Flustered for no reason, Ilkyung unconsciously shook his head.
“You didn’t eat?”
“Huh? No, I ate!”
Ilkyung, who had been instinctively shaking his head toward his noona, hurriedly denied it at Daehoon’s question. And then, the 4th floor opened and Minkyung greeted them.
“I’ll be going ahead.”
Ilkyung reflexively bowed to his noona in greeting, and Ha Daehoon also greeted her lightly. The door closed and silence flowed through the elevator with just the two of them remaining.
“Why are you bowing to your noona at a 90-degree angle like that?”
Director Ha said with a hint of laughter.
“When did I bow at 90 degrees? It’s not like I’m a gangster.”
“Ah, did you? But you properly ate a meal, right?”
Daehoon asked again as if to confirm.
“I ate. Pasta.”
“Pasta? Why didn’t you go to the cafeteria today?”
“Just, because I felt like eating pasta.”
At Ilkyung’s answer, Daehoon frowned slightly. The wrinkle that appeared on his straight brow gave off a somewhat chilly feeling. Ilkyung momentarily wondered if he’d done something wrong, but nothing came to mind.
“You ate flour in the morning and ate flour again? When you’re someone whose body isn’t well.”
“The flour I ate this morning was what you gave me, Director-nim.”
Even so, really. After spitting it out, he thought why did he say it like that.
“No, I didn’t mean to say it like this… Thank you for the sandwich.”
Ilkyung felt he’d been a bit too much and hurriedly expressed his thanks. Perhaps because his condition wasn’t good, his mood was swinging wildly.
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Yes, but there was too much so I shared it all with the team members.”
“Well done.”
Daehoon said as if praising a child. Then he reached out and touched Ilkyung’s forehead. Ilkyung tried to avoid it but realized he had pressed himself against the wall just moments ago and had nowhere to escape to.
“Uh, hey! Why…”
“Fortunately you don’t have a fever.”
Daehoon said as he withdrew his hand. Ilkyung touched with his own hand the forehead that Daehoon had touched. Did he really not have a fever? As Ilkyung kept touching his own forehead with his hand, Daehoon chuckled and lowered that hand for him. Then he tidied up the hair sticking out here and there. At the shortened distance, Ilkyung stood still, unable to even breathe properly.
They’d even slept in the same bed and had ridden in the same car a few times, so what was this… Ilkyung felt like his temperature kept rising. Ilkyung touched his cheek and checked the number. It was the 6th floor. It was the 7th floor’s turn to open.
“Assistant Manager Woo, breathe a little.”
At those words, Ilkyung frowned again.
“I am breathing.”
He stubbornly got a word in and tried to get off, but that’s when it happened. Thunk.
“Ah!”
The elevator stopped just like that. With one shake, Ilkyung ended up pressing his face right into Daehoon’s chest, who had been standing close.
“Are you okay?”
Daehoon hurriedly embraced Ilkyung.
“Wh-what’s going on?”
Flustered Ilkyung’s pupils shook wildly. Since this was Ilkyung’s first time experiencing something like this, he unconsciously clutched tightly at Daehoon’s clothes. Daehoon looked at Ilkyung, placed his hand on his cheek, and met his gaze.
“The elevator seems to have stopped for a moment. Are you okay?”
When he asked once more, Ilkyung slowly nodded. Daehoon slowly stroked Ilkyung’s back while still holding him in his embrace.
“Uh, hey! I’m okay now.”
Only then realizing he was still in Daehoon’s embrace, Ilkyung gently pushed Daehoon away.
“Okay, yes. Just a moment. Let’s call someone.”
Daehoon pressed the elevator’s emergency contact button. Ilkyung slowly pressed himself against the wall and looked at Daehoon’s broad back. How could that person be so calm without being surprised or flustered at all?
“Yes, the elevator has stopped.”
Daehoon calmly explained the situation. Then he approached Ilkyung again.
“They say they’ll fix it right away. Don’t worry. Were you very startled?”
“A, a little.”
“Your face is pale, are you okay?”
That was the moment. Feeling anxious, Ilkyung squirmed into the embrace first.
He was really startled. He hadn’t known the elevator would shake and stop like this. Ilkyung felt like he wanted to leave Daehoon’s embrace but couldn’t do so and kept fiddling with his clothes.
“Are you okay?”
Daehoon pulled Ilkyung a bit closer and checked again. Ilkyung nodded. But feeling Ilkyung’s hand trembling as it gripped his clothes, Daehoon pulled Ilkyung even closer to him.
“If you’re okay, let’s stay like this a bit longer.”
Ilkyung nodded. He didn’t know about other things, but Ilkyung was somewhat afraid of being in cramped spaces for a long time. When he was young, while playing hide-and-seek with his noonas, he once hid in the large container his mother used for making kimchi, and somehow no one found him so he ended up hiding there for a long time. It wasn’t quite claustrophobia, but enduring it was difficult.
“This is my first time experiencing something like this.”
“Yeah, that can happen.”
“When did they say they’d come to repair it?”
“They’ll be here soon. Don’t worry. They say elevator crashes are extremely rare.”
Ilkyung nodded his head. For a moment, only silence flowed between the two.
“Were you feeling alright on Sunday?”
“Yes. I slept all day. So I’m fine now.”
“That’s a relief. Your family didn’t say anything about you staying out overnight, did they?”
“Only my noona was there. My parents went on a trip and came back this morning. Ever since they retired, they go traveling whenever they get the chance. I’m jealous.”
“That’s how Center work is. You’re always on standby.”
Ilkyung nodded. He himself had gone on vacation during the golden week holiday only to return to the Center.
Still, he was an ordinary person so it was relatively okay for him. His noonas would return to the Center or be dispatched directly to the scene whenever incidents or accidents occurred, even while playing outside or meeting someone.
One day, while the four of them were having a meal, a major incident involving insurgents broke out, and everyone returned to the Center leaving only Ilkyung behind. That was when Ilkyung was still a student and before he joined the Center. It took him quite a while to collect himself from the dejected feeling of being left alone in the restaurant.
“Watching my noonas was like watching a detective manga. You know those kinds? Where a case always happens wherever that detective goes… At this point, you start to wonder if the protagonist is the one bringing murder cases around.”
“Yes, I know what you mean. Sherlock Holmes is like that too.”
“Right.”
Ilkyung nodded with a small smile.
“For our family, going on a trip somewhere really requires tremendous resolve. It must have been even more so for my parents. In their time, there weren’t many Espers and Guides.”
Daehoon nodded. At least Daehoon had gone to England together when his mother was transferred there, but for ordinary ability users, taking a long vacation itself wasn’t easy.
“So while I was usually envious of my family, when I think about things like that, I also thought it was fortunate that I wasn’t an ability user.”
Daehoon wondered what the probability would be of becoming the sole ordinary person in a household where everyone was an ability user. But he couldn’t ask Ilkyung out loud if he was okay with that. Though he hadn’t known Woo Ilkyung for long, that fact seemed to be a sensitive topic for Woo Ilkyung.
“Can you hear me?”
Finally, as people seemed to have arrived, it became noisy outside the door.
“Yes, we can hear you! Two people are trapped inside.”
Color returned to Ilkyung’s face, which had turned pale. Ilkyung hurriedly answered.
“People came early! Wow, we’re saved.”
Ilkyung laughed as he pulled away from Daehoon’s embrace.
“Saved from what? I told you it won’t crash. Where exactly did my words go?”
When Daehoon grumbled, Ilkyung pouted his lips.
“Always nagging about something.”
* * *
“Assistant Manager Woo, are you okay?”
As soon as they entered the office, everyone’s eyes gathered at once. Team Leader Park asked with surprised eyes. Ilkyung nodded with an awkward smile.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“You must have been startled. You were trapped with Director Ha? Both of you? How did that happen?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Ilkyung shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh my, those few minutes must have felt like hours. Your relationship isn’t good to begin with, it must have been incredibly awkward.”
At Section Chief Kang’s words, Ilkyung flinched. If it had been before, Ilkyung would have stayed as far away from Director Ha Daehoon as possible, huddled in some corner, and bolted out without looking back as soon as the door opened.
People seemed to think that the relationship between Ilkyung and Director Ha Daehoon hadn’t changed from before, so they assumed the two were still sworn enemies. Well, strictly speaking, there really was no change. It was just that because of the contract relationship, the two who seemed like they’d never see each other were now spending personal time together. That didn’t mean things would get any better between them.
