Deal Breaker

Forgetting what he had been doing before coming out to get coffee, and even forgetting the coffee itself was brewing, Kanghyeon perched on the edge of his desk and stared blankly into space, then suddenly twisted his eyes.

Wait, is this really something for me to be shocked about?

…I guess I’m just shocked that she didn’t tell me honestly.

No, that’s not it. She didn’t need to tell him.

It’s Hyeji’s private life. If she told him, it would only make things uncomfortable when guiding. Hyeji had been wise.

Right. This was just a professional relationship defined only by superior and subordinate.

That was the relationship from the start, so why does it feel like Hyeji has moved even farther away?

Kanghyeon couldn’t understand himself.

* * *

Late at night at the end of September, when summer had passed and autumn had deepened.

The moment Kanghyeon got a call from the head of Hyeji’s security team, he jumped out of bed and headed straight to a nearby women’s hospital.

“She was just brought to the hospital.”

Labor had started. A full month earlier than the due date Hyeji had told him.

Suspiciously.

This doesn’t seem like premature labor…

Wasn’t it January 1st?

With me.

While Hyeji was carrying the child, Kanghyeon had come to suspect that the baby might be his. Ever since the shock that Noh Hyeji had dated a boyfriend without telling him faded and reason returned.

Being pregnant meant she hadn’t gotten the contraceptive injection.

And yet, coincidentally, the supposed father of the child disappeared before Kanghyeon even knew about him. As if he had never existed in the first place.

At first, he hadn’t been confident enough to ask outright. Instead, he tried to gather evidence through leading questions.

Pretending to worry, he asked about her ex-boyfriend. Hyeji dodged like a slippery loach, with an attitude that said she didn’t want to talk about it. He asked to see the baby’s ultrasound photos. Other co-workers would excitedly show even videos, but Hyeji always made excuses, saying there was nothing special to see or that the baby hadn’t shown their face this time, and never showed him.

Why? Does the baby’s face have Han Kanghyeon written on them?

Hyeji’s suspicious behavior only fueled his doubts. As the days passed, her belly swelled like a snowball, and he couldn’t keep doubting forever. Looking at her heavy belly, he felt sorry for the woman who was trying to shoulder that responsibility alone over a pointless misunderstanding.

‘Hyeji-ssi, I’m not that much of an idiot. Trust me and lean on me.’

So, a month before Hyeji’s maternity leave began, he took her to a nice place, stuffed her full of delicious Korean beef to dull her reason, and then said it.

“Hyeji-ssi, our guiding contract has that clause about termination and damages if you get pregnant, right?”

“Yes?”

Caught completely off guard after a meal, Hyeji showed her flustered reaction openly. As expected, she really had been hiding the pregnancy because of that clause.

“That’s only if it’s your child, Director. It’s not.”

Since the clause was still in effect, she continued to deny it.

“I’m going to delete that part.”

The quick-witted Noh Hyeji realized why he was suddenly deleting the pregnancy related clause and started to guard herself against him. It wasn’t as if Kanghyeon would label her a gold digger, and he had already promised he wouldn’t hold her responsible for lax contraception.

“So be honest with me. It’s my child, right?”

“It’s not.”

Why did she still keep denying it?

Kanghyeon didn’t know there was one more reason beyond contract termination and damages.

“Would your answer be the same even if I removed my inhibitor?”

He thought she would give in and tell the truth, but instead…

“Director Han, you’re crossing a line.”

She was offended, saying that reading her thoughts was an invasion of privacy, and announcing he would do so was a threat. Kanghyeon truly had no intention of invading Hyeji’s mind.

It was just fishing.

And loach-like Noh Hyeji bit the bait immediately.

A big catch.

If it really wasn’t his child, she would have been indignant and told him to go ahead and try. The fact that she got angry, unlike her usual self, and tried to flee in that moment was practically a confession.

And yet, she was giving birth nine months after guiding him in Dubai.

You can lie, but you can’t keep a baby in your womb an extra month past the due date. This too was proof that the child was his.

Showing up at the delivery room without being invited.

An unimaginable breach of manners in the life of the well-mannered Han Kanghyeon. But when you’re on the verge of becoming trash who stays home doing nothing while your child is born, bad manners become common sense.

If Hyeji-ssi kicks me out, I’ll leave. Whatever.

“Noh Hyeji. Which room is she in?”

When he asked upon entering the hospital, they must have assumed he was the husband, because they readily told him. He went up to the private delivery room he found that way, and even from outside the door, the sound of her suffering was already clear.