“What’s the matter?”
The person who stepped forward, as if to shield Mi Ju behind his back, was none other than Chief Yoon Tae Ha.

Manager Sung, who had been bubbling up to devour Mi Ju just moments before, dropped his tail instantly in surprise when he saw the Chief.

“It’s nothing, Chief. You don’t need to worry about it, haha.”
He tried to stutter and escape quickly, but the Chief did not let him go.

“If it’s nothing, why are you shouting? Let’s hear it.”
Manager Sung had no choice but to explain the situation. Upon hearing it, the handsome Chief frowned and asked.

“So you’re saying, right now, you want the UI designer to also do the storyboard review?”
“Well, not the review, but they should be able to catch some visible typos…..”
“Information structure flow, brand identity, legibility. A UI designer is already busy to the point of breaking their head with these worries. Moreover, they are swamped with the One App team’s work now and you want to hand over error checking to such a person, are you out of your mind? Who’s in charge?”
“I, I am.”
“So, you’re in charge but you’ve delegated your work to someone else without even checking?”
The Chief scolded fiercely. It was embarrassing enough for Mi Ju to hear from the side.

“The One App team is the top priority right now. Don’t ask Deputy Mi Ju for anything else, solve it within the development team.”
“Yes, I will correct it.”
“We need to be careful not to let this happen again. Go and ask the development team’s team leader to come to my office.”
As Manager Sung, his face pale, turned to leave, the Chief gave him a stern look until the end, then turned to ask Mi Ju.

“Are you okay?”
His tone was gentle, as if nothing had happened.

“Yes. Thank you, Chief.”
The Chief patted her shoulder encouragingly.

“If something like this happens again, don’t hesitate to tell me.”
The retreating figure seemed incredibly reliable. As she watched him walk away, Mi Ju could not close her mouth.

((()))

She had heard somewhere long ago that when you have your first kiss, you hear bells in your ears.

Although it wasn’t her first kiss, Si Hyun definitely heard a sound yesterday.

It wasn’t the sound of a bell, but the sound of a drum.

Dong Dong Dong Dong.

It was only later that I realized that the sound, reminiscent of the drumbeats on a battlefield, was actually the sound of my heart. Of course, because it was a sound I was hearing for the first time since I was born.

Thanks to that, on Monday morning, Si Hyun was the first among her team members to report to work. She had escaped to the company early before Tae Ha came to tell her to have breakfast.

She had kissed him so passionately last night, she absolutely could not face him.

“Hello, director.”
“You’ve been working hard.”
Although she knew from the sounds of greetings being exchanged that Tae Ha had entered the office, Si Hyun pretended not to know and fixed her gaze only on the monitor, appearing fully absorbed in her work.

“Is the work going well? Assistant Manager Kang Si Hyun.”
A low voice came from right next to her, causing her heart to beat like a drum again. Boom!

“Ah yes. Hello, director.”
Unable to look him in the face, she greeted him in the direction of the second button on his suit, and Si Hyun quickly turned her gaze back to the monitor and murmured.

“Ah, it’s busy, so busy. When on earth will I finish all this?”
Having noticed Si Hyun deliberately ignoring him, fortunately, Tae Ha didn’t say anything more and left for elsewhere.

Even after Tae Ha left, boom boom boom, the sound of the drum continued to resonate, and Si Hyun scolded her heart.

‘Have you gone mad? Does it make sense to behave like that towards that punk?’
However, even during the short time when she was trying to compose herself and went to the break room to get coffee, she was remembering it again. The large hand that firmly supported the back of her head, the hot lips, the bitter scent……

“Oh, I’m going crazy!”
Seeing Si Hyun, who was shouting to herself and banging her head against the corridor wall, the people passing by looked at her as if they felt sorry for her.

“What to do. Assistant Manager Kang, you seem to be having a hard time.”
“That’s right. Distributing wedding invitations and getting divorced, where would it be easy, tsk tsk.”
Fortunately, no matter what others murmured, it didn’t reach Si Hyun’s ears, which were already filled with other thoughts.

As she was just calming down her agitated heart and making coffee, the phone rang. It was Joo Eun.

Si Hyun took a deep breath and answered the phone.

“Oh, Joo Eun, did you get home safely yesterday?”
I got home safely. But are you okay?
“Huh?”
That guy, no, I mean, you shouldn’t call him like that anymore. Tae Ha, he was very angry, right?
Joo Eun laughed heartily.

You really can’t act, Kang Si Hyun.

Si Hyun felt a flush creeping up her face. It was already an open secret, but the kiss from last night kept replaying in her mind, and she just couldn’t say there was nothing between them.