Fleeting Monday Peace
The Monday morning air was unbelievably clear and light. Seo Harin's tormentor, the suffocating direct superior Kim Manager, had left for a three-day long-term business trip to the provinces, vacating his seat. The partition hell, where even breathing felt forbidden, was filled with rare vitality for once. Seniors leisurely sipped coffee and chatted, while Harin handled her backlog of documents with ease, humming a little tune. An office without that pressure was this peaceful and comfortable.
Harin's colleague from the next partition stretched and approached with a grin.
"Ahh. Not seeing Kim Manager's face makes me feel alive for real. Right, Harin? If our department was like this every day, I'd have no regrets."
"Oh, come on, sunbaenim. No, it's not like that."
Harin waved it off politely in denial, but the bright, relaxed smile spreading across her lips was impossible to hide. Her exhilaration wasn't just from the vile boss's absence. After last night's bone-deep reflection amid crushing guilt and self-loathing, Park Minhyuk hadn't crossed her mind once all day. Not the handkerchief's scent. Not the cold platinum ring or his chilling voice. They no longer tormented her reason. She firmly believed her heart was filled only with unwavering pure love for Junho.
I perfectly overcame that corrupt desire.
Harin praised herself inwardly, joyfully diving into the Excel formulas on her monitor.
Lunchtime. Harin walked the hallway with light steps toward the employee cafeteria with her peers, bursting into laughter over trivial weekend stories. In that moment, she felt the corridor's air flow freeze cold and heavy in an instant from the far end.
Her gaze instinctively shot forward. In the middle of the busy hallway swarming with dozens of employees, Executive Director Park Minhyuk strode toward them in a perfectly tailored black suit, flanked by his chief secretary. With each step he took, the corridor's noise vanished as if muted. Regular employees parted like the Red Sea, bowing 90 degrees. Harin's heart plummeted.
The flimsy shield she'd boasted over perfectly erasing him all day shattered audibly. As Minhyuk brushed past her in that fleeting instant, the thick, lethal woody scent that had scorched her brain white and driven her to beastly climax last night assaulted her nostrils fiercely.
"Ah."
A stifled gasp barely escaped her lips. Legs weakening, she barely held firm and hurriedly bowed her head.
"Good day, Executive Director."
Harin bowed with her peers. Minhyuk didn't acknowledge her greeting, staring straight ahead and walking silently. But in that one second as he grazed her shoulder, his sharp, icy eyes flicked down, precisely scanning her flushed nape and faintly trembling shoulders. No words, but that overwhelming gaze etched the cruelest, clearest message into her soul.
Harin couldn't even breathe properly, head still bowed. Only after his scent fully vanished down the hall did she lift her pallid face, gasping raggedly. The filthy desire she'd believed conquered wasn't gone. It had merely hidden shallowly, out of the predator's scent range.
Her eyes shook in abject despair and confusion.
Meanwhile, having thoroughly rattled Harin, Minhyuk entered the elevator. Before the mirrored doors sealed shut, a venomous, leisurely smirk curled his lips. He'd perfectly read the horrific mix of terror and dizzying pleasure blooming on her face in the hallway. The suffocating tension of a frightened doe crawling into the tiger's den of its own accord. The crude stage of draining prey with clumsy torment was over. Tears, guilt, and the betrayal of her body reacting first—all injected.
But before seating that prime prey right beside him, one revolting pest remained to clear. The mangy old stray slobbering vulgarly around his top-grade hunt: Marketing Department Manager Kim.
No need to bloody my own hands. I'll stoke that rotten greed and make him plunge into the abyss himself.
Minhyuk lightly brushed his bespoke suit sleeve and coolly instructed his chief secretary.
"Call Marketing Department's Kim Manager to my office this afternoon upon his return from the provincial trip."
Two p.m. The heavy mahogany door of the executive director's office opened, and Kim Manager entered with a frozen expression. Cold sweat beaded his forehead from the horrific memory of public humiliation and execution sentence at the last company dinner.
"Y-you called for me, Executive Director? I've returned from the trip."
Minhyuk set down his luxury fountain pen on the desk with a sharp clack mid-signature. Kim Manager's shoulders jerked violently at the small sound.
"Sit, Kim Manager. Hard work on the trip."
At the unexpectedly mild tone, Kim Manager sighed in relief and perched tentatively on the sofa's edge. Minhyuk crossed his legs, gazing down leisurely as he laid the cunning trap.
"Reports say discipline in Marketing is hitting rock bottom. Employees slacking with coffee chats just because the department head's away a few days. As if the company's some school club."
"Ah, sorry, Executive Director. The underlings got lax while I was gone."
"I didn't call you to apologize."
Minhyuk's eyes iced over subzero in an instant.
"Especially the fresh new hires. Cocky kids thinking company life bends to their whims. A department head's authority isn't handed down—it's seized. Teach them bone-deep how fearsome and strict the top is. Clamp down discipline perfectly."
He never uttered Harin's name. But "new hires" and "discipline" twisted in Kim Manager's rotten brain into the vilest delusion.
Ah, so last time he scolded me for the employees' eyes. He didn't like that arrogant bitch Seo Harin always sucking up. This is tacit permission to crush her my way.
Greedy, lecherous light sparked in Kim Manager's murky eyes. The old stray, deluded into having the massive backer of the executive director, feared nothing now.
"Understood, Executive Director. I'll stake my name on disciplining the newbies till they bleed tears. Trust me."
"I expect great things, Kim Manager. You're dismissed."
As Kim Manager bowed obsequiously out, Minhyuk lifted his crystal glass, unleashing a venomous, savage sneer. The stupid stray leaping into hellfire's end was already vivid in his mind.
Returning boldly to his partition, Kim Manager's eyes gleamed far more sly and filthy than before. They locked first on Harin's back—sorting document formulas at her monitor. The backline visible through her thin blouse, sensual hips splayed wide under the chair. He licked his dry lips.
He schemed a cunning setup to force Harin into an inescapable blunder. When despairing Seo Harin clutched his pant leg begging mercy, he'd calculate the nauseating reward of fully subjugating that arrogant, violent flesh under his power.
"Employee Seo Harin."
Mid-afternoon bustle. Kim Manager strode to her desk clutching a thick binder. Harin startled upright. Her three-day paradise shattered; the hellish demon descended anew.
"M-Manager. Good trip?"
Instead of answering, he slammed the binder onto her desk.
"Seo, this is the second-half marketing summary data due to upper management by Friday. Normally deputy-level work, but I'm assigning it specially for our ace Seo's growth. No whining—handle it perfectly."
Framed as "growth," it was blatant sabotage. Overwhelming volume impossible for a solo newbie without other departments' aid by deadline. One wrong number, and company-wide blame exploded.
"Manager, but I can't handle this alone by Friday."
Harin protested, face draining pale. That instant—slap. His thick, sweaty palm landed damply on her narrow shoulder, wrapped in thin blouse.
"Ahh."
Gooseflesh erupted like crawling bugs; she shuddered violently. No mere encouragement. His thumb blatantly stroked near her collarbone, greedily savoring her warmth.
Harin barely suppressed nausea, twisting away to evade. Clear disgust and outrage filled her eyes.
"What are you doing, Manager?"
At her sharp reaction, Kim Manager scoffed inwardly, adopting perfect shameless reversal. He exaggeratedly raised his hand, eyes bulging.
"Hah. Look at that face, Seo. What'd I do so wrong? A superior pats a subordinate's shoulder encouragingly, and you stare like I'm a sex offender."
Erasing his lewd intent, he gaslit her as oversensitive and insolent. His voice boomed across the office. Nearby partition workers' gazes snapped to them.
"Manager, that's not what I—"
Harin bit her lip in panic. But Kim Manager, emboldened by his deluded "permission" from the executive director, unleashed a tirade.
"Listen up, Employee Seo Harin. You think company life's some college club? This is society. Hierarchy and discipline keep the organization running. When a superior gives tough work for your growth and encouragement, you say thanks and pull all-nighters."
Waterfall of insults and violent rhetoric.
"Can't even manage your expressions, embarrassing superiors, always whining. How long you gonna act like a spoiled kid? Be an adult, Seo Harin. Have that draft on my desk by tomorrow."
He clucked his tongue harshly, stomping back. Suffocating silence crushed Marketing. Seniors hid behind monitors, whispering via messenger.
Colleagues inwardly cursed Kim Manager, pitying Harin. But none rose to defend her or confront him. Cowards leashed by their rice bowls and paychecks—that was office reality.
Alone without aid, Harin hugged her trembling shoulders. The blouse where his sticky fingers had touched felt smeared with filth. Shame and humiliation burned her face red; eyes welled hot.
This is society. Be an adult.
His violent shout tore her eardrums cruelly. No matter her struggles, a lowly employee at the food chain's bottom could do nothing. To escape this crushing violent reality pinning her down, she had no choice but to kneel to a greater, perfect absolute power that could crush that tyrant.