Ssuk-ssuk.

Eun Sae, who was tracing sketch lines with a stylus pen, paused and glanced up.

Below the window, a man sketching swiftly, just like she was.

Eun Sae stared at the man’s face for a moment, captivated.

‘Seriously, how can he be so handsome when he’s not even a 2D character…’

Kim Eun Sae, a 26-year-old woman, worked as an assistant for a famous webtoon.

Her employer was Gong Myung, the author of the popular webtoon ‘Murder Soccer,’ which had never left the No.1 spot on the webtoon platform since its release.

‘Murder Soccer’ was a fantasy webtoon that combined soccer and martial arts. It featured a diverse range of three-dimensional male and female characters that received praise from readers across genders, securing the top webtoon position. It was acclaimed as a groundbreaking sports series and even confirmed for a film adaptation.

Recently, it was smoothly sailing through Season 3 with high praise after perfectly wrapping up Season 1 and 2.

Truly a massive hit webtoon, but despite its fame, the studio was desolate.

It wasn’t an issue with the facilities.

A spacious apartment with a panoramic view of the Han River. The workspace, vast enough to be used as a sports field, had three large desks placed within.

One of the seats was occupied by Joo Kang Hyun, known as Gong Myung, while the other belonged to Eun Sae.

Since Eun Sae started working, several assistants came and went, but none lasted for long. Hence the bleak atmosphere pervading the studio.

The reason was obvious: The enormous workload. To put it kindly, Gong Myung’s demanding nature, or frankly, he was a jerk.

From Eun Sae’s honest perspective, Joo Kang Hyun had some inhuman aspects.

Unlike most manhwa artists who often worked overnight, he didn’t do so. He faithfully adhered to a daily routine, never skipping a beat—waking up at 5 a.m.

After waking up at 5, he would prioritize exercise before diving into work, even before the assistant arrived. This continued until 10 p.m. It was a repetitive cycle.

Eun Sae’s work hours were 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. She was allowed overtime if she wanted to, and the bonus pay was handled meticulously. But once reached 10 p.m., she would be dismissed.

Most people couldn’t last long and quit, but Eun Sae had held this position for a fairly long time.

She couldn’t understand those who quit. Yes, the work was demanding and intense, but… honestly, this was a dream job for her.

Firstly, the salary was excellent, and the bonuses were generous. Moreover, the food… her aunt came to her house and prepared meals daily, which were as delicious as her father’s cooking.

With her aunt cleaning her home, Eun Sae only had to focus on working hard.

Furthermore, like this… whenever she had the time, she could sneak peeks at Joo Kang Hyun’s face.

As she secretly stole glances at Joo Kang Hyun, her gaze fell on his desk. Eun Sae stood up.

Then she went to the kitchen and brewed a cup of coffee, which she brought to his desk. She replaced the empty cup with fresh coffee.

While absorbed in work, he shot her an irritable glance.

“I told you not to cross the line, Kim Eun Sae.”

“Yes…”

Eun Sae responded with a curt acknowledgment and returned to her desk.

Joo Kang Hyun was extraordinarily sharp.

A manhwa artist who woke up at 5 a.m. daily could describe everything about him. He lacked humanity. He also had no tact or compassion.

Yet Eun Sae liked him.

The beginning of this one-sided love could only be traced back to a long time ago.

During middle school, Eun Sae was an ordinary student who liked drawing. Browsing webtoon sites was her routine escapism. One day, she saw a work on the challenge board.

It was an ordinary romance title, but the art style was truly captivating. The artwork was so impressive that the reactions were overwhelmingly positive from the first episode. However, as the episodes progressed, the comments noticeably decreased.

This was because… the content was boring. For readers accustomed to stimulation, the subject matter was plain and dull, and the pacing was too slow, even slower than too slow.

Nevertheless, Eun Sae genuinely loved that webtoon.

She loved it so much that she even sent clumsy fan art to the author’s email and left a lengthy review every day.

He expressed gratitude for the young student’s appreciation email and even sent a gift card. Oh, how touched she was to receive that…

But one day, that webtoon disappeared without notice, leaving Eun Sae deeply disappointed for a long time.

Of course, back then, she didn’t know whether the author was a man or woman, only admiring them as a fan.

As time passed… on the webtoon platform,

‘Murder Soccer’ launched.

Eun Sae recognized him immediately. The author of that romance webtoon was none other than ‘Gong Myung.’

Although the pen name and art style had changed, Eun Sae still recognized him. His unique drawing habits remained, and there were characters with similar appearances to those back then. But no one remembered that when she looked through the comment section. Eun Sae had planned to leave a comment but stopped herself.

Since then, ‘Murder Soccer’ achieved tremendous success, and Eun Sae silently cheered for him. She, too, pursued her dream.

Eun Sae dreamed of becoming a manhwa artist. After seeing the romance webtoon he drew during middle school, Eun Sae nurtured the same dream.

One day, while diligently attending her academy…

She heard that the author Gong Myung had finished Seasons 1 and 2 and was looking for an assistant starting with Season 3.

Eun Sae immediately went for the interview. Her heart was pounding so fast that she thought she would go crazy. For her to meet the author she had admired since middle school…

And the day she first saw him at the interview. Eun Sae fell in love.

After ‘Murder Soccer’ launched, she learned that the author was male.

But honestly, she never imagined he would be this good-looking. At around 190cm tall, his physique was noticeably different from average people. At first, she thought the agency representative was interviewing on his behalf.

The instant she realized he was the real ‘Gong Myung,’ she wanted to bring up the stories of his past romance webtoon but pursed her lips shut.

She was worried showing excessive fandom during the interview could lead to rejection. So instead, she acted like a casual fan of ‘Murder Soccer.’

After working here, Eun Sae had been deeply, deeply in unrequited love.

Eun Sae looked at another assistant’s empty desk and smiled contentedly.

That used to be the seat of an assistant who recently quit.

Thanks to that, she had a lot of work, but she didn’t mind. Eun Sae was naturally fast and diligent.

More than anything, Eun Sae felt extremely blissful when she and Joo Kang Hyun were alone.

To have this handsome face all to herself – this was a stroke of luck.

While some manhwa artists’ appearances and personal lives were exposed, little was known about Gong Myung. Eun Sae used to wonder why before working as an assistant, but now she understood.

As rumored in past comments, Joo Kang Hyun had once been active as a UFC fighter. It seemed he didn’t want to disclose it, as he avoided exposing his appearance. Speculative comments were often deleted by the platform administrators.

Eun Sae learned about this thanks to the producer who came to the studio for a meeting. The producer accidentally let it slip and asked Eun Sae to pretend she didn’t know.

‘So that’s why I had to sign a confidentiality agreement during the interview.’

Eun Sae had no interest in UFC fighters. She simply thought of him as a popular manhwa artist.

Eun Sae nodded obediently to the producer, saying ‘Of course,’ and spent that night watching his past match videos on YouTube.

Gradually, her feelings of unrequited love only grew.

She admired his incredible, diligent work ethic from when he updated that romance webtoon on the webtoon challenge section without rest. He must have led a fierce life in the unknowable past.

His passionate work without a single late arrival or hiatus during serialization was also good, as was his sensitive personality because of it.

Even his lack of personal life besides regular morning exercise was agreeable to her.

He only communicated with the producer on the platform, and if possible, meetings were conducted in the studio. He always firmly declined public interviews.

Eun Sae was thankful for this. She didn’t want growing hordes of fans attracted to his appearance.

However…

Eun Sae frowned, recalling a past incident.

She had confessed her feelings to Joo Kang Hyun not long ago. And was harshly rejected.

Disheartened, Eun Sae apologized and said she would quit once a replacement was found.

Several months had passed since then.

A new assistant came recently, but they were overwhelmed by the enormous workload and quickly quit. So, Eun Sae still worked here.

The reason that assistant quit…

Eun Sae recalled that day’s event.

The previous assistant was a chubby, short man. From his first day of work, he showed a lack of punctuality.

On top of that, he would mutter to himself and complain, saying things like, “How am I supposed to handle all this? It’s too much. They should double my salary for this.”

The salary was already much higher compared to other places. Eun Sae saddled the man with overwhelming work during the handover, urging him to quit soon.

As expected, the man left in a few days.

In fact, there was a critical blow that prompted his decision to quit.

It was the day he was late again. A persistent foul smell was wafting from somewhere.

Joo Kang Hyun had severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. He couldn’t stand seeing trash rolling around on his desk, and with his sensitive sense of smell, her aunt couldn’t cook foods with strong odors either.

Upon learning the source of the smell was the new assistant, Joo Kang Hyun lost patience. He shouted at Im Bang Seok, who was touching his toes under the desk without socks on.

“Im Bang Seok, don’t you bathe? You smell like garbage. Shouldn’t you bathe before interacting with others if you want to be in society? Are you thoughtless?”

Turning beet red from the unexpected scolding, the man ran out of the studio.

That was the man’s last day.

As Joo Kang Hyun irritably opened windows to air out the room, Eun Sae smiled and said to him.

“Then, author Joo… I’ll keep working here for now, hehe…”

At her words, Joo Kang Hyun scowled.

He had thought that Eun Sae’s confession incident would finally come to an end.

Since her confession, Joo Kang Hyun became more sensitive. Whenever Eun Sae stole glances or approached him with excuses, he intentionally pricked her with sharp remarks.

Though, as sharp-tongued as an ex-fighter’s fists, his words caused her no harm.

To Eun Sae, with her tremendously sturdy steel mentality, his barbed comments were no different from a kitten’s light pawing.

And… Eun Sae never expected him to accept her feelings in the first place.

He was so good-looking and talented that it was puzzling why he hadn’t become an actor. Moreover, being wealthy, there was no way a man like him would be interested in a woman like her.

Eun Sae felt a bit down but soon forgot about such thoughts and focused on her work. (The steel-like mentality was the ability to forget about unpleasant things within three seconds.)

‘I want to do overtime… I don’t want to go home…’

She wanted to come to work even on weekends, work forever without leaving, and be by the author Joo’s side…

Eun Sae, blinded by unrequited love, was consumed by madness.

Previously, she purposefully delayed her speed in the hopes of doing overtime, but it no longer worked.

After her confession attack, Joo Kang Hyun would make Eun Sae leave after 6 p.m. without fail.

* * *

Again.

Sensing an ominous gaze, Joo Kang Hyun turned his head. His eyes met the small pupils, staring at him through thick glasses.

Kim Eun Sae. His assistant.

As their eyes met, Kim Eun Sae giggled shyly. Joo Kang Hyun sighed heavily and turned away.

In his mind, he should have kicked her out long ago.

But…but…

During Season 1, he worked alone without an assistant. It almost killed him.

While confident in his stamina and training to further build his physique, there was no coping with such relentless work day after day.

That’s why he started hiring assistants from Season 2. As he used to work alone, he first hired remote assistants. However, none proved reliable in keeping their word.

Following the producer’s advice, he began interviewing and hiring assistants who would come to the studio.

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