Chapter#8
At Yuncheol’s angry voice, Yulhee swallowed the sigh that was about to come out and stood up.
She could feel everyone’s eyes turning toward her as she walked forward slowly.
“Are you seriously going to work like this?!”
Yuncheol threw the report onto the floor and shouted.
The report looked terrible at a glance. The layout was messy, the content poorly written, and the photos were low quality and distorted. Even the font was hard to read.
It didn’t look like any effort had been put into it.
“Do you call this a report? You expect me to present this to the executives? Assistant Manager Kang, are you trying to make me look bad?”
Yuncheol’s face was red with anger as he breathed heavily, muttering complaints.
“Um… Team Leader… that report was submitted by me…”
At that moment, Sora spoke quietly from her seat.
Yuncheol’s expression immediately changed. His angry face softened into a kind smile, and his tone became gentle.
“Oh, it’s okay. For an intern, finishing a report like this is already good enough.”
He waved his hand as if to comfort her.
Just by seeing the name Kwon Sora on the first page, he already knew she wrote it.
“Of course, it’s the senior employee’s responsibility to make sure the report is polished.”
When he turned back to Yulhee, his expression became cold again.
“Assistant Manager Kang, this kind of attitude will cause problems. Please do your job properly.”
Yulhee clenched her fists, feeling unfairness and embarrassment rising inside her.
Even though supervisors are supposed to guide and review work, it was unreasonable to hold her fully responsible.
Still, every time Sora made a mistake, Yulhee ended up taking the blame.
And if she pointed out Sora’s poor work, she would be scolded for being too harsh on an intern.
In the past, Yulhee didn’t understand why Yuncheol treated Sora so differently. She thought maybe it was because Sora was friendly.
But now she understood.
Kwon Sora was the daughter of Director Kwon Soon-sik.
She remembered something Yuncheol once said:
“Haha, Sora, you really take after your father. You’re very capable.”
Back then, she didn’t think much of it. But now, it was clear he had known from the start.
His kindness toward Sora wasn’t kindness—it was an attempt to gain favor with her powerful father.
“So, how are you going to fix this?”
Yuncheol pointed at the report on the floor.
“You know the executive meeting is tomorrow, right? If this goes wrong, you won’t be safe either, Assistant Manager Kang.”
Yulhee understood his meaning. He was forcing her to redo the entire report.
From her perspective, she was being scolded and given extra work at the same time.
The report was so poorly made that she would have to redo everything from the beginning. She might have to stay up all night.
Looks like I won’t be going home today either.
Ever since Sora joined, Yulhee had always been cleaning up after her. That’s why she constantly worked overtime.
Ironically, she even received poor evaluations because of that overtime.
Just as Yulhee was about to reluctantly agree—
“Excuse me, may I ask something?”
Sihyeok suddenly spoke.
Even with everyone staring at him, he looked completely calm.
“If Assistant Manager Kang is fixing Sora’s report, will this task always be passed to her in the future?”
“Ah, no! It’s not like that…”
Yuncheol looked confused by the unexpected question.
In reality, Yuncheol always submitted Yulhee’s revised reports under Sora’s name. Because of this, Sora received good evaluations and even had a chance to become a full-time employee.
Sihyeok had pointed directly at the truth.
“Mr. Baek Sihyeok, act like a newcomer. Don’t interfere unnecessarily.”
Byeongju stepped in sharply.
Sihyeok tilted his head, as if he didn’t understand.
“I’m asking because I’m new and don’t know much. What part of my question was wrong?”
“Well, what I mean is—!”
Byeongju started to raise his voice but lowered it after noticing others watching.
“Every company has different systems. So just focus on your own work.”
He glared at Sihyeok.
Just when it seemed like Sihyeok would stop—
“So, the report should be submitted under Assistant Manager Kang’s name, right?”
He smiled innocently, but his eyes were sharp.
“…Ahem!”
Yuncheol cleared his throat loudly and stopped Byeongju.
He didn’t want other teams to notice what was happening. Especially Team Leader Sun Wooyeon from another team, who was watching closely.
“She’s a rival,” Yuncheol thought.
“To resolve this… Sora, you revise the report.”
“W-What?!”
Sora stood up in shock. There wasn’t much time left before work ended, and she hated staying late.
She looked at Yuncheol with pleading eyes, but he avoided her gaze.
Then she looked at her boyfriend, Byeongju.
Help me, right?
She silently asked, but he shook his head awkwardly.
In the end, Sora sat back down helplessly.
Later, in the emergency stairwell…
“Do you have no awareness? Why did you interfere like that?”
Yulhee dragged Sihyeok into the stairwell and scolded him angrily.
“You’re going to get on the team leader’s bad side! How are you going to survive in this company?”
Yulhee knew very well how Yuncheol held grudges and made people suffer.
“I was just curious about the work process.”
Sihyeok replied casually.
Even after causing trouble, he still looked relaxed.
“And if my question accidentally prevented you from working overtime, then that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
Yulhee sighed in frustration.
There was no point arguing further.
“Just go apologize to the team leader right now. Promise it won’t happen again—”
“Are you worried about me?”
“Of course—!”
Yulhee stopped herself mid-sentence, surprised by her own reaction. She pressed her lips together.
Seeing her lips slightly hurt from biting them nervously, Sihyeok quickly reached out his hand
