Chapter Text
He was two minutes late.
CEO Go Darim didn’t have time for other people to be late. Even two minutes meant she’d have to take those two minutes from somewhere else.
Finally, there was a knock on the door. She swiveled her comfortable jet-black leather desk chair around to face her office door and drawled, “Neee?”
The door opened and he walked inside, shutting it slowly behind him.
“You’re late.”
“Mianhae.” He nodded once. And then he crossed the room to stand at the other side of her desk, looking down at her. He wore a crisp, perfectly tailored suit—no tie—two buttons undone to reveal just a hint of his sturdy chest. She felt herself smiling a bit at the sight of him. The dark-rim glasses he wore, perfectly styled hair, a dream.
“Why are you late?” she asked, tilting her head as she uncrossed her legs and slowly rose to her full height, making her way around the desk to stand in front of him.
“I wanted you to squirm for a few minutes, CEO Go.”
She bit her lip, liking his response. It sent a strange twinge through her midsection. “You know I don’t like it when you do things like that.”
“You do. You just pretend you don’t.”
“Why did you need to see me today? I already gave you a task today and I said I wasn’t to be disturbed unless it was something very important—”
Darim stopped when he pulled his hand out from where he’d had it tucked behind his back. In his hand was a velvet red box. Perfectly sized for a ring.
A ring?
She lifted her gaze from the box to meet his eyes that flashed with electricity, heat. “What’s this?”
“CEO Go…marry me.”
He popped the box open.
“Marry you?” she breathed.
He bit his lip as he got down on one knee, kneeling under her as she hovered over him. He took her by the hip and pulled her closer to him. “You know how badly I want a high-powered CEO for a wife, to order me around...” That twinge started again. “Make me obey…”
“That’s what you want?” she asked.
“Mmm.”
She tilted her head. “Didn’t we just hire you? And you’re offering me a ring? What was your name again…?”
“My name…” He paused. “My name is…”
“Hm?”
“Noryangjin.”
She frowned. “Mwo?”
“Noryangjin.” He stood up, angling his face close, his lips inches away from brushing against hers. “This stop is Noryangjin Station.”
Go Darim burst up from where she’d fallen asleep leaning against the window of the bus, blinking at the sight of other riders exiting the bus. “Oh. Oh! Darim!” She smacked the side of her head admonishingly.
What was with her naughty dreams lately? This wasn’t the first, second, or even third time she’d had dreamed like this!
She checked her watch as she stumbled out of the bus, and raced the rest of the way to the coffee shop near the civil service exam prep school that had become like a second home to her over the last five years.
Darim held the door as a group of elderly women walked out, bowing her head politely to them as they thanked her, and then she pushed inside. “Annyeonghaseyo, eonni,” she said as she approached the cash register and spotted her friend behind it.
Ara looked up from where she was writing a name on a cup and beamed. “Darim-ssi. On your way to class again?”
“Alwaaays,” she drawled. She took money out to pay but Ara reached out and pushed her hand away. “Mm?”
“Today’s coffee is on me, Darim-ssi. You look tired and stressed.”
“Ne, I’m stressed. But I slept a bit on the bus.” If that counted as sleeping. She still didn’t understand why she had dreams about being a CEO when she was on the verge of turning thirty and still worked stocking shelves at a market nearby, and a second job making deliveries some mornings during weekdays. She could ace an exam just as well as anybody, and yet…she got into a bind whenever she sat for an interview and they discovered she was twenty-nine, had a long list of jobs that weren’t professional salaried jobs, and a college degree she’d done nothing with.
She felt a bit kicked around today, so she decided to accept Ara’s kindness and take the free coffee.
Ten minutes later, she filed into class with the rest of the students. She nodded in greeting to those she’d seen before, taking her usual seat right in the middle of the room.
“It’s Go Darim, hm?”
She turned to see a young man sitting caddy corner behind her. She nodded with a polite smile. He cleared his throat. “A few of us are going to the clubs tonight if you want to join…”
Clubs?
Her jaw fell open as she gestured to herself. “Me?” He nodded. “Oh. Ahh…gamsahamnida, but I don’t think I can tonight,” she lied. “I appreciate the invite.”
“You sure? Just seems like maybe you could use a little fun.”
“I work tonight, so…”
“But I heard you just work at a market. Can’t you call in sick? Or get someone else to take your shift?”
Darim tilted her head a bit in question. “Where’d you hear…where I work?” she asked. He didn’t answer, giving her a pleading look instead. “I really can’t miss this shift. I need the pay. Gomawoyo…”
He seemed to brush her off with a shake of his head, going back to pulling his notes out, and she turned back to face the board.
“She coming?” she heard another guy near him hiss.
“Nah. She’s a bore anyway, seonbae.”
Darim rolled her eyes and shook her head as the lecturer finally entered the room and called class to order. Of course she was a bore. When had she ever had the opportunity to be anything else other than a bore?
They were still paying for their house they lived in only thanks to Seonu’s parents being decent and taking them in, but even the discount in rent Seonu gave them when he took over the property from his parents when they moved to Busan was hard to manage.
Still, she could keep working her two jobs, taking courses, and continuing to apply for salaried jobs until she got one, and she was rest assured Seonu wouldn’t kick them out no matter what happened. Besides that they’d been friends since middle school, Seonu would miss out on two babysitters for Jun if he kicked Darim, Myeongsoon, and Dajeong out.
As the lecture began, she focused all of her brain power on taking copious notes, not resting her writing hand until the course finished two hours later and she climbed up from her desk, shoving everything in her bag.
“Sure you don’t wanna come, Go Darim?” the guy whose name she didn’t even know asked as she turned to face him. “It’ll be fuuu-uuuun…”
“Aniyo.” She made a face. “You wouldn’t want to go clubbing with a bore anyway. Annyeoonnngg…” She waved at him and his friend and pushed past, rolling her eyes on her way out.
Twenty minutes later, she was shrugging on her vest at Happy Go Lucky Market, grabbing her scanner and heading out onto the floor. Sanghee looked up from where she was already stocking shelves and smiled. “How was class?” she asked in greeting.
“It felt very long today, but that was probably because I had a jerk sitting behind me the whole time.”
Sanghee raised her eyebrow. “Oooo, a guy?”
“Aniyo. Just a pest. They wanted me to go clubbing with them. They’re probably twenty-three and looking to score a noona. But when I said I couldn’t because I’m working a shift tonight, they said I was a bore anyway.”
“A bore?” Sanghee wrinkled her nose. “Why, because you have a job? They should try it sometime.”
“I’m sure that’s why they’re taking those courses. But everyone there knows I’ve been working away at that school for five years. I’m practically a pariah.”
Sanghee nodded. “Mmm well… It doesn’t make any sense, honestly. You shelve here, you go to classes, you’re a really good worker and super smart…but you bomb job interviews.”
Darim decided not to elaborate. They both knew why nobody was hiring her for salaried work, in spite of her administrative skillsets. “Nobody at Noryangjin wants to be Go Darim.”
“You’re not so bad, Darim…” Sanghee joked, nudging her shoulder with her scanner.
“Ah. Gomawo.” She snorted, but as she turned back to her work, she frowned. “They say the trick to surviving being an adult is having something to look forward to. My sister is getting married in a few weeks. I can look forward to that.”
She exchanged a smile with Sanghee and went back to work, trying to force herself to believe and hang onto that theory. She had the wedding to look forward to, her sister’s lifelong happiness. And then she’d look forward to something else, and she’d keep working towards her goals.
o+ooo+o
She stared down at the plane ticket in one hand, the hotel reservation in the other. “Dajeong…are you treating me to a vacation in Jeju?” she asked in awe, beaming up at her younger sister. “Are you doing this so I don’t feel bad about you getting married first? Don’t worry about th—”
“Look at the dates.”
Darim turned to blink at her eomma. “Hm?” She looked at the dates again. “Is this in two weeks? But isn’t your wedding at the same time?”
“Here’s the thing, Darim-a…” Dajeong cleared her throat and tucked her hair behind her ear as they all sat on the floor around the coffee table. “I don’t think you should be at the wedding…”
“...Mwo?”
“Minguk’s family thinks you’re working in the U.S. and I’m worried they’ll find out I lied if you go. You know, people asking you questions and then you give them answers that don’t match with what I’ve said in the past…”
Darim could only stare at her sister with her jaw in her lap. “You…told your in-laws that I’m working in the U.S.?”
“I can’t believe you lied about something like that,” their mom snapped, pinching the bridge of her nose. “What’s wrong with your sister as she is? She works hard, doesn’t she?”
“Minguk has a business degree and his family is upper middle class. They were all born in Seoul. My mother-in-law already doesn’t approve of me. What would she say if she knew my older sister’s been taking civil service classes for five years and only has ever worked low-level jobs, paycheck to paycheck?” Dajeong asked, gesturing at Darim rigidly.
Swallowing thickly, feeling numb, her chest hurting, Darim looked down at the tickets again. What good would it do to argue at this point? She was an embarrassment to her sister; that much she already knew. Dajeong was coddled and spoiled and privileged; she knew that, too. And she knew she’d contributed to it in some ways. Giving her allowance once she got her first job, always sweeping in to rescue her from financial situations she got herself into.
Supporting her and their mom.
Escalating the situation now would only make everything worse. So she looked down at her tickets and waved them at her sister. “Ahhhhh daebak, Dajeong-aaa! I’m going to Jejuuuuu,” she sang, doing a wiggle dance.
Her mom spun on her. “You’re going?!”
She shrugged. “Why not? It’ll make Dajeong have less stress on an already stressful day and I love the idea of getting a few days to sit next to an ocean…orrrr…” She held up the hotel reservations. “The pool. I’ve heard they have nighttime pool parties at this hotel. I saw a travel special about it on TV once.” She bounced excitedly.
“See, Eomma? She’s excited,” Dajeong reasoned.
“Gomawo, Dajeooong…” she drawled, still dancing where she sat. She climbed to her feet then, pointing at her sister. “You’ll cover transportation and food too, right?”
“Kol.”
“Kol!” She bounded towards her room and went inside, shutting the door behind her. She tried to fight off the ache, blinking almost violently to fight back the stinging she felt in her eyes.
It didn’t matter.
She just had to put one foot in front of the other.
And now the thing she had to look forward to wasn’t her sister’s wedding, but an all-expense trip to Jeju Island for a few days. In a lot of ways, that was better, wasn’t it?
Still, she plopped onto her bed facedown and fought off the embarrassment, the shame, the pain, of knowing that no matter how hard she worked, she’d likely never be enough for a job, or for her sister to be proud of.
o+ooo+o
Gyeongmin’s voice invaded the utter silence that filled his home office after the three-way call ended, the screens off, the remote clutched in his hand, adrenaline coursing through his body.
“Boss! Boss mannn! Jihyeok-ssiiiiiii! Hyuuuuung! The greatest of all tiiiime!” He rushed into the office with both arms raised high above his head, the excitement Gong Jihyeok felt reflected in the shorter man’s face. “You just secured ten times our original ask! Ten times! Woooo!”
Jihyeok spread his arms out to either side and grinned. He’d worked hard for this. He’d trained himself in multiple languages since he was a kid, excelling at everything he tried his hand at. It wasn’t that he was born talented, it was that he worked hard. His father had made it clear to him since he was born practically that he wasn’t as smart as his sister, but that he was lucky he was the legitimate son.
That legitimate son had broken away from Natural BeBe to start his own venture, JH Consulting, and he’d built it from the ground up with nothing but his bare hands and Gyeongmin’s unfailing faith in him and his ideas.
Now he and his right hand man had just secured the biggest investment they’d ever gotten, one that he could never have imagined when they started with nothing.
Gyeongmin went in for a high five. Their hands met hard, Jihyeok’s palm stinging. But he crossed his arms and watched Gyeongmin shake his hand out, ignoring the sting in his own.
“We don’t have it in the bag just yet,” Jihyeok warned. “We need to find Kim Jeonggwon and convince him to join the project, or we can say goodbye to that investment.”
“Yes. We’ll find him. We’ll get him to join. You’re the master of scouting, Hyung.” Gyeongmin clapped his hands together. “But it’s ten o’clock, Seoul’s nightlife is outside, and we have an endless list of clubs we can go to. Let’s get some drinks, my friend!”
“We need to pinpoint Kim Jeonggwon’s location. I haven’t even heard of this guy before.”
“Drinks first. We have something to celebrate!”
Jihyeok let out a long whining sound as Gyeongmin dragged him out of his home office and down the hallway to his bedroom closet.
o+ooo+o
“Move your body a little, you’ll feel better.”
Darim turned a sour little smile on Sanghee. “I’m moving my body, I just don’t want to spill this drink.”
“If you spill it, you can get another one,” Ara said from her other side, swiveling her hips in circles and holding her own drink over her head.
She really couldn’t and didn’t want to. She was stopping at one drink. She told them one hour, and then she had to get home and sleep early because she had a morning shift delivering groceries.
It was nearing that hour mark.
And the leather pants Ara let her borrow were a little too tight for her liking. She could barely move.
She excused herself and headed to the bathroom, letting Sanghee hold her drink for her as she carefully maneuvered through the dancers on the floor. As she pushed into the bathroom, she went to the sink area instead of a stall, staring at herself in the mirror for a few long moments. Ara had let her borrow a cute, flirty top with sequins and the leather pants, and then she’d done her hair in a pretty ponytail with waves in the tail. Darim had even put more makeup on than usual.
Why was she being such a stick in the mud?
Why was she letting all the effort go to waste? She was in a place where people went to have fun.
She leaned in close and looked in her own eyes, muttering, “Get it together, Go Darim.”
Her friends were taking her out for a rare night of fun and she was thinking about her uncomfortable pants, not wanting to dance, not wanting to pay for more than one drink, when she should go home because she had work in the morning…
She knew she needed to fix her attitude. And most days were perfectly fine, but today in particular had been hard. The lecturer had mocked her in class in front of the other students, telling them they didn’t want to become Go Darim who came back to these classes for five years straight.
And when she’d gotten in the bus to go home, her sister had texted her, telling her that her fiancé was visiting with his parents to talk to their mom and if she could stay away from home for another hour or so, that’d be best.
Darim nearly lost it on her sister but she was too tired from class and work to do more than text, “Okay. But you owe me.”
When Sanghee and Ara leapt into their group text to invite her out to a club, she thought screw it and headed to Ara’s apartment to meet them without going home at all.
This was supposed to be fun and she was ruining it by being negative.
So she pinched her cheeks to give them a bit of color and grinned, fixing her face to look happy, ridding it of the exhaustion. “Have fun!” she admonished, pointing at herself.
Suddenly the door of the bathroom burst open and two women younger than her, maybe even barely of age, stumbled in. One of them rushed to a stall and vomited in the toilet, nearly missing the bowl.
“Seongmin-a!” the other one snapped. “I told you to stop drinking an hour ago!”
Darim turned wide eyes on the scene. “Is she okay?” she asked in concern.
“These guys have been following us around out there and one of them kept handing Park Seongmin beer,” the one who wasn’t sick said. She seemed drunk, however, even if she wasn’t at the same level of her friend.
“You don’t know the guys?” Darim asked. “If you don’t know them, you shouldn’t be drinking anything they give you.”
“I know, that’s what I said.”
“I’ll go get her some water and I’ll be right back. What do the guys look like?”
“One of them is tall, a dark blue suit and white button-up, no tie, hair parted right here,” she motioned with her hand on the right side of her head. “Pretty handsome guy. Maybe around your age. And the other one is shorter, kind of cute. They keep asking girls to hang out with them and Seongmin can’t say no to a free drink,” the friend groused in the other young woman’s direction.
At least she seemed to be over the worst of the vomiting, but she was sitting on the floor with her head back against the wall of the stall, not looking great.
“I’ll be right back. Don’t go out there, hm?”
“Arasseo.” She shrugged.
Darim shouldered her purse again and left the bathroom. She would buy a water bottle from the bar in good time, but first, she wanted to know who the guys were that were apparently trying to get very young, barely of age (if they even were, she’d used a fake ID before too) girls drunk. There was only one reason why they’d want two drunk inexperienced girls.
She cast her eyes around the bar, finding men of many shapes and sizes, some with blue suits but the wrong hair, or the right hair and not very tall, or not exactly the objectively handsome type…
And then she saw a man talking animatedly to a man who was taller than him, the taller stooping a little to hear the shorter better, a beer clutched in one hand as he gestured back to his shorter friend. His back was to her so she couldn’t see his face, but he wore a dark blue suit and the hair was right, and he was tall.
Three out of four was better than what she’d seen so far, so she began to stomp over to where he was near the bar. The other one patted his companion on the shoulder then moved away towards the bar, probably to get them more drinks.
And then the tall one who fit the description turned just enough for Darim to see his profile. Handsome was underselling it. But she didn’t have time to really study him because she was too busy growling, “Gae! Sae! Ggi!”
When she got to him, she stepped around in front of him and got in close, as close as she could with their height difference. “Yaaah!” she exclaimed. “You can’t go to a club and mind your own business?”
He blinked in confusion and looked around, his beer halfway to his mouth. He lowered it again, opening his mouth to speak, but she cut him off before he could.
“You have to find yeodongsaeng and pour alcohol down her throat to get her to do whatever you want?”
The tall handsome man raised his eyebrows and leaned in a bit. “Mwo?” He furrowed his brow then. “Pouring alcohol down whose throat? Yeodongsaeng? Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“You,” she snarled, poking his chest. “Get out of here right now or I’ll call the police.”
“P-Police? On me?” he asked.
“Aigooo, what’s going on here?” The friend rushed in next to him, two beers clutched in his hands. Who were those beers for, exactly? Would they be shoving them into those girls’ hands again? “Annyeonghaseyo, Noona. What can I help you with?”
“Noona?!” she snapped, pulling her chin back, her jaw falling open. “Who are you calling Noona?”
“Uhhh…”
“Who are those beers for?! Huh?”
“Um…” He looked down at them. “Us.”
“Sure they are. Go give them back to the bartender and get out of here. I’m warning you. If I see you near those two girls again, I’ll beat the crap out of you. Arasseo?”
“Two…girls?” The shorter one blinked.
“She seems to think we’re pouring alcohol down girls’ throats…or something,” the tall handsome one said calmly. He turned his gaze on her again, taking her in, leaning in a bit too close for comfort. He definitely seemed like the dangerous type to lure you in with his good looks and by the time you realized what was happening it was too late. “Are you drunk?” He tilted his head. “Or maybe you tried one of the drugs I’ve been seeing passed around out on the dance floor.”
He calmly took one of the new beers from his friend’s hand and sipped it, setting the other down behind him in one swift, graceful move.
“Excuse me?!” she snapped. “You’re the one—”
“Look, lady, I don’t know who you think I am, but I haven’t bought any drinks for any girls all night,” the tall one cut in. “Not a single one. I’ve been minding my own beer, gomawoyo.” He widened his eyes as if to say so there.
The shorter one winced sheepishly. “I tried to buy a drink for one girl at the bar, a very pretty noona, but she rejected me…pretty harshly. Took a layer off my skin practically with how icy she was. Heh. Other than that, aniyo, me neither.”
She glared at them. “Blatantly lying to my face?”
“Jamkkanman.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Why are you accusing us of getting these girls drunk? Why aren’t you going after any of these other guys?”
“The girls told me what was happening in the bathroom just now. One of them is really sick. I asked for the description of the guys and you fit perfectly.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “Tall, dark blue suit, white button-up, no tie, hair parted like yours, and handsome.”
His lips formed a pout. “While I appreciate the handsome compliment—which is definitely the truth—”
“Yah!” she snapped.
He continued as if she hadn’t said anything. “Those guys also fit the description, don’t you think?” He gestured with the top of his beer bottle over her shoulder, at something behind her.
She snarled a bit at him, then spun to look.
The two young women had left the bathroom and two men who fit the description she’d gotten in the bathroom were trying to sling their arms over their shoulders to help them walk. Or so it would look to others.
It was clear they were trying to make their getaway with the girls to do…well, she could only imagine.
But they were there…and the guys she’d just accused were…behind her…and definitely not… Oh. Oh, no.
She spun back to them and winced. “I…um… Joesonghabnidaaaa,” she drawled sheepishly, smiling politely as she backed away from the innocent men she’d just insulted completely.
They exchanged annoyed looks with one another but she couldn’t waste her time on them anymore as she hurried to stop the date rape situation.
“Yah!” She rushed in and grabbed the taller man’s arm, pulling him away. “Don’t touch her. And you, too! Hands off!” she barked at the other one.
She recognized them then. It was her classmates from the exam prep course who she’d never seen in the class before, the same ones who’d wanted her to go out to the clubs with them. So they were even creepier than she’d assumed. Jerks, sure. Predators? She really hadn’t expected it.
They looked at each other, amused, and the shorter one then looked her up and down. “Listen, jagiya. You’re cute, but a little too mouthy for me.” It seemed neither of them had recognized her back. The lack of glasses maybe? The cute top and tight pants, the boots? Different hair? Probably all of it. And they’d likely had enough drinks, too.
They laughed together. She ignored the barb and instead moved in between the tall one and the girl who she’d just seen vomiting in the bathroom, safely extracting the potential victim from the predator’s embrace. She reached out and the other girl took her hand, hurrying over to her and to safety.
“Now I’m getting a little annoyed,” the shorter one said. “Who do you think you are—”
“Get out of here or I’ll call the police.” She straightened her spine and pulled her shoulders back.
The two men laughed loudly and took a step closer, as if of one wicked mind. Darim tried to move both of her charges even more behind her as they all three took a step back.
They seemed to be toying with them, like a cat playing with its food before eating it. She was angry, and then she realized she was also getting a little nervous. Nobody else in the club seemed to be paying the situation any mind, as if they couldn’t be bothered.
And then the short one gave a mocking little growl like he was a wolf or a dog and lunged in. Darim acted without thinking, her foot kicking out with the strappy heel she’d borrowed from Ara along with the outfit. The spike of her heel met with his shin and he jumped back with a curse.
“You little brat!” he snapped, leaning down to rub where she’d kicked him. And then he pounced again.
Darim held up her arm to protect herself as his hand swung back to hit her.
But then there was a streak of navy blue, and the hand didn’t make contact.
Because a man stood in front of Darim, and his own large hand with its long fingers was wrapped around the assailant’s wrist. She looked up. It was the profile of the man she’d first accused—wrongly. He’d stepped in to stop her from being hit.
“Fighting in a public place?” He clicked his teeth admonishingly and shook his head. Then his flashing, intelligent eyes flicked between the two men. “You must be the ones pouring alcohol down girls’ throats then, maja?”
“Who the hell are you?” the tall assailant asked.
The tall, handsome seonbae in front of her shoved the short assailant’s hand away, letting go, and he ignored the question, instead asking one of his own. “Would you like me to call the police? What were you trying to accomplish preying on these girls like this, as if we didn’t all know…?”
“Ne!” Darim agreed, nodding.
“Call this!” The shorter of the two moved in to try to punch the man she’d wrongly accused at first, but he grabbed his fist out of the air before it could make contact with his face, twisting the shorter man’s arm behind his back and giving him a shove down onto the floor.
Now people seemed to be noticing, crying out in shock as they backed away from the scene. But Darim saw movement out of the corner of her eye and shouted, “Look out!” a bit too late.
Because the wrongfully accused turned to look and got a punch right to the eye. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as he crouched forward and grabbed his eye with an, “Ooowwwww!”
“YAAAH!” His shorter friend was there, slapping ineffectively at the tall assailant’s chest and face, more of a nuisance than he was helping his friend, bless him.
But then hands grabbed onto her arms and began pulling her to the exit as the fight gained momentum. The tall, handsome man she’d insulted with her accusation straightened up and dove into the fight with his companion, and the scuffle began in earnest, other men jumping in to try to stop it.
He popped out of the scuffle for a moment and looked up, and she knew inherently that he was looking for her. When he saw her being pulled to the exit by Ara and Sanghee, he pointed and yelled, “YAAAH! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!”
But then he got yanked back into the fight as she winced and allowed her friends to get her and the girls she’d saved out of there.
Once they got outside, Ara rushed to the curb and held up a hand. “You two live close to each other? Share this cab,” she said to the younger women as she flagged down a cab.
“We’re roommates,” the more sober one said, looking grateful and scared at the same time. “Gomawoyo!”
Once they got them in the cab and waved it off, Sanghee grabbed Ara and Darim both and dragged them away from the club altogether. She turned and looked back at the club as she let herself be whisked to safety. She bit her lip regretfully, then turned back and rushed away.