𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗞𝗶𝗺?✓

episode 4

When Taehyung arrrived at his office, Jisoo was seated at her desk, grinning down at something. She reflexively jumped to her feet at the sound of the door opening, and Taehyung gave a sidelong glance toward her.

"What are you looking at?"

"Oh, just some old photos."

He lumbered over to Jisoo's desk, looked down at the old photos, and smiled.

In one of them, taken nine years ago, the two were seated at opposite ends of a long table at a general affairs department dinner, gazing in different directions. This was before they'd started working together.

Finding something strange about the Jisoo in the photograph, he turned to look at jisoo and belatedly realized something.

"Were you this young back then?"

"Um. I'd just graduated high school then, you know."

The 20-year-old girl with the childlike face, semi-long hair, and rather rustic attire in the photo was now an elegant woman, mature both in looks and conduct.

"When is this one from?"

"Ah, that's from the first day after I was hired as your secretary. I didn't have a tripod, so I used the dressing table for that photo. The angle was off, so I had to sit in an awkward position. Ho ho ho."

Jisoo was making a V with her hand and smiling in the photograph. It looked like it was taken at home, and she must have forgotten to make the background pretty: the tattered wallpaper was plain to see.

jisoo's family had been evicted from their home on the day Jisoo received her national exam results. Her father, who'd operated a fairly large musical instrument shop at Nagwon Arcade, had fallen victim to a fraud.

While her furious father scoured the country like a lunatic to find the thief, Mi-so had to somehow find a way to pay that month's living expenses.

Her exam results were in the top 1% bracket, and her school grades were impeccable. She would have had an extensive list of universities she could have attended on full scholarships, but reality is seldom so perfect.

Her father's huge debt, along with the tuition for her sisters' regional medical schools, dorm expenses, and living expenses, were probably too much to deal with, even with the sisters teaching multiple private classes.

In addition, without her, there would have been no one to care for her father, who'd lost his will to live and wandered about like a tramp. Her mother had died of an illness when Mi-so was still a child.

And so Jisoo gave up on her prospects of college. The person who cried the most then was neither Jisooo herself nor her family, but her homeroom teacher. That may serve as a hint regarding just how desperate the situation was back then.

jisoo had given up on college even before writing any applications; she started working a part-time job doing mundane tasks at a lawyer's office. The lawyer favored her diligent attitude and recommended her in February of the following year as the temporary dispatched secretary of a Kim Group general affairs department executive who was soon to retire.

Taehyung had just returned from America and was making the rounds through various departments to grow his executive ability. They met for the first time at the dinner in the photo.

"When I first met you, Vice-Chairman, the first impression I had of you was...really hard to explain."

taehyung looked perplexed, and M
Jisoo covered her mouth to laugh. Wow. This person feels so insolent and natural at the same time. What is with this guy? Her inner monologue had run along those lines, but she didn't dare say it out loud.