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Chapter 5
The sender was, as expected, Han Taeo.
As Seokyung furrowed her brow, one more message arrived.
[ The way your face turns red every time our eyes meet. ]
Soon after, the last sentence followed.
[ If it’s because you like me, don’t keep it bottled up—just tell me. ]
W-what did he say?
Seokyung glared at the screen with an incredulous face.
When did I ever blush?
The day we first met in the CEO’s office, and on Bukhansan—every time, it was just heat rising because I was angry.
Because I like him, he says.
It’d make more sense if it were because I can’t stand the sight of him.
Seokyung closed the messenger window as if it wasn’t even worth a reply.
Then she looked up and met eyes with Taeo, who was staring at her.
His dark, obsidian-like eyes curved long as they looked at her.
‘Fighting!’
That man, seriously!
Just as she was about to look away, she caught Taeo still watching her intently with a smiling face.
Losing felt like it would happen if she looked away first, so Seokyung stubbornly held his gaze without avoiding it.
A few seconds passed like that.
Even as her cheeks burned, their eyes refused to break apart.
In an instant, the surrounding noise seemed to fade far away, and a strange silence flowed as if only the two of them were left.
By the time she came to her senses, Seokyung was already unable to look away, as if under a spell.
It was only because of the youngest team member, Minhee, that Seokyung barely returned to reality.
“Team leader, are you feeling unwell?”
Minhee peered at Seokyung with a worried face.
“Your face is really red.”
At Minhee’s voice, Seokyung finally let out a breath.
“Ah, I’m fine. The air conditioning must be a bit weak.”
Seokyung subtly cooled her heated cheeks with the back of her hand and turned her gaze to the monitor.
“And tell everyone to gather in the meeting room in ten minutes.”
Once Minhee returned to her seat, Seokyung irritably pulled down the blinds.
Only then could she escape Taeo’s gaze.
\* \* \*
Ten minutes later, Seokyung spoke to the team members gathered in the meeting room.
“There’s one month left until the final PT.”
As Seokyung began to speak low but forcefully, tension flowed through the meeting room as well.
The team members swallowed dryly and fixed their eyes on the tip of Seokyung’s lips.
“Planning Team 1 is already a team counted among the best in the industry. But that doesn’t mean I, as team leader, am going to sit back and watch our team get pushed out and scattered. We’re doing a full rework of the proposal.”
“What? From the beginning again?”
Dismay spread among the team members. Seokyung lightly tapped the dinosaur wallet on the desk with her fingertip.
“In terms of utilizing data based on past experience, Planning Team 1 is definitely stronger than us. Competing in the same way will make it hard to win. So we need to dig into what they can’t see.”
Seokyung picked up the wallet and showed it to the team members.
“Hyunjin Resort’s name is ‘The Route.’ Chairman Park is someone who values people and memories before being a successful businessman.”
The team members’ gazes gathered on the worn but neatly repaired wallet.
“We’re going to define ‘The Route’ not simply as a place to sleep, but as a place where someone’s precious memories take root.”
It wouldn’t be easy, but in the eyes of the team members listening, both anticipation and fighting spirit rose together.
“Find all of Chairman Park’s past interviews, the history of the resort site, and materials about family and memories. Also, emotional codes that can connect to stories with memories embedded in them—like this wallet.”
Seokyung looked at each team member in turn.
“This time, let’s be the ones to move Hyunjin’s heart.”
As the meeting ended, the team members immediately scattered to their seats.
Left alone, Seokyung took a sip of the cold coffee.
Even though she had drawn the blinds, she kept being conscious of the other side of the wall.
Specifically, of Han Taeo, who would be there.
“If it’s because you like me, don’t keep it bottled up—just tell me.”
The message she had received moments ago lingered stubbornly in her mind.
Ha, ridiculous.
It was true that she had once liked him.
He was indifferent yet tender, and a man who seemed to shine brighter than anyone.
But those feelings ended six years ago.
The Han Taeo of now was not a first love but a competitor she absolutely had to defeat.
Seokyung pulled her scattered thoughts together and looked at the monitor again.
Then she pressed her pen firmly and wrote the core keywords on a memo pad.
Memories. People. Roots.
The competition that had only felt burdensome was now somehow turning into a burning desire to win.
One thing was certain, whatever else.
One month later, the person smiling had to be her.
Seokyung opened a new proposal file.
From now on, every minute and every second was war.
\* \* \*
Watching the blinds come down, Taeo leaned back in his chair.
“She’s prickly as ever.”
Taeo withdrew his gaze without erasing the smile spreading on his lips.
The atmosphere of Planning Team 1 on the other side of the glass wall was completely different from Team 2’s.
It was calm—no, it was quiet and orderly like the gears of a precise clock turning.
Taeo, the head of this place, was known in the advertising world as a PM who had never known failure.
His data analysis skills were unmatched, and his sense for reading trends was always a step ahead.
“Division Head, here’s the data analysis report for the Hyunjin Resort project. It’s 300 pages, and I’ve kept the margin of error within 0.1%.”
Park Jinsu held out a thick stack of documents.
Taeo quickly flipped through the pages. His sharply moving gaze stopped at one point.
“Page 145, Table 3. The calculation of last year’s resort visitor change rate is wrong. The baseline is incorrect.”
“What? Ah… I’ll check it again!”
Park Jinsu scratched his head in fluster.
Taeo’s pointed corrections were cold but accurate.
That was why the team members found him intimidating yet trusted and followed him.
He allowed not a single mistake in work, but he silently placed snacks on the desks of employees working overtime, and he never missed a team member’s family occasions.
Park Jinsu, who had been gathering up the report, cautiously asked.
“Division Head, we have all this experience behind us—we’ll win the PT, right?”
“That depends on what kind of proposal we submit.”
Taeo answered in a low voice without taking his eyes off the report.
“But as long as I’m here, Team 1 members won’t be leaving the planning team.”
The expressions of the anxious team members gradually relaxed.
“However, if the results fall short of my standards, I’ll make myself resign first—so keep your wits about you.”
His answer was dry, but there was certainty in those words.
The team members did not doubt him.
“Then in the end, Team Leader Joo will be the one to leave, won’t she?”
At Park Jinsu’s words, spoken with a sense of regret, Taeo’s eyes momentarily turned cold.
“We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
He hadn’t given Seokyung information to underestimate her or to use petty tricks.
He sincerely hoped this competition would become a stepping stone for her to surpass her own abilities.
“It’s the CEO’s order, isn’t it? Only one of the two stays.”
Taeo silently rolled the fountain pen on his desk with his fingertips, wordlessly staring beyond the firmly drawn blinds.
After that day, Planning Team 1’s office became a battlefield where the lights never went out for 24 hours.
The competition between the two teams grew fiercer by the day.
Seokyung buried herself in the monitor, trying not to be conscious of Taeo, while Taeo frequently leaned against the glass wall, watching Seokyung work fiercely as if admiring her.
When Seokyung, staying late, fell asleep with her head on her desk, Taeo would tap on the glass wall to wake her.
When Seokyung, startled awake, would glare at him, he would point at the coffee machine in his team’s office and raise an eyebrow as if asking if she wanted a cup.
The more his suspicious kindness repeated—leaving her confused about whether he was helping or interfering—the more Seokyung’s heart churned like she was on a roller coaster.
The more that happened, the more Seokyung tried to bury herself in work.
When she occasionally looked beyond the glass wall, she would see Taeo focused on his work.
Seeing him with his shirt sleeves rolled up, concentrating on documents, Seokyung felt a sense of kinship and a competitive drive never to lose, both rising at once.
About a week passed like that.
That day too, Seokyung stayed in the office late, grappling with the proposal.
As the night deepened, her concentration hit rock bottom.
Deciding she couldn’t go on like this, she headed to the break room to down some caffeine.
But when she opened the door, she met eyes with Taeo, who was standing in front of the coffee machine.
