"I will do this on one condition. I will take my accrued vacation time while we live out this little fantasy of yours. And at the end of it I get a nice severance package. Nice enough that I don't need to find another job until everyone forgets that I was ever engaged to you."
"You won't have to leave the company. I'll simply stay away from the Seoul office for a while."
"I will have to leave. I will be your ex, Taeyong. You said it yourself, your breakups are always ugly. There's no way I could continue working for you. Are you willing to give up your best salesman for this?"
He looked her in the eye and said, "Yes," but she knew he didn't believe he'd have to pay the price.
She shook her head. "Let's write a pre-nup."
"Huh?"
"A pre-nup. I'm sure you've heard the term."
"You know I don't actually want to marry you, right?"
She went to the desk, searching for paper. "It's an engagement pre-nup. I have about six weeks of vacation time. At the end of the six weeks, we break up and I quit. And that will be the end. I will move to a competitor, probably HGC, and you will go out and get another girlfriend, thereby starting the whole cycle over again and accomplishing nothing except losing all my sales."
He slouched in his chair, folding his arms. "Not HGC. Anybody but them."
She smiled. "Oh, I think it will have to be HGC. I can just imagine how much they would love to hire Lee Taeyong's ex-fiancé."
"They are a putz. You'd hate working for him."
"Probably. But I doubt I'll see them as much as I've seen you. And besides, my severance package will be good enough that I won't have to for awhile."
She spied his laptop and waved towards it. "May I?"
He nodded, following her as she went to flip it up, and leaning over her shoulder to see what she was doing.
"You're willing to give me a three percent share for doing this." She looked at him. "Which is stupid, and you're not stupid."
"Desperation sometimes leads to the same destination."
She turned back to the computer. "Let's be conservative and say the OC will grow at one percent a year and I will live another fifty years."
"You know I really hate it when you call it the OC."
"I know."
"And one percent per year? That's not conservative, that's insulting. Let's say ten percent."
"For fifty years?" She twirled the chair around, forcing him to step back. "I didn't realize you indulged in fantasy."
He leaned back in, resting his hands on the armrests. "Frequently."
She whirled back towards the desk and he hopped back before he fell flat on his face. "Mean, Kim."
"Stop breathing in my ear, Lee."
She didn't even have to look at him to know he was smiling. He would like knowing he was getting to her.
She said, "And just for that I'll say growth will be three percent. Ten percent is in your dreams."
"And what discount rate are you using?"
"Fifteen."
He barked out a laugh. "Fifteen percent interest for fifty years? Now who's indulging in fantasy."
"I've done it for the last ten."
He put his mouth next to her ear and murmured, "Have you? Perhaps I hired you for the wrong position, after all. But let's be a little more realistic and say ten."
"If you're not going to beat the market, what's the point?"
"Let's just see what you come up with."
She worked on the spreadsheet for a few minutes, then sat back and they looked at the number together. Her heart started beating very fast.
"Well," he said. "You should have been an accountant."
"Looks to me like I can be anything I want now." She swallowed. "Is it worth that much to you?"
She couldn't decide if she wanted him to say yes or no. Talk about a mutually beneficial agreement. She just might throw in a kid or two for that.
And still, she knew, it wasn't anywhere near half his fortune.
Taeyong said, "If you really can get ten percent per year, I can just give you an even million. You won't have to go work for HGC, at least."
She wouldn't have to work for anyone ever again. She could sell her house, move somewhere cheaper than Seoul, and live pretty well.
He breathed in her ear. "You could just take a share of the company. It would practically be the same."
Except she'd never be rid of him. "I don't know why you keep trying to give away part of your company. Stop it."
"I think my mother would like you if she could hear you protecting my interests."
"Someone has to. You keep trying to give away your legacy."
"But this way you know I'm serious."
She gestured toward the computer. "I'll know you're serious with this, too. Are you really going to pay me a million and a half dollars to be your fiancé for six weeks?"
"No. Just a million."
"I like the sound of a million and a half better."
"Who doesn't?"
She twisted in her chair. "I could say two million."
He raised his eyebrows. "There are probably a number of women who would do this for two million."
"Good. Call them up."
"I'll thumb wrestle you for the half."
She shook her sadly. "Good thing you inherited your fortune. I don't think you would have made it on your own."
"I'll have you know I've won quite a few negotiations with my stellar thumb wrestling skills."
"Since the sixth grade?"
"If you're going to be picky about it. . ."
She couldn't help her smile. "Half now, half later?"
"You don't trust me? That hurts, Kim."
She could see he was real worked up about it. "It's not really about trust. It's more I just don't believe you'll do it."
"To show I trust you, I'll have the full million wired into your account in the morning."
"Million and a half."
He shook his head. "It's never going to happen."
"You shouldn't have begged. I know you'll pay the half."
He held his hand out and she gave him the pre-nup. He read it over quickly. "I hesitate to bring this up but you're missing something."
"What am I missing?"
He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she shook her head. "I'm not missing anything. There will be none of that."
"None of that or none of that? And what about this and t