The school on break was quiet. Seung Ho, who had been walking with wide strides, stopped in front of the office. Through the open door, he saw a familiar face.

Knock, knock, knock.

He deliberately knocked on the door. A woman wearing glasses, sitting where the teaching assistant’s nameplate was, looked up.

Choi Su Young, his cousin.

“Oh my, isn’t it Seung Ho? Shin Seung Ho.”

Su Young recognized him right away and greeted him warmly. Compared to other relatives, Su Young had less frequent contact with Seung Ho, but to her, Shin Seung Ho was quite a benefactor.

It was Seung Ho who introduced Su Young, who dreamed of becoming a professor, to influential acquaintances in academia and paved the way for her. He was famous even among the family for inheriting only the good qualities of his parents.

“I heard you were in England, when did you return? What brings you here? Do you have a friend here?”

In response to her barrage of questions, Seung Ho just smiled brightly without answering. Su Young stared at him blankly and muttered.

“You’ve become even more handsome.”

The appearance of Shin Seung Ho as a young man, not a boy, was so dashing that it made one hesitate to approach him. The quiet office suddenly became busy. Several students kept coming in and out of the office.

Most of the visits were for flimsy excuses. The eyes of the students asking about credits needed for graduation or thesis topics were all focused on Seung Ho.

Su Young understood. An extraordinarily handsome man was a very rare existence on campus.

Well, someone of Shin Seung Ho’s looks would be rare anywhere…

While she was busily handling work, Seung Ho walked over to the spacious window of the office and observed the outside scenery as if appreciating it.

“It’s nice. The school.”

“Nice, well…”

Su Young smiled awkwardly and handed him a cup of coffee from the vending machine. Receiving the steaming paper cup, Seung Ho gazed at the snow-covered campus until the coffee cooled.

“Did you see the official letter? It should have been sent here too.”

“Ah, you mean the letter sent by the Whale Foundation?”

Su Young rummaged through the file cabinet and pulled out a piece of paper.

“The foundation said they’re hiring interns, right? It looks like there will be many applicants.”

Although it was an internship position with a fixed contract period, the foundation provided better compensation and treatment compared to other companies. Reading through the letter carefully, Su Young soon shook her head.

“The problem is that the hurdles are quite high.”

“That’s a given.”

“I wonder if our school even has a Whale Foundation student.”

The establishment of the foundation was something that had caused a stir in the family a few years ago. Shin Seung Ho, the pride and idol of Do Su Rin, was not only blessed with good looks but also had a brilliant mind.

When other kids asked for real estate or cars as a college entrance gift, Seung Ho demanded the creation of a foundation. He wanted to nurture talent.

Was it out of an altruistic mindset? Not at all…

Seung Ho maintained close relationships with the talents he sponsored. Outstanding personnel were geese that laid golden eggs. They knowingly or unknowingly provided him with information about their fields of research, and based on that information, he boldly invested.

It was a distinctly different move from his other siblings who just wanted to study business and inherit the company.

“There should be…”

“Huh? What did you say?”

At his low but confident voice, Su Young erased her thoughts.

“I said there is a student here that the foundation invested in.”

Su Young tilted her head. The Whale Foundation selected scholarship students primarily among those majoring in life sciences. It didn’t make sense in the first place for such a foundation to support a student who would become a teacher.

“I’m sure there is one, so think carefully.”

“Wait a moment…”

Su Young, who wanted to deny it right away, thought for a moment and then sat in front of the computer instead of answering. Seung Ho’s contemptuous gaze, as if looking at an incompetent employee, gave her a sense of humiliation.

After typing student information a few times, a sigh-like exclamation flowed from her mouth.

“Ah, this kid? I never thought of her.”

Seung Ho stood still and waited for her next words.

“Choi Ji Hyun, a senior, was a student sponsored by the Whale Foundation?”

As expected, Su Young was quite surprised. Seung Ho, who had been silently shining his eyes, quietly caught his breath.

“How is her school life?”

“Ji Hyun? She’s doing well. She studies hard too…”

“What about dating?”

At his nonchalantly thrown question, Su Young’s furrowed brows narrowed in thought.

“Dating… I don’t think there was anyone who could be called her boyfriend.”

“Is that so?”

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he answered indifferently.

“Yeah. She seems to be popular among her classmates and seniors…”

Seung Ho clicked his tongue in disapproval at Su Young’s added remark.

“It seems all sorts of things get tangled up when left free.”

With a displeased look on his face, he slowly opened his mouth after pondering something.

“Can you contact Ji Hyun for me? As a foundation scholarship student, I think she would be well-suited for the internship position.”

Seung Ho’s eyes softened slightly as he mentioned Ji Hyun’s name. His tone was quite affectionate, unlike his usual self, but his eyes still shone sharply.

Looking at herself back and forth through the full-length mirror, Ji Hyun let out a deep sigh.

A neatly combed ponytail, a well-ironed white shirt with black slacks, it was an ordinary work attire for a new employee that anyone could see, but there was a problem.

Having Shin Seung Ho as her boss was one of the few major hurdles and a big problem in her life. Even after meeting him again after 8 years, the crazy bastard was still a crazy bastard.

“Seung Ho studied in London for quite a long time. He probably doesn’t know much since he hasn’t been back for long. I think that’s why he’s hiring an intern to work as his personal secretary. He’s a kid who clearly separates work and personal life, so don’t be too intimidated by him being your boss and do well.”

Unfortunately, the teaching assistant Su Young clearly had no idea what kind of person her cousin was.

Ji Hyun recalled yesterday. Only one emotion surfaced on his face, which was as beautiful and heartless as a sculpture.

‘Hostility’.

Unfortunately, it was clear that to Shin Seung Ho, Choi Ji Hyun had not remained a bookmark-like distant existence, but had become prey to be caught.

‘He wouldn’t actually eat me, would he?’

It was time to leave the house now. Trying hard to shake off the distracting thoughts, Ji Hyun put on her coat and encouraged herself while looking at herself in the mirror before leaving.

“Let’s just think about the salary, nothing else. Let’s go!”

Ji Hyun, who had left the house with vigor, soon stared ahead in disbelief. A black luxury sedan she had never seen in the neighborhood was waiting for her.

Surprisingly, it was not a chauffeur but Shin Seung Ho sitting in the driver’s seat. Realizing the situation, Ji Hyun hurriedly got into the passenger seat.

“H-How did you come here?”

“You’re late.”

She wasn’t late at all.

Rather, it was early, but Seung Ho spat out bluntly as if she had been tardy.

Ji Hyun felt wronged for the first time in a long while.

“As far as I know, this wasn’t the meeting place we agreed on…”

“…”

She tried to protest a little, but instead of answering, Seung Ho increased the speed. Ji Hyun rolled her eyes and observed him holding the steering wheel.

Even when wearing a comfortable knit, his well-proportioned physique was not hidden, but his appearance in a well-fitted suit was so dashing that she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

His neat attire, with not a single button of his dress shirt unbuttoned and even his tie not loosened, made him look ascetic.

Feeling like she shouldn’t look any longer, Ji Hyun forced her unmoving head to turn towards the window.

The place he headed to was a techno valley in a city slightly outside Seoul. Arriving in front of a building of a major domestic pharmaceutical company, Seung Ho waited for someone.

“Hyung!”

Soon, a researcher in a white lab coat spotted him and called out loudly. Seung Ho raised his hand and warmly greeted the approaching researcher.

“I thought you were in London, what’s this about? I was surprised to receive your call.”

“I came back for a bit because of some work.”

The two soon moved to a cafe and secretly exchanged conversations after ordering drinks for Ji Hyun, who followed behind.

“So what I’m saying is, it’s better to be sure about the pk-3no component of the immune substance. My point is…”

“FDA approval isn’t that easy.”

Ji Hyun, who delivered the drinks and stepped back, looked at Seung Ho with new eyes. Seung Ho at work was quite different from the image she remembered.

Leaning comfortably against the cafe sofa while having close conversations with the researcher, he seemed serious yet infinitely casual at the same time. Seung Ho met with a few more researchers like that.

Assisting quietly with chores in the back, Ji Hyun realized that the people Seung Ho met were all students the scholarship foundation had sponsored.

The students Seung Ho invested in were all talents who would bring him money in the near future.

Except for her, who planned to take the teacher certification exam…

Seung Ho, who had been dealing with people with a smiling face all day, seemed a bit tired as he dropped her off at the subway station and left without saying goodbye. It was an unfamiliar and strange day. Ji Hyun was grateful that he didn’t abandon her in the techno valley.

The end of the hectic first day at work was a meeting with her friend Mi Ri.

As soon as she entered college, Ji Hyun contacted Mi Ri through Ha Jun. Mi Ri, who had been trembling with a sense of betrayal towards a friend who disappeared without a word, quickly became friends with Ji Hyun again.

Since then, they had been in close contact, and Mi Ri was sincerely happy for Ji Hyun’s employment.

That was before she knew who she was working under…

“What? Shin Seung Ho? Are you talking about that Northern Duke?”

Mi Ri, surprised, put down the beer glass she was holding with a thud.

“It’s been a while since I heard that nickname.”

Ji Hyun responded blandly.

‘Come to think of it, the Northern Duke had that kind of role too. The role of ordering people around and tormenting them.’

Ji Hyun chewed on peanuts with a sneer, but Mi Ri, a web novel reader, seemed to have a different thought as her eyes sparkled.

“So what did you do when you met him? Did you kiss?”

Ji Hyun, who had raised the glass to her mouth, was startled and spat out the beer.

“What? What did you say?”