Office Romance Scandal - Chapter 15

The car that was moving smoothly came to a stop. The driver got out of the car and willingly opened the back door.

Hae Jin followed the driver. As they entered unfamiliar alleyways, an old house with a courtyard came into view. Just then, the man walking ahead also stopped.

The tranquil old house was quite different from Hae Jin’s state of mind. Though the peaceful yard seemed to beckon her to enter, Hae Jin’s steps were hesitant.

“The chairman is waiting for you.”

With a polite greeting, he extended his arm to indicate where Hae Jin should go. Following his pointing finger, she saw the slightly open door of the old house. Through the gap in the door, she could see the person she was supposed to meet.

She walked with a short, deep breath. The few steps felt quite long, but she reached her destination quickly. She slipped her hand into the open door crack and smoothly opened it.

“Hello.”

Steam rose from the teacup placed in front. Tea – on her first day at work, he had given her tea. She remembered hearing that he offers tea to people he doesn’t like.

Like father, like son? Without realizing it, she chuckled and her tension eased somewhat.

“Sit down.”

It felt quite different from when he had abruptly visited Hae Jin’s home. Then, he had come emphasizing that he was her father’s friend, but now it was a meeting between the chairman of Yeonchang Group and a lowly assistant manager.

Relationships were truly funny. The moment money became involved, a hierarchy was created, and there were superiors and subordinates.

So there was no reason for him to wear a benevolent expression. Of course, he wasn’t doing so either.

“Have some tea.”

His wrinkled hand poured the tea himself. Hae Jin drank it without hesitation. Perhaps she wasn’t such a welcome guest to him either.

Though the view outside the window was a lush green lawn, the atmosphere between the two people felt like a deep gray.

Jun Tae broke the silence first.

“How is the work? Are you managing?”

“Yes. I’m adapting.”

“He may be my son, but he’s a demanding one.”

It might sound like a good-natured laugh, but his eyes were sharp, without a single wrinkle.

“How is Tae Hong these days? Is he causing any trouble?”

“No, he isn’t.”

The answer was brief. Instead of questions, the room filled with hearty laughter.

“Hahaha.”

This time he seemed to be genuinely amused, laughing with deep wrinkles around his eyes.

“Assistant Manager Jung, you seem to be trembling, thinking the team leader holds your lifeline.”

Hae Jin discreetly bit the inside of her lower lip. Jun Tae, having completely wiped the smile off his face, calmly sipped his tea.

“What good is it to receive reports from a thirty-year-old son?”

Though his voice sounded like a lament, that surely wasn’t the case. Hiding her rising tension as best she could, she simply responded, “Is that so?”

“The reason I asked to see Assistant Manager Jung is because of Tae Hong’s marriage issue.”

“Ma-marriage?”

It was something she had never thought about or considered the entire way here. She had assumed he was trying to manipulate her, but it was actually about his son’s marriage.

“You must have noticed while working with him, does he even have time for dating?”

That was true. Though he said he didn’t stop women from coming or going, she had never seen Tae Hong make time to meet women personally.

As his actions contradicting his words came to mind one by one, Hae Jin became quite serious.

“I need Assistant Manager Jung to help a bit.”

“Me?”

Jun Tae’s words were this: Since young people these days pursue natural meetings, he said he would create suitable opportunities.

So he had called her because of his son’s marriage. This was truly awkward. Was he the type of person to listen to Hae Jin’s words? Would the perceptive man not know?

Of course, she wasn’t confident.

“As you know, Chairman, given how unpredictable he is, will that work well?”

She had only said it because he was truly unpredictable, but Jun Tae’s reaction was sharp.

“Shouldn’t you make your hefty compensation worthwhile?”

The team leader held her lifeline, and the chairman held her purse strings.

The unexpected turn of events was bewildering. In the end, the only answer Hae Jin could give in this situation was a half-hearted “I understand.”

“Ah, and I’d prefer if Tae Hong didn’t know about this. If he finds out it’s a setup pre-arranged by his father while claiming it’s a natural meeting, how could that be natural?”

It meant to keep her mouth shut. This time too, her answer was “Yes.”

Perhaps it would have been better if he had asked her to report every single move. How could she control someone else’s love life and marriage? Especially when it came to Moon Tae Hong.

In the past, during his glamorous days, there was a girl who had complained about her father lining up a series of arranged meetings at social gatherings. The eldest daughter of the Hamin Group, Jo Se Young. Even her name was unforgettable.

What had she said? That she disliked artificial meetings that weren’t natural. The problem was that her idea of natural meetings were drinking parties.

That’s why her father had tried so hard to set her up with the sons of prominent families one after another.

But Tae Hong was obsessed with work, would anything work – whether it was natural meetings or arranged ones? Her head was throbbing.

Afterwards, the driver promptly took Hae Jin home. Though her body was comfortable, her mind was not at all at ease. She barely managed to lie down on the bed with a thump, when her phone rang.

Ever since receiving a message from Jun Tae, she flinched every time her phone rang.

The caller was the team leader, Tae Hong. She clutched the phone that rang at such an unbelievable timing and barely managed to answer.

“Yes, Team Leader.”

Her voice was hoarse, perhaps from being so nervous. The tension had also suddenly released.

-I called about sharing the schedule.

He just checked a few situations. They were such simple matters that she wondered if they really needed to be done over the phone.

“Then I’ll hang up.”

-Assistant Manager Jung Hae Jin, were you sleeping?

“What? Yes.”

Having blurted out a lie by reflex, she tried to take back her words, making things even more awkward.

-I see. Go back to sleep then.

Click. As always, he hung up abruptly. Though she hadn’t actually been sleeping, a wave of fatigue suddenly washed over her. So much for a sparkling weekend – being pulled this way and that, the weekend was coming to an end.

A photo arrived promptly on Tae Hong’s phone after he hung up. It showed Hae Jin and Jun Tae together. Perhaps because he had asked for Hae Jin’s face to be the focus, her face filled the screen.

He chuckled at Hae Jin’s expression in the photo. From observing Hae Jin, he already knew she had diverse expressions. It was no different in the transmitted photo.

Expressions of determination along with surprise – her expressions were predictable in a familiar way.

He couldn’t know the content of their conversation. Jun Tae had met with Hae Jin alone, even excluding his close aides. He had to guess the conversation roughly based on her expressions.

Did she say she couldn’t report, and that’s why she looked surprised by the threat? He felt like he had to write a novel just from her expressions, but Tae Hong was willing to go through the trouble.

Hae Jin absolutely had to be part of the project he was spearheading in this year’s new business. It would not only be an opportunity to firmly establish his position as the successor, but also a chance to create another source of income for Yeonchang.

If asked what card Hae Jin was, he could answer without hesitation.

She was a card that had to be obtained.

**

The weekend that wasn’t quite a weekend passed by. She hadn’t been able to rest during the weekend. Her tangled thoughts wouldn’t easily unravel. Even if she just lay down to recharge without doing anything, time flowed on its own.

She had to somehow pull herself together on the way to Tae Hong’s house. She didn’t want to drag her worries all the way to work.

“Good morning, Team Leader.”

“Yes.”

Tae Hong started his day by checking the morning news on his phone. So he often gave perfunctory responses to Hae Jin’s greetings.

It was a bit awkward at first, but once she got used to it, it became just another part of her routine.

When Tae Hong finished reading the news and took his eyes off his phone after get
ting in the car, Hae Jin would give a brief briefing on that day’s schedule.

Some days he would listen with his eyes closed, and other days he would occasionally look at Hae Jin while listening.

“Assistant Manager Jung Hae Jin.”

“Yes?”

“Did you sleep well?”

She answered naturally to the sudden question. She said she slept better than anyone, but her dry skin and bloodshot eyes said otherwise.

“We’ll have a Planning Team 4 meeting today.”

“Yes, I’ll prepare right away.”

“The topic is work distribution.”

She nodded and said yes, but then a question returned. “Work distribution?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to launch a brand?”

Ah, that’s right. But she hadn’t expected it to happen so suddenly.

“You know it’s the most important project this year.”

His fingers that had been flipping through his phone stopped. Hae Jin gripped the steering wheel tightly.

“My job is on the line too, so we need to prepare as soon as possible.”

“When you mention even your job being at stake, Team Leader, the pressure is no joke.”

“That’s the point.”

She had barely managed to suppress her natural inclination to be friendly, only to have job security come up.

“Assistant Manager Jung Hae Jin, do you want your work experience disclosed?”

Disclosing her work experience would bring up Sion, and people would point fingers calling it a failed company.

Disclosing her identity would mean revealing she was the owner’s daughter, wouldn’t it? It was obvious that indiscriminate finger-pointing would be directed at her father, Han Sung.

When things were going well, it would be praise and boasting about her father, but when it ultimately failed, it would end up being criticism and cursing. Could she endure hearing that?

“No. I don’t want to disclose it.”

“I see.”

Tae Hong respected Hae Jin’s opinion. Hae Jin wanted only Tae Hong to know that she was Han Sung’s daughter and the achievements she had made there.

She didn’t have the confidence yet to hear people’s evaluations of the failed Sion. She wanted only herself, as the daughter, to be able to criticize her parents who still hadn’t contacted her.

She wanted to work properly, standing up to their prejudices. The experience of having successfully planned once before gave Hae Jin confidence.

She was confident she could do it properly this time too.

Hae Jin entered together behind Tae Hong as he arrived at the office. The team members greeted Tae Hong one by one, and Hae Jin sat at her desk.

“Let’s start the meeting in 30 minutes.”

The team members moved in an orderly fashion, entering the conference room early to prepare. Hae Jin also went in carrying related materials. Tae Hong entered last, and the meeting began.

“Before we start the meeting.”

The pen that had been spinning on Tae Hong’s finger stopped. As he paused his words, the heads of the employees who had been looking at the meeting materials lifted.

All the employees focused on Tae Hong’s lips.

Male lead is a Divorced Husband

She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”

Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.

After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.

She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.

But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…

Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!

――

This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!

The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.

That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”

Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”

The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”

That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”

Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”

The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.

Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.

“She was originally a ‘she’!”

At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.

The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”

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