Fifty shades of Kim

Chapter three

I flush. He's teasing me? I hope. I blink at him, unsure what to say, and I think he takes pity on me because he relents. "No, I don't mind."

" Did Jimin. I mean, Mr park, explain what the interview was for?"

"Yes. To appear in the graduation issue of the student newspaper as conferring the degrees at the graduation ceremony. " I shall be this year's Oh! This is news to me. and I'm temporarily preoccupied by the thought that someone not much older than me maybe six years or so, okay. and okay, mega-successful, but still is going to present me with my degree. I frown, dragging my wayward attention back to the task at hand.

"Good." I swallow nervously. "I have some questions, Mr. Kim." I smooth a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

"I thought you might," he says, deadpan. He's laughing at me. My cheeks heat at the realization, and I sit up and square my shoulders in an attempt to look taller and more intimidating. Pressing the start button on the recorder, I try to look professional.

"You're very young to have amassed such an empire. To what do you owe your success?" I glance up at him. His smile is rueful, but he looks vaguely disappointed.

"Business is all about people. Mr Seokjin, and I'm very good at judging people. I know how they tick, what makes them flourish, what doesn't, what inspires them, and how to incentivize them. I employ an exceptional team, and I reward them well." He pauses and fixes me with his gray stare. "My belief is to achieve success in any scheme one has to make oneself master of that scheme, know it inside and out, know every detail. I work hard, very hard to do that. I make decisions based on logic and facts. I have a natural gut instinct that can spot and nurture good solid ideas and good people. The bottom line is it's always down to good people."

"Maybe you're just lucky." This isn't on Jimin's list but he's so arrogant. His eyes flare momentarily in surprise.

"I don't subscribe to luck or chance, Mr Seokjin. The harder I work the more luck I seem to have. It is all about having the right people on your team and directing their energies accordingly. I think it was Harvey Firestone who said, The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.*"*

"You sound like a control freak." The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.

"Oh, I exercise control in all things. Mr. Seokjin," he says without a trace of humor in his smile. I look at him, and he holds my gaze steadily, impassive. My heartbeat quickens, and my face flushes again.

Why does he have such an unnerving effect on me? His overwhelming good looks maybe? The way his eyes blaze at me? The way he strokes his index finger against his lower lip? I wish he'd stop doing that.

"Besides, immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control things," he continues, his voice soft.

"Do you feel that power?" Control freak. you have immense

"I employ over forty thousand people. Mr Seokjin. That gives me a certain sense of responsibility - power if you will. If I were to decide I was no longer interested in the telecommunications business and sell, twenty thousand people would struggle to make their mortgage payments after a month or so."

My mouth drops open. his lack of humility.

"Don't you have a board to answer to?" ask, disgusted.

"I own my company. I don't have to answer to a board." He raises an eyebrow at me. Of course, I would have known this if I had done some research. But holy crap, he's arrogant. I change track.

"And do you have any interests outside your work?"

"I have varied interests, Mr. Seokjin." A ghost of a smile touches his lips. "Very varied." And for some reason, I'm confounded and heated by his steady gaze. His eyes are alight with some wicked thought.