“What are you doing? Get on my back.”

Jae Wook urged with a rough tone. Seo Ha, feeling awkward, alternately looked at her nearby home and Kyung Jun’s back of the head before making up her mind.

“I’ll just get down and walk. It’s fine if I go slowly.”

“You’re walking too slowly, that’s why I’m doing this.”

Kyung Jun grumbled and started walking at a faster pace than before. Whether it was Jae Wook or Kyung Jun, Seo Ha had to cling more desperately to Kyung Jun’s neck just to avoid falling off.

“Hey. The gate with ‘Beware of Dog’ written on it.”

“Beware of Dog? You mean that one?”

“Not that one, Kim Min Ji.”

Jae Wook said gruffly while pushing open the gate with a terrifying expression.

“Go up those stairs over there. Be careful not to let Seo Ha fall.”

Kyung Jun, who was naturally about to enter through the front entrance visible straight ahead, hesitated and looked in the direction Jae Wook was pointing.

“Is it over there, Ms. Jo Seo Ha?”

“The stairs are narrow. I can manage on my own.”

“Just hold on tight.”

Beads of sweat had formed on Kyung Jun’s nape. It was natural, having walked uphill for over ten minutes carrying an adult woman on his back.

Seo Ha carefully got off Kyung Jun’s back only when they reached the rooftop room.

“Ow, ouch… Thank you for bringing me here.”

As she greeted him, unable to either bend or straighten her waist, she noticed Kyung Jun standing still in place, staring at the rooftop room.

“Aren’t you going?”

“You live here?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Who’s that person down there?”

Kyung Jun gestured with his eyes towards Jae Wook, who was still standing at the bottom of the stairs with a terrifying expression.

“He’s the landlord. This is a monthly rental.”

“You really are dirt poor.”

“I told you so.”

Kyung Jun’s childhood, when he lived with his mother in a house like this, was terrible.

Who was it that said poverty isn’t shameful, just inconvenient?

Kyung Jun would bet his wrist that whoever said that had never experienced poverty.

As someone who had been that poor, Kyung Jun could guarantee that Jo Seo Ha didn’t look poor at all. It wasn’t about her appearance. It was her demeanor, behavior, and above all, that look in her eyes.

“Try to rest tomorrow if you can. Don’t break your back for nothing.”

“Okay. I’ll rest if I can. Thank you.”

Although she replied like this and saw Kyung Jun off, Seo Ha had no intention of resting, whether her back or knees gave out.

“Good. This worked out even better.”

A self-muttered whisper escaped from Seo Ha’s slightly upturned lips.

“Oh my goodness. What’s this?”

“What’s the matter?”

“Look at this. It’s all organized.”

The design room was buzzing from early morning. Ji Soo, who arrived a bit late as usual, noticed the designers not turning to look at her despite her arrival and deliberately made loud clicking sounds with her heels.

“What’s going on?”

“Team Leader, you’re here!”

Only then did the designers notice Ji Soo and bow their heads in greeting identically.

“Yes. Why are you all gathered here?”

“Look at this.”

One of them flung open the door to the fabric storage room.

The inside of the storage room, which had been so cluttered there was no room to step, was dazzlingly tidy. Not only were the fabrics organized by material and type, but the fabrics to be used this season were also separately categorized for easy viewing.

What’s this?

Ji Soo bit her lip.

It’s impossible to organize all this in just one day. Plus, it’s physical labor, so you couldn’t even dream of doing any design work for several days due to exhaustion. That’s what she had calculated when assigning the task.

Looking around, Jo Seo Ha was nowhere to be seen. Ji Soo deliberately raised her voice to ask.

“Where’s Intern Jo Seo Ha? I should give her some praise.”

“She called to say she’d be late this morning, Team Leader!”

One person raised their hand and answered.

Contradicting that ‘she’d be late’ statement, Jo Seo Ha appeared. It was barely five minutes after Ji Soo had arrived at work.

“I’m sorry for being late. I’m truly sorry!”

Still, late is late. She was later than the set work hours, after all. Ji Soo put on a smiling face and asked in a deliberately gentle tone.

“Intern Jo Seo Ha. Why are you so late?”

“I’m sorry. It was too painful to walk.”

Seo Ha answered, still oblivious and cheerfully, while slightly lifting her T-shirt to show the patches plastered all over her waist.

“I hurt my back organizing the storage room until dawn. The fabrics were much heavier and more numerous than I thought.”

Everyone in the design room knew that those fabrics were more than just numerous. Taken aback, Ji Soo frowned in concern.

“Why didn’t you go to the hospital?”

“I don’t have money for hospital bills.”

“……”

Suddenly, the office became as quiet as a temple. Even Lee Ji Soo.

“And, I’m sorry. You told me to go to Dongdaemun after organizing the storage room yesterday, but I couldn’t go.”

Just organizing the storage room would take days. Going to Dongdaemun would take a full day. The gazes of people who knew this well changed from indifference and annoyance to sympathy.

“Why, why did you try to go there yesterday? And the storage room too. Why did you stupidly work until dawn and get hurt, causing problems for your work when you could have done it slowly?”

“Because you said to finish it by today, Team Leader.”

Ji Soo, who had never said to finish it by today, almost jumped in indignation.

“When did I ever say to do all that in one day?”

“You said to help Joo Hee before leaving work, then organize the fabric storage room, and go to Dongdaemun to buy materials. I thought you meant to finish in one day since you said before leaving work… If that wasn’t the case, I’m sorry.”

‘Before leaving work’ was a phrase Seo Ha had subtly inserted. But Seo Ha’s attitude was so nonchalant that even Ji Soo began to wonder if she had really said those words.

“Forget about Dongdaemun, go sit down. Don’t be late next time.”

“Yes, Team Leader! I’m sorry!”

Seo Ha shouted another apology, completely devoid of sincerity, and went to her seat.

“Ah, ouch…”

As Seo Ha sat down with difficulty, groaning, Joo Hee, who found it quite pitiful, quickly got up to support her.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I put on a lot of patches, so I should be better by tomorrow.”

“Oh my.”

Joo Hee shook her head and attached the back support from her own chair to Seo Ha’s chair.

“Lean on this, it should help a bit.”

Joo Hee’s kindness was just the beginning.

“Intern, do you have any medicine?”

Someone asked a bit gruffly while leaving some pain relievers.

“I’m going to Dongdaemun now to buy materials. If anyone needs anything, please write a list separately!”

Someone else went to Dongdaemun in Seo Ha’s place.

“Two deliveries came. Intern, have one.”

Yet another person handed over a freshly opened bottle of green juice with a straw already inserted.

It’s this easy to receive sympathy from others. Like Lee Ji Soo kneeling on the kitchen floor begging, or like the child who had dirtied Seo Ha’s clothes when she was very young.

And Seo Ha also knew that on the opposite side of the person receiving sympathy, the social superior becomes the villain.

“The intern’s pitiful.”

The bathroom was the perfect place for private conversations, minus the formal address. In other words, it was also good for eavesdropping on private conversations.

“I know. It must have been really tough to organize all that alone. If it were me, I’d be lying down unable to come in today.”

“Actually, the Team Leader is too obviously disliking the intern.”

“Because of the shoe incident?”

“Even before that. She looks down on her for being a high school graduate, and their names are the same too. It’s annoying her.”

“That’s true.”

Though it was a brief conversation, she heard everything she needed to. Seo Ha opened the door carefully with drooping eyes.

“Um… seniors.”

Jung Se Hee and Yoo Seo Yeon, who were about to leave, turned around startled.

“Were you in there?”

“Yes. I didn’t mean to listen…”

Seo Ha hesitantly looked around.

“I was fine with organizing the storage room. It’s not like I can be of help otherwise, right? But… does the Team Leader really hate me? Because I’m a high school graduate?”

Se Hee and Seo Yeon exchanged flustered glances before hastily answering.

“No, don’t worry too much. Seo Ha, you’re just an intern anyway and not someone we’ll see for long…”

“Seo Yeon.”

Se Hee slightly furrowed her brows at Seo Yeon before speaking instead.

“That’s right. Intern Jo Seo Ha, you’ve been marked by the Team Leader, so be careful with your actions in everything. Don’t cause trouble for us too.”

Jung Se Hee. A designer quite trusted by Lee Ji Soo, and the person who had left painkillers on Seo Ha’s desk earlier.

“Yes. I’ll work hard so the Team Leader won’t hate me!”

“Don’t work too hard either. It won’t make things any better no matter what you do.”

“Yes… yes.”

Seo Ha hadn’t thought Ji Soo would be genuinely respected in the first place. But still. To be viciously torn apart over such a small crack, her reputation must be truly awful.

It’s amazing Kang Yoon hasn’t gone bankrupt yet.

Seo Ha shook her head while washing her hands.

“I’ve brought them. Ten designs.”

It hadn’t even been a full month since the promise. Seo Ha confidently placed ten sketches on Kyung Jun’s desk.

“Already?”

“Yes. I worked hard drawing while nursing my injured back.”

If her back hadn’t been hurt, she might not have even been able to open a design book, buried under menial tasks. In the end, Kyung Jun had unknowingly helped Seo Ha again.

Kyung Jun pulled out the three designs Seo Ha had brought last time from deep in his drawer. Placing them next to the newly brought ones, they looked similar enough to be the work of one person. Yet each had its own unique details.

“How is it? Looks like I won, right?”

Seo Ha asked, a bit hastily and proudly. Kyung Jun examined the sketches a moment longer before nodding.

“It seems so. Well done.”

The designs received today were different from those in the safe. However, the identity was still alive, to the point where it wouldn’t be strange to start a brand with this series right away.

And these were works by Jo Seo Ha, who said she had never formally studied design.

“Ms. Jo Seo Ha. Did you say your parents passed away?”

“Yes. Why are you suddenly asking that?”

Parents died in an accident when she was young. Her only family, her grandmother, repeatedly hospitalized before passing away four years ago. She herself worked as an accountant in a small factory before becoming unemployed.

Emotionally speaking, it was an unfortunate life. But if you look closely, excluding emotions, you could see that something was very strange.

“A vocational high school accounting major graduate with no awards or external activities related to art or design.”

“That’s correct too.”

Seo Ha readily agreed.

There was absolutely no connection to design. If you really stretched it, the only thing you could force to fit was that the factory she worked at before unemployment had once done business with Kang Yoon, a fabric factory?

But Jo Seo Ha produced designs that anyone would recognize as soon as she was hired. Even Lee Ji Soo felt threatened enough to tear pages out of the design book.

Alright. Let’s say she’s a hidden gem with tremendous talent that couldn’t shine due to unfortunate circumstances. Then how do you explain the remaining strange points?

“If, hypothetically speaking.”

Kyung Jun tapped his finger on the sketch Seo Ha had first brought.

“The two of you could be acquainted.”

Seo Ha had been frowning at Kyung Jun with an expression that said ‘what nonsense are you talking about?’ Even that expression resembled Yoon Seo Ha.

“You. You’re Yoon Seo Ha’s friend, aren’t you?”

Kyung Jun asked with a confident tone. Seo Ha’s eyes wavered anxiously within her frowning expression.