A Strange Day for Everyone
It was a place where one could make a perfectly comfortable living just by mastering the art of push-and-pull and negotiation. Having engaged in countless debates in such an environment, she had grown into an apex predator, at least when it came to verbal warfare. Now, with the exception of the man she served as her Master, she was free to unleash those abilities on anyone else.
"You're lying to me right now, aren't you?"
"Ah...."
"Do you really have no idea who I am? To think you'd treat me like this... just how pathetic do you think my husband is?"
The beginning of a full-blown power trip.
"...Bring me the person in charge."
That person happened to be her father-in-law, but unlike the typical daughter-in-law of any other household, she felt a sense of refreshing satisfaction. "Bring me your superior, right now...!"
— "Here they are."
The effect of summoning the Chairman was substantial. Of course, she wouldn't actually see her father-in-law at the office, but she had achieved exactly what she wanted.
"Father-in-laaaw...♡ I came to the headquarters today, but I had such a hard time..."
After the chaotic scene unfolded, the Situation Room Chief quickly radioed the Security Team Leader, telling him to take her away. It was only natural to think that it would be better for the Executive Director—the Chairman's son—to get chewed out than to call the Chairman himself. The Security Team Leader, feeling his life was in danger, walked forward slowly, and she followed him to the elevator.
During that time, she pressed the number saved as [Suhyun's Father] in her contacts and called him immediately.
"I came because I wanted to see him... but it seems the staff here hates me..."
"My dear, my dear, what's wrong? Hmm? What happened?"
"They... just... they blocked me from entering... saying I couldn't..."
The Chairman, sitting in his office on the 88th floor, felt the vibration of the sudden call. When he pulled out his phone and saw it was from [Our Daughter-in-law], he straightened his posture and sat up tall to answer. Leaning back against the chair was absolutely out of the question. He had to set an example for his daughter-in-law as an elder of the family. He must never treat her with condescension or take her lightly. Just look at what kind of person his daughter-in-law was. She was an angel who had taken in his only good-for-nothing son, feeding him, housing him, and pampering him—there was no one else like her.
Then, upon hearing her words, his expression hardened instantly.
"Haa... ...I'm sorry, my dear. Who did this...?"
"Five security guards, and the Security Team Leader. The Situation Room Chief and everyone above them, too. I heard them."
She tattled to her father-in-law with a sharp, cold tone—the same tone she used when reciting professional titles, showing exactly when she had learned them.
"I will make sure to speak to Suhyun about this properly. I'm sorry, my dear. You don't come to the office often, and for you to be treated so unkindly..."
"No, it's fine. I should have come more often to show my face. I suppose they forgot that I am Suhyun's wife."
She placed a heavy emphasis on the word forgot.
The Chairman fretted repeatedly, worried that she might have been hurt, and only after telling her to hang up first did he place the phone on his desk with trembling hands.
Immediately after:
"Wh... which bastard! Which one! Our daughter-in-law!!!!!! Who!!!!"
"Chairman, please, p-please calm down."
The Chairman's executive secretary had worked by his side for nearly 20 years, but this was the first time he had seen him fly into such a rage since he discovered the 12-trillion-won accounting fraud case within the company. The Chairman slammed his desk countless times, snorting through his nose and gasping for air.
"...Th-these crazy bastards... they didn't recognize our Jia...?"
"Chairman, I will speak to them properly—"
"No. I will do it myself. You stay put."
"..."
The sudden shift to a rational tone was extremely dangerous. To see a person change like this in a state of extreme rage? It was like a volcano that had finished a minor eruption and was now resting before a massive explosion.
The Chairman continued,
"Tell the Security Part Chief, the CEO of the security subsidiary, the Office Chief, and the Planning Office Chief to come to the conference room. All four of them."
"...Chairman, the latter two have absolutely nothing to do with security..."
"Do you think I can afford not to call the people in charge? Is that what you think?"
The secretary thought that while the first two obviously needed to be called, the latter two were unnecessary...? But he kept his mouth shut, having nothing to say. If the Planning Office was the production machine that created all the work, the Office Chief was the one who considered how much infrastructure that work had built, what state it was in, and what orders needed to be handed down to each department for the next stage. That "work" included responses, security regulations, and everything else. Thinking of that, he had no argument.
The problem was...
"...That is how he is calling you. The security side had a misunderstanding."
"Seriously...?"
The 50-year-old Office Chief wondered what kind of situation this was and stared blankly at the 40-year-old Planning Office Chief sitting next to him. The Planning Office Chief tilted his head to one side, wondering what he had just heard, and spaced out.
"Did you know about this?"
"...If I had known, I would have stepped out for a moment. Like, packing my bags and running away on a business trip to the provinces..."
The two had known each other since they were managers and entry-level staff.
"Chief Secretary, do we really have to go?"
"He almost broke his desk."
"I'm the Vice Chairman...? Seriously...?"
"If you don't go, you might become the desk."
This joke was possible because they crossed paths so often. The Vice Chairman and the President racked their brains in agony. First, the Office Chief thought, 'I'm the Vice Chairman, I've worked at this company for over 30 years. Do I really have to go because of something like this...? It’s not like it has absolutely nothing to do with me... but I can't be expected to memorize the faces of every executive's family... that's power-tripping... No, but if the wife is the Chairman's son's wife, I suppose it's worth memorizing... But Executive Director Suhyun isn't the type to like that kind of thing...'
When he visited the Chairman's house to drink as a child, the Vice Chairman would always give him a 100,000-won check as pocket money. Unlike the sons of other conglomerate families, Suhyun would often bow his head and say, "Thank you, Uncle Dongseok," which made him chuckle. On the other hand, the Planning Office Chief thought, 'How the fuck... no, they wouldn't kill me at the company...! I should have just let her in... Ah... I was heading down because the CRM asked me to look at something, why did I get caught and dragged into this... Ha... You have to protect people selectively, but reporting that his wife came to visit and he was going to kill her with a weapon... this is a fucking restructuring...'
And the Chairman's secretary, who went to deliver the same story, had a hard time here as well. First, the Security Part Chief heard the story and began muttering to himself as if trying to find an answer.
"No. If I explain it well, I can solve it... If I explain the rumors about that crazy Headquarters Chief's wife well, the Chairman will surely understand... Right. What father-in-law would like a daughter-in-law who is always cursing at his son, saying she'll beat him or kill him? Right. If I just explain this well, we might even be rewarded..."
The CEO of the subsidiary and the secretary, judging that the Part Chief had lost his mind, looked at him with pity rather than disbelief.
"He's not actually going to say something like that, is he?"
"I'll just report that he was shocked and fainted. If I say he's lying in the company infirmary, he won't say anything."
"Why can't I do that? No, Chief, I just came back from Yongin after watching the palm vein recognition system demonstration!"
"You spoke to the Chairman about the security company's Q2 performance two hours ago, didn't you?"
"Ah. Right."
...Thus, many executives began to be purged by her single shout.
Whether that happened or not, she...
"Honey, I'm here."
— Anyway, that was how things turned out, but he didn't know yet, and she, for some reason, acted as if she were just there to drop off a lunchbox and was about to leave. However, she didn't leave. And he felt it.
'Catch her. Tell her to eat with you.'
Her voice from before echoed vividly in his head, not a single tone out of place. However, he glanced at her and thought, 'This is my territory! This is my company!'
"What are you doing? Aren't you going?"
"Ah... w-well, that is..."
Knowing the secretary was next to him, he tried to use the secretary as much as possible. She wouldn't dare say anything to him in front of others. 'Go ahead, make that shitty face again. Fuck. Since it's come to this, I'll make sure to expose what kind of woman you are.'
It was strange that she was asking to eat with him now. If she had said she was just dropping off the lunchbox and then suddenly came back to ask to eat together, didn't it feel like she was giving something and then taking it back? Feeling a sense of displeasure inside, she stared at him, refusing to give her what she wanted, and then raised the corners of her mouth slightly.
'What, what the fuck. Go ahead. Try acting like a bitch like you usually do—'
"...I'll go now, enjoy your meal. I put special care into it... Just like the weekend, you have to love me plenty tonight. Darling♡"
. . .
"What did I just hear..."
"...."
The secretary and he, who had been statues for a moment, opened the lid of one lunchbox and, seeing the incredibly rich eel rice bowl, could no longer say a single word.
"Ah, I'll be stepping out. ...I don't want to eat."
I didn't intend to give it to you, no, I didn't want to eat anyway...
"Ah, I will absolutely, absolutely not say anything outside. I didn't hear anything. Love the Madam plenty, didn't hear... pfft,"
It seems it's time to replace the secretary...