Stories of Everyday Life (1)
(A photo of Kim Jian and Baek Sowol sitting across from each other in a café.)
Hermes Chairman just showed up at a regular café holy shit who the hell is that woman? She's actually insanely pretty?
From what people overheard it sounds like some kind of meeting. They blocked out the audio so nobody knows what they were saying.
But why is that guy even out at a café instead of the company?
Someone who was there posted about it. Officially confirmed: not a single bodyguard in the vicinity.
Instagram comments are going "maybe they were hidden" or "maybe they kept their distance so they wouldn't bother the café" — but that doesn't make sense.
The most important thing in security isn't just being able to protect the target when something happens. That matters, sure, but the top priority is cutting off anything that could even become a threat in the first place.
That's why you show it off — "hey, I'm being guarded." Petty threats back down when they see that. But there was none of that? You know what that means?
It's basically the same as having no security at all. Security with almost zero deterrent effect.
He could've at least brought Balak, but he didn't even bring Balak. Don't ask me why — I don't know either.
Honestly, everyone's on the fence, right? Kim Jian is handsome, she's gorgeous, and from what people are saying she comes from a good family too.
Calling them boyfriend and girlfriend wouldn't be weird on the surface. The reason everyone's so unsure is this: if it was going to cause controversy, he's in a position to hide it. So why wouldn't he?
And there's no real reason for the chairman to hide having a girlfriend either. I get that part, I really do.
But what's bugging me is something else entirely. The key point is that the person sitting there is a woman. Women do things that aren't strictly rational all the time. Just look at weddings — not having one is pure profit, yeah? Money just pours out. Recovering gift money? People who never even paid into anyone else's wedding still throw their own first.
Women are the species that does omakase and luxury brands out of pure vanity.
And men, no matter how exceptional, are the species that loses to women like that. Lmao.
How many guys have gotten dragged through the mud over women? Men fold for the woman they like. Not just saying it — if it's real love, they do.
Kim Jian's probably the same. From her side, she'd want to show off that her boyfriend is a major corporation chairman, and if he tried to stop her, she'd throw a fit until he gave in. He goes along because his girlfriend asked. That simple.
I don't know about the rest, but people said they both laughed? At each other? And he dismissed the security detail? Everyone was calling it a "meeting" based on the first thing he said, but you think that was a business meeting?
Why would he even do that lmao. Why is the chairman doing work a mid-level manager should handle lmao.
Why would the chairman personally meet with her? The higher-probability answer is just that she's his girlfriend.
She's D-rank or C-rank — there's no angle for a private meeting. If she were an S-rank hunter, sure, he might meet her separately. But she's not.
Looks to me like he went out to soothe a sulking girlfriend.
A great many things changed after that day's meeting.
Public opinion blazed hot. In the hunter industry, Kim Jian was the most enigmatic figure of all. Twenty-four years old — a year younger than Heo Donghyun had been in my previous life — and yet the chairman of a conglomerate ranked in the top thirty of the business world.
Not an inheritance, either. Self-made. His hunter abilities: unknown. How he'd built his connections: also unknown. Even under that kind of scrutiny, he rarely appeared in public.
He was handsome on top of everything else, which only layered a mystique onto the image. People were that much more curious.
And unlike the usual young tycoons, there was none of the flaunting of money or women. No scandals had ever broken around him at all — until now.
Of course the spotlight would swing his way.
Still… at least it's not a sure thing. The mood isn't "they're definitely dating."
It helped that my first meeting with Chairman Kim Jian had been public. The fact that I clearly hadn't recognized him had been broadcast live, so a current of opinion formed that we probably weren't a couple. Of course, some people argued that men and women can fall in love in an instant, so we might have gotten together since then…
But keeping it from becoming settled fact — making public opinion thrash and argue with itself — had been the goal. I could call it a success. Explaining it would be easy, too. If I revealed I was a mage, that alone would give Kim Jian a perfectly good reason to meet me privately.
But that's not what I need to worry about now.
I had become a C-rank hunter. That was good news. The problem was the awkward new baggage that came with it.
"Miss, are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine."
Bodyguards had been attached to me. More precisely, they'd been stuck to me. On the grounds that I was in danger, Dad had commissioned Hermes to assign me suitable protection.
Two A-ranks. One of them, apparently, had a unique ability specialized for escape. No matter what happened, they claimed, at least I would be able to get out.
And they'd chosen women in case of any "improper behavior" — as if anyone would be that bold. I was a man myself. The person currently sitting inside this daughter body had been a man, too.
Even that alone was a major change. But there was one more thing.
Han Yaeseo's suspension period was over.
She had been under disciplinary confinement for some time. I didn't know what the incident had been, and I hadn't cared enough to find out. I simply figured it couldn't have been that serious if it ended at that level.
There were questions, of course. Why would something that minor warrant a public skill disclosure? And given that she herself never claimed she was being treated unfairly… well. Maybe there was nothing strange about it.
[Title: Han Yaeseo officially released from disciplinary action today]
[Title: Finally our Yaeseo's suspension is over, that unfair hit she took ugh]
[Title: Unfair my ass. She got exactly what she deserved lmao]
[Title: It WAS unfair though lmao acting like that in that situation? Come on. Honestly she got disciplined under mob rule more than anything lmao]
Looking at the content, the overall tone seemed relatively favorable. People were fighting over "she deserved the discipline" versus "unfair is still unfair," but at least there were no posts saying Han Yaeseo was simply a bad person. So it wasn't the worst-case scenario. She'd done something wrong, sure — but the mitigating circumstances seemed to be ones people could empathize with…
After that, Yaeseo-unnie suggested we all meet together with Lee Jihyeon.
So the two of them already had a connection. That wasn't surprising — different guilds didn't mean people couldn't have personal lives. On my end, there was nothing to worry about either. At my current growth rate, I would reach B-rank within three months.
Skill-wise, thanks to my unique ability, I was already at B-rank in practice.
I accepted on the spot, and we started coordinating schedules.