CHAPTER 20

Joy went to the glass door and closed it. “Wendy, we need to talk…”

Seung-wan turned to look at her, Joy looked serious, too serious. And she knew this face pretty well, Joy uses it every time they are going to talk about the business, an indicator that any kind of joke would be quickly dismissed.

“Is there a problem?”

“Maybe, we are not totally sure yet…”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you in love with Irene?”

The question felt so out of the blue, Wendy could tell this was about the work and it was serious but she could not connect that with what Joy was asking her right now.

“Joy, what-”
 

“Just answer me, yes or no?”

“Yes...We are technically just starting the relationship but...I do see a future this time, you know, a future with her…”

“If I ever tell you something and Irene tells you the opposite, who would you believe?”

“...”

Joy didn´t seem perturbed by the lack of an immediate answer, she just kept staring at Seung-wan with patience.

“In a work aspect…?”

Joy nodded. “Totally, professional stuff. Not about your relationship.”

“Oh, well...my logic would definitely go with you then, I mean, you have been here longer than me and she just got hired so...yeah, you. If it would be something about our relationship I would believe her first tho.”

“Would you be willing to help Irene stay in Reve Inc., illegaly speaking?”

“What? Of course not, I am not that kind of person and besides she doesn't need it in the first place, have you seen her resumé?!”

Joy sighed, she was tense and stressed but not because of Irene or Wendy but because there is still something not clicking in all of this.

“I don´t think it is her either but I wanted to check if you gave a hand…”

“Ok, explain to me what is going on cause I am not getting anything here…”

Joy proceeded to sit on top of the new desk, she made a hand motion for Seung-wan to sit on her new chair.

“I think we have a spy.”

“What?!”

“I checked all the people we hired for this round. I checked the amount of jobs we had available for them. I checked everything Seung-wan…”

“And…?”

“Before the trainees came to their introduction speech, the company was offering 40 spots, but they accepted 120 applicants.”

“Yeah, Sunmi was really frustrated with the CEO because of that…”

“I know, but that was like 3 months ago. I checked all the paperwork today and we hired 41 of them.”

That stopped the engines in Seung-wan´s mind, how could that happen?

“Wait, that is not possible. I only passed 20 trainees and Sunmi was supposed to pass the other 20.”

“Sunmi passed 21.”

Another pause on Seung-wan´s brain.

“You think she helped?”

“No, and this is where everything gets weird, listen; I asked Sunmi why she suddenly passed one more and she showed me an e-mail from the CEO, our CEO, that one more spot was open at the Quality department, she got the email one week before giving the results for the trainees.”

“The department where Irene is assigned…”

“Yes.”

“An email meant only for Sunmi, who was assigned to evaluate Irene…”

“Yes.”

“My Irene…?”

“Your Irene is a top graduated woman from a top university in all of Korea and she was the Head of Quality department in Lotte World, so yes I checked her resume. Now tell me why a woman in her position would quit that to come to a relatively rookie company like ours? And before that she has been in 3 other companies, is so obviously suspicious that it made me go mad, and you know what?”

“What…?”

“She is clean.”

“Huh?”

“I double checked, triple checked everything. Is not her…” Joy sighed harder this time, she used her fingers to gently massage her forehead, a headache was coming.

“Wait, hold on. I am confused again. The email was from the CEO, right?”

“Yeah, it was legit. I even checked with Yeri.”

“Then why do you think there is a spy in the first place?”

“Wendy...think about these past months and tell me, do you really think there is nothing weird going on?”

The question made Seung-wan feel a little goosebump, now that she thinks about it, Joy´s train of thought could not be wrong…

Joy proceeded to explain her theory further. “We still are like rookies in the industry, but we are growing fast and we have the whole building now for us in less than 5 years, we are a competitor now to others. We did interviews and checked the backgrounds of a lot of people and yet, this round of trainees was one of the worst we ever got and they all at least graduated from college…”

“And they kept making basic mistakes…” Seung-wan was starting to click certain events now.

Joy nodded. “Mistakes that so obviously would not get them hired…”

“And Sunmi´s computer suddenly died…”

Joy nodded again. “So she would get a new computer and lose her previous documents…”

“So...instead of sending a perfect spy to get hired…”

“They sended an average person and a lot of awful candidates to increase their chances of getting hired at the same time that they make us believe we are the ones to actually choose the candidate.” Joy finished.

“What the …” This was too much to take in, she knew it could also be an exaggeration from Joy but the more she thought about it, the more sense it did to her.

“I know, it makes sense but doesn't make sense at the same time right?”

“Well, yeah…”

“At first I was convinced that someone made a fake email but when Yeri verified for me, I felt lost again. But I think I get it now…”

“What are you getting exactly…?”

“I think the CEO had sensed a spy way before me, and made the email for me to suspect Irene first, on purpose.”

“Why?”

“Again, her story is so awfully suspicious that it hurts man. I think the CEO wanted me to clear her first, maybe she was suspecting Irene too.”

“But you said she is clean.”

“She is, and I know for sure you are too so don't worry. I will see Irene only as an ally, I promise you that. But I am telling you this because I just needed to vent all of this you know….is just...too many secrets. The mysterious CEO of a company that appeared out of nowhere, the spy and now you get the perfect girlfriend that seems to have her secrets too, and suddenly we get another email saying about your raise, which I think is totally deserved but still the timing felt weird too and...is overwhelming.”

Seung-wan stood up to give a comfort hug to Joy.

“I...I don´t know what to tell you Joy...but what I can assure you is that I will help you with this, if you let me.”

Joy nodded while still holding Seung-wan back. “Yes please.”

Seung-wan knew Joy was doing her best, after all, she and Yeri were the ones to solve the problem with that other client in England, the client was the scammer and faked the stolen merchandise. Reve Inc. won the case thanks to them.

Seung-wan let her go only to give her some pats on the head, like comforting a little kid. “We can always open a bakery if this fails, Yeri can administer and you will do the commercials.”

Joy laughed. “Anything that is not this job, I am ok.”