IBTPCS 02

Chapter 02

Every time that happened, the Crown Prince would rush off to catch her, and while pretending to be troubled by it verbally, he couldn’t hide his delight at his lover’s actions, which demanded his attention.

Eugene, brooding in her room, didn’t realize it, but the game’s obsessive confinement events she was trying so hard to trigger had long since devolved into a “catch me if you can” game between lovesick fools.

“Good grief…”

Why couldn’t they just say it plainly if they liked each other? The palace servant, once again dragged into the love affairs of the high and mighty for no good reason, let out a deep sigh and moved away from the room.

—

Thanks to the sacrifice of a large pile of firewood, the room had grown warm.

As the temperature rose to the point of being hot, Eugene emerged from the blankets where she had been burrowing in search of cooler air.

Ignoring her master’s persistent gaze, she gathered the surrounding cushions, stacked them up comfortably, and lay down on top of them.

Anyway, relaxing her body with relief at having successfully completed the desired event once again, the Crown Prince, keenly sensing Eugene’s mood, sidled up and leaned against her.

Annoyed by the weight pressing down on her, Eugene pushed him away.

“Ugh.”

*Go away.* Pretending not to see the message written on her face, the Crown Prince stealthily took hold of Eugene’s hand, which had grown cold earlier.

“I said you’re heavy.”

He clearly understood, yet he just smiled with his eyes and didn’t answer, which was infuriating. When Eugene turned her head away completely, trying to ignore him, the Crown Prince brought her captured hand to his mouth and lightly nibbled on her fingers one by one until she looked at him.

Watching the Crown Prince nibble on her fingers as if they were a puppy’s paws, Eugene thought:

‘*I’m not actually a puppy…*’

No matter how much he nibbled, there was no pink jelly on her hand, nor did it smell like puppy paws.

‘Hmph!’

Feeling somehow offended, Eugene shook off the hand held by the Crown Prince. When she took away the fingers he’d been playing with, he made a sulky face, as if disappointed.

‘*That’s not the image you had, you know.*’

His good looks made the impact even greater, but for Eugene, who remembered the original novel’s Crown Prince, it was a character-breaking expression.

As Eugene kept pushing away the Crown Prince who was still clinging to her, she said,

“It’s hot, so move away. Master.”

She was using all her strength to push him, but it didn’t seem to even tickle him; she glared at his unmoving upper body.

“That’s not it, though.”

He hadn’t budged an inch when she pushed him, but suddenly the Crown Prince rose from his seat, leaned over Eugene lying on the cushions, and trapped her within his arms.

Smiling deeply at Eugene looking up at him, the Crown Prince lightly traced her lips with his finger, the lips that had given the wrong answer.

“Didn’t I teach you?”

And he slowly leaned his body forward. Eugene was horrified by the face getting uncomfortably close.

‘*On top of being unbearably handsome as it is…!*’

With that face and that expression that could melt anyone, coming closer…

Eugene urgently pushed away the Crown Prince, whose face was now close enough to touch, and answered.

“…Michael!”

The Crown Prince, without a hint of disappointment, took the hand that was pushing his face away, pressed kisses all over her palm, and praised her.

“Good job.”

His voice calling her name afterwards was so sweet.

“My lovely Eugene.”

Honestly.

‘*Who are you!*’

Where on earth had the original’s cruel tyrant emperor gone?

Eugene reflected on how things had ended up this way.

—

**Chapter 1. I’ll Be That Protagonist**

—

“Hey!”

The furious team leader’s voice boomed through the office, which had gone deathly silent.

“Is this how you handle work? Huh? If that’s the case, get out right now!”

A barrage of all sorts of curses followed.

The team leader’s vociferous shouting showed no signs of subsiding. Everyone held their breath, watching the situation. Eugene, standing before him taking all the abuse, had been struggling to keep her drooping shoulders up.

“…”

*Squeeze.* As she put strength into her clasped hands, she felt her blunt fingernails dig into her flesh.

Regaining her composure through the stinging pain, she silently endured her superior’s lengthy tirade.

“Team Leader Shin.”

The team leader’s seemingly endless tirade of abuse finally stopped when the department head, who had emerged from the executive office, called his name.

“Yes! Department Head.”

“Come on time this time.”

“Ah, yes. Yes. I’ll prepare right away and join the meeting.”

The team leader, who had been late to the last executive report meeting, turned red in an instant and kept bowing obsequiously.

As the department head passed him and left the office, the team leader, forgetting that he had just been berating his employee, hastily gathered documents from his desk and followed the department head out.

The frozen office atmosphere finally thawed, and people who had been sitting with their heads buried under their cubicle partitions began to get up and move around.

“Phew. The atmosphere was tense.”

“I got chills from the tension.”

And the employees approached Eugene, who had been standing alone in front of the team leader.

“Eugene, are you okay?”

“Oh, Assistant Manager.”

It was an assistant manager she occasionally ran into in the break room, though not from the same team. She was one of the few female colleagues, often checking if Eugene was having a hard time and looking after her with small things.

Eugene’s shock from being cursed at to her face hadn’t subsided, but she was about to force a smile and say she was fine when someone suddenly cut in between them.

“Hey! Song Eugene!”

“…Section Chief?”

“Do you have a screw loose or what? Don’t you know that when you mess up, I get dragged through the mud too!”

He was shouting vehemently, asking if she was trying to make him look bad. The Section Chief, who had sent his junior out to face the team leader’s wrath but hadn’t shown his face at all, was now all fired up.

“This won’t do. Follow me!”

Then, as if he were some kind of HR personnel, he called Eugene to a small conference room for a “talk.”

—

“Excuse me?”

Eugene couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

“What I mean is, Eugene, you really did well earlier.”

“I recall you saying something quite different in the office.”

The Section Chief, who had first roared at her, rolled his eyes with an embarrassed expression.

“No, well… I just didn’t want to show a weak front in front of the other teams. It’s right for us to discuss our team’s matters among ourselves. Right?”

It didn’t seem particularly right to curse someone out in front of others and then make excuses when alone, but Eugene remained silent first.

When she didn’t say anything, the Section Chief, looking anxious, repeated what he had just said.

“You worked hard to stop the team leader from blowing up. That lunatic, he went crazy again, huh? You really worked hard, and once he explodes like that, he won’t blow up again, so let’s just let this slide. Okay?”

Even hearing it again, the words were absurd, and Eugene opened her mouth.

“The revised proposal I submitted, following your instructions, Section Chief, with the documents you told me to find attached—the team leader got angry thinking I made all those decisions alone. And you want to just leave it like that?”

Even as she spoke, she felt heat rising to the back of her head, but Eugene continued as calmly as possible.

“I waited because you said you would explain it yourself.”

That was right. From start to finish, she had completely scrapped the draft as that man wanted, struggled through research and preparation to complete the final report, and then suddenly got called to the team leader and struck by lightning.

To make matters worse, before going to the team leader, he had silenced her by saying he would explain it all himself later, so she couldn’t even correct the misunderstanding.

‘*And now he says this…!*’

Her teeth clenched.

In her heart, she wanted to throw something at his shameless face, but she held back and waited for his answer. The Section Chief, however, was fiddling with his fingers against his lips, avoiding the issue.

And what he finally said was:

“Ah, I was going to keep quiet so you wouldn’t get hurt, but…”

He let out a deep sigh, as if there was no helping it, and said:

“Eugene, you’re going to be leaving soon anyway.”

“Excuse me?”

“Didn’t you come in knowing? I’ve told you time and again. Don’t get your hopes up because our company doesn’t hire women.”

“What are you talking about…”

“I got a little inside info from HR. They’ve decided not to convert Eugene’s contract.”

*Thud.* Something made a sound like falling.

“Now you understand?”

His face, contorted into a smug smile, felt disgusting.

She had endured for over a year in the unstable position of a contract worker. It wasn’t that there weren’t other good opportunities. But whenever she had an interview chance, the Section Chief would say things like, “A new hire asking for time off already?” or “Our company’s not bad. If you want to stick around here, you need to get along with the people you’re with now.” He repeatedly emphasized company loyalty and team unity.

And he would subtly pressure her, slyly push his own work onto Eugene, and even bring in useless work from other teams, take credit for himself, and dump it all on her while saying, “You learn by doing,” making her work late every single day.

All for your own—who’s “your” here?—good, he’d say. You’ll definitely get converted. I’ll push for you. Who was the one who blustered so arrogantly?

“Even if you tell the team leader, Eugene is just a contract worker who’ll be gone soon, and I’m someone who’ll keep working with them… You understand, right?”

Eugene’s head was so hot that her vision momentarily went white.

The Section Chief’s rambling sounded like a distant buzzing fly.