10 rules of a Secretary chapter 40

“I want to go to Mojito and have a drink in the Maldives…”

I murmured a famous line from a movie and chuckled. The Maldives, really? It’d be faster to hear a dog meow.

I quickly checked my schedule on the tablet and began organizing.

Today was relatively light. Just a meeting with the Clothing TF team and another with the Legal team.

As I mentally reviewed the documents that CEO Han needed to check, my fingers froze.

As soon as I thought of CEO Han’s face, my cheeks began to heat up on their own.

I tapped my flushed cheeks with the back of my hand, trying to calm down while muttering to myself to focus on work.

What happened over the weekend was nothing special.

It was just a car accident, if you think about it. I was walking along fine, and somehow, a very expensive car happened to hit me.

Repeating that to myself a few times made me feel a bit better.

To shift my thoughts, I checked my phone and laughed dryly at the message left by Cha Chiyeon.

[Real Life Lord] – Hey, we still need to finish the photoshoot we started before. I put my heart and soul into that. If we sell the new product well, we can buy items for the siege. You get it, right? I’m the Lord, remember? The guild members are all counting on me. For their sake, OK? 06:30

[Real Life Lord] – (　o=^•ェ•)o♥ Love ya! – 06:33

She must have sent it as soon as she woke up. Or maybe she stayed up all night. I sighed, recalling the photoshoot I had to stop halfway due to forced overtime last time.

Neither modeling nor secretarial work had ever felt particularly difficult, but the past month was nothing short of the toughest period of my life.

After sitting for a while, cramming the schedule and meeting times and places into my head, I took a deep breath, grabbed a Coco Palm, and left the secretary’s office.

As soon as I entered the CEO’s office after scanning my fingerprint, the faint smell of cigarettes and cologne made me frown.

I worried that the lingering pheromones might affect me like last time, but it was just my imagination.

I placed the drink on the desk and thought about ventilating the room. As I pushed open the heavy glass window, a cool breeze slipped over the windowsill.

It wasn’t the usual stifling summer air, probably because it was still early morning. I opened a few more windows and stood quietly under the warm sunlight that enveloped the room.

The moment before CEO Han arrived, when I could be completely alone, was my favorite time. The soft summer breeze slipped in through the floating dust particles.

A slight smile spread across my face as the cool wind brushed my cheeks.

“Secretary Seonyul.”

I hadn’t even heard the door open, but there he was, Han Doha, leaning against the doorframe, watching me.

All the worrying I did over the weekend about how I would face him on Monday seemed pointless as I met him with no defenses. He looked the same as always.

The sweet smile and affectionate kisses he had shown to his one-night stand were nowhere to be seen—just my perfectly professional employer, Han Doha.

A faint smile spread across his impassive face. His well-shaped lips curved into a small arc, and his mouth opened.

“I missed you.”

A line of light drew a clear boundary between the spot where CEO Han and I stood.

I was in the sun, and he was in the shade.

I clenched my fists and took a deep breath. The air filling my lungs seemed to muffle the pounding of my heart a bit. I watched him quietly and smiled back.

“Yes, I missed you too.”

I needed to focus on my work.

The incident over the weekend shouldn’t be allowed to intrude into my daily life.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pang in my stomach. I raised a hand to lightly press my abdomen, thinking I should take another antacid, and clenched my fist tightly once more.

“This is a bit much…”

I muttered with a heavy heart as I stood in front of the luxury store.

The flashy building was one of the largest department stores in the country. A sigh escaped me.

CEO Han had naturally entered a private room that only VIP Black members could access and casually began naming off various brand names, ordering clothes, bags, shoes, and even jewelry.

He looked like a nouveau rich trying to shove money into the hands of a young lover.

After eight years of working as his secretary, seeing how he treated a mere one-night stand with such care made me pity his previous twenty-two lovers. I stood behind him, watching as he selected clothes.

It was the first time in my life I’d seen such expensive garments. The clothes CEO Han usually wore were custom-made, with fabrics so costly they made me nauseous just thinking about them. But at least those were tailored. Seeing an off-the-rack T-shirt or pants with price tags carrying numerous zeros was something beyond the understanding of an ordinary citizen like me.

Moreover, CEO Han was not the kind of person who shopped often.

He usually bought only what he needed and only as much as he needed, so seeing him ready to sweep the luxury department store was a first.

After selecting clothes to his satisfaction, CEO Han turned his attention to jewelry, seemingly deep in thought as he examined the pieces under the light.

As I watched him hold a necklace in his hand, I couldn’t help but ask, even though I already knew the answer.

My curiosity got the better of me.

“You’re not planning to wear that yourself, are you?”

“Of course not.”

“Then who is it for?”

“Well, a sex partner?”

He smiled brightly, waving the delicate necklace in front of my eyes.

The thin chain was intricately studded with tiny diamonds, and the main gemstone was a blue sapphire.

Even at a glance, the cut and color indicated it was not of an ordinary grade.

“Have you acquired a new sex partner that I’m unaware of?”

“No, you know them.”

“…”

“That model.”

Thinking of that person, a smile bloomed on CEO Han’s face like a flower. He was undoubtedly smiling at the thought of that model.

After giving me that smile, he reached out and lightly grasped my neck, holding the necklace against it.

“…This is sexual harassment.”

“You said you didn’t feel harassed.”

That had been true before, but not now. The moment he wrapped his hand around my neck, I was reminded of him kissing the nape of my neck.

As his teasing words reached my ears, a shiver ran down my spine.

I clenched my fists, digging my nails into my palms to stop my face from flushing further. It was nothing; it had to be nothing. It was just a stupid accident.

As I kept repeating that to myself, I suddenly felt his breath brush against my nape, and I flinched.

Fortunately, CEO Han seemed too focused on the necklace to notice my reaction.

After a while of holding various necklaces against my neck, he finally seemed to decide and let go. The heat from where we’d touched dissipated in an instant.

CEO Han waved the sapphire necklace in front of me and asked,

“Hmm, I think this one is the best. What do you think, Secretary Seonyul?”

“…Yes, it’s nice.”

A part of my palm tingled. My chest felt tight.

Watching CEO Han enthusiastically pick out a necklace and now a ring, I slowly closed my eyes.

I took a deep breath in and out.

When I opened my eyes again, CEO Han was looking at me with a slight tilt of his head.

“Are you feeling unwell?”

“…”

He reached out to lightly brush my bangs aside and then touched his hand to my forehead as if checking for a fever.

When he didn’t seem to feel anything unusual, he switched to his palm and compared it against his own forehead. A short hum escaped him.

“You don’t have a fever. Didn’t you rest well over the weekend? My secretary can’t afford to neglect her health like this. How do you expect to keep up with work?”

“I know my body best. But more importantly, I need to know how a contracted model suddenly became a sex partner over the weekend.”

I feigned ignorance, but in my mind, I was already imagining myself bolting out of this VIP room.

I felt an overwhelming urge to escape, as if I’d rather die than stay any longer.

“Do you need to know about your superior’s sleeping arrangements too?”

“Let’s call it a ‘pillow talk’ then. Here, could you bring me a pillow?”

I waved to the employee standing awkwardly behind me, asking for a pillow, and moved closer to the door.

After closing the thick door with a click and locking it securely, I brushed my hair back in frustration as I looked at the CEO, who had turned away from the sunlight.

I didn’t understand why. I was simply annoyed and inexplicably angry. I felt like shouting.

As I took a deep breath and was about to speak, there was a knock from the other side of the locked door.

What could be prepared so quickly?

I roughly opened the door to find the same employee standing there.

The staff member offered me a fluffy pillow and bowed slightly before stepping back.

Then, they closed the door again and locked it firmly.

Holding the white pillow with one arm, I approached the still-grinning CEO.

“Now that we have the pillow, we can proceed with the pillow talk. As the person most concerned with your personal well-being, let me ask you this.”

“……”

“Why, how did that model become your sex partner, and why are you spending money on them now? You never treated your previous lovers like this. You used to take them to parties if needed, and give them a house when you broke up, so what makes this model different?”

The CEO, who had been tapping the pillow in my arms a few times, bent over and brought their lips close to my ear.

I could feel their breath, just barely touching. It sent shivers down my spine.

“Are you jealous?”