“Well, that employee has only been with the company for 2 years. They’re not in a position to access any critical information…”

The security team leader looked troubled.

“Come on, there’s a saying that no one is without dust when shaken, right?”

But Seung Hyun pushed on relentlessly.

“Look carefully for any security violations, even minor ones. If you find anything, no matter how small, bring them in and give them a good scare.”

The moment Eun Seo gave that curt reply, Seung Hyun felt a destructive desire awakening within him.

He wanted to see that small, pretty face covered in tears somehow. He longed to see her trembling in fear, desperately begging him to spare her.

No, he had to see it.

“If the team leader can’t handle it, I suppose there’s no choice. I’ll have to speak to the corporate audit team…”

As Seung Hyun rose to leave, the security team leader hastily clung to him.

“No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll conduct a thorough investigation.”

Only then did Seung Hyun smile.

“I’ll look forward to it then.”

Patting the shoulder of the security team leader who looked old enough to be his uncle, Seung Hyun strode out of the office with a spring in his step.

*

Eun Seo couldn’t focus on work all day.

As the end of the workday approached, she felt afraid to go home, remembering his smiling face as he held the umbrella for her that morning.

Eighteen years old or not, he was originally a man she had feelings for. Honestly, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t thrilled in that moment.

Although her mind was clearly telling her to come to her senses, her heart was acting on its own.

What if I end up falling for him at this rate? It was the first time the saying “even a tree will fall if struck ten times” felt so terrifying.

Thinking she needed to get her head on straight, Eun Seo went to the break area outside the office to drink coffee alone, when Sun Ah suddenly approached and spoke to her.

“Why do you look so out of it? Did something happen with Seung Joo?”

Eun Seo nearly spit out her coffee and hurriedly changed the subject.

“What do you mean? Oh right, how about Chris? How were the results of the first round of voting?”

“He passed, but barely. He was 54th out of 60 who made it through.”

Sun Ah sighed.

“It’s already disadvantageous that he doesn’t have an agency… At this rate, it’ll be tough to make it through the second round.”

These days, Sun Ah only talked about Chris.

“Is it that disadvantageous not having an agency?”

“Of course! He gets less screen time from the start!”

Sun Ah was indignant.

“There are clearly some who’ve decided to push others out from the beginning, you know? Mainly trainees from big agencies. They show all sorts of scenes with elaborate narratives for them, while individual trainees like Chris or those from small agencies barely get shown on camera once or twice the whole broadcast. How can they gain fans that way?”

Sun Ah was genuinely distressed. Anyone watching would think she was Chris’s real elder sister.

“With Chris’s looks, if he just got a bit more screen time, he’d blow up right away…!”

“Is he that handsome?”

Sun Ah flinched and looked at Eun Seo.

“What, Eun Seo, you still haven’t even seen our Chris’s face?”

“You never showed me.”

“What a frustrating life this is!”

Sun Ah immediately pulled up her phone’s wallpaper and held it out. Just as Eun Seo took the phone to look at the photo.

Suddenly, the sound of rapid footsteps could be heard approaching from somewhere. Looking up, they saw several people with grim expressions striding quickly down the hallway.

Wondering if something had happened, to their surprise, the group stopped right in front of Eun Seo.

The man at the front addressed Eun Seo:

“Ms. Yoon Eun Seo, we’re from the security team. Please come with us.”

*

Eun Seo had her phone confiscated and was confined to an office for questioning.

“Ms. Yoon Eun Seo, your company email was logged into from an external location.”

The security team member pressed Eun Seo. She desperately tried to make excuses.

“I must have forgotten to log out when working from my laptop at home.”

But she was immediately refuted.

“The external login occurred after you had arrived at work. In other words, you were logged in from two places simultaneously, and this has happened dozens of times over the past month.”

Eun Seo bit her lip.

She did need to show Seung Joo company documents, but couldn’t send them by email. The company could clearly see all email records, and transferring files to another storage device would also trigger security alerts. So she had Seung Joo log into her company email to view the documents.

She thought it would be fine since it was a laptop registered with the company, but she hadn’t realized they even checked for simultaneous logins.

“You even emailed documents that didn’t need to be sent. Why is that?”

Of course it was to show Seung Joo, but she couldn’t tell the truth no matter what.

Certainly, since the person who viewed the documents was the CEO, it couldn’t be called an external leak. But the problem was that the CEO couldn’t come testify right now. If it was revealed that he was currently eighteen years old, everything would be ruined.

Eun Seo had made a promise to herself. That she would somehow return him safely to his rightful place. She intended to keep that resolve no matter what happened.

The only thing she could do now was exercise her right to remain silent.

“I have nothing to say.”

As she continued to hold out, eventually even the head of security came in.

“Ms. Yoon Eun Seo, you seem to be taking this situation very lightly. The documents you leaked are our company’s core materials. They’re related to the premium brand that our company has staked its life on.”

I know. They were core documents, which is precisely why Seung Joo needed to see them.

“This isn’t a courtroom, you can’t just invoke your right to remain silent and be done with it. This won’t end with just termination, we’ll be filing criminal charges, you know?”

“…”

“It’s better if we resolve this amongst ourselves here. If it goes to the corporate audit team, the problem will get bigger. The forensics on your phone will reveal everything anyway, so if you speak honestly now, we might be able to avoid a lawsuit.”

Still, Eun Seo kept her mouth shut. Of course, if it went to trial, who had viewed those documents would eventually come to light. But going to trial would take time, so she could buy time for Seung Joo to prepare until then.

By then, either his memories would return, or he would be able to convincingly impersonate “Kwon Seung Joo”.

In any case, now was not the time.

As Eun Seo remained tight-lipped despite the security team leader’s interrogation, an unexpected person entered as it neared 10 PM.

It was Kwon Seung Hyun.

He stood with his hands in his pockets, looking at Eun Seo as if amused.

“You look like an innocent rabbit, but were you actually a nine-tailed fox?”

What day is it today, to be called a fox again?

“I was just looking for minor security violations, I didn’t expect to hit such a jackpot.”

Eun Seo laughed bitterly. No wonder – she had been wondering why she suddenly got caught when there hadn’t been any problems before. So it was this person’s doing.

If that was the case, she absolutely could not be found out. Eun Seo tried even harder to keep her wits about her.

“Where did you leak it to?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kwon Seung Hyun approached and perched on the table in front of Eun Seo, looking down at her.

“Tell me. Then I’ll try to keep you from getting fired.”

His coaxing voice was so sweet, it was as if he had candy in his mouth.

“I’m personally interested in you. I don’t want to see you get fired like this.”

His hand on her shoulder, as if to comfort her, made her skin crawl.

“I believe I clearly told you that I don’t like you being interested in me, Mr. Kwon Seung Hyun?”

As she smacked his hand away, Seung Hyun smiled.

“Are you playing hard to get to seem more attractive? You’re already plenty attractive.”

What is this narcissism? Eun Seo forgot her fatigue and got serious.

“I really, truly have no interest in you, Mr. Kwon Seung Hyun. Even if this body dies and is reborn a hundred times, I will have no interest in you.”

She spoke each word hoping he would please understand, but he just smiled.

“Even though I’ll be a team leader in a month and an executive after that?”

Eun Seo struggled to hold back from scoffing at him.

‘I’ve already got our company’s CEO in my pocket, you know?’

She had to swallow the words that rose to her throat, gulping down water from the bottle in front of her.

“Well then, let’s see how long you can hold out.”

Even after Kwon Seung Hyun left, others continued to come in and interrogate her.

As the night grew deeper, she couldn’t fight off the drowsiness. While they took turns questioning her, she was alone. Just as Eun Seo was barely hanging on through sheer willpower, she suddenly saw someone appear beyond the glass office wall that jolted her awake.

It was Seung Joo.

He was wearing the suit Eun Seo had bought him, with his hair perfectly styled.

His confident stride, shoulders thrown back, lips pressed firmly together.

She had kept her mouth shut until the end, thinking Seung Joo still couldn’t properly act as himself, but the Seung Joo before her eyes looked flawless enough to make her worries seem foolish.

‘He came to save me.’

As scary male employees took turns pressuring and threatening her, how could Eun Seo not have been afraid? Though she pretended to be calm, in truth she was so terrified her knees were shaking.

Now seeing Seung Joo appear so confidently, she felt such relief that tears threatened to fall. Sun Ah must have contacted him.

In any case, now that the CEO himself had come to explain, the game was over. Eun Seo gritted her teeth and held back her tears. No, I can’t cry until it’s over.

At last, Seung Joo crossed the hallway and stopped in front of the office where Eun Seo was confined.

“Mr. CEO, you’re here!”

People who hadn’t seen the CEO in a long time hurriedly bowed.

Among the group, Seung Joo addressed the security team leader directly:

“I heard there was an incident of internal data leakage. What’s going on?”

“It’s a female employee from the planning team. We’re currently investigating…”

As the audit team leader pointed to Eun Seo behind the glass wall, Seung Joo glanced this way.

The moment their eyes met, Eun Seo instinctively felt something was wrong.

“…!”

Those eyes looking down on people from on high.

They were the eyes of Daewon Construction’s CEO, Kwon Seung Joo.