They looked at my plain clothes and decided I was a custodian. Then Secretary Baek downgraded me to an intern and told me the executive elevator was not meant for people like me. Nobody asked my name or why I was there. One woman quietly suggested I use the service elevator, explaining that employees like her climbed three flights twice a day just to reach the upper floors. Baek laughed and called it her own incompetence. The woman lowered her eyes, but I couldn’t forget it.

Then I noticed Baek’s white watch. There were only eight like it in the world. I knew because I had chosen it for my mother-in-law’s birthday and asked my husband, Doyun, to order it. Upstairs, Baek confidently told everyone she had been close to President Han for years. Then the conference doors opened. Doyun stepped out, looked at her, and called her “Yerin-ah.” She pointed at me and called me an intern. Doyun stared directly at my face—and said nothing.