“These are the documents that need to go up for approval before the end of this week.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. The ones that only need your signature, I’ve marked separately. For the ones that require additional review depending on the content, I’ve blocked out meeting times according to your schedule.”
“That’s a hell of a lot.”
Yeon Haejeong tapped the folders the secretary was holding with a bored expression. Then he seemed to mull something over and muttered quietly.
“I’ll have to stay late.”
“Oh — no, Managing Director, none of it is that urgent. The ones that need to go up right away, you could do those tomorrow—”
“What do you take me for?”
“……Pardon?”
“A man ought to get his work done on time if he wants to hold his head up in front of the people under him.”
“……Excuse me?”
The sudden display of work ethic caught his secretary, Ju Mirae, completely off guard. She stared at her direct superior with a blank expression, unable to hide her bewilderment.
From the moment Secretary Ju was assigned here and first laid eyes on Managing Director Yeon Haejeong, she had known the road ahead was going to be rough. Managing Director Yeon had walked out to goof off the very moment he finished introducing himself to her. The vice chairman and the executive director asked after his whereabouts constantly, and having to tell them every time that he wasn’t in his office was driving her to the edge of her sanity. He was never actually at his desk when he was supposed to be, and the sentence she found herself saying most often at work was: “He’s not at his desk right now.”
But in terms of actual work output — that was its own kind of infuriating. He wasn’t diligent, he didn’t seem particularly invested, and yet somehow everything that needed to be done got done exactly when it needed to be. Precisely the things that had to be done, and nothing more. Watching that, Secretary Ju had come to understand that Managing Director Yeon was the kind of person who had the art of doing just enough down to a science.
And now this person wanted to stay late? On top of that — when there was no need?
“Secretary Go, you can head out first.”
“…It’s Secretary Ju.”
“Right. Secretary Ju.”
Yeon Haejeong dropped it without interest and dropped himself onto the guest sofa with a thud. He dragged a hand slowly along his jaw and continued as if speaking to himself.
“Being too perfect is its own problem, you know.”
“…Pardon?”
“If someone at my level goes as far as staying late and working this hard, the others won’t have anywhere to stand.”
“……Ah. I see.”
Is what I’m hearing right now actually real? Secretary Ju had her doubts — but remarkably, Yeon Haejeong meant every word.
“Being too good-looking is a problem too. Every last person throwing themselves at me, I swear.”
Yeon Haejeong smoothed a hand over the corner of his mouth and studied his own reflection in the window glass with complete seriousness.
Fine, he would admit it. Good-looking, good family, capable, tall, all of the above — too much, really, but even so——
“Secretary Jo. Come listen to this.”
“……It’s Secretary Ju.”
“Ah — honestly. Again. Is that really so important?”
Yeon Haejeong creased his brow and snapped back at her protest. In the face of his irritation, Secretary Ju produced a serene, Buddha-like smile.
“Not at all. It doesn’t matter in the slightest.”
“See, exactly. Anyway, listen.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So — there’s this guy I studied abroad with.”
It’s about himself.
“He ran into someone again, someone he knew over ten years ago.”
“Right.”
“And this person he ran into — they keep acting like they don’t know him. Like they don’t recognize my — I mean, his friend.”
“……I see.”
“They pretended not to know him, but then they turned around and started being incredibly good to him.”
Is this a… relationship consultation? Secretary Ju blinked slowly, expression uncertain. What’s this about, she’d wondered — and it’s a personal relationship consultation? And he’s completely absorbed in it too.
“Like covering him with a blanket when he fell asleep. Or getting worried when he was drunk and taking him all the way to their own place to let him sleep it off.”
“……That level of kindness does seem within the realm of what a person might do.”
“…What?”
Secretary Ju had answered quietly after thinking it over, and the look in Yeon Haejeong’s eyes sharpened at once. She caught in an instant that it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, and with over ten years of secretarial experience, she pivoted immediately.
“But it doesn’t seem like ordinary kindness, either.”
“Right? Who takes someone to their own house just because they’re drunk.”
“Exactly. Absolutely unheard of.”
“And on top of that—”
Yeon Haejeong showed no sign of wrapping up. Pleased with Secretary Ju’s reaction, he pressed on with increasing enthusiasm.
“So apparently, my friend got close — and the person thought he was going in for a kiss, so he shut his eyes tight. Or well, apparently he did. Trembling and everything. Like a child.”
“……I see.”
“Right?”
“Pardon?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it. That person has feelings for my friend again.”
Ah. That’s the answer he wants.
Secretary Ju read the point of the conversation with razor precision and pushed her glasses up slightly.
“…Yes. The probability of that does seem high.”
“How high?”
“Pardon?”
“How high a probability, I’m asking.”
What is with this relentless nitpicking. How exact an answer does he want, this insufferable man.
Secretary Ju grumbled internally while smoothly producing a capitalist’s smile.
“It’s difficult to put a precise number on it, but in all likelihood that person appears to have Managing Dir — I mean, that friend of yours on their mind.”
“Right? See. I knew it.”
In truth, the probability wasn’t necessarily high. What he’d described earlier could just as easily be the kindness of a soft-hearted person, and what came after could have been someone getting swept up in the moment. But Yeon Haejeong was doing that thing where the answer is already decided, you just need to say it — and so Secretary Ju had no choice, for the sake of her one and only direct superior, but to kindly lay out the answer he wanted.
“And besides, apparently this person had feelings for my friend back then too, you know.”
If it had been over ten years ago, that was most likely ancient history by now. Realistically speaking, it made no sense for someone to still have feelings for a person they’d liked that long ago. In this day and age, was that kind of unwavering devotion even possible? That sentence nearly slipped right out — Secretary Ju clamped her mouth shut with considerable effort.
“…Well, I mean. How could anyone easily forget someone like me.”
Second son of Chairman Yeon of Baekil Group. The fact that Managing Director Yeon was this narcissistic and self-obsessed — if it ever got out publicly, it was the kind of thing that could qualify as owner risk. It seemed severe.
“…Just a moment ago, you said it was about a friend…”
“So what.”
“……Yes, sir.”
“Get out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Yeon Haejeong said it with flat indifference, as if he hadn’t been talking the whole time with barely contained excitement. He had apparently gotten what he came for — he waved his hand dismissively like she was an annoyance. Accustomed to being spoken down to, Secretary Ju gave a small bow and made her way quickly out of the office.
Absolutely draining.
She swallowed the curse threatening to come out and let a short sigh escape instead. Secretary Ju went back to her desk in a hurry. She wanted to be as far away from her direct superior as humanly possible.
