An Ace in the Hole — 3
Unlike the other directors, who filed out with bright faces, Director Lim Jiha followed Yura with tension written all over hers—and when I called her back, she startled so badly she stumbled over her words.
The other directors, who remembered what had happened in the boardroom, spared her a brief, pitying look. Then, afraid they might be summoned next, they hurried after Yura and were gone.
“D-did you need something from me?”
“Yes. Nothing major. It was just unexpected.”
“Wh-what was?”
“I was certain you’d side with Park Namil.”
We were only human. Short of something like Machina, a being that seemed almost without feeling, it was honestly hard to understand why Director Lim Jiha—at odds with me from the moment we met—was still standing here.
“Hahaha… well, that would only be natural, wouldn’t it?”
Director Lim Jiha laughed, awkward and sheepish, and looked at me.
“The truth is, President Park Namil did make me an offer. But I’m someone who knows her place rather well, you see.”
It was no exaggeration to say she had climbed this far on instinct alone. Put another way, she had always stood with the strong—and because of that, she understood her own position better than anyone.
“When a person like me, who barely holds any equity compared with the other directors, gets an offer like that, I thought, ah—this is either a con, or they mean to use me and throw me away.”
And so the sweet temptation Park Namil had held out had looked to her like nothing more than sweet poison.
“…Is that so?”
No concealment at all. It was the most Lim Jiha answer imaginable—the life she had always lived, stated plainly.
“Understood. I’ll see to it that you don’t regret that choice.”
“Haha. Just from the recording, I already think I was right to come here. Well, then…”
She bowed to me again and again as she slipped out of the chairman’s office, and only when she had passed through the door and out of sight did I sit down.
“Any chance she was lying?”
None. As Director Lim Jiha said, Park Namil had already cut her and the others out before he ever appeared at the funeral.
“Figures.”
The directors were guaranteed to keep their mouths shut, so the staff beneath them would settle on their own. Now it was time for us to make our own preparations.
“All right. Shall we take care of what’s left?”
Even if work had stopped coming in from the partner firms, there was still plenty to do. While Yura handled the directors, I sat down to finish what I could, with Machina’s help.
“Aigoo, I’m exhausted… Those directors still never stop talking…”
Clearing the used coffee cups and the snacks from the reception room after they had all left wasn’t hard. What never got any easier, I felt all over again, was dealing with people that far above me.
“Still, none of them are as much as the Boss…”
I had lost track of how much time had passed since the will first came through, but somewhere along the way the Boss had become Chairman, and he was meeting endlessly important people.
“I need to help him even harder.”
“That’s appreciated.”
“Eek!”
The answer came out of nowhere. I startled so badly I nearly dropped the cup I was washing.
“You scared me!”
“I… didn’t think you’d jump quite that hard.”
He came closer, apologizing, and he was no different from my secretary days until now. Just the Boss.
“Looks like everyone’s gone?”
“Yes. They drank coffee and talked for a while, then they all left.”
“They didn’t say much about me?”
“Oh, plenty. How they never knew the Chairman was such an incredible man, and so on… They went on and on with compliments they wanted me to pass along to you.”
“Saying that now, of all times.”
It was nothing special—just a quiet little exchange. From the day I first came in as a secretary until now, the Boss hadn’t changed at all, and every minute, every second of this time felt unbearably precious.
“Nothing else on the schedule today?”
“No. Knowing you, you’ve already cleared the paperwork, so there’s nothing special.”
“Oh? Unlike at the start, you handle things on your own now?”
“And how far back are you digging?”
I made my voice deliberately blunt, but inside I was glad he still remembered all of it—even the past.
For all the confidence I thought I had back then, I had been nothing more than a child with nothing but pride.
“You scolded me a lot in those days, you know.”
“You must have hated me.”
“Well… a little?”
It wasn’t a lie. After a thorough scolding I really had gone home and cried.
I had barely managed to get into the company, and I cried even harder the time he told me that if I kept on like this, we couldn’t work together.
“But I’m grateful now.”
“Yeah?”
“Because I realized everything you did was for my sake.”
I had only come to see that because of my own mistake.
At an event the Chairman attended while he was still alive, the Boss was supposed to go up first and give the company introduction.
“Huh? The script…”
Not on the tablet, not in the backup copy—nowhere was the script the Boss was meant to read. Even now the memory made me dizzy.
“Ch-Chief… the thing is…”
I searched and searched and still couldn’t find it, and in the end I confessed my sin to the Boss standing there for the stage, my voice shaking.
Getting scolded was a given. Worse—would I have to take the blame and leave the company? Every anxious thought crowded in at once.
“I’ll handle it. Don’t worry about it.”
What came back instead was a smile I had barely seen from him until then, and a few warm words.
He set me at ease, stepped onto the stage, and finished the presentation with no script at all. Watching him, I felt relief—and then guilt over everything I had dismissed as nothing but nitpicking—and I sobbed and sobbed. I would never forget it.
After that I worked myself half to death so I wouldn’t be a burden to him, so I could keep working at his side.
And not long ago, when he asked me to stay with him, my heart had fluttered for no good reason.
“Hmm… I don’t think I said anything that deserved all that.”
Of course the man himself didn’t remember it that way.
Crash!
“Ah…”
Maybe because I had let my mind wander in the memory, the last cup I was putting away slipped, shattered, and a shard nicked my hand.
“Are you okay?!”
“I-I’m fine. It’s just a little cut…”
The Boss took my hand to check it, looking at me with a worried face.
“You should have been careful. Wait here. I’ll get a bandage.”
“N-no, really, I’m fine…”
He kept hold of my hand even while he dabbed antiseptic on my finger and pressed a bandage over it.
We were so close. My heart hammered, and the warmth of his hand swallowed the pain until it was gone—and I was just starting to wish this moment would last when—
“All done. It might scar, so when you get home, put on fresh antiseptic.”
“Okay…”
Sadly, that sweet stretch of time ended far too soon.
“Um… Boss?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
There was so much I was grateful for, so much I wanted to say. But my heart was still racing, and my mind had gone blank in a way it never had, not even when I met people from all those other companies. The thank-you was the only thing I managed to dredge up—and the Boss smiled.
“Don’t mention it. I’m always the one who’s grateful.”
After we finished cleaning up and I left the company, there were still plenty of things to worry about. But if it was the Boss, wouldn’t he solve them somehow, the way he always had? That vague faith was always there.
After that incident I had wanted to learn hard from him and stay at his side. Now that he was Chairman, if I wanted to remain beside him, I would have to work even harder.
“Come on, Choi Yura. Let’s go!”
I slapped both cheeks to pull myself together, then climbed into the car heading home.
“Then I should head out too.”
After seeing Yura off, I looked once around the secretarial office, empty now. My steps on the way out felt light—the same as they had in my secretary days, and the same as they did now.
You’ve worked hard.
“Yeah. You too, Machina.”
The directors were calmed, and the inside of the company would settle soon enough. The noise outside hadn’t changed.
“If I could flip this public opinion all at once, that would be something.”
Brrrr.
My phone buzzed to announce a call. The caller was Sieun.
“Hey, Noona?”
“…I’m pretty sure I told you to drop the formalities only when it’s just the two of us.”
“Ah… have you not left the office yet? The hour is rather late.”
“Forget it. I just said that so you wouldn’t let your guard down.”
For a second I wondered if I’d slipped. But the playful laugh in her voice as she spoke told me that wasn’t it.
“So, what are you calling about?”
“Garam’s commercial shoot is set. The concept’s locked in too, so if we start putting up things from the set, little by little, public opinion will start to move.”
“You’ve been working hard.”
“Of course I have. So—can you come to the shoot?”
“Me?”
There wouldn’t be much I could do even if I went. As if she knew exactly what I was thinking, Sieun added at once.
“Even if there isn’t much for you to do, Garam will probably be happy if you show up, and if she is, the footage will probably come out better. That’s why.”
“Mm… all right. I’ll check whether my schedule allows it.”
“Good. Let’s line up the dates and be in touch.”
An idol who hadn’t shown herself in all this time, and still the object of so many people’s longing—a commercial appearance by that very One would, without question, be a card capable of turning public opinion in a single stroke.
A good card has found its way to you, Chairman.
And that one line from Machina turned my vague hope into certainty.
“All right. Let’s do this.”
