[Eat a proper lunch today] 11:50 AM
[I know] 11:52 AM
[Can’t feel your sincerity] 11:52 AM
[I feel you will starve yourself behind my back again] 11:52 AM
[I understand, Mr. President] 11:53 AM
[No, too businesslike] 11:53 AM
[Gotcha] 11:53 AM
[So informal, you cheeky thing] 11:54 AM
[What then? You got me all busy and now take my time to nitpick?] 11:54 AM
[Cute] 11:54 AM
[Continue] 11:54 AM
[Do as you like] 11:55 AM
A happy laugh unconsciously escaped her. Why is he so cute? How can he be so cute? Unless she was crazy, like the PDs mentioned…
“Ms. Na-Yool, where are you going?”
“…Uh? Ah.”
“Having lunch this late?”
“Yeah. I was thinking of grabbing a sandwich on the 1st floor.”
Seung-Jae probably had no way to see her phone screen. Yet Na-Yool could somehow feel his eyes staring at her bright grinning face and the back of her phone.
Since she had told Seung-Jae she was dating someone, he would have no difficulty guessing whose messages she was reading. Na-Yool’s smile naturally dimmed, quite discomforted to be seen by the person she had flatly rejected only a week ago.
“Let’s go together on the way down. I forgot to buy a coffee.”
“Coffee? I’ll pick it up on the way.”
“Waiting for you is boring anyway.”
I think being bored is better than being awkward. However, Seung-Jae was already by her side, walking as he usually did before. In such a situation, Na-Yool could not make it even more awkward by telling him off. She therefore pretended like nothing was wrong and started walking forward without glancing at him.
“Ms. Na-Yool, have you finished your powerpoint about Kyungjin Shipping?”
“I just sent it.”
“Please show me. Last time I was criticized for being too fancy.”
“Just make it neat and readable and that’s it. Rather than being fancy, the problem is that the text is sometimes unreadable… I will send you the file as soon as I get to the office.”
“Yes, thank you. Oh, and I have a question. Youngsung Pharmaceutical’s new drug logo was finally fixed as the A proposal we discussed at the time, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Is it true that even the draft package design was handed over to us?”
“Oh, that’s—.”
“Mr. President.”
With words stuck in her throat, Na-Yool stared at Si-Jin, who was standing in front of the elevator. The man glanced at them just as Seung-Jae bowed next to her. She immediately corrected her expression.
“Did the both of you have lunch?”
“Ah, I ate, Ms. Na-Yool not yet.”
Si-Jin’s gaze turned towards Na-Yool, as if inquiring why this guy was answering for her. The slight discomfort she would feel while awkwardly waiting with Seung-Jae for their order at a cafe could not even amount to half of the current situation. Why, of all people!
Why the three of them, now, here!
“Are you going for lunch now, Mr. President?”
“Yes.”
A short, cold answer. And coincidentally, the sound of the elevator arriving at this floor broke the uncomfortable silence. Before one could turn around, the fleeting voice, like an auditory hallucination, was gone as if not even uttered. The elevator door closed, trapping Na-Yool, Si-Jin, and Seung-jae.
The floors changed quickly, but in Na-Yool’s eyes, it was an infinitely slow drag. No one said anything. When the elevator occasionally stopped on a floor, no one was there, probably from already taking another one. How great if only the elevator did not stop so often, but alas, the unbearable prolongation of this strange silence seemed inevitable.
How much time had passed with Si-Jin looking at the front door opening, Na-Yool looking at the changing numbers, and Seung-Jae looking at his cell phone?
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Starting from the 5th floor, Na-Yool was reciting the numbers over and over again like in a trance. Finally the 3rd floor, finally the 2nd floor, finally…
“—Are you two dating?”
Dang. The moment the door opened on the 1st floor, the eyes looking at the cellphone suddenly faced them. Na-Yool stared at Seung-Jae with disbelief and astonishment. In a voice filled with shock and almost disgust, she said:
“—Are you crazy?”
“So what if we are?”
Si-Jin’s calm retort coincided with Na-Yool’s outburst. Her eyes shifted from Seung-Jae on her right, to her left, with a look of astonishment in no point comparable to the one she had given to the guy on her right a second before.
Si-Jin looked into those eyes and smiled softly. Not a bit perturbed, he inserted his hand through the crack in the closing door.
“First, let’s get off.”
Na-Yool was the first to step out of the door that opened again, as if running away. Si-Jin was kind enough to wait for Seung-Jae to get off before him, before letting go of the elevator door closing for good.
Na-Yool turned around to face them with a distraught smile.
“Mr. President, your sense of humor is…”
“Mr. Lee Seung-Jae, I asked you a question.”
“……”
“So what if we are?”
This guy, he finally lost it… Na-Yool’s mind was in shambles, to the point of denying reality, even wondering if this was a dream. Her confused gaze moved from the aloof Si-Jin to Seung-Jae.
Seung-Jae’s expression… clearly, it was probably similar to the one she was wearing now. Look at that dumb expression, like throwing a fastball without expecting it would come back like a boomerang and smack you.
“…Is it true?” Seung-Jae asked Na-Yool with confusion. He probably had doubts in the first place, but his current expression, screaming that never did he even imagine such an answer, was worth seeing. Yes, if Na-Yool was sane. And if it had nothing to do with her.
If so, yes, it would be worth seeing. The problem was that it was not at all.
“Lee Seung-Jae, don’t speak nonsense. What kind of joke is that, me and the President being together?!? At least make it believable. You too, Mr. President, no need to humor him by putting yourself on his level—”
“You know best not to joke about things like this, right? Ms. Kim Na-Yool.”
“What do I know best, what! What do I know about you Mr. President is that—”
“You know, now. Pretty much everything.”
“……”
“……”
The low and mellow voice, used only when the two of them were alone, entered Na-Yool’s ears, leaving her and Seung-Jae both stunned.
“So tell me, Mr. Lee, why are you suddenly meddling with others’ private life?”
“…Well, uh, the both of you, I was not exactly cornering you or anything.” Seung-Jae stammered in a stiff voice. Faced with this unbearable sight, Na-Yool covered her face and lower her head.
“Just… yeah, it looked like you were dating.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“It’s because I am suspicious. It is not that noticeable.” Seung-Jae answered dutifully with all the sincerity that exuded from his body.
In fact, no one other than Seung-Jae would know. The suspicion sprouted from the beginning when, in the process of watching Na-Yool with particular intentions, he somehow discovered someone of the same type as himself. A brief glance, a fleeting emotion that appears on a stone-like face. Si-Jin did not easily let hints of his feelings slip, but Seung-Jae caught them several times. His doubts started from there.
The suspicion that, despite how ridiculous it sounded, Si-Jin might be the same as him.
Ironically, unlike Na-Yool’s internal embarrassment, she never shown much on the outside. Even though Seung-Jae could sense Si-jin’s unbelievable affection, never did he imagine it was mutual. Was it Kim PD or Shin PD who said it? Anyway, as they said, it was inconceivable unless she had lost her mind.
But Na-Yool accomplished the incredible.
I’m seeing someone. We have good feelings for each other. The night Seung-Jae heard those words, when he opened the door of his house and entered, drunk, the first person he instinctively thought of was Si-Jin. It could never happen without Na-Yool going crazy, but somehow he felt like it could be the case.
Heavens, and he was right.
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