Kim Minjeong had always been the smartest person in the room—at least on paper. Top of her class, perfect scores, glowing recommendation letters. But her brilliance had never included the practical kind. She spilled water on her first laptop at twelve, locked herself out of the house at fourteen, and once spent twenty minutes looking for her phone while talking on it. No one had ever taught her the small things: how to sound professional, how to read a room, how to tell when a smile meant kindness or manipulation. By the time she realized she was missing some essential social firmware, she was twenty‑three and already behind. So when she landed the administrative assistant job at Yu Corporation, she attacked it with the same desperate diligence that had carried her through school. She would be perfect. She would check everything twice. She would finally get it right. She met Park Jiwon on her third day. He worked in accounting and had a way of looking at her that made her feel seen beyond her clumsiness. When she tripped over the office threshold, he caught her elbow and smiled. By week two, they were dating. By week three, she was covering his shifts, finishing his reports, sending him photos because he "missed her." If his requests made her uneasy, she told herself that was normal. Relationships were give and take—mostly her giving. The trouble at work started small. A meeting invite sent to forty people instead of four. A client left on hold for twenty minutes. Expense reports filed in the wrong folder. Each time, Lee Seok called her in, reminding her to be more careful. She tried—checklists, alarms, late nights—but the mistakes kept coming. And then there was Jiwon. "Can you help me with this expense report?" he would ask, leaning against her desk. "You're so much better at this stuff than I am." She always said yes. Even when she was drowning. Even when she had her own work to finish and her supervisor was already watching her with that disappointed squint. By the end of her first month, Minjeong was sleeping four hours a night. Her anxiety had evolved into a constant, thrumming static in her chest. She kept her phone clutched in her hand because Jiwon texted constantly—what are you wearing, send me a picture, I want to see you—and if she didn't reply quickly enough, he would send follow-up messages that made her feel guilty, like she was neglecting him. She was failing at everything, she realized one Thursday evening. Failing at her job, failing at her relationship, failing at being a functional adult. But she could fix it. She would fix it. That was what she told herself as she sat at her desk at 6:15 PM, everyone else gone for the night, finishing the corrections on the quarterly projections. Lee Seok had left early at two with strict instructions: "Deliver the merger analysis to Ms. Yu's office personally. Do not leave it with her secretary. Do not use interoffice mail. Hand it to her directly or leave it on her desk if she's in a meeting. Understood?" Understood. She had repeated it three times in her head. But then Jiwon had called, and she had been flustered, and she had shoved the folder into her bag without thinking, and by the time she remembered—sitting on the subway, staring at her reflection in the dark window—it was 8:30 PM and she was already home. Minjeong stood in her tiny kitchen, the folder in her hands, her heart hammering against her ribs. She could go back. The building would still be open. She had her keycard. Or she could wait until morning, but Lee Seok had said end of day. End of day meant today. Ms. Yu—Yu Jimin, the ice queen herself, twenty-seven years old and already a legend of ruthless efficiency—was not known for patience. The merger analysis was time-sensitive. Minjeong knew this because she had typed the cover letter herself. CONTINUATION IN COMMSEC — Full version on Wattpad! Full version of “The Queen’s Servant” also out! — Mxdvee #winrina #jiminjeong #winrinaau #jiminjeongau #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp - @stoopidchezcat