Seokheon stood in front of her as if making sure that Yeonwoo wore the stockings.

“…”

Yeonwoo stood up from her seat after staring at the stockings on the table for a long time. She wondered when he’d prepared the stockings, but she had never seen any female employees wearing black stockings like this. If she walked in the hallway of the executive room in these stockings, she would have stood out more than if she didn’t wear any.

“I’ll go out and buy something else.”

“Just wear them.”

“No.”

It’s better to be bare than to cause unnecessary misunderstandings. Yeonwoo stood up with the stockings in her hand.

Seokheon followed her as she walked towards the door, looking relaxed with his hands in the pockets of his trousers, but there was still unquenchable lust on his face.

“A quickie in the office isn’t enough.”

Of course, he thought that way. He was a man who wasn’t satisfied with the standard frequency of s*x.

When she reached the front of the door, Yeonwoo turned around. Lunchtime was almost over. She was going to ask if he wanted to do it again when she saw the imprint of his erect p*nis above the right thigh of his suit pants.

He was a man who f*cked seven or eight times a night until he was satisfied.

“Seo Yeonwoo, relax your face.” Seokheon reached out and stroked her cheek. “I’ll go to your place later.”

The desire that had accumulated for forty days could not be resolved in a single f*ck. Their quick romp further fueled Seokheon’s cravings that couldn’t be released.

“I told you it’s uncomfortable to come and go to my house…”

“Therefore?”

“I’d rather go to a hotel.”

“Okay. Let’s have dinner at the hotel first, then.”

Dinner.

Although she hooked up with him in a hotel room, they didn’t eat in the hotel restaurant. That was their unwritten rule.

Since Seokheon was an unmarried corporate heir, people were interested in him, and people would recognize him at a hotel in downtown Seoul.

If he entered a room with a woman, it could be because he’s a man, but the fact that he, Seokheon, ate alone with a woman at a hotel restaurant would stir gossip. The busybodies would then try to find out who Seokheon’s companion was.

“I’ll go to your place, Director Lee.”

She couldn’t afford to reveal her relationship with him. It might be fine for Seokheon, but it was a critical issue for Yeonwoo.

“I’ll send over a driver.”

“It’s okay. I’ll take a taxi.”

Yeonwoo left the office. Sitting at the secretary’s desk, Secretary Park stood up and gave a brief bow, but Yeonwoo feigned ignorance and went out into the hallway.

Since it was December, a gust of wind blew in the large building and blew through Yeonwoo’s bare legs even with heating. Not only did the cool breeze make her legs shiver, but it also froze her heart.

She went to the bathroom, straightened her clothes, and wiped her lips with water.

How long do I have to keep going like this? 

She hasn’t spent enough time to live for herself. She was fine now, but she was worried that a sticky liquid would seep into the sides of the panties.*

She would meet him because she couldn’t get over him, but she would only be filled with worries after going to him. It was like that with Seokheon.

When Yeonwoo entered the office, Jeongmi approached her and asked, “Yeonwoo, is your stomach okay now?”

Jeongmi was her motivation to stay in the company. The two ladies, assigned to the same business unit from the time they joined the company, depended on each other without realizing it.

“I got this for you on my way back from the convenience store.”

However, her overly friendly personality didn’t suit Yeonwoo. If she got close to an insa_[1], she would end up hanging out with people she didn’t want to, and her private life might get exposed even more.

Yeonwoo couldn’t find someone to open up to at the company for fear of revealing her relationship with Seokheon.

“It’s okay. I took some medicine in the infirmary.”

“Still, take this just to be sure.”

A moment after Yeonwoo sat down, Deputy Manager Yoon clapped his hand, drawing people’s attention.

“Come on, let’s have a meeting, PR team 2.”

The PR team 2 left the office and headed towards the conference room.

Public Relations Team 2, to which Yeonwoo belonged, was in charge of internal and external video production. They made in-house promotional materials that appeared in elevator kiosks, interviewed executives, and, if necessary, visited the construction site to record footage.

The managerial position was a publicly recruited employee, but except for Yeonwoo, all employees had broadcasting experience. Jeongmi, who joined the company alongside her, also had an internship at a broadcasting company, so Yeonwoo was the only outsider to this job.

They said broadcasters often held roundtable meetings, but so did PR Team 2. The team entered the conference room they had reserved for two hours.

“By the way, did you hear the story about the Managing Director when he went to work today?”

Manager Jeong Mihyeon, a former broadcast writer, was the most talkative person on the team.

“Managing Director?” Director Choi, who was aiming to get a promotion, leaned in to listen to Manager Jeong. “I heard he came to work as soon as he arrived in Dubai.”

“Director Choi, how will you participate in company politics if you don’t know what’s happening?”

“What is it, Manager Jeong? Did something happen?”

“They heard that Managing Director was returning to the office, so all the directors skipped lunch and went out to meet him in the lobby. Manager Seong of PR Team 1 went out and waited.”

“Really? I should’ve gone to the lobby instead of the cafeteria.”

“The rumors saying that he’s getting promoted from Managing Director to Vice President because of the successful contract-signing for the Dubai undersea road is true.”

“That’s really fast. Meanwhile, the successor to Sunghan Construction is still a regular employee.”

Seokheon’s grandfather was the chairman of Mirae Construction, and his father resigned last year after serving as the president.

Seokheon’s father was frequently involved in messy rumors during his reign, so Seokheon was brought in to replace him eventually.

Among the third generation of chaebols_[2], Seokheon climbed the corporate ladder the fastest. He was skipping generations and inheriting the company, but many people looked up to him because of the halo effect of being the heir of a large corporation.

Like always, the discussion on the meeting’s agenda ended briefly. Thirty minutes was enough to discuss their concerns, but the team, which had less administrative work than other teams, tended to stay in the conference room until the end of their reserved time.

“More than that, Manager Jeong, what’s that rumor?”

Yeonwoo, in charge of administrative support, tried to stand up, but since Director Choi began speaking, she had no choice but to sit back.

Director Choi, in his 50s, was sensitive to company gossip. As a person with a managerial position, all of his comrades have already retired, and his subordinates were reluctant to approach him, so he had fallen behind on the latest updates.

“Which one?”

“They say that someone on the general affairs team is dating their manager.”

Since he couldn’t ask about this kind of thing anywhere else, he used the spare time of the meeting to ask.

“It’s obvious. Wasn’t the employee flirting with her boss to get a good rating in the personnel review?”

Yeonwoo wasn’t happy with the situation, but she had no choice but to listen to other people’s stories even if she didn’t want to.

From what Yeonwoo heard, it wasn’t like that at all. Apparently, the female employee had been stalked by her boss, a married man. The manager involved had already retired, but rumors were always fabricated differently from the truth.

“Anyway, it’s a problem. If you’re capable, women will flock to you like a moth to a flame.”

At that moment, Jeong Mihyeon looked straight at Yeonwoo.

“!”

Like a guilty man, Yeonwoo avoided Mihyeon’s gaze.

“…”

Truthfully, Manager Jeong Mihyeon caught Yeonwoo with Seokheon one time.

At the valet parking lot of a department store in Gangnam, Seokheon escorted her to his car as she insisted on taking public transportation. The appearance of a woman insisting on going home and a man trying to get her into his car must have been suspicious to anyone looking at it.

Long story short, Manager Jeong saw this and went around talking about Yeonwoo with other gossip mongers like herself.

Gossip traveled fast_[3], so the rumor had already spread to the point of reaching Yeonwoo.

After the meeting, PR Team 2 came out to the hallway by the conference room. Yeonwoo was worried that Mihyeon would start talking about her, so she ended up staying until the end of the gossip session.

They had to go out for a shoot right away and work on the documents needed, so she gathered the materials from the team members before leaving, but Jeongmi approached her and said, “You’re not feeling well, Yeonwoo. Give it to me.”

“It’s okay. I can carry it.”

“Hey, your complexion isn’t good…”

She was so anxious sitting in front of Mihyeon that her feet had gone numb.

‘Yeonwoo, why did you get in the managing director’s car at the Gangnam department store? You two seemed close.’

Mihyeon once worked as a writer for a current affairs program, and she was a woman who asked questions until her curiosity was satiated.

“Ah, I should have been born as delicate as Seo Yeonwoo.”

Even if that curiosity made the other person uncomfortable.

“Geez, Manager Jeong, why are you like this? Manager Jeong, give me that file, as well. I’ll carry it, too!”

At least Jeongmi was there to act as a buffer, so Yeonwoo managed to survive in this office despite Mihyeon’s annoyance.

“It’s fine. I’m strong like anyone else. People like me who have no backers have to work hard.”

“No one has a backer here. Everyone is just an employee.”

“Really? You think so?”

Yeonwoo knew they were talking about her, so she followed them quietly without saying anything.

She didn’t join this company because of her ambitions, but she was still excited about her first job at the beginning of her career. However, as she got entangled with Seokheon, her company life gradually became increasingly difficult as people began to pay attention to her.

“Hello, Director Lee.”

Yeonwoo raised her head at the sound from the other side of the hallway.

Seokheon appeared in the hallway on the 30th floor, where the strategic planning department was located. Employees passing through stopped and bowed to him.

PR Team 2 was ten steps away from Seokheon, so they bowed their heads in Seokheon’s direction.

After greeting him, Yeonwoo jumped in surprise at her and Seokheon’s growing proximity.

“!”

The moment their eyes met, Seokheon looked down and stared at Yeonwoo’s bare legs.

“…”

Fortunately, he passed by her without saying anything, but as soon as he reached her, Seokheon’s fingertips touched Yeonwoo’s.

Yeonwoo pulled back her hand in shock as Seokheon and his secretaries strode away. Jeong Mihyeon, already suspicious of their relationship, didn’t miss that moment.

“Oh, hey, did you hear that?” As soon as they returned to the office, Manager Jeong raised her voice. “I heard our managing director, the successor, is about to get married?”

PR Team 2 turned to Mihyeon in disbelief. Then, Jeongmi shook her head sharply and said, “Geez, Manager Jeong. That’s just speculation. The rumor said he got a ring at Cartier but didn’t say anything about getting married.”

Seokheon, Mirae Construction’s successor, had an outstanding appearance and management performance that made him second to none. In addition, if this unmarried man entered a political marriage, Mirae Construction’s status would rise. So, it wasn’t strange that rumors about his marriage circulated.

“Why would he buy matching rings, then? Will he wear the other one on his little finger?” Instead of staring at Jeongmi, who refuted her words, Mihyeon turned to Yeonwoo. “It means he’s getting married.”

She stared at Yeonwoo as if telling her she knew what kind of man she was meeting.

Again, Yeonwoo sat quietly without saying anything.

_{[1] 인싸 (insa) – slang for insider; someone who is a part of a social circle or is close to a group of friends
[2] 재벌 (chaebol) – conglomerates that dominate South Korea’s economy
[3] 발 없는 말이 천 리를 간다더니 – ‘a horse without legs travels a thousand miles’ is a saying that uses a play on words. 말 means ‘word,’ but it can also mean ‘horse.’}