But none of that mattered. What Surim wanted in the first place wasn’t something like love anyway.
It was just that the sensation of masculine hands with prominent knuckles touching the nape of his neck and groping a bit further inside remained vivid. That was all.
Surim rubbed the nape of his neck with his hand, which felt tingly for no reason, and sighed.
“I said that was just something like an accident that happened when Song Hanyeong worked all night and wasn’t in his right mind….”
He deliberately said it out loud, but he knew well himself that he couldn’t stop this runaway train.
Because Surim wasn’t simply lonely. After being left alone, Surim constantly felt like he was standing on a thin plank on a stormy sea. The loneliness of feeling like there was nothing tying him to this earth shook the plank even more violently.
A coldness that couldn’t be resolved with physical warmth clung somewhere around his lower back and wouldn’t fall off at all. It was somewhat better when he went to work and was working, but when he returned home and was left alone again, his whole body trembled.
In that state, Song Hanyeong was the last warmth for Surim—if taken away, he would freeze solid. Perhaps Surim was unconsciously clinging to Song Hanyeong to avoid freezing to death.
“…Actually, up until now, I haven’t really been stalking him.”
He had called what happened in university stalking just to give himself a warning. Even though all he had done was steal glances at Song Hanyeong from afar whenever he had the chance, it was meant as a reminder to be careful not to go any further.
But now, obsessing over something insignificant by giving it special meaning was the kind of thing a crazy stalker would do, so the day he’d evolve into a creepy stalker who collects used straws or secretly takes photos probably wasn’t far off.
No, it seemed like he’d already become one.
“……”
Surim gazed uneasily at the mug he had stolen from the company today.
“…I’m really going crazy.”
Shockingly, he couldn’t control himself. As long as he was working in the same office as Song Hanyeong, there was a possibility this kind of thing would happen again in the future.
In the end, Surim had no choice but to make a painful decision.
“Let’s… avoid Song Hanyeong.”
This was the only way to avoid committing a crime. Fortunately, they said he didn’t need to get approval from above when working, so it wasn’t impossible.
From now on, let’s be more careful and absolutely avoid becoming an aggressive, crazy stalker.
Even as he firmly resolved this, Surim had no intention whatsoever of returning the cup.
As Surim was organizing his thoughts like this, fatigue suddenly washed over him and his head throbbed, so he buried his face between his arms.
“I’m hungry….”
After groaning for a while, hunger came over him. Surim opened the refrigerator door and looked inside. The refrigerator had many ingredients—tofu, salad vegetables, dressing, chives, kimchi, and so on. However, all Surim took out was apple juice.
Surim poured the apple juice into a large cup and drank his dinner while gazing at Song Hanyeong’s cup in front of him as if appreciating it.
Doing that made him feel a little less unsettled.
* * *
To cut to the conclusion, the plan to avoid Song Hanyeong was quite effective in calming his stalking urges. Fortunately, his desire not to become a trashy stalker seemed to be greater than his desire to chase after Song Hanyeong.
Surim worked hard to hide himself in response to the sound of Song Hanyeong’s shoe heels, which were like a cat’s bell, and thanks to not facing him directly, he was able to reach Friday without committing a single act of stalking.
It was a very encouraging achievement.
‘Let’s keep doing this from now on.’
The situation in the lab also helped him. The reason Song Hanyeong hurriedly left the office around Tuesday afternoon seemed to be because there was a problem with samples they had outsourced. The lab atmosphere froze because of problems that couldn’t be resolved, and as other researchers also watched Song Hanyeong’s mood and started avoiding him, Surim’s eccentric behavior also got buried in between.
Fortunately for Surim, that situation lasted quite a while. Surim, who sat separately, was outside that sphere of influence, but the researchers, especially Lee Myeongho, were visibly losing their souls.
“I feel like I’m going to suffocate to death!”
“Can’t the problematic samples be recovered?”
“That’s…!”
“Yes.”
“It’s not simply that kind of problem…!”
Lee Myeongho growled as if he had a lot to say and shouted something, but couldn’t finish his sentence. It seemed he couldn’t talk about it because it was ‘classified.’ Well, it wasn’t like he really wanted to hear about it anyway.
“But what’s that? Green algae?”
Unable to find a way to explain without leaking classified information, Lee Myeongho changed the subject. The target was the liquid inside the tumbler Surim was holding.
“It’s juice.”
Surim replied sensitively. Surim, who hadn’t eaten proper food for over a week, was gradually becoming irritable.
“Juice?”
Lee Myeongho, who had been getting the few remaining puddings and pound cakes from the refrigerator, asked with a serious expression.
“What’s in there?”
“Spinach, kale, celery, carrots….”
“If it doesn’t have apples or grapes, you can’t call it juice.”
“Then I’ll call it green juice.”
“…What on earth makes you drink something like that?”
Surim looked at Lee Myeongho, who was shuddering, with displeasure and gulped down all the green juice that was just ground-up salad. Lee Myeongho made a disgusted face at the grassy smell full of green scent.
Ignoring him, Surim, who was heading to the sink to wash the empty tumbler, suddenly bent down. As soon as he hid behind the standing table across from the sink, Song Hanyeong appeared in the hallway. Song Hanyeong’s eyebrows furrowed sharply as he glanced at the standing table in the break room, but Surim, who was crouched down anxiously waiting for him to pass, couldn’t notice this fact.
Only Lee Myeongho, who had come to get snacks and ended up receiving Song Hanyeong’s cold gaze, silently screamed.
Only after the sound of Song Hanyeong’s shoe heels disappeared far away did Surim quietly get up. Lee Myeongho, who had been frozen stiff, sprawled his body on the standing table and asked.
“How long are you going to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Avoiding Manager Song.”
“That’s….”
“Why are you avoiding him?”
“…There are circumstances that warrant it.”
“What circumstances make you act like this?”
Surim, who had been mumbling, firmly shut his mouth.
“Ah, please. I’m going to wither away at this rate. Fine, forget the circumstances, at least tell me how long this will go on.”
It was understandable that Lee Myeongho was groaning, since he was already tired from the sample problem and now Surim was making him worry too. Surim looked at Lee Myeongho, who was leaning his upper body on the table, and let out a deep sigh.
“…Until next week.”
“Next week?”
“Yes, I’m a working professional too, so I can’t drag this out too long.”
“Wouldn’t a normal working professional not avoid anyone at work in the first place?”
“Then I guess I’m not a normal working professional.”
A working professional stalker needed to be somewhat different. The longer the time without seeing Song Hanyeong grew, the more Surim was breaking free from his strange stalking urges. He didn’t know if he could be perfectly cured by next week, but at least by then he should be able to control it to some degree.
Surim was scared that if he left this impulse unchecked, someday he’d rummage through the trash and pick up chopsticks that Song Hanyeong had used and thrown away.
“This lab isn’t normal anyway.”
“That’s true…”
“So I can be a little strange too.”
Lee Myeongho stared at Surim intently and then burst into a hollow laugh.
“Surim-ssi, it’s only been five days since you came to our lab, but you seem to have adapted well already. I vividly remember you trembling and standing blankly at the door at first.”
“Why are you bringing that up…”
Surim muttered and grumbled, turning red. He had nothing to say even if told his adaptation was too fast. In truth, he was good at figuring out where he could stretch out, and Lee Myeongho was giving him quite a bit of space. He had been friendly from the start, perhaps because he had someone to hand over the annoying general affairs work to.
“Anyway, make sure you resolve it by next week.”
“Yes.”
“Good. Wow, I feel energized….”
Lee Myeongho cheered in a voice that had no energy at all.
“But you remember today is the company dinner, right?”
“Of course. Wow, I’m so excited….”
This time Surim pretended to cheer in a voice that put all his energy into it.
“You also know Manager Song is going to the company dinner?”
“Of course he’ll go.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
“I’ll sit as far away as possible.”
There were over ten researchers, and since he was like the youngest, couldn’t he sit at the very end? Song Hanyeong would naturally be at the head seat.
“Well, I hope it goes well for you.”
After giving halfhearted encouragement, Lee Myeongho immediately continued speaking.
“Anyway, I’ve been so stressed lately, so I need to eat a ton at the company dinner. Oh, did I tell you where we’re going?”
“No.”
“Hehehe. It’s called Everest, a famous teppanyaki restaurant that received a Michelin star. Normally you can’t get a reservation this quickly, but Manager Song solved it with his connections.”
It seemed like a name he’d heard somewhere. Surim tried to recall the vague memory, but it was only hazy like fog.
