It was when Surim swallowed hard while counting the days. Song Hanyeong suddenly stood up from his seat, gave Surim a look, and moved to the conference room. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet. Surim glanced around to gauge the situation, but no one was paying attention to them. Even that busybody Lee Myeongho wasn’t.
Well, who would object when Song Hanyeong, the head of this research lab, said he was going to eat early?
Surim also confidently followed Song Hanyeong to the conference room.
“Did you not eat breakfast this morning?”
At the whispered question as soon as the door closed, Song Hanyeong raised one eyebrow.
“I thought maybe you wanted to eat early because you were hungry…”
Song Hanyeong blinked slowly, then made a low sound similar to a groan—”Aah.”
“Now that you mention it, I definitely am…”
Song Hanyeong’s eyes stared intently at Surim as he said that. It was somehow a persistent and chilling gaze. For a moment, his vertically slit pupils reflected a glistening light like a beast’s eyes.
However, when Surim opened his eyes wide in surprise again, Song Hanyeong was looking at him with his usual face, no different from normal. His eyes also had ordinary round brown irises like a normal person.
“I am feeling a bit hungry.”
As Surim stared blankly with a strange feeling, Song Hanyeong asked.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just… I’m a little tired.”
Surim pressed firmly between his brows as he sat down in a chair. He was definitely tired. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had such a bizarre imagination.
Come to think of it, although he’d slept well the past few days, he’d only slept three or four hours a day for a while, so fatigue must have accumulated.
As he took out the lunchbox from the shopping bag and placed it on the table, Surim suddenly found Song Hanyeong’s existence fascinating. He was like a being prepared just for Surim. He appeared whenever needed with just the right amount of presence.
It was like that in college, and it was like that now. Was it okay to keep receiving help like this every time? Wasn’t he using this good person? No, he was definitely using him. Just looking at the cup he’d secretly stolen proved that, didn’t it?
What was fortunate, though, was that since then, Surim had been controlling his inner stalking urges well. What this meant was that until now, when cleaning up the lunchboxes, he hadn’t secretly taken home and enshrined things that had been in and out of Song Hanyeong’s mouth. Not even once. He was acting very rationally like an adult. He was proud of himself for maintaining his sanity even amid such fatal temptation.
It was when he scooped up a large spoonful of pine mushroom rice while feeling pleased with himself.
“Ah, damn…”
Song Hanyeong’s wooden chopsticks rolled on the floor. Surim’s gaze was instantly stolen by those jet-black wooden chopsticks. To the point where he unconsciously held his breath.
Fortunately, when the chopsticks that had been rolling on the floor stopped, he snapped back to his senses. Surim jumped up and picked up the chopsticks.
“Sorry. My hand slipped.”
Fortunately, Song Hanyeong didn’t seem suspicious at all.
“I’ll go to the cafeteria and borrow some chopsticks.”
“No, there’s no need.”
Saying that, Song Hanyeong took out a new pair of chopsticks from the shopping bag. Until now, there had never been spare chopsticks included in the lunchbox…
“Continue eating, Jin Surim-ssi.”
“Yes…”
Surim, who had been standing there blankly holding the chopsticks, only sat back down in his seat after hearing Song Hanyeong’s reminder. He had inadvertently returned to his seat still holding the chopsticks Song Hanyeong had been using. After pondering what to do, Surim thought it would be strange to get up again now to throw away trash, so he carefully set them down on one side of the table for the time being.
Those chopsticks captivated Surim’s mind throughout the entire meal. They were the chopsticks Song Hanyeong had used to pick up and eat salad. The chopsticks that had been in and out of Song Hanyeong’s mouth were right next to him now. Like a pitiful dog that had lost its owner.
If Song Hanyeong forgot about the existence of those chopsticks, wouldn’t it be okay to secretly take them home? Not only were the chopsticks pitiful, but throwing away perfectly good chopsticks like this didn’t seem good for the earth’s environment.
When the meal ended, he couldn’t remember at all what conversation he’d had with Song Hanyeong in the meantime. Judging by the empty lunchbox, he’d definitely eaten it all, but he was so distracted that he couldn’t even tell if he was full or hungry.
“I’ll throw it away today.”
Saying that, Song Hanyeong collected Surim’s lunchbox and put it in the shopping bag. Just then, Song Hanyeong’s phone rang. While Song Hanyeong was operating his phone to check something, Surim cleaned up the small bits of trash.
“Jin Surim-ssi, when Myeongho-ssi comes back, could you tell him I went downstairs?”
“Yes, I’ll tell him.”
With a tired, annoyed sigh, he picked up the shopping bag that had been organized.
“Then I’ll see you later.”
“Yes, yes! Be careful.”
Song Hanyeong glanced at Surim, who was greeting him awkwardly, smirked, and left the conference room just like that. Surim watched Song Hanyeong’s figure move across the research lab and disappear beyond the conference room’s glass door, and only after he completely disappeared did Surim let out a long sigh of relief.
“…He didn’t notice…”
Surim took out Song Hanyeong’s chopsticks that he’d been secretly hiding and clutching inside his sleeve and looked down at them. His hands were trembling. His heart was pounding as if he’d done something wrong.
No, he had done something wrong. He’d just done something creepy and disgusting that only a stalker would do.
“……”
It wasn’t too late even now. If he threw them in the trash right now, it would just be an ordinary matter of forgetting to put the chopsticks in the shopping bag and throwing them directly in the trash himself.
The problem was that he didn’t want to do that.
“…I want to keep them.”
He wanted to take them home and display them nicely next to the cup he’d enshrined first.
No, wouldn’t that composition be a bit strange? With just the chopsticks, the balance wouldn’t be quite right. If there were chopsticks, there should be a spoon too.
A bizarre greed violently shook his chest.
Surim, who had been blankly continuing thought after thought, squeezed his eyes shut. Let’s put aside thoughts about what else he needed, or how this shouldn’t be done. What was important right now was moving this item to its place without being suspicious.
Surim anxiously left the conference room, worried that someone might see. And as soon as he returned to his seat, he wrapped the chopsticks tightly in a handkerchief and hid them in his bag.
Only then did he finally feel at ease. Relief and the excitement of having finally done it tightly gripped his chest. A sense of achievement. Yes, this emotion was close to a sense of achievement. Surim thought he had just obtained a part of Song Hanyeong.
These chopsticks had Song Hanyeong’s DNA. It was on a different level from when he’d secretly swiped a cleanly washed cup.
“…Ah. What am I going to do…”
Even knowing he wasn’t in his right mind, he couldn’t control his actions. Despair, excitement, and joy mixed together. He couldn’t tell which was stronger.
There was no need to agonize over determining superiority. Soon, a chilling fear surged up and cooled his head. The fear that someone might have witnessed his theft and might be agonizing over how to handle this situation made him tense up sharply.
When a researcher came to the cabinet near Surim’s seat to refill used-up Post-its, he flinched and was so startled that the other person was even more shocked and dropped the entire bundle of Post-its.
Surim picked up the Post-its together while bowing his head repeatedly to apologize.
“Surim-ssi.”
“Wah!!”
This time he really screamed halfway. When Surim turned around panting, Lee Myeongho, who had a dismayed expression, was glancing at Song Hanyeong’s desk and being cautious. Rolling his eyes, Lee Myeongho crouched down and made a tearful face.
“Why are you so startled?”
“Why do you always approach so stealthily, Manager-nim?”
He’d been deliberately paying attention to surrounding sounds because he was embarrassed about the trouble he’d caused earlier, but he hadn’t heard any footsteps at all. Lee Myeongho must have walked on his tiptoes.
“No, I just naturally have little presence…”
Lee Myeongho awkwardly scratched the back of his head, then with an awkward smile at Surim’s reproachful sigh, he took out a small piece of chocolate from his pocket and held it out to Surim.
“I was trying to give you a bribe and a sample…”
“A sample… you say?”
“This is vegan. Try it and if it’s delicious, I want you to order it…”
“…This is expensive, isn’t it.”
When Surim pressed him, Lee Myeongho subtly averted his gaze. It was clearly not just at the level of a few ten thousand won. If it were an amount that could be bought within the snack budget, he wouldn’t have approached so secretly like this.
“Yeah, very… Since the contact has already failed, I’ll just go…”
“Ah, wait a moment.”
“Hm?”
To Lee Myeongho, whose face brightened, Surim conveyed Song Hanyeong’s message.
“Manager Song-nim asked me to tell you he went downstairs.”
“Downstairs?”
Lee Myeongho’s gaze reflexively turned to Surim. Lee Myeongho, who tactfully turned his gaze away, scratched his head.
“Hmm… He must have some business. Got it.”
“Yes.”
“But won’t you try the chocolate…?”
At the cautious question, Surim looked at the small chocolate called a sample with a troubled feeling. Did he want this chocolate that much? Surim felt persistence in Lee Myeongho’s gaze. Surim had no choice but to unwrap the small chocolate called a sample and put it in his mouth. Fortunately, by the time the well-melted, liquid chocolate entered his stomach, chocolate was among the foods he could eat.
‘It’s delicious!’
The chocolate was shockingly delicious.
