Chapter 60

“Who the hell is dating who, exactly?”

“You and Lee Seung-Jae.”

“…Whaaat?”

It was baseless tittle-tattle she had already refuted countless times to her coworkers, but to hear it from Si-Jin’s mouth came as a great shock. Especially at such an unexpected timing.

“Me and Seung-Jae?”

“Yes.”

“You know that does not make any sense, right?”

“I have no idea.”

“……”

“You suit each other, the both of you.”

Si-Jin opened the pot and answered insincerely. As though she could not even sense the food’s smell, Na-Yool only looked at the back of Si-Jin’s head with a bitter and sullen expression and walked closer to him.

“If I was dating him, how crazy must I be to be here now?”

“You have to be crazy to be here? So are you crazy right now?”

“No, what I meant is, if I had a boyfriend, why would I even be here, with you, doing these things…”

“Who knows? Maybe that’s just the kind of lowlife you are.” replied Si-Jin indifferently as he stirred the content of the pot with long chopsticks. Na-Yool grabbed his arm to make him look her way. Instead, he glanced at the hand holding his arm.

“What?”

“It’s not.”

“What is not?”

“It is not like that.”

She didn’t even know why she was grabbing him and making excuses in the first place. Was it because he is also a coworker? However, the way she felt wronged was slightly different. But Na-Yool somehow felt unwilling to know the status Si-Jin held in her heart.

Because since she had done that with Si-Jin, if she maybe were to label him as “boyfriend”, she then really would be a scumbag… Right, that is all it was. Proving she is a morally honorable human being.

“No matter how exhausted I am these days, even if I have a few loose screws, I will not pull that kind of crap.”

“Hm-hm.”

“Also, for real, ahh… what’s wrong with these people, assuming things as soon as they hear ‘dinner party’… People at work really are weird.”

“Which is why if you feel exhausted, just stay still and bear with it. Instead of exerting your energy going to some stupid dinner party.”

“… What kind of logic is that?”

“It’s ridiculous to even call it a dinner party.”

“Then what should it be c—”

“With a total of 2 members, what dinner party?”

Na-Yool could even hear the faint “don’t take me for a fool” mumbling following up. Although not even said facing her. As she felt Si-Jin’s arm slipping away from her grasp she hurriedly justified herself in a confused manner.

“First of all, I didn’t even want to go there.”

“Sure, if the subordinate pushes the issue, the senior can’t do anything about it. Isn’t it how our country’s working culture works? Just like the military culture. Military-style insubordination.”

“……”

“Should a subordinate be mindful of their superior? No, if they order something, of course the superior should comply.”

“……”

“Look, how I am mindful of you too.”

Na-Yool snorted with incredulity.

“Mr. President, you are not just my superior but my employer. When have you ever cared even the slightest about me?”

“See? How you are paying more attention already since I mentioned it.”

What was the use of talking? The helpless sense of defeat she often felt when discussing with him surged inside her once again. She could not beat his weird deterrence with words anyway. Na-Yool swiftly withdrew from the nonsensical argument.

“It is true Seung-Jae invited me, but it was not an invitation to go have some fun. And we had a worthy enough circumstance to…”

“Which.”

“Sorry?”

“What is it? That worthy circumstance.”

“……”

Strangely, when he asked her to be specific, she had nothing to say right away. She wondered why, despite herself, she kept feeling reluctant about telling him things that actually were no big deal, and why she thought it was preferable to hide such a meaningless topic. As soon as she became self-conscious of it, Na-Yool also noticed her instinct to turn away immediately.

Was it that she felt uncomfortable talking about men with him? In whatever way. It could not be compared to when she was desperately hiding from him the issue with Sang-Hoon, but the feeling was somewhat similar. And oddly enough, that momentary feeling which automatically made her unable to be honest too.

…Uncomfortable? Me? Why?

It sounded just as if she minded about him. As if she meant to make clear to him that she had no relationship whatsoever with anyone.

Firmly rejecting that thought, Na-Yool opened her mouth again half a beat late.

“Seung-Jae heard about it. That I broke up.”

“He heard, and so?”

“It was at work, so he did not hear it in detail… which is why he proposed to discuss it over a team dinner…”

“I got it, so now tell me about that ‘worthy circumstance’.” Si-Jin answered sourly as he closed the pot lid and looked back at Na-Yool.

“It takes just one look to see that Seung-Jae has a lot of friends and girls to hang out with, so why would someone who is the busiest on Friday nights propose so? Obviously, he took some time for my sake.”

“And so, why?”

Despite her earnest explanation, Si-Jin sounded unconvinced. Na-Yool sighed and was about to go on when he cut her off, revealing his inner suspicion.

“He wanted to ask you about the issue, to know what kind of jerk you’ve been dating until now, and thanks to your crazy state, he did. While at it he wanted to make you drink, to see you loosen up, and with that, to secretly do other things just the two of you outside of the company.”

“……”

“It all sounds like great fun, so didn’t it pay off for Seung-Jae?”

It takes a second to turn a normal man into a cunning beast.

“…Rather than for personal gain, it was consolation. As he thought I was having a hard time.”

“This, consolation?”

“If you think all men have the same standards as you Mr. President, we have a problem. Seems like you broke up with your girlfriends with only your own interest in mind in the past, but…”

“I never did.”

“I am not interested.” Na-Yool sharply retorted, but Si-Jin simply smiled back vaguely with an unfazed expression.

“Plus, if Lee Seung-Jae had the same standards as me, could you focus on work?”

“Ahh… what are you saying now.”

“I bet you would not stop peeping at the face in front of you.”

Even while spurting nonsense his arrogant smug facing towards her was too handsome. Na-Yool was stunned, that selfish smug making her swallow back her “In your dreams!” rebuttal.

“Seung-Jae is already good-looking.”

She was about to add that he also currently was focused and doing his job diligently, if only Si-Jin had not made such an openly annoyed face.

As Na-Yool’s words unconsciously got stuck in her throat, Si-Jin smirked.

“And yet, you two are not together, you say?”

“…Saying he is good-looking does not mean there is anything special between—”

“If you even drank together then you could just have dated.”

This time, there was no trace of sarcasm. It just casually fell out of Si-Jin’s lips.

“How can you force the narrative so naturally towards this direction?”

“From what I saw, all you answer when you’re drunk is ‘ok’. I’ve never seen someone so easy and positive.”

“…… Are you seriously saying that I was easy?”

“You know, if I had done to you all the things that you mindlessly agreed to, you would not be able to get out of bed even until now.”

“……”

If that isn’t being easy, then what is it? The shameless connotation did not need to be elaborated. What the hell happened between them for her to… At this point… No, no. Na-Yool internally shook her head as hard as she could to stop her own thoughts. No need to know. She had no use for memories which would better be left in the dark anyway…