Chapter Text
I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked to have coffee with you, especially on your day off.”
Min-young had to mask her surprise by taking a sip of her coffee. The legends were true, she thought, Executive Secretary Na was someone who wasted no time.
Honestly, Oh Min-young had no idea if that was a good thing. More than that, she had no idea if her predecessor asking to meet her on their day off was a good omen or a bad one.
But she was a mass communications graduate, minoring in business administration—if she had no idea how to make the best of any situation, then she had no business holding such a prestigious degree from Seoul National University and certainly wouldn’t deserve her newly minted employment status as the executive secretary for Queens Group’s vice-chairwoman.
So, she nodded, slowly and coolly. “I was wondering, yes,” she said, a bit respectfully, and a bit mindful—she was anxious, yes, but she didn't want to give too much away. Secretary Na still, technically, worked for her boss' boss. The last thing she wanted was to give an impression that she was in over her head and for Na Chae-yon-ssi, the secretary of the newly-appointed chairman of the Queens Group Hong Beom-seok, to give her a vote of no confidence.
Min-young wouldn’t say this aloud, but the question had been eating away at her ever since she received the email after work hours. In fact, she had been thinking of every single possibility and she even worried, briefly, if she was going to get fired before she could even meet her actual boss, the famed Hong Hae-in of Queens Group, Vogue Asia's most influential woman of the year, the newest (and youngest) awardee of presidential excellence in the field of business.
“And I’m pretty sure that, by now, you’ve finished your orientation.” Na Chae-yon swirled her coffee distractedly, looking as though she was aerating wine instead of cheap cafe drinks, “I think it was Secretary Kim who trained you for the job, right?”
She nodded again. "Oh, he did. It was really helpful."
Min-young bit back a smile. Not to sound overconfident, but she didn't just train for the job, she perfected the art of her new job.
When she learned from the recruiter that her application to Queens Group had been accepted and that she was shortlisted to be the Hong Hae-in's secretary, she devoured everything there was to know—she watched every interview and press release to know her mannerism, read the Hanyang Economic Daily human interest piece to know how she took her coffee (a nitro vanilla cold brew with one cream, and one sugar with an extra shot of espresso paired with a freshly baked mulberry Danish), and even brushed up on the financial projections published by the Nikkei when she assumed her new position as a probation secretary undergoing orientation.
And when Secretary Kim trained her, she made sure she understood and perfected every duty she was expected to do. In essence, Min-young was determined to make herself and her office indispensable to Hong Hae-in.
"My advice is, as her former secretary—" Na Chae-yon, who finally took one long sip of coffee, set down her cup and looked her straight in the eye, "—forget everything he told you."
Min-young was prepared to assure her senior that she had taken everything Secretary Kim taught to her heart. But before she could answer, the words played back in her ears like the moment freezing over in a silent chamber where even the smallest sound could be heard. Forget everything he told you?
"I'm sorry, what?"
Na Chae-yon-ssi laughed, shaking her head. "Don't get me wrong, Kim-biseo's a great secretary... but he's also a man," then, Na Chae-yon made a face, "and he's also unmarried."
Min-young frowned. "I'm sure it's not all useless, Na Chae-yon-ssi—"
Na Chae-yon held up five fingers. "Hanyang Group, Royal Group, Roel Group, Seri's Choice, and Shinwa Group. A good secretary should know that those five companies are Queens Group's most significant competitors and that knowing your competitors will win you half the battle." Then, she counted another five. "Auro, Castelli, Frette, Girard-Perregaux, and Eliseyevsky. A good secretary should know that those five artisanal and luxury brands are on an upward trend and the company who can successfully cultivate those brands in Korea can lead the curve instead of following. I'm guessing you already know how she takes her coffee, and I'm guessing you already cyberstalked her digital footprint thinking it would give you an edge. Let me disabuse you of that notion: they won't. The things I've told you, those are the things you can prepare for, whether to counter a marketing strategy or to entice a foreign luxury brand to sign with your company, you should know that by now and judging the way your phone lights up with notifications from Wall Street Journal, you already do. But that's what any average secretary would do. Remember, you don't just work for the company, you work for the woman and an indispensable secretary should know how to deal with the unexpected."
Na Chae-yon took a file folder from her bag and handed it over to her.
When Min-young opened the folder, she frowned—it was an employee's company profile, complete with all the various contact details, addresses, and schedules even outside the working hours compiled in a meticulous file. "The legal director, Baek Hyun-woo?"
"Kim-biseo told you what's to be expected of you while you do your job. But like I said, he's a man and he's also unmarried. So, I'm here to teach you how to keep your job and that file right there is your secret weapon for any crisis."
She read the name on top of the file aloud. "How is the legal director of Queens Group a secret weapon?"
Min-young's sure she's heard that name before, maybe when she was absentmindedly scrolling through the sub-reddit forums on some juicy chaebol gossip back when she was still doing her thesis.
But when she did a deep dive on her current employer, there was something akin to a congressional media blackout—the entire digital footprint had been scrubbed squeaky clean.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Chae-yon stood up and made her way before she could protest. “Welcome to Queens.”