Flower Fiancé Chapter 91

As the employees passed through the wide lobby, their gazes all turned in unison toward one spot. As always, with pomaded hair and a neatly fastened tie pin, Choi Moohyuk was entering the company in a black three-piece suit.

“Good morning.”

The employees stepped aside for Choi Moohyuk, who was heading toward the elevator, and bowed their heads in greeting. He strode along on his long legs, giving a slight nod of acknowledgment in return.

As always, Choi Moohyuk’s face was nearly expressionless. But the employees who usually paid close attention to Choi Moohyuk could detect subtle differences even in that impassive face.

‘Does the Managing Director have something good going on? He seems to be in a good mood.’

‘Right? You felt it too? I heard rumors that he’s got a lover—whoever it is, I’m jealous.’

Choi Moohyuk, standing with both hands in his pants pockets, glanced back briefly at the voices tinged with envy and grumbling. It wasn’t exactly pleasant to hear a subordinate so far down the chain casually gossip about an executive, but since he was in a good mood as they said, he decided to let it slide.

Soon after, the elevator doors opened to both sides, and he stepped inside. He pressed the button for the 10th floor, where the executive offices were, and leaned back, gripping the rear handrail with both hands.

Taking out his phone from his pocket, Choi Moohyuk opened the message window. The greeting message he had sent to Ji Yeonwoo on his way to work still showed the number 1, unread.

He recalled Ji Yeonwoo, who had been sleeping as if passed out until just before he left for work. Maybe he should have held back a little last night. It hadn’t necessarily been planned, but the two, already intoxicated by the suggestive atmosphere since the bedroom, had stripped each other’s clothes off as soon as they entered the bathroom, as if they had been waiting for that moment.

By the time the encounter that stretched from the bathroom to the bedroom was nearly over, Ji Yeonwoo had fallen asleep as if unconscious. It might have been due to exhaustion from the grueling inspection schedule that had continued with barely any food, but falling asleep like that twice under similar circumstances also pointed to a problem with Ji Yeonwoo’s stamina.

He thought that once things settled down, they should take up jogging together, when the announcement that they had arrived at the 10th floor sounded and the doors opened.

Walking down the hallway and opening the door to the managing director’s office, the employees gathered in front of the desk all turned around at once. It seemed odd that the employees who should have been sitting inside the desk area handling work were all gathered out front.

Instinctively, he had a hunch that something out of the ordinary had happened.

“What’s going on?”

At that, the most senior secretary approached and spoke in a low voice.

“Managing Director, the Chairman has arrived.”

The expression vanished from Choi Moohyuk’s face. It was only for an instant, but he stiffened his face so much that he couldn’t control his expression and said,

“At this hour?”

“Yes. He arrived about ten minutes ago.”

His good mood plummeted to the ground with that one sentence.

The secretary, lowering his voice as much as possible in case they might be heard inside, reported on the situation before his arrival.

“I told him that the Managing Director was not yet in, but he said he would wait inside, so there was nothing we could do. I’m sorry.”

The secretaries in the managing director’s office knew well that the relationship between Chairman Choi and Choi Moohyuk was not good, even if it was a formal work relationship, so they were careful with their word choices.

“Alright. Go back to your work.”

After sending the secretaries back to their respective positions, Choi Moohyuk stood in front of the door and thought.

The issue was the reason for Chairman Choi’s sudden visit.

Sunwoo Industries, where Choi Moohyuk worked, was separate from the Sunwoo Group, and even the building locations were different, so they were not on easy meeting terms unless one had a specific purpose to visit the other.

Knowing that his father was not the affectionate type to show up out of the blue just to see his grown son’s face, Chairman Choi’s sudden appearance felt even more strange.

Suddenly, Ji Yeonwoo’s face flashed through his mind.

It was like animal instinct. The Chairman had not said anything to the secretaries, nor had he given Choi Moohyuk any prior notice, but he had a feeling that the purpose of Chairman Choi’s visit today was Ji Yeonwoo.

Choi Moohyuk, narrowing his eyes and glaring at the door, rubbed the inside of his cheek with the tip of his tongue.

If his assumption was correct, he reorganized his thoughts. He even felt it was rather fortunate. This was an issue that had to be confronted sooner or later anyway, and he had been planning to wait until after the test results came out before going to the main house to discuss it.

He had set the timing for a week later when the test results would come out because what he would say to the main house would differ depending on the outcome. The conclusion—that he would marry Ji Yeonwoo—was the same, but the process and the method of persuasion would differ.

He thought that since things had come to this, a frontal assault wouldn’t be a bad approach. The plan would be a little disrupted, but the timing was merely moved up, and the outcome wouldn’t change anyway.

After organizing a few countermeasures in his head, Choi Moohyuk opened the door to the managing director’s office.

The sofas were arranged in a ㄷ shape around the desk in the managing director’s office, and Chairman Choi was seated in the center seat of honor. Dressed in a neat charcoal gray suit, Chairman Choi was a distinguished middle-aged man with neatly swept-back, graying hair, sipping black tea that a secretary had brought.

Choi Moohyuk closed the door, walked over, and stood beside the seated Chairman Choi, bowing his head. But Chairman Choi did not even spare a glance at the greeting Choi Moohyuk offered.

As if accustomed to such treatment, Choi Moohyuk adjusted his clothes and sat down in the seat beside him.

“You could have at least contacted me.”

Chairman Choi quietly set down the white teacup with a gold rim he had been holding.

“I was curious about the company, so I came by for a look.”

Chairman Choi began in a deep voice, then turned to look at Choi Moohyuk and continued.

“I’ve heard that Managing Director Choi has been so busy lately that he’s been noticeably neglecting his work.”

At those words, Choi Moohyuk let out a snort.

“I didn’t know the Chairman would be swayed by rumors.”

“Are you saying it’s groundless gossip?”

“Of course. If I had been negligent in managing the company, sales wouldn’t have risen this much.”

Chairman Choi silently gazed at Choi Moohyuk, who spoke without so much as a blink.

“All the evidence is in the documents. I thought the Chairman would have already seen them and known, but it seems you have a different opinion from mine.”

Choi Moohyuk continued, not avoiding Chairman Choi’s gaze.

“Please tell me the real reason you came. You didn’t come all the way here just to see my face, did you?”

A quiet silence fell. Chairman Choi and Choi Moohyuk, as if in a battle of wills, stared at each other without blinking.

An inexplicable sense of foreboding crept up from within. It was clear that he hadn’t come because of sales or neglect of management, but he couldn’t pinpoint anything beyond that.

‘Surely he didn’t come because of Ji Yeonwoo?’

There had been that hint dropped before, and it wasn’t as if he was completely unaware of Ji Yeonwoo’s existence, so there would be no reason to talk around it this much, yet for some reason he wasn’t bringing it up readily, which bothered him.

“Moohyuk.”

Suddenly, Choi Moohyuk’s eyes tensed. He couldn’t believe his ears. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had been called by his first name from Chairman Choi’s mouth.

Before curiosity, the thought that came to mind was wariness.

Chairman Choi took a sip of black tea to wet his throat and continued.

“You need to go on a business trip.”

“A business trip, you say?”

Choi Moohyuk asked back, doubting his ears.

“Yes.”

Unlike Choi Moohyuk, who narrowed his eyes, Chairman Choi leisurely savored his black tea.

It was absurd. There was definitely no business trip scheduled on the official itinerary he had received that morning. Then where in the world did this schedule come from?

He was about to open his mouth, but Chairman Choi’s voice came faster.

“There will be a signing ceremony in two days. An executive from the Japanese side is coming, so I plan to have you finalize the matter with the signing. The terms of the agreement have already been reviewed, so there’s nothing else to worry about—just wrap it up.”

Chairman Choi met Choi Moohyuk’s eyes, which were full of suspicion, and continued.

“Originally, I was supposed to go, but I deliberately chose you as my proxy. You know better than anyone what that means, don’t you?”