Born to Be a Secretary

Executive Director, are you drunk?

An embarrassed voice flowed into his ear canal. At that moment, his previously closed eyelids snapped open. Kwon Youngjae awkwardly fumbled at the corner of his mouth. Ha, a sigh slipped out.
“…Why are you answering the call?”
You called, how could I not answer?

“Isn’t this a time when I can just ignore you?”
Holding his phone, Kwon straightened his upper body. He took off his jacket, threw it carelessly aside, and headed toward the kitchen.
Even after finishing a whole bottle of mineral water, he didn’t hang up. Listening to the voice beyond the speaker, it felt as if Secretary Kim was still working alongside him.

After a long breath, Kwon tossed the empty water bottle into the sink. Thud—an unusually loud noise in the quiet house. Slowly, he made his way toward the bedroom.
Executive Director, I wanted to ask you anyway... why haven’t you accepted my resignation?
“Is it urgent?”

I can’t move on to a new job unless my resignation is processed.
“The resignation… I tore it up.”
In the silence, a hesitant, small breath sounded.

You’re joking, right?
Of course, it was a lie. The resignation letter Secretary Kim gave was carefully kept in the desk drawer of the office.
If there was a reason for not approving the resignation, it was because he was annoyed by Kim Heewon’s behavior. Of course, he knew it was childish.

He just wanted to tease a little, and above all, thought that dragging things out might keep Kim Heewon from complaining in person. But stubborn as he was, he hadn’t even made one phone call.
Anyway, if you need anything, contact this secretary or my secretary. If you’re having a hard time because of the alcohol, I’ll pass on the message.
“……”

Executive Director, are you listening?
Kwon lay down on the bed and fell completely asleep. From the phone placed right beside his face, calls calling his name rang several times. After a while, the call ended.
“…Fell asleep?”
Heewon stared blankly at the screen showing the call log. Call duration: 17 minutes and 45 seconds. Why had he spent so long on a pointless call?

Heewon had also been sipping a can of beer at the time. The moment Kwon’s name appeared on the phone, his hand reached out before his mind could tell him to ignore it. Habit was terrifying like that.
He heard that the executive secretary was still not found. No doubt, only poor secretaries were being replaced over and over. Still, when Kwon drank this much, someone should be there to support him...
Heewon wiped the phone screen. Perhaps because of the recent call, the drunken Kwon kept worrying him. Since it was past midnight, he felt bad to contact the other secretaries.

What to do… his house is nearby anyway, maybe I’ll just take a quick look? No, why should I? He’s someone I don’t need to care about anymore.
He deliberately turned his attention toward the TV and tilted the remaining beer. After drinking only a little, he finally got up abruptly.
“Damn, this feeling’s really uncomfortable.”

He pulled out two masks and put them on. Wrapping tightly around his nose and mouth like an impenetrable shield, he also grabbed his wallet and phone.
What if the password had changed? Then, well, I’d just come back. Let’s think of it as taking a short walk.
Heewon didn’t assign much meaning to his own actions. When there’s nothing to do, leisure comes naturally. His steps out of the house felt light.

The next morning, Kwon Youngjae experienced a terrible hangover as soon as he opened his eyes. His head felt like it was splitting, making it hard to get out of bed. His shirt and pants were all wrinkled.
Barely collecting himself, he entered the bathroom. After a long shower, he wiped the dripping water from his hair with a towel and quietly stared at the still living room.
He distinctly remembered tossing his tie and jacket haphazardly last night, but now they were neatly arranged on the sofa as if someone had touched them.

“……”
He turned and headed toward the kitchen. This time, his gaze landed on the dining table. After drinking a lot the previous night, the usual tomato juice for hangover was laid out, bottle and all. Next to it were hangover remedies and headache medicine.
Kwon sighed and drank the juice first.

It was obvious who had come to his house during the night. The faint scent of osmanthus lingering in the air was proof.
Normally, he should be annoyed by the omega pheromones lingering in his house… but somehow, his heart was just unsettled and confused.
At that moment, Heewon also woke up late. Scratching his messy hair, yawning until his mouth felt torn, he tried to figure out what day it was.

After days of doing nothing, when he woke up in the morning, he couldn’t tell if it was a weekday or weekend. There was a time when he woke up strictly {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} on schedule and moved flawlessly through his day—now it felt like a past life.
“Ah, sleeping in feels so good.”
Heewon rolled around on the warm bed a few more times. In truth, being unemployed was his true calling. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be this happy day after day.

After lazing for another thirty minutes, he came out to the living room. He wiped off his sleep crust roughly and lay down again on the sofa. The location changed, but his lazy behavior remained the same.
After ordering lunch on a delivery app, he fiddled with his phone. Opening his mailbox after a long time, he found it filled with accumulated emails. He used to immediately check messages or emails, but now he tended to deliberately ignore them.
“…There are still places that send these.”

Heewon opened a job offer email sent from a headhunting company. It was a proposal for an executive secretary position to a foreign pharmaceutical company COO, with a generous salary and, most importantly, very appealing working conditions.
Job offers like this had come steadily over time. Heewon had a fairly good reputation in the same industry. Perhaps partly thanks to Kwon Youngjae’s influence.
But no matter how good the conditions, his answer was inevitably rejection.

Since becoming an omega, finding a new job had become complicated. Secretary roles were naturally impossible, and returning to journalism was hindered by the career gap and age. Having just passed thirty, he couldn’t spend all his days as an unemployed person. Lately, Heewon spent more time worrying about his future.
“When is Executive Director Kwon… planning to let me go?”
His thoughts naturally drifted to Kwon Youngjae.

Having checked on him briefly last night, Heewon realized something important: pheromones easily disturb human reason more than expected.
Though he wore two masks layered, in front of the dense alpha pheromones, masks were useless. Since Kwon was drunk and asleep, his pheromones were probably stronger than usual. He nearly lost his senses in front of them. Fortunately, he closed the bedroom door quickly and left.
“Ugh.”

Remembering it again made Heewon shiver. This wouldn’t do. He needed to find a way to increase his pheromone resistance—either through training or medication.
“First, let’s shower!”
He jumped up from the sofa and went to the bathroom. After finishing a shower in ten minutes, just as the delivery person rang the doorbell.

Heewon hummed as he opened the door. Wearing a casual t-shirt and shorts, the doorbell rang again just as he was halfway dressed.
He ran to the entrance. When he flung open the door, the last person he expected stood there.
Heewon stood dumbfounded, clutching the doorknob. Kwon Youngjae, holding a sushi bag, looked down at him and pushed the door wider. Heewon stumbled out with a surprised “Uh,” dragging the doorknob along. Barefoot, he barely balanced on his heels in the hallway.

“Why is the executive director...”
“I have something to say. Let’s talk for a moment.”
“Now?”

Heewon lowered his head to check his own messy appearance. He looked too shabby to have a proper conversation. Moreover, Kwon was sharply dressed, making the contrast worse.
It wasn’t appropriate to let him inside either. Like last night at Kwon’s house, pheromones must be filling Heewon’s own place as well.
Heewon gave a nervous smile and carefully declined.

“I’m kind of… I’ve already ordered food.”
What you’re holding—that’s my lunch. Heewon glanced at the sushi bag in Kwon’s hand.
“I’ll buy you something better, so just come out.”

Kwon threw the paper bag carelessly. When the bag lost balance and fell sideways, Heewon bit his lip quietly. This rich bastard, doesn’t appreciate good food.
“Okay, then just wait five minutes.”
Heewon picked up the messed-up sushi bag and went inside. Mourning his precious special sushi, he began getting ready to go out.

His still damp hair was roughly dried with a hairdryer, and he simply put on a shirt over his t-shirt. After all, there was no reason to look good in front of Kwon.
Just in case, he took a suppressor pill. Finally, he pushed his cap down tight and stepped outside, meeting Kwon standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.
He looked like a debt collector. Heewon wondered why Kwon was guarding the door like that, eyes glaring fiercely despite not trying to run away.

Heewon pretended not to notice and nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
“Where are you going?”
“Mikazuki, how about that?”

“Yes, then should I book it right now…”
He pulled out his phone abruptly, but then paused. How could he stop this slave habit of immediately reacting to his master’s voice?