This Woman Is Really Something

"M-Ms. Seo?" Woojin stammered, completely thrown off balance. Instead of answering, Ihwa slid her fingers between his and laced them together tightly. As though she were the most affectionate lover on earth, she leaned lightly against his arm and began walking with effortless grace.

Right then, the employees finishing their shifts started streaming out behind them. The lobby erupted into a frenzy in seconds. The company's greatest taboo and most coveted prize, Seo Ihwa, was holding hands with a new hire whose name hardly anyone knew. The eyes of every witness looked ready to bulge out of their sockets.

"Uh… wait, Mr. Kim. You can't possibly be… dating Ms. Seo, can you?" Deputy Gang, who had always eyed Ihwa with open interest, approached with a disbelieving frown.

In that instant, Ihwa gave Woojin's side a subtle nudge with her elbow and smoothly withdrew her hand. Without giving him any chance to explain, she sauntered ahead toward the bus stop, light on her feet.

'This woman right now…!' Left standing there, Woojin instinctively understood. The cleanup duty was entirely his.

With dozens of stares stabbing into him like arrows, Woojin scratched the back of his head and waved his hands desperately in denial.

"Agh, no, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Deputy! How could someone like me possibly be dating Ms. Seo? I know my place very well. She was just… ah, brushing some dust off me!"

"You interlock fingers to brush off dust?" Under Deputy Gang's heavily skeptical gaze, Woojin broke into a cold sweat, mumbled something incoherent, then broke into a full sprint toward the bus stop.

The sight of Ihwa walking ahead so shamelessly made rage boil up inside him.

"Seo Ihwa!"

"Hm? What?" She tilted her head with an utterly innocent expression, her face so serene that Woojin lost his words for a moment.

"Is this it? Is this what you meant by a contract relationship? You just drag people into awkward situations like this?"

"What, did you think we were going to exchange some grand vows or something?" Ihwa replied dismissively. At that exact moment, a short vibration buzzed from Woojin's pants pocket. It was a notification from the 88 Bank app.

Woojin's eyes widened. Ihwa lightly shook her phone at him, the corner of her mouth curling into a sly smile.

"Just make those kinds of gestures. Every single time, I'll deposit exactly this much without fail."

Woojin felt a wave of confusion. They were both new hires, yet this woman was casually flinging around a sum like that. He couldn't help wondering exactly who she really was. Still, he decided not to dig any deeper. She was far too vast and dangerous a mystery. He had the uneasy feeling that if he carelessly stepped into her vines, he would be the one who could never find his way out.

Yet the crisp number 1,000,000 stamped in his account balance was devilishly sweet. Sweet enough to wash away the humiliation and embarrassment he'd just suffered in the blink of an eye. It felt as if a small candle had been lit in the darkness of his future.

No, it was too fierce and perilous a flame to call it a mere candle.

Woojin bit his lip as he watched Ihwa's figure grow smaller in the distance. The price of this performance was far greater than he'd imagined, and his ordinary life was already crumbling and being rebuilt at a dizzying speed.

The next morning, Woojin's steps felt unusually heavy as he opened the office door. The moment he stepped inside, the lively chatter that had filled the room seemed to drain away like an ebbing tide. An odd silence settled over everything.

Wherever he walked, employees stole glances at him or huddled together to whisper. It looked like yesterday's hand-holding incident had made the rounds through the entire company overnight.

Has it already spread that far?

Woojin did his best to appear unbothered, ignoring the stares as he sat down at his desk. The instant he powered on his computer and logged in, a message notification began blinking in the bottom right corner.

Woojin typed back in alarm.

He glanced sideways at the seat beside him. Ihwa was hidden behind her monitor, wearing a faint smile as her fingers flew across the keyboard. The reply arrived moments later.

Ihwa's message was as calm as ever, but the unmistakable hint of enjoyment beneath it was clear. In contrast, a chill ran down the back of Woojin's neck. The pressure carried by the words officially my boyfriend crushed any joy he might have felt about becoming a full-time employee.

At Ihwa's decisive reply, Woojin swallowed dryly. The price of one million won was turning out to be far harsher than he'd expected. The performance was no longer going to end with accidental skinship on the way home from work. A full-blown act was about to begin.

Woojin stared blankly at his own reflection on the monitor. The bundle of money he'd thought was a candle might actually be a massive blaze that would burn his ordinary office life to the ground. The ominous premonition flickered through his mind.

At lunchtime, Woojin and Ihwa walked side by side to the company cafeteria and then to a nearby café, making no effort to hide. Perhaps it was the barrage of stares they had endured the entire way; sitting beside the fearless Ihwa, Woojin already felt as if half his soul had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been stripped away.

I don't even remember what the food tasted like.

To replenish his drained energy, Woojin stabbed his fork into the slice of cake in front of him. Just as the sweet whipped cream was about to reach his mouth, a soft hand suddenly snatched his wrist. Before Woojin could widen his eyes in shock, Ihwa pulled the cake straight off his fork and into her own mouth.

"Mmm! It's good, right, Woojin?"

"……?!"

The sudden casual tone and skinship froze Woojin's brain. Sensing something off, he glanced around. Sure enough, several employees near the counter were staring at them with their mouths hanging open.

This woman is really something…

Woojin had moved past anger and was now feeling something closer to awe. Her acting was meticulously calculated. Ihwa knew exactly how to use people's gazes with maximum efficiency.

"You really are incredible, Ms. Seo Ihwa."

Even at Woojin's sarcastic compliment, Ihwa remained unfazed. Her cheeks were stuffed full of cake as she chewed, making her look like a hamster hoarding sunflower seeds. For a second, her unexpectedly cute appearance nearly made Woojin laugh, but he barely held onto his sanity and asked,

"Do you hate other people's attention that much? Enough to put on this whole performance?"

Ihwa finished swallowing the cake before lifting her coffee cup. She rested her chin on one hand, gazing at him with deep, steady eyes.

"…Curious?"

Slurp. In the silence, the sound of her sipping coffee rang unusually loud. Ihwa seemed to possess a natural talent for throwing people off balance. With that single word, curious?, Woojin found himself unable to answer right away. Saying yes felt like admitting personal interest and wounding his pride. Saying no felt wrong because the truth hidden behind her iron wall strangely tugged at him.

In the end, Woojin avoided the question and stood up.

"Ha, never mind. Let's head back."

"…All right."

Ihwa followed behind him without protest. When they returned to the office, the same strange silence from that morning greeted them once again. The moment the two of them opened the door and stepped inside, the lively conversations cut off as if on cue. The gazes directed at them had evolved beyond simple curiosity into something sticky and complex, laced with jealousy, suspicion, and condemnation. Those stares clung to their backs.

Woojin sat down at his desk, feeling that uncomfortable pressure. Only now did he begin to understand why Ihwa hated other people's attention so intensely. Just being looked at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was enough to make it hard to breathe and leave a foul taste in his mouth. Ihwa must have spent her entire life building walls to endure stares like these.

Woojin stole a glance at Ihwa, who had once again put on the mask of the "Ice Princess" and was staring at her monitor. Though their relationship was nothing more than a fake one formed by contract, Woojin felt, for the first time, a sense of kinship with the world she lived in.

The effect of the performance was immediate. The men who had been hovering around Ihwa, waiting for an opening, vanished like a receding tide. The problem was where the arrows were pointing now. The courtship glances that had once poured onto Ihwa had transformed into sharp jealousy and hostility aimed directly at Woojin.

Thud.

In the middle of the afternoon rush, a heavy stack of documents slammed onto Woojin's desk. The files that landed in a cloud of dust were clearly more than any one person should handle.

"Woojin, could you take care of these for me?" Assistant Manager Choi stood there with a smirk.

"What is all this?"

"It's my work, but there's a lot of it. And our Mr. Kim here looks unusually free today. Colleagues help each other out with things like this, don't they?"

It was blatant harassment. But Woojin was not the type to take it lying down. He pushed the stack of documents away and looked Assistant Manager Choi straight in the eye.

"I have a lot of my own work as well. I'm sorry, but you'll need to ask someone else or handle it yourself."

Assistant Manager Choi's face twisted into something ugly. He glared at Woojin for five full seconds, then let out a short, scornful "Ha!" before gathering the documents and returning to his seat. His retreating back radiated unmistakable malice.

At that moment, Ihwa, who had been watching from the next seat, slid over and whispered in his ear.

"That loser is persistent once he latches on. He'll be a real pain."

"I'll handle it myself. Mind your own work."

Even at Woojin's curt reply, Ihwa looked at him with that familiar sly smile. Woojin now understood exactly what that smile ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meant. It was the look of an owner enjoying the sight of her pet struggling in a difficult situation. He let out a deep sigh and tried to get used to it.

At quitting time, just as Woojin was gathering his things, Deputy Gang and Assistant Manager Choi—the office's resident villains—blocked his path before Ihwa could even speak.

"Got a minute to talk upstairs? Kim. Employee."