NFS 3.7

The PD’s face brightened even more. Yes, that name was one of the main reasons this meeting was so warm and friendly. When they first exchanged business cards, Seo Ahn-jae had stared at the PD’s card for a while. Then, with a peculiar smile, he had even complimented it.

‘You have such a beautiful name.’

Secretary Choi finally looked carefully at the business card he had received carelessly. And thought, Wait a minute.

‘WYBC Broadcasting Station Entertainment Division 3 PD Im Joo Seung-ha’

Joo Seung-ha…Joo Seung-ha?! Secretary Choi immediately thought of someone. Wasn’t that the person from Irae Shelter who had come for collaboration? Furthermore, someone with the kind of face Seo Ahn-jae liked. Secretary Choi had to pour out all the composure he’d built up over his lifetime to keep his feelings from showing on his face. However, his composure kept sinking lower with each time Seo Ahn-jae mentioned the name ‘Joo Seung-ha’ throughout the meeting. Really, are you spreading smiles like this just because they share the same name?

“Ah, I’d like to come myself, but I’m afraid I won’t have time, so the outsourced staff in charge of field recording will come.”

“It’s disappointing that PD Joo Seung-ha won’t be coming.”

By now, everyone noticed how his voice turned honeyed whenever he said the name ‘Joo Seung-ha.’ Especially the PD, who was already soaring beyond the solar system with good feelings, couldn’t contain their laughter and said, “Oh my, I get ticklish every time you say my name.”

“I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable. It’s because you share a name with someone I know.”

“No, not uncomfortable at all!”

The PD looked ready to fight anyone who might be uncomfortable. Then asked in surprise, “They have the same name as me?”

Yes, Seo Ahn-jae answered, and a smile spread across his face as if thinking of that person right then. The writer and PD’s faces lit up with admiration seeing this, while Secretary Choi’s face soured.

“Who is it that makes you look so happy just thinking about them? Perhaps a lover?”

“No. Someone I like.”

At this easy answer, both guests’ eyes widened simultaneously. Though they quickly hid their surprise out of politeness, their gazes were filled with curiosity. Conversely, Secretary Choi’s narrowed eyes were filled with suspicion. Is this person really about to die or something?

But his boss had an iron constitution that easily handled grueling schedules every day. The one dying was Secretary Choi, who died daily working under him. So this must be sincere. Experiencing for the first time how uncomfortable it was to learn about his boss’s love life in real-time, Secretary Choi’s head remained in a state of confusion.

“Don’t tell me it’s unrequited love?”

“Yes.”

Oh dear, the writer and PD sympathized as if it were their own situation. Secretary Choi felt sympathy too—for the other party.

“Perhaps they’re married…Ah, sorry. That’s too personal.”

“It’s fine. The person I like is single. They just won’t accept my feelings.”

Impossible! Both their eyes filled with shock simultaneously. Secretary Choi’s eyes, on the contrary, narrowed. Joo Seung-ha must be something else!

“Honestly, I can’t believe someone as amazing as CEO Seo would have unrequited love.”

“That person is even more amazing. Much more than me.”

Emotion welled up in the two guests’ hearts, while goosebumps rose on Secretary Choi’s arms.

“If you don’t mind me asking, do you want to marry them?”

No, since he’s a man, marriage isn’t possible…

“Yes. They’re someone I want to hold onto for life.”

At Seo Ahn-jae’s sincere answer, Secretary Choi’s head whipped around. Isn’t it that Joo Seung-ha that you want to marry?!

“I’m really curious what kind of person they are.”

“They’re good person. Works hard volunteering at an animal shelter too.”

As it turned out, it was that Joo Seung-ha. But is it okay to be this obvious? Secretary Choi even had the absurd thought that Seo Ahn-jae might propose on broadcast at this rate. As if reading Secretary Choi’s mind, the writer suggested, “CEO, would you perhaps like to confess a little bit on the broadcast?”

Secretary Choi swallowed a laugh, thinking that no matter how out of his mind Seo Ahn-jae was right now, he absolutely wouldn’t confess to a man on broadcast. Even if he didn’t reveal it was a man, when people’s attention focused on it, it might be revealed through small hints, so he wouldn’t take such a risk. So he wouldn’t do it, right? But the next moment, even that hollow laugh disappeared.

“I would like to.”

Anyone could see the sincerity shining in Seo Ahn-jae’s eyes as he answered.

***

“Sunny, is something wrong?”

At Darae’s voice, Joo Seung-ha looked up from the smartphone where he’d been reading messages. Realizing he’d been frowning the whole time he had been looking at his phone, he quickly relaxed his expression.

“It’s nothing. Just someone sending nonsense.”

“Haha, nonsense? Are they barking through text?”

When Joo Seung-ha hesitated, not catching the pun, Darae’s smile quickly disappeared.

“Sorry. I was the one barking just now.”

“Haha, no, I was just slow to understand. It’s all because of the person sending these weird messages.”

“What did they send?”

Joo Seung-ha looked down to check the conversation on his smartphone again.

―Make sure to bring your business card when you come to the hotel today.

―No.

―I’ll let you take one out from inside me.

‘Take one out.’ Though it was clearly an offensive, crude phrase, the fact that he wasn’t too bothered by it was because the calculated ‘letting you take one’ was more irritating. He was also annoyed at himself for wanting to just give the business card and get that ‘one time’ over with.

―Why do you want my business card?

―Because I want to have your name.

Bark bark nonsense. Joo Seung-ha tilted his head sideways as he read the messages again.

“Just someone keeping sending pointless messages.”

“Keep sending?”

Darae asked again, then smiled as if something occurred to her just then.

“Could it be that someone likes Sunn—”

“Oh? That person posted again on the board.”

Joo Seung-ha hastily cut off Darae’s words after checking the notification from the Stray Dog Cafe. This was actually why he’d made time to visit Darae’s cafe today. Perhaps because of the term “dog shelter,” there were occasionally people who thought they could just ask for help assuming the shelter would rescue dogs in danger without question.

Of course, if the shelter had the capacity, they could help with rescue and protection, but like most shelters, they were already managing dogs at their maximum capacity, so even if they rescued more, they couldn’t take them all in. Furthermore, since the shelter staff had their own jobs, there were hardly any people who could spare time for rescue.

So for help request posts, they provided guidance on rescue methods individuals could do themselves. Usually, there were two types of responses: either reluctant acceptance or disappointment. Among those who were disappointed, some would occasionally get angry, asking why the shelter wouldn’t help poor dogs. The person currently fighting an unproductive battle on the bulletin board for days was one of those. It was about a dog abandoned in a deserted house, and the person requesting rescue had been caring for it for about a week.

[It looks sick. How can you just leave it when it wags its tail happily at every person it sees? ㅜㅜ Please help rescue it.]

Even though the situation was sad, there was nothing they could do. When the shelter couldn’t help, the requester started posting criticisms about the shelter on various social media sites. At first, they tried not to respond, but when the requester’s selectively edited version of the bulletin board exchanges started spreading online, the shelter’s regular donors began getting angry.

Because of that, Jjang Nuna had been apologizing to donors one by one for the past few days. They say rumors didn’t last more than three days, but since Irae Shelter had recently been in the spotlight due to the Cookie incident, the impact was significant. Of course, when the shelter later posted a rebuttal, some people understood, but unfortunately, many people remembered only the initial controversy without bothering to take a look at the rebuttal.

“This person is really disgusting. If they’re so concerned, they should rescue and protect it themselves. If they can’t manage it either, why aren’t they considering the shelter’s situation?”

Darae shook her head after seeing the post. Then soon after let out a sigh.

“Ah, I’m so worried about Jjang Nuna. Her emotional stress is too severe because of this. She always smiles and says that it’s fine, but she looks particularly exhausted this year. Remember when there was talk about officially registering the shelter as a foundation? No one wanted to be the representative. Honestly, Jjang Nuna took the position sacrificing herself, but if she keeps getting tired and facing difficult situations like this, I’m afraid she might just quit.”

Though Joo Seung-ha didn’t respond, he agreed internally. He too had growing concerns about Jjang Nuna. Even for a small shelter, incidents kept occurring, and Jjang Nuna, as the registered representative, was always trying to take responsibility and resolve everything. Anyone would get tired. It wouldn’t be strange if she simply just gave up.

“I haven’t told Jjang Nuna yet, but 10% of our regular donors have requested cancellation.”

Darae, who handled the shelter’s accounting, could immediately see the impact on the shelter. That was why she had gathered to discuss this matter with Joo Seung-ha.

“That’s quite a lot, isn’t it? But didn’t you get many new donation applications right before that because of Cookie?”

“Actually, not really. Usually, people make one-time donations rather than regular ones. The problem is that donation cancellations keep coming in even after we’ve explained.”

Darae said gloomily while showing the laptop screen. Joo Seung-ha looked through the screen and spoke calmly.

“It’s not too much. In a week, cancellation requests will return to normal levels. And aren’t we fine for now with the large donation that came in?”

“Ah, the 100 million won?”

100 million. The amount immediately reminded him of the day he first reunited with Seo Ahn-jae. Back then, he thought it would end after just receiving that money. While Joo Seung-ha was pushing away the thought, Darae asked with an ambiguous expression on her face.

“Um, can we use that money?”

“What do you mean?” When Joo Seung-ha looked at her questioningly, Darae smiled awkwardly.

“Actually, um, Jjang Nuna told us to leave that money alone for now.”

“Why?”

“Well…although the donation was anonymous, the phone number that contacted us about the donation…later we found out it was…you know Secretary Choi from Million? Jjang Nuna realized it was their number.”

Darae looked at Joo Seung-ha hesitantly, considering whether to say more, and then closed her mouth. But even without the rest of the words, Joo Seung-ha could understand what she wanted to say. A name that kept getting entangled with the shelter: Seo Ahn-jae.

“I didn’t hear anything about this.”

“Jjang Nuna told us not to tell Sunny anything, so only I know.”

“Why not me?”

Uh, um, Dallae made this sound without being able to speak, then asked as if she had made up her mind.

“That’s what I wanted to ask. Do you have some connection with CEO Seo from Million?”

Just college seniors and juniors. The simple answer wouldn’t come out easily. When Joo Seung-ha couldn’t open his mouth, Darae gave an awkward smile.

“Then I’ll just do what Jjang Nuna said. We were doing fine without this money anyway.”

“You can use it.”

When Joo Seung-ha hastily stopped her, Darae blinked. Joo Seung-ha turned his head away, took a breath, then calmly repeated.

“It’s money you can use. So just use it.”

“But Jjang Nuna…”

“It was a debt. It’s being repaid, so it’s fine.”

Finally, Darae stopped talking, but concern clouded her eyes at the mention of debt. Joo Seung-ha deliberately smiled and added casually, “It would have been nice if it were money I should receive.”

“Then who’s supposed to receive this debt?”

Joo Seung-ha’s smile faded, but his voice remained gentle.

“They’re not here now.”

The person who should receive that money was left behind seven years ago. No, that wasn’t quite right since his seven-years-ago self would never have accepted this money. That was why Joo Seung-ha found it a bit amusing. Because his current self wanted to accept and use it. Just as he was about to speak more firmly to the still-hesitating Darae, his smartphone suddenly rang. Since it was the office number, he excused himself and answered, immediately hearing a panicked employee’s voice.

[Team Leader Joo, we’re in big trouble!]

***

Every day has the same 24 hours, but some days feel particularly long. For Secretary Choi, this was one of those days.

“…You’re checking it now?”

When Secretary Choi asked tensely, Seo Ahn-jae responded expressionlessly while looking at the monitor.

“Is there any reason I shouldn’t?”

“No, that’s not it…”

Secretary Choi unconsciously trailed off, then caught himself. Seo Ahn-jae had an uncanny ability to detect what others were hiding from just their tone of voice. Sure enough, Seo Ahn-jae’s voice carried a sneer.

“Why? Is the actual progress different from what’s in the report?”

It was different. Actually, the normal Seo Ahn-jae wouldn’t have been someone to misunderstand and overlook this. The problem was the current Seo Ahn-jae. He had received a text message before leaving work and his mood had suddenly plummeted. This change was particularly noticeable since he had been in high spirits during the morning meeting with the broadcasting station.

Though it didn’t show on his face, he had always dealt with bad moods through work. He would cancel schedules and personally select a project to scrutinize meticulously for days. Then the project team and Secretary Choi would suffer together. But why now? He had seemed ready to soar this morning.

Well, the reason wasn’t hard to guess. Secretary Choi had made the hotel reservation for this evening on Seo Ahn-jae’s orders. But now he was staying at work instead of going there. It was obvious. He’d been stood up. That was why his mood was terrible. Well, if he was willing to openly declare on broadcast that he’d confess to his unrequited love, being stood up might really sting.

If only the PD hadn’t rejected the confession idea as being too difficult, he would have been someone who would openly court with names on broadcast. Secretary Choi suddenly wanted to call Joo Seung-ha and beg. Our CEO’s mood is awful right now. Please just meet him.

“It shouldn’t be too different.”

When Secretary Choi belatedly answered in a lifeless voice, Seo Ahn-jae immediately ordered, “Tell that team’s staff to come up. There are things to check together.”

“Ah…yes.”

“What is it?”

“It’s almost quitting time…”

Secretary Choi regretted the thoughtless words as soon as they left his mouth, but what was said couldn’t be unsaid. Seo Ahn-jae’s indifferent eyes looked straight at him.

“If you’re planning to lecture about employee welfare, why don’t we call a labor attorney and examine everything properly?”

There was no need to call a labor attorney. However, looking at Seo Ahn-jae’s expression, he seemed ready to lay out all the issues right then and there. What he needed right now was something to focus on, whether it was work or an argument. As it turned out, it was the wrong move. Secretary Choi gulped.

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“Whatever your intention, your words essentially point out that I can’t even follow the most basic rules in running the company. So let’s examine that.”

“I’m sorry, I…”