Was my fish eating lunch while working? Was there so much work he was skipping lunch? No matter what, he should eat lunch. Because of the endlessly pouring worries, I couldn’t put down my phone.
> What about your lunch? 12:15
Seo Heejin
> It’s okay… where would I have time for that, how dare I… 12:15
> Should I buy you something on the way back? You still need to eat lunch though 12:15
Seo Heejin
> It’s okay… our whole team can’t eat, so what’s the point of only me eating… 12:15
> How can a person work without even eating 12:16
Seo Heejin
> I know right… 12:16
A sigh burst out at the weakly returned reply. My precious fish who owned a house in Seoul was, in the end, just a mere salaried employee.
“Jeong Yunwoo. Are you dating someone?”
In the midst of all this, the perceptive Song Ki poked at my personal life.
“No.”
“Then why can’t you let go of your phone?”
Hmm. Honestly, I wanted to brag a little. In my 29 years of life, no one had ever clung to me like this, and I’d never managed multiple prospects either.
“Song Ki-ya, I’m only telling you this but…….”
As long as I don’t mention that it’s Seo Heejin, it should be fine, right?
“I’m currently managing multiple prospects these days. A total catch.”
At my small whisper, Song Ki let out a scoff as if amazed. Well, of course—Song Ki knew that I was terribly unpopular with women. He didn’t even realize that unpopularity came naturally because I showed them absolutely no interest.
“Is she pretty?”
At Song Ki’s question, Seo Heejin’s face floated up in my mind. The way he smiled gently with his eyes, and his pale face that was unusual for an Asian. Seo Heejin was definitely on the pretty side.
“Yeah. Pretty.”
This was an answer from an objective perspective. It was funny to complain now that he wasn’t my type. I was already thoroughly familiar with Seo Heejin’s face.
“What about the body?”
Seo Heejin’s body? I didn’t even need to think about that.
“Good.”
For a moment, the image of Seo Heejin with my cum all over his clearly defined abs, shaking his hips, flashed through my mind. Seo Heejin’s body wasn’t just ordinarily good.
“Fucking good.”
So I emphasized it twice. Even if I wasn’t sure about Seo Heejin’s face, his body and cock were exactly my type. Was that all?
“Hey, but he’s also loaded.”
At my small whisper, Song Ki shook his head as if dumbfounded.
I knew I’d look materialistic. But I really wanted to brag to someone. That I was managing multiple prospects with this pretty, well-built, rich guy.
“Crazy. But you’re managing multiple prospects? That’s hilarious. What are you even doing?”
I was doing the best I could for Seo Heejin.
“I’m treating him really well so he keeps liking me.”
Just as today’s menu—soft tofu stew and side dishes—was being served in a row, our conversation was briefly interrupted. Right, I’d been treating Seo Heejin really well lately.
“Enjoy your meal. But, how are you treating him well?”
Song Ki seemed like he wanted to learn from me. In that case, it was only natural to give him serious advice.
“I keep in touch regularly, always make time to see him on weekends. Even on weekdays, if he says he wants to meet, I go to his place. Oh, and I tell him he’s cute every day.”
Wow, even saying it myself, it was a tremendous effort. I couldn’t do that much even for a guy who was my type. My efforts to hold onto Seo Heejin were truly remarkable.
“Something like that?”
At my voice unable to hide my pride, Song Ki said nothing and just scooped up a big spoonful of rice and shoved it into his mouth.
“That’s managing multiple prospects? You’re completely giving it your all to date him, though?”
A laugh slipped out. It was true that I was giving my all to manage prospects, but that didn’t mean we were dating. Song Ki seemed displeased with my expression as he waved his spoon at me. The rice grains stuck to it shook along with it.
“Why would such an amazing woman settle for being strung along by you? Aren’t you the one being strung along and you’re just the only one who doesn’t know?”
Me being strung along by Seo Heejin? An empty laugh escaped at Song Ki’s ridiculous statement. How could that even be possible? Seo Heejin’s face full of aegyo came to mind and I let out another chuckle.
“No way. I’m not an idiot, I can tell that much apart.”
Even until I was eating lunch and joking around with Song Ki, I thought his words were bullshit from someone who knew nothing.
I never even dreamed that I might be the idiot.
***
After the peaceful lunch break passed, came the drowsy afternoon. I kept repeating the cycle of taking a sip of what was left of the Americano I bought in the morning, plugging in a few numbers, then taking another sip of coffee.
Food coma seemed to visit everyone equally—Manager Park had a dazed expression too, and Deputy Go kept tilting her head side to side, complaining of fatigue. The last sip of coffee I sucked up fiercely only made a scraping sound against the bottom and barely a few drops came through.
“Deputy-nim, I’m going to buy more coffee. Do you need any?”
At my question, Deputy Go also stood up from her seat.
“Let’s go together. I’m seriously dying of sleepiness.”
Our footsteps heading toward the company cafeteria were listless and heavy.
We bought coffee and sat at a table for a moment, blankly looking down out the window. Perhaps because it was a neighborhood full of nothing but office buildings, the view outside was bleak too. The only human sight was a bunch of ahjussis in ties gathered together smoking.
“I hope Manager Park……trips on his way home and breaks his leg.”
“Then wouldn’t he just go to the ER and come to work tomorrow? I’d rather he trip on his way to work tomorrow. So he doesn’t come at all.”
At my logical answer, Deputy Go nodded her head several times as if in intense agreement. Then she changed the subject.
“Oh, Yunwoo-ssi. I heard Heejin-ssi’s girlfriend is really pretty?”
What is this out-of-the-blue nonsense?
“He doesn’t have a girlfriend.”
“Huh? My colleagues said they saw them in front of the company.”
Seo Heejin was practically clocking in at my place almost every day lately. Even if we couldn’t leave work together, once work was done he’d come over to my place. I didn’t know where the rumor came from, but people were really interested in Seo Heejin’s love life.
“Oh…… really?”
“Yeah. She’s older too. My colleagues who were eyeing Heejin-ssi were depressed because she’s so sexy.”
The answer that came back to my casual response was more specific than I expected. Older and sexy? I am older, but…… there’s no way I’d look sexy to people other than Seo Heejin. Even Seo Heejin didn’t know I was sexy.
The conclusion was that the person Deputy Go’s colleague saw was definitely not me. Well, if it had been me, the company would’ve been turned upside down already.
“Heejin-ssi is really popular—”
As Deputy Go spoke while stretching, I stared at her blankly while Song Ki’s words came to mind. “Aren’t you the one being strung along and you’re just the only one who doesn’t know?”
From that moment on, there was no way I could focus on work.
At first, just a vague curiosity arose. What kind of woman was this woman Seo Heejin was seeing at the same time as me? An older, sexy woman.
My imagination was always the same and mediocre, so all that came to mind was the sexy face of the professor from that drama depicting a shocking student-teacher romance.
In that case, there’d be about a 20-year age gap. If the woman Seo Heejin was seeing was like that, wouldn’t the company have been turned upside down already? I shook my head and focused again on the Excel file on my monitor.
Even so, my hands on the keyboard’s number pad were typing 28, Seo Heejin’s age.
How many years older is the woman he’s seeing? Meaninglessly, in the cell next to 28, numbers from 1 to 10 were written, and I found myself habitually setting up formulas even for such simple calculations. Not even leaving out the iferror.
Looking at the numbers written from 29 to 38, I wondered how old someone would have to be for you to tell at a glance, even just passing by, that they’re older.
These days everyone takes such good care of themselves they don’t look their age. Maybe around thirty-five would look obviously older at a glance? Then that would be a seven-year difference with Seo Heejin. Wow, with a seven-year difference, when that woman was in college, Seo Heejin would’ve been in 6th grade.
What does Seo Heejin call that woman? So-and-so-ssi? Or noona? Ha.
When my thoughts reached this point, self-loathing suddenly flooded in. The truth was, I clearly felt that what Deputy Go said was gossip tabloid-level rumor.
Even if Seo Heejin’s confessions to me every day and his sweet behavior that made me melt were all an act. Unless Seo Heejin had a magic hourglass that reverses time like in wizard books, seeing me and someone else at the same time was, no matter how many times I thought about it, physically impossible.
So I should stop with the useless thoughts and just work. But I couldn’t understand why it bothered me for no reason.
“Jeong Yunwoo! Come here!”
