Chapter 1

It’s So Naughty

Friday morning, Seo-yoon gathered the files and rose from her seat.

She was dressed neatly in a black pencil skirt paired with a white blouse. Her appearance was immaculate, while her short bobbed hair swayed lightly with every step, giving her an especially fresh and lively air.

Seo-yoon stopped in front of the imposing French doors connecting to the secretary’s office.

It was her boss’s office.

“Phew……………….”

Standing before the door, she took a deep breath first.

She inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled several times before finally knocking.

Even though she had already been working under him for five years, she still became nervous whenever she saw him.

“Come in.”

A monotonous voice came from beyond the door.

Seo-yoon opened the French doors and entered the office.

The office had been decorated in a modern and chic style befitting the taste of the young thirty-two-year-old Chief Financial Officer.

“Good morning, Director.”

Seo-yoon stood before her boss and greeted him properly.

He was seated behind his desk, reviewing documents with an expressionless face.

White sunlight streamed in through the large skylight, illuminating the nameplate on his desk.

Seo Ji-hyuk, Finance Director of Taekwang Group.

As the second son of the head of the multinational conglomerate Taekwang Group, he held the position of Senior Executive Vice President and served as the CFO, responsible for managing the organization’s finances.

Seo-yoon belonged to the CFO’s secretarial office and worked as his executive secretary.

She opened the file and began reporting his schedule for the day.

“There is a video conference with Branch Manager Takehashi of the Tokyo branch at 9:30 a.m., followed by a meeting with Executive Director Lee Jin-ho of Seongwon Bank at 11. You’re scheduled to have lunch with Kwon Doo-hyun, Head of Operations at Taekwang Heavy Industries, and in the afternoon……………….”

As she briefed him on his schedule in a clear, precise voice, Seo-yoon skillfully moved her light-brown eyes over his appearance, quietly taking him in.

He had an astonishingly handsome face, so captivating that merely looking at him was enough to make her feel enchanted.

His eyes, black as the night, gleamed with depth and intelligence, while his nose was high and sharply defined.

His full lips were sensual, and his prominently raised Adam’s apple displayed a distinctly masculine charm.

Seo-yoon admired him inwardly. His face was so perfect that it looked as though God Himself had painstakingly sculpted it.

She saw that face every day, yet she couldn’t help being impressed by it every single time.

And it wasn’t just his face.

His physique was equally remarkable.

At 192 centimeters tall, his broad, muscular body was impressive enough to make anyone swallow hard, even with the well-tailored suit covering it.

Perhaps because he had played ice hockey, a sport often called the game of tough guys, until high school, he gave off an unusual atmosphere. He looked like an intelligent and cold-headed businessman, yet at the same time, there was something rough and wild about him, almost beast-like.

The powerful masculine aura radiating from his large, imposing body was always overwhelming. Whenever Seo-yoon stood before him, she couldn’t help becoming extremely tense, like a small animal helplessly thrown before a merciless predator.

“……That concludes today’s schedule.”

Seo-yoon finished her briefing while expertly concealing the pounding of her heart.

“Assistant Manager Yeon, something suddenly came up this evening. Make a reservation at a restaurant. Somewhere women would like.”

At his low voice, which gently resonated in her ears, her wildly beating heart seemed to stop for an instant.

It seemed he was meeting a woman tonight.

It was Friday evening, after all. It wasn’t particularly surprising.

Seo-yoon had helplessly fallen for him from the very first moment she saw him.

The instant he had looked at her with those deep, penetrating eyes, Seo-yoon had fallen in love with him as if it were fate.

It had already been five years since she had begun suffering from the fever of unrequited love.

Perhaps because she had held him in her heart for so long.

Over the past five years, she had watched him meet countless women, yet she still couldn’t get used to it.

Whenever she learned that he was seeing a woman, just as he was now, her heart would always sink stupidly.

But Seo-yoon curved her lips into a practiced smile.

“I suppose you’re going on a date with your girlfriend.”

“No. I ended things with the woman I was seeing a while ago.”

As expected. This time, too, it hadn’t lasted more than three months.

For convenience, she used the term “girlfriend,” but in truth, the women he saw were involved with him in a much more casual sense than the word implied.

He had dated countless women, yet he had never stayed with any of them for more than three months.

It seemed he had his own strict rule that every relationship with a woman had to be ended within three months.

“Then are you going on a date with someone new?”

“It’s not a date.”

“She’s just a woman I knew a long time ago. She says she has something to talk about.”

A faint shadow settled over his previously expressionless face.

It was an unfamiliar sight.

Seo Ji-hyuk was an unfeeling, cold-blooded man who never allowed himself to become sentimental.

Yet at this very moment, he seemed immersed in melancholy.

Seeing this unusual side of him, Seo-yoon wanted to ask whether this woman he “knew a long time ago” was actually an ex-girlfriend.

But she had already pried enough into his private affairs. Asking such a question now would be crossing the line.

Suppressing her growing curiosity, Seo-yoon behaved professionally.

“Yes. I’ll make a reservation somewhere nice. Is there anything else you need?”

“No. You can go.”

“Yes. Then I’ll be going.”

Seo-yoon gave him a neat bow before leaving the office.

On Friday evening, Ji-hyuk was sitting across from Hye-joo at a French restaurant beneath the glow of splendid chandelier lights.

In the dining hall, a pianist was playing Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words: Spring Song.

The music was fresh and lively, but an awkward atmosphere lingered between the two of them.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

“It has.”

Ji-hyuk gave a slight nod at Hye-joo’s cautious words.

He hadn’t seen her at all since they had unexpectedly run into each other at the columbarium where his older brother rested long ago.

Whether he hadn’t seen her or had deliberately avoided her, even he wasn’t sure…………….

Ji-hyuk let out a heavy breath and took a sip of water. His mouth was dry.

It was a strange feeling.

Hye-joo had once been completely at ease around him, but now he felt uncomfortable around her, and even speaking to her had become difficult.

Perhaps it was because seeing her brought back both the happy memories of the past and the horrific tragedy at the same time.

“How have you been?”

“I’m doing all right. How about you?”

“Me too. I’ve been… well, more or less the same…….”

Hye-joo was just as nervous about their reunion after such a long time.

Her hands trembled slightly as she brushed her long hair behind her ear.

Soon, Hye-joo took a long breath as if steeling herself, then pulled something from her bag and placed it on the table.

“Actually, I…… I’m getting married.”

Ji-hyuk stared blankly at the pristine white wedding invitation before slowly opening it.

[Bride: Yoo Hye-joo

Groom: Kim Jung-hyun]

Seeing another man’s name engraved on the invitation felt strangely unfamiliar.

His chest ached as though a hole had been punched straight through it.

A sharp pain and hollow emptiness constricted his breath.

Yet Ji-hyuk concealed the bitterness inside him and slowly moved his lips, offering a plain congratulation.

“Congratulations.”

Hye-joo gave him a faint smile.

But there was a dark shadow behind her smile.

This should have been a happy moment, yet she couldn’t feel entirely happy.

The memories of her first love, buried deep within her heart, were still so vivid and intense.

“I don’t think I can come to the wedding. It wouldn’t be respectful to the man who’s going to be your husband.”

Ji-hyuk spoke in a dry voice.

After finishing work and returning home, Seo-yoon showered, sat down at the dining table, and began eating cup noodles.

But she soon put down her chopsticks without eating much.

“Ugh, I don’t have an appetite.”

While I’m sitting here eating cup noodles, Seo Ji-hyuk is probably meeting a woman and enjoying French cuisine at an elegant restaurant.

On a blazing Friday night, she had personally arranged the date for the man she had a crush on, only to end up sitting alone in her apartment with a cup of instant noodles.

Her situation felt utterly miserable.

“She’s just a woman I knew a long time ago.”

Resting her chin in her hand, Seo-yoon thoughtfully replayed his words in her mind.

“She didn’t seem like an ordinary woman…….”

The moment he had mentioned that woman, his expression had immediately turned wistful.

Judging by that, she must have been an old lover.

Seo-yoon had thought there would be nothing more than countless women who had briefly passed through his life.

But there was actually a woman capable of making the mighty Seo Ji-hyuk wear such an expression.

Just how extraordinary could she be?

“Could it be that, starting today, they’re going to start over—”

The more she thought about it, the more her mood sank, and she became increasingly depressed.

She wished there were no one in his life, but as though mocking that wish, there was never a shortage of women around him.

And this time, it might be a very special woman.

“Haa…………….”

A heavy sigh escaped her lips. Dark clouds seemed to gather inside her heart.

“Ah, no. I can’t just crawl into a hole and stay there like this!”

To lift her spirits, Seo-yoon deliberately shouted out with determination and lightly patted both cheeks with her hands.

She cleared away the cup noodles, sank back into the sofa, and picked up a book.

“When you’re depressed, something naughty is the best cure.”

It was a comic book she had received by delivery a few days ago.

The title was Bitten by the Beast of the Office. As one could guess from the title, it was an office romance.

The story was simple.

A male protagonist who had risen to the position of senior executive at a major corporation at a young age thanks to his exceptional lineage and outstanding abilities, and his female secretary, unexpectedly became attracted to each other.

From there, they developed their love through a high-intensity romance comic in which they constantly became physically intimate regardless of time or place.

On the cover, just as the title suggested, the male protagonist exuded a distinctly beast-like aura as he stood with his shirt off and a languid expression on his face.

Seo-yoon grinned.

“The cover alone is already so naughty.”