Minho swiftly parked his car and went to help Hara out of her seat. He opened the door for her and offered his hand, like a true gentleman. With her hand grasping his arm, the young couple entered the fancy dining hall. 

"Ahh. Minho! A pleasure, as always." Mr. Kwon, his boss, warmly welcomed him. 

"Same to you, Mr. Kwon. How are you?" The two engaged in a superficial yet friendly conversation regarding the current state of the company and general politics. Hara faithfully stood by Minho's side, adding in appropriate comments here and there. Minho was very lucky to have someone as intelligent and sophisticated as Hara, because she was able to keep up with the fast-paced, formal lifestyle of the wealthy elite.

While Hara relished in the feeling of being somewhat important and special, Minho despised the formalities that came with his position. His subordinates constantly treated him nicely and were always trying to compliment him in an attempt to be on his good side. However, this was all because they wanted to move up on the company ladder. 

Even more, because Minho was almost 24, his superiors treated him as some sort of prodigy, while others were simply fake to his face and wanting him to crash and burn behind his back. The whole system was just like social climbing, something Minho had gotten used to but still loathed.

On top of it all, Minho just felt like no one could relate to his feelings. Most of his co-workers were significantly older than him while the very few that were younger were caught up in the way the company operated. DREAM was a successful and popular jewelry company that was beginning to establish itself as a major brand all around Asia and pretty soon, internationally. 

Minho simply worked in the marketing department. As an intelligent business major, he quickly climbed from the bottom of the company to a relative high position in a short amount of time. Instead of doing the more tedious tasks, Minho was Assistant Executive Director of the Marketing Department and he helped oversee and manage the marketing teams. However, the Executive Director was retiring and Minho was probably getting the position next.

The dinner was supposed to serve as a goodbye party for the previous director, but really, it was another excuse for the elite to gather at a social event and present themselves to everyone else. 

After a few more rounds of "How are you" and "You look dashing" and "Your exquisite taste blah blah", Minho was quite fed up with it. While he had just graduated from his university over a year ago, Minho had been exposed to this fortunate lifestyle for his whole life. His parents had both been very successful in their respective business fields and worked closely with their superiors. As a result, Minho was often dragged along to multiple company events and experienced the fakeness of it all.

For once, Minho wanted a change to this suffocating way of life.