ITLW 01

Chapter 1

The Person I Like

“Dan-ah, I have something to tell you today.”

Dan-ah clutched her pounding heart as she watched Jihoon come to the front of her desk, meet her eyes, and whisper.

His handsome, pleasant features. His gentle smile. His sweet voice.

Han Jihoon—her coworker who had joined the company at the same time as her, her friend of the same age, and the man she had been secretly in love with for two years.

“What is it……………?”

“Well, it’s a little embarrassing to say. Can you meet me in front of the emergency exit during the break?”

“In front of the emergency exit? Uh, sure. I’ll see you there.”

“Then, see you later. Keep fighting today, too.”

Jihoon gave her a gentle smile before returning to his seat.

Dan-ah placed a hand over her chest.

Thump, thump. Her heart was beating like crazy.

Something to tell her? What could he possibly want to say?

“Could it be…………….”

Today……………… could it be………………!

Was today the day she would finally hear a confession from the person she had secretly loved all this time?

“Dan-ah.”

“Hm?”

When she raised her head, Yoonseo, another coworker who had joined the company at the same time and was the same age as her, was looking at her with concern.

“Are you okay? Your face is red. Do you have a fever?”

“Me?”

At those words, Dan-ah put both hands against her cheeks. Then she leaned closer to Yoonseo, who was sitting at the desk in front of hers.

“No, Jihoon said he has something to tell me.”

“S-Something to tell you? Any idea what it is?”

“I don’t know. But, Yoonseo, I was going to tell you something, too.”

“What?”

“My feelings.”

“Your feelings?”

“To the person I like.”

Yoonseo sprang to her feet like a compressed spring.

“What! Who is it?”

Han Jihoon.

Just thinking about him made her heart race as though it might burst.

There had been countless times when Dan-ah had wanted to ask Yoonseo for advice about her unrequited love. But Jihoon and Yoonseo were both her coworkers, so she had always felt too embarrassed to openly talk about it.

Besides, weren’t the three of them friends?

“Is it someone from the company?”

“Yeah………………. I’ll tell you later.”

Since things had turned out this way, she would proudly announce it once everything worked out.

“Really? You have to tell me later, okay?”

Dan-ah promised Yoonseo that she would. She would definitely tell her.

After things worked out.

Although she certainly hadn’t meant for Yoonseo to come along with her when that time came.

One hour after making that life-changing decision, Dan-ah found herself standing in front of the emergency exit with Jihoon and Yoonseo.

Why were the two of them together?

How was she supposed to confess now?

“Why are you two together………………?”

For some reason, an ominous feeling crept over her.

A feeling that she didn’t want to hear what was coming.

A feeling that she shouldn’t hear it.

And, as if to prove her fears right—

“We’re getting married.”

What?

“Actually, we’ve been secretly dating.”

W-What…………… were they doing?

“I know you’re surprised. I’m sorry. I kept trying to tell you, but after missing the right opportunity once, I just couldn’t bring myself to say it.”

“So when you said you were seeing someone, Yoonseo……………….”

“Yeah. It was Jihoon.”

The two looked at each other affectionately. There was no mistaking the love in their eyes. Anyone could tell they were deeply in love.

“When did this even start………………?”

“Well, we both fell in love at first sight………………….”

At first……………… sight?

They had first met two years ago when they joined the company together. Did that mean they had been seeing each other ever since?

Jihoon awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

“You’re the first person we’ve told about us, Dan-ah. We thought we should tell you before we started handing out wedding invitations. It’s actually pretty embarrassing. Haha.”

Ah.

So that was why he had said it was embarrassing……………….

Because this was the first time they were publicly revealing their secret relationship?

Dan-ah was so shocked that she could barely even process the fact that she had been shocked.

Yoonseo asked her,

“But Dan-ah, did you confess to the person you like? Did it work out?”

“Huh……………?”

“You said there was someone at the company you liked, and that you were going to confess today.”

At those words, Jihoon’s eyes widened as he looked at her.

“You had something like that going on? Who is it?”

Her throat tightened under Jihoon’s gaze.

“Ah……………… well…………….”

“You haven’t confessed yet?”

Well, she had said she was going to confess to Jihoon……………….

Wait.

Had she just declared in front of his girlfriend that she was going to confess to her boyfriend?

The shame of imagining what would have happened if she had said it before they revealed their relationship came crashing down on her belatedly.

“Who is it? Someone in your department? Or maybe someone in ours?”

“That’s right. Dan-ah, is it someone from the Marketing Team? You went there pretty often.”

“No…………….”

“Then who? Someone from another team? Ah, maybe someone in the Planning Office………………”

“T-The CEO!”

Dan-ah blurted out in desperation.

“……Huh?”

“The CEO! He’s the person I like!”

Yes. The idol of their company.

The kind of man who was so popular among the employees that no one would take it seriously even if someone said they liked him.

The most useful—and most utterly useless—person she could have named to escape this crisis.

A man she could never possibly get involved with.

A man she would never, ever have anything to do with.

That man was—

“Raiheon?”

Jihoon tilted his head.

“You mean CEO Raiheon? CEO Ra?”

“Yeah, that’s right! Raiheon! I like CEO Ra! I’ve liked him ever since the first moment I saw him after joining the company!”

Dan-ah, who had completely lost her mind, couldn’t stop herself once she started.

Yoonseo’s eyes went round.

“Then you were saying you were going to confess to the CEO?”

Well, when you put it that way……………… haha.

“No, I mean, obviously I can’t confess to the CEO. But I felt like I was going to go crazy if I didn’t tell someone. That’s why I said I was going to tell you two. If I ever really got married, I’d want to marry the CEO! Because I like him so much!”

Crazy.

No matter how much she liked someone, she had never even seriously thought about marriage before!

“Ah…………… You really like the CEO…………… But doesn’t the CEO have a fiancée?”

Oh, really?

Dan-ah had absolutely zero interest in the CEO’s personal life, so she had never known. Come to think of it, she might have seen something about it in the company newsletter.

At Yoonseo’s words, Dan-ah gave an awkward smile, her eyes crinkling.

“Th-That’s why. Since the CEO has a fiancée, I’m only telling you guys about it, you know.”

“True. At least tell us and get it off your chest. How long have you liked the CEO, anyway? When you first joined the company, you told me you already had someone you liked, so I wondered if maybe it was our Jihoon……………….”

“What are you talking about! Of course it was the CEO!”

“Then……………… have you liked the CEO for two years?”

“Uh……………… I guess? Yeah. I’ve liked the CEO……………… for two whole years.”

How miserable.

The person she had loved for two years was standing right in front of her.

Dan-ah looked at Jihoon with slightly saddened eyes.

“That’s right. I liked him. For two years. Very, very much…………… Even though he’s going to marry another woman, I hope he’s happy. Happiness, I mean, I hope he finds happiness…………….”

As Dan-ah’s mind grew increasingly hazy and she continued mumbling whatever words came to her—

“Huh? The CEO?”

Her eyes met those of a man she had never imagined she would encounter here.

Her heart plummeted.

It was the CEO.

The very person she had just declared she liked.

A man she had never once happened to run into until now—why was he coming out from here?

Her mind suddenly went completely blank.

What had she just been saying?

While Dan-ah stood there in utter panic, not knowing what to do, he left without saying a word.

The three of them stared at one another.

“D-Did he hear us?”

“N-No, he couldn’t have.”

“Th-Then……………… right?”

Then why were all three of their pupils trembling?

“Well, there’s more than one CEO. There are CEOs from business partners and……………….”

“Didn’t you specifically say CEO Raiheon just now?”

So that meant he really had heard it, didn’t it, you two?

Not only had she been thoroughly rejected by the person she had secretly loved for two years, she had also become someone who had confessed her love for an entirely different man.

And on top of that, the man himself had heard her confession?

The CEO of a major corporation—someone an ordinary employee could hardly ever even meet.

And she was just an insignificant employee who had no reason to make excuses.

No, she couldn’t even make excuses for this!

………………The CEO would understand, right?

With a face like his, he must have heard confessions like this plenty of times.

His features were so flawless that it was difficult to even approach him and start a conversation when he was standing right beside you.

Nearly 190 centimeters tall, with broad shoulders wide enough to embrace every employee who had a crush on him.

A human sculpture that looked as though God Himself had painstakingly carved it!

Wouldn’t he just assume she was a fan who admired him and let it go?

“Yeah. He looks like the kind of person who wouldn’t even think twice about it. To the CEO, I’m probably nothing more than a stray cat passing by. He’ll probably just think I went ‘meow’ and keep walking……………….”