Late at night.
After finishing my shower, I stepped out to find the phone I'd left on the bedside table vibrating.
Bzzz.
I checked the caller.
An unexpected name appeared on the screen.
Park Sojeong.
My ex-girlfriend.
It was 11:30 p.m.
Even when we were dating, she never called me at this hour. And now, after we'd broken up, she was calling? What on earth was going on?
"…"
I hesitated, wondering whether I should answer or not. While I was still debating, the vibration stopped.
The call had ended.
I should've blocked her in advance. My mind felt unsettled for no reason.
The reason I hadn't blocked her even after the breakup was simple—I didn't think it was necessary. Even if I didn't block her, I assumed she would block me first. I never imagined she'd be the one to contact me.
Yet here she was, calling me first. And this late at night, too.
What could it have been about?
The first possibility that came to mind was her younger sister, Soyeon. Back then, when I dropped Soyeon off in front of her house, Park Sojeong had happened to see us. I hadn't done anything wrong, but it might have bothered her.
But knowing her personality, if she wanted to confront me, she would've called right then and there. Waiting several days and calling in the middle of the night didn't make sense.
Aside from that… nothing else came to mind.
Maybe she'd just pressed the wrong button. Since she hung up so quickly, it was probably nothing serious.
And even if it was something, it surely wouldn't be good news for me.
Not answering was the best option.
I decided to block Park Sojeong's number.
Just one missed call was enough to make my head this complicated. Blocking her would give me peace of mind. It wasn't like we had anything to talk about anyway.
"Mmm…"
At that moment, a voice came from the bed.
The person who had spent the night with me.
CEO Cha Yoonjung of IntelliOn.
"Did I wake you?"
"…Ah!"
Seeing me, Cha Yoonjung flinched in surprise.
She started to sit up, then hurriedly pulled the blanket up to her chest.
She glanced around the room with a confused expression. She didn't seem fully awake yet—maybe she'd even forgotten what we'd been doing before falling asleep.
I dried my wet hair with a towel and spoke.
"You must've been really tired. You fell asleep in the middle of things."
"Ah—ah…!"
Only then did she seem to realize what had happened. Her pale face turned red like a ripe tomato.
"I-I'm sorry, Manager Kang! I must've dozed off without realizing it…"
"It's fine. That happens."
It was only natural that women had less physical stamina than men. And engineers, especially those in technical fields, often lacked exercise.
CEO Cha Yoonjung wasn't particularly strong physically either.
She was young, so she had plenty of passion—but her stamina couldn't keep up, and she'd been knocked out early.
Because of that, I'd left her sleeping and gone to shower first.
"How do you feel now? Any discomfort?"
"Ah… y-yes… I think I'm okay…"
I roughly dried my hair and sat down on the bed.
Still wrapped tightly in the blanket, CEO Cha Yoonjung flinched.
It felt oddly new.
By now, she shouldn't have been this nervous.
"I, um… I'm sorry. I said I'd treat you, but in the end… it feels like I was the one being taken care of instead…"
She spoke in a timid, trailing voice.
"Not at all. For a man, that's the best kind of hospitality there is."
"Ah…!"
At my joking reply, CEO Cha let out a small groan.
Perhaps remembering what we'd done before falling asleep, she got embarrassed and pulled the blanket up to cover even her face.
Her fresh, bashful reaction made me smile.
The time I spent with CEO Cha had been genuinely enjoyable.
It helped us understand each other more deeply, and I felt confident it would improve our professional cooperation as well.
Since we'd be in the same boat from now on, you could say boarding each other's boats beforehand was good practice.
"Are you going to sleep like this? If you feel uncomfortable, you can take a shower first."
"Ah… um…"
"Do you want me to help you to the bathroom?"
"N-No! I'm fine!"
When I tried to help her up, CEO Cha wrapped herself tightly in the blanket and desperately defended herself.
After everything we'd done before falling asleep, it was hard to understand why she was suddenly so shy now.
I lay down right beside her.
I could feel her gaze drift toward a certain part of my body.
"…CEO Cha Yoonjung?"
"Y-Yes!? Ah—y-yes? W-what is it?"
"Well… this might not fit the situation, but I wanted to talk a bit about work."
"Ah—ah… yes. S-sure. Let's talk about work."
Watching her fluster at every word made me want to laugh, but business was still business.
Pillow talk.
You could say human history itself has been shaped at the bedside. And perhaps our own history was about to be shaped here as well.
"First, let me explain my plan. Our immediate task is to let the world know that IntelliOn exists. The biggest problem right now is the lack of awareness."
"Th-that's true."
"So I plan to approach top-tier companies in the United States first."
"Top-tier companies… as in?"
"Some of the colleagues I worked with at Hwangsan moved on to Meta, Google, and Amazon. I plan to contact them first."
As those massive names left my mouth, CEO Cha's eyes widened.
"Meta, Google, Amazon? You mean you'll contact them?"
"Yes. Some of them are still working directly in AI-related fields. And among my university alumni, there are quite a few who know my face. Through them, I can indirectly request internal technical reviews."
It was a bit of a workaround—but now wasn't the time to be picky.
The world runs on school ties, regional ties, and blood ties anyway. We had to use everything we could.
Even if I hadn't contacted my university seniors and juniors in a long time, they wouldn't just ignore me.
If it didn't work, then so be it.
"I'll also form a separate team to create technical summary materials. Once those are ready, we'll use our contact points to distribute them to strategic planning or new business divisions at each company. After that, things should move on their own."
After thinking for a while, CEO Cha quietly asked,
"Do you really… think it has a chance?"
I smiled softly.
"CEO, even if we did nothing, this technology would be commercialized worldwide within five years. But whoever discovers IntelliOn first will gain exclusive rights now. No domestic company recognized it, but I believe the world's top companies will."
CEO Cha nodded.
"…Then I'll leave that entirely to you, Director Kang. Is there anything I need to do separately?"
"For now, I'm an external party, so I lack authority. From the other side's perspective, my credibility will be lower too. So I'd like you to give me some kind of position at IntelliOn."
"A position?"
"Anything is fine. Just a title I can introduce externally—even if it's nominal. Something like Manager in IntelliOn's Strategic Planning Team would work."
"Understood. I'll prepare it."
"And… well."
It was time to talk about money.
Of course it was something that had to be discussed—but for some reason, it felt awkward to bring up.
"What is it? If there's anything you need, please tell me."
She asked when I hesitated.
"There are some people I'm thinking of recruiting… but they're still working at Hwangsan."
The people I had in mind were, of course, Yoo Eunha and Hwang Juyeon.
Even before our personal relationship deepened, we'd worked together for a long time. Their work skills were unquestionable, and our teamwork was excellent.
They knew IntelliOn well too, since we'd worked on that project together.
From a purely professional standpoint, they were the perfect candidates.
"That so? Then they must be expensive hires."
"Probably. I want to compensate them for the risk of leaving a large corporation."
"That's only natural. How much are you thinking?"
"I can't offer them a salary much higher than Hwangsan's, but I'm planning to offer incentives instead—paying them a portion of the profits I earn through IntelliOn."
For example, if I earned one billion won through IntelliOn, I'd give one hundred million as incentives.
They might refuse, but I wanted to give it to them. They were people I trusted enough to follow me. Well—not yet, perhaps.
"So what I'm asking is this: if IntelliOn generates revenue through technology contracts with other companies, I'd like my share of the profits distributed accordingly. That way, I can pay incentives to employees and give them motivation to work with us."
"Understood."
CEO Cha answered without hesitation—so quickly that I felt uneasy.
"CEO, is it really okay to agree so easily? What if the other employees oppose it?"
She calmly shook her head.
"All of our employees know this. They know the market has absolutely no interest in IntelliOn right now."
Right.
She'd said earlier they could barely pay salaries.
Since IntelliOn wasn't generating any revenue at all, it couldn't be helped. But from the employees' perspective, that kind of situation could easily lead to self-doubt.
"If we generate revenue by signing contracts with big tech companies like you said, no one will oppose profit-sharing."
If the CEO herself said so, it must be true.
"Then I'll leave persuading the staff to you."
"And I'll leave sales to you."
She smiled brightly, as if the thought alone made her happy.
Like me, she was someone who'd hit rock bottom.
She'd struggled, gone into debt, and endured humiliation.
She probably hadn't even had anyone to share hopeful conversations like this with.
That was why, simply talking about a bright future together made her smile so warmly.
"Come to think of it, calling you 'Manager' is strange now that you've left Hwangsan."
"Well, you can call me whatever you're comfortable with. If you give me a manager position at IntelliOn, I can keep using it."
She stared at the ceiling for a moment, thinking, then asked,
"Then how about Director of Strategic Planning?"
"Haha. Director, huh? I like that."
At my old company, I'd only ever made it to manager.
IntelliOn was tiny compared to Hwangsan—but it had limitless potential.
Being Director of Strategic Planning at IntelliOn was a title I truly wanted.
"Then, Director Kang Suhyeok—let's work well together from now on."
"Yes, CEO."
We clasped hands.
Her hand was very warm. I could feel her pulse.
Her gaze toward me melted.
The moment our hearts connected—
I pulled down the blanket that had been covering her body.