“…?”

Seo Ha looked at Hae Sun with an expression of disbelief. Hae Sun’s eyes were still clear, a bit dazed, and steadily reflecting Seo Ha.

“Mom. What did you say?”

“Don’t marry Lee Seung Oh.”

Hae Sun repeated.

“His inferiority complex will eat him alive. Seo Ha, although I raised Seung Oh like my own son, he’s not my real son. You’re my only child. I just want you to be happy.”

Mom always supported and encouraged Seo Ha’s choices. Even if they were completely wrong. Because of this, Seo Ha grew into an adult who was even more cautious about ‘choices’.

You knew all along. That’s why you supported and encouraged me even more.

The jajangmyeon she had just eaten sat heavily in her stomach.

“Jo Seo Ha.”

Suddenly startled by Kyung Jun’s call, Seo Ha snapped out of her thoughts.

“Yes?”

“Do you want Yoon Seo Ha to wake up?”

“… Why do you ask that?”

“If I were Jo Seo Ha, I think I’d want to live my whole life just calling the CEO ‘mom, mom’.”

Kyung Jun roughly shoved the empty bowls into a plastic bag and sprawled out on the bench.

“Just saying. I’ve never been loved like that, so I don’t know, but I’m curious what it feels like.”

Seo Ha didn’t know much about Kyung Jun. Just that he was the hidden son of the Taeyang Group chairman, that was all.

He didn’t seem to have been raised gently. He always maintained a stiff and elite attitude at the company, but when sitting on the rooftop bench, he was as laid-back as a neighborhood bum.

Just like Jae Wook, who was now coming up with a pot in his hands.

“Why are you always here? Don’t you go home?”

Jae Wook’s gruff voice was interspersed with Min Ji’s yapping.

“You should maintain boundaries between tenant and landlord. During the lease period, this is the tenant’s space, and it’s illegal for the landlord to enter without permission.”

“I’ve been coming up here and carrying Grandmother Jo Seo Ha on my back since she was alive. And now Kang Yoon comes and talks about the law?”

Jae Wook grumbled as he set the pot down on the bench.

“Jo Seo Ha, eat this tomorrow. Yesterday delivery, today delivery. If I don’t feed you, are you going to live on deliveries forever? Who’s going to pay the overdue rent if you die?”

“Is the rent overdue?”

Kyung Jun’s forehead wrinkled. He sat up abruptly and pulled out his wallet from his inner pocket.

“How much is it? I’ll pay it right here.”

Jae Wook always had a disgruntled expression, but today was the first time he scrunched up his face this much.

“Who are you to pay Jo Seo Ha’s rent?”

“Company welfare. We provide a certain amount for rent support.”

Of course, there was no such welfare. Even if there was, it would be providing officetel for high-ranking executives or main designers, not paying rent for a lowly designer.

But Jae Wook, who had no way of knowing this, was visibly flustered.

“What, no. Forget it. I wasn’t going to take it any- I mean. Damn it!”

Jae Wook messed up his hair and blustered for no reason.

“Forget it, eat tomorrow. You, if you’re done eating jajangmyeon, hurry up and get out, go down!”

It seemed like he wanted to say ‘hurry up and get out’.

Seo Ha tilted her head and opened the pot lid. A savory smell wafted from the hot doenjang stew that seemed freshly cooked.

“Smells delicious.”

“Jo Seo Ha, are you going to marry that tenant?”

Seo Ha almost dropped the lid at the sudden, out-of-nowhere question.

“What are you talking about?”

Kyung Jun’s expression, which seemed even more dumbfounded than Seo Ha’s incredulous one, was even more baffling.

“Weren’t you two dating?”

“Why are you jumping to conclusions?”

“The landlord had a one-sided crush. He seems like a good person, give it a try.”

She had never even thought about it. The relationship between ‘Jo Seo Ha’ and Kim Jae Wook.

It was strange. Why did he leave the empty rooftop room vacant for three years waiting for Jo Seo Ha, why didn’t he press for the overdue rent, and why did he prepare meals every day despite being busy?

It’s just that his way of speaking was so rough that she hadn’t thought it could be love for Jo Seo Ha.

Assuming he always spoke like that.

Seo Ha looked down at the doenjang stew pot. The meals she had gratefully received suddenly felt burdensome.

Jo Seo Ha.

That night, why did you raise the red brick towards me? Why did our bodies switch, of all things?

Are you… trapped in Yoon Seo Ha’s body now?

“If you’re done eating, leave. Don’t talk nonsense.”

“I was about to leave anyway.”

As Seo Ha tried to chase him away, Kyung Jun grumbled and met Hae Sun’s eyes.

“CEO. I’ll be heading out now.”

He introduces himself to Hae Sun trapped in her memories every day, and when leaving, he reports that he’s going home.

Now it was time for Hae Sun to tilt her head and ask, ‘Who is this? Is he our new employee?’

“Good work, Secretary Ryu. See you tomorrow.”

Kyung Jun’s eyes widened. Seo Ha had never known he could look so surprised.

“What did you say? CEO, who did you say I…”

He was so shocked he could barely speak properly.

“What’s wrong, Secretary Ryu?”

Hae Sun asked, looking directly at Kyung Jun. Kyung Jun’s expression gradually changed from surprise to bewilderment, then to joy.

“It’s nothing. CEO, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Kyung Jun bowed politely to Hae Sun.

It was such a funny situation. While the actual son-in-law was looking for an opportunity to somehow eat up and sell the company, the person who entered as a spy was serving Hae Sun so sincerely.

Seo Ha escorted Kyung Jun to the entrance of the stairs. If she ever returned to being Yoon Seo Ha, she wanted to make sure to thank him.

[This is the timeline separator]

The design room was always busy, but when preparing for an evaluation meeting, it was literally a battlefield.

The designers were already working overtime after overtime with dark circles down to their knees. The sound of sewing machines didn’t stop from dawn to midnight, and meals were always kimbap, sandwiches, or boxed lunches.

Just preparing for the evaluation meeting was busy enough, but being the newest member made it worse. Seo Ha, who was two, three, or four times busier than others, shouted as she put down the box she had just received from the pattern room.

“Patterns are here!”

When a designer sends a work order, the pattern room creates patterns accordingly. Only with these can sketches become actual samples.

Each owner came running to collect their important patterns. Seo Ha looked into the box to find her own pattern that should be left after everyone had taken theirs.

“Huh…?”

It wasn’t there. It needed to arrive today to meet the schedule.

Flustered, Seo Ha went around checking each designer’s desk who had just taken their patterns.

“Seo Yeon, can I see your pattern for a moment? Seo Yeon, by any chance…”

After making a full round like that, the last was Lee Ji Soo.

“Team leader. Can I take a look at the pattern you just took?”

“Of course. Why, is something wrong?”

Lee Ji Soo smiled brightly as she tapped the pattern spread out on her desk. Seeing that smile full of composure and savoring victory, Seo Ha quietly thought.

Another tantrum.

“Mine didn’t come from the pattern room… I thought it might have gotten mixed up.”

“Oh my. Everything else came? There must have been some mistake in the pattern room. You should contact them right away.”

She seemed completely unaware that her pretend concern was visible to all the team members.

So this is how you got rid of designers you didn’t like one by one. That’s why all the designers who raised Kang Yoon with me disappeared in just three years.

“Yes… I understand.”

Seo Ha greeted with a deflated voice and returned to her seat.

Lee Ji Soo couldn’t help but laugh as she watched that retreating figure.

It’s useless to contact the pattern room now. I’ve warned them not to accept any work orders coming in under Jo Seo Ha’s name.

And if she tried to make dozens of patterns herself in the already limited time, forget about quality, it was obvious she wouldn’t even finish by the evaluation meeting.

You think I got this far just with the backing of my married boyfriend without any skills? No. I’ve crushed, fired, and stepped on people like you who said that, and made it to team leader with my own power.

While Ji Soo watched, Seo Ha returned to her seat and called the pattern room. The result wasn’t much different from what she expected.

“No, I’m telling you mine was the only one missing when you sent them all the same. How can you say it’s not possible?”

[It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s that it’ll take over a week.]

“That’s the same thing. Don’t you know how busy we are right now?”

[We’re busy too. Get lost!]

The call was coldly cut off. After staring at the disconnected phone for a while, Seo Ha packed her bag and stood up from her seat.

“I’m going to Dongdaemun.”

Since Dongdaemun was a place they had to frequent even more than the company, no one paid attention.

Seo Ha soon got into a car heading to Dongdaemun. Not a bus or subway, and certainly not a taxi.

“What’s this all of a sudden? Do you think I’m Jo Seo Ha’s secretary?”

Despite grumbling all sorts of complaints, Kyung Jun skillfully turned on his blinker and merged into an empty lane.

“It’s for the company, please help me out. I’m taking good care of the CEO, aren’t I?”

“…”

Lee Seung Oh still hadn’t filed a missing person report. It meant he had no intention of finding Hae Sun.

So, if Seo Ha hadn’t found Hae Sun then, no one knows what would have happened.

The place Seo Ha dragged the speechless Kyung Jun to was Dongdaemun. In this place teeming with all sorts of factories and design rooms, there were naturally plenty of skilled pattern rooms as well.

“There it is.”

Seo Ha’s eyes lit up as she found her destination after winding through the maze-like back alleys.

Kang Yoon started in Dongdaemun. Until the company grew and had its own building and hired professional pattern makers, all the patterns for Kang Yoon’s products came from this old pattern room.

“What is this place?”

“I can’t use the company pattern room because of Lee Ji Soo’s prank. You have enough for outsourcing fees, right?”

Seo Ha dragged Kyung Jun along and knocked on the door. Soon after, the door swung open without a response.

“Who is it?”

An irritable-looking, thin old man poked his head out through the open door.

“Hello. I’m here to request some patterns.”

“We’re busy, can’t do it. Go somewhere else.”

“Wait a moment, sir!”

Seo Ha quickly stuck her foot in the door as it was about to close rudely.

“Ah, I said we’re too busy!”

“If you can finish by tomorrow, I’ll pay double the unit price.”

“Somewhere-”

“Triple.”

“Come in. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“I’d be grateful.”

As Seo Ha was about to quickly follow him in, Kyung Jun grabbed her shoulder and whispered.

“Why are you tripling the unit price?”

“Don’t talk about things you don’t know. Same-day work always costs more, and especially Master Park here is a thorough capitalist.”

“Master?”

From inside, Master Park shouted for them to hurry up and come in. Seo Ha quickly dragged Kyung Jun in and closed the door.

Lee Ji Soo thought Seo Ha would stay up all night crying trying to make the patterns, but Seo Ha was someone who had been through thick and thin in this field and risen to team leader.