~ Love Replacement P1, Vrene ~

Downing the bottle of water hastily, Joohyun checked on her wrist watch again, making sure she could still be at the planned destination in time. She threw the empty bottle into the thrash bin and began her walk again to the prestigious office building. Joohyun had been searching for a job diligently but to no avail. Who can she blame? She would question herself and it always came down to an answer, that one person. She cannot really do much when she has not much experience and needless to mention about her qualifications.

Her housemates, Kim Yerim who just called to the bar a year ago always wanted to help her in any way she could but the older lady would not accept her kindness. She didn’t want to burden the young lady who has a bright future ahead.

When Joohyun arrived at the tall magnificent building, she checked on her dress one more time before stepped into the building.

She bowed, humbly “this is my resume, I wish to hand this to the Human Resource Department.”

The beautiful young lady took the envelope and looked up to Joohyun, “please fill up this form and email to the email address stated at the bottom of the form.”

Joohyun smiled lightly, “thank you. I’m fine with any position, just a short note to the hiring manager.”

The young lady did not respond to her and continued checking on her manicure. Joohyun nodded with a half-despair smile before walking away from the reception counter.

-

‘BAAM’

The slender and tall lady flinched upon seeing her boss threw the file on the table for the fifth time that day.

“You never fail to astonish me,” he held on his hip before eyeing hardly on the lady before him. “This is beyond one’s imagination. Just how many times must you repeat the same mistake to get this right? It was a simple instruction and yet you can get it wrong.”

Just when he was about to fling the file to the lady, a tall man came into his office to stopped the bad-tempered man in time. “Mr. Kim, let me handle this. Will get this sorted out real fast.” He turned to the lady who was already on the verge of tearing, “Yoona, continue with your work, I’ll talk to you later.”

And just when Yoona exited the office, the impatient man pointed him “Choi Minho, you better get her out from this level before I kill someone.”

“Yah Kim Taehyung, I didn’t let my fiancée come here to be scolded that way,” Minho folded his arms and sighed. “You should have just brought Jimin along when you came back to Korea. He’s the only person on earth that could take your nonsense.”

“Do you think I never thought of that brilliant idea?” Taehyung spat, “Seulgi will deliver any time soon, do you think that rascal would leave his wife alone in LA?”

Minho took a seat before Taehyung before sighing heavily, “so what’s next? No one can deal with your temper and unreasonably demanding requests. In a short span of time, 5 secretaries resigned. What do you expect from me?”

“You’re the HR Manager, you resolve this problem for me.” He dismissed him when his mobile start vibrating, it was his brother in law.

“My assistant may think that you are my lover, you’d been calling me almost hourly now, Jeon Jungkook.”

He could hear chuckles from the younger guy.

“Hyung, I just hoped you’re not burying yourself with work again.” Jungkook somehow know his brother in law very well. “I just wanted to check if you have any updates on the search,” he asked.

His soft voice reminded Taehyung on his main reason of coming back to Korea. Taehyung looked out the big glassed window “no…there isn’t any news yet.”

There was a long silent from the other line. The older man knew Jungkook was disappointed.

“It’s okay, we can’t rush things through, can we?” Jungkook sighed. “Hyung, please take care of yourself. I’ll wait for your call. Bye.”

“You too, goodbye.” Taehyung ended the call before looking out from his 20th floor office, checking out on the people walking on the busy street of Seoul. “Will I ever find you?”

-

Taehyung was barely holding back his temper during the interview sessions for his secretary. He kept sending signals to Minho to cut the session short.

“Kim Taehyung, seriously no one would work for you 24/7. Don’t waste time try searching.” Minho furrowed his brows. “You have just exhausted my candidates list. I have no more candidates for you.”

Holding on his throbbing head, Taehyung said “my paperwork is piling up, just get a junior assistant would be fine for now.”

“Well I do have one left; her qualification is definitely not up to your standard but she is desperate for a job. If you don’t mind, I can get her to come for the interview in the evening.” Minho said.

Taehyung nodded his head and closed his eyes for a short rest. He doesn’t remember when was the last time he had back to back meetings like this. But it definitely doesn’t fell this horrible with Jimin around sharing his burden. After the monthly departmental meeting ended, he went back to his office and noticed the candidate was already at the waiting area. To his surprise, she came an hour early. ‘she was indeed very desperate for a job’ Taehyung thought.

As much as he wanted to start the interview first but he has another meeting to attend to. By the time the meeting with the investors ended, it was two hours later. Taehyung was dead tired but he remembers he still have another interview. Too tired to move to the meeting room, Taehyung told the candidate to follow him into his office. His cold voice made the candidate even more nervous. She stood by the chair waiting patiently for Taehyung to take his medication, she dares not to take a seat before he says anything.

When Taehyung looked up to the candidate with great irritation, he was astounded by the person who stood before him.

“My name is Bae Joohyun,” she bowed, respectfully. “This is my resume.” She placed the file before him and explained “Mr. Choi informed that he’s required to attend another meeting hence it’s only you who would conduct the interview.”

Taehyung couldn’t get his eyes off her.

Every passing minute was killing Joohyun. The intimidating eyes of the man before her was making her more and more nervous and she can’t help but kept biting on her lower lip.

“M-Mr. Kim, shall we…start?”

He cleared his throat and reached out his hand, “please have a seat and tell me about yourself.”

With Taehyung’s menace eyes staring still at her, Joohyun could hardly speak what she’d planned and how she’d rehearsed time and again with Yerim. On the other hand, Taehyung wasn’t really listening to her experience. His eyes were eyeing on Joohyun from the minute she seated down on the chair. He could see her shaking hands grasping on the hem of her skirt.

“If I need you to travel with me, would that be an issue?” Taehyung queried; eyes still hard on her.

Joohyun looked away, hesitated for a moment.

“No worries, you can be honest with me,” Taehyung’s expression softened as he leaned against his chair.

“Actually, I have a sick brother to look after to and I needed to bring him to the hospital on the weekends. That’s why I really need a job for now.” She lowered her head, worried her request would jeopardize her chances of getting the job, “for as long as I’m not required to work on Saturday. I’m fine.”

“What about your family?” he flipped through her application forms, “you left it blank here,” his eyes caught hers again.

“I’m an orphan, my adoptive parents are no longer around. I only have a brother.”

“Are you single?” he looked up to her, patiently waiting for her answer.

“Yes.”

Closing the file, Taehyung got up from his seat surprising Joohyun. She stood up instantly.

“You’re hired.” He reached out his hand to the petite lady, a smile was formed on his face for the very first time. “It was a great pleasure meeting you.”

“Same here,” Joohyun held on his hand and returned a handshake. A smile gradually grew on her face, “Thanks for giving me a chance.”

Taehyung was mesmerized by her smile. “Your hands are cold, take this with you,” he handed her his jacket.

“It’s alright, Mr. Kim.”

“Take it,” Taehyung said. “This is my first instruction for you, Ms. Bae.”

She smiled, “thank you, Mr. Kim. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Looking forward to see you again tomorrow, Ms. Bae,” Taehyung smirked.

Joohyun turned back to him again and bowed, feeling awkward with his last statement.

Picking up his phone, he dialed the familiar caller “I’ve sent you a message. Do a search on this person, I want every detail about her.”

-

“Congratulations!” the three best friends clinked their glasses of soju.

“Daebak…I never thought they would really hire you,” Junmyeon exclaimed.

“Yah Kim Junmyeon, Joohyun worked really hard for the interview. She couldn’t even eat her lunch when they called her for the interview earlier today.” Yerim said before downing her glass of soju. “But rumor has it that the president of V-Corp is a very difficult person to deal with. Unnie, you have to be really careful.”

Joohyun nodded her head.

“My office is nearby that area, I can send and pick you up from work from tomorrow onwards.” Junmyeon offered.

“It’s not necessary, it seems Mr. Kim is a workaholic, I may not get to leave punctually.” Joohyun said.

“Unnie, you should accept Junmyeon oppa’s offer,” Yerim hit on Joohyun’s shoulder, “you two should spend more time together.”

“I agree with Yerim noona,” the younger boy smile knowingly.

“Bae Yeonjun, you have no say in this,” Joohyun pinched on her brother’s nose tip.

After dinner, Yerim helped Joohyun with the dishes while Junmyeon chatting with the younger boy.

“Kim Yerim, stop teasing us. I know what’s your intention but it won’t work, so stop it.” Joohyun said in a serious tone. “I don’t want Junmyeon oppa to get the wrong idea too.”

“Unnie, why can’t you accept Junmyeon oppa?”

“Shh…” Joohyun gently hit on the lawyer’s lips. “My past and Yeonjun woill only burden him. He deserves someone better, Yerim-ah.”

“But oppa doesn’t mind at all. He knows everything about you and he’s perfectly fine with it,” Yerim tried reasoning to the older lady.

“But I mind, I care about it,” Joohyun stated. “I don’t have good experience with men. All of them are the same, they are just going after for the same thing.”

“That’s because you’ve never try falling in love with someone before. Not every guy is the same.” Yerim said.

“Look who is talking, you don’t have any rights to say that for someone who have not even dated a guy before.”

“Unnie, I still think you should try falling in love.”

Joohyun snorted, “love is the most impossible thing for me.”

-

“Good morning, Mr. Kim,” Joohyun greeted.

Taehyung nodded, “You’re early.” Noticing the people who are watching them, he instructed “come in with me.”

Walking over to his seat, Taehyung his Macbook and looked up to the lady who’d captivated his eyes since the first time she came into his office.

“I’ll be honest with you, it’s going to be tough working in my office,” Taehyung gestured her to have a seat. “Just like what others said, I’m a very demanding boss. I hope you can keep up with my speed.”

“I will give my best,” Joohyun replied.

Taehyung smirked. He never thought she would answer him so confidently despite not knowing what she’s signed up for.

“I need all these to be converted into word file before end of business day for review and after my review, I would need you to consolidate all the data and prepare a presentation for tomorrow’s meeting.” Taehyung spoke hastily without noticing Joohyun barely get to jot down all the notes. He softened his stern tone of voice, “let me know if there’s anything you are unsure of.”

Joohyun nodded, “I’m fine. If there’s nothing else, I’ll work on it now.”

Taehyung nodded and watched her stepped out from his office. “Kim Taehyung, control yourself.”

-

“Oh my god, this is too tough,” Joohyun huffed tiredly, looking at the paper stuck in the copier.

Checking on her phone, she hoped Yerim would have reply her but to her dismay, the