The sun was up high in the sky already when Kim Yerim, the young graduate from the School of Journalism at Seoul Tech made it to work. It was her first day as the personal secretary for the CEO of Worldwide Times, and although she’d wished for a full-time journalist gig, she had to make do with her simple certificate degree and the short list of experiences on her resume.

However, that was all behind her now as she stepped up to the building of Worldwide Times, the world-renowned newspaper company, notorious for starting as a small team of businessmen and turning into a multi-million-dollar online business. They especially made headlines when it was discovered that the successor to the CEO position was not the previous CEO’s son per tradition, but his mentee, who became the new CEO at the young age of 24 and only turned 25-years-old this last September. If anyone could represent her dreams and goals, it was this young CEO.

As soon as she got to the receptionist desk, the current secretary was standing there waiting for her. Yerim froze at the sight of her, believing that she was the most beautiful person she’d ever laid eyes on, forcing her to question her uality for a split second.

“Good Morning, you must be Miss Kim Yerim,” she said with a small curve to her lips, “I’m Bae Joohyun, the personal secretary of the CEO, Kim Namjoon.”

“Oh,” Yerim stuttered and bowed down, “hi, I’m Kim Yerim… well, you just said that… how do you do… sunbae? Wait, do I call you sunbae?”

She smiled in response to her stuttering, “you can call me that outside of the workplace, but please call me Secretary Bae here until I have completely moved to my new position.”

“Oh, okay, yes. I will do that,” she smiled shyly.

As they got onto the elevator, Yerim couldn’t help but feel intimidated by Secretary Bae’s presence; her back was straight and her hands folded gently in front of her body as if she was a statue, “e-excuse me, Secretary Bae?”

“Yes,” she turned back to Yerim.

“May I ask what position you’ll be moving to?”

“I’ve been moved to the management team.”

“Wow,” she unknowingly exaggerated, “you jumped from a secretary position to a management position?”

“Well, it’s for a good reason; I worked under the previous CEO for a good 7 years, so you can say that he trusts me a certain amount.”

“Seven years,” she exclaimed in shock, “so, you were here before the current CEO was?”

“Yeah, I’d like to say that I practically raised him, but we also lost a manager last month, so I was kind of forced to cover that position.”

She continued to be awestruck as they got off the elevator, walked by the management team and down the hall towards her new desk.

“This is your desk,” Joohyun smiled at her.

As the explanations continued, she simply touched every part of the desk and celebrated to herself.

“Are you listening,” Joohyun tapped her shoulder.

“Oh, yes,” she smiled brightly, tears welling up in her eyes, “I just can’t believe I’m here.”

She chuckled, “come on, I’ll introduce you to the CEO, he’s free now until noon so it’s best we get it over with before he gets busy.”

“Yes, mam.”

As soon as they turned to walk towards the door of his office, Secretary Bae ran into a man.

“Excuse me, Secretary Bae,” he quickly apologized and then walked off.

“Oh, it’s alright-,” she shouted after him and smiled.

“Secretary Bae,” Yerim grabbed her arm, “are you okay?”

“Oh yeah, I’m alright… he’s one of the CEO’s personal bodyguards, always been kind of grim and unbothered, but he’s also close to the CEO, so feel free to order him around.”

“Okay,” she chuckled.

Joohyun led the way to the door and walked in on the CEO talking with another man.

“Oh, Joohyun-ah, come in, I was just telling Namjoon-ie that-…”

“CEO,” she coughed loudly and gestured toward Yerim, “this is your new secretary, Miss Kim Yerim. I’ll be training her for the next two months as I merge into the management team.”

“Oh, that’s great,” the man walked over, “we’re all Kim’s now, I’m Kim Seokjin, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you,” she did a 90-degree bow, “I’m Kim Yer-, I mean Secretary Kim, mister...”

“Just call me sunbae… we’re all Kim’s, anyway, so just be comfortable.”

“Oh, yes… sunbae.”

“Kim Seokjin-ssi is the son of the previous CEO, so one day he’ll be the new CEO… when he finally grows up.”

“Yah, I’m a grown man… also, she just started, don’t scare her away,” he walked over and hooked an arm around Joohyun’s shoulders.

“Stop it, this is the workplace,” Joohyun brushed him off, “I have to run and check on how my new team is doing, get settled and make sure you note down what the CEO wants for lunch, alright?”

“Yes, mam,” she went over to the desk and pulled out her notepad as Seokjin followed Joohyun out of the room, “CEO, what would you like for lunch?”

Namjoon leaned back in his chair and continued looking at the files in front of him with a stern look on his face, “I’m not hungry, so just a coffee and croissant will do.”

“Yes,” she scribbled hard on her notepad as Namjoon peaked up at her.

“What are you writing,” his deep voice shocked her as she fumbled around and looked back up at him.

“Yes?”

He sighed and kept his gaze down at his papers, “you seem to be writing a lot.”

“Oh, I-I was just writing everything down you said.”

“Don’t spend too much time on notes in the future… I know that’s how you’re taught in school, but I don’t like slow people.”

She stuttered and dropped her pen and paper to her sides, “ah, I understand. I’ll work to be faster in the future.”

“Good, you can go work on your admin duties. If I need something, I’ll page you on the intercom.”

“Yes,” she turned to walk out of the room, but then tripped over the rug and stumbled several times before catching herself midair with her arms spread open wide.

She stopped breathing and slowly turned her head toward his desk. He was standing up with his hands on the table and a concerned look on his face.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stood up straight and backed up toward the door.

He coughed, straightened his back and sat down, “it’s fine. You can go.”

“Y-yes,” she walked out of the room with her head hung low, “oh my god…”

She sat down at her desk and sulked at how stupid she must have looked until a young woman approached her desk.

“Hi,” she leaned down, “I’m Nayeon… you must be the new secretary.”

“Oh, yes,” Yerim stood up and bowed, “I’m Kim Yerim… I look forward to working with everyone.”

“Yah,” she laughed, “don’t bow, I’m new too… well, more like an intern.”

“Intern?”

“Yeah, in the entertainment news section… as a journalist.”

“Oh,” she felt disheartened suddenly, but continued to smile, “so you’re one of the new journalists.”

“Intern only,” she folded her arms in front of her and leaned on the desk, “they won’t hire people who are fresh out of college… what about you? Is this your first work out of college?”

“Yeah, I just graduated too.”

“Oh yeah? Did you study business administration?”

“Uh,” she hesitated, “I actually studied journalism too…”

“Oh,” Nayeon suddenly noticed the situation, “I see.”

“Yeah…”

“Why didn’t you try for the internship?”

“Oh, I didn’t even try because I didn’t think they’d take me… I only have a certificates degree and don’t actually have a lot of experience.”

“That doesn’t matter, the internship quiz has nothing to do with that, so as long as you do well, they can’t reject you.”

“Really,” hope appeared in her eyes, “is that true?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Wait, do you also have a certificates degree?”

“Well… no, I actually have a bachelor’s…”

“And you have little experiences?”

“Well… I actually had an internship with KBS before this…”

She sighed, “I give up already…”

“N-no, you shouldn’t give up, it isn’t too late.”

“I don’t know,” she peaked down at her clock then turned to Nayeon, “so, would you happen to know anything about our CEO?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, what kind of person he is… is he cold? Or mean?”

“Well, I did hear that he’s very cold and doesn’t care much about people. He sleeps here most of the time, so he never leaves… he also eats in his office, never out, so some people even rumor that he’s just a ghost, roaming the building. Only those who work directly with him or more than five years have seen his face.”

“T-that’s not what I meant… I just wanted to know stuff like if he’ll make me run a lot of errands or make me stay late nights… that kind of stuff.”

“Well, first of all, everyone has to stay long nights during this time because it’s the end of the year… most of our content happens during this time, so you’re expected to put in long hours.”

“Even the secretary?”

“Especially the secretary.”

She agreed.

“Oh my gosh, is that the time,” Nayeon yelped and stood up, “I’m going now!”

“Oh, okay,” she waved to her.

Yeri looked around her desk for things to do, but it was so tidy that even she was too intimidated to touch anything.

“What should I do,” she grabbed the notepad under the keyboard, “oh, I see now.”