The Country Life Diary of a Gangster’s Secretary

This chapter is paid for by Mimzy and Nemuru

It was after telling Hyeseong that he would process his resignation and instructing Deok-soo to find out where he was going from now on.

The sense of achievement upon receiving the news of being selected as the redevelopment construction company for Haewon City quickly faded away. Hyeseong left Taesung. The Cheon Hyeseong who always came in at the same time and said good morning with an expressionless face was gone. Until a suitable replacement was found, one secretary was to take over that position, but Ihyeok had no intention of bringing in his successor.

As executives congratulated each other on being selected as the construction company and applauded for their hard work, only Ihyeok was sitting alone. Perhaps it was because the person he wanted to celebrate with was no longer here. Eventually, he went out to the outdoor rest area.

Ihyeok went to the corner where he would be least noticeable and lit a cigarette. He didn’t want rumors circulating among the employees that the CEO was smoking here with a sad face.

“Hey, I heard Manager Kim from PR Team 1 is quitting?”

He thought there wouldn’t be many people in the rest area since it was before lunchtime, but that wasn’t the case. Two male employees were slowly coming out to the rest area with instant coffee.

“Yeah. He said he’s quitting after this month. His reputation within the company was good, so why?”

“What, you didn’t hear?”

The conversations employees had when they gathered were all the same anyway. Complaining about superiors. Gossiping about colleagues. The rumors circulating in the company always got distorted and exaggerated like this. Ihyeok didn’t want to make an issue out of each one.

“It’s because of Manager Kim’s lover, isn’t it?”

“Lover?”

“Yeah. They both used to live in Seoul, but apparently, his lover suddenly said he was moving to the countryside. But you know what? That person is a total romantic.”

“So you’re saying he’s quitting to go down together?”

The conversation that he normally wouldn’t have been interested in strangely stuck in his ears. It might be because it had a similar pattern to one of the many hypotheses Ihyeok was currently forming in his head.

“That’s what I’m saying. It’s amazing. How much do you have to be into your lover to quit a good job and go to the countryside? I could never do that.”

Ihyeok took out the cigarette he was holding and fell into thought for a moment.

“True love and all that. I believe in those things. Enough to want to promise forever with someone like that someday.”

Hyeseong’s words that he heard while attending a wedding the other day. It was truly unheard of, and he didn’t know Hyeseong had such thoughts. Cheon Hyeseong had no interest in the feeling of liking someone, let alone dating.

The Hyeseong he knew, the one he had seen until now, was that kind of kid. Then what was that? It didn’t seem like something he said simply to refute his way of thinking. His eyes looked too sincere for anyone to feel that way.

Then something changed Hyeseong’s mind. The kiss mark. The sudden resignation and saying he’s moving far away to the countryside. It felt like all of that was coming together as one.

Cheon Hyeseong met someone he wanted to spend forever with, and he wanted to move to the countryside because of that person. The answer was clear.

In fact, allowing the resignation was also to gauge his true feelings. He expected that Hyeseong’s determination would crack a little if he, who had been continuously persuading him, said he would process the resignation.

Since he had a personality that always hid his true feelings, perhaps he would reveal his intentions behind his impulsive actions only when the day of resignation actually approached. Or maybe he wouldn’t retract his decision to resign. That’s what he had assumed.

But Hyeseong left without a moment’s hesitation.

“Damn it.”

When he saw the empty desk and the flawlessly prepared handover materials, Ihyeok immediately called Deok-soo. He told him to quickly find out about Hyeseong’s residence and where he had moved to.

In Ihyeok’s mind, there was an image of Hyeseong enjoying rural life with some unknown person, laughing and having a good time.

* * *

“I fucking hate it.”

Ihyeok had a sleepless night mulling over those words from last night. Of course, the unfamiliar sleeping arrangement might have been a factor too. The house he moved into was clean and nice, but of course, it couldn’t compare to his main residence. The bed he was lying on now was also a large size, but it was uncomfortable.

But he had no intention of complaining. When Ihyeok heard that Hyeseong had gone to Seoin City, he had come up with a very tremendous plan. He was planning to directly intervene in the Haewon City redevelopment project for a while anyway. Since Seoin City and Haewon City were integrated, there was enough justification for him to be close to Hyeseong.

The first problem to solve was housing, and while having someone look into the area around the house Hyeseong had purchased, this house was the one that was caught on the radar. Right next to Hyeseong’s house.

He immediately contacted the homeowner, but the middle-aged bachelor living here insisted that it was absolutely not possible, saying this house was all he had left. It took some effort because he maintained a stubborn attitude.

Of course, the situation was quickly resolved by offering several times the original house price.

“So you hate it? Me?”

Ihyeok muttered as he slowly got up from the bed. It wasn’t just hate, really hate, or truly hate, but fucking hate.

The swear word uttered by Hyeseong, who rarely used rough language, was quite refreshing, but the fact that it was directed at him made his mood sour. It was a kind of word he had never heard before. Hyeseong’s expression as he spat out those words looked angry and sad at the same time.

Well, he might have been angry at him for suddenly barging into the house next door as if retracting his permission for resignation. He wasn’t unprepared to be scolded by Hyeseong. But he didn’t expect to be cursed like that. He only said he couldn’t let him go, so what was there to hate?

Ihyeok went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out an unopened bottle of water, and downed it. It was worth having someone make it immediately livable. By the way, it seemed like he would need some getting used to the living room and kitchen being connected.

Ding……

While he was thinking that, his phone rang.

[Han Deok-soo]

“Yeah. Why.”

“What do you mean why? You kept pressuring people to squeeze out nonexistent information.”

Deok-soo whined in a voice thick with fatigue. He said there was no one who even had a fling with Cheon Hyeseong, let alone a romantic relationship. But Ihyeok had told Deok-soo not to contact him at all until something came out, with more money and cold-hearted indifference.

“You’re getting paid enough by me.”

“Ahem, anyway, I called today because I thought I might have missed something.”

“Missed something?”

Ihyeok sharply raised his alertness.

“Yes, yes. I was frustrated, so I dug deeper into the people around Hyeseong. And there was one friend relationship that particularly stood out.”

“Who is it?”

“Have you heard of Park Dohyun?”

Park Dohyun… Ihyeok fell into thought for a moment. Come to think of it, it seemed familiar, but at the same time, it didn’t. As if realizing his intention, Deok-soo continued his explanation with excitement.

“He’s a friend Hyeseong met in college. Right after graduating from college, he got a job at an overseas financial company and hardly came back, but he recently moved to Korea for good!”

Hearing such words jogged his memory a bit. Right. It was that guy who answered the phone instead of Hyeseong when Ihyeok called some time ago. That guy naturally supported a drunk Hyeseong.

He thought he had seen them hanging out together a few times when Hyeseong was a college student. After he started working with him after graduation, he never saw him again, so according to Deok-soo, it seemed he had gotten a job overseas.

“But why him?”

“Well, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy, but whenever Park Dohyun briefly came to Korea, he always met Hyeseong. This part can be explained by the fact that they were close in college, but I heard something from their classmate.”

“What is it?”

“Park Dohyun really wanted to get close to Hyeseong in college and followed him around a lot. They often went on trips together.”

Ihyeok’s brows furrowed slightly. To be honest, he had no interest in Hyeseong’s personal relationships. He was a very quiet kid and had no interest in forming relationships with others, so there weren’t many people around Hyeseong.

Even so, whenever he was given a vacation, he would go on trips abroad or domestically, and Ihyeok naturally thought he would have gone alone or with his aunt.

But he went on all those trips with a guy named Park Dohyun or whatever?

“The first person Hyeseong met as soon as Park Dohyun first came to Korea was also him. It seems they have a regular restaurant they frequently go to together. Some pork belly place.”

That’s right. It was.

On the day he discovered the kiss mark on Hyeseong’s neck, the two of them were alone at a pork belly restaurant. He doesn’t drink with him but has a regular place he often goes to with someone else.

Although he didn’t know when Park Dohyun came to Korea, if they had been meeting even before that, it wasn’t impossible.

“Damn it.”

No, if he had to pinpoint it, that was the most likely possibility at the moment. They say you can’t see what’s right under your nose. There was nothing wrong with old sayings. He thought it would be someone he had just met, but it turned out to be someone he had known for a long time.

“Deok-soo.”

“Yes.”

Deok-soo, who immediately noticed the change in Ihyeok’s voice, answered with a voice full of spirit.

“Find out everything about that guy named Park Dohyun or whatever.”

“Yes. But if it’s an additional request…”

“You think I’d cheat you out of money? Don’t piss me off.”

Then Deok-soo said he understood in a dejected voice.

“Ah, hyung. But…”

As he was about to hang up, Deok-soo spoke again in a slightly unconfident voice.

“What.”

“Is Hyung sick or something?”

“What are you talking about? Why would Hyeseong be sick?”

Hyeseong was also the one who told him to quit smoking if he didn’t want to die early. He knew he took meticulous care of himself on a regular basis.

“Right? Hahaha, no. Just asking…”

“Spit it out. I’ll give you 3 seconds.”

“Ah, wait! It’s nothing else, but while looking into his surroundings, I unintentionally found out about hyung’s recent whereabouts.”

Deok-soo seemed to still feel uncomfortable and bothered by digging into Hyeseong’s background.

“But hyung has been frequently going in and out of a university hospital recently. Yehyeon University Hospital, I think…”

If it was there, Ihyeok knew about it too. There was a time when he took Hyeseong there when he wasn’t feeling well, but he didn’t know he went there regularly.

“Regularly? Are you sure?”

“Yes. What department was it… Ah, the Constitution Department? I think he goes there…”

“Constitution Department?”

Ihyeok’s face distorted as if he couldn’t understand.

This chapter is paid for by Mimzy and Nemuru!