A shrill ring of a mobile phone broke the quiet morning. Johnny groaned, rolling to the other side of the bed and his arm draped over a lady’s body. His eyes shot open and he was greeted by a head of blonde hair.

The woman before him smiled and snuggled closer to Johnny, planting little kisses on his bare chest. Her arms wrapped around his waist.

“Good morning,” she mumbled against his skin.

Johnny pushed her off gently and sat up. He reached for his phone and felt his heart drop. There were 5 missed calls from Sojung herself, 10 from Mingyu and several angry messages from the girl. He slapped his forehead in irritation.

“. !”

Johnny started rushing around, picking his clothes off the floor, grabbing his stuff after getting dressed. The girl watched the male run around with the blanket wrapped around her body.

“What are you doing?”

“I have to go,” he didn’t give her another glance.

She followed him to the door of her apartment, she waited for a kiss but he left without giving her another word. He ran to his car in the parking lot, immediately driving out to Kia, mentally praying for Sojung to not murder him when he returned.

Johnny rushed to the meeting rooms just as his employees were exiting from one of them. They all stumbled on their feet when they saw Johnny approach them. They gave him a concerned glance before Kimmy pointed into the meeting room.

“She’s in there,” she mouthed.

Johnny nodded and cautiously stepped towards the doors. He stopped outside, taking a deep breath but he heard Sojung talking.

Sojung was typing on her laptop, taking down whatever notes she had in mind while Mingyu settled the papers that were handed over to her and updating her about Samsung.

“Has he picked up or called you back?” 

“Nope, nothing yet,” Mingyu replied, handing her her phone. “He hasn’t returned your calls and messages too.”

He then let out a breath in amusement.

“He has quite the guts to not pick up your calls. We wouldn’t even dare to let your calls go past 3 rings.”

Sojung kicked him under the table.

“I’m not that bad, besides, I only call when there’s something important.”

Mingyu chuckled, “Right, right.”

“Back to the topic,” he put his file down. “How was your headache? Your headaches don’t recover that quickly, that I know.”

“Youngho gave me a glass of warm milk last night. I took some panadol before I slept.”

Mingyu raised his eyebrow.

“He did that? What’s he trying to do? Make you forgive him for not getting his duties done?”

Sojung shrugged and went back to her laptop, “Just when I think he’s trying to become more responsible, he’ll always do something else to change my thoughts about him.”

“I don’t get why you’re constantly making yourself so tired just to help him. He doesn’t look like the kind who would appreciate it."

“Hey, Gyu,” Sojung stopped him. “If this is because of what you see in the media, it’s his stereotyped image, we can’t judge him because of that. He knows what he’s doing, just that when it comes to working, he just doesn’t put in the same effort.”

Johnny’s shoulders sagged at her words. She believed that he could become better but he didn’t work hard enough to prove that she was right. 

To think he even pretended to be really sad just to get her to pity him.

He sighed and knocked on the door.

Sojung and Mingyu looked up to see who was at the door. She immediately ignored the man at the door while Mingyu got to his feet and bowed at Johnny.

No matter if Mingyu didn’t like Johnny, he still married Sojung, which made him his superior. He turned to Sojung.

“I’ll take my leave, Young Miss. I need to make a trip to Samsung today to settle some issues with the photographer, I’ll be back before you end work today.”

Sojung gave him a nod.

“Shut the door behind you.”

When Mingyu was gone and the doors closed, Johnny quickly took a seat next to Sojung.

“I am so sorry for missing the meeting. I got really wasted and slept in, I didn’t hear any of the calls or texts. I am so--”

“Don’t bother,” she held her palm up, suppressing her anger. “What’s new with you?”

She started packing up but Johnny kept trying to explain himself. She sent him a glare.

"I don't care who you around with outside!"

She pointed at the clock angrily.

“Do you know what time it is now? It’s 12 PM, people are heading to lunch while you’ve just arrived at work?” She huffed. "It's always you breaking the rules! I can't have rules in place and have you constantly breaking them, how am I to instil discipline?”

She dropped her stuff on the table.

“You, as their leader, have to set an example for your staff! How am I supposed to help you if you won’t work towards the goal of improving yourself? I can't keep cleaning up after your and finding excuses for you!"

She took a deep breath.

"It's already vexing enough to worry about the media. I don't want to worry about you and your behaviour hurting Kia's reputation."

"Sojung-ah…"

"Don't!" She threw her hands in the air. “I have work to do.”

She went to pull the doors open, Mia was standing out sheepishly, her hand up in mid-knock. Johnny glanced at Sojung, knowing Mia had heard what she said.

“What?” Sojung picked up her things.

“There is a Yook Sungjae waiting in Miss Oh’s office. He’s demanding to see you, lamenting about some broken contract deal.”

Sojung got to her feet, Johnny realised who this Yook Sungjae was. 

Sungjae was the owner of some dubious modelling agency who wanted to work with Kia for marketing. Sojung brought Johnny along to a meeting with him once, but she rejected the partnership, going to the extent of telling the male she would not work with him.

Johnny might have said something to Sungjae after Sojung left, which led to his arrival.

Sojung gave her husband a look, his facial expressions made his point and she nodded for him to go with Mia.

“You want to make up for your absence today, yes?”

He nodded.

“Go with Mia to meet Mr Yook. I’ll be here, so if you need help, just come down to get me. One more chance, Mr Seo."

Johnny