“What’s going on?”
Hyedam looked at Junseok, who had stopped pouring his drink to examine his face, and chuckled. What’s going on? Suddenly a boss appeared who would double my salary, drastically increase my vacation days, and even buy me a car.
“I renegotiated my salary today, so I think I can get that officetel we looked at together.”
“What are you talking about? It’s not salary negotiation season. Plus, even the jeonse there has monthly rent……”
“That’s why I’m saying my salary went up a ton, enough to easily afford that place.”
Hyedam snatched the bottle Junseok was still holding, finished filling his glass, and gulped down the drink.
“Bastard. Speak so I can understand. Don’t you know I’m dumb?”
“Being dumb is something to brag about? I was originally on the Director’s team.”
“So.”
“The salary negotiation went well when I transferred to the Marketing Team.”
“If your salary went up so much that you can easily cover the monthly rent for the place you want, why are you sitting there with a half-dead expression?”
At Junseok’s words hitting the mark, Hyedam propped his chin and just poked at the gopchang hotpot served in front of him with his chopsticks.
“Do you remember that?”
“What?”
Without looking at Junseok, who was filling and drinking his own glass without being poured for, Hyedam, who had been tormenting only the gopchang hotpot, pressed the tip of his chopsticks firmly into a piece of gopchang.
“Ondal.”
“……Uh, ah. Ah! The bastard who suddenly appeared after Grandmother passed away and then ran off after eating?”
Instead of answering, Hyedam kept tormenting a single piece of gopchang with his chopsticks.
“Wild boar, gun, coffee?”
Each time Junseok threw out words that came to mind, Hyedam’s dimples deepened.
“Why that bastard?”
When he brought up Ondal for the first time in years, Junseok couldn’t connect him to this matter. If even he was like this, how could he make the connection?
“From now on, that bastard is my direct superior.”
After drinking soju that tasted particularly sweet today, Hyedam put the gopchang he’d been tormenting into his mouth, chewed it, and brought up the most important point.
“What?”
When Junseok suddenly stood up and the flimsy tin table shook, Hyedam hurriedly grabbed the table and spat out a curse. When the gazes of everyone in the restaurant who had been chatting and laughing in groups of threes and fives all turned toward him, Hyedam sighed and lowered his head.
“I’m sorry. Hey, bastard. Tell me right now. What are you saying?”
At Junseok’s urging words as he roughly nodded his head to apologize to the people around and quickly sat back down, Hyedam grabbed the bottle again.
“He didn’t remember me.”
“He got his head injured back then and didn’t even know who he was.”
“So that head now doesn’t remember me. Me. Really, it was so absurd when he asked if we’d met before, I wanted to punch him.”
The end of Hyedam’s words, who was chattering and drinking with Ondal as his drinking snack, gradually slowed down.
“I picked up an unconscious guy, treated him, fed him, clothed him, but that guy is a direct descendant of the company owner’s family. So those guns, manor, and hunting dogs were really part of his real life. A guy three years younger than me became my direct superior and told me to become his personal secretary!”
“Oh, Choi Junseok. Your head isn’t completely turned. You understood properly.”
“Even though he raised my salary, offered to give me a car, and give me more vacation, saying he’d grant whatever I wanted. When he told me to become his personal secretary, you, a slave to capitalism, completely fell for it?”
“Right. Right.”
“Anyway, that guy doesn’t remember and you need money, so you’ll just bury all the past and serve him properly as your workplace superior?”
“Of course. He’s a stranger and someone I saw for the first time yesterday.”
“Are you crazy? Say it. I am your life’s savior. If it’s a family with a ton of money, is raising your salary even a problem? This bastard thinks he’s Cinderella or something.”
At Junseok’s direct speech, Hyedam frowned and put down his chopsticks noisily. He hadn’t known because he’d only been looking at the gopchang, but when he raised his head to look at him, Junseok was constantly performing flashy clone techniques, becoming two then one.
“What Cinderella, it’s the Little Mermaid. Bastard.”
“The Little Mermaid liked the prince. You don’t. Anyway, it’s weird. Every time I listen, it sounds like you liked that guy.”
I liked Ondal? What bullshit are you spouting?
This is just. So, because he was briefly by my side when I was having the hardest time…….
“That was my first kiss. It was also the first time I slept like that in a narrow bed. Hugging someone and sleeping felt better than I thought. I didn’t know a person’s warmth could be that warm. When he said ‘it’s okay’ with sparkling eyes. The moment I heard those words, I really became okay. All the heavy, difficult things I’d been holding disappeared. As if he’d cast a spell. Sparkling.”
The words he’d been rambling alone ended with Hyedam banging his head on the table. Things like what he was saying or how Junseok’s expression sitting across from him was changing weren’t in Hyedam’s mind at all.
* * *
He’d been bewitched. Not once, but twice.
He’d been swept up. While fumbling around.
7:55 AM. Normally this would be the time when he’d just finished showering and would be busy preparing to go to work, but currently Hyedam was standing blankly in front of a building he’d only heard about, unable to properly dry his wet hair.
The problem was Junseok’s phone call that came while he was on his way home after somehow moving all his stuff. When he suggested having a drink, he went to blow off his gloomy mood. One drink became two, two drinks became three, forgetting his age, he excitedly poured and drank, and when he opened his eyes, he was at Junseok’s house.
Since Junseok’s house was closer to the company than his own, he’d hesitated and burrowed into the blankets for a moment, but at Hera’s briefing, Hyedam had to spring out of bed like a spring.
He’d completely forgotten that instead of going to work at the company at 9, he had to report to Ondal’s house at 8. While showering, he nagged Junseok to take out the suit he’d left at his place, and as soon as he came out of the bathroom, he stuffed his arms and legs into the prepared clothes.
Tying a necktie around his neck, he hurriedly caught a taxi, and had just gotten out of the taxi with barely any time to spare.
Was this the most expensive villa in our country? The Han River is visible from all units, there’s a parking lot right next to the house, and how many pyeong was it? Ah, there’s a bunker in the basement where you could survive for months even if a nuke went off, right?
The cold wind passed over his not-quite-dry hair, and as goosebumps rose all over his body, Hyedam hurriedly entered the building.
Even passing through the main gate of the villa that had caused quite a stir in the media at the time of construction with its luxurious, high-class, and incredibly expensive sale price took quite a bit of time. The top-floor penthouse of a place where you had to register eye scans and palm prints to enter.
He’d never imagined a reunion like this. The first meeting had already been like a common romance drama situation, and even the reunion wasn’t deviating from the form of a Cinderella story. Now would this guy cling to him saying he likes him, and he’d play hard to get, then accept him, and if it ended like that, would that be a happy ending?
Hyedam, who had been piling delusion upon delusion while the elevator went up, tightly closed his mouth at the arrival sound. As the elevator doors opened, Hyedam let out a soft laugh at the faintly felt coffee scent and slightly bowed his head to the person standing in front of the large door.
“Hello.”
At Robert’s action of bowing his head in return to the greeting and immediately opening the door, Hyedam hesitantly entered the space where bright sunlight was pouring in.
What would he have for him to do coming here from the morning? As someone appropriate to call at this time, a personal shopper seemed most fitting. Or maybe a manager who manages this spacious house.
“Did you drink?”
Hyedam, who had been taking off his shoes and slipping his feet into the slippers that were laid out, quickly raised his head at the voice tinged with laughter. While someone had flown over like crazy as soon as they opened their eyes, he was holding a small espresso cup while wearing a bathrobe, as if he’d just finished showering.
I want caffeine too. Though he’d unintentionally quit coffee for several years, it seemed there had never been a moment when he wanted to drink coffee as much as today. Though it would be a cool iced Americano, not strong espresso.
“Ah, yes.”
Since he couldn’t just stand vacantly in the entrance, Hyedam touched the back of his neck awkwardly and went inside.
“With who?”
“A friend……”
At the natural informal speech, as if he’d decided to speak comfortably, Hyedam was answering when he closed his mouth.
“I thought this yesterday too, but Hyedam-ssi. You’re really ugly. Right?”
This bastard, I’ve been patient but. Plus, if I’m ugly then I’m ugly, but why add “Right?” asking for my agreement on top of that—he couldn’t understand.
“Team Leader-nim is handsome.”
Not knowing what answer to give, Hyedam, who had been choosing appropriate words, offered sincerity mixed with courtesy.
“Am I handsome?”
As if it wasn’t even worth answering, Hyedam just looked down at the marble floor engraved with luxurious patterns. If you called me to your house, not the company, an hour early, you should at least give me appropriate work to do. Since he was receiving money, he couldn’t lash out like yesterday. The hangover he hadn’t felt while rushing over in a frenzy hit him all at once.
