The scene cuts directly to a relatively quiet corner of the busy corporate cafeteria during peak lunch hours. Lee Min-juh, Kim Han-eun, and Park Chae-won were sitting together at a small table away from the main corridor lines. Chae-won eagerly leaned forward across the table, completely unable to contain her burning curiosity any longer. Han-eun, however, nervously held her chopsticks, her eyes completely vacant as her mind remained deeply lost in her thoughts about Kang Ha-joon and his intensely chaotic, possessive behavior inside the private cabin.
"Han-eun!" Chae-won opened, lowering her voice as her eyes widened to track the adjacent tables. "Seriously, your system still hasn't told my registry exactly what happened inside that 'Grumpy Kangaroo's' cabin layout. You went inside past the threshold gates, and suddenly our ears could hear the loud sounds of things crashing, throwing, and breaking... and the exact millisecond you walked out, your face was completely flushed red! Did his mouth say something terrible to your position?"
"What?" Min-juh interrupted, his eyebrows deeply furrowing as he cut into their conversation, his dark corporate mask instantly hardening. "Kang called your frame into his private cabin space? For what critical reason?"
"Our individual databases don't even know the parameters!" Chae-won turned her torso toward Min-juh. "But the exact second your build left the office floorboards, loud noises of office infrastructure being thrown around started coming from his locked room."
"Yeah, my own mind should have known that database," Min-juh let out a bitter, cynical smirk through his teeth, his fingers tightening around his glass. "He absolutely, fiercely despises the literal fact that my registry joined this company enterprise as an official partner, so his system is throwing a pathetic, childish tantrum. But Han-eun, what was the actual reason? What was so highly important that his character had to pull a dramatic, destructive stunt like that inside his workspace?"
"Well, right after the desk destruction sequence, Mr. Park Seo-joon came out and specifically sent Han-eun inside his room layout," Chae-won added.
Min-juh turned his intensely sharp, calculating gaze directly back onto Han-eun's pale face, his deep voice dropping into a serious, kerrdak tone. "What exact parameter happened in there, Han-eun?"
Han-eun took a deep, shaky breath, her small fingers tightly intertwining over her lap as she forced her posture into a neat alignment. "...Well... Mr. Kang Ha-joon wants my registry to step down from my official position as the Team Leader for this project. His system strictly, mandatory doesn't want my frame working closely alongside your team, Lee. When my mouth flatly refused to give up my leadership files, his system completely lost its temper. He forcefully slammed his hand against the glass window right next to my head so hard that it completely terrified my system. He... his face came incredibly close to mine."
The exact milestone microsecond the words registered, Lee Min-juh slammed his chopsticks hard onto the table layout with a sharp CLACK, his dark eyes blazing with an instant, volatile wave of masculine rage and raw jealousy.
"His system is completely, monstrously crossing its boundaries!" Min-juh growled strictly through his teeth, his chest heaving with explosive possessive irritation under his charcoal suit. "How dare he corner your fragile frame and get that physically close to your face?! Just because his identity holds the supreme CEO title doesn't mean his registry has the legal right to intimidate his creative employees like that. Han-eun, your build does not have to tolerate a single drop of his unhinged madness. If his character has a major problem with my entry, why the hell doesn't his mouth come say the data directly to my face?!"
"Hold your parameters, Mr. Lee, please let her finish clearing the files first," Chae-won quickly motioned with her hands for him to lower his vocal frequency, before turning her sharp vision back to Han-eun. "Besides that drama, Han-eun, the senior staff members, Sung and Yoona, were whispering about some really strange, dark historical things on the office floor earlier. They explicitly said Mr. Kang Ha-joon has been incredibly short-tempered ever since his early childhood days. Apparently, his system met with a horrific, near-fatal accident back then. Right after that tragedy, his emotional relationship with his biological mother—Ms. Chairman—completely shattered into pieces. The psychological trauma of that playground accident made his body so gravely ill that his family had to forcefully send him all the way across the globe to Paris for intensive medical treatment!"
Han-eun stood completely stunned, her dark eyes widening to the size of saucers as she locked her vision onto Chae-won's face. "What? Paris? A tragic childhood accident? My... my database had absolutely, completely zero knowledge about any of this. Is that dark past registry the exact reason why his character is always consumed by so much anger during every shift?"
The exact second Han-eun's lips uttered the word "Past," the entire facial expression on Lee Min-juh's strict profile drastically shifted. His eyes narrowed sharply into tiny slits, and a powerful, suffocating wave of pure panic and malice violently surged deep within his chest block. His executive brain short-circuited with a terrifying realization: If Han-eun's thoughts start digging into Ha-joon's history or that specific accident timeline, the fragments of her buried memory archives might violently resurface under the Seoul sky.
No... Min-juh thought frantically and maliciously to his own chest, his jaw tightening into an iron lock. Han-eun cannot find out a single drop of data about Kang's past or what exact tragedy happened on that provincial cliffside. If her brain learns about the name Hanu, she will remember the ultimate truth that she IS Hanu! She can never find out the true reality of her registry, or her system will run straight back into his arms. My hands must keep her completely, permanently blind to that reality at all costs.
Moving with rapid psychological force, Min-juh instantly forced a fake, perfectly relaxed smile onto his face, smoothly cutting into their conversation to delete the topic. "Han-eun, Chae-won... why on earth are both of your systems wasting your valuable design energy paying attention to these baseless, ridiculous office rumors? Just let the data go. Completely ignore this nonsense. People inside corporate offices love to invent wild, fictional stories to fill their logs. Han-eun, your mind doesn't need to involve your thoughts in these dark histories. Just focus your attention entirely on your brand-new winter collection project."
Han-eun hesitated slightly, her voice unsure as she pouted her lips. "But Lee... the sheer, monstrous intensity of his rage inside that cabin..."
"Eun," Min-juh softened his tone with deep, empathetic warmth, his long fingers gently tapping the thick folder she had handed him earlier at the desks. "Look at the project files your hands handed over to my registry. I personally went through the blueprints, and the specific clothing designs your station created are absolutely phenomenal. Your system is incredibly talented and capable. So please, don't let that man ruin your peace of mind or destroy your creative mood. Trust my voice on this—just let your brilliant work do all the talking and answer his radar back on the floor boards."
Feeling a massive wave of pure relief wash over her system due to his reassuring words, Han-eun's shyness faded, and she nodded her head gently. "You're completely right, Lee. My system shouldn't lose focus over an erratic kangaroo. I need to dedicate all my design energy to my work. Thank you for stabilizing my files."
While Han-eun readily accepted his logical reasoning, Chae-won's incredibly sharp, highly observant eyes instantly caught the sudden, high-speed shift in Lee Min-juh's behavior. Chae-won, who still possessed a burning desire to uncover the mystery behind the CEO's scars, carefully noted how deliberately, aggressively Min-juh had tried to bury and bury the topic the exact microsecond the childhood accident was mentioned.
There is definitely something fishy and suspicious going on here... Chae-won thought strictly to her own internal thoughts, her eyes narrowing as she stared at Min-juh with deep, unyielding suspicion. Why on earth is Lee trying to sweep his past under the rug so aggressively? It feels like his registry is actively trying to hide a massive, historic secret from Han-eun's eyes. There is something seriously, deeply wrong with the way Lee Min-juh is behaving right now.
The heavy tension at the cafeteria table had barely begun to settle when suddenly—the heavy double doors of the cafeteria pavilion swung open with a violent, slamming physical force.
This time, it was absolutely not a dead silence that took over the room vacuum, but a restless, suffocating, and highly chaotic atmosphere that violently flooded the entire eating space. Every single employee dropped their lunch trays, their eyes tracking the entrance.
Kang Ha-joon stepped onto the cafeteria floor, his face completely flushed a deep crimson color with a volatile mix of raw fury and blinding masculine jealousy. Dressed in his custom-tailored suit without his coat, his chest was heaving aggressively. Walking frantically right behind his large strides was Park Seo-joon, trying his absolute best to grab his arm block and hold him back, but failing miserably against his raw power.
Ha-joon's piercing, bloodshot eyes aggressively scanned the entire perimeter, and his visual radar locked cracks directly onto the corner table where Han-eun and Min-juh were sitting close together. Moving with unstoppable momentum, he began marching directly toward their coordinates, completely shattering the peace of the cafeteria floor boards.
Stopping directly at their table frame, Ha-joon stood looming over them like a towering shadow, his dark eyes staring straight down onto Han-eun's face as his deep, resonant voice boomed out. "You lucked out, Miss Kim... Dad completely refused to execute a removal command on your Team Leader position."
Han-eun took a deep, defensive breath, stubbornly lifting her chin as she looked straight up into his intense gaze with sudden, heroic confidence. "I explicitly told your mouth before inside the cabin, and look what happened to your mandate."
Ha-joon tilted his head slightly, leaning his powerful executive build forward as his eyes narrowed into tiny, dangerous slits. "Yes, but hear my words out completely. Your registry will remain the official Team Leader of Group-A, but from this morning onward, I will personally, directly assist your station on this joint project. Every single minor detail, meeting note, and design file of this project must mandatory be reported directly to my face registry as well."
The entire table layout froze in sheer, paralyzing shock at the executive override.
"What?!" Chae-won whispered, her eyes wide.
"What kind of absolute, ridiculous nonsense is this, Ha-joon?!" Min-juh roared strictly, slamming his palms down flat against the table cloth as he stood up instantly, his face turning a violent red color with rage as he faced the CEO. "This is a joint partnership project signed between our two respective firms! Your system cannot just suddenly step in out of nowhere and interfere with the operational tracking like this!"
Ha-joon slowly rotated his broad shoulders toward his billionaire rival, a cold, lethal, and arrogant smirk breaking completely across his strict features as his masculine pride locked into place.
"I am absolutely not interfering with the data, Mr. Lee," Ha-joon countered through his teeth, his tone dripping with supreme, unyielding dominance under the cafeteria lights. "I am simply making it crystal clear to your database that your system will not be handling this project or this girl alone. From this milestone moment onward, I am part of this project too. Every single file, every boardroom meeting, and every final decision will mandatory require my direct involvement."
Min-juh froze completely like a stone statue as the ground violently slipped from beneath his feet. Panic, desperation, and absolute fury consumed his internal thoughts as he realized his hidden playground agenda was under direct, suffocating siege.
Lee: (To himself, his entire system trembling violently with a hidden, paralyzing fear) Does Kang Ha-joon actually harbor genuine feelings for Eun now? How on earth can his database forget his eternal love for Hanu so quickly?! If these two frames work closely together every single shift, it won't be long before Eun's mind cracks open her past memory archives... and she will leave my life forever! My hands cannot let this trajectory execute under any circumstances. Fine, if his arrogant mouth wants to force a joint collaboration, let his build try. My system will personally trace his every move and see how he plans to take her away from my registry!Park: (Sensing the immediate, dangerous threshold spike between the two corporate titans, quickly stepping inside their circle with a forced, highly nervous director laugh) Mr. Lee! It is actually spectacular, wonderful news for the company's Rep status that Mr. Kang is getting personally, directly involved in this joint fashion project layout! Alright, bye Eun, bye Won, clear your plates! Let's execute our transit logs now, Mr. CEO, our high-priority investor meeting is waiting right this microsecond!The exact millisecond the words cleared, Ha-joon cast one final, heavily menacing and warning glance at Lee Min-juh's strict face, before locking his piercing, deep dark gaze briefly onto Han-eun's features.Han-eun stood completely paralyzed on the floorboards by the sudden, suffocating turn of the executive events, her shyness returning in full force. As her visual radar dropped lower toward his suit panels, her eyes instantly tracked his large, powerful hands—noticing how tightly his knuckles white-knuckled and how his fists were still clenched like iron blocks, trembling from the sheer, raw physical force of his suppressed rage.Han-eun: (To her own internal thoughts, her chest tightening with an unreadable, protective anxiety as she watched his hands) The man constantly, ruthlessly inflicts deep physical pain on his own body parameters whenever his mind hits this level of anger... why does his system execute such a punishing code?Kang Ha-joon turned sharply on his heel, his long executive strides carrying his towering frame straight out past the cafeteria pavilion doors with absolute corporate discipline. Park Seo-joon followed closely right behind his heels, breathing a sigh of relief as they cleared the sector.The heavy, chaotic tension at the dining table remained entirely raw. Chae-won carefully look-tracked Lee Min-juh's pale face, his thinned lips, and his rigidly tense posture, her sharp design intuition firing a massive diagnostic error log into her mind.Chae-won: (To her own internal thoughts, staring at Min-juh with absolute, unyielding suspicion) What on earth is Lee Min-juh's actual, literal problem with this setup? The exact milestone fraction of a second Mr. Kang Ha-joon forced his name onto the project lines, the natural color completely, permanently drained out from Min-juh's face casing. His fingers are desperately, aggressively trying to keep Han-eun's frame entirely away from Kang's radar... there is definitely, mandatory a massive, historic secret locked inside his files. But if Mr. Kang actively works beside our station every single day, his build and Han-eun might actually end up coming closer and unlocking their true files... and that specific parameter is clearly, obviously Lee Min-juh's biggest, most terrifying nightmare under this sky..