Youjung sits across a young, handsome male in the middle of an empty café, sipping on her latte, nodding from time to time. Putting down the beverage in her hand, she leans back on the chair. “So what you just told me. Is actually happening in the company?” she says, disbelieving.

“Do you not trust me?” he asks with a raised eyebrow and an accusing look. “There is no benefit for me if I lie to you.”

“Was there a mistake?” she says and he blinks at her, giving her the are-you-serious look. “It’s not that I don’t trust you! It’s just… the information could have been wrong and it just happened that day?”

“Maknae, you know me,” the guy says affectionately before leaning on his knees before staring at her seriously. “You know how I work. I don’t give one-day reports. I always make sure that my information is always correct because I personally do it. Do you not trust Oppa anymore?”

She sighs, lowering her gazed onto the table as a pout formed unconsciously. She wondered what she was going to do with this piece of information and since it was related to Donghyuk, she fretted even more how to tell it to her ‘fiancé’ that she had grew fonder of every passing day they spent together. The male across her suddenly stood up and grabbed their cups. “Sorry Miss, I’ll immediately change it,” he says, bowing before leaving for the counter.

The girl looked so lost but when she saw Donghyuk in her peripheral vision, she silently thanked the older guy as the CEO sat across her. “Incompetent workers,” he mutters, taking off his coat. “I can’t believe that they are unable to make a cup of coffee properly.”

Youjung looks at him with a pointed look and he sighs. “Sorry,” he apologizes. “It’s out of habit. Don’t blame me.”

“You have to change it, hubby,” she says, noticing the customers around the both of them, peering curiously and eavesdropping on their conversation. “It’s not good if you treat people this way.”

He sighs but nods his head as another waiter arrives with their coffee orders and softly put both cups in front of them. “I’m sorry for the mix up,” the broad-shoulder male says politely. “Would the both of you like a pastry on the house? I would recommend the brownies.”

“We’re fine,” Donghyuk says, a small, polite smile appearing and the male nods before walking away. “He seemed like the boss.”

“He is the boss,” she states as she takes a sip from the hot chocolate with marshmallows floating at the top of the hot beverage. “So… how do you like this place?”

Youjung glances around to see that more people were crowding around them and she felt a bit uncomfortable from all the attention received. Whereas Donghyuk on the other hand, seemed comfortable and even waved to some of the teenage girls who immediately started to talk animatedly among themselves.

Youjung felt a headache approaching before reaches for her cup of hot chocolate again, wishing for it to magically turn into soju. Looking at the male across her, he was leaning back casually in his seat, sipping his coffee like he owned the whole damned world.

The board-shoulder man meekly approaches the table. “Would the both of you like a private room?” he politely asks, looking at the crowd around them which the male was unfazed by.

“Yes please,” she immediately says and stood up, disliking how everyone’s eyes were on her.

Donghyuk’s eyes showed displeasure but gets up and naturally rests his arm around her waist. The boss then leads them to the back of the café where the private rooms were located, stopping in front of one of the sliding doors and opens it. “Here you go, Sir, Miss,” he says before bowing slightly and waits for them to settle in comfortably before closing the door.

After a while, he re-enters with their drinks and a few pastries. “Here’s some pastry to calm your nerves, Miss,” the boss mentions who got a simple nod as a reply and he turns to leave the duo alone officially.

Youjung shakily reaches out for the cup’s handle and slowly takes a sip. “Are you okay?” Donghyuk asks voice filled with worry, finally realizing her nerves. “I’ve never seen you like this…”

“I’m fine,” she reassures with a strained voice. “I’m just not used to the attention that you are accustomed to.”

He reaches over and grabs her tensed hand as he gently the back of her hand with his thumb. “It’s okay, Youjung,” he whispers. “You should have told me though.”

She shakes her head, indicating that she was fine but he didn’t release his hold instead, continuing his actions. “I’m fine,” she states and withdraws her hand from the gentle grip. “You don’t need to worry. I’ll live.”

“I will need to worry about you. You’re my wifey,” he mentions and was presented with an eye roll.

“Okay then, hubby,” she says, leaning forward and emphasizing on the word ‘hubby’. “Why is it that I saw you flirting with that new office girl in the company your personal pantry at two in the afternoon when you were supposedly meant to be at a meeting?”

An awkward smile immediately was present as his tongue darts out to his dry lips. In contrast with the male, a sickeningly sweet smile was on Youjung’s face but a hidden fury was behind the mask. “Youjung, I can explain,” he says with a gulp, no wanting to imagine what she would look like when she was pissed.

“Please explain, Donghyuk,” she replies, not a hint of anger emitting from her.

“I wasn’t flirting wit her! She came onto me!” he defends and she chuckles.

“’Came onto me’,” she quotes, mimicking him at the same time. “Donghyuk, please come up with a better excuse for flirting. That is the most cliché crap I have ever heard in the past twenty, almost twenty-one years of my life. And at least ninety percent of the time, it isn’t even true.”

“Don’t you trust me?” he asks, voice filled with hurt.

“I don’t trust you. Around the opposite ,” she replies before folding her arms and leaning back against the chair.

When a reply doesn’t come, she realizes that the young CEO was studying her like how he did when they first met. “You surprise me everyday,” he mutters and she scoffs before taking a bite of the pastry.

Knowing the male quite well, she knew it was one of his weird, ever-lasting theories about her being different to the other girls he met or had a fling with or dated before. Deciding to focus on the delicious pastry while Donghyuk continues to be deep in thought. Her thoughts slowly wanders to what she had just heard about the company and her actions slowed to a stop. “Youjung?” Donghyuk calls out, knowing that blank face she was making. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

She makes eye contact with him, putting down the cutlery. “Will you be willing to listen to me?” she asks. “Without interruption and doubt. What ever I’m going to say is true and not made-up to increase your burden even further.”

With a firm nod, she starts. “You told me before about competition and it was what got you up to this position right now. Obviously, your company would follow your footsteps and adopt your way of working since you install competiveness into them,” she says but stops observing the other’s actions and sighs softly. “That’s the main reason why the reports handed up are sloppy and always way earlier than normal. That’s competition in the wrong department, something that wasn’t taught to the workers.”

“You don’t know that,” he states with a flat tone with folded arms.

“Donghyuk, do you think that I am the kind to tell you information without confirming the truth?” she asks with a soft voice.

“Who told you this?” he asks.

“You do not need to know this person. You would not know this person too either way. All you need to know that it is someone that is reliable,” she replies with a straight face and firm tone.

“Just making sure you don’t get burnt in this industry, honey. After all, your informant could be from a rival company,” Donghyuk says with an eye roll.

“Kim Donghyuk,” Youjung stated with a glare. “This person is someone I have grown up with and is my family. I would like it if you didn’t slander him.”

“Him?” the male sneers.

“Yeah, him. Why? Jealous?” she says with folded arms and a small look of annoyance. “You don’t have to worry. This he is someone that is my family.”

“Why haven’t met this guy?” he grits, an uncomfortable look present.

“I don’t trust you enough yet,” she replies with a small smile as she finishes her coffee. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” he asked confused but follows her nonetheless.

Donghyuk opened the door for Youjung as they both exited the room before closing it behind him. Whispers were immediately heard but the girl kept her gaze straight ahead, heading for the door. She turns to make eye contact with the boss and nods with a knowingly smile that was reflected. Her fiancé, having seen the entire scene, narrows his eyes at the café owner but the other didn’t seem to notice and continues his washing.

“I would appreciate it if you do not glare at the owner like he has took something away from you,” she comments dryly, a small smile tugging on her lips knowing that he was jealous.

His arm naturally slips around her waist and pulls her towards him as a smile grace his face, staring at the woman in his grip. “Well, if only you didn’t make eye contact with him,” he replies before taking his phone out to get his driver.

“Silly. I was simply thanking him,” she says with a small giggle as his car appears with the driver hurriedly exiting the car to open the door for the couple. “Oh, you got a new driver?”

He hums in reply as he seats comfortably and the door closes. “I caught the old driver smoking in the car even though I clearly stated for none of that to happen. Apparently, he also fooled around using my car when I was at meetings,” the CEO explains before shuddering slightly. “Imagine the horror I got when I was in the car dealing with some contracts when suddenly the door opens and a girl half-dressed enters.”

“I’m pretty sure you enjoyed the view,” she retorts with an eye roll as the car started to drive. “Back to the company please.”

“Yes Miss,” the driver replies with a polite nod before changing directions to head to the company.

“Do you know his name, Donghyuk?” she asks, disturbing his peace.

“Why should I know?” he replies, earning a hit to his chest. “Ouch! Okay! Okay! Tell me your name.”

“Yoo Kihyun, sir,” the young driver replies.

“You better remember that Donghyuk. If not, I will toss you out of your window from your office,” she threatens.

“We’ll talk about that after you can even carry me,” he replies uncaringly as she pinches him. “Stop abusing me woman!”

She smiles but doesn’t reply, settling to look at her phone. The male shifted his position to look at the female without gaining suspicion as he silently admired the small smile tugging on her lips, sometimes biting down on her lower lip to not laugh at whatever she was looking at. Pretty… flashes through his mind and he ignores the fact that their relationship was fake, having a soft spot for the girl in a span of few months of pretense.

He found himself listening to her whenever she spoke because it held logic and evidence that was hardly evident in an industry like his. Her bold words and daring actions towards him left him more curious. The understanding of his world even though she hasn’t even scratched the surface of it has left him speechless too many a times, wondering where she had learnt all of it from.

Her thinking exceeds his expectations time and time again, on par with his department heads – even more sometimes. He wished for this fake engagement not to end for he wanted her by his side, not as a lover but possibly business partner.

“Sir, Miss, we’re here,” Kihyun says, breaking his train of thoughts.

“Thank you, Kihyun-ssi!” the girl immediately exclaims, placing her phone in her bag. “You may go for your coffee break now. Ignore Donghyuk, please.”

The CEO frowned at her openly disregarding him. “C’mon let’s go hubby,” she says, grabbing his wrist. “We have things to see and things for you to open your eyes too.”

They were about to enter the building but she stops before turning to the driver who was waiting for them to enter. “Kihyun-ssi. Could you do a tiny favour for us?” she asks with a smile as both males looks at her curiously.

Two hours later, Kihyun was standing in the CEO’s office, peering curiously at Youjung’s laptop. “You can take a seat,” she says with a small smile but the driver shook his head and returned a polite and grateful smile.

“You are excused, Kihyun,” Donghyuk says before waving his hand when he sees a video pop up on the screen.

The driver bows before leaving the office and the male sits comfortably next to the girl. She pressed play and the footage started.

“Oh. What are you doing?” Kihyun’s voice was clearly heard as the camera caught a worker bent over his laptop and typing furiously.

The worker looks up. “It’s you, Kihyun,” he says with a sigh of relief. “I thought it was my boss.”

“Team Leader nim?” the other asks and the worker nods before turning to face him. “I’m guessing you didn’t finish the report that was due today?”

The worker scoffs. “You’re lucky that you don’t work in the company itself, Kihyun. It’s tough. I wished that I took the driver’s role when we both interviewed for openings in here,” the videoed person says with a sigh. “This report is for the CEO that was meant to be done by the department head who passed it onto team leader who passed it down to me since I’m the newest and youngest worker. Well, I have to hand it up 24 hours, well 18 hours now… Looks like I got to rain check our night out.”

The couple looks at each other at the same time mimicking each other’s expression. “You tell your subordinates to hand up a report 24 hours upon receiving it?” Youjung asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Do I look like that kind of person?” Donghyuk replies, offended with an eye roll and she replies with a shrug. “If it was a report given out today, it should be the financial report for the month that is due at the start of next month. Obviously.”

The female opens a document and it was the halfway done report before scrolling it and analyzing it quickly, a serious look taking over. Her eyebrows furrowed, not believing the words appearing on her laptop screen. She studies the table and graph on the document before turning to hit her fiancé. “Why do you keep abusing me today?” he hisses, rubbing his chest.

“You’re the boss of this company for crying out loud,” she replies with a fake sweet tone. “Please give some damn instead of sitting back and letting me do all the work for you. I wouldn’t be around forever to help you.”

“I was planning to lock you in my house if that were to ever happen,” he teases and she hits him lightly before turning back to the opened document.

Youjung started scribbling down the figures predicted of the company on a piece of blank paper. Donghyuk peered curiously but didn’t understand anything that she was writing. She circled a number several times before putting down the pencil, picking it up to explain. “So the predicted growth, financially and in numbers are off the charts in this report. Before you blame anyone, in the footage we saw, the worker was new and it meant that if there is any fault in this report, it should be the team leader’s incompetence to give training to someone under him,” she explains, noticing the disapproving look from the male. “Listen.”

He nods in defeat before shifting his posture to face her properly and made eye contact to indicate that they were equals. “The very first equation taught to predict the results of value was in fact taught during our schooling years. Let’s take that the P in the equation isn’t for population but the value of the company. A in the equation would be this value right here,” she explains, tone professional as she pointed to the first point on the graph in front of them.

“From what I had analyze in my paper about this company, the predicted growth would be twenty-five percent hence B in the equation would equal to 1.25. The calculations for this year’s predicted value are way off.”

Donghyuk looks at her with a blank look. “Are you even understanding what is coming out of my mouth?” she asks in annoyance.

“You’re just talking too much math, something that is not my forte,” he replies cheekily.

She sighs before smacking him lightly once again. “Focus!” she exclaims before muttering, “It is a miracle how you turned this company overnight.”

As she explained the equation the workers were supposedly to use since it was the easiest equation from everything she has studied before. Since it was for the eyes of the employees, it shouldn’t be a problem if everyone uses that equation. With it, it would upgrade the efficieny for workers and they wouldn’t have to struggle to figure out a pattern by staring at graphs and values for hours.

“Especially with graphs, there is an equation for linear relationship that would work sometimes,” she says and was about to continue but saw him spacing out before smiling slightly. “Alright, I wouldn’t bore you anymore.”

“You’re not!” he exclaims immediately, snapping out of it.

“Sure,” she deadpans before opening a new document, immediately drafting a new graph. “This is where the predicted values are supposed to be.”

Comparing the two graphs, the CEO finally understood everything that his fiancé was blabbing about and grew furious before calling his assistant in. The meek assistant flinches when Donghyuk demanded to fire the person who did the report. “Ignore him, Minji,” Youjung immediately cut in, earning a glare her way that she simply ignored. “You may leave.”

Minji looks nervously between the couple, feeling the atmosphere getting heavier. She bows to Youjung before scurrying out of the office. “What was that?” he barks with a cold glare that no longer affected her.

She steps towards him before gently grabbing his hand. “Donghyuk, calm down,” she says in a soothing voice while rubbing circles with her thumb. “As a CEO, you shouldn’t just flare up whenever you like. It is bad for the company and yourself, at least for your health. You may be young but high blood pressure will come to you easier if you flare up easily. I heard that you would have higher risk of getting heart attacks.”

He scoffs at the last sentence and she smiles at his childish act. He felt the redness around his vision slowly disappearing as the girl occupies his sight. The pumping of blood slows down to normal at her smile. “Feeling better?” she asks as her thumb motion continues and he nods lightly.

 At the nod, she stopped and slipped her hand out of his, stepping backwards. “I said before, the fault does not lie on the worker who did this. I mentioned about competition in your company but you have to learn one thing, the competitiveness isn’t being channeled to your rival companies, instead it is manifesting in this very building, within the teams,” she treads lightly.

“I’ve read some of the contracts for clients with the help of Minji. Those contracts lack in many aspects and it is decreasing the investors or potential clients desire to corporate with us. Just like what the worker said in the video, your team leaders are dumping these projects on the newest worker since they know that you fire whoever did the report if it was bad. They refuse to work on it themselves because they want to keep their rice bowl but to put it harshly, they’re covering their own asses.”

“You never noticed that there was anything wrong because this company is simply too big and a lot of the resources are being wasted. When any of the teams don’t clench a deal, they make up figures to make it look like we aren’t at a loss when in fact we are. Technically, the department heads are all conspiring against you. I don’t know how you have never seen any of this happening right under your eyes.”

Donghyuk fell onto the couch before gripping his hair in frustration, not believing that there were so many issues within the company that he never saw. “I have an idea but I have to present it to the whole company,” she suggests as they both made eye contact. “Only after I get the approval from you.”