How Enchanting Must He Be...
As soon as I arrived at the office, good news came through.
“Corporate ranking has jumped?”
The term “corporate ranking” wasn’t quite right. It was more like the chaebol hierarchy, the ranking within the conglomerates themselves.
Either way, it had gone up.
This year’s announcement from the Fair Trade Commission on corporate group rankings had KJ Group leaping from 37th place to 33rd — a full four steps higher.
Song Taejin’s voice still rang in my ears from that morning, bright and cheerful.
“President! We’re 33rd in the chaebol now!”
The man who had seen better days burst into my office at the crack of dawn, eyes sparkling, and then beamed all the way down the corridor.
I felt good about the boost myself. Really good.
But…
“…Why did it rise?”
A faint sense of bewilderment lingered.
Truth be told, I hadn’t done anything flashy.
No revolutionary business plans, no impossible contracts, nothing like that.
The only thing I could point to was ousting the corrupt executives who had been skimming from the back pockets and creating a proper environment where the rest of the staff could actually do their jobs.
Yet the ranking had climbed five places.
“It means the company was absolutely rotten inside,” I muttered.
How long had it really been like that?
I clicked my tongue in sympathy when the secretary knocked.
“Come in.”
Secretary Kim entered with a crisp knock, two hands holding a sealed envelope.
“An invitation has arrived, sir.”
“An invitation?”
She handed me the envelope with both palms.
Matte black, no shine.
The texture alone felt different from ordinary paper.
The edges were finished with a subtle gold foil.
In the center, a golden wax seal pressed the crest.
“What is this?”
I peeled off the wax and unfolded the card inside.
『ORION NIGHT』
An elaborately styled font, dripping with style.
The entire envelope and inner invitation carried a heavy scent of money.
Simply by touching it, anyone could tell this was not something a normal person would dare accept.
“…Now that I think about it.”
This had existed, hadn’t it?
The moment I looked at the invitation, fragments of my own memories resurfaced.
On the surface it was a next-generation CEO exchange gathering.
In reality, it was a gathering of chaebol heirs aboard a luxury cruise — drinking, networking, trading business rumors.
I had gone a handful of times myself since I turned twenty.
It wasn’t that I had forgotten; the fact that I had gone at all just proved the man was still a chaebol.
“Sounds nice,” I said aloud.
The timing felt right.
This was precisely the turning point I needed in every way.
【Hair Loss Cure】 【Price: 100,000 NTR Points】
The reason for the sigh.
“…Hah.”
The price alone was enough to make any man groan.
But it was an item I had to buy.
‘First priority right now…’
Gather as many NTR Points as possible.
Then cure the hair loss.
For that, I couldn’t stay locked inside the company forever.
I needed to move directly into places where something might happen.
I folded the invitation neatly and set it on the desk.
“…I’ll go.”
*
Lunchtime was no different from any other day.
Choi Yuri, Lee Juhee, and Park Soyeong sat together by the window.
Only the atmosphere had changed noticeably.
Hee hee… Hihihi…
Park Soyeong’s smile was so broad it was almost embarrassing.
She looked like someone lost in a happy memory, lips curled upward.
She took one spoonful of rice, then immediately slipped back into that same foolish grin.
“…”
“…”
Choi Yuri and Lee Juhee exchanged glances.
The two leaned in slightly and whispered.
“Isn’t she looking better today?”
“Yeah…”
A few days earlier, Park Soyeong’s face had been utterly broken.
She had missed work constantly, made careless mistakes at her desk, and stared blankly into space.
Both women had been quietly worried.
But today Soyeong was completely different.
Color had returned to her cheeks, she was eating properly, and the biggest change of all was the endless smile.
“Hihihi…”
In truth, her mood was soaring.
The reason that had tormented her for days was finally resolved.
And, whether by intention or not, she seemed even closer to Taeseong now.
“Huhuhu…”
She kept laughing, unable to stop.
Her eyes met Choi Yuri’s across the table.
If this were her old self, she would have felt uneasy.
The image of the two of them descending the mountain together, or the rumors that had circulated about the boss and her… it would have stabbed her heart.
But now she understood.
Why the chest tightness had felt so familiar.
Why her nerves had flared whenever she saw Choi Yuri.
‘I…’
A small laugh escaped Park Soyeong.
‘I was jealous of the boss.’
The indescribable emotion had been jealousy.
She had feared someone else would take the person she liked.
Only now had she finally admitted it.
Surprisingly, once she accepted the truth, the unease lifted.
Even if she saw the boss and Choi Yuri together again, even if rumors swirled once more, her heart would not ache the same way.
‘The boss chose me.’
He had believed in me, pulled me back from the edge.
That alone was enough.
The words on the contract suddenly floated up.
【All of the recipient’s belongings belong to the sender. Including herself.】
‘So half of me is the boss’s now.’
Park Soyeong giggled again.
Of course she knew the contract hadn’t been taken in that literal sense.
The man who had read it most carefully had been Taeseong himself.
Still, the contract was a contract.
Until the debt was paid in full, Soyeong could not leave his side.
The amount was far beyond what an ordinary office worker could repay quickly.
‘Five years at best. No, at least ten.’
During those long years she would work beside him, paying the debt back one day at a time.
The week they spent alone together on the mountain?
It meant nothing now.
‘Cute.’
A week was nothing.
She had ten years.
Unconsciously, a sweet smile touched her lips as she stared straight at Choi Yuri.
“…?”
Choi Yuri blinked.
‘What’s that…?’
The smile felt strangely unpleasant.
‘Was it my imagination?’
Choi Yuri tilted her head curiously.
Soyeong was still smiling brightly.
Lee Juhee, watching, spoke up.
“Soyeong-ah.”
“…Hm?”
“Can I ask what happened?”
Park Soyeong hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded.
“Actually…”
She told the story as briefly as possible.
Her ex-boyfriend, Lee Junho.
The betrayal and the debt that came with it.
“Hic…”
Lee Juhee covered her mouth with both hands, eyes wide.
“That really happened?”
“Yeah.”
“It must have been so hard…”
Her expression looked ready to cry any second.
Even for someone else’s problem, she looked genuinely heartbroken.
Park Soyeong smiled bitterly and nodded.
“It was really hard.”
Silence fell for a moment.
Then Soyeong’s lips curved again.
“But the boss helped and it’s all resolved.”
“…Really?”
Choi Yuri, who had been listening quietly, finally reacted.
She set down her chopsticks and looked at Soyeong.
“The boss… helped you?”
Choi Yuri looked genuinely surprised.
She had seen Taeseong take care of his employees before.
But solving personal problems? She hadn’t imagined he would go that far.
Park Soyeong nodded gently.
“Yeah.”
That short answer carried a depth of trust and gratitude that no words could fully express.
“…That’s good.”
Choi Yuri smiled softly.
It sounded sincere.
Soyeong’s problems being solved was truly fortunate.
Yet something in her chest felt strangely tight.
‘Well, he is who he is.’
The type of man who couldn’t turn away from someone in trouble.
The man who had reached out without hesitation even while Soyeong was collapsing from the landslide.
Thinking about Taeseong’s personality, helping Soyeong wasn’t strange at all.
Still, something felt off.
Like an itch under the nail.
“…”
Choi Yuri unconsciously poked at her rice with her chopsticks.
‘Why is this happening.’
The boss had done a good thing.
She should be genuinely happy.
But her heart felt uneasy.
‘How inconsiderate.’
She grumbled quietly to herself.
‘Why is she so affectionate, oppa.’
Soyeong set down her chopsticks and laughed.
“You two should date later, too. You’ll meet better men than the boss.”
Lee Juhee laughed brightly. “The boss is really nice!”
Then—
“…Unnie.”
“?”
Choi Yuri’s voice turned icy.
“Weren’t you always telling me to be careful with the boss? He doesn’t change easily.”
The air suddenly turned frigid.
“…”
Soyeong blinked.
She met Choi Yuri’s eyes directly.
“Yeah, I must have been wrong back then.”
Soyeong smiled faintly.
“Then—”
“But now—”
Soyeong’s smile deepened.
“I don’t think I can do without the boss.”
“…”
“…”
A strange silence fell.
Choi Yuri’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
“…Really?”
A single ordinary word.
The tone was the same as always, yet it carried a subtle sharpness.
‘She’s watching me?’
Soyeong, for her part, scoffed inwardly.
If it were the old her, she would have avoided that gaze.
But she no longer wanted to.
Their eyes met in the air between them.
“Hmph.”
“Tsk!”
Lee Juhee, watching the whole thing, quietly picked up her water glass.
‘Why are they like this? How terrifying.’
Lee Juhee shuddered.
No one raised their voices or got angry. The tension in the air was simply unbearable.
Even breathing felt like a crime.
She slid out of her seat and shrank flat against the desk, hiding her presence as she ate her lunch.
Lee Juhee wasn’t stupid.
No matter how flower-headed she was, even she could feel the charge in the room.
‘Both of them… are acting like this because of the boss.’
Park Soyeong and Choi Yuri were already famous inside the company.
If including herself, they were one of the three most popular young female employees at KJ Group. No exaggeration.
From new hires to staff in other departments, people confessed to them every other day.
Yet these two had turned a single man into the center of a strangely tense rivalry.
‘Just what… did the boss do?’
Lee Juhee swallowed hard.
‘How enchanting must he be… for both of them to act like this?’
Her curiosity was growing without bounds.