Kyung Jun’s day started a bit earlier than others. It began at 4 AM.

After finishing his workout and shower, when he opened the front door, there was a stack of breakfast and newspapers from various publishers delivered every morning.

While half-heartedly chewing on a sandwich, he spread out the newspapers to check the day’s main articles. After getting dressed and fixing his hair, he went to pick up Lee Seung Oh and they headed to work together.

On that commute.

Kyung Jun frowned as he encountered a woman who shouldn’t be here in front of the CEO’s office.

“Ah, hello, CEO.”

Jo Seo Ha bowed as soon as she saw the two of them.

“What brings you here−”

“I called her. I have some things to receive.”

Lee Seung Oh cut off Kyung Jun’s words with a gesture.

“Come in. I’d like to hear how the company was too.”

“Ah, yes!”

Seo Ha quickly followed Lee Seung Oh inside and closed the door.

It was a familiar scene. The cityscape spread out beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the walnut desk as old as this company, the bookshelf filled with books from ceiling to floor.

There was something different too. For example, the nameplate on the desk.

That nameplate belongs to my mother. Someone like you can’t have it.

The carefully ironed handkerchief crumpled in Seo Ha’s hand.

“Have you eaten breakfast?”

Lee Seung Oh gestured to the seat opposite as he perched on the sofa. Seo Ha quickly erased the hatred from her eyes and carefully sat on the edge of the sofa.

“Yes. I had nurungji before coming.”

“Haha. That must have been delicious.”

His expression, seemingly interested and amused, was exactly the same as the day he first met Lee Ji Soo.

“Do you like nurungji too, CEO?”

“Of course. It’s easy to digest and has a nice savory taste.”

“Wow.”

Seo Ha exclaimed softly as if amazed.

“Why? Is this the first time you’ve met someone who likes nurungji?”

“No, it’s just… I didn’t think you’d eat such things. You, CEO. Actually, I was a bit surprised yesterday when you said you ate fish cakes too.”

“I’m someone who really likes simple things.”

Lee Seung Oh leaned forward slightly from his reclined position. The distance between them grew closer by that much.

“That nurungji, can I try it sometime?”

Just look at that expression. I’ll crack open your skull and make seafood nurungji soup out of it.

Seo Ha hid her curse behind a flustered expression.

“That’s a bit… I’m sorry.”

“Is it too precious to give to me?”

“It’s not that. I heard you’re married, CEO… It wouldn’t be difficult to give it to you, but I think your wife might feel bad if I did.”

“Ah. Marriage.”

Lee Seung Oh chuckled nonchalantly.

“You don’t need to worry about that. I am married, but it’s as if I don’t have a wife.”

“Did she go somewhere far?”

“She’s been hospitalized. For years now.”

You did that.

Lee Seung Oh got up and poured two cups of freshly brewed coffee.

“We weren’t that affectionate to begin with. My wife was, how should I put it… Like a Venus statue. No humanity, unable to boost her husband’s spirits even once.”

The more she heard, the more her non-existent affection plummeted to rock bottom.

Who fed you, sheltered you, and even sent you to study abroad? I’m that person’s daughter. You ungrateful bastard.

“But didn’t you marry her out of love?”

“Not at all.”

Lee Seung Oh waved his hands dismissively.

“There’s no man in this world who could love that woman. She’s pretty and rich, so at first, sure, they’d go ‘wow’. But after seeing her put on airs three times, they’d run away in the middle of the night, if only out of burden.”

For a moment, Seo Ha imagined smashing Lee Seung Oh’s crown with the corner of that nameplate on the desk.

“… I see.”

“I told you. I like simple things.”

Lee Seung Oh’s smile, which once made her heart flutter every time she saw it, now seemed as repulsive as a snake. Even comparing it this way seemed unfair to snakes.

Seo Ha placed the handkerchief she had been holding onto the table.

“I’ll be going now. It’s almost work time.”

“Already?”

“An intern shouldn’t be late, right?”

“I guess so.”

Lee Seung Oh picked up the handkerchief and smelled it.

“It smells nice. Thank you.”

“Not at all. Thank you for lending it to me!”

This much is just right for today. It’s also troublesome to sit and continue listening to the gossip about the wife he tried to kill. Even more so if the person listening to the gossip is that very wife, yet unable to smash his crown with the nameplate.

Seo Ha opened the door slightly and came out. Then, just as she closed her eyes and leaned against the cold wall to cool her head, dizzy with anger and disgust, it happened.

“We meet again, Intern Jo Seo Ha.”

A voice that aroused anger no less than Lee Seung Oh’s came from right in front of her.

Ryu Kyung Jun. That damn spy.

When she slowly opened her eyes, sure enough, Kyung Jun was standing there with an openly displeased expression.

He was feeling very uneasy right now. Not only had that suspicious intern come up to the CEO’s office, but she had also stayed for quite a while before coming out like this.

“Ah, hello.”

“What brings an intern to the CEO’s office so early in the morning?”

“I had something to give to CEO Lee Seung Oh… He said yesterday that I could come… He said he would let you know… but…”

Let me know?

Thinking back, he remembered. Yesterday, Lee Seung Oh had said to just let someone in if they came up to the CEO’s office in the morning.

He thought it was about Lee Ji Soo. Was he talking about Jo Seo Ha?

Kyung Jun looked down at Jo Seo Ha, openly showing his displeasure.

She was still a rustic woman wearing worn-out sneakers and unidentifiable fashion. But how many dark intentions were hidden behind that innocent appearance?

“You’re quite skilled, Ms. Jo Seo Ha.”

“Pardon…?”

Jo Seo Ha looked up at him with an expression of complete bewilderment.

“Despite not meeting the qualifications, you got hired after just exchanging a few words. Access to the CEO’s office on your first day of work. What’s the next step?”

“Um−”

“Shall I guess?”

Kyung Jun bent down slightly. His low voice whispered about a hand span away from Seo Ha’s ear.

“You’ll pretend to run into him a few more times by chance. Then naturally have a drink together. One day you’ll wake up as Lee Seung Oh’s second mistress, coming to work in a foreign car.”

Kyung Jun straightened up and smiled smugly.

“That’s my prediction.”

It was a rough sketch Seo Ha had drawn. She wouldn’t go as far as the horrifying method of sleeping with Lee Seung Oh. Doing something she wouldn’t even do with her own body using someone else’s borrowed body seemed too unconscionable.

“You have quite an imagination, Secretary Ryu. But it seems like a pretty good scenario.”

“…?”

Seo Ha wiggled her right hand towards his face, which was a bit higher than when she was ‘Yoon Seo Ha’. As if pulled by that gesture, Kyung Jun bent down again, bringing his ear close to her mouth.

“Lee Ji Soo’s designs are f***ing terrible.”

Kyung Jun’s brow furrowed slightly. Seo Ha added in an even lower, clear voice.

“As long as Lee Ji Soo sits as the main designer, Kang Yoon will go bankrupt.”

Kyung Jun raised his head and looked at Seo Ha as if he had seen a ghost.

Jo Seo Ha just slightly raised the corners of her mouth in a smile. Over that utterly ordinary face, Yoon Seo Ha’s image overlapped for a moment before quickly disappearing.

“… You’re quite bold.”

“This is the answer you wanted, Secretary Ryu. You wouldn’t believe anything I say anyway.”

Jo Seo Ha walked sideways, slipping out from between the wall and Kyung Jun.

“I’ll be going now. Have a good day.”

Kyung Jun didn’t take his eyes off Jo Seo Ha’s back until she disappeared into the elevator hall. She was a truly strange and suspicious woman. Much more so than he had thought.

The design room, having just finished the first half of the season, was a battlefield. Thick winter fabrics shed dust like molting cats, and designers repeated meetings and work with expressionless faces. Even new designers were busy carrying out the miscellaneous tasks they were assigned.

Amidst all this busyness, only Seo Ha, sitting alone at her desk, seemed like a person from another world.

“Ms. So Yeon, are you very busy? Is there anything I can do?”

Seo Ha quietly spoke to Jung So Yeon, a designer who had joined the company with her. So Yeon, with her round forehead and kind-looking eyes, lifted her head and replied happily.

“Could you iron these clothes hanging here? Ms. Jung Eun asked me to, but I have to attach these buttons too−”

“Hey, what are you doing now?”

Lee Ji Soo approached and asked. So Yeon flinched, shrank her shoulders, and looked up with startled rabbit eyes.

“Seo Ha’s hands were free, so I was going to ask her to iron…”

“Wasn’t that ironing something Jung Sung Eun asked you to do earlier?”

Lee Ji Soo smiled brightly as she snatched the ironing from Seo Ha and threw it next to So Yeon’s desk. So Yeon’s shoulders shrank even more, as if she had been scolded for no reason.

Such obvious and childish ostracism. This would never have happened when Seo Ha was leading the design room.

“Then what should I do?”

Seo Ha asked, blinking innocently.

“Seo Ha, you just sit there. There’s nothing particular for you to do.”

“So you don’t have any tasks for me?”

“As you can see, we’re very busy. If Seo Ha were to meddle and cause an accident, it would create more work. Don’t you think? I’m not comfortable with it either.”

“Yes, thank you!”

Seo Ha bowed and sat down at her desk, opening a design book. She also neatly laid out sharpened pencils and colored pencils.

“… What are you doing, Seo Ha?”

“Designing.”

“Aren’t you an intern, Seo Ha?”

She had noticed this before. Lee Ji Soo never stuttered in front of people weaker than her.

“Are interns not allowed to design?”

“Designing is done by designers.”

“But I was accepted here because my designs were recognized.”

Her attitude was as if she was genuinely asking because she didn’t know. Lee Ji Soo gritted her molars and put on a seemingly kind smile.

“Well, go ahead then. Seo Ha, I like your enthusiasm.”

“Thank you for the compliment, hehe.”

Seo Ha smiled brightly back and picked up a pencil.

She had sat alone in the office after everyone had gone home, drawing and discarding hundreds, thousands of sketches. Even in her dreams, she dreamed of designing, and before those dreams fully faded, she would bolt upright, scribble sketches with her eyes barely open, then collapse back to sleep.

The best of all those sketches were still in this office. In the small safe under Seo Ha’s desk, now occupied by Lee Ji Soo, with a password no one knew.

What did it look like again?

Seo Ha moved her hand unconsciously, recalling the last sketch she had put in the safe. The final design she had drawn for the brand bearing Yoon Seo Ha’s name gradually came back to life on the paper.