Given the late hour, there were only a few cars sporadically parked along the roadside.
Among them, a particularly high-end car stood out, parked in an unusually eye-catching manner.
He stepped out of a black sedan and was striding steadily toward Ji-eun.
The sight was so striking, it felt like a scene from a movie.
A well-fitted suit and a sleek tie.
Every step approaching her with the city lights behind him, like a beam of light.
Ji-eun stood blankly, watching until the deep, low voice reached right in front of her.
“Yoo Ji-eun.”
Everything about him felt… unfamiliar.
“Do you usually stay out this late?”
“……”
Ji-eun remained silent, just looking up at him quietly.
Now that he was this close, it felt like he had grown much taller than she remembered.
Well, it has been ten years already. Maybe… staying the same would be stranger.
“Ah!”
“Are you drunk?”
Then suddenly, as he bent down and brought his face close to hers, Ji-eun was startled and stepped back.
Wow, that scared me.
“So why aren’t you answering? How much did you drink?”
After saying that, he straightened his back. Ji-eun clutched the strap of her bag and replied.
“No? I was just trying to see who it was. My eyesight isn’t great at night.”
My heart won’t calm down.
“A-Anyway, what are you doing here?”
“I told you. I was waiting.”
“What?”
As Ji-eun snapped back to her senses and thought about it, something felt off.
We met earlier… at the police station.
And this place… I came here after moving to a restaurant?
“You—You! You’ve been following me? Since when?!”
This guy. Was he stalking me?
Wait, now that I think about it—how does he even know I became a police officer?
I don’t have any high school friends who keep in touch with that school.
“Kang Min-jun. Who are you, really? Why on earth did you approach me?”
“……”
“Say something! How did you know I’d be here! Earlier you clearly… huh?”
As Ji-eun poured out her words in rapid succession, Min-jun didn’t answer. Instead, he silently pulled out his phone and held it up.
The screen he showed her was infuriating.
‘Vice President, the bill has been settled. Please wait in your car.’
“Detective Jung… that bitch.”
I thought she quietly disappeared out of consideration for me, but she was a snitch…
Wait. And she was sharing my location info?
“She said you only drank a little more than half a bottle. Did you drink it with your face?”
Ugh. Unbelievable.
They even reported how much soju I drank?
While I was struggling with lettuce wraps and coughing, they were doing all this behind the scenes.
Ji-eun responded, exasperated.
“I’m red because I’m angry. Not because of the alcohol.”
Even as she spoke, she could feel her face flushing red and pale in real-time.
‘Jung Ha-na… just wait and see.’
Ji-eun, who had been fuming for a moment, soon lifted her head back up to face him.
No, seriously.
“Why were you waiting for me?”
“Because I didn’t get a proper answer.”
What is he talking about?
“I clearly said it earlier. I won’t do it. I’m not doing it.”
“Not that.”
“What?”
“I asked you. If you missed me.”
……?
Jieun was momentarily dumbfounded.
‘It’s been a while. Yoo Ji-eun.’
No way… from the beginning—
‘You didn’t miss me?’
Is that… what he meant?
After speaking, Min-jun had a calm expression.
Ji-eun stared intently at him.
Meeting his eyes, filled with deep silence, she thought to herself—
Maybe this guy…
“As expected, you’re still that Kang Min-jun.”
…maybe he hasn’t changed at all.
Ji-eun let out a short breath, “Ha,” and lifted her gaze to the sky.
Suddenly, it came back to her.
The things from ten years ago, the times she’d spent with him.
Yeah… you were always like this.
Always looking so effortlessly charming, and quietly, narrowing the distance.
Then you’d throw out some cryptic question to shake me up.
You’d stir up ripples in a heart that had been still…
…and then just like that, make it all seem like nothing ever happened.
As if there had never been anything—any meaning—between us.
Always dodging the answers that actually mattered.
“Kang Min-jun.”
But Min-jun—
“That answer earlier… it was sincere.”
Too bad. I’m not that same naïve high school kid anymore.
Straightening her once-tense shoulders, Ji-eun spoke with a calm, composed expression.
“I told you. I missed you.”
“……”
“I even thought about you sometimes. Of course.”
At that answer, Min-jun let out an involuntary chuckle.
He had expected her to explode.
It wasn’t the reaction he was anticipating.
“You’ve grown up, Yoo Ji-eun. I thought you just got prettier.”
“……”
Ji-eun quickly recovered from the flinch that ran through her body for a second.
Instead of asking more, he turned around, walked over, and opened the passenger-side door of the car.
Clack.
“Get in. We need to talk.”
Ji-eun said firmly again.
“Kang Min-jun. I don’t have anything more to say to you.”
“I’ll stay.”
“Just say it here. What’s with the cozy car talk?”
“Are you serious?”
Yeah. Dead serious.
Ji-eun crossed her arms, firmly showing she had no intention of getting in.
Min-jun paused for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Fine, I’ll say it here. Stock manipulation, police, secretary, that sort of…”
Before he could finish, Ji-eun quickly darted to the open passenger seat and got in.
As she pulled the seatbelt over her, she glanced at Min-jun, who was looking at her in disbelief.
“Ah, it’s just a bit chilly. And I drank, so…”
“……”
“What are you doing? Close the door.”
Seriously, this isn’t how it was supposed to go.
* * *
“Nice place you live in. It must be pretty hard to find a listing around here.”
“Yeah, but rentals are everywhere.”
You really know how to get under someone’s skin.
Click. Ji-eun unbuckled her seatbelt as she replied.
Since it was already late, they had entered Ji-eun’s home address and headed there. The car stopped along the roadside near her officetel.
It was well past midnight.
“Keep it short. I have work tomorrow.”
“Work. Are you really not going to do it?”
Despite Ji-eun’s blunt tone, his question was gentle.
She answered while staring out the windshield.
“Yeah. I’m not.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s you.”
“Because you still have feelings?”
At those words, Ji-eun furrowed her brows and glanced to the side.
Fee-lings?
Ha, what a joke.
“What feelings?”
Go ahead, answer me, Kang Min-jun.
“…We were never anything, were we?”
But her voice, saying that, was overflowing with emotion.
Ji-eun realized it immediately.
Ha, I shouldn’t have slipped like that.
“It’s just… I don’t really feel like it.”
Ji-eun turned her gaze back to the front and threw out a standard excuse.
“Kang Min-jun, think about it. We’re old classmates. And we used to compete for first and second place, and the result of that is…”
“……”
“Well, anyway, it’s just… weird. That’s all.”
It was clearly an excuse, but the corners of her mouth were gradually twisting into bitterness.
Ugh, I got too emotionally involved.
Min-jun replied in an even voice.
“You’re quite emotional. It’s a good opportunity.”
Are you… picking a fight?
Jie-un’s lips slightly parted.
Ugh, you really know how to push buttons.
“And you, Kang Min-jun.”
This time, Ji-eun asked him back with a question of her own.
“Why me?”
Why is it me you’re driving home so late at night?
Don’t give me something obvious like ‘security.’
Not something shallow like ‘because we know each other.’
“How did you know I’m a police officer?”
Ji-eun wanted to hear the real reason.
She looked at him steadily, waiting for his lips to part.
Min0jun answered indifferently, as if he had expected it.
“I was questioned by the police a while ago.”
“Ah… that.”
“The result was no charges.”
At the topic he brought up deliberately, Ji-eun slightly turned her gaze.
She had known from the start.
“Sorry about earlier. It’s just… things got a bit heated and I said some things.”
“Then you must understand why I proposed the investigation.”
Min-jun didn’t pursue the topic further.
Ji-eun nodded.
“Yeah. More or less.”
The stock manipulation allegations involving Vice President Kang Min-jun.
Though the case dragged on for a while, it was cleanly concluded with a “no charges” verdict.
But for the Shin-young Group, it was an unsatisfying ending.
The issue was a hot topic among the public—‘a third-generation chaebol and a stock rigging cartel.’
There was no way the public would believe a “no charges” verdict.
To them, Kang Min-jun looked like just another chaebol heir who used his power to wriggle out of the investigation like a slippery eel.
“You requested… an embargo.”
He wasn’t going to just leave the situation as is.
Min-jun acted quickly and requested an embargo—
In other words, he asked the government to prohibit media coverage until a certain point in time.
By offering a method to aid a real economic crime investigation.
The reporting date would be three months later.
During that time, Vice President Kang Min-jun planned to finalize major investments related to new business ventures that could affect his image.
During the same period, a police officer would go undercover as his secretary.
Min-jun agreed to assist the investigation by giving the undercover officer access to secret meeting locations used by the chaebols currently under investigation.
Except for key figures, everything else had to be kept confidential.
Not just the police, but even the corporations.
If the covert investigation—conducted without warrants—was exposed to the public, the damage would be severe.
Even so, it was clearly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for everyone involved.
“You… used your head pretty well.”
…He’s still as sharp as ever.
At Jieun’s subtle compliment, Min-jun didn’t say anything in return.
Instead, he turned to the back seat, stretched out his arm, and picked up a document envelope.
“This.”
He handed it to Ji-eun.
* * * *
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