#34

“Yes. Very much so.”

“What exactly do you find amusing?”

“The fact that, despite looking completely baffled, you can’t bring yourself to ignore the team leader of the PR team’s sincerity and end up eating the cake anyway. Also, even though you don’t show it, you actually like sweet things, so when you do eat it, you end up looking happy. That’s quite amusing. Ah, and watching the employees subtly try to get you to eat just a little more is also rather entertaining.”

As soon as I asked, the response came pouring out. I pursed my lips at the immediate answer. Seeing my displeased expression, Sung Yoojun let out a low cough, stifling a chuckle. I frowned at his playful demeanor and spoke reluctantly.

“Was it like this before? Did employees send snacks…… no, gifts to the previous president as well?”

“Of course not. That never happened even once when the former president was here.”

It was a firm and unwavering statement. Sung Yoojun left no room for doubt, and it gave me an odd feeling.

“He was certainly a very capable person, highly skilled in business, but he had no talent whatsoever in earning affectionate goodwill from others.”

Affectionate goodwill.

I mulled over those words as I stared at the strawberry shortcake in front of me. The cake, bought from a famous café during someone’s sacrificed lunch break, looked incredibly delicious.

……This is undoubtedly an expression of goodwill toward me. With a sigh, I picked up the fork that Sung Yoojun had placed down. I couldn’t bring myself to ignore the sincerity of the team leader of the PR team, so at the very least, I had to eat this cake.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I think this is too much. They’re sending far too many things. There’s no way I can finish all of this alone.”

As I picked up a strawberry from the cake and popped it into my mouth, grumbling quietly, Sung Yoojun responded in a gentle voice.

“I agree. It’s definitely too much. I’ll tell them to hold back a little from now on.”

Wait a minute, what did he just say? Did I hear that correctly? I looked at Sung Yoojun in disbelief.

“But weren’t you the one who said the employees would be disappointed if we did that?”

“Yes. Well, they will be disappointed. But whether they are or not has nothing to do with me.”

Tilting his head slightly with an almost villainous expression, Sung Yoojun looked like he had just stepped out of a movie as the perfect antagonist.

“But earlier, you told me to be generous because they’re cute.”

“I did say that. However, your grumbling about having too many snacks is much cuter, so now I can’t even pay attention to anything else.”

At his unbearably corny remark, I put down my fork and stared at him in exasperation.

“You’re having the time of your life teasing me, aren’t you?”

“I won’t deny it.”

……For once, I wish he would. I shot him a withering glare at that shameless response, but, as always, he paid no mind. Instead, he simply slid a cup of coffee—one he had bought—toward me.

“I’m starting to wonder where my dignity as a president has gone.”

As I picked up the coffee and muttered, Sung Yoojun made a surprised face. Of course, it was obvious he was just putting on an act to tease me again.

“Do you truly want me to treat you with the dignity of a president?”

His voice was filled with amusement, but his question struck right at the heart of the matter. My hand, which was about to take a sip of coffee, froze midair.

I stared into the cup, watching the delicate wisps of steam rise, before slowly lifting my gaze. As expected, Sung Yoojun was looking at me with certainty in his eyes.

“Just to check…… Did you see through me again?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It seems I did.”

At his laughter-laced affirmation, I had no choice but to let out a deep sigh.

“I think I’ve said this before, but you really see right through me, Secretary Sung Yoojun.”

“It’s simply because you’re easier to read than you think, sir. Well, more accurately, it’s because you don’t really bother to hide anything in the first place.”

“……You should set up a fortune-telling booth somewhere. We could start a side business together. I bet we’d get famous in no time.”

Sung Yoojun let out a low chuckle at my weary joke.

“If your business ever completely collapses and you urgently need money, I’ll consider it.”

His quick-witted response made me smile faintly. Placing my coffee cup down on the desk, I sank deep into my chair. A weighty silence settled over the office. I savored the lingering sweetness of the cake in my mouth before slowly opening my lips to speak.

“……You’re right, Secretary Sung. I don’t want to be treated that way.”

“Even though you’re fully aware of your position?”

“Yes. Even though I’m fully aware of my position.”

I carefully put my thoughts into words, speaking in a quiet and deliberate manner. Sung Yoojun looked at me with a calm expression, as if silently assuring me that he would listen no matter what I said. Looking into his unwavering gaze, I felt like it might be okay to be honest, just this once.

After a long moment of hesitation, I finally spoke, as if making a confession.

“I really hate the saying that a position makes a person. No matter what position I hold or how much money I have, I never want to change. I want to remain the person I’ve always been. Of course, that doesn’t mean I plan to run away from the responsibilities that come with my role. It’s just that I……”

“Just that you……?”

“Just that…… I want people to see me as an ordinary person. Not as the chairman of a major corporation or the president of an entertainment company—just as a regular person.”

Not as Goo Won, the young chairman of Haje Group. Not as Goo Won, the president of Goo Won Entertainment. Just as Goo Won, a normal person.

That was how I wanted to be treated here. Even if it didn’t suit the seat I occupied.

To me, someone thrown into an unfamiliar world, forced to wear ill-fitting clothes and live a life that didn’t quite feel like my own, this was the one belief, the one stubbornness, that I refused to let go of.

“It’s a completely ridiculous, childish wish, isn’t it? I know that. And yet, even knowing that, I still want to cling to it. Even if my stubbornness causes trouble for others, this is the one thing I cannot give up.”

I let out a self-deprecating smile as I spoke. Exposing my true feelings after so long left a heavy pressure on my chest. Feeling suffocated, I tugged at my tightly fastened tie, loosening the knot. Then, slipping my fingers into the gap, I unbuttoned the first button of my shirt.

As I exhaled slowly, relieved that my breathing felt a little easier, Sung Yoojun spoke with a careful tone.

“May I ask why you can’t let it go?”

It was the question I had expected. The moment I spoke my true feelings, I knew I would hear this question. Pressing my palm lightly against the exposed part of my throat, I answered.

“Because there’s someone I never want to become. I would rather die than be like them.”

Someone who had engraved into me—so thoroughly—how money and power could destroy a person.

A man I had not seen, not even once, since that last encounter years ago surfaced in my mind.

“Was this person someone you had a bad relationship with?”

“You could say that…… or you could say the opposite.”

My ambiguous response made confusion flicker across Sung Yoojun’s face. Seeing the silent question marks practically floating around his head, I continued.

“He was a good person. The kind who couldn’t bear to say a harsh word to anyone, who, despite struggling himself, always insisted on helping those who had it worse. He was truly a kind man. But once he got money and power, he started to change—little by little. As if he had become an entirely different person.”

The day I last saw him was still painfully vivid.

His once-robust figure had withered into a haggard shell. The face that had once held the warmest, kindest smile was now twisted with pure hatred, resentment, and a thirst for revenge toward me.

He had spat out every venomous word he could think of—swearing that he would get his revenge, that he would never let me go, that he would kill me.

The man I had known was gone.

Dragged away by those restraining him, he had continued to hurl curses at me until the very end.

That day, I made a vow to myself.

I would never, ever become like him. I would not be a pitiful soul who lost himself, drunk on wealth and power.

What had started as a stubborn refusal to be like him had, over time, become a belief that shaped my entire life.

“Are you curious about who he was?”