Photo credit: ShySoy

Italics - thoughts/inner dialogue: male female

He never had to go through any of this with his former secretaries – assuming they were already aware of such rules outlined in a very bold Times New Roman font at the top of the page.

He let out a sigh and contemplated on whether it was a good idea to have asked her to come by his office.

No.  It’s a must.

Yes – it was a must to him.  He did not want another application to be sent through and although Johnny had assured him that the female who was just in the room across his took her job very seriously, he just had to make sure she knew.

Two knocks of the door evaded his thoughts followed by a very familiar voice, “Sir?  It’s me.”

Of course it’s you.  I asked to see you.

He gave himself a slight roll of the eyes because she was the only person who he had asked to see and if it was any other person, they had to contact him through her – in short, aside from his friends, she’s the only person allowed to see him directly.

“Come in.”

And there was the very familiar sound of heels clacking, “You asked for me, Sir?”

“Yes.” Doyoung spoke firmly against his interlaced fingers hiding his frown he was unaware of from Chaewon.

He looked at her.  Her hands clasped in front in anticipation but the way her eyes reflected the lights in his office gave them a glossy coverage.

Those puppy-like eyes almost made him feel guilty.

He let out a small cough in hope that the tripping feeling would disappear but to his dismay it only grew bigger the moment he had noticed that she was fiddling with her fingers – obviously nervous over the enveloping silence that was slowly shrinking in.

Geez… I’m not going to bite you.

“Ms. Park, I’ve heard you’ve been working at the company for over a year now?”

“Yes, that’s right Sir,” Chaewon nibbled at her bottom lip, not realising that she was failing terribly at hiding her growing nervousness.

Doyoung’s left eye twitched momentarily at the sight and nodded his head at her as if it was new information.  He had skimmed over her profile as soon as Johnny had sent it through.

“Then I assume you have been following along with the company’s rules for you to remain here all this time?”

“Yes, Sir…”  Where is he getting at?

“Good.  Then I am right to also assume that you know there are strict rules about relationships with other employees in the company?”

She nodded, “Sir, is something the matter?  I’m afraid I’m not following…”

“Mr. Lee.”

“Oh.  Sir, I was going to decline him, but you had already told him to return…”

He cleared his throat remembering that he had cut Youngheum off from flirting with his secretary.

“Very well.  That is all I wanted to know.  You may head back.”

Did he call me in here just to ask me that? 

The thought of office romance almost made her stifle a laughter.  She was too occupied with the increase in workload, how does one even have time for a relationship?  That was the least of her concerns.

As she bowed to leave, her eyes caught a glimpse of her watch, reading that lunch would be approaching within the next hour.  She noticed the never-ending stacks of documents, which seemed to have grown since this morning.

Does he even have time to eat?

Speaking of which, Chaewon had yet to come by the CEO’s office during this time ever since she had moved to this building.  They only saw each other in the mornings where she had to report her status of the contract and during meetings. 

Then again, it’s only been three weeks…

This meant she would be seeing more of him now that she was not spending hours perfecting the contract and would be attending to actual secretarial duties.

Like a normal secretary.

And she guessed it was only normal for a secretary to ask her boss if he would like to have lunch with her, right?

“Would you like to have some lunch with me,