Kang Hye-rin had dealt with cruel bosses before.
But none of them had prepared her for the sight of him.
Her Boss
The man at the head of the glass-walled conference room, dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit, was the same boy who had once smirked at her humiliation in front of the entire class of Baeksu High.
Lee Joon-hyuk.
The name still tasted bitter, even after all these years.
He looked sharper now — taller, broader shoulders, jawline so precise it could have been carved by the gods of narcissism themselves. Urgh, the arrogant gleam in his eyes, however, hadn't changed. If anything, it had grown worse, polished into the cold man who was so used to winning.
Her chest tightened as fragments of memory pierced through her mind.
That spring afternoon at Baeksu High.
The cherry blossoms falling, her classmates giggling, his cruel words, she could never forget—
"Did you really think I could like you, scholarship girl? What a love letter (he scoffs, then throws it to the floor). Someone like you could never stand next to me."
The memory burned as if it had just happened yesterday.
Hye-rin's knuckles whitened against her notepad. She inhaled slowly, pushing the past back where it belonged. She was no longer a teenager in a hand-me-down uniform. She was Kang Hye-rin, PR strategist, twenty-seven years old, and she refused to let him see her flinch.
"Miss Kang," Joon-hyuk's deep voice cut across the table. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his long legs, his eyes sweeping over her like she was just another file in his empire. "You're new here, aren't you?"
"Yes, sir." Her tone was cool, professional. Not trembling. Not angry. just cool with her head held high.
The corner of his mouth lifted. Not a smile—more like a smirk polished with years of practice. "Let's see if you last longer here than you did back in high school."
Hye-rin snapped the pen in her hand.