"𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶."
—c.c.aurel
❝Would you rather I let myself in?❞
HYEJIN LET OUT A DEEP SIGH, feeling herself begin to relax as the tension left her body. She finally changed into her pajamas and was getting started on her skin care. She dried her face with the small baby pink towel after washing her face, humming along to "Only," by Leehi which was playing softly from her phone that she threw onto her pink sheets
"Finally no work and no Kang Taemoo to worry about." She said, smiling softly to herself as she put on her black skincare headband that had little bear ears on the top. Continuing to hum along to Leehi's airy voice, she opened a sheet mask package, gingerly picking up the mask, and carefully placing it on her face. Her smile dropped and her arms fell back to her sides in annoyance as she groaned loudly. Her small bubble of tranquility had been popped as her phone began loudly ringing.
She walked over to her bed and grabbed her phone before her eyebrows furrowed at the unfamiliar number. "Who would be calling me at this hour?" She mumbled before she picked up. "Hello?"
"Where are you?" Taemoo asked, his voice ringing in her bedroom.
"Taemoo?" Hyejin asked confusedly. "How'd you get my number?"
"Your secretary gave it to me." He replied before asking once more, "Where are you?"
"Of course she did." Hyejin said, shaking her head. "I'm in my apartment. Should I be concerned about why you're calling me so late?"
"Not at all. Just come down for a second, I'm in front of your building."
With raised eyebrows, Hyejin quickly made her way to her large bedroom windows that out looked the front of her apartment complex. "I think you should just go home, I was about to go to bed anyways." She said, fidgeting with the bracelets on her wrist as she spotted his car.
"It looks like your lights are still on."
She smiled awkwardly at this, "I'm afraid of the dark?"
"I wouldn't be surprised to hear that, but I don't really believe you." Taemoo said, his tone remaining monotone.
"It was worth a shot." She sighed, letting go of her curtains.
"Would you rather I let myself in?"
"You're a lot more bold after work hours. Which is surprising because I thought you always worked." Hyejin said, walking towards her bedroom door before her eyes widened as she stopped in front of her vanity.
She heard him scoff before replying. "I'm starting to think you do want me to come up."
"You're fine." She quickly said, her eyes wide as she swiftly removed the mask from her face and grabbed a random sweater from her closet. "I'm coming down right now."
✧༺♥༻✧
Hyejin wrapped the fuzzy sweater around her body tightly as she approached the black car. Opening the door, she got in, smiling awkwardly at the man in the passenger seat.
"Glad to see your slightly more gifted in the hearing department?" Taemoo asked before nodding towards the headband on her head when she looked at him confusedly
"Oh-I" She stammered, her hands quickly raising to touch her head. "I can't even come up with anything to say. What do you want?" She sighed defeatedly, taking the headband off her head.
He pulled something out from the side of his car before speaking. "I drafted up a contract. Take a look. And memorize my profile before you meet my grandfather."
"Is this seriously necessary?" Hyejin asked, taking the file from his hand. "I'm pretending to date you, not taking a test about you. Plus your grandfather will love me."
"I told him that we're already in a relationship, so he'll be expecting you to know this stuff about me." Taemoo explained.
"Won't you need to know some of this stuff about me then?" Hyejin asked, looking away from the papers she was previously skimming. "Like my birthday, what college I went to, how old I am?"
"May 5th, 1996. You physically attended Yale University, but you took online courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology. And you're 27 years old."
"Yeonmi?" Hyejin asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah."
✧༺♥༻✧
"I've summarized some things you need to know to carry out this contract." Sunghoon explained, motioning to the projection board at the head of the table. "You need to memorize these things."
Hyejin sighed, leaning back in her chair as she stared at the board, beginning to read the information out loud. "Born in 1993, blood type B. Attended the prestigious Hyunil private school. Finished high school early and got into Harvard at the age of 16. After high school, he graduated-" she stopped reading, letting out a small groan. "-this is boring."
"You have to know this stuff before meeting my grandfather." Taemoo persisted, making the girl roll her eyes.
"Is your grandfather seriously going to ask me about your blood type, your year of birth, my thoughts on you graduating summa cum laude from Harvard? He's your grandfather, he knows all of this stuff." She continued to complain.
Yeonmi sighed, putting down the file in her hand. "Can you stop complaining and get this over with? You have a meeting in an hour."
"I can't escape you uptight people no matter where I go." Hyejin mumbled as Sunghoon continued the slideshow. "He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and got a Thomas Hoopes Prize for the Best Graduation Paper. He was also a track and field athlete in college."
Crossing his arms over his chest, Taemoo turned towards Hyejin. "The only thing I'm not good at is not being good at something."
"I've only known you for a week and I can list loads of things you aren't good at." Hyejin said, raising an eyebrow at the man across the table.
"Go on."
"You're not very good at knowing when to quit, you're bad at opening up, you're also bad at leaving me alone, you're bad at styling your hair, you're bad at not looking like a archaeopteryx-"
"I think he gets it, Hyejin." Yeonmi cut in, making the girl throw her hands up in surrender as Sunghoon quietly chuckled at his boss's annoyed look.
"Regardless of all those things, every project I've done, all big successes."
Hyejin ignored this and continued to read the screen. "Fell in love while staying in New York for his studies. Why New York?"
"Mr, Kang has been spending the past two years in New York, and you spent a lot of time there, so I thought this plot would make good sense." Sunghoon explained.
Hyejin nodded her head in agreement. "That makes sense. So when am I meeting your grandfather?"
"The meeting with the chairman is next Sunday. Have it memorized by then. Every single detail." Taemoo said.
"What time next Sunday?" Yeonmi asked, glancing at Taemoo. "She isn't free from 9 AM to 4 PM."
"What am I doing for eight hours on a Sunday that's work related?" Hyejin asked, incredulously.
"That's perfect. We'll be meeting my grandfather at 5." Taemoo nodded at Yeonmi.
"Do you guys have some sort of secretive alliance I'm not aware of?" Hyejin asked once more but didn't get an answer. "Whatever. Are we done now?"
"Before you leave, is there anything we should know about you?" Sunghoon quickly asked.
Before Hyejin could reply, Yeonmi handed him a folder. "Everything in that file contains relevant information to assure everything goes well. If you have any questions feel free to call me."
"Or me, given the fact that the information is about me." Hyejin added, staring at the other three in utter confusion.
"Come on, Hyejin." Yeonmi said, handing the slightly annoyed girl her purse before they bowed and walked out.
authors note;
❣️ this chapter is unedited, but thank you guys so much for 4.5k reads, I hope everyone is enjoying the book just as much as I am, thank you all for reading !!🫶🏼🫶🏼