Cohabitation Rule No. 10
The power of words backed by authority truly was staggering. The moment the phone call ended, the materials the Vice Principal had sent arrived at the chairman's office, filling an entire box.
"That's an enormous amount. It'll take quite a while to review ten years' worth."
Even at the alarm in Jae-kyung's voice, Yu-gam showed no reaction; he simply walked to the desk across from her and sat down.
"Don't miss a single number or a single letter—check everything. And I'll see you get a nice fat performance bonus, since Seo Jae-kyung likes those so much."
A bonus on top of everything else was something to be grateful for, to be sure, but she couldn't help shooting a small glare at Yu-gam, who simply had to phrase it in the most irritating way possible. He was already buried in his work, though, and never noticed.
In any case, the materials were now in hand, which meant she had to pick up the pace. Following his instruction to make the Vice Principal matter her top priority, Jae-kyung pored over the documents until her eyes stung.
She had just returned to the chairman's office after lunch with Ms. Kim Joo-young when it happened.
"Ms. Seo."
The Vice Principal, materializing out of nowhere, beckoned to her with a flick of his fingers.
"Busy these days, aren't you?"
"...Yes."
"It's a problem when a contract employee gets ahead of herself."
He studied her with open displeasure.
"Things like this, you're supposed to read the room and let them slide."
He seemed to be stewing over the word the chairman had given him by phone that morning.
"That was... something required by procedure."
"Ms. Seo!"
His voice dropped low.
"Look here. You may be the chairman's secretary, but your status is still contract staff. I've been at this school twenty years. You're an alumna yourself—doesn't that make you my student?"
The Vice Principal thrust a file folder into her hands.
"Process this as if you entered it yourself, and the whole thing goes quiet."
Jae-kyung's face drained of color.
"And then... when you're getting ready to job-hunt, I'll write you a letter of recommendation or two."
"Wouldn't this cause problems?"
"Heh heh, problems? You're the one who entered the data—what's the problem?"
Glancing warily around, the Vice Principal pinned her with a look and delivered the words like a threat.
At that moment the door to the chairman's office swung open, and Yu-gam and Director Kwon stepped out.
"What's going on out here?"
The Vice Principal bowed his head to the chairman without missing a beat.
"Good to see you, Chairman. We're in the middle of a handover of duties."
Yu-gam took the file from Jae-kyung's hand and spread it open. For the briefest instant, his gaze wavered as it ran down the falsified documents the Vice Principal had fabricated.
"Is there anything a secretary answering directly to the chairman needs to take over?"
"These are supposedly materials Secretary Seo prepared. She had so many questions, I came by to walk her through them over her lunch break."
He lied with a sly grin. Yu-gam ought to have realized these were not documents Jae-kyung had made, but her mouth had gone bone dry.
"If there's no evidence and the totals don't reconcile, I don't carelessly reference materials—even if Secretary Seo did prepare them."
"Quite right, quite right. So that the Chairman has nothing to worry about, I'll verify every entry Secretary Seo keyed in myself."
Yu-gam stared for a moment at the snake-like smile on the Vice Principal's face.
"I'll be out at a meeting for about an hour. Secretary Seo—if anything comes up, contact me immediately."
"Yes, sir. Enjoy your meeting."
The moment Yu-gam and Director Kwon were gone, the Vice Principal leaned in and whispered to Jae-kyung.
"You saw that, didn't you? You really think the chairman trusts you? Do as I say, and I'll see to it you keep your position."
"Excuse me—Vice Principal! I don't need anything of the sort."
Paying no heed to her urgent protest, he gave her shoulder a couple of patronizing pats and vanished with a genial smile.
Jae-kyung stared down at the file in her hands, utterly at a loss.
Should I report to Yu-gam right away that these documents came from the Vice Principal?
Her bad feeling about the man was starting to look less like suspicion and more like fact. The best she could do at the moment was verify whether the materials had been doctored or stripped of anything, and then report it.
Following Yu-gam's message, she arrived home and let herself in through the front door. However lavishly the place was appointed—like a hotel, down to the last detail—staying in someone else's house could never feel comfortable.
There wasn't a soul in the house, and yet even the floor, without a single speck of dust, made her feel as if it were watching her.
Jae-kyung went into the room she'd been staying in and opened her laptop. The way to settle things with Yu-gam, once and for all, was to finish the work as quickly as possible.
When she lifted her head, it was dark outside the window.
He still hasn't come home? Living under one roof, she couldn't help keeping track of his comings and goings.
Her stomach growled. She should have picked up something at a convenience store on the way. Moving by official protocol car came with limits on the little routines she'd once taken for granted.
She wanted to avoid drifting out to the living room and running into Yu-gam for no reason—but her stomach made an even louder racket.
She had no idea what was in the refrigerator, yet it seemed wiser to hurry in and eat whatever she could find. She eased her door open and slipped out; the vast space, lit only by the automatic sensor lights, was silent to the point of being eerie.
Jae-kyung darted into the kitchen and carefully pulled the refrigerator open. It was packed with individually portioned salads and poke bowls, along with an entire array of lunch boxes.
"It's basically a luxury convenience store in here. Am I even allowed to eat this?"
The idea of calling to ask struck her as too ridiculous, so she grabbed whatever looked good and left the kitchen.
"Having dinner?"
"Ah... yes."
Yu-gam, still in his suit—when had he come in?—looked back and forth between the lunch box in her hands and her face.
"Then let's eat together."
"Pardon? I was just going to eat in my room."
"Meals are eaten at the table. That's a rule."
"..."
"Apparently you haven't read Article 10 of the cohabitation rules. Go on, sit down."
The cohabitation rules went all the way up to Article 10? She hadn't checked past the first page; the few sheets of contract left on the desk floated up in her memory.
Seated at the table with her lunch box, Jae-kyung lost her appetite entirely the moment she thought of that contract.
"We've got soup here too. Have some."
Yu-gam, standing at the open refrigerator with the effortless poise of a model, glanced over at her.
"No—no, thank you. I'm fine."
"Hand me the lunch box. I'll warm it up."
Before she could even refuse, the chilled lunch box in front of her had vanished.
It came back warmed, with soup, and even a fresh salad garnished with fruit—soon quite a spread covered the table.
Feeling awkward about picking up the neatly laid-out spoon and chopsticks Yu-gam had set out for her, she sat frozen—but he settled into a seat at the table as if it were the most natural thing in the world and simply began to eat.
"Food gets delivered from the hotel every day, so eat whatever suits you. You do know how to put together a proper meal for yourself, don't you?"
"Pardon? Of course I do."
She'd been looking after her father's meals since she was a child, on top of part-time jobs at a side-dish shop and washing dishes at a restaurant—yet Yu-gam regarded her as if she were a woman incapable of managing a single meal, and it was maddening.
"Are you a picky eater?"
"No. I eat everything."
Yu-gam frowned, as though something still didn't suit him.
"Make sure you eat properly. You could stand to put on a little weight."
Just as Director Kwon had said—the chairman was a tsundere. Yu-gam's exterior was ice-cold, yet his hands moved fast and he seemed thoroughly accustomed to taking care of other people. It was fascinating to watch.
The silence was so deep you could hear the hum of the refrigerator, and Jae-kyung handled her chopsticks with care, trying to make as little noise as possible. Whether that caught on his nerves or simply caught his attention, Yu-gam switched on the kitchen speaker. When music you might hear in a café drifted out, she relaxed a little and managed at last to swallow the food in her mouth.
When the meal was over, Jae-kyung gathered her dishes and carried them to the sink; Yu-gam followed, stood beside her, and turned on the water.
"I'll take care of this. Get the dessert out of the fridge."
There was dessert?
She opened the refrigerator again and found the bottom shelf filled with fruit, yogurt, and things like pudding.
"Which one would you like?"
"Mandarins are good, and dark chocolate for the pudding. Seo Jae-kyung, you take whatever suits your taste."
"I'm fine, really."
Jae-kyung took out a mandarin and the dark chocolate pudding and set them on the table, and Yu-gam, finished with the dishes, came striding over.
"Dark chocolate's barely sweet at all. Don't you like the taste of chocolate?"
"I'm full. I've had plenty."
"If chocolate isn't to your taste, how about something nutty?"
A pudding white as a snowball was set down before her, and with practiced hands he drizzled sauce over it.
"It's peanut pudding. Just one bite. You're not allergic, are you?"
"No."
That unblinking stare made refusal too much of a hassle, so she spooned a bite into her mouth. The texture was springy, somewhere between jelly and soft bean curd—chilled and nutty, and honestly quite good.
Having watched her eat it, Yu-gam passed over a spoonful of the chocolate one.
"It's made by a famous pâtissier. Try it. It might even lift your mood."
Still hesitating, Jae-kyung took the spoon held up to her lips into her mouth. The deep flavor, heavy on dark chocolate, wasn't bad at all.
Before she noticed, a small cup of espresso had appeared beside her, and the pairing of pudding and coffee suited each other surprisingly well.
"These mandarins were sent from our farm on Jeju. What do you think?"
Sweet-and-tart juice pooled in her mouth; the flesh was as tender as fruit out of a can.
"They're delicious."
"You'll have occasion to come to the Jeju farm with me."
What occasion could there possibly be to go to Jeju Island with the chairman? Even if one arose, refusing was the only conceivable answer.
"Hm... I take it you're quite the gourmand."
Even with her mouth feeling dry as sand, everything laid out on the table kept whetting her appetite. The lunch box had been exquisite, too. Well, naturally—it had come from a hotel.
"They say food is the best medicine. I spent so long studying abroad that I learned to eat well instead of taking pills. All while thinking of my runaway wife."
The words runaway wife grated on her nerves, but the fact that he'd gone abroad to study and learned to cook on top of it was genuinely impressive.
"You must be a good cook, then."
"Pfft—!"
For one horrifying instant, Jae-kyung very nearly sprayed her coffee across the table; she slapped a hand over her mouth.