# Chapter 4: The Mark on the 27th Floor
Rael POV
I lasted exactly four days before someone noticed.
Four days of perfect, terrifying bliss.
Mornings: the driver picks me up from the new apartment (33rd floor, Gangnam, view that makes my mom cry when I FaceTime her). I still haven't told her who pays for it.
Days: I sit outside Jaehyun's office like a very expensive guard dog, answering emails no intern should ever see, signing for packages that cost more than cars, learning that "handle it" from Yoon Jaehyun means "make it disappear or die."
Evenings: 5 p.m. sharp, door locked, city lights on, his mouth on me before the coffee gets cold.
Nights: his bed. His rules. His name carved into my skin in places clothes hide.
Then Friday happens.
We're in the executive elevator (private, soundproof, mirrored on all sides) heading down to the garage after another "meeting" that left my shirt buttonless and my legs useless.
He's fixing his cufflinks, hair still perfect even after I pulled it, when the elevator stops at the 27th floor.
Marketing floor.
My old floor.
The doors slide open.
Minji and two seniors from planning are standing there, arms full of presentation boards, laughing about something.
The laughter dies the second they see me.
Then they see him behind me.
Then they see his hand on the small of my back (possessive, casual, impossible to misinterpret).
Minji's mouth actually falls open.
One of the seniors recovers first. "Director Yoon, good evening! We didn't realize you were—"
Jaehyun's voice is pure ice. "It's after hours. Use the west elevator."
The doors close before they can step in.
Silence.
Then Jaehyun's thumb brushes the spot he just marked on my neck (fresh, dark, deliberate).
"You didn't cover it," he says, amused.
"I ran out of concealer."
He hums, pleased.
The elevator reaches the garage. His car is waiting (black Maybach, license plate just "42"). The driver opens the door.
Jaehyun stops me before I get in.
"Tomorrow," he says, low enough only I can hear, "don't cover anything. Let them see."
My stomach flips. "People will talk."
"Let them."
He kisses me right there in the open garage, slow and filthy, fingers under my chin like he's showing the security cameras who I belong to.
Then he puts me in the car and tells the driver, "Take him home. I have a dinner."
Home.
He means the penthouse.
I watch him walk away in that long black coat, tall and untouchable, and realize I'm smiling like an idiot.
I'm so screwed.
Saturday morning the group chat I never left explodes.
[Marketing 2025]
Minji: KANG RAEL EXPLAIN
Sunbae Park: saw him in the exec elevator with Director Yoon. Hand on his BACK.
Minji: BACK!!!!
Unknown number: y'all he has a hickey the size of Jeju
Minji: PIC OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN
Someone actually sends a blurry photo (me getting out of the Maybach this morning, collar slipped, bruise blooming purple).
The chat loses its mind.
I turn my phone off and bury my face in Jaehyun's pillow.
He left for Busan at 6 a.m. for some family thing. Won't be back until tomorrow night.
The penthouse is too quiet.
I wander around in his hoodie (it hangs to my knees) and find a note on the kitchen island.
Eat something real.
Fridge is stocked.
If you touch the soju I will know.
Text me when you wake up.
—J
I smile so hard my face hurts.
Then I open the fridge and actually cry because it's full of the brand of banana milk I mentioned once. Three weeks ago. In passing.
He remembered.
I'm drinking the third carton when my phone starts vibrating off the counter.
Unknown number.
I answer.
"Kang Rael-ssi?"
Cold voice. Female. Familiar.
Secretary Kim.
"Yes?"
"The chairman requests your presence at the family estate tomorrow. 11 a.m. Driver will collect you at 9:30."
My blood freezes.
The chairman.
Yoon Jaehyun's grandfather.
The man who owns half of Korea.
"I— what— why?"
A pause long enough to bury me.
"Director Yoon will not be present. That is all."
She hangs up.
I stare at the phone.
Tomorrow I meet the king.
And Jaehyun won't be there to protect me.
I already know one thing for sure.
Whatever happens tomorrow, I won't be coming back the same.
Some doors, once you walk through them, don't let you leave unchanged.
And I'm about to knock on the most dangerous one of all.