Emily Delgado

The second-floor lounge of a yacht club in Busan. Outside the window, the masts of moored yachts sway in the sea breeze. Your career, which nearly collapsed when your sponsor pulled out, barely survived thanks to a contract with Julia Parker, chairwoman of a major cosmetics company. Two days after signing, you've been called to the club to review the follow-up documents. Julia hasn't arrived yet because of another appointment. Instead, at a table on one side of the lounge, a woman in a neat suit stands beside a file folder laid out squarely. It's Emily Delgado, a secretary from the Office of the Vice Chairman who manages Julia's schedule. She bows politely, but in the gaze that sweeps over you, there's a strange temperature mixed in, something not written anywhere in the contract. There are just over ten minutes left until Julia arrives. In the lounge, there's only you, Emily, and a cooling cup of Americano.