Office Romance Scandal (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 10
Ding. Floor 28. Tae Hong’s sharp, intense gaze didn’t waver until the elevator doors opened. Hae Jin, her entire face flushed with embarrassment, stood stiff as a board.
Had she already used up all her workplace luck on day one? A sudden, heavy feeling hit her—like trials were about to start as early as day two. Before she could fumble an excuse, Tae Hong disappeared through the closing doors without so much as a backward glance.
“Well, what can I do? In the end, it was my own choice.”
Hae Jin stepped onto Floor 28 once again, fully geared up with maximum combat mode. Giving up or backing down simply wasn’t in Jeong Hae Jin’s dictionary.
As she entered the Strategic Planning Department, a few already-present employees greeted her. Seeing their neatly organized desks instantly brought back that piercing look from earlier.
Ugh, was his office really that close? She wasn’t thrilled about being blatantly near the team leader’s room, but what could she do? If ordered to bark, she’d bark.
Just as she was about to turn on her computer, Yeon Jung strode toward her, heels clicking firmly against the floor. Thud—she dropped a thick stack of documents onto Hae Jin’s desk.
“These are work materials related to the team leader’s schedule, Assistant Manager Jeong.”
The pile of papers was fine. But the way Yeon Jung lowered her voice and sharply emphasized the last syllable of her words prickled Hae Jin’s nerves.
“Yes, thank you for sharing the work details, Manager.”
Still, Hae Jin kept her expression calm and gentle. Yeon Jung, cheeks flushed red and then pale, remained standing right there instead of returning to her seat.
“Manager, is there anything else you’d like to say?”
Seeing through her expression, Hae Jin lifted her head to meet Yeon Jung’s gaze. After biting her lip, Yeon Jung finally asked what she’d been dying to know.
“Did you come in with the team leader this morning?”
At that single sentence, Hae Jin’s mental gears began spinning rapidly.
What’s with this woman? Quickly adjusting her narrowing eyes, Hae Jin went straight for the kill.
“Yes. I pick him up at his residence every morning before 7 a.m.”
She added “his residence” unnecessarily—even though the answer could’ve ended much shorter. What kind of reaction would she get? Predictably, a flicker of envy crossed Yeon Jung’s face. And Hae Jin wasn’t about to miss that.
Oh-ho! So that’s how she feels? She already knew Yeon Jung could do a full 180-degree personality switch in front of Tae Hong—but now another mental note was added about her.
Kim Yeon Jung: extremely interested in rugby balls.
“I see? You must be working hard.”
Yeon Jung pretended to stay composed, but the envy and jealousy shimmering in her wavering eyes were obvious at a glance.
“Thank you for your concern.”
Just as Yeon Jung was about to return to her seat, the team leader’s office door opened. When Tae Hong stepped out, Yeon Jung quickly turned her head—but Tae Hong’s eyes met only Hae Jin’s, who stood behind Yeon Jung.
“Oh my! Oh dear!”
Yeon Jung’s exaggerated exclamation broke the tense silence as their sharp gazes had locked moments before.
“Team leader, are you injured?”
When had she even seen that? She made a fuss over the bandage on his hand. Hae Jin followed her gaze and saw the clean bandage, finally feeling relieved—until Yeon Jung’s voice kept rising.
“Oh my, won’t this leave a scar?”
Unable to actually touch Tae Hong’s hand, Yeon Jung continued her over-the-top act—but Tae Hong simply brushed her off lightly.
“It’s fine. Get back to work.”
His calm demeanor, so starkly different from Yeon Jung’s reaction, left Hae Jin feeling awkward on his behalf.
**
By the time she’d finished reviewing the full schedule and scanning all related documents, it was already lunchtime. While others might have eagerly awaited this hour, for Hae Jin it was a time of dilemma.
Should she ask him to eat together, or should she eat alone? As the clock at the bottom of her monitor ticked forward, her heart fluttered faster. It would’ve been less awkward if Tae Hong had some scheduled appointment.
Of all days, his usual lunch arrangement just had to be canceled today.
Ugh. What’s so hard about it?
Knock knock. A “Yes?” came from inside the team leader’s office. Hae Jin took a deep breath, opened the door—and was immediately enveloped by his scent, the same one from that morning.
On his desk sat the coffee he’d finished drinking earlier. Her mild discomfort softened somewhat.
“Team leader.”
She called out to him while he kept his eyes fixed on the documents. Only after signing the last page did Tae Hong finally respond.
“How should we handle lunch?”
“Oh, lunch.”
So he hadn’t given it any thought at all. Her earlier fretting for dozens of minutes now felt foolish. Tae Hong tapped his desk, lost in thought.
“Assistant Manager Jeong, you know… people feel awkward eating in front of someone they’ve wronged, right?”
Before she could even parse this bizarre, cryptic quiz—or guess his intention—Tae Hong gently touched his injured hand.
From the small bandage, she inferred his counterpart must have made a mistake last night. She could only guess; given the mood, she couldn’t ask. She had no intention of letting his fragmented, introspective thoughts spark trouble for her.
“It would feel a bit strange if I invited you to lunch now, wouldn’t it?”
First berating someone, then treating them to a meal the next day—what kind of sociopath was this? Hae Jin found herself reconsidering exactly what kind of boss she was supposed to serve. One thing was certain: he was utterly unpredictable.
“Do you perhaps want an apology?”
“Less an apology, more…”
Tae Hong rubbed his forehead, looking troubled—as if the bandage on his hand suddenly glinted under the light.
“There’s a contract we need to finalize with that company, but I walked out without being able to say I wanted to pretend the incident never happened.”
So once Moon Tae Hong marks you, there’s no way out. His sharp, cutting remark that morning was as insignificant as fresh blood on a new arrow.
“What do you like?”
“Excuse me?”
Hae Jin instinctively stepped back as Tae Hong approached.
“We’ll be having meals together frequently from now on—why look so surprised?”
“What?”
“Your adaptability really is…”
Tae Hong openly shook his head. With each blink, individual words hammered into Hae Jin’s mind: So… from now on… we’ll be eating… together… often?
“Does that include all scheduled work meals too?”
“You give me plenty of reasons to talk to upper management.”
This was clearly a scheme—and a trap—of his own making. Snap out of it, Jeong Hae Jin. Absolutely do not fall for it.
“Aren’t you coming?”
Team members watched in hushed silence as the two exited the team leader’s office together.
**
Hae Jin, seated in the driver’s seat, ignored the ignition and focused instead on searching for good restaurants on her phone. All he’d said upon getting in the car was “Japanese food”—basically instructing her to find a place that matched his tastes on her own.
But for Hae Jin, this wasn’t particularly difficult. She already knew Seoul’s best restaurants inside out. She loved food, and there was a time when she’d been busy taking and posting pictures of every meal she ate.
Of course… that was the “good old days” now.
Effortlessly entering the address into the navigation, Hae Jin started driving. Only after she turned off the engine did Tae Hong finally look around. Though close to the office, the neighborhood was unfamiliar to him.
“Have you been here before?”
“Yes, I came once before.”
Tae Hong nodded politely and got out of the car. His eyes immediately landed on the packed restaurant.
“I guess it’s a popular spot.”
“Used to have wait times of several hours.”
She naturally wrote their names on the waiting list. Fortunately, they didn’t wait long before their names were called, and they entered the restaurant.
Hae Jin flipped through the menu, asking Tae Hong various questions before placing their order.
Food arrived swiftly and was laid out on the table.
“Go ahead and try it.”
At Hae Jin’s urging, he picked up his chopsticks and took a bite. Though the sushi looked ordinary, his nod prompted her immediate follow-up.
“Does it suit your taste?”
Instead of answering, Tae Hong simply picked up another piece of sushi and put it in his mouth. Only then did Hae Jin allow herself a small, quiet smile and begin eating.
She’d expected it to feel awkward. She’d thought she might choke. But the food went down smoothly, and sharing the meal didn’t feel difficult at all.
Strangely, in his presence, she found herself unconsciously becoming not “Dedicated Assistant Manager Jeong Hae Jin,” but simply “Jeong Hae Jin the person.”
Why was that?
Both Hae Jin and Tae Hong ate in focused silence, too absorbed in how delicious the food was to talk.
After paying, Hae Jin mentioned there was a next stop, asked him to wait a moment, and quickly stepped next door—returning shortly with two cups of coffee.
“Grabbing coffee from the shop next door is an essential part of visiting this place.”
She handed one cup to Tae Hong. As if on cue, he took a cool, refreshing sip—seeming to have been craving coffee.
“Not bad. The Jeong Hae Jin food tour.”
“What?”
She wanted to ask what he meant—but Tae Hong had already gotten back into the car.
Tilting her head slightly in confusion, Hae Jin quickly got in after him. On the drive back to the office, Tae Hong—who’d already downed half his coffee—finally spoke while still looking at his phone.
“Assistant Manager Jeong… I think I might’ve been a bit harsh this morning.”
Was this about what he’d said in the elevator?
“If you were upset, just let it go—within reason.”
Was this an apology… or pouring oil on the fire? Honestly, it was hard to keep up with him.
Of course, she knew that someone in his position was far more suited to giving orders than offering apologies. Then she recalled another mental note: Rugby balls never apologize to others.
“It’s fine. I’d already forgotten about it.”
“Good.”
Hae Jin gave an awkward smile and quietly exhaled through her nose. For a crown prince, his luck really was terrible.
She put her polite social smile back on. Inside the car, the only sound was ice cubes clinking in their takeaway cups.
“Assistant Manager Jeong.”
A low, deep voice cut through the clear, crisp sound of ice cracking.
“How do you know the chairman?”
Hae Jin hesitated. The longer the silence stretched, the more her coffee emptied.
“Why the sudden curiosity?”
The car pulled into the company parking lot.
“The truth is, I don’t have a single backup file on Assistant Manager Jeong.”
The engine shut off. The quiet interior grew even more silent. No one passed by their reserved parking spot. Even the last ice cube had melted away.
“The day before you started, he just casually tossed it out—‘You’ll have a personal secretary starting tomorrow.’”
“But I emailed my resume…”
“Guess you sent it to HR. Nothing ended up in my hands.”
She understood he wasn’t talking about her resume. He meant Jeong Hae Jin the person—not the employee.
She wasn’t naive enough to miss that. Especially considering it made no sense to just stand by and watch a parachute drop from the sky.
Whatever he did next, it only weighed heavier on her heart. Claiming “no time to share info” was just a surface-level excuse—if he’d deliberately withheld it, that was another story entirely.
“Think carefully.”
“What do you mean?”
“Forget the trivial, unverified skills written on paper. Prove your abilities yourself, Assistant Manager Jeong.”
Prove you’re not just a “parachute hire.”
“And figure out exactly where you truly belong.”
It was an order—from the person holding her lifeline.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
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I like his honesty and my god there is communication.