ELEVEN

Seungsoo’s eyes widened as he heard the doorhinge creak. He looked up and saw a familiar head peeking through the gap.

“I’m, um, back… Sorry about earlier,” Seorin murmured awkwardly, trying to look as proper as possible.

He held back his smile and nodded. “It’s fine – it was smart of you to return.” He wondered why she came back and left her boyfriend – maybe she got into an argument with Kyungsoo?
He handed her a thick folder. “Alphabetize these by company name, please… You can sit over there and do it.” He pointed to the couches.

She nodded and took the folder, realizing she was just going to do menial tasks just like she had been doing in Kyungsoo’s office. She sighed and took out the stack of papers. She instantly recognized them as companies requesting Kangdo Marketing’s services, and there were some high-profile names as well – Pancoat, Sisley… She was highly impressed by the popularity and demand for Kangdo, and looked up at the person behind a great portion of this success – the current vice president: Do Seungsoo.
To her surprise, she saw him quickly turn his head away. Why was he looking at me? She wondered if it was because he was perhaps making sure she was doing her work properly – but how hard was it to alphabetize names? You could ask a kindergartener to do that…

She stood up to give back the now-organized folder and asked what else she should do. “I can do some more demanding tasks,” she mumbled. “… At least more demanding than alphabetizing…”

Seungsoo raised an eyebrow. “Ah, really?” He asked in interest. “More demanding, you say?”
To her surprise he said, “Alright then.” He handed her back the folder. “… Throw away 75% of these request forms, keeping only the best.”

She gaped, her heart nearly stopping. He’s kidding. There was no way he could put her in charge of that sort of important decision…
 

“Well, what are you waiting for?” He asked, pretending to be impatient.

“… With all due respect sir, I… I don’t think I have the power –”

“Power?” He interrupted. “I’m giving you the power. You asked for a more demanding task, and I’m giving you precisely that.”

She found herself unable to retort back and simply nodded obediently, taking back the folder and sitting on the couch once again. She pulled out the forms and counted them – twenty. That meant she had to scrap fifteen of them... Her choices could affect relationships within companies and change the balance of demand in the economy… I can’t do this.

Seungsoo smirked, watching her stare blankly at the names. “Are you not working, Seorin-sshi?”

“… I, um… I,” came her miserable reply.

He jokingly sighed deeply, pretending to be tired of her inability. “Firstly, we have a deal with Sisley and Lovcat, so we must take those. And of the next three, pick the most reasonable requests – the more famous brands demand more from us, but they need us less. Our goal is to make unknown brands famous – not make the famous ones more famous. That is how we show our skill to the world.”

She was awed by his logic and nodded. Sure enough, the well-known companies asked for posters, commercials, idol endorsements, and billboard postings… But the less famous ones asked for only one or two things at most.

After a lot of thought and debate, she handed him the three forms she had picked out. He reviewed them and nodded in approval. “Okay, shred the others,” he replied.

“S-Shred?” She asked in disbelief – was he not even going to make sure her decisions were the best ones? Shredding meant there was no going back…

“Yes, I said shred,” he repeated, pointing to the paper shredder by his desk. He was greatly enjoying her anxious expressions. They were amusing and adorable. He had never been so instantly attracted to anyone before in his 24 years of life. He wasn’t sure how or why but it had happened and he couldn’t stop it.
Then why was it that, out of all the people she could date, it was his little brother Kyungsoo?

###

Kyungsoo grew increasingly agitated with every passing minute that Seorin was with Seungsoo. He couldn’t concentrate on his work – not that he did it anyway.

“Didn’t get Seorin back?” Jongin teased. “Miss her already?”

Kyun