"…You're already learning from me right now, so."
Junhwi laughed, a little awkward about it.
Eunyoung said, "I'm not asking you to carve out extra time for me. I just want you to be my role model."
"Ahaha. Wow… that's really nice to hear. Role model… wow. Hahaha."
Junhwi laughed like he was doing a breathing exercise. The word *role model* seemed to embarrass him.
But Eunyoung was completely serious, and for her, this was a significant decision.
Role models meant something real to Eunyoung. Whenever she chose one, she tracked down every article and video she could find about them. She wanted to absorb everything—their behavior, their words, their attitude, even their decision-making process—and make it her own.
Every role model she'd ever had came from elite backgrounds. It only made sense: someone who thought logically, decided rationally, and acted effectively had to be elite. That kind of ability was cultivated from childhood. It couldn't just appear out of nowhere after graduation.
Which made Junhwi an exception. He was someone who might actually break her assumptions. She wanted to understand it—how a person could grow and develop that much after their twenties. She wanted to take every piece of that and make it hers. And ultimately, she wanted to earn his respect.
Junhwi seemed to catch the seriousness in her expression and realize she wasn't just saying it to be nice.
"I mean, this isn't me being modest," he said. "There really are a lot of people out there who are way better than me. And honestly? I think you might be in that headspace right now—like when you've been job hunting forever and nothing's coming through, so you get anxious and your confidence tanks and you end up applying to places that are way beneath you? I think you might be in a little bit of that mode right now. In job terms, you're aiming way too low. But you don't need to do that. I think you're about to hit your stride pretty soon."
*Yes. That's exactly the mindset she needs to learn.* Junhwi kept all possibilities open and genuinely believed things would work out in the best direction. Even now, he was looking at the best of what Eunyoung could become and trusting that she'd get there. That kind of mindset was what let you blow past your targets even on a shoestring budget.
And the constant humility. The way he encouraged people below him. That, too, was worth learning. Work was still about people. Who wouldn't want to work with someone like Junhwi? Who wouldn't want to help him? Nobody wanted to collaborate with someone like Eunyoung—someone who walked around broadcasting how great she was.
She was already learning from him. Her fingers itched to write it all down before she forgot.
Eunyoung said, with a look of quiet resolve, "You're right. I'll work on getting back to form."
*Why do people who went to good schools love talking about growth and learning so much.* Junhwi said the right things about growth in front of people, sure, but he'd never once genuinely believed it mattered. Wasn't success more important than growth? If you grew and grew and never actually succeeded, what was the point?
*…Then again, maybe that's exactly why I'm like this. My whole mindset is broken from the start. Can't compete on skill alone. Just an opportunist who only delivers when luck's on his side…*
Anyway. That was why Eunyoung made him deeply uncomfortable.
*I just want you to be my role model.*
Even thinking about it again sent a little rush through him—a genuine thrill. No confession from any beautiful woman could have made him feel more flattered.
But what if that beautiful woman was confessing because she thought he was loaded? And what if he was actually flat broke? He'd never get to enjoy the feeling—he'd spend the whole time panicking about getting sued for fraud.
CEO Jang had once shared something with the whole team, clearly impressed by it: Eunyoung's "role model scrapbook." Junhwi had thought, *a scrapbook? Isn't that something you make for a school vacation project?* and clicked the link. Then he'd been genuinely surprised.
It was a full biography of Eunyoung's role model, laid out like a profile of a great figure. Interspersed throughout were sections Eunyoung had titled "Lessons Learned," where she'd written out what she'd taken from each part of the person's life.
Junhwi's reaction had been pure resistance.
*Why are you sharing this with us. We're drowning in work and now we're supposed to make one of these too? Then give us the time to do it.*
He'd been irrationally annoyed. Somehow that scrapbook felt like a symbol of everything that separated him from Eunyoung. Like he'd grown up wild and scraggly, just hacking through whatever came at him, while she'd grown up dense and solid from the inside out. Like one strong wind would snap him in half, while she'd stand firm through a hurricane.
And now he was going to be added to that scrapbook?
Someone as sharp as Eunyoung, studying him that closely—she'd find the cracks fast. At first she'd just tilt her head at a few odd things. Then it would click: *Oh. This guy was just a lot of noise and no substance.*
Was she doing this on purpose? Setting him up for a spectacular fall? He probably looked hollow to anyone paying attention, but CEO Jang adored him, so maybe Eunyoung saw him as a thorn in her side. Maybe the whole "role model" thing was a setup—a way to take him apart piece by piece.
*No… that couldn't be it.* Eunyoung wasn't that idle. And someone like her would spend that energy on her own growth, not on wasting time tearing someone else down.
Still. She made him uncomfortable. A swan looks graceful from a distance, but get close enough to see underwater and you'd catch it thrashing those webbed feet like crazy. Not that Junhwi was even a swan—more like the ugly duckling who never got the glow-up.
"Oh, Junhwi!"
"Oh. Hey, Eunyoung."
"Did you see the announcement in the planning channel?"
"Ah… no. Did something important go up?"
Junhwi pulled out his phone and opened the company messenger app, worried he'd missed something. A poll was running.
[ LoveLemon Promotional Campaign — Idea Vote ]
Every so often, the company ran internal polls to see which ideas employees liked best. The submissions were anonymous, and so were the votes—it was how they got honest, unfiltered opinions from the majority.
From the looks of it, this one was about ideas for the LoveLemon promotional campaign they'd just landed.
Eunyoung glanced over at his phone. "You haven't voted yet."
"Oh… right."
"Go ahead and vote!"
"Sure, I'll do that."
She said it and disappeared somewhere.
Junhwi stood there, mildly confused. *I thought it was something urgent… she just wanted me to vote?*
*Guess they need the votes in fast,* he thought, and cast his.
"Oh—!"
A small, startled sound came from somewhere nearby.
Junhwi looked toward it. Someone was standing behind a column, looking at their phone.
From the back, it was clearly Eunyoung. She looked deflated as she turned and walked back to her desk.
*What was that about.*
…*Was she watching to see which option I voted for?*
The poll was anonymous—it wouldn't show who voted for what. So she'd told him to vote, then stood there watching to see which idea got a +1.
Junhwi let out a quiet laugh.
*That's a lot of effort…*
Still, it made him feel kind of good, in a low-key way. It meant she cared more about his one opinion than the crowd's.
There was something almost endearing about Eunyoung—always so sharp and deliberate—doing something like that. And judging by how deflated she looked walking away, the idea he'd voted for probably wasn't hers. That little sulk was kind of cute too.
But reality caught up with him quickly.
*What would she think if she found out my opinion doesn't actually mean much? What would she feel when she realized I don't really have any particular insight…*
He told himself not to get carried away.
Some compliments and admiration were poison. Getting swept up in other people's hype and starting to believe you were actually something—that was dangerous. The fall hurt a lot more when you'd climbed higher. He always had to be ready for the ground to come up fast.
But Eunyoung kept circling back to him. And she kept angling for his approval—mentioning how well one of her ads had performed, how many times her viral event had been shared. Like a star student fishing for praise from a teacher.
Except Junhwi wasn't the teacher. He was closer to the kid who tried hard but never got the grades. And when a star student brags about their scores to that kid, it just stings.
Even his perfunctory compliments made Eunyoung light up.
Watching that made him uneasy. It seemed like his praise was actually motivating her to work harder.
But he couldn't exactly stop complimenting her.
Every time Eunyoung came around, his feelings got complicated.
She came by so often that some part of his attention was always half-tuned to her direction.
He started using tricks to avoid her—ducking into the bathroom when he sensed her coming, or striking up a conversation with another coworker.
His go-to target was Hana.
Hana had been hired in the most recent new-employee recruitment round. At the welcome dinner, Junhwi had heard that she'd gone to the least prestigious school of the whole incoming class. He thought he understood why she always seemed to shrink into herself.
Whatever anyone said to her—even if it was wrong—Hana just nodded along. *Yes. Yes.* She didn't know how to push back or hold her ground. Junhwi found her easy to be around in a way that also made him a little worried about her, because she reminded him of himself when he'd first started out.
Whenever Eunyoung came around, Junhwi would wander over to Hana's desk and find something to comment on. Hana usually had something to be corrected on, so there was always a reason.
"Hana, how's it going?"
"Oh… I'm working on it…"
She answered the way she always did—watching his face, trying to read him.
*What am I even going to nitpick this time,* Junhwi thought, leaning over to look at her monitor while he waited for Eunyoung to give up and leave.
"…Oh? This is actually good."
Contrary to his expectations, Hana had put together a solid daily report. Just yesterday she'd been fumbling around, unable to figure out how to insert a basic table in Excel.
"Weren't you still struggling with this until yesterday afternoon?" he said. "And you finished it this morning? Nice."
Hana ducked her head and said something too quietly to hear.
"Sorry, what was that? I couldn't catch it."
"…I did it the way you showed me… so it went faster…"
She lifted her head just enough to get the words out.
Then she smiled—a small, shy smile—and Junhwi realized it was the first time he'd seen her smile since she'd joined.
She always walked around with her head down, so he'd barely gotten a good look at her face. Now that he did, he noticed she had a narrow face and single-lid eyes that were actually pretty cute.
He gave her a thumbs-up, figuring she could use the confidence boost.
He got absorbed in going over her work and forgot entirely about Eunyoung—which was why he didn't notice her standing a few feet away, watching the two of them.