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Chapter – 03
Words of Gratitude
The weekend passed, and when Winter returned to work, she found herself on edge, anxiously anticipating a call from the CEO’s office at any moment.
Whether it would be an order to submit a report or a letter of resignation regarding her freeloading on the company car, or perhaps a response to the tearful plea she had made.
But contrary to her expectation that she would receive contact at least once, the week passed without incident.
‘So they’re trying to pretend it never happened.’
After lunch, Winter returned to her desk and quietly began drafting her resignation letter.
The thought of continuing to work while facing her team leader every day made her blood boil. The stress that showed no signs of disappearing brought on stomach pains and headaches, and she ultimately decided to quit.
At that moment, the door swung open and a group of men in suits filed in.
“We’re from the Audit Team. We request that all employees of New Product Development Team 2 stop what they’re doing and cooperate with us from now on.”
At the lead man’s words, all the employees rose hesitantly.
Hurriedly closing her resignation letter window, Winter stood up from her seat as well, and behind her, the team leader rushed past.
“What is this about?”
“A report has been filed stating that New Product Development Team 2 stole someone else’s idea to boost their performance.”
Seokjun’s face instantly turned pale.
And before long, Team Leader Kim Seokjun was ultimately fired.
The reasons for his dismissal were endless—poor performance, negligence of duties as team leader, and manipulation of attendance records—but the biggest reason was, of course, the theft of another’s idea and the unfair accumulation of performance metrics using it.
The testimonies of the team members who had worked on the project with Winter at the time, along with the data retrieved from the hard drives seized by the Audit Team, served as excellent evidence.
[Due to the injustice of having my idea unfairly stolen by my superior, I have suffered considerable mental stress and depression, and I believe I can no longer continue normal work duties.
Furthermore, I have lost trust in the company for failing to resolve this unfairness—]
Do-kyung read the unfinished resignation letter, which was filled with detailed grievances, while tilting one corner of his mouth upward. He tapped the desk with his fingernail.
‘She couldn’t hold out and started writing her resignation, I see.’
The half-written resignation letter was stored intact on Winter’s hard drive and had been delivered to Do-kyung.
In order to find evidence of Team Leader Kim Seokjun’s wrongdoing, they had examined Winter’s hard drive, which contained all the effort and care she had poured into her work.
It seemed she had even tried making the new product idea herself before proposing it.
Inside the folders were multiple documents with photos of the food, ingredients, cooking times, and even detailed evaluations of taste after freezing and thawing.
It was the kind of dedication and attachment that could only come from an idea that was truly her own.
After reviewing all the materials, the last thing that caught his eye was the wallpaper file labeled “Resignation Letter Format.”
Curious, he clicked it open and found the partially written resignation letter inside.
The unfinished final sentence probably would have contained resentment toward the company.
‘Or perhaps resentment toward me.’
Do-kyung’s mind conjured up Winter’s face as he skimmed the short text once more.
Her disheveled long hair, her nose that crinkled and made faint wrinkles every time she sniffled. And the tears that streamed endlessly down her flushed cheeks.
Feeling the playfulness and sadism he thought had disappeared when he was very young begin to stir within him, he grinned slyly.
‘Maybe I should try to get some credit.’
And while I’m at it, I might as well get a good look at that face of hers.
Having made up his mind, Do-kyung’s hand pressed down firmly on the internal phone button without hesitation.
And so, around two in the afternoon, when drowsiness was at its peak—
Winter, who had been nodding off with an iced Americano placed on the corner of her desk, now found herself standing in front of the CEO’s office.
<Yes, this is Cha Winter from New Product Development Team 2.>
<This is CEO Kim Do-kyung’s secretary’s office.>
At the voice that came through the receiver, Winter, who had been sipping her coffee through a straw, quickly covered her mouth.
She barely managed to swallow the coffee she had nearly spit out, then hurriedly set down the cup in her hand.
Wiping her slightly damp hands on her pants, she adjusted her grip on the receiver and bowed her upper body halfway. Even though he wasn’t actually in front of her, for some reason she felt the need to be polite.
<Yes! Please go ahead.>
<The CEO is looking for you.>
<Me?
Why?>
She wanted to ask, but swallowed the question before it could leave her lips. In the meantime, the voice on the other end told her to come immediately if possible.
In the end, Winter had no choice but to get up from her seat and board the elevator. After pressing the button for the 22nd floor, where the CEO’s office was located, she turned her head to look in the mirror—and her eyes went wide.
‘Oh my god. Look at those dark circles.’
Because she had gone to bed late the night before, the dark circles under her eyes weren’t even fully covered by makeup.
She brushed her fingers under her eyes, tidied the stray hairs that had fallen across her forehead, and before she knew it, the elevator had arrived at the 22nd floor.
After one last hasty straightening of her clothes, she approached, and the waiting secretary asked her to wait a moment. Soon after, the door to the CEO’s office was opened for her.
Now she sat across from Do-kyung, fully sober and alert.
Unsure of why she had been called, she was tense. He simply looked at her without saying a word.
‘W-what…?’
Bearing the full weight of that intense gaze, she finally moved her tightly pressed lips. Since the person who had called her in wasn’t speaking, she wondered if she should be the one to break the ice.
‘What should I say?’
It had been seven years since she graduated from university and entered the working world.
She had thought she’d developed decent social skills through her career, but facing the “CEO” of the company, she had no idea what topic to bring up.
Eventually, she pressed her lips back together and glanced at the man sitting across from her.
CEO Kim Do-kyung was a strikingly handsome man with strong, bold features. His slightly upturned eyebrows were thick and dark, and the eyes beneath them were equally sharp.
A high nose bridge and straight, firmly set lips. He looked cold and unapproachable, making her hesitant to speak casually.
As if he enjoyed working out, his solid physique was evident even beneath his suit.
Her gaze traveled down from his shoulders and chest, which seemed at least twice as broad as hers, to his thick thighs, where the expensive fabric of his trousers was pulled taut. Just as her eyes started to drift back up—
Their eyes met.
“Oh.”
Do-kyung had been watching her steadily.
Reading the interest in his languid eyes, Winter quickly looked down. She desperately hoped he hadn’t noticed that she had been secretly admiring his handsome face and body.
However, the first words out of Do-kyung’s mouth were not what she had hoped for.
“Do you have a habit of checking out men’s bodies?”
“Ah, no! I was just looking at what was in front of me!”
Startled, Winter quickly made an excuse.
“If you hadn’t been sitting in front of me, I would have been looking at the sofa, and if the sofa wasn’t there, I would have been looking at the wall! So, it’s not that I was looking at your body—I was just looking at what was in front of me.”
As if that were truly all there was to it, she looked straight ahead with a resolute expression. Of course, her focus was not on his face or eyes, but on the wall behind him.
Watching her desperately try to avoid eye contact, Do-kyung suppressed the laughter bubbling up inside him.
Now that she wasn’t feeling wronged or heartbroken, Winter was surprisingly composed.
That night, her long hair, which had been disheveled and half-covering her face, was now neatly tied back. The delicate features set within her small face were objectively pretty.
Her eyes refused to meet his, her lips were pressed firmly together, and her fists were clenched tight with nervousness. Do-kyung took all of this in and tilted one corner of his mouth upward.
“I’m honestly a little disappointed.”
“Pardon?”
“I thought you’d start with a word of thanks the moment you saw me.”
At his words, a look of dismay crossed Winter’s face.
“I was going to thank you! But I thought you might have something to say to me first, so… I was going to wait until after I heard that.”
“Is there something you want to hear from me?”
“Ah, no! That’s not it, but since you called me first, I thought you had business with me…”
“No, I called you to receive your thanks.”
Do-kyung crossed his legs and sat at a slant, watching Winter’s ever-changing expressions like he was enjoying a play.
Her foundation concealed the color of her face, but her reddening ears and neck betrayed her flustered state.
Her slightly darkened undereyes, perhaps from lack of sleep, were now taking on a reddish hue. Just like that night.
Winter, trembling lips and at a loss, finally bowed her head deeply.
“Thank you for finding my idea. And I’m sorry for getting into your car uninvited last time…”
“You’ve been making a lot of excuses since earlier.”
“…Pardon?”
She looked up at him with a puzzled expression as he cut her off mid-sentence.
Unable to immediately understand what he meant by “excuses,” she tilted her head to one side. Do-kyung smirked, lifting one corner of his mouth.
“You did check me out, and you didn’t thank me right away. All true, but you won’t admit it.”
“That’s not an excuse, I was just trying to state the facts—”
“What happened to the person who said she’d do anything if only her grievance was resolved?”
“Ah, she’s still here! I’m still right here…”
Winter’s eyebrows had drooped downward.
Why had she been called here? What had she done wrong?
Why was this man, the CEO, continuously teasing her?
What exactly did he want?
Hesitating, she eventually pressed her lips shut. Do-kyung flashed her a grin, the first time she’d seen him smile so freely.
For a moment, his refreshing smile made Winter’s mind go blank. But he quickly composed his expression and returned to his usual demeanor.
“Go ahead. I didn’t do it expecting anything in return.”
“Really?”
Then why had he called her at all?
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.
‘Did he really just want to hear my thanks? For that alone?’
No way.
But she couldn’t think of any other reason either, so Winter gave up on racking her brain.
“Then I’ll be going now. Thank you again, truly. And I’m sorry about the other day.”
As she rose from the sofa and bowed deeply, Do-kyung nodded and strode over to open the door for her.
With a tilt of his head toward the hallway, he signaled for her to leave. The moment Winter stepped out of the CEO’s office, the door closed mercilessly behind her.
And then, one week later.
“Let’s have a contract relationship. Just six months.”
“Ehhh?”
Standing in the CEO’s office once again after being summoned, Winter couldn’t help but be shocked by Do-kyung’s sudden, out-of-the-blue proposal with no prior explanation.
