Chapter : 12
“Safe…!”
I squeezed myself through the gap in the elevator doors just before they closed.
After getting out of Kang Seo-jun’s car, I had sprinted the full 500 meters. It was my own desperate morning routine to avoid being seen by the employees.
I was so out of breath that my heart felt like it was about to burst. But I forced myself to breathe steadily, pretending I was perfectly fine.
A bright voice came from behind me. It was Ji-eun, the youngest member of the marketing team, along with some new employees.
“Oh, hi. You’re all here early.”
I turned around as calmly as possible, but apparently I couldn’t hide the sweat pouring down my face. Ji-eun opened her eyes wide like a rabbit and asked,
“Oh my gosh, Assistant Manager. Why is your face so red? And you’re sweating… Are you feeling sick?”
“You worked overtime until late yesterday, too. You look really pale…”
Concerned looks from my juniors poured over me. I instinctively pulled the corners of my mouth upward.
It was my ‘professional’ capitalist smile.
“No, I just ran a little this morning for exercise. I’m totally fine and full of energy. Don’t worry!”
“Come on, don’t push yourself too hard. If Team Leader Park makes you work again, we’ll secretly help you.”
“Thanks. Let’s get inside.”
Only after sending my juniors ahead did I finally let the smile disappear from my face.
The closed elevator doors reflected my pathetic appearance like a mirror.
My bangs were a mess, and my face was flushed red.
Full of energy, my ass.
My legs were trembling.
‘If I go in looking like this, it’s going to start again.’
Team Leader Park’s sarcastic voice seemed to echo in my head.
“Oh dear, Assistant Manager Lee. A woman should make a little effort with her appearance. What kind of look is that? Where did you come from, plowing a field?”
People who cared more about judging appearances than work.
I hated hearing that kind of criticism first thing in the morning more than anything.
I hurriedly opened my bag.
At least I needed to fix my bangs.
I frantically rummaged through my bag looking for a compact mirror.
But before my fingers found the mirror, they touched something unfamiliar.
Instead of the mirror, I pulled out a heavy, cool tube.
‘L’ company hand cream.
The thing he had casually tossed to me last night.
A heavy feeling settled in one corner of my heart, like someone had placed a stone there.
I had already received more than enough from him, yet it felt as though I was continuing to accumulate a debt of gratitude to him.
‘Don’t get used to it. This is just an employee benefit.’
I shoved the hand cream back deep into my bag.
I should think of his kindness as ‘maintenance to ensure optimal work performance.’
That way, I could work more confidently and with less humiliation.
I took a deep breath and opened the office door with a determined expression.
“Hey, Lee Da-eun.”
Just as I expected.
Team Leader Park Cheol-su’s irritated voice came flying over the partition.
“Yes, Team Leader.”
“You know that material you sent yesterday? Why are the colors like that? And the font is ugly, too. Can’t you make it look a little more hip?”
I was dumbfounded.
The material had been personally refined by Director Kang Seo-jun yesterday, using the instincts and aesthetic sense of the heir to Daeyoung Group.
And he had the nerve to call it ‘ugly.’
I didn’t bother responding.
“I’ll revise it and submit it again.”
“Ah, you’re so frustrating. You have no sense. No sense at all.”
Team Leader Park roughly loosened his tie and leaned back in his chair.
The strong smell of alcohol vibrated through the air.
The stale odor clinging to his clothes.
He had obviously been drinking heavily until dawn.
“Hey, forget it. Go buy me some bean sprout soup. My stomach is killing me.”
“…What?”
“Use the company card. You can get one for yourself while you’re at it.”
He pulled the company credit card from his wallet and tossed it onto my keyboard.
Humiliation surged through me.
Was I an assistant manager on the marketing team or a delivery girl from a hangover soup restaurant?
But I quietly picked up the card.
Not simply because I was obeying him.
‘October X, 202X, 9:10 a.m. Personal errand to buy hangover soup.’
Another log was recorded in the black box inside my head.
‘One day, I’ll bring this whole thing down with my own strength.’
“Understood. I’ll bring back the receipt.”
“What? Hey, just go! Why are you talking so much? Seriously!”
Team Leader Park slammed his hand down on the desk and shouted.
I tightly bit my lip and turned around.
I avoided it because it was disgusting.
For now, I’d do what I was told.
Because all of this would eventually become evidence I could use to bring him down.
11:00 a.m.
Team Leader Park was slurping the bean sprout soup I had bought while casually clicking his mouse with one hand.
The extension phone rang, breaking the silence in the office.
Team Leader Park picked up the receiver with an annoyed expression.
“Yes, this is Park Cheol-su from Marketing Team 1. …Yes? Where did you say?”
The spoon he had been lifting toward his soup stopped in midair.
His brow furrowed, and his complexion quickly turned ashen.
“The Audit Team? Why me…? What do you mean, an official notice? Right now?”
Every ear in the office turned toward him.
The moment the words ‘Audit Team’ came out, the atmosphere instantly became icy.
“No, I think there must be some kind of misunderstanding… Yes. Yes. Understood. I’ll come right away.”
Team Leader Park hung up the phone irritably.
He cleared his throat loudly, as if trying to hide his panic.
“Ahem! I’m going to the main building. If anyone asks for me, tell them I went to a meeting.”
He hurried out of the office without even putting on his jacket.
In the half-eaten bowl of soup, only bean sprout heads floated around.
That was the last we saw of him.
Even after lunch, and even at 2:00 p.m., Team Leader Park hadn’t returned.
His desk was empty, and his messenger status showed ‘offline.’
A strange atmosphere began to spread throughout the office.
“Assistant Manager… do you think something happened to Team Leader?”
“I know. Being called in by the Audit Team… it doesn’t sound like a minor matter.”
Before frightened Ji-eun could even finish speaking, the office door opened.
Two men in suits entered, each wearing employee ID cards with red lanyards around their necks.
Expressionless faces.
A single briefcase.
They were members of the Audit Team.
There was no commotion and no shouting.
They quietly walked toward Team Leader Park’s desk.
With practiced movements, they unplugged the cables from Park’s PC.
“Excuse me… what’s going on?”
When I asked cautiously, one of the Audit Team employees pointed to a sheet of paper on Team Leader Park’s desk.
[Notice of Suspension from Duties]
“Team Leader Park Cheol-su is currently under internal investigation for suspected misuse of the company credit card. We’re taking his PC to review the relevant materials.”
The office could have erupted into chaos, but the process was so swift and quiet that everyone simply held their breath.
While one employee skillfully detached the computer tower, the other Audit Team employee turned toward my desk.
“You’re Assistant Manager Lee Da-eun, correct?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“We’ve confirmed circumstances indicating that Team Leader Park forced you to run personal errands and work overtime. Do you have any materials related to this that you can submit?”
His gaze briefly passed over the company credit card sitting beside my keyboard.
Ah.
This was my chance.
I calmed my trembling hands and opened my desk drawer.
Deep inside, I had kept a black USB drive and an old diary.
They were the ‘blades’ I had been collecting, determined to use them someday.
“Yes, I do.”
Without hesitation, I handed the USB drive to the Audit Team employee.
“Records of his work instructions, logs of personal errands, and copies of receipts for purchases he made me pay for on his behalf. Everything is in here.”
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
The employee gave a brief nod and took the USB.
Just as quietly as they had entered, they disappeared with Team Leader Park’s computer tower.
When I looked at Park’s empty desk, a shiver ran through me.
This was a perfect ‘removal.’
It was fast enough to seem as though procedure had been ignored, yet precise enough to leave no room for objection.
That kind of speed was impossible unless someone higher up had deliberately decided to crush him.
‘Who on earth…?’
At that moment, a memory flashed through my mind.
“Was it Team Leader Park? Was he the one who appeared in your dream?”
“I’m displeased with the way my employee is being treated.”
No way.
Could this have happened because of those words I had mumbled half-asleep in the car last night?
Just in case, I raised my head.
Through the glass wall, I saw Director Kang Seo-jun walking down the hallway.
A perfectly fitted suit.
A cold, expressionless face.
He didn’t even glance toward our noisy office.
His steps were elegant and composed, as though nothing had happened.
But just before he disappeared from view, his gaze briefly swept toward me.
And ever so slightly, just enough for me to notice, he nodded.
Thump.
My heart sank.
It felt as though something that had been tightly constricting my chest had suddenly been released.
But at the same time, I felt small.
This had been a problem I’d struggled with for months.
I had gathered evidence, waited for the right moment, and constantly worried that I might face retaliation.
Yet he had ended the situation with barely a movement of his finger.
In a single day.
Cleanly.
And frighteningly.
‘…Amazing, Kang Seo-jun.’
Ding.
My phone on the desk rang.
[Kang Seo-jun, Director: Lunch.]
[Kang Seo-jun, Director: Eat a proper meal, not bread. You need to eat properly if you’re going to earn your salary.]
I stared blankly at the screen before letting out a small laugh.
It wasn’t warm consolation.
If anything, it sounded more like the strict management instructions of an employer.
‘Right. I don’t have time to feel wronged.’
He had set the stage for me and removed the obstacle.
Then there was only one thing left for me to do.
I had to prove that I was worth the 300 million won he had invested—and that the frightening consideration he had shown me today had not been wasted.
“…Yes. Understood.”
I murmured as I put my phone away.
I decided to save my words of thanks for later.
Instead, I would fill the empty space left by Team Leader Park with my own achievements.
That was the only—and most certain—way I could repay him.
I straightened my back again.
Then, with eyes clearer and more determined than ever, I turned on my work monitor.
