13. Into the Vortex of Fate (That I Created).
Jingle, jingle, jingle.
The shaman shook her bells.
At twenty, Dana had just entered university when she casually followed a friend who said she was going to have her fortune told.
She, too, had occasionally been curious about what kind of life lay ahead of her, but she was not the type to believe in saju or fortune-telling.
Fate is something you create.
She had always lived boldly with that thought.
But then.
“You.”
Jingle, jingle, jingle.
The shaman, who had been shaking the bells toward Dana’s friend, suddenly pointed at Dana with her finger.
“Yes? Me?”
“A single word from your mouth will change the world.”
“What? Me?”
“Where beans are planted, beans grow, and where red beans are planted, red beans grow. You planted beans and are trying to run away? Do you think the beans won’t grow just because you do?”
What is she talking about?
“If you’ve done something that you have to take responsibility for, then you must take responsibility. You can’t completely change someone else’s life and then slip away, intending to live well all by yourself.”
What on earth does that mean?
“Um, Shaman, I’m sorry, but I’ve only just entered university, and I want to live a very quiet life, and that’s exactly how I’m living. What could someone like me possibly do to change the worl—”
“That mouth!”
At the shaman’s sharp rebuke, Dana instinctively covered her own mouth.
“The beginning of all history will begin with your mouth.”
Isn’t she just telling me to watch what I say?
“Then what am I supposed to do? Should I just stop talking altogether?”
The shaman looked at Dana with an expression as though she were about to reveal a secret of Heaven.
Then she slowly opened her mouth with great gravity.
“If you cannot avoid it, enjoy it.”
Within the vortex of fate you created.
“What?”
“That is all I have to say. Now, go. I’m tired. I need to sleep.”
The shaman immediately left the room.
“If you cannot avoid it, enjoy it.”
That means I can’t avoid it.
I can’t avoid it?
What, what exactly can’t I avoid?
***
‘It’s the boss! The person I like!’
‘Ms. Lee Dana, what is it about me that you like so much?’
‘I heard the boss called off his engagement.’
***
No.
It can’t be that.
That makes no sense.
“Dana. Dana?”
“Ah…… no…….”
“Dana!”
No!
“Gasp, gasp.”
At Yoonseo’s call, Dana suddenly came to her senses.
“Were you…… sleeping standing up just now? In the middle of making coffee?”
“Huh? I……?”
Dana looked around at where she was standing.
She was standing in front of the coffee machine, and the coffee had already finished brewing.
Yoonseo looked at her worriedly.
“Why are you sweating so much? Are you sick? Did something you ate at lunch disagree with you?”
“Ah, no. It’s just…….”
She remembered.
The fortune-teller she had visited with a friend when she was around twenty, and what the shaman had told her.
She had completely forgotten about it because it had sounded so much like a scam.
‘The beginning of all history will begin with your mouth.’
Why was that statement coming back to her so painfully now?
Even though everything had turned out not to be true.
“So the news that he called off his engagement was just a false rumor, right?”
Inside the pantry, the employees from the Public Relations Department gathered and chatted.
They were comrades who had spent several days waging war, desperately defending the company against social media posts, portal articles, and online communities.
“That’s what they say. Apparently, someone over at Bear Group got jealous and pulled some strings. Even if they’re competitors, how could they resort to such a dirty tactic?”
That was right.
Thankfully, the broken engagement had been nothing but a false rumor.
At the same time that a press release was sent directly from the Chairman’s Secretariat, Dongyeon also released an article stating that the report was completely unfounded.
“Ugh, what a shame.”
Yoonseo, who had overheard the employees’ conversation, sighed regretfully beside Dana.
“What?”
“The boss. I was secretly happy when I heard he was calling off his engagement.”
“Why were you?”
“Why do you think? Because of you.”
Why am I involved here?
“You’ve been having such a hard time. It would be so sad if you had to give up on the boss not because you no longer liked him, but because he was marrying another woman.”
Right, Yoonseo.
That’s how I had to forget Jihoon.
Because you were marrying him.
Of course, there hadn’t been time for her to feel sad.
She had been too overwhelmed because of the boss.
“That’s right. Our boss really needs to be happy.”
Dana turned her head and covered her mouth with her hand.
“What is it, Lee Dana? Take your hand down. Are you crying again? You are, aren’t you?”
“Ah, no. I’m not crying.”
“Oh, honestly. Just how much do you really like the boss?”
Yoonseo felt heartbroken for her, but Dana ultimately couldn’t lower her hand.
Because she was smiling.
Ah, please.
Our boss.
He had cleared away my heartbreak all at once, so I hope he’ll be blessed with good fortune.
Why are there so many complications?
Why so much trouble!
If I could, I wanted to grab him by the collar and ask him if he couldn’t just get married quickly and quietly.
“Good grief. What are we going to do about your love? You really should have broken off the engagement.”
“What? What kind of terrifying thing are you saying! Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey. Don’t even utter something like that!”
I’m really going to have nightmares.
No, I think I already have.
‘The beginning of all history will begin with your mouth.’
A chilling sensation seemed to brush past her body from somewhere.
***
“B-Boss?”
Dana, who was heading toward the bus stop to go home, stopped walking.
Ihun was standing in front of her again today, looking as striking as ever.
He checked his wristwatch.
“I’ve been waiting since exactly six o’clock, just in case, and you really do come out right on time.”
Gasp.
“I didn’t leave before quitting time. I came out exactly at six. W-Will that affect my performance evaluation?”
“That is not my concern.”
“Ah…… thank goodness……. But what are you doing here?”
“I was waiting for Ms. Lee Dana.”
“For me……?”
“I was worried I might miss you. Get in.”
What? I’m riding in the boss’s car again?
I had already ridden in a Maybach once, so my curiosity about that was satisfied…….
But this is a Ferrari…… isn’t it?
He opened the passenger door of the Fer*rari and waited for her.
Since there was no chauffeur, it seemed to be the boss’s privately owned vehicle.
Everyone, I’ll spare you the explanation about the Ferrari.
But still.
How could I possibly refuse to get in?
“Then, I will.”
She climbed into the car with proper composure.
He smiled and fastened her seat belt for her.
“Make yourself comfortable.”
How could I possibly do that?
It’s not just any car.
It’s a Ferrari.
She neatly clasped both hands together in a reverent posture.
As soon as the car started moving, Dana glanced around the inside of the car.
To think I’d experience the world of the rich that I had only ever heard about.
At this rate, am I going to see someone throw an envelope of money at me and say, ‘Stay away from my son’?
Or will my fiancé suddenly show up and say she came to see what the face of the woman who bewitched her man looks like?
Haha, this is hilarious.
“Was there anything difficult today?”
“What?”
Good grief.
The boss spoke to me first again.
She quickly gathered her scattered thoughts.
“Every day is like that, but I’m fine.”
“Really? Nothing happened?”
“Yes, nothing in particular…… Ah, suddenly, a rumor that the boss had called off his engagement started circulating in the stock market gossip circles, so I was briefly overwhelmed trying to contain it. I’m on SaJa Group’s crisis management team.”
“…….”
He sounded as though he wanted a report when he asked whether anything had happened, so she answered.
But maybe she shouldn’t have.
It was a rumor about him, after all.
Wouldn’t he be upset?
Come to think of it, his expression seemed a little stiff.
How do I lighten the mood?
The mood, the mood.
“Oh, thankfully, it turned out to be fake news. We’re assuming that someone on Bear Group’s side spread the false rumor.”
“It’s not fake news.”
“Oh, really?”
“And it’s not a false rumor.”
“Oh, I see.”
“I did call off the engagement.”
She had been nodding when she suddenly opened her eyes wide.
“What?”
“I’m not marrying Dongyeon Group.”
What, what does that mean?
It wasn’t fake news.
He really had called off the engagement.
He wasn’t getting married.
“Why…… why!”
Dana instinctively burst out with the question.
He turned to look at her.
Then, with a completely calm and unaffected expression, he said,
“You said you didn’t want to be the second woman.”
“What? What did you say?”
“Didn’t Ms. Lee Dana say she didn’t want to be the second woman? So I called off the engagement.”
‘The beginning of all history will begin with your mouth.’
“Wait! Boss, wait, please pull over!”
