Seo Ha stared back at Kyung Jun’s piercing gaze.

He was the man who had plotted to take over the company after becoming a secretary through underhanded means, yet grilled clams with a straight face. That’s how smart and meticulous he was. This couldn’t be just a random guess.

“Why are you asking such a question?”

“You smell like Yoon Seo Ha.”

Kyung Jun stood up and leaned forward. It was as if he was actually smelling Seo Ha.

“Exactly the same. Your speech, habits, even your actions.”

“Maybe we just happen to be similar.”

“Even that brazen look in your eyes.”

Who was calling whom brazen? Seo Ha deliberately smoothed out her furrowing eyebrows.

“Let’s say you’re right. Friendship is a private matter, so I don’t understand why you’re interrogating me like this.”

“This. It’s Yoon Seo Ha’s design.”

Kyung Jun picked up Seo Ha’s first design from the desk and held it up to her face.

“You must have thought I wouldn’t know at all. This is the last design Yoon Seo Ha submitted before the accident. You copied it and got caught by me, and then you went ahead and brought other designs pretending they were your identity. Am I wrong?”

“……”

Seo Ha was confused.

The original of this design is in the safe. The password to that safe, which locks forever after five incorrect attempts, was known only to Seo Ha and her mother.

So how did Ryu Kyung Jun know about it?

As Seo Ha was lost in confusion, trying to collect her thoughts, a memory surfaced in her mind.

The design book that had fallen to the floor when they first met in front of the CEO’s office. Kyung Jun, who had not returned it and had been examining it closely.

To remember and recognize accurately a sketch he had only seen once. He was even more frightening than she had thought.

“So. Do you have any proof that it’s Yoon Seo Ha’s design?”

“Chairman Kang’s condition is improving bit by bit. Once she fully recovers, we can take that design out of the safe.”

Mother is getting better?

Her heart pounded. She was so happy she felt a lump in her throat. Memories of the times she had envisioned the future with her mother in this company came flooding back, and a wave of longing washed over her.

Just hold on a little longer. I must protect the company.

“You recognized it accurately.”

Seo Ha raised her head and said nonchalantly.

“That’s right. This is Yoon Seo Ha’s design.”

“What makes you so confident? Have you forgotten about the bet we made over the desk?”

She had definitely said she would clear out her desk if it was someone else’s stolen design.

Even now, Seo Ha had no reason not to be confident. If Kyung Jun knew the secret of that design, Seo Ha also knew Kyung Jun’s secret.

“Aren’t you being a bit too confident yourself, Mr. Ryu?”

Kyung Jun furrowed his brow.

“What do you mean?”

This time, Seo Ha leaned forward. Her nose almost touched Kyung Jun’s chin.

“Mr. Ryu, you’re a spy for Taeyang Group, aren’t you?”

“……!”

Saying out loud the words she had been mulling over felt like pouring carbonated water into a clogged stomach – refreshing.

“That’s right. I’m Yoon Seo Ha’s friend. I know that you’re the hidden son of Chairman Ryu of Taeyang Group, and that you’re trying to forcibly hand over this company to Taeyang Group by finding Chairman Kang’s weakness. And……”

Seo Ha looked around Kyung Jun’s office, which was almost as spacious as the CEO’s office, and smiled.

“I also know that the shareholders and executives of Kang Yoon have no idea about this.”

Faced with such accurate facts, Kyung Jun remained silent.

He had never dreamed that Yoon Seo Ha had noticed his true identity. How could he have imagined that she would have told her friend about it?

“Are you blackmailing me now?”

“There you go with informal speech again. Since it’s come to this, shall we speak comfortably? We’re the same age anyway.”

No longer afraid, Seo Ha even raised her eyebrows playfully.

“Let’s call it negotiation, not blackmail. I’ll keep my mouth shut, and you keep yours shut. It’s exactly the same as before. Nothing will change.”

Now she was completely Yoon Seo Ha herself. Kyung Jun wouldn’t have been surprised if Yoon Seo Ha had possessed someone else’s body and was speaking.

“What’s your reason for clinging to this company so desperately?”

“To become a designer. I’ve always envied Seo Ha.”

The current Seo Ha really did envy Seo Ha.

Not Jo Seo Ha, who was sharpening her knife to protect the company with nothing and take revenge on her husband, but Yoon Seo Ha, who could throw divorce papers in her husband’s face and stand up – she envied her so much.

“Is that all? Becoming like Yoon Seo Ha because you envy her?”

“What do you mean ‘is that all’? You envied Yoon Seo Ha too, didn’t you?”

“Me? Yoon Seo Ha?”

Seo Ha laughed again.

“People are all the same. When they’re insanely envious of someone but don’t want to admit it, they deny that person instead of their own feelings. Yoon Seo Ha was born with a silver spoon, so she didn’t achieve anything on her own. Her head must be full of flowers. She was just lucky, that’s all.”

Kyung Jun’s face burned.

That’s right. He had envied her to the point of jealousy and resentment, as she shone brightly, always happy and confident. To have such an ugly and gloomy side of him exposed like this.

“Let’s stop playing with words.”

Kyung Jun rubbed his face and said dryly.

“Ms. Jo Seo Ha, I will hire you as an official designer. On the condition that you give up Yoon Seo Ha’s designs.”

“The first part is a given. But why the second condition?”

Kyung Jun’s gaze swept over the scattered sketches.

-‘Finally, Kang Yoon Company is launching a new brand. Congratulations, Designer Yoon Seo Ha.’

He had overheard Yoon Seo Ha and Chairman Kang talking about this design.

-‘Department store placement comes last. We shouldn’t be begging department stores to let us in first. We need to make them come to us with offers. Can you do it, Yoon Seo Ha?’

-‘Why are you asking the obvious? Whose daughter am I, Mrs. Kang?’

-‘Yes, yes. My beautiful daughter, of course.’

He couldn’t express how envious he had been of the conversation and laughter coming from the CEO’s office. Kyung Jun couldn’t even begin to imagine what it felt like to receive such recognition and love from parents.

“This is Yoon Seo Ha’s new brand.”

Kyung Jun neatly stacked the sketches together. Meanwhile, Seo Ha’s gaze never left Kyung Jun’s long fingers.

“New… brand?”

“When Yoon Seo Ha wakes up, she’ll launch a new brand with this. Open a boutique in Cheongdam-dong, invite VIPs and celebrities for a launch show, hold pop-up stores around the country. So don’t even think about touching this.”

Seo Ha suddenly felt a lump in her throat and rubbed it.

“… Aren’t you going to sell this company to Taeyang Group anyway when the time is right?”

“That’s only after Chairman Kang and Yoon Seo Ha return. Until then, I have absolutely no intention of handing this company over to Taeyang Group or anyone else.”

Kyung Jun put Seo Ha’s collected sketches in the bottom drawer of the desk and pressed the lock button.

“You should cooperate too, Ms. Jo Seo Ha. Stop wasting time flirting with idiots like Lee Seung Oh, and bring me more fantastic designs like a real designer.”

Seo Ha stared at Kyung Jun’s face.

In fact, she was curious. Why hadn’t he handed over the company in over three years when he could have done so at any time? Why was he still in this company, even playing the role of Lee Seung Oh’s secretary?

She thought that maybe this person had been protecting Kang Yoon all this time. Ridiculously enough.

“What are you looking at? Do you have something to say?”

“… I have a request.”

If that was the case, maybe she could get some help.

“I want to see Chairman Kang. Please let me meet her.”

“Why would Ms. Jo Seo Ha want to see Chairman Kang?”

Kyung Jun’s eyes sharpened.

“I told you I’m Yoon Seo Ha’s friend. I don’t have parents. Chairman Kang has adored me since I was young, so I think of her as a mother.”

“That great friend who steals designs?”

Seo Ha really wanted to hit Kyung Jun, who was so good at being sarcastic.

“If you’re suspicious, you can stay by my side. I won’t do anything, I just want to see her.”

Without showing any of those feelings, Seo Ha asked again, and Kyung Jun looked her over with suspicious eyes.

“… Alright, tomorrow after work. I’ll accompany you to the hospital, so come down to the parking lot when I contact you.”

Finally, I’m going to meet Mom. Seo Ha gently pressed her hand to her swelling heart. She could already hear her mother’s voice calling out, “My daughter.”

“N-no way! That’s im-impossible!”

Shocked by the news, Ji Soo, who had been lying down to sleep, sat up abruptly with her face turning bright red.

“Jo-Jo Seo Ha hasn’t even fi-finished her internship period yet. How can she become an of-official designer in just a month!”

“That’s how it turned out, honey. Even as the CEO, I can’t overturn what was decided in the meeting.”

“Why did you even have a me-meeting about Jo Seo Ha in the first place?”

“Director Ryu liked Jo Seo Ha’s designs. So did the other executives, and so did I.”

Ji Soo forcefully pushed away Lee Seung Oh, who was trying to wrap his arms around her shoulders.

“I wasn’t at that meeting! The design department is mine. Any personnel decision made without my input is invalid!”

For a moment, a look of displeasure flickered in Seung Oh’s eyes. With only one soft lamp left on and all other lights turned off, Ji Soo couldn’t see it.

“Be a good girl, my dear.”

After a brief silence, Seung Oh gently stroked Ji Soo’s hair.

“The design department is your responsibility. But this company is mine. You don’t have any authority over personnel matters.”

It was so upsetting that Seung Oh wouldn’t say he was sorry or that he would fire Jo Seo Ha, no matter what.

“It-it wasn’t like this when young lady was the team leader. She hired new designers herself, that’s why I didn’t get hired back then.”

“Yoon Seo Ha was part of the owner family.”

“So am I!”

Ji Soo shouted, pushing Seung Oh away again with all her might.

“You’re the CEO, and I’m your wife! A wife is family too!”

“I meant legally and socially recognized owner family. Once we register our marriage and have a wedding ceremony, it’ll be as you say, but not now.”

It was getting unbearable. She even started to think that maybe Yoon Seo Ha was hanging on without dying just to get revenge.

Ji Soo flipped the blanket over her head and turned her back to Seung Oh.

Usually, when she sulked like this, Seung Oh would always soothe her, saying she was cute. But today was different. He let out an exasperated sigh, got up, and went outside.

“Where are you going?”

“For a drive.”

He didn’t even ask her to come along. Soon, the sound of slippers crossing the living room was heard, followed by the front door opening and closing.

And Lee Seung Oh didn’t return home all night.