Actually, It’s a Messy Melodrama Chapter 35

Haeshin rubbed the back of his neck, which felt flushed, with his palm and opened his mouth.

“What brings you here…”

“I have a message to deliver from the CEO.”

“Ah, that… Are we talking here?”

“It won’t be long.”

“Yes…”

Despite Secretary Choi’s explanation, Haeshin kept looking around as if something wasn’t quite right, then asked.

“The CEO must be very busy today.”

As a matter of fact, he hadn’t been able to contact Taejun all day. He didn’t answer his calls or reply to his messages. At first, Haeshin thought Taejun might be feeling awkward and didn’t think much of it, but it was strange that there was no reply even as evening approached.

It was the same now. It was odd that the man who had suddenly run all the way to a shantytown in the middle of the night, especially after what had happened last night, wouldn’t come himself but would send only Secretary Choi.

Is he regretting what happened yesterday? Haeshin’s heart sank. He himself had shaken off his regret at dawn, but if Han Taejun was the one regretting it, there could be no greater comedy.

“The CEO is…”

Secretary Choi didn’t answer the question right away and dragged out his words. Haeshin’s eyebrows furrowed. It was a suspicious reaction for anyone, but the fact that someone of Secretary Choi’s stature was being so overtly suggestive that something was up was, paradoxically, even more suspicious.

“What about the CEO?”

“It’s nothing. First, I will deliver the CEO’s message.”

“Yes…”

For now, Haeshin decided to listen to the still-suspicious Secretary Choi first.

“First of all, the CEO wishes for Mr. Cha Haeshin and your mother to move residences.”

“Our home?”

“Yes. Your current location has no security whatsoever. If Director Jin decides to show up unannounced, there is no way to stop him. The accessibility for the CEO is also very poor.”

“But we have nowhere to go.”

Haeshin replied foolishly to the words he couldn’t quite grasp from the start. Secretary Choi continued as if to ask why he would even worry about such a thing.

“A place for your mother to stay has already been arranged. I heard that everything was already discussed with Mr. Cha Haeshin. Was that not the case?”

“With me?”

“Yes.”

“You said it was already discussed?”

“Yes.”

“The CEO said that… ah…”

Haeshin, who kept asking back because he couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation, suddenly had yesterday’s conversation flash through his mind.

‘Tell me to protect you. Ask me to help you, to protect you so that someone like Jin Youngmin wouldn’t dare to touch you… ask me.’

‘Then please help me. Please.’

Don’t tell me “helping” was this full-scale?

As Haeshin’s eyes widened, Secretary Choi nodded as if he had read Haeshin’s mind completely. Haeshin, who was blinking, wondering just how much Secretary Choi knew but also not wanting to know, suddenly let out a small “Huh?” He had realized that something Secretary Choi had said a moment ago was a bit strange.

“You said you prepared a place for my mother to stay?”

“Yes.”

“Then what about me?”

Haeshin and his mother lived together. There was no need to distinguish their living places separately. But Secretary Choi had just spoken as if he were separating the two of them, hadn’t he?

“Where do I…?”

A feeling somewhere between anxiety and anticipation instantly enveloped Haeshin. Could it be? No, no way. While he was repeating such things in his head, Secretary Choi opened his mouth.

“Mr. Cha Haeshin will be staying with the CEO.”

“…Excuse me?”

“You didn’t know?”

No, how am I supposed to know that! Haeshin barely managed to stop himself from shouting just that.

No, of course, it was true that he had asked for help, and he was in no position to dictate the methods Taejun would use, so Taejun’s claim that it had already been discussed wasn’t wrong, but wasn’t this a bit too much of an omission?

Haeshin thought he had just taken his first baby steps, but now he felt like he was driving a dump truck. Regardless of Haeshin’s state, Secretary Choi carried on with his duty with an unchanging demeanor.

“You can just quit your job at the bar as is, and if Mr. Cha Haeshin wishes, I can find you a better position than your current workplace.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about right now, Secretary Choi…”

“When would you like to move? The CEO mentioned that you probably don’t have many belongings to bring out.”

Amid his bewilderment, the statement was painfully accurate, and Haeshin nodded blankly.

“That’s true.”

“Then, perhaps as early as tomorrow…”

“No, wait! Just a moment!”

Haeshin, who had barely come to his senses, cut Secretary Choi off. All things considered, this was all for his benefit, but it didn’t make sense to just gloss over it like this.

It wasn’t that he wouldn’t accept it, he would, but he still needed to have a conversation with the person in charge.

“Where is the CEO? When can I see him?”

“He is at home.”

“At home?”

Haeshin, who had been expecting words like “company,” “business trip,” or “meeting,” tilted his head at the completely unexpected location. He’s just at home, but he didn’t come, didn’t call me over, and only sent Secretary Choi?

Of course, the great and respectable CEO Han Taejun was certainly someone who could do as he pleased, but right now, Haeshin wanted to see and talk to Taejun.

“Is it possible to see him now?”

“Well…”

At that moment, Secretary Choi once again showed a troubled expression. There was definitely something going on. Whether it was Taejun’s ploy or Secretary Choi’s, Haeshin had no reason to avoid it.

“Why? Is something wrong with the CEO?”

Then, Secretary Choi replied with a look that seemed to say he truly had no other choice.

“Actually, he is not feeling well and is currently recuperating.”

“The CEO is sick?”

“Yes. He suddenly came down with a fever this morning…”

For a moment, Haeshin frowned with worry, but then a realization struck him like lightning. Haeshin opened his mouth cautiously.

“By any chance… did the CEO catch a cold?”

“Yes.”

“Ah…”

Haeshin’s mouth fell open blankly. It seemed the chaebol young master, raised in the lap of luxury, had been exposed to the brutal winter night cold of the shantytown for too long.

☂️

“I will be in the drawing-room, so please call if you need anything.”

“Thank you. But, Secretary Choi.”

Haeshin, who had come to Taejun’s house with Secretary Choi in his car, was about to enter Taejun’s room when he stopped and spoke. Secretary Choi looked at Haeshin with a perfectly composed expression and answered.

“Yes.”

“You told me on purpose, didn’t you? That the CEO is sick.”

“Why do you think so?”

Haeshin paid no mind to Secretary Choi’s poker face and smiled with his eyes.

“I have a pretty good intuition. You were intentionally leading me to keep asking about the CEO.”

“So it’s just a feeling.”

“There’s that, and it also doesn’t seem like you’re the type of person to blab about the CEO’s health to just anyone, Secretary Choi. It’s important information, after all.”

Secretary Choi pressed his lips into a firm line. His expression was still cold, but Haeshin somehow felt that his eyes were smiling. Soon, Secretary Choi spoke.

“You probably haven’t had dinner yet, so I will have it prepared. Well then, excuse me.”

Without listening to another word from Haeshin, Secretary Choi immediately turned around.

There was no need to explicitly state that he had simply acted appropriately as a secretary, having understood the CEO’s heart which thought, ‘I’m curious about Cha Haeshin, but I don’t want to show him my pathetic, sick state, but I think I’ll feel less sick if I see Cha Haeshin, but I can’t bring myself to say “bring Cha Haeshin here,” but anyway, I hope Cha Haeshin shows up on his own.’

☂️

“What a young master.”

Haeshin, sitting quietly beside Taejun who was asleep, wrapped up snugly in a blanket, muttered quietly. Seeing his gaunt face after just one day made him feel sorry and apologetic, but at the same time, it made him want to laugh.

To catch a cold just from sitting down in a back alley on a midwinter night. Honestly, it was a bit pathetic. In other words, it seemed a little cute. Especially since he himself, the one who had cried and made a scene in that very alley, was perfectly fine.

The Han Taejun in Haeshin’s eyes last night had felt like a strong and massive savior who would protect him from the demon that was Jin Youngmin, but overnight, his image had completely changed.

But Haeshin’s smile didn’t last long. As he looked down at Taejun, who was breathing out hot breaths, his eyes soon filled with apologetic feelings.

Originally, this fight was supposed to be entirely Haeshin’s. If Haeshin hadn’t used him, Taejun would have continued to live the comfortable life given to him, knowing nothing, just as he had always done.

Moreover, this was just the beginning. Jin Youngmin was a persistent person. For a brief moment, he had harbored the futile hope that Youngmin might just back down, but yesterday’s events had made it clear. Jin Youngmin would definitely not back down like this. This meant that Taejun and Youngmin would clash more often in the future.

By any measure, Taejun and Youngmin were in different leagues. If the two of them were to truly face off, Youngmin’s crushing defeat was as clear as day. And yet, the reason he kept feeling anxious was likely because Haeshin knew all too well just how despicable Jin Youngmin was.

Clashing with a person like that was bound to be an exhausting affair. And Taejun had stepped up to fight that exhausting battle, not for himself, but for Cha Haeshin.

“And yet I can’t even properly say I’m sorry.”

Haeshin muttered in a self-deprecating voice. In the end, Taejun would never even know the exact reason why he got caught up in this. Even though he had his own problems to deal with, seeing Taejun’s sickly face, Haeshin’s heart wasn’t at ease either.