The Country Life Diary of a Gangster’s Secretary

This chapter is paid for by Mimzy and Nemuru!

Hyeseong’s face stiffened in an instant. What does he mean by neighbors? Neighbors typically refer to people living next door. In a moment, numerous pieces of information flashed through his mind. 

The blue-roofed house next door that wasn’t there before. The voices of the neighborhood residents talking about the whereabouts of Mr. Park who lived there. And above all, Kwon Ihyeok’s unpredictable personality.

“CEO.”

“Yes.”

“I’m asking just in case.”

Ihyeok silently nodded his head. It was a nonchalant and indifferent action as if he had expected this to happen.

“Did you buy that house?”

Hyeseong pointed to the side with his finger. The country house with a blue roof, similar in size to his own. The exterior looked neat and pretty as if it hadn’t been built that long ago. Hyeseong swallowed his saliva and glared at Ihyeok. He hoped he would say no. He hoped he would laugh as if it was absurd, asking why he would buy that house.

“Yes.”

However, the returned answer was an affirmation that shattered all those hopes. Immediately suppressing a sigh that was about to escape, Hyeseong raised his head.

“Why?”

At some point, his voice had become a little louder. Right now, Hyeseong was honestly expressing his perplexed and embarrassed emotions with his entire body. No, to be precise, he was revealing them without realizing it. Seeing that, Ihyeok felt a strange sense of exhilaration. Struggling to hide the emotions of unknown origin, he slowly moved his lips.

“I thought I’d try rural life like you.”

“Stop joking around and give me a serious answer. I’m not in the mood for that right now.”

“The price of that house was pretty good. It was cheap, and the owner wanted to get rid of it quickly. Above all, it was clean, wasn’t it?”

Ihyeok just shrugged his shoulders, as if he had no intention of telling or was deliberately doing that to get under his skin.

“No…”

“If you’re that curious, find out yourself.”

With that, Ihyeok turned around without any lingering attachment. He got in the car, started the engine, and really parked right next door. Watching that scene in disbelief, Hyeseong stood there blankly for a long time, even as Ihyeok got out of the car and went inside that house.

Why on earth? Numerous question marks floated in his head. Did he come to do farming like himself? That’s ridiculous. There’s no way he would make such a choice while leaving Taesung behind. But just because of that, it doesn’t make the scene he just witnessed disappear.

“Ah, seriously.”

Hyeseong ruffled his hair and went straight into the house to look for his cell phone. He never knew why this damn phone was never visible only when he urgently needed to find it. Then, suddenly remembering he had put it in his luggage when he got on the bus, he walked into the kitchen.

Digging through the plastic bag, Hyeseong found his phone and immediately made a call to someone. The vegetables and fruits he had bought all spilled out onto the table, but he didn’t even see them. The ringtone went off a few times, and the other person answered the call.

“Hyeseong!”

Seongjin’s loud voice came through the receiver. Find out for me. Who does he think can’t do that?

“Director Kang, are you available to talk now?”

Glancing at the living room clock, the time was passing 3:00 pm. According to Seongjin’s routine, around this time, he would have finished an afternoon meeting and would be taking a break in his office while playing mobile games. Therefore, there was no need to ask, but he still asked out of courtesy.

“Of course. I’m just catching my breath right now, so it’s fine.”

Usually, he would have made a jab, saying he was playing games rather than catching his breath, but he had neither the time nor the state of mind to do that now.

“About the CEO…”

“Ah, right. Hyeseong. Ihyeok is strange these days. I think he’s bored. You know how he said he’ll lead the TF team formed for the Haewon City redevelopment project himself?”

Hyeseong gulped. Even without asking, Seongjin was readily providing answers. It was like seeing the answer sheet before even solving the problem.

“Then he suddenly said he was going to move down to that area and even found a house. Seriously, does he have to show off that he has money to spare like that?”

Now I get it. It felt like all the puzzles were coming together in his head. The floating question marks were slowly turning into exclamation marks.

“Anyway, he’s strange these days. I think it’s gotten worse after you left.”

Because I left? That’s a strange thing to say. There’s no reason for that, is there?

“Then what about the company? If the CEO is taken away by the TF team, who will play the role of the leader?”

Hyeseong unknowingly found himself worrying about the company’s operations. It was also suspicious to hear that he would take on the TF team while serving as the CEO. Because he had purposely come down here.

“That’s the problem right now. He left everything to me and took off. That bastard.”

With that, Seongjin wailed. It was a lament about what to do if he dumped all the heavy responsibilities on him and left. He felt sorry for Seongjin, who was crying because his workload had suddenly increased, but Hyeseong felt a little relieved. There would be no problem if it was Seongjin.

If Ihyeok was the person who knew Taesung the best and had affection for it, the next would be Kang Seongjin. His weakness of being a little dumb was a concern, but there were many talented individuals within the company who could compensate for that kind of shortcoming.

“Do you know why?”

“Huh?”

“Why the CEO is suddenly acting like this.”

Then, Seongjin lowered his voice over the receiver.

“Who knows? I can’t understand what’s going on in that guy’s head.”

I agree with that. Even Seongjin was talking seriously to that extent, so it seemed that even he hadn’t anticipated Ihyeok’s moves.

“But you, man! Why didn’t you contact me after submitting your resignation? You should at least let me know where you went.”

With that, Seongjin went on a long speech, starting from how I could leave without any affection to asking me to let him know my address because he wanted to visit my new place.

“Ask the CEO.”

“I did ask. But he said he doesn’t know either?”

Of course, he wouldn’t know. To be precise, he wouldn’t have known.

“He should know now.”

Saying that Hyeseong hung up the phone first. In the end, he sat down on the floor.

The fact that Kwon Ihyeok took charge of the TF team to lead the redevelopment project, well, he could understand it if he thought about it more than a hundred times. This project was something Taesung had won with difficulty, and the scale was large, so it had to be completed well without any issues.

If his passion for doing well was strong, he could personally come down to the redevelopment area to see how the work was progressing. It would be too much to keep going back and forth from Seoul every time.

Even if all of this could be rationalized somehow, the biggest problem was why he had to come to the house next to mine. Even though this place was under the jurisdiction of Haewon City, it would have been more efficient to find a house close to the redevelopment site.

At that moment, his phone buzzed. It was a text message from Park Dohyun.

“Hyeseong… Bokshil suddenly got sick, so I’m at the hospital… I don’t think I can come today, but I’ll come when she’s stable!”

The protagonist of the rustic name Bokshil here was a stray dog Dohyun had adopted as soon as he came to Korea. He had lived with a roommate abroad, but living alone in Korea made him lonely, and it wasn’t easy to find a person either. But fortunately, he had a personality that liked animals, so he chose to adopt.

“Okay. Take good care of Bokshil. I haven’t finished organizing yet, so come to the house later.”

After sending that, Hyeseong got up from his seat. The organization he mentioned to Park Dohyun wasn’t about unpacking luggage or anything like that. It was referring to the neighbor who suddenly moved in next door. Hyeseong went straight to the house next door and crossed the front gate. And when he was about to knock on the door, he saw a doorbell on the side and pressed it.

The door opened, and Ihyeok came out from inside. He was wearing comfortable sweatshirt attire, and his heart raced for no reason seeing him in that appearance for the first time in a while.

“Did you ask Seongjin?”

Ihyeok smiled slightly. It seemed he knew exactly from whom Hyeseong would get information.

“What TF team are you talking about, CEO?”

“You know very well that this project is quite important for Taesung.”

“…Then why here? There must have been plenty of good studio apartments available, so why here?”

There was no need for him to be in this rural area. Because the house was cheap and clean? That didn’t make sense. The words of someone who had a lot of money and could easily find a place cleaner than this house were not at all believable.

“Because you’re here.”

Hyeseong clenched his fists. Perhaps it was naive of him to think that he could cut off and settle his relationship with Ihyeok with just a resignation.

“I told you I can’t let you go.”

The refreshing citrus scent subtly stimulated his nose. It was a fragrance that truly did not match the rural scenery.

“CEO, who can say such things so casually…”

Hyeseong took a deep breath.

“I fucking hate it.”

With an angry expression and using a swear word he rarely used, Hyeseong resolutely turned away from the dumbfounded Ihyeok.

This chapter is paid for by Mimzy and Nemuru!