Beckoning you

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Hair, jet black.

Suit well pressed,

Tie, none.

Winter jacket, an expensive cashmere.

I looked at him in every angle and perception I could use to look at someone and tried to assume where he came from; Nonetheless, I couldn’t exactly fathom anything by only reading off the first page. It was in the morning on that particular day that my older brother informed me that I’d be visited by the best friend of his, whose profession he refused to reveal. Nam Woohyun, if he weren’t the most surreptitiously ambiguous person on earth, he was most certainly the most ambiguous I had ever come across in my life. Despite being my dear old step brother by birth (Since my parents had assumed their attempts of conceiving had gone to naught, before I was born) Woohyun hardly ever really treated me like one would have expected to. Woohyun cared for me, I could say that much. But since recently, especially after I kicked off with my new job, he’d been constantly climbing up my nerves with his sudden plans of changing her mind as well as my path of desired profession. But of course, I was certain that where his intentions lied was always valid. But only, I enjoy my job, and I was in thorough belief that not even my older brother could change my mind, all for the fact that my intentions were clear, my mind was as sharp as crystal and my resolve was hell-bent. Not even if he’d send his so-called best friend with the task in his hand would influence me in howsoever way to change my mind.

The person before me was watching me with equal interest as much as I myself did. His thin eyes were narrowed that they were hardly visible. Lips, too pretty for a man, were formed into a thin line. There were slight wrinkles on his forehead despite having such clear and fair skin. He, as I assumed, was in his early thirties, and just when he finally gave me (or more to himself) a rather approving nod, I could instantly draw a conclusion. He was definitely another one of Nam Woohyun’s sly plans.

I swiftly pulled back, sitting up straight in my leather bound chair which gave a despondent creek and gave him a rather censorious look.

“No, I’m not taking another job” I said.

The man across from me kept on gazing up at me, consistently meeting my eyes, his fingers subtly running up his jaw as though he were deep in his thoughts. There was a slight smile gracing his lips, it took him quite a while before he replied. “For a lawyer of your age, Miss Jung, you’re quite very talented. I’m impressed”

“I’m sure you’d use the same tactics to sell me” I reprimanded fiercely, my composure was unwavering. “When you’d go and recommend me at the firm who hired you, when you’d introduce me, when you’d put down every single detail you so sneakily observed…”

The stranger, whom I knew only as Nam Woohyun’s best friend, gave me a knowing smile. “How could you be so sure?”

“You’re a head hunter” I answered without a second thought. “Why else would my brother send you to me?”

He continued to watch me, his eyes tracing every inch of as expected of someone engaged in his profession; attentive, cunning, appealing. Finally he sat up, gave me one graceful smile and reached into his jacket pocket. What he happened to throw at my direction across the table, just as I had assumed, was a business card. It was rather professional, stiff and neat. In dark blue embossed lettering was his name and designation. “Kim Sung Gyu, Legal recruiter, Department of recruitment; Bae, Kim and Lee”

I couldn’t stop myself when a scoff of mockery erupted from my parted lips. I was amused. “Interesting. A growing law firm in Seoul” Then I looked up to meet his eyes. “I heard they’re slowly crumbling down, Mister Kim”

“Certainly” He answered, yet despite what he response meant, he sounded rather haughty and confident. “That is why, Miss Jung, we’re hiring talented associates. A good pay, feasible working hours and a rather spacious and friendly working environment” He leaned across the table and gave another one of his dazzling smiles. “I’m sure it sounds tempting to you”

I could only manage to give him a rude roll of eyes. Certainly the offer was tempting for me, for a talented lawyer as myself (or as I believed myself to be) to be working along with lawyers of the same talent and passion as myself, to be recruited at one of the most reputed law firms in Seoul. The offer was tempting for me indeed that it almost influenced me to accept it. But only, I was determined to build up a firm of my own. A firm which served the right purposes, a firm which suited my desires and a firm which didn’t keep me restricted by rules and protocols. I wanted to be surrounded only by my free will. The firm that I had put up, all from the scratch was simply my escapade, the simple attempt to find myself and not be under the influence of another.

And I was honestly liking it. Rather than working under another strict partner who mercilessly enforced me to commit myself more than I was willing to, although the salary was higher and the position was reasonable, I enjoyed myself more in being free of all such deterrents. I enjoyed having a place of my own. I enjoyed this liberty of being in control. Most of all, this talent I had, the talent of using my impressive detective senses into use hadn’t been more exhilarating than it was now, working as a private investigator by myself. I was truly, genuinely enjoying it.

Though my brother certainly did not.

“Just tell my brother that he failed again” I said, sliding the card over the vinyl surface of the table to my opposite direction. “I’m happy where I am, and I don’t hope to work for yet another so-called ‘leading’ firms again”

Sung gyu wasn’t taking it. He looked down at my hand, at my fingertips which remained pressed lightly against the card underneath and only gave me a shrug. “I’d rather if you keep it” He said, and finally got up on his feet. Still seated in my designated place as the only partner of the firm, still a little deluded and put off my feet for a briefest moment, Kim Sung gyu, the recruiter was suddenly a significant presence before me. He tugged at the lapels of his winter jacket, which he never got around to take off, ran a few slender fingers through his dark locks of hair and gave me a smile. “In case you’d change your mind…I’m only a phone call away, Jung Eunji”

I smiled back and folded my arms on my chest. “Well, I highly doubt that. Close the door on your way back, Kim Sung gyu”

With a slight wave directed on my direction behind him, Kim Sung Gyu walked away and out of my sight. I took another one non-committed glance at the card lying silently on the desk, reached out to it, folded it in two and almost dropped it to the bin beside me. It was for some strange reason that I decided against it. A reason I couldn’t truly fathom. It was because I suddenly felt as though his number was a number that I was certain to keep with myself, which I was bound to use one day. As though he was a person I was supposed to avoid yet I could. Someone important. And throwing the only one evidence of our encounter away, for me, suddenly seemed like a big mistake.

*

“I bloody hate you, Nam Woohyun” I bellowed into the phone, my other hand angrily meddling with the lock of her door. “What part of ‘I don’t need another job’ do you not understand?”

I had finally returned home after a long day, and certainly my fiancé hadn’t come back from work, hence the still locked door. Lee Howon, who worked for the same law firm I started off at, and I, we’re to get married in another two months. It was a difficult time for the both of us, what with busy jobs and wedding planning, and since we hardly ever found time for ourselves, we finally decided to share a condominium in the heart of Seoul city even if it was before marriage. Howon was a kind, understanding, generous young man, (as I believed to be) much like myself. And our story unraveled as one of those tales you’d find in novels; best friends becoming lovers. Nonetheless, our relationship was another one of my personal affairs that Nam Woohyun never approved of. I was the one to step up and make decisions by myself and ask Howon to marry me to prove to him that I no longer needed his guidance and interference it build my life as well as I desired to. It was a spontaneous decision at that time, which sounded implausible even. Howon agreed anyway, claiming that he would go to any length and do anything for me for the love that he had for me (which I found to be quite over the edge at that time). Woohyun didn’t impede after that point, most possibly because he found another crucial life affair of mine to start interfering with.

“First off, Eunji, I’m your brother. Have some respect. Second off, you do need a job which you still haven’t realized yet” Woohyun was saying on the other end.

Silence, and I finally wrenched open the door. Woohyun was speaking again. “What did Sung gyu Hyung say?”

I dropped the grocery bags roughly onto the kitchen counter without so much as caring for the eggs and glass bottles inside and poured a glass of water. “Well, he said that my firm shows prospects of being extremely successful and that he thinks my job suits me well”

I could almost feel my brother roll his eyes on the other end. “Truth, Jung Eunji, the truth”

A sigh. “He’s a legal recruiter for Bae, Kim and Lee and offers me an associate position”

“Sounds like a plan” Woohyun said.

“Sounds like bullshit to me” I replied.

There was an audible sigh of anger, annoyance and disappoint from Woohyun’s part. He’s been facing a number of disappointments lately; especially related to me, the reason for which I couldn’t fathom. Yet I was constantly imperiled to his endless complains of being frustrated of my, as he put it, implausibly difficult attitude, which I give him credit for, because he succeeded in pointing that out. Since my younger days, I had always been the golden child. Well-mannered, intelligent, educated, and I was said to have always known my way around everything. It wasn’t a secret for me and everyone else around us that the person who built me from the scratch when I had fallen completely off the track was my brother. After my parents divorced when I was only twelve years old, and when we were only left with a mother who committed herself more into her gambling addiction than to child rearing, it was Woohyun who looked into everything related to his younger sister. Growing up, however, how I began to see his affection was as an interference, as though he was deliberately taking up the obligation of bringing me up instead of allowing me to grow on my own. I have often wondered what pleasure he got from doing this. It was burdening me. Woohyun, at most cases, was a burden to me. I eventually concluded that he had a sister complex of some sort.

“Eunji, you have to listen to me when I’m trying to help you here. You have plenty of time to begin a firm of your own. Just-just keep the foundation first”

“I did!” I replied, and leaned against the kitchen counter. “At Harvey and Kim”

Harvey and Kim was the law firm I previously worked at, starting off as a junior associate and climbing up the ladder of judicial professions for good four years. When I decided to leave my position at Harvey and Kim, I was no longer a junior associate, and also no longer detained the interest of working for a large-scale law firm ever again. My profession as a corporate lawyer there was what which caused a massive set-back in my life, which now I consider the first nightmare as also what motivated me to be taken by my own desires. Thus, the last thing I would want right now in my peaceful life was going back to square one.

“Harvey and Kim” Woohyun echoed, sounding as though the words were sour to speak. “Harvey and Kim…it was never the place for you, Eunji”

“Oh” I began, and paced around the kitchen confines. “So, Bae, Kim and Lee is the right place, the place where my whole life will fall into place, is it?”

“You can never be certain, can you?” Woohyun replied without missing a beat. “After all, Eunji, all challenges in life has a silver lining”

I stopped pacing around in the kitchen and caught the sight of a stray wine bottle resting on the counter in the dark with two glasses on the side. I couldn’t exactly remember the last time Howon and I shared a glass of wine, yet I was certain that this particular bottle, a French brand dated from the 1990s was the expensive gift he received as hampers from Harvey and Kim last summer. I couldn’t remember Howon and me ever making plans to open it. As far as I was concerned, it was supposed to be kept until our wedding day.

I turned away from the suspicious bottle for the time being and returned my attention to my brother. “The thing is, I find starting a private investigators firm more challenging than working for Bae, Kim and Lee. Do you get it? It’s thousand times more challenging”

Woohyun was silent for a second, during which I got rid of my jacket and sprawled across the sofa, and then he said; “What’s a challenge which has no possibility of succeeding? Remember Eunji, you’re meddling with your own life”

I found this as the point to fight back. “Well then, you’re meddling with mine. So quit it, there’s no point of having this conversation”

A deep long sigh from the other end. “Eunji, do you know just how bloody difficult you are? Stupid, stubborn and so bloody arrogant-,”

“Yeah, yeah” I responded, waving my hand in the air as though to dismiss him. “I get it. So there’s your point. Give my wishes to Chorong unnie okay?”

Woohyun only muttered something about having all his commitments gone to waste, and still basking in his anger and disappointment, he finally put down the phone. It was with great relief that I lied back and recoiled into my own world. Through all the adversities in my life, the only comfort I could find was the time spent alone or with my husband in the confines of our condominium, the only place secluded from the harsh reality. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself in a better place. There were the ‘What ifs’ which would always flood my mind whenever I would allow my thoughts to wander. What if my parents never got divorced? What if my mother never got addicted to gambling? What if my brother was never adopted? What if I never met Howon? What if I was never born?

Through the course of this thought then, the vine bottle which had landed on the kitchen counter without my knowledge came into my mind. Since Howon wasn’t at home yet and also since only Howon and I had access to the condominium, I couldn’t fathom how one could have, if we never got around to do so, taken out the bottle of vine which, as I remembered, was kept in the cupboard along with other alcoholic beverages. I climbed up on my feet, returned to our open-planned kitchenette, located the bottle of vine and realized that it was half empty. Then there were two glasses accompanying it. By instinct, I held them up and examined each of them. It didn’t take me much to realize that there was a lip-mark of a woman in crimson on one of them which I couldn’t recognize. A mark which certainly wasn’t mine.

*

Howon got late than usual to return home that night. I honestly wasn’t the kind to stay up and wait for him until he’d return so I wasn’t surprised when the lights turned up in the hallway which awoke me in the middle of the night. Through the haziness of the sleep, I climbed down the bed, located my house slippers and trudged out of the room, Just as I assumed, Howon was standing in the middle of the hallway, his jacket in his hand, his eyes focused on his phone and he was smiling to himself. Trying not to notice the incongruity of his behavior, I croaked out in a husky voice; “Hey!”

Howon was baffled by my presence and jumped in surprise upon seeing me in the darkened hall. “Oh! I didn’t think you were up”

“I wasn’t” I said and gave him a small smile. “I was asleep, but I heard you coming”

He gave me a warm smile, which sent the butterflies in my stomach flying. Nonetheless, although I was expecting for him to step over to me and hold me in his embrace, it wasn’t happening. I scanned his eyes, his face, and his posture. He seemed out of place. Something was off.

“You okay?” I asked, taking a careful step towards him. It wasn’t a secret that I could read people’s emotions off the first page and read between lines of the words they speak, a talent I’ve received from god-knows-where and came always handy with regards to my profession and then my life.

“Oh?” Howon looked up, sounding distracted, and he soon slipped his phone into his pocket, an action which didn’t go unnoticed. “I’m fine” He said, and gave me another smile. “Just a little tired…”

Unconvinced, I pulled together the lapels of my night rob, tightened it around and walked into the kitchen. “Working over-time today?”

Howon, unlike myself, was working in intellectual property which to me was much more complicated than what I followed, thus the all-nighters he pulled made much sense to me that I never questioned him.

“Yeah…work’s all piled up” He replied, and followed me to the kitchen. He then found the bottle of vine which I had left earlier that night and took a swig straight from the bottle itself, at which point it occurred to me that I should certainly be asking him about it.

“That’s the bottle you got for hampers last summer” I pointed out conversationally, while my eyes wandered in the content of her fridge.

“Oh?” Howon went again, and I closed the door of the fridge behind me. It could have even been only me, but for some reason Howon seemed quite paled. “Oh this…yes, it is…”

Without wanting to ask anything further about it, since I could already feel that it had been him behind the suddenly appearing bottle of vine, I only gave him a nod and proceeded towards the hallway. It was at this point that he called my name. I turned back to meet his eyes. “Yes?”

Howon still seemed a little pale, and when he spoke, I could easily read between the lines. He was hiding something. He was hiding something from me, Jung Eunji, whom nobody can hide anything from.

“Eunji…I want to talk about the wedding” He said.

For the time being, I decided to overlook whatever he might be not telling me and returned to the kitchen. He had pulled out a chair and was had already seated himself, which I followed. Afterwards there was a long moment of silence between us, during which something close to anger, annoyance, and doubt was being summoned within me. For the first time in my life, my instincts were telling me something different. For the first time in my life, I was doubting myself since the truth and the reality could turn out to be too difficult and impossible to believe.

“What about it?” I finally asked in the end. Howon, for my surprise, seemed to be avoiding my eyes. If it wasn’t so blatantly obvious, I would never have believed that such actions would ever come from the always confident and composed Lee Howon, but witnessing him, and all of them so obvious before me, I couldn’t fathom if it was right to believe what I felt.

“I want to….I want to delay it a bit. Another couple of month’s maybe?”

I gave him a closer, attentive look. “Delay it? Or cancel it?”

Surprised by the firmness of my tone, Howon looked up to finally meet my eyes.

“What? No, I-,”

“Delay it or cancel it” I repeated more sternly, my voice was not wavering once. “Because as much as you’re trying to convince me, on even yourself here I’m in much doubt as yourself about what you’re saying, Howon”

There was silence on his part then, and the silence was so sharp and prominent that I could even hear the faint sound of clocks ticking ever so clearly. I waited then, my insides burning with rage. I couldn’t understand what was going on, nonetheless. What was happening to the four year relationship we shared which went on this long without a single glitch? We were going on so well together, we were beyond perfect. And that was the whole reason why my senses were failing to grasp the obvious inklings lying around me.

The truth was too difficult and impossible to believe.

“Eunji” Howon finally began to speak. “I know what you are thinking-,”

“I saw the lip mark on the vine glass” I cut in. And when I said that, I wanted him to deny it, to tell me that my observations, for the first time ever, was wrong, to tell me that there wasn’t anything of the sort. But Howon was sitting there with no sense of denial, as though he was accepting defeat. As though he wasn’t going to fight. And it killed me.

“Say something about it, you know how I am”

“You…” Howon began and quickly licked his chapped lips. “You’re getting better at this, Eunji…”

I gave him a sharp look. “Elaborate”

Howon didn’t seem like he had to think anything through before he explained, as though everything’s been there on the tip of his tongue, well executed words, already planned and only to be served to me with nothing amiss. When he met my eyes, everything seemed more obvious than anything has ever been to my heedful senses, and I realized, all this time, they have always been there. The evidences, the inklings, and all the traces of little breadcrumbs he had left, leading me to the big picture, the truth. It had been me, myself who had missed out on them, overlooked them, because I was somehow afraid of knowing the mere truth.

“I’m tired of this, I’m tired of you, and what we are doing” He said in the end, his hands, knuckles whitened, were grasping each other before him. “I don’t think we ever worked out, Eunji. For four years…what we started off back then was something naïve, foolish, and we should never have carried on”

“You don’t” I and caught my breath. I wasn’t falling. I was Jung Eunji, and I would never fall. “Don’t beat around the bush and say it”

Howon nodded, sat up, met my eyes, and when he spoke his words were resonant and clear in the silence of the night which surrounded us. “I’m seeing someone else right now, and I don’t think we can end it any sooner”

I didn’t waver, not once. Maybe I had known it all along. “I know”

“It’s you after all, Eunji” Howon said genuinely. “You, of all people would have known”

I feigned ignorance at his remark and looked down at the wedding band on my finger. I could have guessed that much, if I hadn’t been afraid of the truth. After all, I was the one who wanted the marriage to which he wordlessly agreed. I had never asked or considered anything on his part. I made decisions, all choices all along. And as I realize it now, we’ve been falling apart all from the beginning, I could see that there was no stopping it.

“We’ll call off the wedding then,” I said in the end and finally looked up, my stance firm as steel. “But on one condition”

“What is it?” He asked.

And I knew I had to salvage the situation, to remain to be the strong one, the one who had no flaws, the golden child, and I hated to let anyone see where I had failed. Not even if it was a situation where I was victimized. Being a victim was for fools, for weak minds, for people with flaws, and I was never one of them.

“Tell everyone it’s me who’s calling off the wedding. Say it’s me who doesn’t want it, and that you were only complying with my wishes”

Howon raised his brows. “Does it make any difference?”

“It does” I replied without a beat. “Believe me, it makes a great deal of difference”

Howon sighed, ran his fingers through his hair and finally got up on his feet. “Okay…whatever you wish Eunji”

“Good” I replied, and climbed up on my feet myself. I proceeded towards the bedroom then, my head was light, and my heart wasn’t burning as I expected it to. In fact, I felt rather conscious of my surrounding, as though I was finally lifting my head above water. I was conscious of the fact that I was no longer held back by a marriage and all the responsibilities which followed them, I was conscious of it that I was, in a strange way, given freedom to fly on my own.

“I’ll sleep in the couch” Howon called from behind me. I agreed, though I hardly spoke a word, and it was once I had returned to the comfort of my being alone that I realized, there was indeed a burn in my heart. The hole that Howon was going to leave behind with me, that space which he had always filled and never be filled again. The sense of belonging, the feeling of not being alone. With a sudden rush of emotions, I realized that I was left alone once more, like how my mother left me off to deal with her gambling, like how my father left us and married a Japanese woman half his age. For the first time in my life, I felt utterly, incredibly alone. It was because of all these that I happened to cry myself to sleep that night.

*

When I went to work the following morning despite my sleep deprived self, the first thing I happened to see was a familiar back of a man, a familiar cashmere trench coat and Sung Jong, my co-worker engaged in a rather dubious conversation with him. If things weren’t difficult enough for me, I would have treated the situation more pleasantly. But what with everything that happened to me overnight, Kim Sung Gyu and my brother’s antagonism against me were the last things I wanted to deal with.

“Eunji is yet to arrive sir” Sung Jong was saying, and I could sense him being as polite as possible. “Besides we haven’t even opened yet”

“You don’t have to ‘be open’ as how you say, young man” Sung Gyu was saying in his deep, confident voice. “I’m here to see her for a personal matter”

“But she had asked me to steer clear of head hunters”

Sung Gyu then, began to erupt in laughter. This, I took as the moment to finally intervene.

“What is going on here?”

“Eunji” Sung Jong nodded, and I nodded back before looking up towards our visitor. “Mister Kim, how may I help you?”

“Good morning to you too, miss Jung” Sung gyu said, and I noticed that he wasn’t looking as cheerful as he did the day before. “I’m here to discuss an urgent matter with you.”

I scanned his eyes, trying to grasp his true intentions and gave him a sharp look. “I think I made myself clear, Kim Sung Gyu. I’m not getting in contact with-,”

“I believe it’s a matter we should discuss inside”

My anger raised before I could stop myself. “No” I said, and was certain that my rage would erupt any moment from now. “I’d rather discuss it here and make myself absolutely clear to you that I. Do. Not. Wish. To. Work. With. You”

Sung Gyu turned to me and gave me a sharp look that sent shivers down my spine. “Did I even mention to you what matter I was here to discuss, Miss Jung?”

His voice was so confident, so strong and in a matter of seconds he had managed to deprive me of air to breathe on, solely by his words. All of a sudden, Kim Sung Gyu was an overwhelming presence, for the first time ever, putting me a level down than I had always kept myself on. I was rendered speechless, and I hated him for doing that to me, making me look vulnerable in the presence of another.

I took a cautious step back, and bringing my strong-self up again, I gave him a mocking smile. “Do you have to? So desperate you are. I can say without asking”

Sung Gyu took a step towards me. “Oh, you have no idea”

“Do I not?” I pushed on. “It’s all obvious though. You are desperate”

At this point, Sung Gyu looked murderous, the mischievous glint had vanished completely, being replaced by something dark, clouding his eyes with rage. I knew that I was certainly stepping into the wrong territory, the forbidden waters. Nonetheless, judging by the position I myself was in now, I couldn’t care less. I wanted to hurt somebody, to step into the wrong territory, to make someone feel miserable as much I myself felt, and it was only this perfect stranger who was available in the line.

I decided to carry on.

“Is the firm falling so badly? Are you too losing your job? A mere recruiter of a reputed firm, what can you do to salvage it, hm?”

Sung Gyu gave me a mocking scoff and took another step towards me, now cornering me to the wall. “You have no idea what you are talking about, Jung Eunji”

I gave him a laugh in return. “Well, I think I have a-“

Before I could finish what I started, Sung Gyu took a harsh and sudden step forward, which sent me tumbling backwards against the wall, mortified. I could hear Sung Jong exclaiming his protests behind him, but Sung Gyu seemed to take no note. In fact, the only thing he seemed to take not of was me, his eyes glistening with fury and perspiration on his forehead even on a cold autumn morning. His arms were on either sides of me as though he thought I’d escape. I tried my best to keep my posture calm and firm through this. Carry on being the perfect woman I have always been in everyone’s eyes. Nevertheless, I was certain I was failing gradually. More than that, I wanted to know what buttons I had pushed on him to be so furious, what was setting his head on fire. I couldn’t gauge it, not even with my attentive senses. For me, he was suddenly a ship sailing through the fog. I couldn’t read him off the first page at all. Like I couldn’t the first day we met.

“Listen now, Miss Jung Eunji” He spoke, and his warm breath, carrying a white mist disappeared before my eyes, colliding with my own. “I don’t give a damn about whatever the fuck is going on with you, I don’t give a damn if your bloody business is failing or if you have nowhere to go. As much as I am given the task to find the appropriate people to work for the firm, I do not intend to let them hire someone like you. So arrogant, proud and so over the head; I have never met anyone as despicable as you. I have heard a lot about you from your brother, and I feel sorry for him to be stuck with someone like you. I never say it, because he’s my friend and I respect him. But I am saying it to you because you deserve to know. And no, I’m not here to what you think I’m here for. I’m here because I respect your brother, so let’s please kindly forget that this ever happened and get on with our day shall we?”

I stared back at him, speechless, horrified and hatred filling my mind. I despised him, I despised him to the core. But his words only made me stronger, for he didn’t heed me as weak, vulnerable and graceful but as everything that I had always wanted to be. Yet, I didn’t say a word and only watched him as he finally stepped away from me and arranged his crooked tie.

“That being said” He spoke, quickly regaining his composure. “Miss Jung, I need your help”

I didn’t say a word, I couldn’t and still remained standing against the wall I was cornered to. This was perhaps the most defenseless I had ever been in my life before a man.

“Mister Kim-,” Sung Jong interrupted behind him, and so Sung Gyu was responding to him while his eyes were blatantly fixed on me. “I want to hire a private investigator, and I heard Miss Jung has done fantastically with her previous cases”

“Whatever for?” I managed in the end, and Sung Gyu finally gave me a slightest but a sad smile. “I just heard that my wife is cheating on me. I want you to investigate on her. I’m impressed of your capabilities, and because of your brother, Miss Jung, you’re the one I trust”