“It’s hard, isn’t it?”
“What do I have to struggle with? All I did was check and count items.”
“That’s what’s hard.”
At Luna’s words, Hyedam laughed. As he felt when they first met, she really had a refreshing and bright personality.
“Then shall we eat lots of delicious food and get energized for the afternoon too?”
“Of course we should. This is fieldwork, so I’m going to claim all the meal expenses. So order whatever you want to eat.”
“Mushroom risotto is fine for me.”
“What are you talking about? We obviously have to order pizza, spaghetti, and steak too. I’d like to have some beer refreshingly, but I’ll hold back on that and you choose drinks too. I’m telling you, you can pick three or four.”
“Who’s going to eat all that?”
“Who’s going to eat it all? We have to eat it all. Hyedam-ssi, you can eat that much.”
“If I were in my teens, maybe, but it’s a bit hard now.”
Back when he was at an age where he could chew and eat iron, he would definitely eat two ramens with rice mixed in, but now one ramen with a little rice was enough. Besides, given Luna’s personality, it was clear that the meal wouldn’t be completely over just because the meal ended.
All the women he had seen so far always had drinks or things like that after meals.
“Weak words. Steak medium? Medium rare?”
“Medium rare.”
“Spicy spaghetti? Ah! You eat spicy food well, right? Then. Let’s have the spaghetti spicy.”
After seemingly asking him a few things, Luna called the staff and ordered so much food that the staff looked flustered, and she seemed very satisfied with her order.
“How is it working with Leo?”
There seemed to be a moment of silence, but Luna seemed unable to stand that quietness.
“Office workers’ work. It’s all like that. What you do working with Team Leader and what I do probably isn’t that different.”
“Hyedam-ssi. This is no fun. You should badmouth our boss with me! Are you going to slip away like that?”
“Alright. What do you want to say? I’ll agree with everything.”
“Well, you see. He says this pretty child is ugly. Look. Is she really ugly?”
When Hyedam was faced with a baby’s face on the cell phone screen that Luna suddenly thrust out, the bewilderment on his face lingered only briefly before he had already taken her cell phone and was looking through the photos one by one.
“She’s really cute though.”
“Right? She’s cute, right? She says ‘mama’ and ‘papa’ now, and really, yesterday she was so cute that I bit her cheek and got scolded.”
“She looks like you, Luna-ssi, with big eyes and really looks like a doll.”
“As expected, Hyedam-ssi has an eye for these things.”
The corners of Hyedam’s mouth rose naturally without knowing fear of heaven as he looked at the white, chubby, blue-eyed child. How could anyone get angry watching a video of a child smiling with the happiest expression in the world? To Hyedam, who didn’t have children around him and barely had any memory of actually seeing children, children were mysterious beings.
“The child is so pretty. I really don’t know why Leo dislikes her.”
“He dislikes her?”
“Yes, he really dislikes her. When I show him photos, he does look at them roughly, but not like you do, Hyedam-ssi. He glances at them a few times then closes it and brings up work talk.”
“Team Leader has an easygoing personality.”
“Think about it. How pretty would Leo the second be? That family already has all the superior genes, and when I say get married quickly, auntie will treat you well, he doesn’t even pretend to listen. He doesn’t know about dating or marriage, but he absolutely hates kids?”
Although the conversation was briefly interrupted as the food was being set up, Luna continued talking, and Hyedam occasionally nodded and gave simple answers.
“Oh right. Leo. You know he says things are ugly when he really likes them or they appeal to him?”
“What?”
“He always says my baby is ugly. He always says the opposite like that.”
“No way.”
“The highest praise that can come out of Leo’s mouth is probably ‘ugly,’ you know? When he was little, was it his maternal grandmother? Anyway, Leo was so pretty that people kept going on about his appearance. So his grandmother called him ugly because she said he’d get jinxed. Hearing that, the family all called Leo ugly? I don’t know if it stuck from then. Anyway, if there’s an object or target that Leo uses the expression ‘ugly’ for, it means he really likes it and it appeals to him. Since you’re his secretary, if you happen to hear something like that, keep it in mind. It’s quite a good tip, right?”
“There’s nothing worth him saying that about.”
“That’s why I’m telling you to remember it well.”
Hyedam pushed the steak in front of Luna, who kept talking. Leo who suddenly muttered “ugly.” He who stared straight into his eyes and always worried about his ugliness with a faint smile on his lips.
Hyedam, who was substituting the word ‘like’ instead of ‘ugly,’ lowered his head deeply. His chest suddenly rippled and his mood became strange. Should he call it a thought worthy of the fool Ondal? If Luna’s words were correct, Leo had been saying good(?) things to him strangely consistently from the beginning.
Hyedam, who had scooped up a little of the half-eaten mushroom risotto with his spoon and held it in his mouth, suddenly saw someone appearing behind Luna and jumped up from his seat.
Luna, flustered by the sight of him quickly bowing in greeting, also stood up, and Leo, who had caused this commotion, walked over nonchalantly and sat in the seat next to Hyedam.
“What were you eating?”
It was just a few hours ago that he felt strange about the fact that he wouldn’t be meeting Leo today. But suddenly appearing and glancing at the risotto he had been eating, then shaking his head, seemed like a fantasy.
“You should have eaten steak too. Is risotto okay?”
“I ordered steak too.”
“Ugly Hyedam-ssi. Did you get home safely that day?”
*Cough.*
At Leo’s words, Hyedam, who was about to swallow the risotto without chewing it properly and say something, quickly covered his mouth with a tissue at the sudden cough.
Fortunately, since he had swallowed the risotto before being startled, nothing unsightly happened, but once started, the coughing didn’t stop easily.
“Are you okay?”
He knew who was patting his back and handing him a water cup, but since he had to stop coughing first, Hyedam accepted his touch, held some water in his mouth to calm down, then subtly pushed away his hand that was still on his back.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry for suddenly choking.”
“…You suddenly appear and say weird things, so Hyedam-ssi gets startled. Why did you come?”
“I thought we could eat together.”
Only after observing Leo looking at the menu as if nothing had happened did Hyedam sit down in his seat.
“Does a busy person have time to eat with us too?”
“What’s your afternoon schedule?”
“Robert-ssi asked me to change some house accessories and bedding, so I was going to go look at that.”
“You were going to go with Hyedam-ssi?”
“Yeah.”
Beside Luna and Leo who were exchanging conversation comfortably, Hyedam drank orange juice. He could stop by on his way. It wasn’t surprising for people who work together to eat together. They even drank together last time.
“Do you want to eat steak?”
He hadn’t been that hungry from the start, nor did he have much of an appetite, so he had chosen the light mushroom risotto. With Leo’s sudden appearance, his appetite had completely disappeared, so Hyedam, who had just been drinking beverages, unconsciously shook his head at the gaze looking at him.
“You don’t like heavy things? Then. Eat steak salad.”
This time, Leo, who spoke in a commanding rather than suggesting tone, ordered food, and Hyedam buried himself deep in his chair and observed Leo and Luna. After Leo, who had given him the modifier “ugly,” didn’t say anything that would make him flustered after that, and Luna, who had clearly been defining the word “ugly” that he used until just before, was also no different than usual.
She definitely must have heard it too, but at the sight of her showing no disturbance at all, Hyedam, who had gotten tense by himself, subtly rubbed his damp palms on his thighs. It was like that with everything. Those who were conscious would notice, but to those who didn’t place meaning on something, there were more things that weren’t visible.
“What do you like, Hyedam-ssi?”
Hyedam, who had been listening to their conversation while spaced out, straightened his body that had been relaxing at Luna’s question, sitting up straight with his back erect.
“You need to tell me exactly what you’re referring to… Food?”
“Food is fine, but do you have things like objects or gifts you’d like to receive?”
“My friends and I aren’t the type to have that kind of gift-giving culture. Even on birthdays, we don’t really give and receive gifts like that, we just gather and have a drink together, so I’ve never thought about gifts.”
“Even if not birthdays, there’s Christmas too.”
“Would we give and receive gifts on Christmas when we don’t even give and receive them on birthdays?”
“That’s true, I guess.”
“Hyedam.”
Hyedam, who had been having a conversation with Luna about gifts, turned his head at the sound of his name being called and inadvertently accepted what approached his lips.
“Let’s go around together after the meal. You’re choosing things I’ll use anyway.”
The steak that had just come out was warm and soft. Moreover, since a refreshing orange-based salad entered his mouth together, Hyedam couldn’t show any reaction while listening to Leo’s one-sided words. First, he had to eat the food in his mouth…
After chewing for a while and eating the steak, Hyedam finally realized. The fact that he was the only one uncomfortable with accompanying Leo at this place. And also the fact that he wasn’t in a position to voice his discomfort out loud.
