"Ah, yes, please invite her in."

The receptionist steps aside and opens the door further, showing an office that is... normal? Not really that ostentatious at all. It's perhaps not the most utilitarian, and it's large enough to have two sofas and a center table before the desk, but for all that it's not huge and doesn't have pretentious paintings and sculptures or anything showy like that.

However, perhaps most relevantly to Hye-jin will be the fact that it does look like the Guild president was bothered by the early hour. He has bags under his eyes and a hot cup of hastily-bred instant coffee and his shirt is slightly crooked where it goes into his trousers. All in all, it looks like he was woken up the moment she arrived and rushed to become minimally presentable at inhuman speeds. Beyond that, he looks like a pretty unremarkable middle-aged man, with dark hair and a clean-shaven face.

"Welcome, Kim Hye-jin-nim," he says, which, as the president: damn. "Would you like anything to eat or drink? Coffee? Tea?" He's using extremely formal language and honorific verbs for her, just a step below what a humble servant would use when talking with nobility.

Oh, good. That makes her feel better. She looks completely perfect and professional. Also: hotter than hell itself, but that's normal for her.

She sees he has begun the groveling early. It pleases her, but it's not going to change a damn thing.

"No, I'd hate to waste any of your no doubt precious time, Park Yeonho-nim."

The way she says it is perfectly polite, humble, and... exactly as calculatingly distant as work colleagues. She does not sit.

"What did you wish to see me about, sir?"

"Ah, yes." He clears his throat then gives the receptionist a look that they correctly interpret as asking them to leave and close the door behind them.

Once that's done, he gets down on his knees, then bows until his forehead is touching the floor. When he speaks, it's in Japanese. "I wish to humbly apologise for the way I have treated you since your arrival in this country. It was thoughtless and careless of your priorities and feelings, and very insensitive and poorly-thought out. I do not have excuses. I am truly, deeply sorry, and you would be in your rights to want nothing to do with Quasar ever again. I only request that you not blame the people I got involved in it; the fault lies entirely on me, and it would deeply shame me for my mistakes to be reflected on the people who count on me to lead and provide for them."

Yeah, no. Good, but no. She inspects her nails.

"Apologize for my treatment?" she asks, faux innocently, still in Korean. "What treatment would that be? I was under the impression that the way my transfer went was ordinary Quasar policy. Was that not the case?"

He remains where he is, but switches back to Korean. "It was most certainly not. From our first contact to the moment you met with Lee Tae-gun, including the way your contract was structured, you were treated as lesser and as someone whose contributions and emotions and individuality don't matter. That is not how Quasar is, nor how it should be; you should be valued for who you are, you are valued for who you are, and that I made such an inexcusably poor showing of it does not make it less true. I understand these words may ring hollow, but I mean every one of them. I would not wish you to leave under the impression that we just want to use you, or see you as an accessory to someone else, or as a replaceable pawn, because of my mistakes. Nothing could be farther from the truth."

She hums, thoughtfully. "You know, from where I'm standing, I think you've just found the truth uncomfortable. Or possibly just that you're experiencing consequences and don't like them.

"Either way, you should be ashamed of yourself and your whole company. Do not kowtow there like this was a singular accident and not a series of them in favor of your primary concern. You have made yourself very clear. I would not be working with you at all if it were not for the state Lee Tae-gun-sunbae is in, which you are also accountable for. How long has he been without a partner? Who was in charge of setting up his last one? Did he get as much input there, as well? How did that go for him, to twitch like he does at the mere idea of a damn handshake? How much have you been treating him like he's not valued for who is is, hm? Sending him off on mission after mission, all by himself, while he's like that?"

"...I cannot share... Lee Tae-gun's reasons for his choices. I can promise that I have tried to stop him from taking this many missions and he has not allowed me to. I do not wish to try to absolve myself of blame for that, either, but I care for him a great deal and do not, from where I'm standing, know what to do to help him—" He cuts himself off, but the emotion was getting strong in his voice there. "I'm sorry. I can't share more.

"If there is anything I can do to reassure you that I mean everything I say and that this was a mistake, I will do it. And if it is your wish that your relationship with the Guild be limited to going on missions, then, that is your prerogative also. But there are many people here who would like to get to know you, if you'd give them the chance, who had nothing to do with this blunder of mine, and those doors will always be open to you regardless of what formal relationship you wish to have with the Guild."

She scoffs.

"So you and they can care for me as you did him? As you did me, the foreigner already once-burned by another guild that didn't treat me like a person, out of her element and uncomfortable and alone and -" she stops before she starts actually spitting fire. "No. I want nothing to do with you. Any of you. I'm here to save a man's life from your incompetence. That's all. You want to make it up to me? When I find another guild, which I will, you will give me a glowing recommendation. That's it. That's what I want. Certainly nothing to do with any of you."

...well. That's that, then.

"I understand. I will not take up any more of your time, then." He finally pulls himself up to a kneel and then to his feet. "I have the contract here. If you wish to review it in your own time or with a lawyer we will wait until you are done to finish everything."

Man, that's so unfair, though, he's letting his people down, having pushed her away so thoroughly. He didn't think it'd be—he just didn't think, really. He hopes she changes her mind and can have a good relationship with his people, but at this point he's probably just a CEO to her and nothing he says will be believed. Actions speak much louder than words, after all.

They really, really do. He really is just a CEO to her, and all of his people are just - strings he could use to drag her back to use her some more. Risks that she will not be taking. Not for them.

"I'll take it and review it with my lawyer."

She gives a somewhat ironic bow, and then turns and departs. The clicks of her heels echoes through the office, and then the hallways, as she leaves the guild's HQ immediately after this meeting. No lingering, no getting coffee. Fuck you all.

The contract includes all concessions she requested—no-fault dissolution by either party with no necessary advance warning, no accommodations to be provided by the Guild, full control over her work hours—plus a monetary bonus in excess of what she asked for.

Yeah, they are pretty fucked without her, aren't they. Makes sense that they'd pay her more than what she asked for, especially since she didn't buy the CEO's paper thin sob story when he realized how fucked his company would be if she went full scorched earth. Because that would be bad. If she takes what's been happening to Lee Tae-gun to the media? Yeah, they're really really fucked. She didn't and won't do that because the main person who would suffer from that is Lee Tae-gun, but. She could. It's an option. A horrible, awful option that would suck for everyone involved and ultimately not be worth it, probably, but an option nonetheless.

Anyway, fine, she'll sign it now. And then go apartment hunting.

"...so?"

"So that was a disaster," he sighs.

"If it had been a disaster you'd be in full-time red room mode dealing with the media fallout," he points out.

They're in the president's office, and Woo-young just came back from a rescue mission so he's in a wheelchair, while the president is sulking at his desk.

"...yeah, fine, not that bad," he concedes. "She signed the contract. But that was all. She wants nothing to do with the Guild, ever, at all. We are to assign her missions with Tae-gun, pay her, and that's that."

"Can you blame her for it?"

"Well—I mean—"

"Prez," says Woo-young warningly.

"What do you want me to say? Obviously I understand she'd be pissed and traumatised but it's—it's letting my mistake hurt my people, Woo-young."

"Prez, she doesn't owe us shit. She could've gone to some other Guild, she could've gone to Lucid—"

He makes a face.

"I know Lucid woulda been worse, you know Lucid woulda been worse, but she doesn't. It's, like, if you're bar hopping looking for someone to spend the night with a minor negative sign from someone will get you to keep looking, you won't insist on someone who gives you bad vibes just in case they might be your soulmate."