Chapter 3

“Pardon…?”

The replying voice slipped.

How on earth did he know that…? Wondering if she had misheard, Woojung couldn’t readily give a reply when—

Ding. The elevator, arriving at its destination, opened its mouth. Facing forward, their gazes, entangled as they looked at each other, lingered for a moment.

Staring blankly at the bewildered woman with an expressionless face, Ju-shin folded the corners of his eyes into a smile.

“Are you going to stay here?”

“Yes…? Ah, I should g-get off.”

Nodding toward the outside, Ju-shin turned his back and walked ahead, leaving a puzzled Woojung behind.

Just once. She had changed her phone number. It was around the time she turned twenty, because of a malicious university senior. But how on earth did that fellow know? Since then, there was no way people she got to know afterward could have known her number had changed.

Had she ever blurted it out without realizing? Or was he confusing her with someone else?

Walking while rolling her eyes and lost in thought, Woojung immediately put down the box upon arriving at the office, then wiped her forehead as if pretending to wipe away sweat that wasn’t even there.

Assistant Manager Choi Sookyeong—acknowledged by all as a social butterfly—approached, asking why Officer Jung was the one carrying this, while casting a sidelong glance at the group talking with the team leader.

“3 o’clock direction. A supreme visual boss has appeared.”

It was an exceptional thing for her—usually stingy with appearance evaluations—to use the modifier “supreme visual.”

Even without asking, she knew instantly who she was referring to. Because a figure whose back alone convinced one he was a supreme visual boss was showing off his presence like a Western mannequin.

A neat head of hair and broadly flared shoulders. A well-tailored black suit. Judging by the fact that his eye level was roughly similar to Kim Ju-shin’s nearby, he seemed quite tall, too.

A thrilled Assistant Manager Choi began her briefing.

“The head secretary of the headquarters’ secretarial office. Name, Kwon Seon-o. Was he thirty-four, or thirty-five? Anyway, early-to-mid thirties. The real power broker among power brokers, enjoying the Chairman’s absolute trust. A capital offense equipped evenly with the three boxes of manners, intellect, and appearance. Hence his nickname, the ‘Triple Box.’”

It was a name Woojung had heard of before, too. With only rumors swirling and having never seen him in person, she had sometimes wondered if he was a virtual character conjured up by female employees’ yearnings.

Assistant Manager Choi was as excited as if she had met a celebrity. Saying she never expected to welcome in the flesh a figure so hard to encounter even if she went to headquarters, and in such a humble place at that.

The question of why the head secretary of the chairman’s office was heading out with a third-week intern was easily buried under the issue of his appearance. Though she did make a guess.

Figuring that some high-ranking big shot from a noble household was probably going to make a fresh-off-the-boat servant do menial chores.

The fact she later learned from the team leader didn’t differ much from her guess. Kwon Seon-o, dropping by on business, said he needed a pair of hands, so they just happened to send out the intern who was right there.

No matter how much it was a class-based society, she couldn’t help resenting the team leader a little for throwing team members around so casually.

A forbidden zone where employee access was restricted. The rooftop of the office building.

“Ah, this is tricky.”

A voice with a tone that didn’t sound particularly tricky floated lazily. Ju-shin, resting his elbows on the railing, gazed out into the distant void. There wasn’t a single cloud in the blue sky.

“If I get ostracized for being the Chairman’s stooge, will Chief Secretary Kwon take responsibility?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Seon-o continued speaking, keeping his eyes on the cityscape unfolding below his feet.

“Because I won’t just stand by and watch you get treated rashly.”

His voice was calm, but a chilling murderous intent lingered on his expressionless face. It was one-hundred-percent genuine sincerity.

A little while ago, when he witnessed several individuals treating returning intern Kim Ju-shin with disrespect, Seon-o had barely managed to suppress his boiling rage. Though he couldn’t do anything right away, he didn’t forget to note down their names and job titles.

The PR team leader had profusely welcomed the head secretary who showed up unannounced. When asked the purpose of his visit, Seon-o gave the absurd excuse that he was just dropping by while passing by. It was to watch over the crazy young master’s perverted intern game.

Those were the conditions for joining the group. The subsidiary: Jaeyang Food. The department: PR Team. The position: Intern.

He said he didn’t want to start as the Chairman’s son, so he asked them to fabricate the personal information submitted to the HR department appropriately.

Chairman Kim Sangho readily accepted those child’s-play conditions. He didn’t even ask why his attitude had suddenly changed. Since he was starting company work anyway, his intention was probably just to wait and see.

However, even that wouldn’t last long. Chairman Kim was not a man to overlook his son’s antics to the very end, and knowing that Jung Woojung was at the center of it all would only be a matter of time.

Kim Ju-shin pulled his gaze away from Kwon Seon-o’s profile and chuckled softly. Then he raised his thumb.

“Oh. Cool.”

“……”

“Now, go ahead and say it. Barging in like this isn’t Chief Secretary Kwon’s style.”

The voice, playful all along, sank into dryness. His dark-ink eyes were half-concealed by lowered eyelids.

Chief Secretary Kwon Seon-o never mixed personal feelings into official work or flaunted his close ties with the owner’s family. For someone like him to come all the way here without anyone’s orders was perhaps an act that crossed the line. Kim Ju-shin knew that, and Kwon Seon-o knew it too.

A brief silence flowed. Turning away from looking straight ahead, Seon-o stood facing Ju-shin and brought up the name he wanted to have confirmed.

“Jung Woojung.”

“-ssi.”

“……Right. Jung Woojung-ssi.”

“That’s it.”

“Is that the career path you decided on?”

“Not that. Jung, Woo, Jung-ssi.”

“……”

At the repeated correction of his title, Chief Secretary Kwon hardened his lip line. Ju-shin, who had deliberately spoken each syllable with emphasis as if telling him to understand already, shook his head seductively.

“That’s an abnormal curiosity you have there.”

Exhaling a low sigh, Seon-o continued after a pause.

“That friend’s father. You know who he is.”

“Wow. I told you to change the background-check agency, and you outsourced it to Chief Secretary Kwon?”

Biased Kim Sangho. What kind of damned creative economy is this, Ju-shin laughed it off as if it were no big deal.

He had anticipated it the moment he mentioned joining the company. Since the son who wouldn’t do as he pleased had rolled in on his own, the Chairman would look the other way for a while, and eventually exercise power to get him in his grasp. So he hadn’t come planning to stay long. He intended to quit around the time the “for a while” period that Chairman Kim Sangho would overlook came to an end.

It wasn’t a cute emotion like curiosity. The resentful feelings he held seven years ago had also faded. He was simply curious about what kind of life Jung Woojung, whom he had discovered right under his nose, was living.

The brat who acted like some great older sister even though she was barely a year older. The chatterbox who had so much to say and so many tears. And then Jung Woojung, who suddenly betrayed him one day without living up to her name.

“I haven’t reported it to the Chairman. If he finds out, he won’t let it go.”

“Ah, interference with my career path is unforgivable.”

“Knowing the Chairman’s personality, it won’t just end with interference.”

Investigating Woojung was Chief Secretary Kwon’s independent action. He hadn’t investigated with her as a target; in the process of screening PR team members who had points of contact with Kim Ju-shin, Jung Woojung had popped up.

Aside from the uncomfortably entangled family incidents, there were no other connections. That was as far as Kwon Seon-o could know.

However, Kim Ju-shin was not a kid who moved on mere amusement. He merely acted lighthearted to avoid getting attention.

If it wasn’t mere amusement, what was it?

If hiding the fact that he was a person from Jaeyang Group was solely because of Jung Woojung. If he didn’t want his relationship with her to become awkward due to the adults’ past history…….

“Is she someone you like?”

At the cliché guess, Ju-shin shrugged his shoulders.

“Just.”

“Just?”

“It’s payback.”

Then he grinned.

“Because our Officer Jeong was fucking exasperatedly ungrateful back then.”

That meant there was definitely something there.

Behind that smiling face, he might be changing his plans. Kim Ju-shin was that kind of kid. Specialized in not easily giving away his inner thoughts and hiding his emotions. So it was better to back off for today. Before the colt-like young master bounced off in a strange direction.

Taking a step back, Seon-o pushed up his glasses with the back of his hand.

“Don’t make secrets from me. That way, even if the Chairman makes a move, I can protect you. Though it’ll only be enough to buy some time.”

“Yes, brother.”

Stepping away, saying it was about time to head down, Ju-shin chuckled. Then, giving a sharp snap of his fingers into the empty air, he spun around.

“Ah.”

The sound of dress shoes following behind him stopped as well.

“Just in case, I’ll say this beforehand.”

Drawing out the end of his sentence while blinking with an uninspired face, Ju-shin tilted his head at an angle.

“Don’t touch her, alright?”