Seeing Seong-ho Kim stare blankly at the diary, Gyeong-eun Lee asked carefully,

“Seong-ho. Do you… maybe not like it?”

“No. Not at all. I like it very much.”

Taking the diary from her hands, Seong-ho Kim broke into a bright smile.

“It’s just that I’m so happy. That’s why I spaced out for a second.”

“Really? You’re happy?”

Pleased at the word happy, Gyeong-eun Lee laughed brightly and said,

“I knew you’d like it. If you’re happy, then I’m happy too.”

Listening to her, Seong-ho Kim looked down at the diary.

The clean leather still gave off a faint, mellow smell of hide.

The sense that it had been made only recently came through plainly.

‘Right. Back then, too, I got it after the meal was over.’

Recalling when he’d received the leather diary in his past life, Seong-ho Kim stroked it with a wistful gaze and, out of old habit, carefully opened it.

Not the leather diary worn and smudged with the touch of over twenty years’ use, but a pristine one — as if to remind him that this place, here and now, was a different world.

But that feeling vanished entirely the instant he opened it.

When he spread the diary open, unlike its outward appearance, familiar handwriting came pouring toward him like a flood tide.

‘What on earth is this…?’

Seeing his startled expression, Gyeong-eun Lee sat down beside him and asked,

“What’s wrong? Is something off?”

“Gyeong-eun. Was it like this from the moment you bought it?”

“Hm? Like this from when I bought it… like what?”

Following Seong-ho Kim’s gaze as he peered down at the leather diary as though something were strange, Gyeong-eun Lee looked at the open pages and tilted her head, puzzled.

“What is it you don’t like?”

“You really can’t see these letters, Gyeong-eun…?”

“Letters? It’s just a blank page. What is it you’re seeing?”

Gyeong-eun Lee lifted her head and looked at him, baffled.

Looking into her eyes, Seong-ho Kim could tell that she truly could not see the writing inside the diary.

‘She can’t see it? This?’

Seong-ho Kim looked at the letters that filled the diary.

The cover was new, but the inside was another matter.

The paper was packed with writing.

As if it were the very diary he had used.

And the more astonishing thing was that the letters filling the diary were in Seong-ho Kim’s own hand.

[19XX, month X, day X. After returning from the honeymoon, I was sent to an acquisition negotiation the brothers-in-law had arranged. Everything was set up by them, so—]

‘It’s written down starting from what happened today.’

Seong-ho Kim turned to the next page.

The next page held the events of a few days later, and after that too, on and on, were written the things yet to come — every single thing Seong-ho Kim had lived through.

The diary he’d kept a journal in right up until just before his death had come back into his hands exactly as it was, only its outside swapped for something new.

“Is something wrong?”

Gyeong-eun Lee looked up at him with worried eyes.

Seong-ho Kim hastily wiped the bewilderment from his face and smiled.

“No — isn’t there the most adorable little cat drawn right here? Where on earth did you get something this cute? Did you draw it yourself, Gyeong-eun? It doesn’t look like it was printed on the paper.”

Seong-ho Kim pointed a finger at the tiny cat sketched in the corner of the page.

Gyeong-eun Lee flushed and nodded.

“That’s right. I drew it. I kept working on it here and there, on the plane and after we got home… What do you think?”

Seong-ho Kim smiled and nodded.

“I like it a lot.”

Even as he said he liked it, Seong-ho Kim kept looking down at the diary.

His eyes were fixed not on the cat, but on the writing in the diary that Gyeong-eun Lee couldn’t see.

When Seong-ho Kim appeared in the company lobby, everyone arriving for work stopped dead in their tracks.

And they stared, boring holes into him, as he crossed the lobby toward the elevators.

“That’s him, right?”

“Yeah. That’s the guy.”

“I heard he was supposed to be crazy handsome, but he’s not really all that, is he?”

Scrutinizing his face, the arriving employees traded remarks.

“Still, at that level he’s pretty good-looking. Tall, too…”

“How is that handsome? I’d do better. Wouldn’t I?”

“So what if you’re better-looking? You never even had a chance to meet her.”

“Where did that guy even meet the young miss?”

Curious about how Seong-ho Kim had come to marry Gyeong-eun Lee, they pooled whatever they knew.

“I heard they first met at one of the volunteer events the company runs.”

“Volunteer work? That thing where the company rounds up whoever wants to go and heads out to orphanages and nursing homes?”

“Right. Apparently the young miss was quietly taking part, and they met there. Back then she was hiding her identity and working at the company, so everyone around her just thought she was a new female hire.”

“That’s gotta be a lie.”

“A lie?”

“Even if nobody else knew, that guy probably did. So he approached her on purpose.”

“They say it wasn’t like that, though.”

“Why are you so naive? You think he’d admit it if it were true? Of course he’d say no, that he had no idea.”

Eyeing Seong-ho Kim with suspicion as he stood before the elevator, the man spoke with a mocking look.

“If that’s not it, why else would the young miss fall for a guy like him? Unless he came at her with a whole plan, could someone like him have swept a woman like her off her feet? Not just any chaebol family — the youngest daughter of the Ilhyeon Group? Still think I’m wrong?”

At his words, the coworker nodded.

“Fair enough. Even a full-on calculated effort might not be enough to charm her, so the idea that they just naturally met doing volunteer work and it blossomed from there… yeah, something’s off about it.”

“Off is putting it mildly — it’s total nonsense. The young miss, who knew nothing, fell hook, line, and sinker for that guy’s scheme. It’s definitely that. Otherwise, how does a sales-department employee at Ilhyeon Distribution get himself transferred to the group’s Strategic Planning Office? Am I wrong?”

The coworker agreed emphatically.

And conversations like this were unfolding all over the place.

“Seong-ho.”

Just as the talk was reaching Seong-ho Kim’s ears too, someone clapped him on the shoulder.

He turned to look at whoever it was.

There, like the rest of the Ilhyeon household, stood a twenty-years-younger Byeong-jin Jo, calling to him with a bright face.

“How was the honeymoon?”

“Are you… are you really Byeong-jin?”

“What’s with you? Did you leave your head back on Ibiza? Who else would I be but Byeong-jin, you idiot?”

Having tossed out a flat joke, Byeong-jin Jo glanced around, saw all the eyes fixed on Seong-ho Kim by the elevator, and gave a knowing, rueful smile.

“Guess all the pointless chatter from these people threw you for a second. Honestly, it’d get to me too.”

Byeong-jin Jo patted his shoulder as if he understood, and went on.

“I told you it’d be like this, didn’t I? But you’re the one who said it was fine and went ahead with it, so you’ve got to power through. Just ignore it and don’t let this kind of thing get to you from now on. You’re the only one it hurts.”

“Yeah. Thanks. Back at this point, too, you were on my side.”

At the words back at this point, too, Byeong-jin Jo cocked his head, then nodded vaguely and rested a hand on Seong-ho Kim’s shoulder.

Stepping into the opened elevator, he started peppering Seong-ho Kim with questions.

“The honeymoon obviously went fine, since here you are… How was Pyeongchang-dong? Was it okay?”

“It was okay.”

“Hmm, no way it was okay… I told you those people are demons. Demons. They might try to eat you alive.”

Even at Seong-ho Kim’s it was okay, Byeong-jin Jo wouldn’t set his worry aside.

Then, moving toward the back to make way for the others boarding, he said in a low voice,

“Still, be careful. And whenever it is, if something feels wrong, get out. Nothing good comes of getting tangled up badly with them.”

At his words, Seong-ho Kim let a smile touch his lips and nodded.

Byeong-jin Jo, feeling like Seong-ho wasn’t really taking his words to heart, went to add one more thing.

But with more and more people boarding the elevator, he couldn’t get it out and only kept an eye on those around him.

Seong-ho Kim smiled at him once more, patted his shoulder, and murmured,

“This time, it’s my turn.”

“Huh?”

“So don’t worry. The ones getting devoured this time won’t be me — it’ll be them.”

Byeong-jin Jo wanted to ask what on earth that meant, but with the elevator packed full of people, all he could do was look at Seong-ho Kim.

Seong-ho Kim answered him with a smile in place of words, and watched the elevator doors slide shut.

After parting from Byeong-jin Jo, who got off on the seventh floor where the sales department was, Seong-ho Kim headed for the twelfth floor, home to the Strategic Planning Office.

The Strategic Planning Office, which handled the overall coordination and planning of the group’s businesses, could be called the very heart of the Ilhyeon Group.

And it was at that heart of the Ilhyeon Group that Seong-ho Kim was reporting for his first day.

“Good morning.”

Entering the office, Seong-ho Kim greeted the first person he saw.

“Director. Good morning.”

Director Gyeong-deuk Lee, who’d been passing by the door, turned to the man greeting him.

Then his eyes went wide, and he stepped over to Seong-ho Kim with a hand outstretched.

“Ohh, so you’ve come. Assistant Manager Kim. Good to see you.”

Remembering Seong-ho Kim from the wedding hall, Gyeong-deuk Lee greeted him.

Leading him inside, he offered a warm welcome.

“We said our hellos at the wedding back then — you remember?”

“Of course. How could I fail to remember you, Director Gyeong-deuk Lee, deputy head of the Strategic Planning Office?”

“Oho, you even know my name?”

“My father-in-law told me to learn a great deal from you, Director.”

“Really? The chairman said that?”

Whether it was because his father-in-law — Ilhyeon Group chairman Tak-hyeon Lee — had mentioned him, Director Gyeong-deuk Lee beamed, grinning ear to ear.

And he showed Seong-ho Kim to the very office Seong-ho would use right up until just before his death.

(End of Chapter 3)