Son Ji-woo's alarm had rung at 5:00 am, but she'd dismissed it.
As she listened now, there was a silent dripping sound coming from the kitchen. She lazily pulled her phone towards herself and turned it on. The screen brightened to reveal a plain black wallpaper with the time on it reading 7:13 am.
She sighed as she registered the dripping sound. It was louder this time. Perhaps because her brain was now fully awake.
She sprang up with a jerk and made for the kitchen. She covered the distance within a few small steps. The kitchen was a part of her room. Her living space was small, but her walls were clean and spotless, her floor wooden, her furniture basic and functional. Her apartment spoke of the humble living she had.
She put a kettle under the tap and turned it on fully. She watched the kettle fill up as her fingers tapped on the kitchen counter, while she hummed a song she couldn't quite remember. There was also a slight reckoning of yesterday's events although she couldn't recall much of what yesterday was like.
Slowly, the hazy events became more vivid in her mind. Han Yoo-jin had called her last night and harped on about mistakes she couldn't make around Kim Seo-yeon.
Han Yoo-jin was her distant cousin. They weren't extremely tight, but they were close.
A few weeks back, Han Yoo-jin had called her. She'd said that she was looking for someone to work in her place as Kim Seo-yeon's assistant for about two months.
At first, Son Ji-woo had instantly agreed. She was indeed looking for something productive to invest her time in while going to school and since Kim Seo-yeon had no problem with her still being a college undergraduate, it was a win-win for her. But later on, with Han Yoo-jin's continuous hammering on Kim Seo-yeon's intricacies and preferences, Son Ji-woo had been feeling discouraged.
She found herself unable to keep up with such a tight schedule. She wasn't Han Yoo-jin, the razor-sharp analyst. She was just an ordinary girl studying Political Economy, with a love for books and a nice boyfriend. She wasn't sure she was ready to become a grumpy 30-year-old yet, who only talked numbers.
But she'd later agreed. She considered it a challenge she'd have to take on sooner or later since she was planning a career in economics.
Jeongwon Capital would be an excellent place for her to gain work experience before she graduated and start navigating the many nuances of the economy.
She could learn from Kim Seo-yeon, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the younger generation and adapt better.
After weighing the pros and cons, Son Ji-woo found the situation was still a win-win. So she took a lot off her mind, arranged time away from her boyfriend and started learning about Kim Seo-yeon. She learned about her favorite meals, her favorite places, her likes and dislikes. She studied every aspect of her life that she could and the ones she was provided with by Han Yoo-jin.
While studying, she found Kim Seo-yeon to be very much alike with a character in one of her most memorable kdramas, Misty Paths.
In the drama, the character Oh Eunji was rich and young like Kim Seo-yeon. She was calm and easygoing nevertheless. But she fell in love with the male lead, Lee Seo-jin. Lee Seo-jin, however, did not reciprocate her feelings. Lee Seo-jin could have but he was unwilling to. He'd been pushed into that position by many factors, one of which was his cousin and best friend Lee Min-jun. Lee Min-jun didn't think very highly of Oh Eunji and constantly pushed a narrative to Lee Seo-jin where Oh Eunji was not a good person.
Basically, the movie was about how misunderstandings could end a love story before it even began. She disliked the ending very much. She expected them to figure it out and fall in love, but they remained trapped in the mist and moved on.
When Kim Seo-yeon started to resonate more with Oh Eunji, Son Ji-woo started to imagine what the story would have been like in real life. If Kim Seo-yeon could be Oh Eunji, would everything play out differently?
The thought lasted for a while before she dismissed it. Those things didn't happen in real life and the Kim Seo-yeon Han Yoo-jin told her about did not have any Lee Seo-jin in her life.
…
Han Yoo-jin woke up with a banging headache and the sound of her phone ringing. She sighed deeply and shakily grabbed her phone from the drawer.
The caller ID read Ms. Kim Seo-yeon. She frowned. Had Kim Seo-yeon forgotten what day it was?
Han Yoo-jin was Kim Seo-yeon's personal assistant. She did everything for Kim Seo-yeon from work duties to home duties. She was an assistant that understood what assisting meant and did her job to the fullest.
But because of that, she'd spent seven years of her life babysitting a grown woman, and hadn't gotten time to look after herself; now she was already twenty-eight years old. A few weeks back, she'd explained to Kim Seo-yeon that she needed sometime off to recuperate and get back to work and Kim Seo-yeon had granted her a 2-month paid leave. Of course, Han Yoo-jin was left with the work of finding Kim Seo-yeon a suitable assistant.
Han Yoo-jin already had her two months planned out. She planned a date with a guy she met on a dating app, a trip to Istanbul, another to Japan, a visit to her best friend, Min So-hee in Australia and many more. For her, vacation was to do more work than actually take a break, but she needed it. She needed to explore life outside of tapping keys on a keyboard, sitting at a desk and writing a schedule. Today was the first day of her vacation.
She stood up and stretched. There was a dull pain in her abdomen. She guessed her ovulation period to be near, but she ignored it and more snuggly wrapped her fingers around her phone. The phone rang again. She answered the call.
"Good morning, Ms. Kim." She said in her mechanical assistant voice full of formality and devoid of emotion. She'd grown accustomed to saying that exact greeting whenever Kim Seo-yeon called.
"Assistant Han." Kim Seo-yeon said on the other end of the phone, her voice cool and breathy.
Han Yoo-jin moved to her floor-to-ceiling windows and pulled the curtains apart. The sunlight streamed in with a rush, painting her body a golden orange. She stood in front of the window in her underwear and looked down at the city. Outside, everywhere was already bustling and it was only 7:15 am. Han Yoo-jin sucked her teeth.
"When will the substitute assistant be in my office?" Kim Seo-yeon continued.
"I guarantee she will be there at 8 am." Han Yoo-jin replied.
"Okay." Kim Seo-yeon replied and ended the call instantly.
Han Yoo-jin lowered her phone without thinking further. She stared at everything that was happening from her 5th floor apartment.
The door of the bathroom opened and a man walked out. He was in a pair of loose pants and a shirt.
"Be gone… before I'm back." Han Yoo-jin said without looking back.
…
The 18-story building stood over Son Ji-woo as she took in the huge sign at the top of it that read, Jeongwon Capital. She sighed deeply.
She walked into the building, very quickly making her way to the front desk to ask for directions. She was told to go up to the top floor. She took the elevator.
A faint scent of lavender brushed past her as she stepped into the hallway from the elevator. She walked its full length to Kim Seo-yeon's office door.
She smoothed down her shirt, a nervous habit, then knocked on the polished, dark wood door. A thick silence enveloped her, making the space feel vast and empty. She shifted from foot to foot, her heart thrumming. No answer. She ran a hand over the door's surface, noting its unusual thickness. It was a soundproof door, she realized quite quickly. Kim Seo-yeon wouldn't hear a word uttered outside.
The desk attendant, a woman with an unnervingly blank expression, stared pointedly in Son Ji-woo's direction.
Taking a deep breath, Son Ji-woo pushed the door open and let herself in.
The office was a study in minimalist luxury: sleek, dark furniture, abstract art on the walls, and a panoramic view of the city. Before she could take a single step further into the room, Kim Seo-yeon's voice, sharp and clear, cut through the quiet.
"How old are you, Ms. Son?"
Son Ji-woo was caught off guard by the abruptness. Confusion warred with her practiced professional demeanor, but she quickly recovered.
"Twenty." She replied.
Six more questions followed, rapid-fire, each one delivered with an unnerving detachment:
"What's your full name?"
"What's your current GPA?"
"What's your major?"
"What year are you in college?"
"Do you have any prior work experience?"
"What are your strengths and weaknesses?"
All basic details, Son Ji-woo knew, that Kim Seo-yeon could have easily seen on her resume if she'd even bothered to glance at the first page. A silent curiosity washed over her. Kim Seo-yeon was indeed as Han Yoo-jin had described.
"Sit down," Kim Seo-yeon said, not looking up from her desk.
Son Ji-woo pulled out the chair opposite the desk and sat, allowing herself a surreptitious glance at the woman who she'd only ever seen online.
Kim Seo-yeon was striking: a tall woman with an imposing yet graceful posture, her jet-black hair pulled back in a ponytail so tight, not a single hair was out of place. Though Son Ji-woo wondered if her hair would remain like that after going through 14 hours of paperwork. Her nose had a high bridge which was distinctly Roman, a feature that, combined with her soft jawline and piercing gaze, contrasted subtly with her otherwise Asian features. Her lips were painted a nude shade and she was donned in a white haute couture suit.
She possessed the typical, almost intimidating, gravitas of any woman in a leading entrepreneurial position. She was undeniably good-looking. Her voice, however, was a surprising counterpoint; rather smooth and easygoing, like someone who had participated in choir rehearsals throughout her life. Her character was, at this time, still largely unknown to Son Ji-woo (beyond what her research had revealed), but she already exuded an aura of arrogance and control.
Kim Seo-yeon smelled of money. Not figuratively, but the actual crisp, metallic scent of dollar bills, like stepping into a freshly opened bank vault. It wasn't overwhelming or mild, just present.
Kim Seo-yeon finally looked up, holding Son Ji-woo's resume between two fingers as if it were a flimsy receipt. She leaned back in her chair, a slow, condescending smirk on her lips. "So, you're still in college. And have an online degree in Sociology. What makes you think I'll give you this job? Your resume is so thin." The last words were laced with mockery as Kim Seo-yeon stared coolly at Son Ji-woo.
Son Ji-woo met her gaze, a radiant confidence smoothing over her features despite the internal tremor. "Because I'm already here, Ms. Kim. And your time is too valuable for anyone else. And also," she added, squeezing out a bubbly smile while tilting her head, "Ms. Han recommended me."
Kim Seo-yeon's eyes, sharp and assessing, swept over Son Ji-woo's neat, unassuming attire. The crisp white shirt and black pleated skirt, the black tie, the tidy bun of artificially colored red hair that felt slightly out of place. Nothing special. She tapped her slender fingers rhythmically on the polished surface of her desk, the sound echoing in the silent office.
"Go get me a latte. And never smile at me again," she stated with chilling finality, her eyes already dropping back to her opened laptop. The interview appeared to be over.
Son Ji-woo quickly stood and hurried to obey.