Chapter Sixteen

I froze as I heard that question. The very question that I wanted to avoid the most. If I said that Minju left me to do her work for her, he might scold me. And that might lead to another unwanted discourse with the floor's Queen Bee.

On the other hand, if I lied to Mr. Nam that I had a lot of so-called paperwork from our clients, he might still check all the camera footage. There, he would definitely see what happened today. And I might anger him if I lied because Mr. Kim did say that they would never tolerate lying.

"Well, Miss Ryuk?" he asked again, which removed me from my ocean of thoughts.

Frantic, I looked around the room in search of an answer. And then finally, I said, "I had a lot of paperwork today, Mr. Nam." I looked at him with a smile and continued, "I reviewed too many contracts today. Some of them were even leftovers from days prior."

"Who gave them to you?"

"Mr. Kim did," I replied. I pressed my lips tightly after I answered. Mr. Kim wouldn't mind if I told Mr. Nam that he gave me contracts to read, right?" I did take care of important paperwork for the company. Mr. Kim would understand why I brought him into this conversation.

I could only hope that he would understand.

Mr. Nam's brows furrowed as he asked, "Hyeongu gave them to you?" He looked away and thought for a moment. He added, "I don't recall anything about letting you handle paperwork. And to an amount where you could do overtime."

I quickly replied, "He gave me a few contracts to read on my first day. He said it was his way of familiarizing me with what we provide as a company." He turned back to me and I continued, "After that, he gave me more as the days passed. However, because I was so busy, I wasn't able to do them right away. I couldn't do them at home as well, because I spent the remaining hours of the day with my family."

His eyes traveled from my face, down to my hands. He then asked, "Then, what's that in your folder?"

I looked down and panicked for a bit. I forgot that my brown folder had a lot of documents in it. They were today's output, as well as employee records for the payroll. And some were from Mr. Kim himself, which were sample contracts again.

In the spur of the moment, I said, "These are the documents for today, Mr. Nam. The stacked piles took so much of my time, I forgot to look into these as well."

He and I stared at one another for quite a while. One was trying to convince the other that what she said was the truth. The other looked as if they didn't want to believe the said truth. My heart raced and my hands started to sweat as more time passed inside the elevator. For some reason, it felt as if the elevator deliberately took its time to carry us down to the first floor.

Thankfully, I heard the bell ding and the elevator doors slowly opened. "It was nice meeting you today, Mr. Nam. But I need to go home. I'll see you tomorrow," I said before I bowed. I remained low as I bolted out the door. I didn't want to spend another minute there. I feared that he would only continue to question me in regards to everything that I did today.

"Miss Ryuk?" I came into an abrupt halt as his voice echoed down the hall. Slowly, I turned around and met his smiling face. He continued, "Don't work too much when you get home. You can resume work tomorrow here at the office. Is that clear?"

I nodded with a quick smile before I proceeded to the front door. I knew it was something I couldn't do, even if Mr. Nam told me not to work that much.

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"Miss Ryuk, it's already ten in the morning. Would you mind telling me where you are right now?" Mr. Kim asked sternly over the phone.

"My apologies, Mr. Kim. I woke up late today and I had to create photocopies of the documents you gave me. Not to worry, I'm already in the lobby. I'm on my way up," I replied as I rummaged through my bag for my company ID.

"Please hurry, Miss Ryuk. I'm currently monitoring the queue for calls and you already have ten calls that were sent to voicemail," he explained.

I hit my forehead with my hand as I grew frustrated. "My deepest apologies, Mr. Kim," I said as I aggressively pushed the "Up" button for the elevator. "I'm on my way. As soon as I get there, I'll start calling everyone back right away."

"Do hurry, Miss Ryuk. Mr. Nam is already here and is also wondering where you are," he added.

"Yes, Mr. Kim." And with that, the call ended. I looked up and the floor indicator showed that the elevator was still around the twenty-fifth floor. I pressed the "Up" button over and over again, as if it would make the elevator arrive faster.

'This is taking forever,' I thought to myself. 'I can't wait any longer. I need to get to the top floor.' I turned to my left and saw the door that led up to the emergency staircase. I looked back to the elevator as I contemplated.

If I chose to wait for the elevator, it might take a long time. If I took the stairs, it would also take a long time. Impatience grew even more within me so I pressed the "Up" button multiple times again.

Then, an idea came to mind. I thought to myself, 'Maybe I can catch the elevator on some other floors. Seeing that the elevator is still roaming around the twenties and thirties, maybe I can wait for the elevator around those levels.'

Without a moment to lose, I headed to the emergency staircase and rushed up. I even took off my heels to make my climb easier and faster. I could only hope that Mr. Nam and Mr. Kim wouldn't be too angry once I arrived.

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I pushed through the glass doors and ran towards my table. Without any sense of care, I simply dumped all of my things all over my desk. I scrambled to get my laptop and tablet out of my bag, as well as my work headphones. But before I could even sit down, a hand grabbed me by the arm and turned me around.

It was none other than Minju. And she was red as a tomato as she fumed with fury.

I shook off her hand and asked, "What the hell is your problem now? Can't you see that I need to get to work?"

She pulled me closer again and pointed at her desk. There, I saw another pile of paperwork, stacked beside her computer. She pushed me away and snarled, "I told you to finish everything and that's what I get? A pile and a half of everything from yesterday, returning to my station?!"

"I did what you asked me to do. And I did my best to finish everything before I went home," I argued. "And second, those contracts weren't even my responsibility in the first place. I did the hard work for you. So, why don't you do the same for your own task? I have more important things to do than to do any more favors for you."

I turned back to my laptop but she grabbed me by the arm and headed to Mr. Nam's office. Without warning, she opened the door and shoved me right into the room.

I gasped as I fell onto the carpeted floor, face first.