Huff, huff, the sound of heavy breathing filled the stairwell.

The “warehouse over there” that Mo Na mentioned was a long walk away, down two floors of emergency stairs.

Since it was on the opposite side from the elevators, stairs had to be used to move the cargo.

She must have deliberately assigned this task knowing this.

The boxes mostly contained subsidiary materials, so they were quite heavy.

“Whew… I’ll have to make at least five more trips.”

Putting down a box and wiping the sweat from her forehead, Se Eun let out a quiet sigh.

She had been somewhat prepared for this since joining the same company as Mo Na.

After her parents’ death, Se Eun returned to the Ko San family home, where she faced not only Ko San but also the barriers of Ko Do Hwa and Shin Mo Na.

Shin Mo Na, her cousin a year younger, was hostile to Se Eun from the start.

She took away all of Se Eun’s favorite things – books, toys – and if she couldn’t take them, she broke them.

The childish bullying of youth gradually turned into violent outbursts as they grew up.

Physical attacks were common, and she would deliberately lock Se Eun, who was afraid of the dark, in rooms.

Ko Do Hwa clearly saw her daughter’s behavior but overlooked it.

Rather, she secretly encouraged and pushed her on.

If Mo Na directly hit Se Eun, her aunt would torment her by starving her or chasing her out to the yard.

They only hit areas that wouldn’t be visible to Ko San, and always firmly silenced her after the abuse.

If she cried, there would be no food that day.

It was truly a miserable childhood.

Of course, it was no different afterwards. Even until now.

Not once had the two of them ever treated Se Eun as family.

As her thoughts began to linger, Se Eun shook her head.

She didn’t want to dwell on painful memories.

Se Eun dragged her feet back to where the cargo was.

Somehow her steps felt heavier than before.

*

Having overexerted herself from the first day, her body felt like lead by quitting time.

She even felt a slight pain in her ankle.

It became clear that Mo Na had deliberately tormented her when, after finishing moving all the boxes, she claimed she’d made a mistake and told Se Eun to move them all back.

But Se Eun couldn’t resist.

After all, Mo Na had been asked to train her, and she claimed this was also part of the job.

“Elder sister Se Eun. Are you done? Then now please input all this data into the computer.”

“All of… this?”

Se Eun trailed off as she looked up and down at the mountain of books piled on the desk.

Not only was the quantity overwhelming, but it seemed like data that didn’t even need to be entered.

Above all, it was almost time to leave work.

“Shouldn’t you learn step by step from the beginning? You’re a complete blank slate after all. You can study while inputting the data.”

At the phrase “blank slate,” Se Eun felt the other employees glancing in their direction.

Finding those glances harder to bear, Se Eun eventually nodded.

“Good thinking. Your hands are fine, so there shouldn’t be any problems with working.”

“…”

Another harsh remark flew at her.

Sometimes words could be sharper thorns than physical blows.

Just as she was about to pick up whichever book was within reach, suddenly a familiar rough voice came from the door.

“My, my, does our sister-in-law not know about labor laws?”

“…!”

The cheerful voice tickling her ears, the provocative atmosphere permeating the air.

Surprisingly, standing there was her husband, Ki Sun Woo.

As Se Eun and Mo Na’s eyes turned to him simultaneously, he asked with the corners of his mouth pulled up.

“Or is there some sinister reason you need to make my wife work overtime on her first day?”

At the word “sinister,” Shin Mo Na’s expression immediately crumpled.

With clear displeasure on her face, Mo Na glared at Ki Sun Woo.

“What? Why are you here?”

“Tsk, tsk. Such a poor welcome for your brother-in-law. Why do you think I’m here? Sister-in-law. Of course I came to pick up your elder sister.”

Leaning casually against the open doorway, he quickly scanned the office interior.

His sharp gaze was keenly catching the atmosphere of the place.

At his sudden appearance, the design team employees all started murmuring.

“Hmm~”

As if finding it amusing, Sun Woo strode into the room.

Step by step, Se Eun blankly watched his leisurely gait.

Soon he approached Se Eun’s side very naturally and smiled brightly.

At that smile with a clear temperature difference, Se Eun hurriedly opened her mouth.

“…I told you not to come. I said I’d go home on my own.”

“Well, let’s just say I had a feeling this would happen.”

Sun Woo narrowed his eyes as he stared at Mo Na.

The other employees didn’t dare intervene, merely observing this sudden situation.

“I see. Of course, it must be hard to say anything to her face no matter what nasty things the granddaughter of the Ko San Group does.”

“Ha! Excuse me, brother-in-law? Who’s doing nasty things?”

“No? Weren’t you just acting like the evil stepsister just now?”

“I can’t believe this…”

At Mo Na’s expression of disbelief, Se Eun felt a sense of foreboding and quickly grabbed Sun Woo’s arm.

“It’s not like that.”

“No way. I heard everything about that mountain of books just now. Hm?”

Suddenly Sun Woo’s gaze fell on Se Eun’s dirty clothes and her awkwardly raised foot.

At the same time, his expression turned to clear anger.

“Yeon Se Eun. What’s wrong with your leg? Why are your new clothes covered in dust?”

“What? Oh, this is…”

As if not even expecting an answer, Sun Woo fixed his eyes on Shin Mo Na.

It was as if she could hear him saying, “Why don’t you explain?”

This was troublesome. These were people she’d just met today, and she hadn’t even properly greeted them yet.

Although she didn’t know how long she’d work here, she didn’t want to cause a scene on her first day.

Se Eun urged him, almost linking arms with Sun Woo.

“Let’s go now. I’ll do the work… tomorrow. Right, Mo Na?”

Shin Mo Na was silent for a moment before nodding arrogantly.

For her part, she also didn’t want troublesome things happening with many eyes watching.

However, Ki Sun Woo didn’t let himself be dragged out so easily.

With a seemingly fabricated, bright smile, he openly declared:

“Right. We’re both parachuted in anyway, so let’s try to get along well.”

Suddenly, silence fell over the entire office.

“What…!”

Mo Na, who couldn’t hold back any longer as the heat rushed to her head, raised her voice.

Then Sun Woo approached her, seeming rather pleased, and whispered something in her ear.

In an instant, Mo Na’s face turning pale was clearly visible even to Se Eun.

Right away, Mo Na waved her hand as if annoyed.

“…You can go home now. Elder sister. Good work today.”

“Oh? Oh… Okay.”

“Well then, shall we go? I’ll make your favorite thing when we get home.”

Sun Woo turned around brightly and put his arm around Se Eun’s shoulders.

Without time to ask what he’d said to Mo Na, Se Eun left the company half-embraced in Ki Sun Woo’s arms.

It was truly a lightning-fast departure from work.

*

“Senior Mo Na. Aren’t you leaving?”

“You go ahead. I’ll tidy up a bit and go.”

“Okay. See you tomorrow then.”

After everyone had gone home and she was finally alone, Mo Na slammed her fist on the desk with all her might.

As a result, the books that had been piled up like a mountain earlier came crashing down to the floor.

Seeing that sight made her even more furious, and Mo Na trampled on the books violently.

As if those books were Yeon Se Eun herself.

After doing that, she felt a little better.

The displeasure she had felt from the moment Ki Sun Woo appeared earlier was truly at its peak.

How dare he come here.

She had let Yeon Se Eun’s employment slide, knowing it was best not to go against her grandfather’s wishes.

But then a good-for-nothing like Ki Sun Woo barges in like it’s his own house and utters the taboo word “parachute.”

“…Crazy bastard.”

When viewed from afar, he was just a crazy bastard unrelated to her, but not anymore.

Perhaps Ju Ha’s prodigal son, Ki Sun Woo, could become a major obstacle in her path.

That point had been made crystal clear by the arrogant whisper Sun Woo had hissed in her ear earlier.

‘That new product design you submitted recently, I saw it in Yeon Se Eun’s sketchbook from when she was young.’

Recalling his mocking tone, Mo Na gritted her teeth in renewed anger.

It seemed his specialty was indeed digging up others’ weaknesses and using them for blackmail, just as rumored.

Mo Na’s long-held dream was to be a jewelry designer like her aunt, Ko Yeon Hwa.

The shock of first seeing her creations in childhood was still vivid in her mind.

If only that person had been my mother.

Such thoughts never left her head for even a day.

At the time, Ko Do Hwa, who had returned to her family home after divorcing, lived steeped in alcohol and luxury.

At first Mo Na had felt sympathy, but soon that sympathy turned into subtle contempt in the face of Ko Yeon Hwa’s perfection.

Why did she marry a much older father she didn’t even love?

Why did she end up divorcing and making her grow up as a fatherless child?

In Mo Na’s eyes, her aunt’s family was the perfect “work of art” that she herself didn’t have.

Naturally, Mo Na hated Se Eun, whom Ko Yeon Hwa always called her most beloved jewel.

It was unbearably bitter that the daughter of the aunt she admired was Se Eun, not herself.

After Ko Yeon Hwa passed away in an unexpected accident, her beloved jewel gained a huge flaw.

So Mo Na decided.

That she would follow in her aunt’s footsteps.

That she would achieve the dreams her aunt couldn’t fulfill and prove that she was the real jewel.

Crunch, Mo Na bit her nails hard again.

Judging that she had momentarily lost her rationality, she made a new resolution in this moment.

As always, and even more secretly, she would drive Yeon Se Eun into a corner.