Cunning and Evil

ONE AND ONLY

Seri had been working remotely for a week and a half, and while she was able to address the most pressing matters that needed her attention via email, she walked into her office that morning with a literal mountain of papers on her table.

"I thought you filtered this already, Mr. Hong?" she asked, appalled by the sheer amount of paperwork on her desk. It was so bad that she had to find a place for her cup of coffee elsewhere.

"Ms. Yoon, this has already been filtered." Mr. Hong said, not knowing if he should feel delighted for he will no longer have to hold the fort by himself, or dismayed because her presence in the office would mean longer working hours for him. "The policy papers were already reviewed by Ju Meok, and all letters of correspondence were already taken care of."

The assemblywoman was definitely not in her best shape, but she admittedly felt a lot better compared to the past week where her physical exhaustion and emotional stress took a toll on her.

She almost forgot the feeling of being taken good care of. For the past years of her life, she only relied on herself for it, and it was unfortunate that she even failed miserably at taking care of herself to the bare minimum.

She only nodded at her Chief of Staff and he took it as his cue to leave. He was instructed by Representative Yoon not to take any appointments for today, as she needed to catch up in all this paperwork.

It was fortunate that her coffee successfully fired her up despite missing breakfast that day, and it was half-past ten when she had the luxury to check her phone for any messages or additional email that are considered urgent.

Seri asked her executive assistant to calendar the party meeting for tomorrow, before replying to the messages of Assemblywoman Ji. She took notice of another message, one that made her catch a quick breath upon reading.

It was from a newly renamed contact, Assemblyman Ri. The last time he texted her last week, she was convinced she might have suffered from a mild heart attack to receive a message from Jeong Hyeok ❤️. Seri recalled the past years of her life, had she been so busy that she forgot to scourge through her phone and delete all remnants of him?

She had never clicked a rename option so fast in her life.

Shaken out of her daze, she stared at the message on the screen of her phone, sent an hour ago when she was still drowning in her sea of papers.

Have you eaten?

The image of his scrunched eyebrows and worried expression popped up in her mind, and it made her inwardly smirk— he was really treating her like a child.

I had coffee, as per usual.

Representative Yoon Seri's message was an hour too late when it reached the assemblyman in his office, leaning back on his executive chair and spinning his phone between his fingers.

The moment it vibrated, he immediately opened her message and shook his head, even releasing a faint tsk that reverberated in his quiet office. It was a good thing he acted on his instinct when Seri hadn't replied ten minutes after he sent the message.

On the other end of the hall, her executive assistant peeked on the small gap at her door, probably deciding if that moment was a good time to disturb her boss. "Miss Yoon?"

"Hmm?" She hummed, peeking above the policy paper in her hand.

"Miss Yoon." She was hesitant at first, but somehow she miraculously got the courage when she noticed she's not in her usual 'boss ma'am' stance. She was... smiling. "Someone sent you this, ma'am."