Chapter : 07
Because Dohyun was a perfectionist who never wasted time.
“If you had called me, I would have gone straight to the managing director’s office. I must have caused you some trouble.”
“There’s no way I could order Representative Jung to come and go as I please. After all, he’s the representative of Kangseong Media.”
Jongcheol gave an awkward smile.
If you’re going to talk like that, at least treat me like a representative!
‘As if you’re anything more than Chairman Kang’s illegitimate child.’
To be honest, Jongcheol didn’t particularly like Dohyun.
Everyone knew that Dohyun had been born as a result of Chairman Kang’s affair.
‘The Kangseong Group is going to belong to the second son anyway. Is there really any need to get on his good side?’
Hiding his discomfort, he gave a hearty laugh at Dohyun’s words.
Regardless of whether he liked Dohyun or not, there was nothing to gain from getting on his bad side.
“Come on, what kind of important person am I? From now on, just call me and I’ll come running right away!”
“Thank you. I expect I’ll have quite a few reasons to call you, since I have a great deal of work to attend to.”
“Haha…”
Jongcheol swallowed back a cry in his heart.
Secretary Kim brought in coffee. Dohyun took a sip and then spoke.
“I heard that there was someone you personally recommended.”
Representative Jung’s hand, which had been holding the coffee, froze for a moment.
So this is what he really wanted to talk about.
Representative Jung answered in a calm tone.
“It’s Lee Sojin, your fiancée. I personally recommended her.”
“She only has a good university background and absolutely no qualifications or experience. I’d like to hear an explanation as to why she was hired.”
“…She graduated from a prestigious university in the United States, and even though she doesn’t have much on her résumé, her language skills are excellent. She scored highly on both TOEIC and TOEFL…”
“Anyone can have language test scores. What good is a team leader simply being good at English? She has no work experience.”
“…In any case, I recommended her after making what I considered a reasonable judgment.”
“You’re not colluding with someone, are you?”
Jongcheol’s shoulders visibly stiffened. He swallowed hard from nervousness.
‘It’s true that I accepted a bribe. But…’
An inexplicable calmness settled in Jongcheol’s eyes.
Dohyun slightly furrowed his brows.
Does he have something he’s relying on?
Jongcheol slowly opened his mouth.
“You may think that, but absolutely not.”
Jongcheol continued in a monotonous tone.
“Chairman Kang also knows that Sojin is joining the company.”
“How did Yeji behave again?”
Sojin rested her chin on her hand and thought carefully.
Yeji was notorious throughout the company for being a complete troublemaker. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that she was barely holding onto her position at the company thanks solely to her performance and her parents’ connections.
‘And even those achievements were all mine.’
Sojin frowned.
Remembering the time when all her achievements had been stolen from her made her feel irritated.
‘Still, she does come in handy sometimes.’
Recalling Yeji’s behavior, Sojin began writing down ways to get herself fired one by one.
Being late, being absent without permission, talking back to her superiors, telling another team member to go whenever her direct superior called her…
Bribes?
“Oh, no. Bribes won’t work.”
One of the reasons Sera ended up ruined in the original story was bribery.
Sera had the immoral belief that anything could be solved with money.
She casually engaged in bribery and pulling strings.
‘She even went as far as using bribes to harass the female lead.’
After she began harassing Yuna, the female lead, Dohyun secretly exposed all of Sera’s corruption and abuse of power.
‘Sera mistakenly thought the female lead had exposed her, so she even threatened her.’
As a result, she had to go to the police station not only on charges of bribery and influence-peddling, but also for making threats.
And, naturally, everything that followed led to her death ending.
Sojin drew several firm lines through the word bribery.
This time, the tip of her pencil stopped at talking back to her superior.
“If the superior is the male lead…?”
Sojin lightly tapped her lips with her pencil.
Since Sojin was a team leader, her direct superior would obviously be Dohyun.
“In the original story, Sera didn’t exactly talk back to him. She was obsessed with him. Rather than talking back to Dohyun, I think he’d hate it even more if I became obsessed with him and tried to seduce him.”
Ugh. Then I’d really be acting exactly like the original Sera, and I hate that…
Besides, she had a strange feeling that no matter how much she talked back to Dohyun, she wouldn’t actually get fired.
After all, he already seemed to know that Sojin had been hired unfairly, yet he hadn’t said anything.
It was only a vague guess on Sojin’s part, but she felt that Dohyun was currently in a situation where he couldn’t interfere with Sojin’s employment.
Sojin put a small triangle next to talking back to her superior.
‘Let’s see how things go and do it if it seems possible.’
Sojin carefully recalled Yeji’s behavior and added more ways to get herself fired.
After she finished, Sojin looked over the entire list.
Then, suddenly feeling uneasy, she furrowed her brows.
“But if I do all of this exactly as written, won’t I become way too similar to Sera?”
She didn’t want to become just like that villainess, even if it was only an act.
Sojin shook her head.
“No. If I want to accomplish the greater goal, I have no choice but to put up with things like this.”
Whatever happened, as long as she got fired, everything would be solved.
If you hesitated, even something that could have worked might end up failing.
Sojin forced herself to push away the lingering discomfort in her heart.
Then she looked at the calendar.
Tomorrow’s date had first day at work written on it.
The day of her first day at work.
Sojin chose a bright yellow handbag with a large luxury-brand pattern from the bag closet.
Sojin checked her watch.
It was already nine o’clock.
She would have had to leave thirty minutes earlier to arrive on time, but so what?
“I have to be late today.”
Sojin put on a white blouse and an intensely red miniskirt.
She didn’t forget to put on coffee-colored stockings, either.
She fastened a dazzling, diamond-encrusted wristwatch around her wrist.
Seeing the hour hand pass the number nine made her conscience prick at her, but she forced the feeling away.
“No. I can do this! I’ll pull it off!”
Then she slowly draped a red mink fur coat over herself.
Sojin walked over to the mirror.
She finished her look by sticking a flower hairpin studded with diamonds into her hair.
A truly beautiful flower-like beauty stood in the mirror.
Not a beautiful woman who looked like a flower, but a crazy woman wearing a flower.
Sojin applied bright red lipstick to her lips.
Her dramatically curled eyelashes fluttered like the wings of a swan.
“Who would think this is an outfit for going to work?”
At this point, it looked more than enough to ruin her first impression.
Pleased with herself, Sojin picked up her bag.
Then she went outside, crossing the living room.
The household staff saw Sojin and their mouths fell open.
Then they hurriedly lowered their heads.
“Ah, Miss. Have a good day!”
“Good luck on your first day!”
Sojin casually waved her hand.
“Yeah~ You guys, too. Fighting~.”
Sojin stepped outside the front door.
There, she saw Secretary Han, who was supposed to accompany her to the company.
His eyes grew wider and wider when he saw Sojin.
“Miss…”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Is our destination really Kangseong Media…?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Take me there very, very slowly!”
So I can be completely late.
Secretary Han let out an awkward, flustered laugh.
Miss had always been unusual, but she seemed even stranger these days.
Since Secretary Han had already known her for ten years, however, his surprise didn’t last long.
He smoothly guided Sojin along.
“I’ll escort you, Miss.”
Secretary Han took Sojin’s bag from her.
When Sojin arrived and walked through the company lobby, everyone’s eyes turned toward her.
“What the hell? Who is that?”
“She’s wearing something like that to work… That’s really interesting.”
Sojin’s steps faltered for a moment.
Her heart began pounding involuntarily under all the attention pouring toward her.
‘No! Don’t get scared! I’m going to leave this company soon anyway. And this is inside a drama!’
After giving herself some mental encouragement, Sojin forced a smile onto her face.
Sojin walked through the lobby with elegant steps.
She took off her sunglasses and pulled out her phone.
There was a text message from the person in charge of human resources.
[Team Leader Lee Sojin, it has already been 30 minutes since your scheduled arrival time, and we haven’t heard from you, so I’m contacting you by text.]
Sojin typed a reply with her elaborately manicured finger.
[Oh my, I’m so sorry. I’m in the company lobby right now. Please come and show me where to go~.]
Soon afterward, the HR representative came downstairs.
She looked around as though searching for Sojin.
Sojin lightly waved her hand.
“Over here!”
The moment the HR representative spotted Sojin, her mouth slowly fell open.
