MP ~ 01

Chapter – 01

 A Bitter Celebration Dinner

It was the company-wide celebration dinner for Hanju Freshion, the ready-meal subsidiary of the food conglomerate Hanju Group.

Cha Gyeoul sat clutching her beer glass, glaring fiercely at the team leader giving a triumphant speech at the front.

“To celebrate the tremendous success of this project! Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

A lump rose in her throat. Tears welled up, making her eyes sting.

She lifted her beer and drained it in one gulp.

Beside her, her coworker and fellow assistant manager, Yehee, hurriedly tried to stop her, but Gyeoul ignored her completely. She grabbed a bottle of soju and filled the empty beer glass to the brim.

“Hey! Stop! You’re going to kill yourself! You can’t even hold your liquor!”

“…I’m going to die. If I don’t die tonight… then I’ll end up killing that bastard.”

Wouldn’t it be better if I died than became a murderer?

Her eyes already red with tears, Gyeoul looked at Yehee as if pleading before emptying the entire glass of soju in one breath.

Yehee’s heart ached for her.

But she couldn’t just watch her drink herself unconscious. She snatched the glass away.

“That’s enough! If you keep drinking like this, you’ll really die! Do you want me waking up tomorrow to a text saying you’ve passed away?”

Gyeoul stared hatefully at the overjoyed team leader for a moment before turning back to Yehee.

Finally, tears spilled freely from her large, beautiful eyes.

Seven Months Earlier

Cha Gyeoul, assistant manager on Hanju Freshion’s Product Development Team 2, felt her eyes sparkle as a new idea suddenly came to her.

“If I develop this idea properly… it’ll be a huge hit.”

Maybe she’d become the youngest department manager in company history.

Or at least she’d get a raise.

Filled with excitement and hope, she organized her thoughts into a proposal and submitted it.

Fortunately, the proposal was approved almost immediately.

Encouraged to do her best, Gyeoul spent the next six months obsessively developing the concept, repeatedly making and tasting the product herself until every detail was perfected.

Then came the day.

Her team leader took the finalized report to present it before the executives.

That was when Gyeoul discovered something she had never expected.

Her name…

…was gone.

“Team Leader… why isn’t my name on the report?”

The final report submitted to the executives contained no mention whatsoever of the person who had created the project.

When she confronted him, his answer was even more unbelievable.

“Just let it go. You’ll have other chances.”

“You know we’ve got a new company president now, right? I need to show him that I can produce results.”

Gyeoul stood frozen.

This was the same team leader who had spent years proving himself completely incompetent.

She couldn’t even respond.

It wasn’t because she had nothing to say.

It was because she’d just learned that when someone says something so absurd, your brain simply stops working.

“…Why are you using my idea to show your achievements?”

After struggling through the flood of thoughts in her mind, she finally managed to ask.

Without even looking at her, he replied,

“This was originally my idea.”

“I’d already thought of it. You just happened to submit it before I finished organizing my notes.”

“So really… it’s my idea.”

“…What?”

“Weren’t you passing by my computer one day? You probably caught a glimpse of it and copied the concept.”

“Team Leader!”

“Don’t make a fuss.”

“If you stay quiet, then so will I.”

“Who do you think the executives will believe?”

“The team leader…”

“…or some assistant manager?”

Gyeoul’s face burned red with humiliation.

As she stood speechless, he delivered the final blow.

“You know who’s backing me, don’t you?”

His shameless threat reminded her of the rumors circulating throughout the company.

Everyone wondered how someone so incompetent—someone who couldn’t even use basic office software properly—had managed to become a team leader and stay employed.

The explanation everyone whispered was simple.

One of Hanju Group’s directors was his childhood friend.

There were even rumors that the female director and the team leader were having an affair.

So the rumors were true…

Biting her lip until it bled, Gyeoul glared at him.

He casually concluded,

“Anyway, the report’s already been submitted.”

“It’s too late now.”

“I’ll make sure to support your next project, so don’t take it too personally.”

“You can leave.”

He dismissed her as though shooing away an inconvenience.

After that day, he avoided her entirely.

The executives loved the proposal.

Production began immediately.

The new product—developed under Gyeoul’s leadership but released under the team leader’s name—became an enormous success.

Within a month of launch, it ranked first among trending food products.

It exploded across social media.

Mukbang YouTubers featured it constantly.

The product achieved results Hanju Freshion had never experienced before.

Present Day

“It’s so unfair… I can’t take it anymore…”

At the celebration dinner held in honor of the product’s incredible success, Gyeoul drowned herself in alcohol.

Everyone who knew the truth understood exactly why she was suffering.

They comforted her as best they could.

But there was nothing they could actually do.

After the dinner ended, Yehee struggled to drag the completely intoxicated Gyeoul outside.

“Come on! Put some strength into your legs! You’re heavy!”

“It’s so unfair…”

“Oh my God… You’re going to crush me! I need to get a taxi.”

Unable to support Gyeoul any longer, Yehee sat her down on a bench outside the restaurant.

“Stay here for a minute.”

“I’m going to catch us a taxi.”

“…Though honestly, you couldn’t even run away in your condition.”

She stepped toward the street, alternately trying to hail a passing cab and checking a taxi app.

While she was gone…

Gyeoul slowly raised her head.

The other employees had already dispersed.

It was Friday night.

Everyone had gone home.

I should go home too…

Her alcohol-clouded brain refused to think clearly.

She fought against her heavy eyelids.

Then…

She saw someone.

Blinking repeatedly until her vision came into focus, she stared carefully at the approaching figure.

Then suddenly…

She sprang to her feet.

“Gyeoul! Assistant Manager Cha! I got a taxi—”

“…Huh?”

“Where’d she go?”

Because nearly everyone at the company dinner had been drinking, getting a taxi had taken much longer than expected.

By the time Yehee finally secured one and returned…

Gyeoul had disappeared.

She searched around the restaurant.

Nothing.

She even went back inside.

“Excuse me, did you happen to see a woman about this tall, with long permed hair, wearing a white blouse and black pants?”

Everyone shook their heads.

Just as she turned to continue searching outside, a new employee who had been leaving the restaurant spoke up.

“If you’re looking for Assistant Manager Cha…”

“Chief Jung said they were headed in the same direction and left together in a taxi.”

“Chief Jung?”

“Yes.”

Chief Jung Ina happened to live in the same officetel apartment building as Gyeoul.

Convinced Ina had safely taken Gyeoul home, Yehee finally relaxed and got into her own taxi.

Never imagining…

…whose car Gyeoul had actually climbed into.

Meanwhile…

Kim Dogyeong.

The second son of Hanju Group, one of Korea’s top five conglomerates and the nation’s number one food company for the past ten consecutive years.

Having graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA at an unusually young age, he had served as president of Hanju F&B’s U.S. branch before returning to Korea eight months earlier.

Only two days after returning, he was appointed president of Hanju Freshion.

A notorious workaholic and cold, rational executive, Dogyeong rarely displayed strong emotions.

Yet at this moment…

He was experiencing the greatest shock of his entire life.

The reason?

An unexpected intruder had invaded his car in the middle of the night.

Dogyeong had originally declined the company dinner celebrating the new product’s success.

But a message arrived through his secretary.

His father—the chairman of Hanju Group—had insisted that the president personally attend to congratulate the employees.

It would boost morale, he said.

Since this was the first large company dinner since Dogyeong became president, refusing wasn’t really an option.

So he attended.

He gave a brief congratulatory speech…

Then quietly drank while mentally reviewing the mountain of documents still awaiting his signature.

Finally, the endless dinner ended.

Just as he stood to leave, the department managers surrounded him.

By the time he finished speaking with them, he was the last person to leave the restaurant.

His secretary escorted him to the waiting car.

The engine was already running.

The interior had been warmed to the perfect temperature.

Dogyeong leaned back in the rear seat and closed his eyes.

The smell of alcohol lingered on him.

Then…

He noticed something strange.

A faint fragrance of fresh flowers.

His eyes snapped open.

There was no reason his car should smell like flowers.

Frowning, he inhaled again.

Yes.

It was definitely fresh flowers.

As he puzzled over it, his secretary climbed into the driver’s seat, and the car pulled smoothly onto the road.

Dogyeong asked,

“Did you buy flowers?”

“What? No, sir.”

“That’s odd…”

“I could swear I smell fresh flowers…”

He never finished the sentence.

His gaze locked onto something moving…

…between the front and rear seats.

Long black hair.

A figure slowly rising.

It looked exactly like…

…the ghost of a woman.

For the first time in his life, his perfectly steady heartbeat exploded into panic.

The figure slowly turned toward him.

“…President…”

Sniff…

“…Sob…”

The mournful crying drifted through the curtain of long black hair.

As the figure slowly crawled closer…

Kim Dogyeong screamed.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”