CHAPTER 10
Ha-eun received her employee ID card, hung it around her neck, and glanced over the interns standing in small groups.
Their faces were filled with excitement and yet clearly showed signs of nervousness, not much different from her own.
After successfully completing two weeks of training, today was the day their departmental assignments would be announced.
Everyone was waiting with pounding hearts to find out which department they would be assigned to.
The people gathered around one table began to murmur among themselves.
Wondering what was going on, Ha-eun discreetly listened in, and they were in the middle of discussing the new head of the Strategic Planning Division who was about to take office.
“Did everyone hear the news?”
“I heard the new head of the Strategic Planning Division coming to our company is the chairman’s grandson.”
“Really?”
“Which grandson?”
The chairman’s grandson was coming as the head of the Strategic Planning Division?
Chairman Seo had only two grandsons.
Seo Jae, the son of his eldest son, and Seo Han-jae, the son of his second son.
However, Seo Han-jae was only twenty-seven, far too young to take charge of a key department of the group like the Strategic Planning Division.
That left only Seo Jae.
Could it be that Jae had returned to Korea?
“Who cares which one it is?”
“I heard they’re both incredibly handsome.”
“Apparently, whenever they walk by, people think they’re actors or models.”
“That’s right.”
“I heard the same thing.”
“They say they look like they just stepped out of a fashion magazine.”
The ears of the people gathered nearby perked up, and they began lingering around the group.
Before she knew it, Ha-eun was holding her breath and listening intently to the conversation.
“I heard the chairman was extremely handsome when he was young, too.”
“I guess they inherited those genes from him.”
“My uncle is an executive at Seo-guk Motors, so I know a little about them.”
“He says both of them are handsome, but they have completely different vibes.”
“How are they different?”
“If the older one is a cold beauty, then the younger one is a warm beauty.”
Laughter erupted from all around at the employee’s witty description.
“What’s a ‘warm beauty’ supposed to mean?”
“It’s not like cold noodles and warm noodles.”
“You have to see them to understand.”
“The eldest grandson has a somewhat indifferent, chic style, while the second one gives off a much softer and warmer feeling.”
“Whether he’s a cold beauty or a warm beauty, I just wish I could see him at least once.”
“For employees at the bottom like us, we could work here all year and probably never even get a glimpse of him.”
Everyone nodded at someone’s sigh.
“But isn’t the eldest grandson in the United States?”
“I heard there were even rumors that he was getting married.”
Ha-eun’s body unconsciously leaned toward the people having the conversation.
A female employee turned around and asked Ha-eun, “What is it?”
Ha-eun awkwardly straightened her hair and returned to her original position.
“My uncle said he came back this time.”
At the news that Seo Jae had returned, Ha-eun’s heart began pounding wildly.
“Really?”
“Wow.”
“I hope I get assigned to the Strategic Planning Division.”
“Then we’d get to see the division head every day.”
“Wouldn’t that be the greatest employee benefit ever for the female staff?”
Everyone burst into laughter.
“That’s true.”
“I’d actually look forward to coming to work.”
“But the Strategic Planning Division is the most important department in Seo-guk Group.”
“I heard it’s difficult for new employees to get in.”
“Only the best of the best among the permanent employees can get in, too.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“That’s a shame.”
Everyone chimed in with disappointed expressions at the observation.
Ha-eun suppressed her troubled feelings and filled a cup with water from the water dispenser to soothe her dry throat.
Hearing that Seo Jae had returned to Korea had made her throat feel dry.
But so what if Seo Jae had returned?
Nothing would change just because he had come back or become a division head.
The fact that he had not even contacted her to tell her he was coming probably meant that Jae, too, regarded the time they had spent together in New York as nothing more than a good memory.
Just then, employees from each department came to take the interns to their assigned departments and began calling out their names.
“Kim Ji-yeon, Jo Sang-yeon, Park Yi-su….”
After the interns left for departments such as the Management Support Team, Logistics Team, Sales Team 1, and Sales Team 2, Ha-eun was left alone in the waiting room.
Why is no one coming to get me?
Could they have left my name off the list?
As the flustered Ha-eun wondered what she should do, a man in an impeccable suit finally entered.
His spotless leather shoes, high-quality suit trousers wrapping around his long legs, solid physique, tall stature, and broad shoulders caught her attention.
For a moment, her heart raced at the thought that it might be Seo Jae, but it soon settled down.
The man looked so much like Seo Jae from a distance that they could easily be mistaken for the same person, but he was Seo Han-jae.
They were similar in height, had similarly broad shoulders, and possessed similarly striking silhouettes.
Since they had grown up together in the same household from childhood and had similar builds, many people even mistook them for biological brothers.
However, anyone who had seen the two of them up close knew that aside from their looks, they had absolutely nothing in common.
“Han-jae Oppa.”
“It’s been a long time, Jung Ha-eun.”
“You’ve become so beautiful that I hardly recognized you.”
Before she could stop him, Han-jae approached and pulled Ha-eun into his arms.
He carried a fresher, lighter scent that was different from Jae’s.
“You’ve become even more handsome, Oppa.”
Ha-eun said this as she gently pushed him away.
“Really?”
“That’s certainly nice to hear.”
After releasing Ha-eun from his arms, Han-jae leaned closer to look at her face, then stepped back with a grin.
Just as someone had said earlier, if Jae was a cold and aloof beauty, Han-jae had a warm and gentle appearance.
His eyes always seemed to be smiling, he quickly became friendly with anyone, and he got along with people from all kinds of backgrounds.
His personality was completely different from Jae’s, who only looked after those closest to him.
“How did you come here?”
“I came to pick you up.”
“You’re joining our Marketing Team starting today.”
“Ah….”
“You were working at the headquarters’ Marketing Team?”
“I didn’t know.”
“I was at Seo-guk Motors until recently, and I only transferred to headquarters not long ago.”
“I’ll tell you the details later, but let’s go to the office first.”
Knowing that her name had not simply been left off the list made Ha-eun feel much more at ease.
The two of them left the waiting room and got into the elevator.
As she followed Han-jae, Ha-eun added, “But I wanted to be assigned to the Management Support Team.”
“I pulled some strings to have you assigned to our team.”
“The Marketing Team is the jewel of our company.”
“If the Strategic Planning Division is the brain of the company, then the Marketing Team is its heart.”
“It’s a department that just anyone can’t get into, and I strongly recommended you.”
“But I don’t know anything about marketing, and I don’t know anything about public relations either.”
“You don’t need to worry.”
“Most of the practical work is handled by the advertising agencies.”
“Our work is more comprehensive and covers things like managing the brand identity, integrating market data submitted by each affiliate, approving marketing strategies, and executing budgets.”
“So communication skills are the most important thing.”
“I see.”
Han-jae looked at Ha-eun as she nodded, then smiled and gently ruffled her hair.
“Jung Ha-eun, why are you so cute?”
‘It’s cheating for you to be this cute.’
Suddenly, Jae’s voice echoed in her ears.
He had definitely said something like that.
Or was she imagining it?
“Clear your schedule for tonight.”
“Grandfather told me to bring you with me.”
“He wants us to have dinner together.”
“Since Jae hyung is back too, we’ll finally get to see each other after such a long time.”
“Oh… I suppose so.”
When the elevator doors opened, Han-jae got Ha-eun inside first and pressed the button.
“When did Jae Oppa… come back?”
She asked casually as though it were merely a passing question, but her voice trembled faintly.
“It’s been about two weeks, I think.”
“He came back after hearing that Grandfather was ill.”
Ha-eun was confused about whether she should be more surprised that Jae had already been back for two weeks or that Chairman Seo was ill.
“Chairman Seo is ill?”
If he had returned because the chairman was sick, he must have been even more overwhelmed.
He would have had to wrap up his affairs in the United States and sort out the house where he had been living, while also preparing for everything that came with taking on his new position.
Han-jae muttered with a somewhat solemn expression, “It would be better to talk about that at dinner.”
Ha-eun’s heart grew heavy, hoping that he was not seriously ill.
If his condition was serious enough to bring Jae back from the United States, it probably was not something minor.
How shocked and distressed must Jae have been when he heard that his grandfather was ill?
If someone asked Jae who he respected most in the world, he would answer “Grandfather” without hesitation.
He respected and loved him so much that there was no one else he would place above him.
After getting off the elevator, Han-jae suddenly stopped walking.
Ha-eun, who had been walking while lost in thought, bumped her head against Han-jae’s broad back with a soft thud.
“Uh, hyung!”
