[I’m craving some refreshing steamed clams today. Come with Seung Oh after work.]

The already gloomy afternoon. Ji Soo frowned deeply upon receiving Ok Soon’s message.

Even if she were to be extremely accommodating, going straight after work to put on an apron and make steamed clams would be fine. The problem was that Ji Soo couldn’t eat clams at all.

“What steamed clams?”

Jung Eun, who was passing by, overheard her small mutter and asked.

“Steamed clams?”

“Huh? Ah, yes.”

Ji Soo flipped her phone over and smiled brightly.

“It’s my mother-in-law. She says she’s making delicious steamed clams for us today.”

“Wow. She’s really thoughtful.”

“I guess I was born with good in-law luck.”

“Indeed. I’m so envious.”

The team members who had once been in an uproar, accusing the mistress of acting like the real wife while Team Leader Yoon was still alive, had long since been replaced.

The current people either didn’t know that Lee Seung Oh’s former wife was in a vegetative state or pretended not to know if they did. Either way, it didn’t matter to Ji Soo.

Instead of cleaning other people’s houses, she now employs a cleaning lady. She wraps herself from head to toe in luxury brands that she once dismissed as mere vanity.

When she enters the office, everyone stands up to greet her. The designs that Yoon Seo Ha had maliciously dropped are now all acknowledged and highly praised.

‘It’s a perfect life. What’s wrong with making some steamed clams? I’d have to prepare dinner at home anyway.’

That evening.

Ji Soo, her hands full of ingredients, struggled to ring the doorbell.

Click.

The massive iron gate opened.

To Ji Soo, this house was Cinderella’s palace. A stone path winding through well-maintained grass. A small pond with a few koi fish swimming, and a pine tree. A table and parasol perfect for enjoying a cup of tea on a nice afternoon.

She couldn’t count how many times she had visited, using meeting her mother as an excuse, just to see this palace.

The ‘princess’s clothes’ she had received from there were more modest than expected. The embroidered part was slightly torn and had a soft fragrance.

How beautiful must the owner of these clothes be? Surely, being like a fairy tale princess, she must be as kind as an angel. Being a designer is so cool. Maybe we could even become friends.

But the moment Ji Soo first saw the clothes’ owner and her husband, her thoughts changed completely.

Acting all high and mighty just because you were born to good parents? If I had married that man, I could have treated him a hundred times better.

Now that dress hangs torn to shreds in the dressing room. The reason she hadn’t thrown it away after tearing it was because seeing it in that state made her feel ecstatically good.

“I’m here.”

“Oh, Ji Soo, you’re here? Your mother’s in the kitchen, go on in.”

Ok Soon called out loudly without even looking out. Her voice mixed with the sound of the television.

“What? My mother is here?”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we all ate together?”

Ji Soo hurried to the kitchen. Her mother, who had spent her entire life working in other people’s homes, was still wearing an apron, busily boiling broth.

“Mom!”

Nan Joo turned around, startled by the sudden shout.

“You scared me. Why are you yelling so suddenly?”

“What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean? Did you bring the clams? Give them here to soak, and you go sit and rest. Is your husband coming late?”

“He’ll be here soon. I’ll do it, you should rest, Mom.”

“Oh, it’s almost done. Just need to wash and add the clams.”

“I said I’ll wash the clams!”

“Then you can wash and trim the chives over there.”

Ji Soo washed the clams in salt water and scrubbed them vigorously, while Nan Joo washed and trimmed the chives in cold water beside her.

“Don’t come next time, Mom. Just eat at home by yourself.”

“But if I come, it’s easier for you.”

Cooking, cleaning, laundry. Even pulling weeds in the garden.

Although Nan Joo was no longer the housekeeper here, she still came two or three times a week to do all these chores.

As Nan Joo said, these were all tasks that Ok Soon would have assigned to Ji Soo.

“… Just bear with it a little longer, Mom.”

Once Yoon Seo Ha dies, everything will be resolved. All of Yoon Seo Ha’s shares and assets will be inherited by Seung Oh, and after officially registering their marriage, Mom won’t have to worry about Ji Soo being abandoned anymore.

Ji Soo put on an apron and diligently made the steamed clams. But when dinner was served, she filled her stomach with rice and kimchi.

Even when they were dating, after making soft tofu stew with clams, she had to eat rice wrapped in seaweed. Not much had changed now.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Ah, that was delicious. I was craving clams anyway.”

As Seung Oh hummed while driving, Ji Soo cautiously asked.

“Um, honey.”

“What?”

“Can’t we, can’t we have the wedding ceremony first?”

“Again, again.”

At a brief red light, Seung Oh turned to Ji Soo with a playful frown.

“I told you I’d do everything when we register our marriage. Don’t you trust me?”

“I, I do trust you… But for the sake of the people at work…”

“It would look worse to have a wedding ceremony before Yoon Seo Ha’s coffin is even closed. By the way, how are the new people?”

“They’re good. Ex, except for one.”

“One?”

“You know. The high school graduate intern.”

“Jo Seo Ha? Why?”

“She’s so, so tactless. She can’t di, distinguish between what to say and what not to say.”

“Hmm.”

“Really. Sometimes I think she’s so smart that she’s pretending to be tactless and saying whatever she wants.”

“Ah.”

“I, I told her to stay still because everything falls apart when she touches it, and you know what? The intern is drawing designs.”

“She did designs?”

Seung Oh, who had been giving mechanical responses, showed interest at the mention of designs.

“Yes. There are so many senior designers-”

“Then bring them to me.”

Ji Soo stopped talking and looked at Seung Oh.

“What?”

“You said she already did designs. Bring them to me tomorrow.”

“Even if I bring them, they won’t be anything special…”

“I hired her based on one design. Bring them straight to the president’s office tomorrow.”

I shouldn’t have said anything.

Ji Soo closed her mouth and leaned back in her seat. She was too hungry to even speak.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Good morning!”

Seo Ha entered the design room with a cheerful greeting. The response wasn’t particularly warm.

“…”

“Oh, hi.”

Well, it didn’t really matter.

Seo Ha sat down and immediately opened her design book. She planned to leisurely work on designs and go home as usual.

“Intern Jo Seo Ha!”

Lee Ji Soo, who always made a point of calling her ‘intern’, gestured from her seat.

“Yes?”

Everyone who had been busy looked up at once to stare at Seo Ha. Seo Ha was equally surprised.

“Your designs?”

“The designs?”

“You drew all day yesterday, didn’t you? I’ll take a look at the results, so bring them here.”

This didn’t feel good.

“Just a moment.”

Seo Ha quickly tore out a few pages from her design book, hid them, and brought the rest to Ji Soo.

“Hmm.”

Ji Soo barely glanced at it before gesturing towards Seo Ha’s desk with her chin.

“Go sit down. I’ll give it back after I’ve looked it over.”

This really didn’t feel good.

A little while later, Ji Soo stood up with the design book. After making sure no one was paying attention to her, Seo Ha quietly followed behind.

-Ding.

The elevator doors opened and Ji Soo got in. Seo Ha only confirmed that the elevator stopped at the top floor where the president’s office was before returning to the office.

Meanwhile, Ji Soo was busy in the elevator.

“Let’s see. This won’t do. This one either. This is not good.”

She had to tear out all the good parts from Jo Seo Ha’s design book and hide them in another file.

After quickly finishing her work, Ji Soo hid the stolen file behind a potted plant and calmly entered the president’s office.

“I’ve brought Jo Seo Ha’s designs.”

“Give them here.”

Seung Oh quickly took the design book and opened it.

But the results were disappointing. While the basics and sense were quite good, there wasn’t anything that stood out. It even seemed worse than the designs she had brought in her portfolio.

“Nothing impressive, right?”

Ji Soo put on a sorry expression.

“She hasn’t learned much, after all. I’ll try to teach her well, but… she’s so bad at work that it might be difficult. Since it’s only been three months, the other designers don’t pay much attention to her either.”

“You’re right. Nothing really catches the eye. It seems even worse than her portfolio.”

Lee Seung Oh’s face showed clear disappointment. Ji Soo felt greatly relieved inside.

“I told you it wasn’t much. Don’t worry, we have plenty of designers.”

Just as she was about to take the design book back-

-Knock knock.

Someone knocked from outside.

“May I come in, President?”

It was Ryu Kyung Jun.

“Come in.”

As Seung Oh answered, Kyung Jun opened the door and entered. Somehow, he was holding the file that Ji Soo had hidden.

“Excuse me for interrupting. I found this in front of the elevator.”

Kyung Jun walked past Ji Soo and placed the file on the desk.

“I think Designer Lee Ji Soo dropped it.”

Ji Soo maintained her poker face with all her might.

“This? It’s, it’s not mine.”

“How can that be? I saw you drop it behind the plant just now and picked it up.”

That sly fox. He was watching?

Ji Soo gritted her teeth inwardly.

“Oh, that. Give it to me, honey. It’s nothing important, I just put it down for a moment because it was cumbersome to carry around.”

“Wait a moment.”

Avoiding Ji Soo’s hand reaching for the file, Seung Oh took out its contents.

They were all sketches. Torn from someone’s design book…

“…”

Seung Oh opened Jo Seo Ha’s design book that he had just closed, with a hardened expression. The paper, drawing style, style, and even the large tear marks matched perfectly.

“Honey. No, Team Leader Lee. Why are Jo Seo Ha’s designs in here separately?”

“I, I selected them first. Be, because you’re so busy, you don’t have time to look at each one…”

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Kyung Jun’s hand swooped in and snatched the target.

“What are you doing?”

“I’d like to take a look. President, if that’s alright?”

As Seung Oh nodded, Ji Soo lost any grounds for further protest.

Kyung Jun carefully flipped through the design book, inserting the torn parts back in place. Even to an outsider, the torn designs were much better than those that remained.

“But.”

Kyung Jun’s finger touched the torn page.

“There are more missing parts.”

“She, she probably tore them out because they were drawn wrong. Or ma, maybe she didn’t like them.”

“Jo Seo Ha’s portfolio that she submitted when applying was much better than this. If she tore them out because she didn’t like them, wouldn’t it be more natural to tear out what’s left now?”

“Ho, how would I know that?”

Kyung Jun closed the design book with a thud.

“I’ll take this and examine it in detail.”

“What au, authority do you have, Secretary?”

“By the authority of an internal director.”

He walked out briskly, holding the design book. He intended to go directly to the design room to find the remaining missing parts.