Prince Caspian -Jung Yoonoh NCT

32. The Rich Are Different

We are in the conference room, waiting.

The door opens, and the executives walk in.

I can't stop staring at him.

He looks impossibly gorgeous, suit back on, tie neatly in place. 

He takes his seat at the head of the table. The rest file in behind him, and there is a very beautiful woman seated on his left. She leans over, and whispers something in his ear, and he smiles.

I clench my fists on my lap.

I can hear the gossipy low voices behind me.

"You'd think they'd be more discreet."

A snigger.

"Isn't she married?"

"Like that ever stops them."

More laughter.

I feel a wave of misery.

Stop. Please, just stop.

The meeting starts, thankfully. 

Jae welcomes everyone, unsmiling, speaking in a dry, clipped voice, a far cry from the flirtatious, teasing banter I am used to, and gives a curt nod to the three of us - me, Lisa and Damien - sitting together right in front among the rows of chairs that are placed away from the long wooden table, which I guess must be reserved for the top brass.

"Our new interns." He hardly spares us a glance, and suitably humbled, I shrivel down to size at once, a tiny little pebble clinging desperately to the swirling waves of his lofty ocean. "Welcome to Jung Corp."

Everyone turns and smiles at us. A tall man seated three seats from Jae to the left catches my eye and smiles. He seems nice. I smile back.

"Mr. Lee." Jae's icy voice wipes off the nice guy's smile in an instant. "If I could trouble you for the mid-year report..."

Nice guy turns a bit pink, and clears his throat.

"Yes. Of course, Mr. Jung."

He starts to say something about exports, and talks at length about some worrying dip in market demands due to Brexit uncertainty...I gather Jung Corp. has a lot of business interests in the UK.

Jae frowns, all attention. 

"That Mark Jung seems like a total asshole." Damien is leaning over towards me, and whispering in my ear. I look at him and shrug, as if to say, I have no idea. I glance back at Jae, and almost scream. His eyes are on me. He glances over at Damien, then back at me, a hooded glance, his eyes shuttered, flinty.

I shiver.

Do I know this man?

Damien brushes his shoulder against mine quite deliberately. What is wrong with this guy? I pull away at once without looking at him, and all the while, my eyes are on Jae. 

I watch him with a kind of awful, surreal fascination, as if time has slowed down to a crawl, and everything and everyone, except him and me, are suspended, frozen. I watch him reach into his pocket, pull out his phone and type away. The nice guy is answering some questions from the other executives. The beautiful woman is leaning forward, saying something clever obviously, because the other executives are nodding in approval, and beaming at her. I feel my phone vibrate in my lap, but I don't look down or reach for it. I look away from him and over at Lisa.

"Wow. Hot boss looks pissed." Lisa says it in a low voice without moving her lips. She tilts her head a little - I'm guessing so Jae won't know what she's saying.

I glance back at him and his eyes flick from me to my phone. 

It is a silent command: Look at your phone now, or else. 

He flicks a glance at the beefy security guards standing at the doors.

I know he's going to do something. 

Grabbing my phone, I open my text message.

Don't make me have him removed from this building.

Mortification fills me.

Who does he think he is?

Who does he think I am?

I shall ignore him.

Bastard. Asshole.

But he is scraping back his chair, getting to his feet -

The other executives are turning to him, their faces surprised -

I turn to Lisa and whisper urgently, "Could we switch seats, please?" I pull a face and jerk my eyeballs back towards Damien.

She understands at once, and we quietly switch seats. 

"Get your ass off my chair." She snarls in an undertone to Damien, and he backs off at once.

I glance at Jae. He has settled back in his chair, the moment of agitation has passed, and his face has slipped into its cold, stony mask again. He is immediately engaged in a quiet conversation with the woman next to him, their heads bent low over a sheet of paper.

The meeting ends, and the executives file out first, and then the rest of us follow.

There is quite a crush at the door. 

"Hello." I look up. It's the nice guy. "We haven't been properly introduced. My name's Ken Lee. Head of Marketing."

"Hello. I'm Yiseul. Jung Yiseul."

"It's your first day on the job? It can be quite a traumatic experience." He laughs, showing perfect white teeth. He's goodlooking in a cute, boyish way. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine, just fine. Thank you - "

"Get a move on, and stop fraternising with the intern." 

I almost yelp, and Ken jumps a little.

"Shit, man, you almost gave me a heart attack. I was just saying hi to Yiseul here - "

"You're on company time. Move." 

Ken sighs, and looks at me with a tinge of regret in his eyes.

"It was nice meeting you, Yiseul. Feel free to ask me if you need any help. Anytime. Ken Lee. Marketing. Nineteenth Floor. Remember that." He grins, and walks off.

Everyone has left.

 I stare at Jae.

"Miss Jung."

"Yes, sir?" Is that pathetic squeak my voice?

"Please refrain from fratenising with the male staff when you are working."

"I wasn't - "

He stares at me. His voice is different than I remembered. Very cold. It could freeze my breath. 

I do not know this man. He is a total stranger.

I swallow. 

"Yes? You were saying?"

You bastard. I hate you.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." I hear my voice, sullen and resentful.

"Well, have a good day then."

He walks out without a backward glance.

 F. Scott Fitzgerald is right, what he said in The Great Gatsby.

The rich are different. 

They are ruthless, and they are unashamed of their ruthlessness.