Taming the Dangerous Lawyer Secretly (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 1

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“What do you think about office romance?”

The firm, low voice of the man sitting across from her.

Yeon Woo stopped mid-chopstick movement and froze. The water glass spinning gently in his hand looked just like a shot glass.

“Well… I don’t like it.”

“Have you ever tried it?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“How can you dislike something you’ve never even tried?”

He let out a soft chuckle and tilted his head slightly, his eyes glinting with amusement. His overwhelming presence closed in on Yeon Woo as if slowly teasing intriguing prey.

Yeon Woo averted her gaze and fiddled with the sushi on her plate using her chopsticks.

“What about becoming partners, then?”

“Absolutely not!”

Did she just blurt it out too loudly and urgently in her fluster? Her face flushed crimson from her ears down to her neck, and she dropped her head down abruptly.

“Then what are we to each other?”

“Well… We’re lawyer and assigned secretary, of course.”

“Is that so?”

“Oh, please, Attorney…”

The relaxed ease that had lingered around his mouth vanished, and his expression hardened coldly.

“You don’t want to date, and we’re not partners—so have you just been playing with me, Assistant Kim Yeon Woo?”

“N-no, how could I? I’m sorry about the end-of-year incident…”

“Sorry? Sorry for sleeping with me?”

“No, no! That’s not—”

Ah. There was simply no way to win an argument with a lawyer using words alone.

But she couldn’t get dragged in like this either.

Her hand, pushing her fallen hair back, trembled slightly, yet she desperately tried to appear calm.

Go on, keep answering me. His eyebrows twitched, pressing her for a reply.

“It’s neither that I’ve been playing with you nor that I owe an apology. It seems both of us share responsibility. So why don’t we handle this cleanly and maturely—forgive each other for this one mistake and make sure it never happens again?”

“But… it wasn’t just *once*, was it?”

“Oh, honestly! Attorney Kwon Jun Hwi!”

Her attempt at composure failed completely.

Yeon Woo looked up at Jun Hwi with raw sincerity, on the verge of tears.

“What is it that you actually want?”

“It’s simple. I just want to reach a conclusion.”

Satisfied with her reaction, Jun Hwi regained his ease.

He even offered a rare smile—one seldom seen in the office—and stretched his arm out to move the uni sushi from his plate onto hers.

Beneath the rolled-up sleeve of his dress shirt, his firm, well-defined arm muscles twitched pleasingly.

Ah. Even in this situation, she caught herself noticing his impressive physique, and she squeezed her eyes shut in self-reproach.

“Shall we officially start seeing each other, Assistant Kim Yeon Woo?”

What should I do? What do I do? What now?

Her mind raced as frantically as her rolling eyes.

“No. I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“Well… If you’re so eager, why me specifically?”

“Does a man need a reason when he fancies a woman? Everything about her just looks lovely, that’s all.”

“There are plenty of other pretty people besides me.”

“Don’t deflect.”

Another failure.

“To be honest, it makes me uncomfortable, Attorney.”

“Me? I make you uncomfortable?”

“Yes. You’re scary. And we’re just… completely incompatible.”

“…”

Trending

“Even if we dated, rumors would only hurt me. I just want to focus on my work. Honestly, I was even planning to quit—but you know that already, don’t you? You’re the one who stopped me from resigning.”

“That’s right. I did stop you. But…”

Jun Hwi, who had been sitting far away across the table, suddenly leaned in close, his upper body thrust forward.

His cold, sharp gaze pinned her down—it carried a ferocity, as if he were slowly devouring the prey he’d been toying with.

“So I’m uncomfortable and scary. And we’re incompatible?”

Yet, surprisingly, genuine curiosity dripped from his softly spoken words. He didn’t wait for her reply.

“This is interesting. Let’s see how long you can hold out.”

“No, what do you even mean by ‘let’s see’—”

Her flustered protest was cut off by the arrival of dessert, accompanied by a crisp knock on the door.

Without a word, Jun Hwi moved another piece of sushi onto Yeon Woo’s plate—this time, fatty tuna belly.

Thanks to Jun Hwi selectively giving her only the expensive, delicious pieces since the beginning, Yeon Woo felt awkward—but since food itself was blameless, she chewed it thoroughly and earnestly.

“You look nice when you eat well.”

He smiled brightly and draped one arm lazily over the back of the adjacent chair.

The more relaxed Jun Hwi became, the more Yeon Woo’s uneasy premonition quietly surfaced.

…She must have somehow mistakenly triggered his competitive drive in the worst possible way.

Yeon Woo swallowed the sushi—already melted in her mouth with nothing left to chew—along with a dry gulp.

How on earth had she gotten tangled up like this with Kwon Jun Hwi, the top workaholic attorney at Ro And Yul?

***

Ro And Yul Law Firm—South Korea’s premier legal powerhouse.

Opposing firms reportedly began preparing for defeat the moment they faced Ro And Yul. Dubbed ‘slaves to money,’ ‘traitors to the nation,’ and ‘a nationwide spectacle of elite credentials.’

As mysterious and controversial as it was, to Yeon Woo—who’d worked there for eight years as a dedicated legal secretary—it was simply “a great long-term workplace.”

Leave on time. Company dinners happened maybe two or three times a year, if at all. Almost no mandatory overtime or on-call shifts—and when there were, overtime pay was always reliably paid.

Though the organizational culture leaned conservative, it was stable and well-structured, making work comfortable.

Moreover, the low ratio of strange bosses was why she’d stayed for eight whole years.

The attorneys here harbored a massive delusion that they were “the chosen ones,” compelling them—out of a near-obsessive need to appear refined and elegant—to rarely voice outward displeasure, regardless of what they truly felt inside.

Thus, it was an ideal workplace where one could work quietly and diligently with peace of mind, finding modest fulfillment in the job.

Yeon Woo, having completed four full years as an assistant, was now poised for promotion to section chief next year. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the promotion would go smoothly—and she never imagined she’d voluntarily leave such a great place.

But recently, that belief had been completely shaken.

A major crisis had arisen in Yeon Woo’s legal secretary career.

All because of one specific attorney she’d been assigned to for the past six months.

“Good morning, Assistant Kim.”

“Good morning, Seung Hee.”

“There’s no mail today—just newspapers.”

“Thank you.”

On her way in, Yeon Woo warmly responded to the receptionist’s cheerful smile in the first-floor lobby and carefully scanned through each newspaper, determined not to miss a single one.

A conservative daily. A progressive daily. A tax newspaper. A legal newspaper. And what was the last one again? Ah, the English-language paper.

“It must be tough, gathering all these different papers every morning…”

“Well, the real hardship starts once I’m at my desk.”

With about 80% genuine feeling mixed into her joking reply, Yeon Woo briskly headed toward the elevator, clutching the thick bundle of newspapers.

The problem was that this particular person subscribed to not one—but five—different newspapers. Even more astonishing was that, despite his insane schedule, he meticulously read every single one.

So if Yeon Woo ever forgot even one, he’d notice immediately—which meant she had to stay sharp from the very beginning to avoid the hassle of having to run all the way back down to the first floor.

Holding the hefty stack of newspapers, Yeon Woo glanced quickly at her phone: 8:57 a.m. She was in a hurry.

“Wait! I’m coming too!”

She spotted the elevator just arriving at the first floor and desperately called out toward its closing doors—but they remained indifferent, continuing to shut.

‘There’s definitely someone inside—can’t they hear me? Open the door! If I miss this, I’ll be late.’

She hurried over with quick, clicking steps and jammed the thick bundle of newspapers into the narrow gap just before the doors sealed shut, forcing them back open.

“Phew.”

Relieved she’d avoided being late, she let out a sigh.

The elevator was occupied by only one person, who took up the spacious cabin entirely. The air inside was saturated with his sharp, cool, bass-heavy cologne.

“Good morning.”

ads

“…”

She should’ve known—that familiar scent.

“Attorney Kwon.”

The owner of the daily newspaper bundle she carried upstairs: Attorney Kwon Jun Hwi, Ro And Yul’s most notorious workaholic.

He was exactly the reason Yeon Woo had recently been drinking beer, soju, and wine every night, wondering whether she should keep working here at all.

“…”

“…”

He merely gave her a cursory glance in greeting before lowering his head again to scan his phone screen.

Yeon Woo positioned herself as far away as possible from him, where he stood leaning casually with one hand tucked into his suit pocket, and focused solely on the steadily ascending floor numbers on the indicator panel.

Only suffocating silence hung between them. The ride to the 17th floor stretched endlessly.

Now, just standing with him in a confined space gave Yeon Woo a pounding headache.

“Yes, Vice President. Good morning.”

Jun Hwi’s deep voice suddenly filled the elevator as he took a call. Yeon Woo perked up, listening intently for work-related details.

‘Vice President? Which client had a vice president again—was it C Pharma or M Electronics?’

“Yes, I’m on my way to the office now… Right this moment?”

Jun Hwi checked his watch. Naturally, his schedule popped into Yeon Woo’s mind too—he had a regular senior attorney briefing scheduled for the morning.

“That’s fine. If the Chairman himself summoned me, of course I must go… Yes. J Hotel in 30 minutes. I’ll see you then.”

Yeon Woo’s round eyes widened further. What? Skipping the briefing to go where?

Just then, the elevator doors cheerfully announced their arrival at the destination floor.

“You heard everything, right?”

“Yes?”

“Get it done quickly.”

With that curt remark, he strode ahead with long, imposing strides into the office.

As always, detailed or considerate work instructions were utterly foreign to Kwon Jun Hwi.

So she needed to arrange a car to J Hotel immediately, reschedule the senior briefing, figure out whether it was C Pharma or M Electronics, and print a concise summary of key cases that might interest the client—so he could read it in the car.

All of this, of course, while he took his own time getting ready—meaning she was expected to handle everything seamlessly on her own.

Of course, this fell squarely within a secretary’s duties—but Attorney Kwon, who valued efficiency above all else, often ended instructions with brief phrases like “You heard everything, right?” instead of clearly outlining the scope of work.

She’d worked with him long enough that this shouldn’t faze her—but every time, it still caught her off guard.

Anyway, she had to tackle the immediate tasks first. Yeon Woo quickly followed Jun Hwi into the office.

***

If only she could turn back time, Yeon Woo would go back to April and yank her own ears for being so easily swayed by HR’s proposal.

Out of the blue, Section Chief Park from HR had summoned her and assigned her to Attorney Kwon Jun Hwi.

She was already treading carefully, holding her breath as she neared her promotion to section chief—and of all people, they assigned her to the notoriously difficult, meticulous, perfectionist workaholic.

His current secretary was thrilled to resign because her husband had been transferred overseas. The one before that quit to attend graduate school.

The dreaded position—everyone found ways to escape it—and after spinning round and round, the roulette of misery finally landed on Yeon Woo.

“We’re entrusting you because you’re exceptionally capable, Assistant Kim.”

“Well… But I’m currently mentoring new secretaries and co-developing a trial record indexing protocol with Attorney Yang Ju Yeon—I’m not sure if taking on another attorney is advisable.”

She had, of course, tried to refuse. But this wasn’t a suggestion—it was a notification. Or perhaps, a trap.

Section Chief Park, clearly having anticipated her refusal, smoothly delivered a pre-prepared, flattering pitch to persuade her.

“We know you’re busy. But to be honest—it’s a bit awkward to say—but the previous secretaries didn’t receive evaluations as favorable as yours. Do you think we’d propose this to someone as overloaded as you unless we had no other choice?”

“…”

“Attorney Kwon is an extremely important figure at our firm. The managing partner gave special instructions to find the perfect secretary who could support him properly.”

That part was true.

While his exacting standards exhausted and frustrated staff internally, externally, Kwon Jun Hwi was the handsome, brilliant attorney who always precisely addressed clients’ unspoken needs—a hugely popular figure.

Just how much money did he bring into Ro And Yul each month, again?

“That’s exactly why we’re asking you—you’re the ideal candidate.”

Ah. That one honeyed compliment was enough to sway Yeon Woo’s heart.

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