the morning after, yerim headed to jeon co. as usual, skipping out on the iced choco this time in attempts to avoid bumping in to anyone else with her drink — especially that man.
she arrived at level 3, meeting room #11 seven minutes early to try and redeem herself from the previous day's tardiness. she sat in the room alone, waiting patiently for kang jieun to enter.
she only had to wait a couple minutes until jieun opened the door with a smile. yerim immediately stood up and bowed, 'good morning miss kang.'
'morning yerim. i actually have some news for you.'
'news? good or bad?' yerim questioned nervously, her right brow raised in confusion as to what this news could be.
'good! i think.' jieun grinned. 'looks like you'll be heading to level 10 this morning!'
yerim's eyes widened immediately. 'level 10? really?' she asked with a doubtful tone.
jieun nodded, 'they haven't told me where or why. i was just told to alert you and i'm sure someone will direct you once you're up there.'
'd-do i go up there now?' yerim asked, stuttering with disbelief. this was such a turn of events and her day hadn't even officially started yet.
jieun chuckled, 'yes, don't be so nervous! it must be a good thing! go on, you don't want to be late again!'
yerim nodded, bowing quickly and rushing out to the elevators at once. she walked in and couldn't help but feel like this was a joke. what could be the reason?
with a deep inhale and exhale of air, yerim timidly pressed button '10', biting down hard on her lip. the elevator doors closed and began to rise. yerim tapped her heels on the polished marbled floors unconsciously; she had never ever imagined taking the elevator up to level 10 any time soon, especially during her internship. her mind was in shambles, trying to think of what the reason could be that she was called up. she found herself taking deep breaths in attempt to ease her racing heart.
before she knew it, the elevator doors opened: lo and behold, was level 10. immediately, yerim could notice the difference compared to the lower levels of the company. all she could see was white, everywhere.
gingerly, she stepped out. a skinny, middle-aged man, with narrow spectacles and a bushy black moustache atop his lip, noticed her and was by her side in an instant. 'ah yes, the red hair.' was what he greeted her with. 'follow me.' he ordered, before stepping down a white-marbled hallway.
yerim didn't have a chance to greet him, or even bow. she obediently trailed behind him, butterflies circling around in her stomach at rapid speeds.
a few dozen strides later, yerim was brought to the outside of a room. she couldn't help but be drawn to the gold-plated name card above the door:
'JEON JUNGKOOK - vice president'
'jeon jungkook? the vice president?' yerim read the bold, fancy lettering in her head, before reading it once more. her mind was beyond puzzled. she had heard of the name and knew he was the son of the chairman of jeon co., but she had never ever seen him, heard him or known anything else about him. how on earth did he know of yerim and why on earth did he bring her up here? before she could even think of any possible answer, the middle-aged man opened the door and gestured her to walk in.
the butterflies were racing at record-breaking speeds now. yerim gulped and took a step inside the room which was incredibly large, spacious and dazzlingly white. the man closed the door behind her so that she was now the only other person inside the room.
she looked ahead and saw a grand, black leather chair turned around. only a few moments later, the chair spun around dramatically, as if this were a movie, revealing the one and only jeon jungkook.
the whites of yerim's eyes must have doubled in size; her jaw unconsciously dropped too. was this young man in front of her really the jeon jungkook?
he smirked at yerim's reaction, 'good morning.'
'y-you...' yerim stuttered, her mind rendered completely blank as she was unable to think of any coherent sentence. 'you.. you're...'
'jeon jungkook? son of jeon jungho, the chairman of jeon co., and so inevitably the vice president of this nation-leading gaming company? or the charming, dashing man you spilled your chocolate milk on yesterday?'
'i-it was iced choco...' yerim found herself spilling involuntarily.
jungkook chuckled, 'whatever.'
's-sorry about that... are you still not over it..?' yerim asked cautiously, her legs feeling rather wobbly due to the state of affairs at hand.
jungkook chuckled once again. 'well, i obviously saw you at the company restaurant yesterday and thought to myself... why don't i help you out?'
yerim stood there in silence, waiting for him to elaborate.
'i have a proposal for you. how would you like to be my personal assistant?' he continued.
yerim almost choked on her spit. 'w-what?' she blurted out in pure shock and confusion.
'my personal assistant. like a secretary, but specifically for me.' he explained, as if yerim didn't know the difference between the two.
'but... why? why me?' yerim questioned, still unable to grasp the situation.
'i could do with someone nice to look at everyday, rather than that old man that led you here.' were the exact words that left his mouth in response.
this time, yeri really did choke on her spit. was he being serious right now? yerim, a 4-week intern only on her second week, was being offered by the vice-president himself, to be his own personal assistant? after bumping in to him and spilling iced choco on his shirt yesterday? because he wanted 'someone nice to look at'? things just seriously were not adding up.
'i...' yerim felt herself stuttering again, badly.
'i know this must be a shock to you, but you can take time to absorb everything...'
yerim did do exactly that. she stood there, mouth still wide open, absorbing what he had just said. jungkook just sat there, chin in one palm of his hand, watching yerim with a smirk.
thinking about it for a minute or so, yerim scrunched her brows. 'i'm sorry but... no thank you.'
jungkook's eyebrows raised. 'what?' he almost spat out in disbelief. 'what do you mean no thank you?'
'i don't want to be your personal assistant.' yerim repeated herself, firmly.
'why not?' jungkook continued to speak in utter disbelief.
'i don't want to be 'someone nice to look at' for some horny, arrogant boy who thinks he can win over whoever he wants just because of his father's hard work.' yerim answered without a single hitch in her breath. at the young age of 22, she had dealt with far too many disgusting men that, no matter how 'important' they appeared to be, that wouldn't stop her from giving them a lesson on human decency and respect.
jungkook looked back at her in absolute astonishment. he had never been insulted like that in his entire life; jungkook didn't get angry easily but, for once, he had to gulp back the anger firing inside his body.
closing his eyes, he took one deep breath. 'horny? arrogant? a boy?' he repeated her, his eyes still shut in an attempt to calm himself down. 'kim yerim.' he called out her full name, fearlessly. 'do you not know who i am? you don't know how hard i've worked to reach up until this point.'
yerim looked down, instantly regretting what came out of her mouth and wanting to run away and hide.
'look. i know you're young, only a couple of years younger than me. i want to help you because it's nice having younger people work at such huge companies like this, and if you've made it up to an internship here at your age, you must be talented — or atleast have a lot of passion and perseverance.'
yerim took in everything he was saying. he really, truly was just looking out for her and was being nice. he recognised her potential and offered to help her. why on earth did she keep acting like a bitch in front of this man? 'why, why, WHY did i insult him like that?' she bit her lip, feeling horrible.
'okay, i take back everything i said. i'm so sorry... again.' she apologised, her head still cast down. 'but, i don't want to be a personal assistant. i want to help develop games, and work my way up the company by myself.' she spoke, raising her head to meet his eyes again.
'you don't think being my personal assistant will help you develop games? it will be the fastest route to you being the forefront of the next biggest games in this country. trust me, it will take you well over 10 years otherwise.' he continued to persuade her.
yerim continued to bite her lip, in deep consideration. her mind was still somewhat clouded from everything that had just happened up until this moment — she couldn't think clearly at all. and everything was still so sudden; she was planning to continue shadowing jieun today, not be offered such a random, intimate position from the vp himself.
but from what jungkook was telling her, it was only smart and sensible that yerim took this fast-track route to accomplishing her dreams. 'okay, i'll do it.' she finally agreed, still feeling a little rushed and uneasy.
jungkook grinned in victory, 'great! you'll start now.'
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ohohoho and so the story officially starts... i hope you are all enjoying this story so far ^^ i'm working hard on churning out chapters and keeping them in the drafts so that i actually have something to post weekly.
please continue to look forward to future chapters!