Han Gyeo Wool returned to the resort headquarters after having lunch with Chairman Kang.

“Ms. Han Gyeo Wool.”

Deputy Manager Seo, who had just come out of Tae Wook’s office, called for Gyeo Wool.

“The CEO asks you to come in.”

“Alright.”

It seems he’s finally going to give work instructions.

Gyeo Wool got up from her desk and stood in front of the office door.

She felt a bit nervous about doing secretarial work after such a long time.

As she used to do before, she slightly lowered her gaze to check her appearance, then lightly knocked on the door.

One, two, three.

After counting in her mind, she opened the door and went inside.

“You called for me?”

Gyeo Wool stood by the door, looking at Tae Wook as she asked.

Without intending to, she had reverted to her old, businesslike tone.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“Not at all.”

Unlike a few days ago when she had entered with coffee, Gyeo Wool slowly moved her gaze around the office.

Disorganized piles of documents.

Items placed haphazardly, not in their proper places, caught her attention.

– I can’t stand it when my things aren’t in their proper place.

This was what Tae Wook used to firmly tell Gyeo Wool, as well as new secretaries.

To think that he could now tolerate this state.

She felt he seemed particularly unfamiliar today.

“The office looks quite disorganized.”

“After Secretary Han quit, no secretary could tolerate me. Since Secretary Kim is currently handling both J Chemical and resort work… I had no choice but to give up.”

He meant he couldn’t ask Secretary Kim to handle organizing as well.

“What time was today’s economic forum again?”

“5 PM, at the Grand Hall of K Convention Center. I’ve informed Driver Choi that we’ll depart at 4:10 PM.”

Tae Wook’s lips curved up involuntarily at Gyeo Wool’s response.

She was certainly a top-tier secretary.

She was distinctly different from secretaries who only worked when given detailed instructions.

“What about the report from the resort?”

“I’ve organized it in Excel.”

She had finished it long ago and was about to look around to see if there was anything else she could help other employees with.

“Already? I said you could take your time.”

Tae Wook rubbed his eyebrow with his finger, looking perplexed.

“Secretary Han, you have a task to do until I return.”

“Was I not supposed to accompany you?”

Gyeo Wool asked with a puzzled look.

It was natural for a secretary to follow her boss’s work schedule.

Even if she was just a temporary secretary for a few days.

“I’m going alone today.”

“I understand.”

Gyeo Wool quickly acquiesced. It was Tae Wook’s decision, so there was no point in arguing.

“That bookshelf over there…”

Tae Wook pointed to a bookshelf on one side of the wall.

Gyeo Wool followed his hand with her gaze.

The bookshelf seemed to have been organized by Tae Wook himself, with books neatly arranged by category.

“The third shelf from the top is for economic magazines. Your task for today is to take out any 10 of them and read them.”

“Pardon?”

Gyeo Wool doubted her ears.

Did she really hear him say to read economic magazines?

During work hours, no less?

“Why do you look so surprised?”

“I think I must have misheard.”

“Is there a law that says you can’t read economic magazines as part of your work?”

Tae Wook asked with a mischievous look in his eyes.

Gyeo Wool confirmed that there was nothing wrong with her hearing.

“No, there isn’t.”

Gyeo Wool answered reluctantly.

Of course, no such law exists in this world.

However, Tae Wook must be the only CEO who would assign reading economic magazines as work to his secretary.

“Secretary Han?”

“Yes, sir?”

“What are you doing? Hurry and take them out to read.”

“Understood.”

Gyeo Wool had no choice but to go to the bookshelf. She selected eye-catching recent issues from the densely packed economic magazines.

“I’ll return to the company after the forum ends. We’ll leave together then.”

“I can manage on my own…”

Gyeo Wool was about to say she would leave on her own.

However, she remembered how Tae Wook had gotten angry when she didn’t follow his instructions last time.

“I’ll wait until you return.”

“The forum might end later than expected. I’ll call when I arrive at the company, so come down then.”

“Alright.”

Gyeo Wool answered and turned around, holding an armful of the selected magazines.

She saw Tae Wook getting up from his desk.

“They look heavy. Shall I carry them to your desk for you?”

“No, it’s fine.”

When Gyeo Wool hastily declined, Tae Wook let out a chuckle.

He wasn’t unaware that she was conscious of the other employees’ eyes.

“Then I’ll at least open the door for you.”

Tae Wook strode to the door and opened it for Gyeo Wool.

“I’ll ask you about them when I return, so don’t do any other work and focus on reading thoroughly.”

“… Yes, I understand.”

Gyeo Wool answered with a disgruntled expression and turned around.

With her back turned, she didn’t see the mischievous smile on his face as he watched her leave.

As Tae Wook had expected, the forum ended much later than scheduled.

Moreover, thanks to a recent article about Tae Wook in Forbes, business leaders eager to talk with him flocked around him.

It was then that he regretted not bringing Gyeo Wool for the first time.

If she were there, she would have intervened at the right moment and rescued him under the pretext of his next schedule.

Tae Wook smiled bitterly.

Only after Gyeo Wool’s return did he realize how much he had to give up since she quit as his secretary.

– Was I not supposed to accompany you?

Tae Wook recalled Gyeo Wool’s reaction, her eyes widening in surprise when he said he would go to the forum alone.

“I should really cut back on work.”

When Tae Wook had asked Gyeo Wool to fill in for Secretary Kim for a few days, it was for her sake, not his.

The moment he heard from Secretary Kim that she was taking on other employees’ work, he realized.

He had forgotten that she was as much of a workaholic as himself.

If left alone, the employees would continue to assign her work, and it was obvious she would end up buried in it.

“Just like someone who doesn’t know how to rest.”

The ‘someone’ Tae Wook referred to was, of course, himself.

Tae Wook parked the car in front of the company building.

He had sent Driver Choi home and driven himself from the convention center to the company.

“You must have waited long.”

He turned off the engine and called Gyeo Wool.

But she didn’t answer until the dial tone ended and the machine voice announced it was going to voicemail.

“What is she doing that she’s not answering the phone?”

Tae Wook looked up at the building.

The floor with the CEO’s office was brightly lit.

It was clear that Gyeo Wool was still in the office, not having gone home.

“I guess I’ll have to go get her myself.”

Tae Wook got out of the car and went up to the CEO’s office.

As he opened the automatic door and entered, a heavy silence greeted him.

He walked towards Gyeo Wool’s desk in the inner office.

“Secretary Ha-”

Tae Wook’s mouth quickly closed as he was about to call Gyeo Wool.

She had fallen asleep, slumped over the open economic magazine.

“Huh!”

Tae Wook let out an exasperated breath.

She had been reading that boring thing until now!

Tae Wook knew it was because of his own words about asking her later.

“Even so, she could have pretended to read and rested.”

Tae Wook grumbled as he approached Gyeo Wool.

Thinking he should wake her up, he reached out his hand.

But his hand stopped just short of touching Gyeo Wool’s shoulder.

He quietly moved to bring a chair from the adjacent desk and sat down.

Then he gazed intently at Gyeo Wool’s face.

A smooth, round forehead. Long eyelashes that cast shadows. A straight nose with round nostrils.

He knew Gyeo Wool’s face was pretty, but looking closely, it was even cute.

‘Cute?’

As soon as Tae Wook thought of the word ‘cute’, he remembered the day of the blind date 5 years ago.

.

.

.

A hotel coffee shop with a unique interior, surrounded by glass walls from the floor to nearly the second-floor ceiling.

Tae Wook was sitting across from a woman whose name he couldn’t remember, nor which company’s daughter she was.

“I’ve heard you’re an amazing person. My father told me you achieved incredible results as soon as you took over as CEO of J Chemical.”

Tae Wook barely suppressed a yawn.

He wondered if there was a script, as every woman at these blind dates said the same thing.

‘If it weren’t for the promise with grandfather…’

There would be no reason to have such inefficient meetings.

It was Ki Bum who was eager on behalf of Tae Wook, who had no interest in marriage.

Fearing that Tae Wook might not keep his promise and lose everything to his nephew Joon Sung, he asked about blind dates almost every day.

But Tae Wook wasn’t one to move as Ki Bum wished.

Nine out of ten times, he stood up the blind dates.

Perhaps frustrated by his son’s behavior?

– If you don’t go on blind dates, I’ll fire your secretary right away!

Ki Bum knew that Gyeo Wool was the only secretary who had lasted over a year among those who had passed through the CEO’s office.

Whether to fire the secretary or not was up to Tae Wook, the CEO.

The problem was that Ki Bum might harass Gyeo Wool without revealing it.

After Ki Bum’s warning, Tae Wook never refused a blind date. Instead, he thought of clever ways to avoid them.

“Do you have any particular type of woman you prefer?”

At the woman’s question, Tae Wook discreetly raised one eyebrow while scratching it.

Instead of answering, he looked to where Gyeo Wool was sitting.

She was sitting three tables away, facing him, reading a magazine.

If Tae Wook gave the signal at the right time, Gyeo Wool was supposed to call him.

Then he planned to leave the coffee shop as if an urgent matter had come up and go up to the room to handle the remaining work.

He could see Gyeo Wool’s eyelids slowly drooping, unable to withstand the weight of drowsiness.

The gentle piano melody filling the space and the soft lighting.

The languid atmosphere was guiding Gyeo Wool to the world of sleep.

Nod.

Her head dropped with a thud.

Startled by the rebound, she opened her eyes, shook her head a few times, and then resumed flipping through the magazine.

Another nod.

This time she was even more startled, making a pouty face and muttering something to herself.

Then she even went so far as to slap both her cheeks with her palms.

Her nodding off repeatedly.

The way she slapped her cheeks trying to wake herself up.

It was all incredibly cute.

Wait a minute!

The ice witch Han Gyeo Wool looks cute?