The Team Who Hated Their Team Leader
"Your new Team Leader for Planning Team 2."
"It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Lee Sojin."
The team members exchanged furtive glances. They clearly couldn't believe that this woman was their new team leader.
Sojin let her lips curl into a refreshing smile and pressed on.
"I can't stand stiff, stuffy atmospheres. Let's work freely and flexibly, shall we?"
The team members laughed awkwardly and offered polite words of welcome.
"Well then, you can all introduce yourselves properly later on—"
Jihan cut in smoothly.
"First, allow me to show the Team Leader to her desk."
As he turned his gaze, the team members' heads swiveled in unison, following it.
Every pair of eyes landed on the same spot.
By the window, positioned to overlook the entire team. Two monitors, a tidy set of drawers, and a pristine desk.
That's really similar to where I used to sit.
A strange feeling washed over her. Sojin approached the desk.
She was supposed to look like an immature, clueless team leader in their eyes, and yet a corner of her heart sank heavily.
Jihan lightly pulled out the chair for her.
"You can sit here. You'll use the registered account."
"Understood."
Sojin maintained her smile as she settled into the chair. The leather seat cushioned her body with a familiar give, and the feel of it made her fingertips tingle for a moment.
Jihan powered on the monitor and placed an employee ID badge on the keyboard.
"You'll use this badge for building access."
Then he added, in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone:
"Also, I should let you know in advance that all of your approvals, Team Leader, must pass through the Division Head first."
A restriction on my approval authority, huh.
To announce that so publicly, too.
It amounted to declaring that although she was nominally team leader, they had no intention of actually treating her as one.
Sojin clicked her tongue inwardly.
Dohyun must have ordered it. Well, the Chairman put me here, so there's nothing anyone can do about it—but no one's going to cut me any slack either.
Jihan gave her a slight bow.
"I'll bring the handover materials shortly. Please take your time reviewing how things are run."
"I will."
Jihan returned to his own seat.
Sojin had just risen from her chair to greet each of the team members personally when a woman came walking over from across the office.
Sojin turned her head to look at her. Slowly, her eyes widened.
The female lead?
If someone were to turn a peach into a human being, would this be what they'd come up with?
Sojin couldn't close her mouth. Yuna was simply too fresh and beautiful.
Yuna had a subtle magnetism that drew every gaze even when she was standing perfectly still.
The moment she spotted Sojin, she broke into a bright smile and approached. A sweet fragrance brushed the tip of Sojin's nose as Yuna greeted her lightly.
"You're the new team leader joining Planning Team 2, aren't you?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Nice to meet you. I'm the team leader of Planning Team 1. Let's work well together."
Sojin took Yuna's hand. A soft, warm hand closed around hers.
"Thank you. I look forward to working with you as well."
Yuna left with one more parting word of welcome.
Sojin stared blankly down at her own hand.
Unlike when she'd seen the male lead, meeting the female lead stirred up a strange, fluttering feeling in her chest.
Perhaps it was because she had genuinely rooted for her so much while watching the drama.
It's like someone stepped right out of the screen and appeared in front of me.
Sojin closed her hand around the warmth that still lingered in her palm.
The next day, Sojin gathered with her team members for the meeting.
Once again she debuted a bold, flashy outfit, but the team members seemed to have already grown numb to it.
Sojin greeted them brightly.
"We did introductions yesterday, but let me say it again—I'm Lee Sojin, team leader of Planning Team 2. Now, could each of you introduce yourselves one at a time?"
A woman with a bob cut and sharp, cool eyes raised her hand first.
"I'm Kim Eunha. Please just call me Assistant Manager Kim."
Next, a man with a short buzz cut raised his hand. He spoke in a boyish voice.
"I'm Kwon Minjun. I haven't been at this company very long. Please call me Associate Kwon."
Finally, a woman in her forties with wavy brown hair raised her hand. Her voice was gentle.
"I'm Song Hyeonju. I've been here the longest, it seems. Please call me Manager Song."
Sojin nodded, then spoke in a bright voice.
"It's nice knowing everyone's names. Then let's wrap up today's meeting here."
"I'm sorry—what?"
Minjun blinked at her in disbelief. Hyeonju's expression stiffened for an instant. She ventured carefully, "Did the Division Head not assign you any tasks?"
Sojin went hmm and tapped her chin with a long nail, pretending to deliberate.
She hadn't been given any work to begin with—and she had no intention of playing team leader anyway.
"No, nothing. If you've got something you're working on, go ahead and work on it."
"Wh-what does that even mean?"
Before the team members could pile on with more protests, Sojin declared the meeting over a second time.
"Then that's a wrap! Everyone's free to go."
She rose from her seat and opened the meeting room door—then turned back around as if she'd forgotten something.
"Oh! Right."
Expectation bloomed across the team members' faces. Surely she had something meaningful to say—something to actually communicate.
But Sojin, beaming, obliterated that expectation on the spot.
She spread her fingers and flaunted her manicure. Nails studded with oversized rhinestones glittered brilliantly under the light.
"I just got my nails done recently, you see. I had extensions put on, so it's hard for me to type."
"……"
"So if you need something from me, please call or come find me in person. Speaking is faster than typing anyway, right? Alright then!"
And just like that, Sojin vanished like the wind.
The team members stood there staring blankly at the empty space where she had been, utterly dumbfounded.
The moment the meeting room door clicked shut, the air plunged into a deep freeze.
For a long while, the ones left behind couldn't say a word.
The first to speak was Minjun. He glanced once at the meeting room door before opening his mouth.
"Is this…… for real?"
Eunha gave a thin smile—or something that couldn't honestly be called a smile. Just the corners of her mouth lifted, dry and hollow.
"The team leader said the meeting was over and left, didn't she?"
Hyeonju closed her laptop without a word. She looked composed, but an icy chill radiated off her.
"Shouldn't we report this to the Division Head? Our team leader is being completely unreasonable—"
When Minjun asked timidly, Hyeonju answered in a low voice.
"Reporting it won't do any good."
"Why not?"
Hyeonju paused for a beat before adding, "Can't you see it with your own eyes? Someone paid a price to put her in that team leader's chair."
At those words, something flickered in Eunha's eyes.
Hyeonju was saying that Sojin was a parachute hire.
Eunha had suspected as much herself, deep down—that it was no coincidence that someone like that had landed the position of 'Team Leader.'
Minjun couldn't hide his uneasiness.
"Still…… if she really is a parachute hire, would she flaunt it like that? Surely she'll start working properly from tomorrow."
She was so obviously a parachute hire that it almost made her seem like anything but one.
Who on earth went around advertising the fact that they were a nepotism appointment?
Hyeonju had no answer for that.
From that day on, the seeds of anxiety took root in the team members' hearts.
They tried their best to write it off—surely today had been a one-time thing.
But from the very next day, Sojin's antics crossed the line with ease.
No—her behavior went beyond anything they could have imagined.
The next morning, the team members switched on their computers at their desks and got to work as usual.
9:05.
9:20.
Minjun asked cautiously, "Will the Team Leader…… actually be coming in?"
Eunha stopped typing mid-keystroke and checked the clock.
"She's already late."
The team members kept sneaking glances at the team leader's empty desk—until, finally, at 9:35, Sojin appeared.
Once again dressed like a movie star in a dazzling outfit, she strolled down the hallway as though it were a runway.
She waved a hand as if nothing were amiss.
"Good morning~"
Hyeonju asked her in a frosty voice, "Team Leader, did something happen? You came in a little late."
"Oh."
Sojin waved her hand breezily, as if it were nothing at all.
"I overslept."
