Chapter 107

Park PD was a good person in many ways. However, his blabbermouth and one-track mindset were enough to undermine all his good deeds. There is no way that Hyung-Wook’s request would have worked. After all, Park PD was someone who would think that Na-Yool had nothing to hide since she did nothing wrong, and that she rather spread around the bastard’s evil doing for him to get cursed to death.

The only comforting thing was that both the fact that this matter was originally a secret and the fact that it was ‘another secret that I should keep for myself but that I spitted out because I trust you’ were conveyed conjointly to the few people who heard about it. It was conveyed from one mouth to another and reached Seung-Jae in the name of Na-Yool’s sake, but fortunately it did not spread far.

But he was too close of a person to her.

“I looked it up and there are quite a few cases where the guy flips out and keeps harassing when things do not go their way. Even though they act docile when the police are around.”

“…Yeah, I’m moving out precisely because it might happen.” Na-Yool muttered awkwardly.

“For the time being, shall we commute to and from work together?”

“What?”

“You might be scared when you go to or leave the company, so I will go pick you up at your house in the morning.”

“It’s alright. How would you do that, anyway? You barely can arrive at work before 9 am.”

“But your circumstances are…”

“It’s okay, and I’m not even living in that apartment right now.”

“Then where are you living?”

“…Just at a friend’s house from college.”

The casual lie tickled her throat.

“Have you stayed at their house since the weekend?”

“Yeah. They invited me in after hearing of my circumstances. So I’m living there for now, and just for the time being, until I find a new home.”

Except for who was the house’s owner, all she had said was the truth.

“And it is not far from the company?”

“A bit, but commuting is alright.”

Seung-Jae gave an appreciative nod. Misunderstanding Na-Yool’s troubled expression for gloominess, he patted her shoulder and the words that fell out were…

“I am glad you broke up early thanks to me.”

Na-Yool let out a baffled laugh. But thinking about it, it was sort of right, so she nodded in acknowledgement.

“It really did end up this way.”

“If you had gone to your Gapyeong trip, you would obviously have made one more memory with that weirdo. And worse, you would still be dating without knowing that he was this kind of bastard.”

“Say no more, that’s too scary.”

She was genuinely disgusted, and Seung-Jae obediently complied. He seemed to choose his words to add something.

“Ms. Na-Yool! I heard everything from Park PD!” With excellent timing Kim PD appeared right then, panting loudly despite clearly not having run over there. Kim Sang-Hoon PD, the other Sang-Hoon.

“What?”

“Your ex, that trash, I heard he is a complete lunatic? You even had to go to the police station!”

“Ah……”

Na-Yool smiled awkwardly with a faint voice. It seemed like Kim PD had worked outside for two days and only got to work in the office around lunch today. Consequently, Na-Yool had lowered her guard thinking that the noisiest person would not know, but it clearly was a mistake. She really should have known better about Park PD’s big mouth!

“Are you okay? No injuries?”

“Yes, nothing much.”

“Your lips, this… did a hit burst it?”

“It’s just a skin blemish. I’ve been tired.”

As she dodged the question, Kim PD slammed the desk, more infuriated than she herself was.

“Crazy bastard! Such a bastard should be born in Singapore to get caned to death!”

“…Is it not flogging?” Seung-Jae silently asked Na-Yool, who just shook her head in answer.

“Na-Yool, you really went through a lot. Really. How bad it must have been to even take it to the police despite your former dating history!”

“…Well, I probably lacked judgement.”

Of course, she was being polite. Just as a preventive measure, to not get hurt in case someone would berate her for dating a man she did not know that well.

Kim PD frown.

“How can you say that? You fell into his trap because he is a fraud and good at it, not because you’re stupid.”

“Thank you.”

Kim PD observed Na-Yool with a worried look as she finally uttered the words that were stuck in her throat. With a single sentence, the guard she had put up until now had become futile.

“Are you okay now?”

“Yes, I am.”

“You’re not going to settle with that bastard, are you?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Bad guys like this must be given a criminal record. So that everyone knows how bad they are, and that companies, women and everything else avoid them at all costs.”

Although Kim PD would not know the details of the incident, it was of course inevitably pleasant to hear a voice taking her side. If only such a voice had been there at the police station on Friday, if someone had been on her side, more than now it would have been…

Na-Yool once again sighed bitterly. Even though she believed she had done nothing wrong, she had to fight against an inexplicable sense of disgrace. People mentioning the incident was enough to pain her, and she felt humbled because a third party knew about her most private matters.

I’m not the one to blame, so why?

If it had not been for Si-Jin who filled her mind with his existence, for his warmth which silently wrapped her through that night, would she be sitting calmly as she currently was? Could she have really been comforted by Kim PD’s words?

Indeed, she needed to find an apartment soon. Na-Yool was hit with the realization about her unprompted new dating status.

Chapter 28 – Kwon Si-Jin’s standpoint

Si-Jin’s first memory went like this: He had received her portfolio through a client’s introduction, a little bit more than 2 years ago. Kim Na-Yool, 27, a graduate from Seoul known for her artistic talent, majored in web graphic design, currently changing jobs for the 6th time.

It was not unusual to do so at that age, and neither was it to receive her resume through a business partner. Although submitting your resume to a new company through a client of your previous company was indeed a little unconventional.

However, designers sometimes move faster than migratory birds. It was an industry that exhausted people as quickly as goods, and cheap substitutes like fresh graduate designers kept on a leash at low cost were overflowing to replace them. Frequent change of jobs was the only way for them to raise their own value.

It is hardly the case for a design agency since projects are allotted mechanically like in a factory, but in small-scale companies, there are often cases where there is absolutely no sense of distance between the designer themself and the client. As long as the designer is efficient and gets things done, the client will stick with them even if they leave the company. In some cases, it even happens the other way around.

And that is how things turned like this.

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