Returning to Routine
"I apologize."
"Oh, nonsense, sir. Please, get in."
After pulling the car up, the driver stepped out, opened the door, and gestured for him to get in. Once he sat down and tossed his bag into the back, he sighed.
"Ha... 11:00 AM. This is insane. Why did I..."
"You must have had a difficult time. With the hearing and all... I watched it, too."
"Ah."
"I watched it at home, and honestly, whether it's genetics or just your own exceptional talent... it was truly impressive."
It was nothing but praise. He tried to retrace his steps from yesterday. Entering the National Assembly, causing a scene at the hearing, having lunch, and then another hearing. On the way home, Eunbyul had taken him to a steakhouse, and he’d drank wine while listening to her talk. Wine. ...Wait?
"Hold on. My secretary yesterday..."
"Ah, I believe she dropped you off at your residence and left for the day on her own."
"....!"
Home. He wasn't at home. Or wait, was Eunbyul sleeping at his place then?
As soon as he arrived at the company, he bowed to his colleagues and hurried inside, pulling out his phone to call Seo Jia. A moment later, she picked up. Instead of a "hello," he heard her voice say, "Yes, Master."
"Are you... are you alone at home right now?"
"....? Yes, I'm alone."
"That can't be... isn't there someone else there?"
"No. Only you and I slept there..."
"No, go check the rooms. Check everywhere."
His apartment had a master bedroom, a study, a game room, his private room, and her room. Of course, her private room was currently just a bed and wasn't actually used. She went through the rooms one by one, confirming no one was there, and asked, "Did I come home alone yesterday? No, Eunbyul should have come with..."
"Ah, yesterday a woman came into the house with..."
Their words crossed, and both of them fell silent. In his head, the thought flashed: 'Home... she even came inside? No, why on earth...'
And in her head: 'That, that slutty little fox is Eunbyul? Crazy bitch, right... I felt like she knew me. She must have heard stories about me. Right. I knew she wasn't an ordinary one...'
Jia was the first to suppress her anger and speak up.
"Is that woman Eunbyul? Ah, that... why did you come in with that person?"
"That is, well, she's my new..." He stopped himself, clamping his mouth shut. He remembered what she had said back when he had sent Hoyeon and Jeongwon over in a hurry.
'That snobbish whore Eunbyul, who had the audacity to confess her love to you, Master, while you were in a relationship with me.'
"...."
Fuck, I'm dead.
Then, her past words flashed through his mind again: 'I will find that washed-up whore with my own hands, tear her in half... and turn her into salted fish.'
He didn't want to think about it anymore. If he told her the truth—that she was the new head secretary—she would probably grab a pair of kitchen knives, storm into the company, cause a massive scene, and then raid the office to tear Eunbyul to shreds. Thinking that, he was so terrified he didn't even dare to speak, keeping his mouth firmly shut.
'Then, what about Eunbyul?'
That was the problem. He should have called Eunbyul before calling Jia. Seeing as he hadn't shown up at work yet and there wasn't a single missed call, Eunbyul was likely still asleep. The location of that 'sleeping place' was crucial. If she was passed out somewhere between his bed and the veranda in the master bedroom—'And if she gets caught by Seo Jia, that crazy woman...!'
She would definitely be killed without even knowing why. He quickly told Jia, "Forget it. Don't concern yourself with my company affairs. Just focus on your housework, and I'd prefer it if you didn't leave the room."
"...I, I was going to dust the sofa and clean the veranda window frames today..."
"Just, don't. If I tell you not to do it, don't do it."
He hung up the phone and got into the elevator. When he reached the Support Division office, he bowed to the staff as he entered.
"I apologize. I'm very late."
But the staff replied, "Oh, we all saw it on TV yesterday. Are those politicians just trying to tear everyone apart?"
"Haha..."
"Saving a person is such an incredible feat, yet they're criticizing you for not getting prior approval and acting like it's some kind of bureaucratic failure..."
He couldn't tell them that it was due to political maneuvering. Talking about such things openly would only lead to trouble and turn him into a magnet for questions. He laughed it off, scratching his head, and entered his office. As soon as he did, he saw:
"....? No, you..."
"You're here."
Eunbyul was sitting at his desk, working as if she were the Senior Managing Director herself.
"No, how did you log in?"
"The cloud ID and password were written on a Post-it note~ It was easy to steal."
"What about the OTP!"
"You must not have logged out of your computer properly on Wednesday. When I logged in, it went straight through without asking for the OTP... Hehe."
A security lapse. It was his fault, so even though the situation was absurd, he couldn't scold her. As he told her to move, Eunbyul stood up obediently.
"...Oops, I finished everything you needed to do!"
"I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing."
"The approval for the new town consortium came up, so I checked the pre-verification and sent it straight up."
"...?"
"Why? You said it was just adding one more company anyway. You said it was already a done deal. I went to see the Management Control Director with the driver, and since they said they'd approve it if I submitted it... I just processed the requests from below."
"Ah... well, that's true, but..."
"And I also submitted the expense report for the rescue and salvage operation of the First Vessel."
"I don't even know the details of that..."
"Everyone else will get it right. The staff... you don't know?"
When he looked at her with a confused expression, Eunbyul stared back and said, "The rumors are spreading that the Director is not only a good-natured and gentle person but also incredibly capable at work. Plus, you've become a star of the hearing, so do you think the staff will just sit still? They're measuring everything down to the last won and submitting the reports. If even one thing goes wrong here, they'll be accused of trying to embezzle state funds, with you taking the fall. The Heavy Industries Finance Manager already submitted it before I came in today. And besides that..."
When a superior sets an example, the subordinates get tense. When a person they thought was soft shows their hidden, sharp claws and demonstrates how to wield them, only then do the subordinates realize—
'...He's not an ordinary one.'
'If we mess up, we're dead.'
'We have to do this right.'
Human beings easily take things for granted when they are treated too well. It's not because they are bad people; it's because they are adaptive animals. At first, they were all terrified by the fact that he was the Chairman's son, thinking they had to treat him better than a Vice Chairman even if his rank was only Managing Director. But because he frequently emphasized that he wasn't that kind of strict, scary person—and that he was just a human being like everyone else—people began to feel comfortable around him. It was just that, in the process of comfort turning into familiarity, they might have started thinking, 'It'll be fine to do his work later.'
But now, just as Eunbyul said, people had changed. A lot. As proof, when he looked at his monitor while listening to her, he saw a mountain of approval documents that would have normally been submitted late. The staff who wrote these documents must have all thought the same thing: if they delayed the work ordered by the Director who was flying high on an upward trajectory, today would be their last day logging into the company intranet.
Also, they realized his soft and generous personality was just for show, and since he was clearly the future Chairman, they remembered the fiery temper and terrifying aura of the current Chairman, likely leading them to start work at 6:00 AM to clear the backlog.
"You know—Director."
"I'm really busy. Why. No, what is it."
"Didn't I do a really good job?"
She did do a good job, honestly—millions of times better than expected. He thought it would be difficult to maintain both a good-natured image and the image required for business, but with Eunbyul's help, it was done. Just by pulling off that midnight rescue operation—the one he thought 'I have no idea why I have to do this'—the way the staff looked at him had completely changed.
"If I did well, you should give me a reward, right?"
"Okay. I'll give you an A1 to A3 in your performance review. It's a promise."
"Not that."
He was typing on the keyboard, but when she said "not that" and went silent, he stopped and looked at her. And there, she was smiling at him with a look similar to Seo Jia, who had been straddling him as soon as he woke up that morning. A little scary. No, very scary...