Chapter 5

There were too many wrongs in this situation. The biggest one, however, was that Taemoo was on a date with his employee.

Everyone at work already knows Taemoo is not a normal person. That makes me the problem here, not him.

‘Well actually, I was late because I spent the night with another guy,” Hari said. Taemoo lifted his eyebrows.

Yes! I am a crazy woman who’s out of her mind. So please, walk away from both me and this date.

“I’m actually not the person people say I am. People think I’m this elegant and reserved nerd, but I’m the total opposite. I don’t even know the last time I opened a book, I have little to no manners, and all I do is think about sleeping with men. I never seem to be satisfied. I’ve never met a guy good enough to make me feel that way.”

Hari was spitting out pure nonsense, trying to put an end to this date. “Even now, all I can think about is how much I want to be in bed.”

Hari wanted to cry. Taemoo slowly began to speak after staring at Hari the whole time she was blurting words out of her mouth.

Yes. Good. Please say that I’m crazy and walk away. Please. Plea-

“Could I have your phone?”

Taemoo spoke as if he didn’t care about anything Hari had said.

“…What?”

“Your phone.”

“My…phone?”

Taemoo finally offered a small change in his expression as Hari kept questioning him back. It felt as if she was back at work, and her supervisor was proofreading the documents she wrote. Uncomfortable thinking about the situation, Hari quickly handed over her phone. Taemoo seemed to eagerly type something, then looked at his own phone.

What are you still doing here, not walking away?

As Hari stared blankly at Taemoo, he gave the phone back.

“I had the wrong number the whole time.”

What?

“I called because you were so late, and they told me that I had the wrong number.”

“Oh, that’s Youngseo....”

He would have called Youngseo’s number, and Youngseo would have obviously told him that he had the wrong number. That only meant one thing.

“Did you just take my number?” she asked.

In this situation?

Hari was frustrated. It seemed, however, as if Taemoo was grinning ever so slightly.

“I’m busy today anyway.”

Taemoo put his phone in his blazer pocket and stood up from his chair. Hari automatically stood up with him as if she were back at work, giving her respect to her bosses.

“I’ll give you a call,” he said.

“Sorry?”

“A call.”

“A ca-call?”

Taemoo squinted at Hari.

“Youngseo.”

“Yes?”

“How many times do I have to repeat it for you?”

Though he did not explicitly say so, it felt as if he was calling her out in his most boss tone of voice.

“Ah. No, I heard you. You’re gonna call me…”

“I’m sorry I can’t drop you off today. My secretary is going to pick you up in a couple of minutes.”

Taemoo gave a small nod goodbye and walked away.

This is probably him dumping me. He’s...not really going to call me. Of course he’s not. He was probably taken aback by me and my nonsense, and this was his escape plan.

***

“Why are you here?”

Taemoo questioned Sunghoon, who followed him to his room. Taemoo had told Sunghoon to drop Hari off and taken a cab instead, but Sunghoon was already here at his office.

“Youngseo didn’t want me to drop her off, sir.”

Taemoo seemed to think for a second, then gave a nod. He took off his jacket, sat down in his chair, and started on his work without saying anything else.

Sunghoon stared at Taemoo for a while. Who could have guessed that Taemoo just got back from a blind date? He seemed as if he was working the whole time, and just took a quick leave for another business meeting.

This is why people at work don’t even call him human.

Everyone at work knew Taemoo loved his job,and was good at it, too. The business was flourishing because of him. Sunghoon thought, however, that Taemoo would act a bit different today after the date, especially because of what he said in the car.

“You need something?”

Taemoo paused what he was doing and looked up at Sunghoon. As Sunghoon seemed hesitant, Taemoo quickly diverted his focus back to work.

“If there’s nothing for you to do, go home.”

“How was your date, sir?”

Taemoo looked up at Sunghoon as if he was asking things that did not need to be asked. Sunghoon proceeded to ask again.

“Are you really going to marry her, sir?”

Sunghoon knew Taemoo kept his promises, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking. The Youngseo he saw was not normal.

“Didn’t I already tell you,” Taemoo uncapped his fountain pen before continuing, “That I’m getting married?”

Taemoo talked as if this was someone else’s business and continued to annotate his documents. He seemed as if he did not want to be distracted any more from work.

Sunghoon knew Taemoo was not in a good mood, what with his grandfather bursting into his office and telling him to go on an arranged blind date. If someone else saw the situation, they would have thought that he was just lazy to go on that date. Regardless of whether or not he was lazy or annoyed at being bothered from work, that was not the issue. The take-away was that Taemoo was going to do what he said he was going to do.

Taemoo was going to marry Youngseo.

I really thought he was going to change his mind after seeing her in person.

Sunghoon pictured Youngseo in his head. She was too much. He could tell that she was a pretty girl, but the heavy makeup made it hard to get a fix on her. And her fashion! It was too much to even wear when going clubbing. There was nothing about her that was not over-the-top. Even the defeated expression she had when she turned Sunghoon down as he offered to drop her off seemed extreme.

To summarize, she seemed as if she spent the night at the club and came out to the date still drunk.

Marrying someone like her?

Sunghoon took a deep breath, and when he thought about Youngseo again, took another one.

“She seemed....a bit too much of a party animal.”

Sunghoon spoke carefully, knowing the woman he was talking about could become his boss’ wife.

“Party animal?”

“Well, I don’t mean to judge people by their looks but she did seem a little into the nightlife....”

“You’re wrong. Not a little. A lot.”

“What? A lot?”

“That’s what she told me. Could you take maybe 10 minutes out of my schedule on Monday? Tell Ahn to drop by. The business proposal is all over the place and I can’t believe he proceeded with the transaction.”

Sir, I can’t believe what you are saying. This is a talk about your wife, not someone else’s!

Sunghoon was in shock that Taemoo talked about his future wife being a party animal, unbothered, while he kept his attention on his papers.

“Sir, you do know your marriage is going to affect the business in many ways.”

The Sung-oon group that chairman Kang established had staggered for a bit from Sung-jong’s incompetence in the past. With Taemoo, however, the business flourished again in a couple of years. It was true that Taemoo was excellent in business management, and his hard-working and tidy nature totally changed the group’s impression on others. But with a wife like Youngseo...the thought gave Sunghoon the chills.

“You are still going to marry her?”

“Sunghoon.”

“Yes.”

“You heard Chairman Kang talk about her family.”

Sunghoon only remembered the old man saying that she was a calm and likable person. Sunghoon questioned if that’s really what Chairman Kang believed calm and likable meant.

“I’m sure Chairman Kang put the effort into finding me a good partner.”

Taemoo was exaggerating. He was definitely still upset at Chairman Kang for bothering him at work. It was his mini-revolt. He was going to marry anyone rather than being bothered at work. He was sure of his intentions.

“You should be more considerate when it comes to marriage, sir.”

Sunghoon quickly stopped talking as Taemoo glared at him.

“Sir, I only meant that you can’t marry Youngseo without her consent. You need to have a serious conversation with her before making any decisions. She might not be the type to want to get married, judging by how much she likes to enjoy her nightlife.”

There was nothing Sunghoon could do to convince Taemoo. It was true, however, that marriage was a mutual thing. Sunghoon felt the need to re-emphasize.

“So, sir, please tell Chairman Kang that you will marry the lady from the next blind date. Skip this one.”

“Okay.”

Sunghoon was relieved. Taemoo changing his words...

“I’ll call her.”

“Call for what?”

“To get married.”

...was never going to happen.

* * *

People say you are a different person when you step into the bathroom than when you leave it. It felt like that to Hari as she thought about the Friday night she got off of work and the Monday morning she was going to arrive at the office. It was all because of the date with the psycho who proposed to her after one meeting, on the phone.

THE PROBLEM IS THAT HE’S MY BOSS!

It was already too much for Hari to handle, and thinking about it gave her a big migraine. She found herself having them in bed, too. Actually, Hari had not slept much that night. She found the events hard to think about.

She didn’t know how she spent her day after the phone call. She had to tell Youngseo what had happened, but she needed more time to process what was going on. She only could think of one thing.

Taemoo is a pervert. A perverted psychopath.

How could he propose to her when all she did was try to piss him off by acting crazy? The more she thought about him, the more she was determined he was a pervert.

As determined as she was, though, she had one issue. She thought about the possibility of seeing him at work.

Should I just quit? Should I really just call quits on my job?

It was too much for her to handle. She had gone out on a date with her boss, made herself a total fool, and then was proposed in the most ridiculous way possible, which she also turned down in the most ridiculous way possible.

As the weekend passed and Hari got herself ready to return to work, a ringer went off in her soul .

Quit. Quit. Quit.

It was like a clock ticking, and Hari tried her best to slow it down as she continued to get ready. She had the same routine every morning, but it was different now. She had to make sure she had little to no makeup on and had to make an extra effort to not meet Taemoo at work.

Though she wanted to run away when thinking about the things she has said to him, she needed this job. She had loans she needed to pay off, and they weren’t even typical loans that most people had. They were loans she took out from work, so if she was to quit her job, she would have to pay the amount in full. She obviously didn’t have that kind of money. As every tick of her internal clock told her to quit, she had to fight back and say no.

We’ll never see each other at work anyways. This is the fact. It’s true.

Ever since she got her job, she only saw glimpses of Taemoo as they passed by each other in the halls, but she’d never confronted him. To be honest, there was no reason for her to do so. Taemoo’s office was on the 12th floor, while her finance team was on the 8th floor. Taemoo often hung out with other executives while she hung out with other employees.

So, don’t even worry about it. You’ve never met him for the whole year that you’ve worked there. What are the chances you are going to-

Hari stood, wide-eyed.