The next few days came and went by uneventfully, much to Mari’s disappointment. Yui was more than satisfied with Mari’s regained workaholic attitude though, and the two of them scoured the building up and down to look for anything that could be worth the detailed report in Mari’s parents’ desk.

Deep down she felt dismayed that her parents hadn’t given her a call ever since, but Yui had assured her they were just busy for the opening of her father’s new resort in Maldives. Mari wanted to go with her father, especially after finding out her father had it built in the first place in honor of her marriage to Chanyeol and would give it as a honeymoon gift to her. But work got in the way and Mari found the staff and people of the Yeonghwa Group far more interesting than a breathtaking resort, and she’d forgotten all about it until her fifth day of pretending to be another normal staff came around.

Being in work felt like the hands that always shielded her eyes from the world were finally being lifted as she was thrown into the actual workplace. Mari learned about things and people faster, better, and more accurately than when she remained holed up in her home in Tokyo.

It felt even greater that aside from Yui and their occasional staff lurking around to keep close watch on her, no one actually knew who she was. No one even batted an eye that a woman left in the same car as Chanyeol did, or was it because they didn’t see her?

Mari’s hand paused in the doorknob of the copy room as she pondered about it.

Could it be that Chanyeol had intended to keep their relationship — whether it was professional or something more than just business, perhaps even the start of a friendship — a secret to the rest of the world for her safety? For her comfort? Could it be that even though he may not act like it, he was actually concerned for her as well?

She shook her head, twisting the door open with a deep sigh. Wondering about what went through Chanyeol’s head was much harder than speaking Korean, something she was proud of as she’d improved day by day. Her first day of work where she was thrown slightly unprepared in a meeting with a vicious and unrelenting woman who was an infamous and definitely arrogant editor-in-chief, along with the whole editing team who spoke in full Korean almost made her hands tremble.

They all spoke so fast for her to understand properly but she was too hesitant to ask them to slow down. Everyone in the room was comfortable in their own fields of expertise and they shared colorful ideas in a manner that she almost couldn’t keep up. She was only thankful she decided to at least spend a few more hours than her designated study sessions to study Korean, and after five long painful minutes that felt more like five hours, Mari had already adjusted and assessed everything she could.

It was safe to say her first meeting wasn’t too bad, but she was a little disappointed that the highly spoken of Tana Kim who had quote unquote turned down Vogue wasn't deserving of such high praise. She was brilliant, yes, but if someone had that much of a title, she expected more.

It had been six days since that meeting and Mari had almost forgotten about it as she threw herself into more mundane tasks like getting coffee and photocopying files then bringing it up to the higher-ups. She did it partly because she was curious as to what the people were like, and also because she was hoping she’d have enough of an excuse to see Chanyeol working.

She’d already seen how he handled his business, and for such a young man who came from new money, she was impressed by his potential. Mari believed that when Chanyeol was working in his office, when the environment’s aura completely matched with his purpose, he could be capable of doing far greater things.

Mari wanted to see that.

She didn’t want to give up on her slow progress regarding her desire to see him and focused on befriending the staff instead. Yerim from the magazine editorial company was quiet and shy, but the bronze skinned woman was actually one of the few people from her team whose ideas could pass off as decent. Taeyong from the human resources department was charismatic as a desperate attempt to hide the fact that despite graduating in a major of social communications, he couldn’t converse properly with people at all. He was the definition of ‘fake it till you make it.’

She met more people, all who were still unaware of who she really was, except Yerim. Yerim was shocked upon finding out that their CEO was engaged to someone already, and the puzzled looks of the whole team that day was something she wouldn’t forget.

For some reason, though, the news didn’t spread and she still had the freedom of passing off as a stranger like everyone else.

Today was one of those days that Yui had disappeared into who knows where and her schedule was relatively empty, so Mari went out of her office and slipped into the public relations department instead. Their boss, a pot-bellied and slightly bald man named Junghyeon didn’t even spare her another glance as he gulped his coffee in one go before stacking the envelopes in her arms. He barked something about getting extra copies of those files then having it delivered to the boss, which meant Chanyeol.

Mari didn’t have to think twice as she made her way to the copy room with a grin. The copy room was spacious, the walls a dull white and the room having no life at all. Several copying machines were laid out and placed close to the walls, a heap of blank papers and even some staplers and paper clips stacked neatly on the lone wooden table at the corner.

She walked to the nearest machine and placed down the envelopes to pull out the files when she realized she didn’t know how to use the machine. Mari glanced at the machine that now seemed bigger and more imposing, its several buttons with Hangul imprinted in them almost intimidating. She’d never had to use a photocopying machine back in Tokyo as she sent all the files digitally to her parents.

Mari’s nose scrunched, wondering why Chanyeol still had these when everything can be emailed nowadays.

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