“Oh, oh no, elder brother. Because of me……”

Lee Ji Soo lowered her head deeply and fidgeted with her fingers. It had already been twelve hours since Kang Hae Sun disappeared. No one had found her yet.

“Ha-have you not contacted the police yet?”

“Not yet. Let’s file a missing person report in a few days.”

Lee Seung Oh shook his head and sat down on the sofa. The reports he received every hour still only contained news that she hadn’t been found.

“I’m sorry. Really, I was in such a hurry that I ran to the bathroom and came right back, but she was gone.”

Seung Oh stroked Ji Soo’s mumbling head as if petting a puppy.

“It’s okay, honey. It’s rather a good thing.”

“What……?”

Seung Oh hadn’t even gone to the hospital after hearing the news of Hae Sun’s disappearance. He just sat at home, giving perfunctory instructions and listening to reports. He was even in quite a good mood.

“It’s fine if she doesn’t come back. If she does, we can find fault with the hospital’s negligence and discharge her. After that……”

Lee Seung Oh’s eyes gleamed maliciously.

“Well, that’s that. Shall we go to bed now?”

Lee Seung Oh bent down and lifted Ji Soo, who had been sitting on the sofa.

“Kyaaah!”

“My darling. Why are you so light?”

“Tch. Put me down.”

“I’ll put you down when we get to the bed.”

Ji Soo giggled as she was carried in Seung Oh’s arms to the bedroom. Her body sank into the cloud-like bed, and her husband was affectionate.

I must have seen wrong earlier. Elder brother just helped Jo Seo Ha up because she looked so pitiful. How much does he love me.

“Do you love me?”

“Of course. You’re my princess, honey.”

Ji Soo wrapped her arms around Seung Oh’s neck.

“Then, please send Jo Seo Ha away.”

“It’s company business. How many times do I have to tell you, honey?”

Seung Oh asked in a still gentle tone. If she said it one more time, he might leave again. Ji Soo quickly added her next words.

“Ah, no. I mean, you said you’d send her to this product review meeting.”

“And?”

“If, if Jo Seo Ha’s designs are really good, they’ll do well at the review. If not, they won’t be chosen and will just be buried. Right?”

Lee Seung Oh touched his lips as if pondering.

“Right now, the other de-designers are very dissatisfied. They say a high school graduate intern with no experience was hired as a new designer. For the sake of team morale, if she can’t be chosen at the review meeting, let’s just cut her. Okay?”

Since he always talked about skill while protecting Jo Seo Ha, the calculation was to appeal with skill. Indeed, after thinking for a long time, Seung Oh reluctantly nodded.

“Alright. If not even one design is chosen at the review meeting, I’ll let her go. Happy?”

“Yes!”

Store managers, sales staff, company executives, and MDs participate in the review meeting. They decide whether to officially release samples for the next season.

Of course, the more designs are chosen here, the higher the designer’s status rises, and the fewer are chosen, the more it shrinks.

Not knowing your place. You weak, arrogant bitch.

Ji Soo ground her teeth inwardly, thinking of Jo Seo Ha who had hurled insults so easily.

“Alright, everyone’s attention!”

After confirming that everyone had arrived without exception, Lee Ji Soo clapped her hands. The designers all looked up at once, stopping their work.

“It’s almost review meeting season, right? Everyone work hard to prepare, and this time-.”

Ji Soo’s gaze turned precisely to Seo Ha.

“Our youngest designer will also be submitting work. Everyone, applause!”

No one clapped and the atmosphere just became awkward.

Normally, the youngest designer who has been in this industry for less than a year does not participate in the review meeting.

It’s a time to develop an eye for the market, and there’s so much to prepare that they’re busy enough just running errands for their seniors without time to look up.

But now they’re sending Jo Seo Ha, who barely got hired as an intern without a major or experience, to the review meeting.

“I have a question.”

Jung Se Hee raised her hand.

“Hwang Joo Hee and Jung So Yeon also joined at the same time. So are all three new designers participating in the review meeting?”

“Jung So Yeon has experience even though she’s new, so she can participate. Hwang Joo Hee will learn this time and prepare designs for next season. It’s orders from above, so there’s nothing I can do.”

In fact, if Jo Seo Ha is being sent, Hwang Joo Hee could be sent too. It’s not legally mandated, just a convention in this design studio, so what’s stopping the team leader from sending her?

But Ji Soo didn’t do that. She just gave an apologetic look towards Joo Hee. To make life in this office a little more miserable.

How shallow, how shallow.

Seo Ha shook her head at the blatantly obvious shallow calculation.

“Phew, that’s good.”

But a small sigh of relief was heard from beside her. Seo Ha turned her head slightly to see Hwang Joo Hee stroking her chest in relief, then whispering when their eyes met.

“There aren’t many people in the design studio, right? So I was worried I might have to participate in the review meeting too. What kind of embarrassment would it be to submit designs without knowing anything and have them all rejected?”

As if the thought alone was horrifying, Joo Hee shuddered.

“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”

“Seo Ha, you have talent so you’ll do well. I’ll help when I have time.”

Will I really do well?

When Seo Ha first participated in a review meeting, six of her designs were chosen and she was recognized as a super rookie. Eight the next season, twelve the season after that. She never submitted less than ten in a season.

Thanks to that, she was busier than anyone in the office, received more incentives than anyone, and was promoted faster than anyone.

Even if she didn’t know that, Ji Soo’s expression now was too overly confident. As if she was certain that none of Seo Ha’s designs would be chosen.

You must have something up your sleeve.

Seo Ha’s eyes narrowed.

“So. You felt that way?”

“I didn’t just feel that way, it is that way. Please pass the pickled radish.”

Ryu Kyung Jun, who was about to put a rolled-up jjajangmyeon in his mouth, looked at Seo Ha with contempt.

“Have you no conscience? This is my pickled radish. Jo Seo Ha, you already ate all of yours over there.”

“How stingy.”

Seo Ha grumbled as she crunched half of one of the two remaining pieces of pickled radish.

“Eat mine, Seo Ha.”

Kang Hae Sun picked up all the pickled radish that had been placed on her plate and put it in Seo Ha’s bowl.

“Mom is the best after all.”

“Why is the CEO Jo Seo Ha’s mom?”

“She calls me daughter, so I should call her mom. Who knows? Maybe my memory will suddenly come back this way. More importantly……”

Seo Ha looked Kyung Jun up and down.

“Why do you come to our house to eat every day? It’s already been three days.”

As always, he was wearing a crisp white shirt and suit, incongruously sitting on a porch with newspaper spread out, eating jjajangmyeon.

“Because I’m worried about the CEO.”

“Afraid I won’t take good care of her?”

“I told you. I don’t trust you. How can I trust someone who tried to steal Yoon Seo Ha’s designs?”

“Is a company spy any different?”

Seo Ha grumbled as she searched for sweet and sour pork that hadn’t been sauced.

That man’s personality was so broken that he committed the terrible act of pouring sauce over the sweet and sour pork as soon as it arrived today.

“Let’s get to the point. You think Lee Ji Soo is going to do something at the review meeting?”

“Yes. We fought last time, remember?”

Kyung Jun recalled that day and snickered.

“What on earth did you say to Lee Ji Soo?”

“Nothing much. Just that she’s a talentless mistress who became team leader through her married boyfriend’s influence, something like that.”

“Hahaha!”

Suddenly, a loud laugh burst out. Seo Ha looked at Kyung Jun, who was holding his stomach laughing, as if he were crazy.

“What’s so funny?”

“No. It’s just satisfying.”

Kyung Jun was still chuckling as he picked up some sweet and sour pork to eat.

“That’s enough to make her desperate to fire Jo Seo Ha. No one in this company has ever spoken to Lee Ji Soo like that.”

“But everyone knows, don’t they? The atmosphere got tense when I mentioned Yoon Seo Ha in the office.”

“You talked about Yoon Seo Ha too?”

“I saw ‘Yoon Seo Ha’ written on the bottom of the shoes, so I asked who it was.”

“And?”

“They said they didn’t know. That it must be the name of the person who went to buy the shoes. Isn’t that funny? Those shoes were limited edition, only the person themselves could buy them. The craftsman personally measures the size and makes them, engraving the name on the sole, but she insisted they were hers.”

“You were marked from then on.”

“Maybe.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Seo Ha felt comfortable spending time with Kyung Jun.

The Chinese food Seo Ha knew was the kind savored bite by bite in Michelin-starred Chinese restaurants run by reservation only. She wouldn’t even look at jjajangmyeon, a lump of carbohydrates.

“This place is delicious. I think it’s better than the place we ate last time.”

The food Kyung Jun ordered for such a Seo Ha was jjajangmyeon.

“But isn’t the sweet and sour pork better at that place from last time?”

“I don’t know. Secretary Ryu poured the sauce over it.”

Hae Sun smiled as she watched the two bickering while eating without stopping.

“You two get along so well. How long have you been married?”

Seo Ha and Kyung Jun simultaneously stopped eating and looked at each other with eyes full of contempt.

“Mom, I’m not getting married. Especially not to this person, absolutely not.”

“Who would want to.”

“Yeah, next Trojan horse.”

“Okay. Next design thief.”

Even childish arguments that were too embarrassing to let others hear were possible when with Kyung Jun.

“I’m done eating.”

Kyung Jun put down his empty jjajangmyeon bowl and wiped his mouth.

“Now let’s talk. You think Lee Ji Soo is going to do something at the review meeting?”

“I know how people like her operate. She’s probably planning to contact all the managers, employees, and MDs who get invitations to lobby them. Actually, it won’t be lobbying but threats. Saying there will be disadvantages from headquarters if they choose my designs.”

Seo Ha took Hae Sun’s empty bowl and stacked it on top of the one Kyung Jun had set down, gathering the leftover food together. She was diligently following Kyung Jun’s words, ‘I’ll buy the meal, so Jo Seo Ha can clean up.’

“Jo Seo Ha should just seduce Lee Seung Oh. I saw last time that your seduction skills are no joke.”

Kyung Jun sneered. Just as Seo Ha was about to retort, Hae Sun spoke.

“No, Seo Ha. Don’t marry Seung Oh.”