#14

I let out a sigh with a complicated feeling, slowly closed my eyes, and then opened them again. Then, I slowly lifted my gaze to look at Secretary Sung Yoojun.

“Secretary Sung. To be honest, I don’t know why the original me hated those kids. Even if I did know, unless it was something I experienced myself, I don’t think I could accept it as my own emotion.”

“Is that so?”

“I understand what the original me was trying to do, but I have no intention of carrying it out as it is.”

“Understood. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Huh? He’s accepting it much more easily than I expected. I couldn’t help but be taken aback by Secretary Sung Yoojun’s calm reaction. Seeing my unusual response, Secretary Sung Yoojun looked at me with a hint of curiosity.

“Why is that?”

“No, it’s just…… You seem to be accepting it too easily. I thought you’d be more resistant.”

“What kind of resistance are you referring to?”

“Well…… Hmm…… Maybe you’d get angry and ask who I am to refuse what the president was planning to do, or say that I’m not the president you originally served and that you’re going to resign. Something like that……?”

As I spoke hesitantly but without stopping, Secretary Sung Yoojun made a subtle expression. He seemed to genuinely not understand why I was saying this.

“Why would I do that?”

“Well……”

Because you’re someone bound to Goo Won?

I recalled the words written on the translucent window I had seen a few days ago.

[Exclusive Secretary from Veteran Package: Sung Yoojun {Status: Bound / Owner: Goo Won}]

He was clearly in a state of being bound to Goo Won. Given that, I expected a more intense and negative reaction. But I couldn’t bring myself to say it outright, so I simply chewed my lips for a while before shutting my mouth completely.

Even if he had figured out that I wasn’t this world’s Goo Won, I couldn’t just say to his face, ‘You’re currently bound to Goo Won like an item’. How awful would that sound to him?

“It seems like you have a reason you can’t say.”

“……”

“Well, that’s fine. If you don’t want to say it, you don’t have to. It’s not something particularly important to me.”

“Then, what is important to you, Secretary Sung?”

Without realizing it, I asked the question aloud, and Secretary Sung Yoojun slowly tilted his head to the side. There was no sign of regret on his face about the fact that the person he served had become someone else.

Is being bound not as significant as I thought……? Is it just something that prevents him from quitting his job? Is that all it means to be bound?

“It’s President.”

“……What?”

“Ah, not the previous president. I mean the current president.”

I had been deeply contemplating the ‘bound’ status attached to Secretary Sung Yoojun when his sudden bombshell statement made me blink in shock. Did I hear that wrong? I absentmindedly touched my ear, but then Sung Yoojun spoke again.

“You didn’t mishear. I don’t know why, but strangely, since about a week ago, I’ve had this persistent feeling. That the person I must prioritize above all else is you. sir. That I must not refuse your orders and must assist you from your side.”

“What do you mean……”

“It’s as if someone brainwashed me. What’s even stranger is that I don’t even feel the will to resist that brainwashing. I just accept it as if it’s the natural truth of the world. If it were the original me, I would have never tolerated it.”

Hearing Secretary Sung Yoojun speak such serious words with a calm expression, I felt a chill run through my fingertips.

“……You said this started a week ago?”

“Yes. To be precise, since I woke you in the underground parking lot of Lee Yong Entertainment.”

That was when I arrived in this world.

I clenched my eyes shut and rubbed my face with my palm. No matter how I looked at it, this was clearly the result of whatever ‘Veteran Package’ nonsense that had bound Sung Yoojun to me instead of the original Goo Won.

I wasn’t happy about it. Not even a little. Not at all.

Sung Yoojun himself had said it—he felt like he had been brainwashed, like something he would never have accepted before was now a given.

I didn’t want to force someone to do something against their will. Keeping someone tied to me when they didn’t want to be? That was the last thing I wanted.

But here I was, doing exactly that. Even though it wasn’t my own intention…… No, the fact that it wasn’t my intention made it feel even worse.

Who the hell gave them the right to do this?

A wave of anger surged within me. I clenched my fists so tightly that my neatly trimmed nails dug into my palms.

“Sir, you’ll hurt yourself.”

A warm, large hand gently rested on my trembling hand, accompanied by a voice filled with calm yet kind concern.

I stared at Secretary Sung Yoojun’s surprisingly rough hand for a moment before biting my lip.

I felt disgusted. Like I was just a puppet dancing in someone else’s palm. Being thrown into an unwanted situation, completely powerless to do anything about it, filled me with frustration. It had been so long since I last felt this kind of helplessness that I had no idea how to deal with it.

“President.”

It was Secretary Sung Yoojun who pulled me out of my self-loathing.

To meet my eyes while I sat in my chair, he knelt on one knee, looking at me with an expression full of worry.

“It’s okay.”

“…….”

“Everything will be okay.”

It was a warm reassurance.

This absurd, incomprehensible, and difficult situation must have been just as confusing for him, yet Sung Yoojun pushed his own emotions aside and comforted me first.

I found that unbearably sad.

Was this kindness truly his own? Or was it something fabricated by that inexplicable force that made him feel brainwashed?

I repeatedly turned the unanswerable question over in my head before closing my eyes tightly and then slowly opening them to look at Sung Yoojun.

“You’re saying that without even knowing why I’m feeling this way. What if it really is something serious, dangerous, and difficult?”

“Even if it is, you’ll make sure everything turns out okay.”

At his firm declaration, filled with absolute conviction, I widened my eyes.

“The president I knew was that kind of person. Or…… is the president standing here now different?”

This was an obvious provocation.

He was essentially saying, ‘The president I knew could do it—can you?’.

I was momentarily dumbfounded. Yet, strangely, I didn’t find it unpleasant. A smirk spread across my lips as I accepted Sung Yoojun’s challenge.

“Of course not.”

If the Goo Won of this world could do it, then so could I. Even if I had once been an ordinary citizen, I was now the president of a major corporation.

“Understood.”

Seemingly satisfied, Sung Yoojun withdrew his hand from mine. I watched his large hand move away before, cautiously, reaching out and grabbing it again.

“Sir?”

“It’s fine.”

“……What?”

“Even if it’s not fine, I’ll make sure it is.”

Repeating his own words back at him, I watched as his expression turned subtly complex. I looked at him with solemn determination.

“Whatever it takes, I’ll return you to the way you were. Anything, as long as it’s not illegal, unethical, or morally questionable.”

“……Isn’t this the part where you’re supposed to say you’ll do whatever it takes?”

“I have a conscience…… I don’t say things I can’t actually do.”

At my apologetic tone, the corners of Sung Yoojun’s lips twitched. Just as I was about to ask why he was holding back laughter, a knock came from the door.

“President, Secretary Sung, are you inside?”

“Yes. Please wait a moment.”

It was Manager Ahn Siwon.

Sung Yoojun, seemingly relieved, quickly withdrew his hand and walked to the door.

“I’ll open it now.”

I nodded as he waited for my permission.

“Good morning—wait, no, good afternoon, President! Secretary Sung!”