“It’s a bit hot. I turned on the air conditioner so it’s fine. Aren’t you hot?”
At the momentary silence, Eunchan cleared his throat to change the atmosphere.
“I-I’m fi-fine.”
The humid heat tickled his body. As if he’d sprayed perfume, a floral scent like roses wafted from the man.
“My introduction is late. I’m the team leader here, Kim Eunchan.”
When introducing himself as team leader, he briefly lowered his voice and whispered as if letting it flow.
“Planning, team leader. Kim Eunchan.”
The man slowly read aloud the nameplate attached to the desk. The soft voice was pleasant to hear, which made it more painful. Normally he wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but because the man was carefully examining the nameplate, his heart felt strange. Fuck, I need to take that off quickly. There were only two employees total, so calling anyone team leader or whatever felt like kids’ games.
“What brings you here?”
Eunchan forced a smile and asked. From the looks of it, it didn’t seem like a B-grade request. The boss always sized up visiting customers by looking at their face, clothes, shoes, bags, and so on. That’s all Eunchan learned while working in the back, so when customers came, he naturally graded them like the boss did.
The biggest-sized customer since opening was that lawyer fellow. Han Inju was practically top-grade just from his outfit and manner of speech alone. However, compared to the lawyer, this man was dressed more casually. A shirt and pants, no watch, and ordinary shoes too. Still, the atmosphere he gave off was peculiar—he was exactly like a kid from a well-off family.
Is he a celebrity? Eunchan carefully examined the man and speculated. Occasionally actors and singers would secretly visit too. Still, they’d send their managers—they didn’t come themselves…
“I just… came through a re-referral.”
“Who opened the door for you?”
“Some man…”
“Oh! Eunchan hyung! When did you get here?”
They’d just started talking a bit when Hyungsik opened the company door and came in with good timing. He was holding two takeout coffees in his hands.
“Where did you go when we have a customer?”
“No, when I called the boss, he told me to handle it well. I called you too, hyung, but you didn’t answer…”
“Even so, man, when there’s no one in the office.”
No matter how thoughtless he is, still. Eunchan let out a long sigh looking at Hyungsik scratching the back of his head. He was young, but to be this thoughtless. Eunchan put his hands on his hips and looked at Hyungsik with a dumbfounded face.
“Should I buy one for you too, hyung?”
“Never mind, never mind…”
Hyungsik set down an iced Americano on Eunchan’s desk while reading the room. Meanwhile, the other drink was a caramel macchiato piled with whipped cream.
“Give me that one.”
“Hyung…”
“You can just go out and buy another one.”
“It’s really hot outside.”
“Give it.”
At Eunchan’s urging, Hyungsik reluctantly placed the coffee he’d bought for himself on the desk too. Eunchan demonstratively put the straw in his mouth in front of Hyungsik and sucked up the sweet coffee. The rich sweetness stung sharply on the tip of his tongue.
“Let’s go inside.”
He’d teased him enough. Eunchan put the drink back down on the desk then spoke to the man. If the boss asked to please handle it well, he seemed like quite a big-sized customer.
“Hyungsik-ah, turn on the air conditioner in the boss’s office.”
“Okay!”
The man awkwardly stood up following Eunchan’s guidance. He looked like he didn’t want to go inside, and also looked like he didn’t like the noisy atmosphere.
“…You’re quite tall.”
“Y-yes.”
Looking at the man standing right next to him, close by, his chin naturally lifted up. To have such a large build compared to his pretty face. Even though he himself wasn’t short, he felt a bit intimidated and Eunchan naturally stepped back.
“Do-do you dislike it?”
“Huh? I neither like nor dislike it.”
Who am I to say I like or dislike it? Eunchan shook his head at the customer’s out-of-the-blue question. The man hunched his shoulders and neatly placed his feet together. Eunchan looked again at the man standing all hunched up. Does he have some kind of complex? If it were me, I’d walk around with my shoulders thrown back for the whole world to see. I’d take 100 selfies a day and would’ve debuted too.
When a somewhat awkward silence continued, Hyungsik, who had finished organizing the boss’s office and come out, gestured to the two standing there.
“I set it to strong wind.”
“Okay. You drink the coffee over there.”
“You’re not drinking it, hyung?”
“Yeah. You drink it.”
He hadn’t really taken it to drink it. He was the older one, so taking his younger brother’s stuff looked really pathetic too. When Eunchan waved his hand, Hyungsik smiled brightly and acted cute saying thanks. Eunchan let out a hollow laugh and while watching Hyungsik shake his body, spoke to the man.
“Please go in first.”
“…”
“Customer?”
“Y-yes…”
As if he had business with Hyungsik, the man stared intently at Hyungsik once, then entered the boss’s office following Eunchan’s guidance. After seating the man on the sofa, Eunchan pondered whether to close the transparent glass door or not, then decided to close it for now. He didn’t know what kind of request the customer brought, but it could be sensitive so he had to be as careful as possible.
“Let me formally introduce myself again. I’m called Kim Eunchan.”
Sitting across from the man with the table between them, Eunchan had no business cards to give, so he handed over the boss’s business card kept in the office instead.
“I’m, I’m Jang Miro.”
“…”
“…”
“Ah, ah, I see! Yes, nice to meet you.”
Eunchan waited longer thinking an introduction would continue, but the man only said his name and closed his mouth. Eunchan hurriedly clapped and responded.
“…”
At the man’s thin gaze, Eunchan rubbed the back of his neck. It was a bit uncomfortable. It was hard to pinpoint exactly, but the man’s way of speaking, his passive gestures… Eunchan rolled his eyes, feeling like he kept sending some kind of signal to him. If they’d known each other, he definitely would have remembered. Especially since the man’s appearance wasn’t something easily forgotten.
“What brought you here?”
“I want to… request work…”
So what kind of work is it? Eunchan sighed in frustration. Then the man glanced at Eunchan’s eyes, then lowered his head again and fixed his gaze on the business card sitting alone on the desk.
“What kind of work is it, customer? You have to tell us so we can help you. And there’s absolutely no need to be embarrassed—we’ve really received all kinds of requests, so it’s fine.”
He’d even ridden a fishing boat at dawn to catch an affair scene, and done a 3-night-4-day stakeout to catch someone who ran off with communal savings. He’d even pretended to be a madam’s young lover, and once got really hurt while acting to help with insurance fraud. Eunchan laid out the numerous jobs he’d done in front of the man and encouraged him to speak up.
“Just…”
The man picked at his cuticles and chewed his lips. His somewhat light-colored hair shone golden in the sunlight coming through the gaps in the blinds. White skin and neat features. Now that he looked, his slit eyes were gorgeous. Eunchan, mesmerized by his face, nodded, forgetting even the man’s frustrating attitude.
Yeah, he could have just come… But how can a person look like that?
“Eunchan-ah!”
“Boss, cough, boss-nim.”
While he was blankly spacing out, the boss, having apparently just arrived, hurriedly opened the door and called Eunchan’s name. Suddenly called on, Eunchan was startled and cleared his throat.
“Oh my, I’m sorry. The traffic was so bad today—”
“…”
The boss smiled good-naturedly and approached the man, extending his hand. However, the man didn’t move from his seated position and stared blankly at the boss’s face before lowering his head again.
‘What, did they fight? Why is he like this?’
‘I don’t know.’
At the gesture of refusal, the boss awkwardly straightened his bent waist and silently mouthed words to Eunchan. Eunchan also shook his head at the man’s suddenly subdued state.
“Boss-nim, please sit down.”
“Oh, coffee?”
“…Outside.”
Come to think of it, while bringing the man in, he remembered leaving the customer’s share of Americano that Hyungsik bought right on his desk. The boss touched his forehead and frowned, and Eunchan asked the man if he should go out and get it now. The man shook his head slightly to answer instead.
“Oh my. And why is it so cold in here?”
“I’m sorry.”
Because they left the air conditioner set to strong wind as it was, the temperature inside the boss’s office was lower than 18 degrees. The boss wrapped his arms around himself looking for the remote, and Eunchan apologized to the man. He’d reproached Hyungsik for lacking flexibility, but he himself was no different.
“Customer.”
“Mi-Miro.”
“Yes, Miro-ssi. Shall we talk while filling something out?”
Now that the boss was here, it seemed okay to talk formally while writing up a contract. Eunchan received the documents the boss handed over, took out the paper, and placed it on the desk.
“I heard roughly over the phone.”
“Ah, you talked on the phone?”
If he’d talked with the boss on the phone before coming, it was obvious the boss would be in charge. Right now he was handling the lawyer’s work, and while Hyungsik wasn’t really doing anything in particular, he was still too inexperienced to handle work alone.
“You said you’re being stalked?”
“Oh my, this is serious—”
At the boss’s words, Eunchan chimed in and started highlighting the contract with a highlighter. Here, write here, and sign over there.
“Should we catch the stalker and beat them up? Or catch evidence and hand them to the police? The former is certain but a bit expensive. We don’t really want to do illegal work either— The latter is a bit cheaper but not certain. They probably won’t be punished well anyway, and you might get retaliated against for stirring things up. You know well, right?”
Words flowed smoothly from the boss’s mouth. No matter how much he charged, the boss would take twice that amount, but somehow he felt sorry for the man. For him, it was a good thing when the boss took more because the share that fell to him was bigger, but seeing the man sitting hunched and powerless, he thought the boss was going a bit too far.
