
Listening to her, Seong-ho looked down at the diary. The clean leather still carried a faint, fresh scent. It felt as though it had only just been made.
That's right. I received it after dinner that time, too.
Remembering the leather diary from his past life, Seong-ho brushed its surface with a faraway look, then carefully opened it out of long habit.
This was not the worn journal he had used for more than twenty years, its leather darkened by his hands. The pristine pages seemed to declare that this place was another world entirely.
That feeling vanished the instant he opened it.
The moment the cover lifted, familiar handwriting poured toward him in a flood, nothing like the brand-new exterior.
What on earth is this…?
Seeing the shock on his face, Lee Gyeong-eun sat down beside him.
"What's wrong? Is something off?"
"Gyeong-eun. Was it like this when you bought it?"
"What? Like this when I bought it… like what?"
Following his gaze to the open diary, she tilted her head in confusion.
"Is there something you don't like?"
"You can't see the writing…?"
"Writing? It's just blank pages. What do you see?"
She looked up at him, puzzled. Meeting her eyes, Seong-ho understood at once that to her the diary truly was empty.
She can't see it? This?
He stared at the pages packed with writing. The cover was new, but the inside was not. The paper was covered in script—exactly as if it were the diary he had always kept. And more astonishing still: every line was in his own handwriting.
After returning from our honeymoon, I found myself at an acquisition negotiation prepared by my brothers-in-law. Everything had been arranged by them…
It starts with what happened today.
He turned the page. The next one held events from a few days later, and after that, page after page of everything that would come—everything he had already lived through. The diary he had filled until the day he died had returned to his hands, only the exterior made new.
"Is something wrong?"
Lee Gyeong-eun looked up at him with concern. Seong-ho wiped the shock from his face at once and smiled.
"No—look. There's an adorable little cat drawn here, isn't there? Where on earth did you find something this cute? Did you draw it, Gyeong-eun? It doesn't look printed."
He pointed to the tiny cat sketched in the corner of the page. Her face flushed as she nodded.
"That's right. I drew it. On the plane, and at home whenever I had a free moment… What do you think?"
He smiled and nodded.
"I like it very much."
Even as he said it, his eyes stayed fixed not on the cat, but on the writing Lee Gyeong-eun could not see.
The moment Kim Seong-ho appeared in the company lobby, people on their way to work stopped in their tracks. They stared openly as he crossed the lobby toward the elevators.
"That's him, right?"
"Yeah. That's the guy."
"I thought he'd be ridiculously handsome. He's not that good-looking."
They studied his face as they talked.
"Still, he's decent enough. Tall, too…"
"You call that handsome? I'm better-looking. Right?"
"What good does that do you? You never even got the chance to meet her."
"Where did he even meet the young lady?"
Curious how Seong-ho had married Lee Gyeong-eun, they traded what little they knew.
"I heard they met at one of the company volunteer events."
"Volunteer work? You mean those trips the company organizes every so often—orphanages, nursing homes, that sort of thing?"
"Yeah. The young lady was joining them quietly, without telling anyone. That's where they met. At the time she was working undercover as a new hire, so everyone around her thought she was just another junior staffer."
"That's a lie."
"A lie?"
"Other people might not have known, but that guy almost certainly did. He approached her on purpose."
"They say it wasn't like that."
"Why are you so naive? You think he'd admit it to anyone's face? Of course he'd say he didn't know."
The man eyed Seong-ho at the elevator with open suspicion and a sneer.
"Otherwise why would the young lady fall for someone like him? Without a deliberate campaign, how was he supposed to charm the youngest daughter of the Ilhyeon Group—not just any chaebol, but Ilhyeon? Still think I'm wrong?"
His colleague nodded.
"True. Even a full-court press would barely work. The idea that they just happened to meet at a volunteer event and the rest fell into place… yeah, that does sound off."
"Not just off—complete nonsense. A clueless young lady got completely taken in by that guy's scheme. That's what happened. Otherwise how does a salesman from Ilhyeon Distribution suddenly land a seat in the Group Strategic Planning Office? Am I right?"
His colleague agreed with enthusiasm. Conversations just like it were unfolding all over the lobby.
"Seong-ho."
The talk was still reaching Seong-ho's ears when someone clapped him on the shoulder. He turned.
Standing there was Jo Byeong-jin—twenty years younger, like everyone else in the Lee family—grinning as he called Seong-ho's name.
"Honeymoon go all right?"
"You… Byeong-jin?"
"What's with you? Did you leave your brain on Ibiza? Of course it's me. Who else would I be?"
After the lame joke, Jo Byeong-jin glanced around, saw the stares fixed on Seong-ho at the elevator, and gave a wry smile of understanding.
"Looks like the useless gossip got under your skin for a second. I'd be the same."
He patted Seong-ho's shoulder again.
"I told you it'd be like this, didn't I? But you're the one who said you were fine going through with it, so you've got to ride it out. Just ignore them from now on. No point letting it eat at you."
"Yeah. Thanks. So even back then, you were on my side."
Byeong-jin tilted his head at the odd phrasing, then shrugged and rested a hand on Seong-ho's shoulder. As they stepped into the open elevator, he started firing off questions.
"Honeymoon's covered, then… How was Pyeongchang-dong? All right?"
"It was fine."
"Hmm. No way it was fine… I told you those people are demons. Demons. They might try to eat you alive."
Even after Seong-ho's answer, Byeong-jin's worry didn't ease. Sliding deeper into the elevator to make room for others, he lowered his voice.
"Still—be careful. And if it ever feels wrong, get out. There's nothing to gain from getting tangled up with them the wrong way."
Seong-ho smiled faintly and nodded. Byeong-jin looked ready to press the point, but more people crowded in, and he had to hold his tongue, watching faces instead.
Seong-ho smiled at him once more, clapped his shoulder, and said quietly,
"This time, it's my turn."
"Huh?"
"So don't worry. The ones who get devoured this time won't be me. It'll be them."
Byeong-jin wanted to ask what that meant, but the packed elevator left him nothing to do but stare. Seong-ho answered with a smile alone and watched the doors close.
After parting with Jo Byeong-jin on the seventh floor, where Sales was housed, Kim Seong-ho continued up to the twelfth—home of the Strategic Planning Office.
The department that coordinated and planned the group's overall business was the very core of the Ilhyeon Group. And into that core, Kim Seong-ho was reporting for his first day of work.
"Good morning."
Stepping into the Strategic Planning Office, Seong-ho greeted the first person he saw.
"Director. Good morning."
Director Lee Gyeong-deuk, passing near the door, turned at the greeting. His eyes widened; he strode over and thrust out a hand.
"Oh—so you made it. Assistant Manager Kim. Good to see you."
He remembered Seong-ho from the wedding hall and shook his hand warmly, ushering him inside with open pleasure.
"We said hello at the reception. You remember?"
"Of course. How could I forget Director Lee Gyeong-deuk, Deputy Head of the Strategic Planning Office?"
"Oho. You even know my name?"
"My father-in-law told me to learn a great deal from you, Director."
"Did he? The Chairman said that?"
At the mention that Lee Tak-hyeon—Seong-ho's father-in-law and Chairman of the Ilhyeon Group—had spoken of him, Lee Gyeong-deuk beamed. Still smiling, he led Seong-ho deeper into the office, straight to the room Seong-ho had used until the day he died.