Deal Breaker - Chapter 80
After about thirty minutes, the Guide came out. Kanghyeon didn’t. Hyeji, who was going through a stormy phase she had never even experienced in adolescence while forcing herself to cling to work she couldn’t focus on, finally made a mistake she had never made in six years, forgetting to attach a file to an email, and only then did she stop working and stand up.
She knocked on the door and heard a voice telling her to come in. So Hyeji opened the door right away, then hesitated.
“Yes, yes. I’ll definitely come see you in person as soon as possible.”
Kanghyeon was in the middle of a cheerful phone call with someone.
Should I come back later?
She gestured with her eyes and hands, but he, phone still to his ear, motioned for Hyeji to come in. Hyeji entered without making a sound and quietly closed the door.
“Yes, I’ve always wanted to meet you, so I’m truly happy and grateful to be able to at least speak like this today. Please always stay healthy. Yes.”
It was a good thing she sat down when he gestured for her to do so, almost without realizing it. The greetings went on for a long time. He repeated that he would come see them, that he was grateful, over and over, as if the other party wouldn’t let him go, before the call finally ended.
“What is it?”
His voice, asking what she needed, was bright. His expression was gentle too. Whoever he had been talking to, Kanghyeon seemed clearly in a much better mood than before.
That didn’t make the reason she came disappear. Hyeji clasped her hands politely, met his eyes, and slightly bowed her head.
“I’m sorry, Director. I didn’t think things through. I won’t let something like this happen again.”
“If you’re sorry, can you answer my question honestly?”
“Yes?”
“You did guiding while pregnant before too, didn’t you?”
“I’m truly sorry.”
“I was about to feel offended, then that thought crossed my mind. No matter how much our Hyeji likes money, you’re not the kind of person who’s so blinded by it that she throws propriety away. But with no guilt, no hesitation, you did guiding—no, s*x—with someone who’s not the child’s father, while carrying a child?”
“……”
“You didn’t look guilty at all that day. You actually looked far less restrained than usual. Right, you had nothing to hesitate about, so you slept with me even in that condition.”
The man who had relentlessly dug into the cracks in Hyeji’s psyche that day leaned back loosely in his chair, as if this was as far as his turn went.
“Go on, refute it.”
“……”
① No, actually I’m a self-made monster who throws away her conscience.
② No, I’m just a person who doesn’t think at all.
As she was agonizing over which of the two to choose, the man who had been quietly watching her let out a crooked smile.
“Hyeji-ya.”
His gaze was on Hyeji’s belly. Thump thump, her heartbeat rang in her ears.
“It’s my child, isn’t it?”
“No.”
At her denial, Kanghyeon smiled. As if he had expected it.
“Being pregnant means you missed your contraceptive shot, right? I checked, and the cost for the shot you were supposed to get at the end of last year hasn’t been billed yet.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you don’t need to be sorry. I just find it fascinating that you slept with me right around the time you got pregnant, yet you’re one hundred percent certain, without even one percent doubt, that it’s another guy’s child.”
Yes, fascinating, right? You can just think, how fascinating, and move on.
“Did the ultrasound show the baby’s forehead with the father’s name written on it or something?”
No, it was written on the nose bridge, baby daddy Han Kanghyeon.
“Hyeji-ya, want to guess who I was just on the phone with?”
The playful tone, the gentle eye smile, it feels ominous. Sure enough. Her premonition was right.
“Our Princess Hyeji doesn’t have a boyfriend, apparently.”
Grandma.
“That child is a coworker’s kid? And you’re hiding it from the baby’s father because you don’t trust him?”
Grandma…
“And that couple ring, you bought it yourself online with your own money not long ago, right? Just one.”
Grandma! You said you wouldn’t betray me!
No matter what, don’t tell the baby’s father!
And yet Grandma spilled everything so smoothly.
“I told her about how our Princess Hyeji took the snacks Grandmother gave her and didn’t share any, and she got angry.”
Ah. Was that the trigger for the betrayal?
“And Grandmother said she didn’t even get disc surgery? You just didn’t come along because you were worried about the baby, right. Wow, our baby is so filial. Darling, you did very well. But it would have been even better if Mom had been honest with Dad.”
I don’t understand why he’s doing this when he knows perfectly well why I can’t be honest.
“Noh Hyeji, you’re good at everything except lying.”
That line, saying she couldn’t do something, was effective at poking and bursting the pride of a lifelong top student, an S-Class.
