Chapter 158. I Want To End This Relationship (7)

Translator: Lili

“Wow.”

His laugh was rough, but he seemed genuinely angry.

“I don’t understand. Why waste your precious courage on something like this?”

“Director, I…”

“Pitiful.”

“What?”

“Someone is going to have quite a headache.”

“What are you talking about?”

Minkyung clenched her fists. Her emotions boiled over, reaching their limit.

“What do you know?”

“I know how you will feel once you submit your resignation letter. I know how the person who receives it will feel. For the TK Group, it will be like a slap in the face since you have just been promoted. The chairman, who fully supported a mere employee, will feel betrayed. Isn’t that quite a lot?”

Minkyung felt utterly humiliated by his words.

“I’m sorry. The last thing I want to do is cause trouble for others.”

She stood up. He looked up at her, his gaze somewhat sympathetic.

“Director Yoo from Public Relations said after my wedding, preparations for Director Tae Lee-Seob’s wedding would begin. Is that why?”

Minkyung shook her head firmly. At this point, Director Tae Joon-Seob already knew about the relationship she had with his cousin.

“No, it’s a separate issue.”

“So, you never intended to get married?”

“No, not at all.”

“Then there’s no problem, is there? Keep that resignation letter to yourself.”

Minkyung bit her inner lip.

“It can’t be what I think, the chairman found out… no, it had to be the ma’am, right?”

Joon-Seob stood up without waiting for an answer.

“I’ll arrange your assignment to China.”

“How will you…”

“The chairman asked me to find an executive like Kang Minkyung to support Director Tae Lee-Seob in China. I’ll suggest that you, instead of someone like you, go. If you handle the work well, you could get another promotion within a year or two.”

“Director! An executive position is too much…”

Joon-Seob raised his hand, interrupting her.

“Deputy Director Kang, you came to me even knowing it was a crazy idea because you didn’t want to leave TK, didn’t you? Even if you leave the man.”

Minkyung swallowed dryly to soothe her aching throat.

“Then you should do it properly.”

As she stood there unable to respond, he sighed.

“It feels strangely uncomfortable. I shouldn’t have sent you to be Director Tae Lee-Seob’s secretary.”

“No. It was a good opportunity, and I grew a lot. I got promoted, received high-level executive treatment and made the right connections.”

Joon-Seob stepped closer.

“Are you practicing what you’ll say to Lee Seop on me?”

“It’s the truth.”

He looked at her with tired eyes.

“Do you need any more help?”

“No.”

“Then go.”

Before she could say goodbye, Joon-Seob turned his back.

Exiting the director’s office, she barely managed to smile at Assistant Yang and Manager Choi who greeted her. She stopped and started several times as she walked down the hallway. Unable to take the elevator, she headed for the emergency stairs.

She sat down halfway down the stairs. She couldn’t forget Seonae’s gaze. Unlike the reproachful eyes of Joon-Seob, Seonae’s gaze pierced her heart and shattered her essence.

If she had gotten angry and insulted her, if she had lashed out with emotions, the damage might have been only superficial.

She had thought she had no particular pride about herself, but she realized that wasn’t true. She had always been filled with pride, and that pride had always guided her like a compass.

When she was in elementary school, kids pointed at the small, shabby house behind the buckwheat noodle shop and asked, without hiding their disdain,

— Is that your house?

However, she had never felt ashamed or belittled in front of them.

— Yes, I live there. Our house is on the second floor. The first floor is just the shop.

It was merely a statement of fact, with no effort to seem okay.

Likewise, she stayed up all night to keep her scholarship, worked three or four part-time jobs, ate hastily with a single roll of gimbap, wore the same clothes until they were worn out, and walked around in sneakers with worn-out soles. Even when she couldn’t afford a suit and had to rotate a single three-piece suit, she never lost her confidence in front of anyone.

Because of that, she had no jealousy or inferiority complex towards people like Lee Hyunsung, or even Tae Lee-Seob, who were of a different class by worldly standards.

She just thought she was indifferent. But that wasn’t true. The reason she could be like that was that deep inside, the healthy and strong Kang Minkyung, filled with pride, had always guided the staggering Kang Minkyung like a compass.

Kang Minkyung, this is who you are. You are a decent person. You’re good enough not to be ashamed in front of anyone. You can have confidence. Nothing can easily hurt or frustrate you.

Her arrogant self, formed by pride, was shattered.

By just one trembling look from Seonae…

Pushed back behind the elegant boundary she drew, Minkyung saw her bare self without the guardian of pride.

She thought she could be indifferent to the obvious outcome, but she was wrong.

She was just a pathetic, wounded, weak, and foolish person.

***