Chapter 5: Start of the internship
Length 2692 words
A new week begins and with it your internship. After waking up early, you just finish getting ready to go. Before leaving your bedroom, you take a look at the naked woman sleeping in your bed. That woman is Minji, following your meeting she stayed over for the weekend during which you got better acquainted with her when you were not having sex. Not wanting to wake her up you silently go to your kitchen to leave a note for her on the counter. Then you take your bag and phone and leave your apartment.
Exiting your apartment complex, you enter the closest subway station for a ride to your destination. Once you are back out in the street, you walk the rest of the way finally arriving in front of Elysium’s group building. Overall, the commute took you a little over thirty minutes and was fairly comfortable because you came quite early and avoided rush hour. You take a moment to look at the building. The brand new edifice looks quite good, from memory the construction ended less than a year ago.
After entering the building, you approach a middle-aged man waiting beside the elevator.
“Hello, are you Manager Lee?”
“Yes, and you must be our new intern?”
“You’re right, nice to meet you.” You answer with a smile.
“Likewise.” He says as you shake hands. “Let's go to the director’s office, it'll be a better place to talk.”
You follow him taking the elevator to one of the middle floors, crossing an open space where only one employee has started to work. He stops in front of a closed door, a few moments after Manager Lee knocks on the door you hear a man's voice saying you can enter.
Inside the office, a man of similar age as Manager Lee gets up from behind his desk to salute you. “Finally we are meeting. I’m director Park, I heard a lot about you from your parents.”
“Good things I hope.” You shake his hand. “Does Manager Lee know?”
“Oh yes, don’t worry, he is also acquainted with your parents so you can speak freely with us.” He walks back behind his desk to sit. “You can also call us Mr. Lee and Mr. Park at work.”
“And when it’s just us like now or outside of work but only in private settings, you can use ahjussi.” Pursues Mr. Lee.
“I understand, after all it would be suspicious for the employees that the new intern to address both of you like that, even more so because I’m a foreigner. Is there someone else that knows about me?”
“In the company except the both of us, no one should know.” You see him frowning as he continues. “But before we moved into those new premises I got to replace the previous director and he knows who you are. While only the director of operations, he was temporarily in charge of the group for your parents, and it should have stayed like that until the day you become the CEO. There are two ways for someone to know your identity. The first is one of us disclosing it and the second is if someone seeks information from the ex-Director about you, which is very unlikely.” Answers Director Park.
“Could you explain why the replacement happened?”
“Yeah, it’s necessary for you to know.” He sighed. “After all, one of the tasks we will give you is linked to this. So at that time I was the manager and Mr. Lee, who was the assistant manager of this department, reported to me something strange.”
“Some of our results from the previous years seemed odd to me.” Start to explain Mr. Lee. “Acquiring business or winning a call for tenders too easily when there should have been a dire competition. And in contrast losing when it should have been a piece of cake. Of course, it could happen once in a while. But repeatedly? No, there was clearly something wrong. So I reported it and the both of us began to look deeper into it.”
“And we found something, most of the incident happened when a particular company was involved with the most flagrant example being that as we just finished developing a new product this company released one almost identical to ours. So we investigated this company and to our surprise we discovered that our director had private meetings with them regularly. We were unable to uncover more, so we passed on all our findings to your father who has far more means than us.
“Knowing how much money my parents put into creating this company I can imagine how much they were pissed.” You comment.
“Oh they were pissed. Around two weeks after that he contacted us to share his results. The previous director had for example, sold information from the company, and had taken bribes to make some of our projects or investments fail. Your father's instruction was for us to keep quiet until the lawyer came to resolve that mess. We didn’t have to wait a lot. When she came, she showed a significant amount of evidence of his misdeeds to all the higher-ups. In conclusion, he was obviously fired while we were both promoted.”
“Only fired? No lawsuit against him or the other companies” You question with surprise.
“No, the parties involved in this have done their best to cover up this matter but in exchange we got a hefty sum of money, which was the best outcome to compensate for some of our losses. As for the ex-Director your father made sure that he will be blacklisted”
“Well if it was the best conclusion possible, that’s good.” You reply smiling.
“It was, now let’s talk about your tasks. You will have two of them, the first one is connected to what we just explained. The director couldn’t have done everything by himself, which means he had an accomplice. While we are investigating from the top of the company we want you to do the same from your side. Furthermore, because you’re an intern, the accomplice wouldn’t expect you to help us so he may be more careless toward you.”
“Do you have a lead concerning someone in particular?” You ask, intrigued.
“Unfortunately no. But we are sure that the accomplice is working on this floor.”
“Alright I’ll be watchful for possible clues.”
“As for your second task, it was given by your father. After the first month of your internship so you could get used to the work, you’ll have to find a business project to invest in with your own money. Once you make your decision, you’ll have to support its development during your time at university. Don’t worry you’ll only have to pick from projects we’ll both have screened beforehand.”
“I see, that’s a good opportunity for me to gain practical experience. I may ask you for advice if you don’t mind?”
“It’s fine, also those of the program working for you are allowed to help.”
“Wait! You know about that?” You slightly raise your voice in surprise.
“We’ve known about the program for quite some time. Moreover our daughters are in it because of the benefits of their education.” He hardens his gaze toward you. “And they are exempt from the selection thingy so be careful.” You see from the corner of your eyes Mr. Lee nodding at his words.
Following Director Park’s warning the discussion concludes soon after. You leave the director’s office along with Manager Lee, as he guides you toward your desk you notice that most of the employees have arrived while you were having the meeting. Mr. Lee stops beside a desk occupied by a young woman with short blonde hair.
“Good morning, Miss Park. I’d like to introduce you to our new intern.” He says putting a hand on your shoulder, he then lets you and Miss Park greet each other. “So as agreed last week you’ll be in charge of him until further notice. If you need some guidance my door is open.”
“Thanks, if the need arises I won’t hesitate.” Replies the young woman. Manager Lee then leaves the both of you to go to his office.
Miss Park gives a few taps on the desk next to her. “This will be your desk.” You approach it, putting your bag and you start to arrange it to your convenience under her gaze. “So did the manager show you around the company earlier?”
“No, he directly brought me to you after our talk.”
“Alright, I’ll give you a tour then!” You stop what you were doing as you see her quickly standing up. “So starting with this floor, it is shared by two departments, ours and HR. The offices are only occupied by the managers and the director, while the rest of us are in the open space. Now let's go to the other floors.”
“It can wait or I can explore by myself when I have time, I don’t want to delay you in your work.”
“Don’t worry about that.” She smiles at you. “It’ll be fast, the upper half of the building isn’t occupied, Elysium occupies a fourth of it as for the last fourth, it is rented by small companies.” She then walks behind you and puts her hands on your back as she starts pushing you toward the elevator. “Now let’s go, I won't repeat myself again.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” You tease, letting her pushing you.
“Hey! Don’t say that, I’m barely older than you!” She reprimands you. You turn your head in order to look at her face, but you stay silent. At this, her brows begin to frown. “What? Do you have something to say?”
“Hum… only admiring how pretty you are. I’m lucky to have such a beautiful woman in charge of me” Winking at her you then dash toward the elevator, surprised by your teasing she stays immobile for a moment. She joins you in front of the elevator when the doors open.
“You’re quite an impertinent one aren’t you?” You answer her with an amused smile. After going in the elevator, you hear Choa from the opposite corner whisper. “Cheeky intern.” Tilting your head to see more of her face you notice that the corner of her lips is raised.
A few moments later, Choa starts to guide you through the company, showing you the Finance Department and the authorized parts of the Research and Development Department which occupies multiple floors. During the tour, with Choa walking in front of you, you check her out. In particular, her attractive legs and butt. “This internship will be nice.” You murmur giving one last look.
After the visit you both return to your desks and for the rest of the morning Choa begins to show you her work, explaining step by step and answering your questions.
“Let’s stop there for now, it’s time for lunch.” States Choa, she then stands up waving her hand at someone in the open space. “A friend will join us to eat, give her a minute.”
Soon you see an attractive young woman approaching, she has long dark hair which contrasts with Choa’s.
“Hello you two.” She says with a smile
“Taeyeon, this is the intern. Intern, this Kim Tayeon, my friend.” Says Choa pointing at Taeyeon and you in succession. “With the presentation done, let’s eat.” After taking her bag she starts to walk leaving you both behind. Taeyeon and you look at each other with an awkward smile before following her.
Choa leads the three of you to a restaurant near the company’s building. During the meal, you answer the inquiries of a curious Choa while Taeyeon calmly listens for most of it, only partaking in the conversation a few times.
“If you don't have more questions, I’d like to learn more about you two if you don’t mind.”
“I’m fine with that.” Answers Taeyeon.
“Fine with me too. Taeyeon I’ll let you start.”
“Very well. I joined the company after graduation and for my work it’s similar to Choa but with some additional responsibilities.”
“What she doesn't say is that she is the best of the department, furthermore the Manager trusts her enough to let her lead big projects.”
“I’m the best for you, others don’t think the same.” Retorts Taeyeon.
“Well the Manager recognized your skills because you’re the only one allowed to lead projects of this size alongside the Assistant-Manager. As for the other employees, it’s because the Assistant-Manager is jealous of you and they suck up to him.”
Hearing this makes Taeyeon sigh. “Don’t talk like that, only some follow him, the others just stay out of this.” She turns toward you. “Sorry you had to hear about this on your first day.”
“You don’t have to be sorry. Thanks for that, I know what to expect and won't be surprised with the work’s atmosphere. However, I would like to know one more thing. Will this situation affect me?”
“Not really. You are just an intern so the Assistant-Manager will ignore you except if it’s work-related. For those with him, they may try to pick on you though.”
“Oh, that could be interesting.” You say smirking.
“Don’t bother with them, they are pointless and let’s return to your question, it’s your turn to answer Choa.”
“Wait, but you say nothing about you outside of work.” Complains Choa.
“Because I think it was enough I gave him the relevant information concerning me for now.”
“Oh come on just one thing, he’s nice.”
“Alright… I like to stay at home on my day off. Is that enough?”
“Yeah, that’s okay. So concerning me, I'm the most recent recruit in this department and I’m also the youngest, beside you, obviously. You already know some of my tasks and I’ll show the rest later on. Moreover, sometimes I join projects' teams when Taeyeon is the leader. That should answer for the work-related side.” Resting her chin in her she asks you with a flirtatious smile. “What else do you want to know?”
“Hmm, let me think.” You reply as you lock eyes with Choa.
Watching the both of you in silence Taeyeon has a playful idea.“I know one thing about Choa that you would find very interesting.” Hearing this, you and Choa look at her respectively with curiosity and confusion. “Do you want to know?”
“Go on, I’m all ears.”
“You’ll be happy to know that Choa is single.”
“Oh is that right?”
“Eh! Why are you talking about that?” Replies an embarrassed Choa. Regaining her calm, she gives a side eye to Taeyeon when an idea to get back at her sprouts in her mind. “But Taeyeon, if I remember correctly, you are also single.”
“Ah yeah but I don’t think he will find this interesting.”
“You must be kidding? How can I not be interested to hear that not just one but two beautiful women are single! Moreover I have the pleasure to eat with them right now.”
“So you’re a charmer.” Chuckle with amusement Taeyeon. “Do you have a habit of complimenting others or are you trying to seduce us?
“I’m only stating the truth but I’m not against your second option if it’s working.” You wink at her as you finish your sentence.
“That just confirms it, we got a cheeky intern.” Says Choa slightly shaking her head.
“Cheeky intern? That’s a good nickname. I think the upcoming months will be entertaining.” She smiles expectantly. “Especially for you Choa, and I hope you will continue to tease her, it is amusing to watch.”
“Count on me then.”
“Betrayer, stop encouraging him!” Complains the younger woman
“Stop faking it, I saw you smiling.” Whisper Taeyeon in Choa’s ears. “Now lunch-break is almost finished, let's pay and go back.”
After leaving the restaurant, your group returns to the company. Back into the open space Taeyeon leaves the both of you to go to her own desk. For the rest of the day Choa continues to show you the ropes until it’s time for both of you to go home.
