What the Hell... Who Are You?
Seo Ihwa? Oh, weren’t you supposed to have left already?”
Assistant Manager Choi tried to hide his flustered expression as he asked, but instead of answering, Ihwa walked right past him with an indifferent gaze and approached Woojin. She stopped directly in front of him, furrowed her brow deeply, and began fanning the air with her hand.
“Ugh, what’s that smell? Woojin, did you smoke?”
“Ah, no. Assistant Manager Choi was—”
Before Woojin could finish, Ihwa turned her head to look at Choi. Or rather, it wasn’t so much a look as a dry, detached glance confirming the presence of some object in that spot.
“Assistant Manager Choi? What are you doing here?”
Her tone was polite, yet the dismissal was obvious. Choi must have sensed the undercurrent, because his face flushed an ugly shade of red. But instead of getting angry, he suddenly dropped his voice an octave and forced a smile.
“Oh, I was just giving a quick lesson to the new employee. What brings you up to the rooftop at this hour, Seo?”
Just hearing that voice from the side made Woojin’s stomach churn. The man who normally treated his subordinates like vermin was now putting on a ‘sweet’ act in front of Ihwa. It was ridiculous.
Did he really just soften his voice because it’s Seo Ihwa? I feel like I’m going to puke.
While Woojin was clicking his tongue internally, Ihwa suddenly grabbed his wrist. A cold yet smooth sensation spread across his skin.
“I came to pick up my boyfriend since he was up here. Assistant Manager, if the lesson is over, may I take him with me?”
Choi opened and closed his mouth in bewilderment. Normally he would have asserted his authority as a superior, but the strange pressure radiating from Ihwa made him back down. He shot Woojin a fierce glare before reluctantly nodding.
“Uh, yeah… We’re done here. You can go.”
“Thank you. Have a good evening.”
Ihwa smiled brightly and led Woojin toward the stairs. But just before opening the door, she paused as if she had suddenly remembered something and turned back around. Facing the now-abandoned Choi, she added in a low, chilling voice laced with frost.
“Oh, one more thing, Assistant Manager. Could I ask you a favor? Please stop harassing my boyfriend. We barely have any time to spend together as it is, and the way you’ve been stealing him away these past few days has been really upsetting.”
Before Choi could respond, Ihwa pulled Woojin along and left the rooftop.
Even inside the elevator heading down to the lobby, Ihwa didn’t let go of his hand. Only when they stood under the lobby’s bright lights did Woojin finally come to his senses. He pulled his hand free and asked,
“…Do you really think that’ll make him stop? He’ll probably bully me even more tomorrow.”
Ihwa lightly shook her now-free hand and answered calmly.
“I know. It’s just a temporary measure. At least he’ll behave himself tomorrow out of caution. Why, should I get rid of him for good?”
If it had come from an ordinary coworker, it would have been a joke to laugh off. But after hearing Manager Yoon’s warning in the conference room earlier, and seeing the unwavering glint in her eyes now, the words sent a chill down Woojin’s spine. The way she said ‘get rid of him’ didn’t sound like social ostracism. It sounded like she genuinely meant she could erase his very existence.
Woojin stopped walking and stared at her intently. Night wind slipped through the lobby doors, tousling Ihwa’s hair.
“…Are you serious?”
His voice was low and heavy. The seriousness in his eyes made it impossible to brush off as a joke, and the sharp suspicion within them cut deep. The contract he had thought was nothing more than a rich employee’s whim now carried an entirely different weight after Manager Yoon’s warning and Ihwa’s icy aura.
At his question, Ihwa paused for a moment before bursting into a clear, childlike laugh.
“I’m kidding. What’s gotten into you today?”
She waved her hand lightly, trying to lighten the mood. But Woojin remained rooted in place, staring directly into her eyes. The emotionless gaze she had directed at Choi on the rooftop and the firm set of her lips when she asked if she should ‘get rid of him’ refused to leave his mind.
“It didn’t sound like a joke at all. Because if it’s you—Seo Ihwa—I think you really could do it.”
At his confident tone, the smile gradually faded from Ihwa’s face. The lobby’s cold air filled the space between them. She tilted her head slightly and took one step closer. The sharp click of her heels echoed clearly on the marble floor.
“Look at you. Now I can’t even joke in front of you anymore. What am I supposed to do if you stare at me with such scary eyes?”
She spoke in a pouty tone, but there was a strange hint of delight in her voice.
“What the hell… Who are you?”
“What?”
“I’m asking what your real identity is, Seo Ihwa. Manager Yoon warned me to be careful around your family. Is the thing we made really just a simple contract?”
“Manager Yoon? Ah~.”
Ihwa nodded as if she had guessed something. Then she took another step closer, a faintly sly smile playing on her lips.
“Do you want to know?”
Her playful attitude made anger surge through Woojin. He wasn’t here to play word games.
“I want to know whether the contract I entered into is actually safe.”
At his serious rebuke, Ihwa finally couldn’t hold back and laughed. She gave his shoulder a light pat and answered as if it were no big deal.
“Manager Yoon’s younger sister was almost married to my older brother. But it fell through because of my parents. He probably still holds quite a grudge.”
Her explanation was clear and straightforward. But Woojin fell into deep thought as he listened. The Manager Yoon he had observed was always wise, responsible, and upright in everything he did. He didn’t seem like the type of rational person who would badmouth someone else’s family or hold onto petty resentment just because of his sibling’s failed romance.
A strange sense of unease wrapped around them like heavy air. Still, there was nothing more Woojin could say here. He knew far too little about Ihwa’s family background or the true nature of Manager Yoon. In the end, he suppressed his lingering discomfort and decided to trust his contractor for now.
—But the next day.
The moment he sat down, Woojin was greeted by another mountain of documents piled high on his desk. At the very top was a single arrogant sticky note.
Woojin immediately looked over at Assistant Manager Choi. Sensing the gaze, Choi mouthed the word ‘What?’ with a mocking smirk. It was obvious he was trying to get revenge for the humiliation he suffered on the rooftop by dumping a workload bomb on him.
So this is how you want to play it.
In that instant, a clever idea flashed through Woojin’s quick-witted mind.
…
Finally, quitting time arrived. Someone slammed a hand down on Woojin’s desk. It was Assistant Manager Choi. He already had his work bag slung over his shoulder and asked with an arrogant expression,
“Kim, did you finish organizing the materials I gave you?”
Woojin put on the most bewildered expression in the world, as if he had been waiting for this moment, and began his act.
“Ah, Assistant Manager Choi. Those were from you? I really had no idea.”
“What? You didn’t know? I left a note on them.”
Choi’s brow furrowed instantly. Woojin pretended to be on the verge of tears and showed him the sticky note he had set aside on his desk.
“It didn’t say they were from you, so… Manager Yoon had asked me to do something this morning too, so I thought they were an extension of that task and that they were from him. I just finished organizing everything and sent it to his email a moment ago?”
“…What?”
Choi’s face turned ashen in an instant. Woojin delivered the final blow with an innocent expression.
“Does this mean I ended up reporting your work to the manager? What should I do? He’s probably checking it right now…”
Just as Woojin said, in the distance inside the manager’s office, Manager Yoon’s head slowly lifted as he stared at his monitor. Cold sweat began pouring down Choi’s back.
Right on cue, Manager Yoon’s summons came. Choi shot Woojin a savage glare like a beast being dragged to the slaughterhouse, then trudged heavily toward the manager’s office. As Woojin watched his retreating figure and let out a sigh of relief, a pleasant voice came from behind him.
“You got him good, huh?”
Ihwa had approached at some point and was looking at him with playful eyes.
“It feels like you’re always watching me.”
“It’s a coincidence. It just so happens that whenever I look, you’re doing something interesting.”
Ihwa grinned and shrugged her shoulders.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside the manager’s office was as cold as ice. Manager Yoon emanated his usual overwhelming charisma and remained silent for a long time. After staring quietly at the email Woojin had sent, displayed on his monitor, he finally spoke in a chilling tone.
“Assistant Manager Choi, these materials that Employee Kim sent… Weren’t these supposed to be on my desk before last week’s meeting? Why is a new employee the one organizing and sending them to me?”
Choi fidgeted desperately, racking his brain. But no sharp excuse came to mind. He opened his mouth in a voice that grew smaller and smaller.
“That is… I had too much work, so I asked Kim—who I thought was close to me—for a little help.”
“You thought you were close?”