Chapter Twenty-One

Our eyes met and after a few seconds, he smiled and continued, “Pull yourself together. I want my secretary to be presentable in front of my brother.”

I nodded without hesitation. Mr. Nam turned around and finally, I was able to breathe again. I swallowed a big lump in my throat and proceeded to fix my hair. I turned around and faced the metal wall of the elevator and made sure that my ponytail was clean.

I just finished fixing my hair when the elevator came to a halt. I grabbed my tablet and fixed my clothes as quickly as possible. Slowly, the elevator doors opened and Mr. Nam walked ahead of me. With my head down, I followed his trail and kept my head low.

Not long after, we arrived at the front desk of the top floor. There sat a woman with brown hair, round glasses, and a navy blue blazer with a white polo inside. Her blazer was partnered with a skirt of the same color. And as soon as she saw Mr. Nam, she stood up and bowed to our direction.

“Good morning, Mr. Nam,” she greeted formally as we stood before her. So far, she was the only person who greeted Mr. Nam without the dreamy eyes. And when she caught sight of me, she simply asked him, “And this is your secretary, Mr. Nam?”

“Yes,” Mr. Nam briefly turned to me with a smile. “Her name is Ryuk Mingyu,” he replied as he returned to her.

“Thank you. Let me give Mr. Taeyoung a call. It’ll be quick,” she smiled at us before she sat down. She turned to her telephone and pressed “One”. She tapped her fingers onto the table as she waited for someone to answer. “Good morning, Mr. Taeyoung. Mr. Nam is here, along with his secretary,” the woman talked over the phone. She nodded after a while and then, she put the phone down.

She looked back at us and laid out her hand. “May I have your passes, please?”

Mr. Nam quickly took off his and turned to me. He took my VIP pass from me and handed it over to the lady.

I struggled to keep myself calm as Mr. Nam did another questionable action. And it wasn’t just me who found it strange. Even the secretary was taken aback with what she witnessed. She froze for a bit before she received my pass from Mr. Nam.

The lady turned to her computer and settled our passes side by side on her desk. She examined our passes before she typed something into her computer. She scanned our passes before she finally returned them. “Mr. Taeyoung will be out in a bit,” she said as we wore our passes. “I hope you don’t mind waiting, Mr. Nam.”

“Not to worry. I understand that Taeyoung can be busy sometimes,” Mr. Nam replied formally.

Right after he said that, the glass doors to our right opened. We turned our heads in its direction and a man came out of the room. He immediately smiled when he saw us. “Jinho,” he greeted with a big grin as he walked towards us.

As soon as the man reached us, the lady stood from her desk and bowed, “Mr. Taeyoung.”

“Thank you for keeping them company,” he smiled at her whilst he shook hands with Mr. Nam. “He continued, “Kindly have the documents sent to the conference room.”

“Understood, sir,” the lady nodded as she sat once again.

He returned to Mr. Nam and said, “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting for that long.”

“Not at all,” Mr. Nam replied as they pulled their hands back.

Mr. Taeyoung had a different appearance than Mr. Nam. Mr. Taeyoung had blonde hair but his black roots already showed under the bright hair color. He has a diamond-shaped face with a strong jawline. Thick eyebrows that were paired with thick lashes and pure black eyes.

He turned to me and asked, “And I take that this is your new secretary?”

“Yes,” Mr. Nam replied. “Miss Ryuk, this is Taeyoung, my younger brother,” he continued as he looked at me.

“Good day to you, Mr. Taeyoung,” I bowed. “I’m Ryuk Mingyu.”

Mr. Taeyoung froze after my introduction. He turned to Mr. Nam and both brothers shared glances for a moment. He returned to me and laid out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Ryuk,” he said as we shook hands. “My apologies if I was taken aback for a bit. You reminded me of someone,” he replied before he glanced back at Mr. Nam.

“I hope I didn’t remind you of someone cruel, sir,” I said, worried.

Mr. Taeyoung chuckled before he replied, “Not to worry, Miss Ryuk. You simply reminded me of an old friend. Both mine and my brother’s.”

“Oh, I see,” I said.

“I’m surprised my brother hasn’t mentioned anything to you in regards to that.”

“Can we just proceed to the meeting that you requested?” Mr. Nam interrupted, completely unamused.

“Alright, alright, no need to be angry here,” Mr. Taeyoung chuckled as he raised his hands. “I was only messing with you, brother,” he lightly tapped Mr. Nam by the arm. “You’re always so serious. You need to lighten up a bit.”

Mr. Nam sighed as he looked up. His pupils disappeared from view until his eyes were all white.

Mr. Taeyoung turned to me and remarked, “You seem to be really close to my brother. I’m quite surprised by that. Most people are either too afraid or intimidated by my brother’s aura. But you,” he pointed at me with a smirk, “You seem to already have some kind of bond with him.”

I was going to say something when Mr. Nam interrupted again by saying, “Are we going to stand and chat here all day? I have a lot of important things to do. I didn’t come here to share a bit of gossip.”

I stood back a bit and kept my head low. Based on Mr. Nam’s voice, he was clearly not happy with the current conversation.

Thankfully, Mr. Taeyoung got the hint and cleared his throat. He put his hands in his pockets and looked back at Mr. Nam. “You’re right about that, brother. Let’s go, then.” He nodded towards me before he walked ahead of us and we followed.

---*---*---*---

When we entered the main office, I was shocked to find that not a lot of desks were occupied. Also, there were only a few people who were working on the floor. There were also smaller rooms that had blurred glass walls. But not all of them had people inside as well. The room was dead silent when we entered. I only heard a few keyboards clacking, as well as a few telephones ringing.

My eyes remained wide open as we walked further into the room. I was a bit shocked because the room had so many desks and a smaller room to work in.

Finally, we reached the conference room, which was larger than ours. The table was longer and the room had a few more chairs. The room also had two projectors on each end and the blinds were drawn.

“My apologies if I brought you here. My room is such a mess right now,” he explained as he headed to the main chair. He sat down and gestured towards the two nearest chairs to his left, “Please, have a seat.”

Mr. Nam pulled the chair for me before he sat beside Mr. Taeyoung. I humbly accepted and sat on the chair. I didn’t have the time to think about what he just did because his energy changed from a friendly boss to a serious businessman. This side of him was foreign to me and I didn’t want to deal with something that I wasn’t familiar with.

I opened my tablet and prepared the Notes app. I took my phone, opened the voice recorder and put it beside my tablet. I did this during our lunch meeting with our Nekobe Hotel as well. I knew all too well that I wouldn’t be able to catch every single, important detail during their meeting. So, I took it upon myself to open the voice recorder of my phone. That way, I could listen to the audio back in the office and write additional notes that I initially missed.

“So, what is it that you wanted to discuss?” Mr. Nam asked Mr. Taeyoung.

“The same as usual, Jinho,” Mr. Taeyoung replied. “I asked you to come here to sign a merge contract with me. My numbers have recovered and the company’s reputation has proven itself to be clean from all allegations from last year.”

Mr. Nam sighed as he laid back onto his chair.

Mr. Taeyoung continued, “I know you hate having this conversation. But everyone has been looking forward to the partnership of our companies. Everyone sees the potential of our companies, officially merging as one. We’re only waiting for your decision.”

Suddenly, the door opened and his secretary arrived with three folders. She handed it to Mr. Taeyoung and left right away.

Mr. Taeyoung laid out the folders in front of Mr. Nam and said, “Here are the numbers, as well as the reputation ratings for my company. I did my best to improve each and every aspect needed to be liable for a partnership with you.”

Mr. Nam sluggishly reached out for a folder and began reading its contents. I kept my eyes on the tablet as a thick atmosphere shrouded over us. The silence within the room was too strong. I didn’t want to be in the same room as them. So far, the tension only came from Mr. Nam’s side. And based on his explanation as to why he never merged with his brother, I felt that he didn’t want to have this discussion at the moment.

Mr. Nam grabbed another folder and read that as well. But, only seconds into the other folder, Mr. Nam put the two folders onto the table. He slightly opened the last one and closed it immediately. He laid his back on his chair and intertwined his hands. “You seem confident that I will agree with the merge. You already have a printed contract with you,” he remarked.

“Of course, I’m confident. You saw the output. Everything regarding my company has improved,” he replied.

“As a businessman, I’m proud that your sales were able to bounce back after another disastrous scandal from last year. However, the rating of your reputation isn’t enough to convince me to approve of the merge that you’re asking for,” Mr. Nam replied.