He was feeling very uncomfortable now. It wasn’t enough that the suspicious intern had come all the way up to the president’s office, but she had stayed there for quite a while before coming out.

“Ah, hello.”

“What brings an intern to the president’s office so early in the morning?”

“I had something to give to President Lee Seung Oh… He said I could come yesterday too. He said he’d let you know… but…”

Letting me know?

Recalling her memory, she remembered. Yesterday, Seung Oh had said that if someone came up to the president’s office tomorrow morning, just let them in.

She thought it was Ji Soo. Was it Seo Ha he was talking about?

Kyung Joon looked down at Seo Ha, his displeasure apparent.

She was still a woman in shabby sneakers and an unfashionable outfit of unknown origin. But who knew how dark her intentions were hidden behind that simple appearance?

“You’re quite resourceful, Miss Yoon Seo Ha.”

“Excuse me…?”

Seo Ha looked up at him with a puzzled expression.

“Even though you were unqualified, you got hired just by exchanging a few words. Entering the president’s office on your first day of work. What’s the next step?”

“Well”

“Should I guess?”

Kyung Joon leaned in slightly. His soft voice whispered about an inch away from Seo Ha’s ear.

“You’ll run into each other a few more times, pretending it’s a coincidence. Then, you’ll naturally have a drink together. One day, after sleeping and waking up, you’ll become Seung Oh’s second mistress and drive to work in a luxury car.”

Kyung Joon straightened up and smirked.

“That’s a bold guess.”

Seo Ha admitted it was a roughly drawn picture. She wouldn’t go as far as the terrible method of sleeping with Seung Oh. It was too unconscionable to do something she wouldn’t do with her own body, even if it was borrowed from someone else for a while.

“You have quite an imagination, Secretary Ryu. But it seems like a decent scenario.”

“…?”

When she was Yoon Seo Ha, Seo Ha’s hand flicked upwards, closer to his face than before. At that gesture, Kyung Joon bent down again, bringing his ear close to her lips.

“Lee Ji Soo’s design is so damn awful.”

Kyung Joon’s brow furrowed slightly. Seo Ha added more clearly in a lower voice.

“As long as Ji Soo is the main designer, Kang Yoon will fail.”

Raising his head, Kyung Joon looked at Seo Ha as if he had seen something absurd.

Seo Ha slightly raised the corner of her lips, smiling. The ordinary face of Yoon Seo Ha momentarily overlapped and then quickly disappeared.

“…You’re quite bold.”

“It’s the answer you wanted, Secretary Ryu. You wouldn’t believe me no matter what I say.”

Seo Ha walked past him and squeezed out between the wall and Kyung Joon.

“I’ll be going. Have a nice day.”

Kyung Joon didn’t take his eyes off Seo Ha’s back until she disappeared into the elevator hall. She was a really strange and suspicious woman. Much more than he had thought.

The design room, just after the end of the first half of the season, was like a battlefield. Thick winter fabrics emitted dust like a shedding cat, and the designers repeated meetings and work with expressionless faces. The new designers were also busy doing various tasks they were assigned.

Amidst all the busyness, Seo Ha, sitting at her desk, seemed like a person from another world.

“Soyeon, are you very busy? Is there anything I can do?”

Seo Ha spoke to Soyeon Jung, a designer who joined the company with her. Soyeon, with a round forehead and kindlooking eyes, lifted her head and answered as if delighted.

“Could you iron these clothes hanging here? Jeong Eun asked me, but I have to sew buttons here too”

“Hey, what are you doing now?”

Ji Soo approached and asked. Startled, Soyeon shrank her shoulders with wide, frightened eyes like a rabbit.

“Seo Ha’s hands are free, so I was going to ask her to help with the ironing…”

“Wasn’t Seo Jeong Eun already asked to do the ironing earlier?”

Ji Soo snatched the iron from Seo Ha with a grin and threw it next to Soyeon’s desk. Soyeon, who had done nothing wrong, shrank her shoulders even more.

Pushing people away so blatantly and childishly. This could never have happened when Seo Ha was leading the design room.

“Then, what should I do?”

Seo Ha asked, blinking her innocent eyes.

“Just sit, Seo Ha. There’s nothing for you to do.”

“So, you don’t have any tasks for me?”

“As you can see, we’re very busy. If you accidentally cause a problem, we’ll have even more work to do, right? I’m not feeling comfortable either.”

“Yes, thank you!”

Seo Ha bowed and sat down, opening her design book. She also neatly spread out her sharpened pencils and colored pencils.

“…What are you doing, Seo Ha?”

“Designing.”

“Aren’t you an intern?”

As she felt from before, Ji Soo never stuttered in front of people weaker than her.

“Can’t interns do designs?”

“Designers are the ones who do designs.”

“But I also got recognized for my designs and joined the company.”

Seo Ha maintained an attitude of genuinely asking because she didn’t know. Ji Soo clenched her teeth and forced a pleasant smile.

“Go ahead and try, then. Seo Ha, you’re so passionate, and I like that.”

“Thank you for the compliment, hehe.”

Seo Ha also laughed loudly and picked up her pencil.

Alone in the office after everyone had left, she drew and discarded hundreds, thousands of sketches. She even dreamed of designing, and before the dream completely faded, she would suddenly wake up, hastily sketch with her eyes barely open, and then collapse back to sleep.

The most excellent sketches among them were still in this office. They were under the desk that Ji Soo now occupied, in a small safe that no one knew the password to.

What did it look like?

Seo Ha moved her hand unknowingly, recalling the last sketch she had put in the safe. The final design she had created for a brand with Yoon Seo Ha’s name slowly came back to life on the paper.

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