Chapter 57. Changes (5)

Translator: Aura

Minkyung turned her head as much as possible to avoid his lips,

“Stop it.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want kisses or skinship until I make the decision.”

“What? It doesn’t seem fair.”

“Otherwise I won’t be able to make the right decision. You know I’m weak to you.”

Lee-Seob raised an eyebrow, still with his arm around her waist. He had a seductive expression, as if he could eat her lips at any moment.

“I… always postpone matters where I can’t make a proper decision.”

Lee-Seob was silent briefly.

‘Postpone, postpone…’

He muttered to himself a few times and said,

“The fact that you have chosen to postpone the decision… could be interpreted in this case as a temporary rejection.”

“Yes…”

Lee-Seob’s eyes twitched. The smile disappeared from his mouth. He turned away from Minkyung and put on his shoes. As she looked at Lee-Seob’s broad back, Minkyung asked,

“Are you angry?”

This was a question she would never ask in a normal situation. It would only increase the boss’s anger to ask him if he was angry when he clearly was. Instead, Minkyung would try to find out the reason for his anger, fix what happened, and not repeat it.

Lee-Seob narrowed his eyes slightly, but did not respond.

“I hope you’re not angry.”

“Why?”

“I’d feel awful.”

Seeing him so angry made her want to comfort him, but she couldn’t, which disturbed her heart even more. Once Minkyung narrowed it down to that she would ‘feel awful’ since she was unable to explain it, she looked away.

“You already took away my freedom to kiss you, and now you want to take away my freedom to get angry. It seems I’ve been unlucky to fall in love with someone as smart as Kang Minkyung. I had forgotten about it.”

“That means you’ll hate me again.”

Minkyung forced a smile, as usual. Lee-Seob reached out his hand and patted Minkyung’s head.

“I wish I could do it.”

Lee-Seob pulled the back of Minkyung’s neck with the same hand that patted her and lightly rested his forehead against hers.

“At this level it is not considered skinship.”

Minkyung, who was hesitant about how to define the extent of skinship, nodded.

***

‘The Crown Prince is pensive.’

Those words spread throughout TK Fashion just one day after Tae Lee-Seob took up his position as Head of the Fashion Department. However, those words changed to ‘the Crown Prince is easily irritated’ over the past four days. Everyone was clearly flustered.

Of course, Minkyung noticed the change as well. But in a different sense. For her, it went from ‘the Crown Prince is pensive’ to ‘the Crown Prince has lost his mind’.

Lee-Seob was not tolerant of the department workers, he behaved like a strict private instructor. Meanwhile, he gave Minkyung a lot of work and flirted with her like a fox whenever he had a chance. Most of the time he did it in a subtle way rather than direct, which made it more painful. This was the first time in her life that she felt such unclear pain.

Minkyung had seen life until now as an infinite series of interconnected equations. She used a beautiful mathematical method that defied known laws. Through enigmatic axioms, she made the abnormal comprehensible. Every step she took, every equation she solved, was a leap forward in her life. But then Lee-Seob appeared, a variable she was unable to identify, a danger to her very existence. She wished he was well-defined, like algebraic geometry. However, that was not the case…

Minkyung glanced over the top of her laptop as she sorted the documents sent from each area of the Fashion Department.

Although she didn’t follow his instructions to write down the names of unprofessional employees on the whiteboard, Lee-Seob would immediately call whoever had made the documents to his office whenever he wasn’t satisfied with them. It was a method to exert control. This also happened a couple of times today.

It had been 16 minutes since Team Leader Park entered his office. If the argument went on for more than 20 minutes, she would come into the office to calm the mood and resolve any differences.

‘It’s now been 18 minutes.’

Minkyung stared at the closed door. The only voice that occasionally came out from inside was that of Team Leader Park. The more displeasure Lee-Seob’s voice conveyed, the softer it became, so it was rarely heard outside. It was probably the same now. With a cold but kind smile on his face…

Just as Minkyung stood up, Team Leader Park opened the door and walked out. As he wiped the sweat from his forehead, Minkyung handed him a vitamin drink.

“Team Leader Park, you’ve done a good job.”

“Don’t mention it. Umm… Senior Manager Kang… It must be harder for you.”

Team Leader Park looked stunned for a moment. He had no reason to refuse, so he accepted the drink, twisted off the cap and downed it in one gulp.

“The next documents you send me, I’ll review them first and let you know what I think.”

“Yes, yes. I would appreciate it.”

When Team Leader Park turned around, the back of his head seemed to be drenched in sweat.

Now she would make observations on the documents sent by Team Leader Park to make sure they satisfied Lee-Seob. With this, Minkyung’s workload increased further.

Minkyung went to the break room and heated some medicinal herbs on the stove. Due to the successive arguments, she had not been able to prepare the medicine, so she did it a little later than usual.

Once she knocked on the door with the herbal tea and some candy, she heard Lee-Seob’s voice from inside.

“Wait a minute.”

Oddly enough, Lee-Seob’s voice coming through the wooden door was more seductive to her.

Minkyung held up the tray and looked at the clock on the wall. Exactly 1 minute and 10 seconds later, Minkyung knocked on the door again and said,

“Mr. Representative, I’m going in.”

As soon as she walked through the door, Minkyung looked down for a moment. Lee-Seob stood in front of the full-length mirror in the office, buckling his belt with his dress shirt half-unbuttoned.