An intern named Maxim Barker has joined the company. When he's in the middle of his self-introduction, I see a bunch of comments suddenly popping up in front of my eyes.

"Holy shit, Maxim is finally here! Soon, Charmaine will be reunited with him. She'll then ditch William just to be with Maxim again!"

"William, don't you dare start anything now! You'd better go along with Maxim's flow and help him get back together with Charmaine!"

"That's right! If William stops the plot from progressing, he'll face dire consequences! He can only survive by relying on Maxim!"

As soon as Maxim is done with his introduction, he walks over to my desk and picks up the document I'm about to hand in to my girlfriend, Charmaine Fitzpatrick, who works as a manager.

"Let me pass the document to the manager."

But as soon as Maxim enters Charmaine's office, he gets thrown out immediately.

"Get the hell out of my office! Not everyone is allowed to enter my office, you know!"

Everyone's attention snapped toward Charmaine Fitzpatrick's office at the sudden outburst. Then, I saw bullet comments starting to pop up right before my eyes.

"Don't be fooled by how fierce Charmaine seems right now. Deep down, she's a real softie. She's just playing hard-to-get. Once she falls for Maxim, she'll feel guilty for all her actions now!"

"Ugh, William is so annoying! Why doesn't he just break up with Charmaine already? Now Charmaine is shouting at Maxim because of him."

I glanced toward Charmaine's office and saw her sitting in her office chair, staring at Maxim Barker with undisguised disgust. "What are you still standing there like an idiot for? Have you finished all your work?"

Maxim's face went deathly pale, but still, he attempted to salvage some dignity. "Ms. Fitzpatrick, I'm new here and don't really understand anything yet. Could you maybe guide me a little?"

Charmaine let out a mocking laugh and gave him a slow once-over. "Guide you? Do you even know what level I'm at compared to you? Are you trying to cozy up to me? Have some self-awareness! Know what's good for you and get the hell back to your desk!"

After that public dressing-down, Maxim had no choice but to excuse himself from Charmaine's office dejectedly. His eyes were red-rimmed from humiliation, and he shot me a resentful look as colleagues whispered among themselves.

How amusing. I wasn't the one who sent him in there with those files, and I definitely wasn't the one who chewed him out, so why the hell was he glaring at me?

After Maxim returned to his seat, the barrage of bullet comments popped up even faster, and I picked up some new information from them.

According to the comments, I, William Stein, was the villainous supporting character in a novel and was currently in an office romance with Charmaine.

Maxim was her first love, but they had gone their separate ways due to a misunderstanding. As a result, she started dating me out of spite. But later, once she came to her senses, she would try to break up with me.

However, I would refuse to let go, constantly obstructing Charmaine and Maxim's relationship, and even frame Maxim at every turn.

Then, eventually, when Charmaine got completely disappointed in me, she'd hand over evidence of my schemes against Maxim to set his mind at ease and get me fired.

With that black mark on my record, I wouldn't be able to find a job anywhere, so I'd fall behind on rent, get evicted, starve on the streets, and finally die without so much as a grave.

I frowned at the comments. I was the only son and sole heir of the Stein family—the wealthiest family in the country. Even if I got fired, I'd just go home and take over the family business. How could I possibly starve and die on the streets?

And as for Charmaine, the so-called leading female character, she was the one who pursued me first. Besides, as the scion of the Stein family, I could have any woman I wanted. Why would I fixate on just one?

…

At lunch, Maxim came around with several cups of coffee. He expressed that he wanted to get off on the right foot with everyone since he was new to the company. Hence, our colleagues accepted the cups graciously and thanked him.

But when he reached my desk, the comments lit up again.

"How can William be so clueless? He should hurry and reimburse Maxim for all the coffee bought."

"Exactly! This is the perfect chance to build a good relationship with Maxim. If William doesn't suck up to Maxim now, he might really end up with nothing!"

I was utterly speechless. Maxim was the one playing the good guy and buying coffee for the whole office. Why the hell should I foot the bill? I might be rich, but I wasn't an idiot.

So, I ignored the ridiculous comments and carried on working as Maxim came over to place a cup of coffee right in front of me.

I was just about to wave my hand and say I didn't need the coffee when Maxim conveniently lost his grip on the cup, and the coffee poured straight down the front of his shirt.

The move was so dramatic I almost stood up and clapped. I had this strong feeling he was about to claim I'd deliberately splashed coffee on him.

Sure enough, his voice, trembling like he was about to cry, carried through the entire office. "William, I know you're secretly upset about me taking over what should have been your work, but I realize now how wrong I was."

As he spoke, he began lowering himself, practically ready to grovel. "If you're still angry at me, I'll get on my knees and beg for forgiveness right now."

Right on cue, the bullet comments popped up again.

"If William knows what's good for him, he should be helping Maxim up right now!"

"Maxim's only throwing William under the bus because he lost his grip on the coffee and doesn't want things to get awkward. This really isn't that big of a deal. William should just play along."

"William didn't even pay for the coffee earlier. Now's the perfect chance to get on Maxim's good side. Why won't he just take it?"

Our surrounding colleagues were all watching the drama unfold. Meanwhile, I kept a blank face and stared at Maxim, who was lowering himself slower than a tortoise, and quietly waited to see what kind of stunt he was really trying to pull.

Just as his knees were about to hit the floor, a furious roar came from behind him. "That's enough!"

The crowd parted, and Charmaine stormed through, marched straight up to us, yanked Maxim to his feet, and turned to scowl at me. "I think that's quite enough. He's already apologized. Must you be so unreasonable?"

Excuse me?

I'd been dating Charmaine for over a year, but only today did I realize she wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. I hadn't even uttered a single word from start to finish. How was I the unreasonable one?

After Charmaine dispersed the crowd, she whispered something in Maxim's ear. He blushed at that, nodded, and returned to his seat.

Then, before I could even speak, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the office. The moment we reached the pantry, she flung my hand away and fixed me with an icy glare. "He's just an intern. Did you really have to make things difficult for him?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Make things difficult for him? Was I the one who made him deliver those documents to you? Was I the one who forced him down on his knees? Charmaine Fitzpatrick, are your eyes and brain even functioning? Can't you see he's putting on a whole performance?"

Charmaine's face flushed red from being called out, and she sputtered, "Y-You—! How dare you talk to me like that? Fine! Starting today, Maxim will be my assistant. You can stay in your entry-level position and work on your attitude!"

I shrugged indifferently. "Sure."

She stomped her foot and stormed off.

Then, I calmly walked back to the office. Just as I sat down to continue working, the bullet comments appeared again.

"William shouldn't even try to do his job properly. He should slack off and cut corners so Maxim can shine even brighter as the hardworking and ambitious one."

"Exactly. Otherwise, how would Charmaine ever notice how great Maxim is and let their relationship bloom?"

I was speechless. These annoying comments just wouldn't leave me alone! But I had no intention of following their script. Instead, I focused on completing the work I was supposed to do.

…

The next day, I arrived at the office ready to send the completed proposal I'd prepared to Charmaine, only to find the document had vanished from my desktop. No matter where I looked, even in the recycle bin, there was no trace of the proposal.

Charmaine came out of her office, stood beside me, and tapped impatiently on my desk. "Where's the proposal you were supposed to submit today? Why haven't you sent it yet?"

Just as I was about to speak, Maxim interrupted with a snide tone. "Ms. Fitzpatrick, I'm afraid William probably can't come up with one."

I immediately sensed something was wrong. Maxim definitely had something to do with the missing file.

When Charmaine looked at him suspiciously, Maxim put on an innocent face and explained, "William was slacking off at his desk the whole time yesterday. The moment it was time to clock out, he bolted. There's no way he finished the task."

Without even waiting for my explanation, Charmaine immediately started berating me.

"William Stein! You were slacking off during office hours? How dare you! Didn't I tell you last week that the proposal is due today? Are you disregarding my words?"

I let out a cold laugh and pulled a USB drive from my pocket. "Who said I can't submit the proposal? I was just about to send it."

"That's impossible!" Maxim let out a shrill cry. Then, when Charmaine shot him a puzzled look, he immediately started stammering, "I-I mean… How could William p-possibly have finished the task if he was slacking off the whole time?"

"The office has surveillance cameras to record whether or not I'd been slacking off. And whoever touched my computer—checking the footage will make that very clear too."

Maxim's face went deathly pale, and his lips quivered uncontrollably. "Then… Then I must have been mistaken… William was working hard the whole time. He wasn't slacking off. Surely there's no need to check the footage, right?"

But Charmaine seemed dead set on pinning me as guilty and refused to let go of things. "No! We have to get to the bottom of this. William, even if you've been an employee of the company for a long time, you will still be punished if you don't take your work seriously!"

At the end of the day, when the surveillance footage was reviewed, it showed me diligently working on the proposal at my desk. I barely even left for the restroom.

Maxim, on the other hand, was frequently scrolling through trashy short videos on his phone or playing games.

Charmaine froze, and Maxim lowered his head guiltily.

Other colleagues who reviewed the footage began grumbling.

"Seriously, the document Maxim gave me yesterday was full of typos. I spent ages fixing them."

"Yeah, and he printed the wrong thing when I asked him to help. I ended up having to do it myself."

"If he can't even handle simple tasks, what exactly is he going to be good for?"

Maxim looked like he wanted to crawl under a desk and disappear when he heard the comments around him.

But Charmaine suddenly slammed her hand on the desk, cutting off the complaints. "They're just minor mistakes! You're all colleagues, so why are you making such a big deal out of it? Maxim is still an intern. Can't you show some tolerance? It's not like none of you have ever made mistakes."

The others rolled their eyes behind her back, but since she was the manager, no one dared argue openly.

"And you!"

Charmaine turned and glared at me fiercely. "As a senior employee of the company, why didn't you take the initiative to guide Max? If he makes mistakes, aren't you partly responsible for them too?"

Honestly, if office fights weren't prohibited, I'd have happily slapped some sense into Charmaine right then and there.

When Maxim accused me of slacking off, she said I wasn't taking my work seriously. But when Maxim himself was actually slacking off, she claimed that I was responsible for it too. What absolute nonsense.

I couldn't be bothered arguing with someone so dense, and Charmaine eventually told us all to get back to work without pressing further.

As I made my way back to my seat, I overheard a few colleagues whispering.

"Isn't William dating Ms. Fitzpatrick? Why was she taking the intern's side today?"

"Who knows? Maybe they had a fight."

I smiled to myself. There was no fight. Charmaine was the one acting like she'd lost her mind or something. But I didn't care anymore. If my girlfriend wasn't right in the head, was I really supposed to treasure her like a jewel?

The first thing I did when I got back to my desk was pull out my phone and send Charmaine a text message. "We're breaking up."

Then I deleted and blocked her contact in one smooth motion. Doing that felt incredibly liberating.

The following days passed relatively smoothly, and Charmaine seemed to have accepted that we were no longer together.

The only annoyance was the bullet comments still appearing from time to time. But since I completely ignored them, they started appearing less frequently.

The day before the upper management inspection, Charmaine suddenly approached me. She blocked my path as I was about to leave work and spoke to me in a commanding tone. "Put Max's name on the project proposal you'll be presenting tomorrow."