episode_0076

Arrived at the association building.

And to the headquarters that I had never been to before in my life.

I can’t help but feel tense as I look at the tall buildings that look like they might be found in New York.

I clutched my bag of cocktail ingredients tightly and slowly entered the building’s lobby.

But getting in is difficult.

A gate that requires you to swipe your ID card to pass through.

And in front of it, a man dressed in a suit with a fierce face was guarding it.

Before I could even ask, he approached me first.

“What brings you here?”

He already knew every face in the company, and he immediately recognized me as a stranger.

I was cowering before him, who was nearly two heads taller than me, and barely managed to answer while avoiding eye contact.

“Ah… I have a potion master test today.”

“Potion Master…? I’ve never heard of such a schedule. And the headquarters doesn’t even hold events like judging.”

“Huh…?”

The bangs that are swept to the side stick out.

What does this mean, I clearly told you to come to the headquarters building…

“Would you like to wait here for a moment? I’ll go ask at the desk and come back.”

“Ah, that won’t work…”

There is no time.

There are only 5 minutes left until the interview time…

I bit my fingers out of habit.

And as I was looking around, my feet that had been rolling suddenly stopped at a familiar face.

“Hey, Siho!”

It’s Eunchan.

I clearly remember him vaguely because I was drunk when we met, but I was able to recall him right away thanks to his characteristic curly hair.

“Eunchan…?”

“I see everything here. What’s going on at the association?”

He takes out his ID card from the crossbody bag he was carrying.

And then it stopped in front of me for a moment.

“That’s… I have an interview today and I have 5 minutes left. They won’t let me in even after looking at my recommendation.”

“Really? Would you like a letter of recommendation?”

Eunchan reached out to me with a strong and gentle voice.

I hand over the letter of recommendation to the bodyguard, keeping an eye on his expression.

“Ah-, it’s not an official review, it’s a personal review. The member is Park Shin-ae.”

Eunchan nods, saying she understands why she was treated so badly.

He smiled cheerfully and spoke to his bodyguard on his behalf.

“This person is Representative Park Shin-ae’s guest. Can I come in with you?”

“If what the team leader said is true…”

The guard nodded slightly and stepped aside from the gate.

So Eunchan gently grabs my arm.

“Let’s go together.”

A cheerful young man winked at me and took the lead lightly.

When we arrived at the gate, he stood behind me as if giving me a back hug and we passed through the gate hesitantly in a somewhat awkward posture.

“This is the only way for the two of us to get through together. Haha…”

“Yes…”

I didn’t really have any thoughts about it, but he tries hard to apologize to me.

However, the bodyguard’s reaction was quite different from what I expected.

I looked at Eunchan, who was standing right behind me, and looked away in embarrassment, then coughed in vain.

“Rep. Park, your office is on the 32nd floor. You can use the visitor elevator here.”

“Thank you so much.”

“What? Let’s drink together again next time. The drinking game was really fun back then, wasn’t it?”

My face turns red at the mention of drinking games.

I tried to smile and pretend I understood.

Wait for the guest elevator.

But no matter how long I waited, the elevator never arrived at the first floor lobby.

It’s as if they were all set up, just going back and forth on the 20th floor.

Even though the one train that finally arrived arrived, I couldn’t board it.

Because there was no room to squeeze in due to the people coming up from underground.

It’s difficult.

I started to feel anxious and clenched my thighs.

ha…

Eunchan watches the scene intently from behind.

In fact, he could have taken the elevator a few times already, but he just let me go every time because he was watching me from behind.

“I, Siho.”

“Yes…”

I looked back at him with a gloomy expression.

So Eunchan raises her finger with an awkward expression.

His finger was pointed toward the executive elevator.

“Just ride with me.”

“Is that okay…?”

“Yes, there are hardly any people who would say anything about riding together. But I have a relatively high position here.”

He smiled bashfully and put his hand on my shoulder.

And he kindly guided me to the executive elevator.

The team leader personally pressed the 32nd floor button.

He is headed to the 34th floor, the security office.

“Executive use is comfortable, but it is narrow and a bit slow. Please understand.”

“I understand, it’s an honor just to ride it!”

I waved both hands vigorously.

How many times in my life have I ever gotten to ride in an elevator with such a luxurious appearance and even a song?

Rather, it is glorious.

“How are you, Sister?”

He lightly carries my backpack and asks me.

My body tensed up as I realized that the person the team leader was talking about was the enemy.

“Yes… Stay healthy.”

“Thank goodness, you looked so uncomfortable back then, I thought you were sick.”

The enemy’s expression was uncomfortable?

I don’t remember her face well because my memory from that time isn’t perfect.

When I went to the motel, it was crazy clear…

It’s ironic.

Eunchan looks at my innocent face and asks in surprise.

“At that time, how hard he tried to protect Siho. He even did black roses and nonsense-.”

The enemy was trying to protect me.

I found myself bowing my head at his words.

That’s why I was angry at that time…

I took a moment to think about what I wanted to say to Eunchan.

And the moment I opened my mouth to speak, my lips were shut tightly again.

Because the elevator suddenly stopped on the 12th floor.

As soon as the door opened, my whole body froze.

Because the man who got off the 12th floor was Ji-hoo’s father, who he met at the amusement park two days ago.

Lee Dae-eun, dressed in a suit, makes eye contact with me.

He was a sharp ranker, not like back then, in a shabby man-to-man outfit.

He tried to hide his twitching eyebrows and rode along with us naturally.

When I meet two men with faces on either side of me… I find myself cringing.

“Aren’t you the chief of the security team?”

Eunchan smiles sadly and makes a salute gesture.

But Dae-eun pretended to receive his greeting with a hand.

His gaze is fixed solely on me.

His murderous spirit is so intense that it makes my mouth water.

As I was trying to swallow it, I got a stomachache.

Because Dae-eun spoke to me in a very cold tone.

“What’s going on at the association? And at the headquarters.”

“That, that…”

“You came to see the potion master examination.”

Eunchan smiles and speaks on his behalf.

Dae-eun frowns at his intrusion.

“Did I ask you?”

“Hey, if you ask me in such a cold tone, ‘What’s going on?’, anyone would be scared.”

I am grateful for the bright energy that is unique to the security team leader.

I gave him a signal of thanks with my eyes.

So Eunchan secretly sent an okay sign.

“That’s right. I have an exam today… haha.”

“I see. Now that I think about it, you were the potion vendor when we first met in Sindorim.”

“You also work as a bartender during the day. Let’s go to Siho’s restaurant for our third dinner.”

Eunchan raises his thumb and makes a suggestion to Daeeun.

But, just hearing the words “our store” makes my throat tingle.

Two of the association’s rankers came to the store where Anna and Jeoksarang are…

It’s terrifying to even imagine.

It would be fortunate if there was no knife fight or anything…

My body stiffens like a shrimp caught between two whales.

Damn, why is the elevator so slow again…!

“That’s right. You might get an unexpected harvest there.”

The chief of police lightly brushed the collar of his coat and kept his gaze straight ahead.

I also picked up the shirt that was clinging to my chest and shook it off.

The air is stuffy because of the small elevator.

“But that’s unexpected, Siho. I didn’t know you were close with Rep. Park.”

I’m so grateful to Eunchan for changing the subject.

“He’s someone who’s shrouded in mystery. Even though he’s a senator, there’s almost no information about him. His bodyguards aren’t from our team, but rather private mercenaries.”

“The security team leader is like this, so it makes sense.”

Dae-eun spits out a word as if scolding him.

But despite the provocation, Eunchan just laughs it off.

“As expected- We need to work harder, right? I will learn a lot from our experienced chief of police.”

Dae-eun, seemingly annoyed by his unique slyness, did not say anything more to him.

Instead, the chief of security spoke to me in a small voice.

“Don’t talk about personal things and just focus on your exams. That person is a troublemaker in many ways.”

“That’s right. He looks handsome and kind, but he gives off a cold feeling.”

Is that all?

I’m getting nervous because I’m receiving concerns from two team leader-level rankers.

The elevator, which had been moving slowly as if sentencing me to death, stopped at the 32nd floor.

I barely managed to get my shoes off and slowly looked back.

The two team leaders were looking at me at the same time.

One is smiling, the other has a blank expression.

Eunchan clasps both hands and makes a fighting gesture.

“Siho, fighting. Let’s have another glass of soju when you’re done.”

“Haha… Yes.”

I chuckled and waved at him.

And he bows his head to the indifferent Dae-eun.

Dae-eun ignores the greeting expressionlessly and asks Eun-chan.

“Did you even drink together?”

“Yeah, we even played a drinking game-. When Siho gets drunk, it’s no joke…”

My lips naturally part at his warm compliment.

But soon the elevator closed, and only a desolate silence remained in the 32nd floor hall.

“Sigh…”

I barely managed to wipe the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand.

I also try to fix the hairpin that Jaehee put in my hair.

One side of the bangs was pinned to the side to give a neat impression.

“Shall we go?”

I regulated my breathing.

I walked down the quiet hallway and stopped at an office with the name ‘Park Shin-ae’ written on it.

A luxurious name tag and an ornate wooden gate.

Behind this door is one of the 50 lawmakers who lead Korea.

I pushed the door with trembling hands.

A very faint acacia scent wafts from the room.

Someone is sitting at the long desk in the foreground.

A woman with her hair tied to one side like mine, looking to be in her late 20s.

She was diligently writing something when she heard me come in and raised her head.

The moment I saw her eyes, I was completely surprised.

The pupils…

Because the whites and blacks are mixed together like Anna.

“Welcome, Siho. You came just in time.”

A calm, feminine voice.

She put away the papers she had been diligently writing and clasped her hands together.

“Yes, hello. This is Han Si-ho, who was scheduled to be judged today.”

I folded my hands politely.

And he spoke word for word, just as he had practiced beforehand.

The congressman laid his face on his palm.

And I look at it with interest.

“This is my first time.”

“The applicant who appeared under the protection of the two strongest men in the association.”

Her words felt a bit strange.

How does she know what happened in the elevator?

“What’s the relationship between the three of you?”

This is a question I never thought of.

What should I say… I rack my brain desperately, and then the word ‘friend’ that Eunchan had mentioned suddenly comes to mind.

“Friend.”

“Aha, friend…”

The congressman’s eyes are half-lidded.

The corners of her mouth go up.

“Come to think of it-.”

“Mr. Siho is also friends with the executives of Ilsim-. He was also friends with the worst killer of all time.”

Are you talking about the enemy and Anna right now?

As I listened to her words with great tension, my shoulders began to feel sore.

Obviously, this is my first time meeting this person.

But she already knew a lot about me.

“Was the private message too long? Sorry.”

The congressman who stabbed me stood up from his seat.

She, who is about half a head taller than me, walks out leisurely, carrying her bags behind her back.

Wearing a black suit skirt and a sensuous body line, she begins to walk around the office.

The office walls are filled with bizarre sculptures for a congressman’s office, such as butterfly anatomy charts and human models.

“Well, as you know from Mr. Jeoksa, you already passed.”

“Then why did you call me?”

I asked confidently, trying hard to hide my trembling.

So the woman whispered to me, pushing her long hair to the side.

“I just wanted to meet up and get a free drink.”

The closer you get, the stronger the scent of the flowers becomes.

It’s different from a faint scent.

It’s a very natural scent that isn’t artificial.

“Okay, then shall I make a bottle right away?”

I feel uncomfortable with her knowing so much about me.

It’s an unpleasant feeling, like I’m being watched.

I tried to keep my expression serious.

And I was determined to only show a professional side.

Place the bag on the guest table.

“As you may already know, all my potions are made with a cocktail base. Is there anything else you would like to drink?”

“Well, I’m a bit tired these days-. Is there anything that will make me feel refreshed?”

The woman standing behind me circled around as if observing me and asked.

It seems like he has no interest in my cocktails in the first place.

“Okay, I’ll make it so you’ll come to your senses.”

He pulled up his shirt sleeves to his elbows.

I don’t know how much she knows about me.

But you probably don’t know what my cocktail tastes like.

I will show that rude girl my true worth.