He was the CEO. And she was just a janitor in his company. But he knew she was no ordinary janitor. He believed she had entered this company for a purpose. For what purpose, he must find out for himself. What he did not expect was that one day he would fall in love with this suspicious woman.
Chapter 1 The Janitor
Hearing footsteps, the woman turned.
The moment So Hee saw her face, she couldn't hide her surprise, her eyes opened wide and stared unblinkingly at the woman in front of her.
She remained motionless for a moment, as if time had stopped.
Then she turned and ran. Behind her, So Hee could still hear the young woman's voice.
"How could you still be alive?"
***
4 MONTHS EARLIER.
When Ji Sung raised his head to look out the window, it was black. He glanced at the clock.
It's already past 8pm. No wonder it's so dark outside.
He reached for his phone. Only then did he remember that his phone was still on silent mode from the meeting this afternoon. He had forgotten to switch it back to normal.
As predicted, he had seventeen missed calls. Ten were from his mother. Three were from his father. Two were from his sister. Two were from Jae Min, his best friend. He guessed that his mom couldn't call him, so she texted the rest.
Ji Sung called his mother back.
"Did you forget what day it is today?" His mother shouted on the phone. He had to hold the phone away to protect his eardrums.
She must be very angry.
He tried to recall if today was such a big day that his mom was so furious, but he couldn't remember anything. The work data of this afternoon had completely occupied his mind, and his brain had just been rebooted, so its temporary memory was completely empty, the other data had not been downloaded yet.
"Today is..." He stammered.
"Lisa came to have dinner. Don't you remember?" His mother's voice had softened but was still very loud. "Poor girl, she waited for you for two hours. If I were her, I'd not want to see you again."
Well, it turned out to be the dinner thing. He totally forgot about it.
Ji Sung quickly grabbed the coat on the hook and put it on. It's been a few days since Winter came.
It was Friday, so there was probably no office staff working overtime. By now everyone must have left the office, rooms were closed and all the lights were off.
He walked through the cold, empty third-floor corridor, suddenly feeling a little lonely in his heart. Maybe it's because it's cold and he was hungry, he told himself.
When he got to the second floor, Ji Sung realized he wasn't the only one staying late. At the entrance of the hall, someone was messing around with a banner to welcome delegates to the next week's conference.
The following week, his company held a specialized workshop about The Future of Organic Fertilizers. This is a very important conference, with the participation of many domestic and international experts.
The banner, which was normally just a temporary design and then printed and hung on the front door, now the marketing department had worked hard to make it feel as organic as possible by cutting 3D braille from renewable materials, as environmentally friendly as wood and paperboard.
It took a little more work than usual, but it looked quite impressive. However, it was handmade so it wasn't very stable. Some of the letters had fallen off.
An employee in janitor uniform was perched on a ladder, fixing letters that had fallen.
She was quite focused on her lettering, so she didn't notice that an "I" in her hand had fallen to the ground. When it was time to attach the letter "I", she couldn't find it in her pocket.
She turned back and saw Ji Sung smiling, handing the letter "I" he had just picked up from the ground.
Perhaps his appearance was unexpected, so she was a little startled. She was looking at him with wide eyes. Her gesture, like seeing a ghost, made him feel amused.
"You don't need to panic like that. I won't punish you." Said Kevin.
"This... just now, people were transporting things into the hall, unfortunately, they bumped into... the words fell out..." She stammered explained. Perhaps the nature of her job is less communicative, and she is a new employee, making her a bit awkward when facing strangers.
"Are you new?" Ji Sung asked. "Why does the janitor team let a new employee work the night shift like this?
"Actually... I've been doing it for over a month." She shyly replied.
"More than a month?" He looked suspiciously at the janitor he had just met for the first time. "Why have I never met you?"
"That... I don't know." She mumbled.
Some people think that to be a boss, Ji Sung should be as powerful as his father. He had to act like a boss, let employees fear him. But Ji Sung couldn't do it.
He is the complete opposite of his father. Perhaps that is the difference between a person who grows up in hardship and someone who has been happy since birth. In the company, Kevin is nicknamed "Miss Friendly". His mother always worried that his excessive kindness would one day sell out the company.
From a young age, he had known that people with a good starting point like himself were difficult to get everyone's recognition, so he always tried to have as few enemies as possible. He always tried to get along with all the staff. He tried to remember the faces of everyone, from the security guard to the factory workers.
How could there be a janitor who has been working for more than a month and he had no idea?
Ji Sung silently observed the woman in front of him.
She was about thirty years old. The figure was quite slim compared to the manual workers often seen in the company. Due to lack of regular care, her skin was quite dry and dark. Looking closely, except for her unattended skin, her eyes, nose or lips were also quite harmonious and good looking. The highlight on the face is beautiful and sad eyes.
Perhaps it is a woman who suffers a lot from marrying an unsatisfactory husband.
This face, if Ji Sung had ever seen it once, he must have been impressed.
He sighed quietly. Maybe his mother was right, he's been too focused on work lately.
While Ji Sung was bewildered because he couldn't remember the face of a janitor who had worked for more than a month, she had almost finished attaching the words to the banner.
"Do you know English?" Ji Sung looked at her as she carefully taped the last letter.
"No... I don't... Why are you asking?" She slowly climbed down the ladder.
"I see you don't need to look at the note so I'm just guessing."
"I just memorized it." She replied.
He smiled at her and walked towards the door. After walking a few steps, as if suddenly remembering something, he turned around.
"Oh, I forgot, what's your name?"
"My name is Lee So Hee." She replied softly, her eyes looking at him for the first time.
The name Lee So Hee has entered Ji Sung's life like that.
***
When he just disappeared behind the stairs, So Hee breathed a sigh of relief. Although she was used to her current position, and her acting skill was much better than before, Ji Sung's sudden appearance made her almost make a mistake. Luckily he wasn't too concerned.
That's right, who would bother with a janitor who had no influence like her.
So Hee mocked herself. Her smile as faint as a sigh escaped from her thin shoulders. With the words attached, she quickly packed up and left the office for the last bus.
Chapter 1 The Janitor
09/08/2023
Chapter 2 Barcarolle
09/08/2023
Chapter 3 Suspiciousness
04/11/2023