Chapter: 03
For some reason, it felt like an atmosphere in which she absolutely could not say that she disliked it.
Eunjae was frightened once again and pursed her lips shut as though she had suddenly become mute.
The man carefully wiped her lips and even her chin with the handkerchief, and only then did his expression soften. The frightening atmosphere did not disappear easily, but it was better than before.
“Um, there’s something on your lips too…….”
With her face now clean and dry, Eunjae stared up at his face. Her large eyes were still filled with fear, but they sparkled clearly with a small amount of trust.
The man looked straight into those eyes as he slowly released his hold on her. Only then was Eunjae freed from his broad, solid embrace and able to place her feet on the ground.
She had been so distracted by the kiss that she had not realized it, but the man had been holding her up with one arm the entire time. The difference in their physiques was so enormous that anyone who saw them might have mistaken him for her older brother.
“There’s some on your lips too…….”
Having regained her freedom, Eunjae gathered her courage and cautiously reached out her hand. His gaze remained fixed on Eunjae’s approaching fingers.
She carefully brushed her fingertip over the smear of lipstick on his lips.
“Aaaah!”
Then, as though she had been struck by lightning, she suddenly screamed. It was the scream of a foolish and pitiful ordinary person who had only belatedly realized what she had done.
“I-I-I’m sorry!!”
“…….”
“You were surprised because I suddenly did that, right? I didn’t have any other choice, and I don’t really have anything to give you right now. Oh, what should I do…….”
Although the man looked at her with a bewildered expression, Eunjae’s ears, which had turned completely red from embarrassment and intoxication, could no longer hear anything.
“P-Please accept this, at least!”
Eunjae hurriedly opened her wallet, grabbed a bundle of bills, and practically shoved it into the man’s hand.
The moment he checked the bills, the man’s expression hardened ten times more menacingly. Of course, she failed to notice even that expression.
“Thank you so much for helping me! Y-You’ll really be blessed for this!”
She finally turned around and started running, her body jerking like a malfunctioning robot. She felt as though the man’s hand might reach out at any moment and grab her by the back of the neck, but fortunately, he stood there frozen and did not move.
Meanwhile, Eunjae hurriedly climbed into what appeared to be the taxi the man had just gotten out of. After barely catching her breath, she turned to look out the window.
Far away, the man stood rooted to the spot, clutching the bills in his hand. He had dropped his umbrella and was standing in the rain while holding the money, looking strangely out of place…… Yet perhaps because he was so handsome, he also looked like an actor filming some kind of scene.
‘He really is handsome…… I had my first kiss, but he probably hasn’t had his first kiss with me, right?’
At least, perhaps she should not feel too wronged since her first kiss had been stolen by such a handsome man.
Eunjae’s desperate wailing continued to echo throughout the cramped taxi. Her sobbing continued until the taxi had driven so far away that it became a tiny dot in her field of vision before disappearing completely.
Completely unaware that the man was glaring at the back of the taxi with a terrifyingly expressionless face without even blinking once…….
Although Eunjae had vowed to quit her job no matter what, the truth was that she had never seriously considered changing jobs.
After graduating from university, she had once joined a company through an introduction from a senior at her school. Unfortunately, that company was a notorious black company that ruthlessly exploited employees who were new to society.
In exchange for a paltry bit of work experience, that company had taken everything from Eunjae—her physical strength, her time, and even her mental energy.
The company she had fled to in order to escape after becoming completely battered and worn out was the one she worked for now, Kodiak Bear, a company specializing in hiking apparel.
Kodiak Bear was a newly established company, but it had the tremendous advantage of being an affiliate of Cheonwoong Group. Moreover, it did not demand some extraordinary and incredible level of ability from a young employee who had only just begun building her career.
Aside from Team Leader Kang’s advances, which had begun last year, it was the best workplace imaginable, with hardly anything to complain about.
‘Yeah, if only that bastard Team Leader Kang weren’t here…….’
Every time she thought about it, Eunjae considered quitting, but there were far too many obstacles standing in her way. Debts she had to repay, parents who periodically demanded living expenses, and an older brother who would come looking for her and even cause a scene if she did not send him money…….
Naturally, changing jobs was something she could not even dream about.
‘Who was that man?’
For the next several days, she endured everything once again while holding back tears, but another storm was raging inside Eunjae’s mind.
It was her thoughts about the mysterious and handsome man with whom she had accidentally shared her first kiss on the night of the company dinner.
‘He got out of the taxi in front of our company, so could he be someone who works at our company? Or maybe an employee from a business partner?’
She looked around various parts of the company in case she might run into him again, but she never got another chance to see him.
It was the same even when she checked the employees who were considered some of the most handsome men in the company. Compared to that man’s appearance, they were merely ordinary.
‘Who on earth was he……?’
She was curious about him, but something made her afraid to actively search for him. What if they met again and the man accused her of something strange? Even if he did, she would have no excuse to offer.
Just as she continued living with an anxious yet curious heart, an unexpected piece of good news arrived with spring.
It was the news that Team Leader Kang had been fired.
“That Kang Seokho bastard finally got caught! I knew this would happen someday!”
Most of the employees in the office were delighted. It was only natural, since everyone in Marketing Team 1 especially avoided and disliked Team Leader Kang.
“Assistant Manager Han, are you meeting that lover of yours again today? Are you meeting him at the company?”
After the previous company dinner, Team Leader Kang had kept a little distance from Eunjae. It was because of an instinctive inferiority complex caused by having his supposed woman stolen by a superior male.
However, as time passed and Eunjae showed no signs of meeting that man, he began to suspect that perhaps the man had never actually been her lover.
For Eunjae, who had been hoping that Team Leader Kang’s advances would decrease, that was bad news.
“My goodness…….”
But perhaps heaven was on her side, because Team Leader Kang suddenly ended up leaving the company. It happened so quickly that Eunjae did not even have a chance to lend a hand.
“Why on earth? What did they say was the reason for his dismissal?”
“You know how the HR team kept handing out surveys to us? I guess there was a reason for all of that.”
Assistant Manager Moon whispered as she told Eunjae something she had heard somewhere. It seemed that rumors had spread regarding Team Leader Kang’s long history of sexual harassment, and it had caused a problem.
“Team Leader Kang was originally transferred from Marketing Team 2 to our team because of an issue within his team, right? He must have received a warning back then, but this incident completely put him out of favor. I wonder who reported him?”
Assistant Manager Moon tilted her head as she asked. Eunjae was secretly curious too, but regardless of who had reported him, the fact that the presence that had constantly irritated her like mold in the corner of a bathroom had disappeared was extremely welcome.
“I think we’ll finally be able to enjoy tonight’s company dinner comfortably after such a long time. You’re going too, right, Assistant Manager? Team Leader Seo said earlier that we should drink until dawn.”
At those words, Eunjae quietly raised her upper body and looked over the partition at the scene in Team 2. Seo Team Leader of Marketing Team 2 could not hide his smile, apparently delighted that the irritating bastard had finally left.
“There’s something I heard from the HR team…… You know how they say our vice president recently returned to Korea?”
Vice president.
The moment she heard that word, Eunjae’s hands, which had been diligently organizing approval documents, stopped completely.
‘Come to think of it, they said today’s company dinner was being held as a welcome party for the vice president.’
Assistant Manager Moon continued speaking.
“I heard he finally came back after spending all this time handling overseas sales as soon as he took office, so I was actually pretty curious. I’ve never seen him in person before…… He was never publicly revealed either.”
Kodiak Bear’s mysterious vice president, Joo Taegun.
Eunjae was also quite familiar with the rumors surrounding him. He was the person who had rapidly raised the company’s stock price from the day he was designated as the heir to Cheonwoong Group. Because of that, people also said that he was deeply favored by the chairman.
But what was strange was that not only had he never appeared at a company event while working at the group headquarters, he had also never appeared at any internal event even after becoming the vice president of Kodiak Bear. As a result, even the employees did not know what he looked like.
He had not even allowed his photograph to be published in famous media interviews. Naturally, all the employees wanted to know what the vice president looked like.
“Maybe they’ve been hiding him all this time so they could reveal him dramatically like this.”
Then rumors began circulating that the vice president had recently returned to Korea. At first, everyone refused to believe the rumors, but when his schedule was published in the company newsletter, it turned out to be true.
“I guess so. I’m curious too. I wonder what kind of person he is…….”
Eunjae answered indifferently and looked up into the air.
Rather than the face of the mysterious vice president who felt so impossibly distant, she wanted to see once more the handsome face of the man she had encountered at the taxi stand in front of the company that night.
“Assistant Manager Han, you haven’t checked it yet?”
“What? Checked what?”
“The newsletter interview. His picture is in it this time!”
Assistant Manager Moon suddenly held out the pamphlet in her hand. It was this month’s company newsletter.
“He really looks like a celebrity, doesn’t he? I’ve never seen a company executive like this in my life!”
“…….”
“All the CEOs at the companies I worked for before were just middle-aged men with big bellies.”
Despite her coworker’s joking remark filled with laughter, Eunjae could not laugh.
[The vice president of Kodiak Bear, Joo Taegun, asks you.]
The reason was that the man whose expressionless face adorned the cover of the company newsletter…… was the very same man who had unintentionally taken her first kiss!
