Chapter 79

Sometimes suspicion sparks with the most trivial things.

Eyes seemingly inadvertently following someone’s movement. The flittering warmth in the gaze of a certain someone looking at another…

Yes, these sorts of things, rather than the overtly obvious ones.

There should not be any specific reason for Si-Jin to stare at Na-Yool. Nor should there be any special feeling behind it. Of course, in a bad sense, she seemed special to Si-Jin as an employee but…

But by no means in that way.

Seung-Jae observed with confused thoughts Si-Jin’s eyes, still fixed on Na-Yool in a sort of soft gaze, yet somewhat lubricious. He then took a glance at Na-Yool who, unaware of anything, was walking to a cafe with another employee.

And once again, he looked at the spiteful President Kwon’s face. And once more, at the joyful smile of his senior.

“……”

Ah, it can’t be…

These two, these two, could it be… no, it can’t. With someone from work, absolutely not! Na-Yool’s overly disgusted face popped into Seung-Jae’s mind. Though to be honest, she only made that face when he was the one to kind of test her waters. He hence crossed Na-Yool from his suspect list.

But then, could it be President Kwon who…!

Si-Jin unhurriedly drew his gaze back on Seung-Jae. As their eyes met, a wide smile spread on Si-Jin’s clear-cut face, emotionless a moment before. The sense of disharmony was twice stronger than the smile itself.

This . . . was not a smile.

“Excuse me for a moment.” requested Si-Jin with a slight tap on Kim PD’s shoulder. The plastered on dazzling smile  ‒ which would blind even men ‒ was still directed at Seung-Jae, who immediately understood its meaning. Not its exact meaning, but at least roughly. “Whatever you saw just now, if you stupidly run your mouth, I’ll kill you”. A deadly threat…

In any case, he was about to turn around, when Si-Jin evaded the smoking room in an instant. Seung-Jae stared at his back striding away with a rotten expression on his face.

Na-Yool was engaged in a sprightly conversation and did not seem to notice Si-Jin’s presence until he was standing right in front of her. A surprised expression immediately showed on her face. At any other time, it could have looked like a childish but cute scene of playfully surprising her, but at the moment it seemed more like a jump scare from a thriller.

Seung-Jae squinted his eyes and peered at them. He could hear Kim PD saying something next to him, but even without listening, he knew it was most likely meaningless babble anyway. Ignoring him, Seung-Jae slowly bypassed Kim PD and left the smoking room.

Meanwhile, Na-Yool excused herself with a gesture to her colleague Min-Young and stood a few steps away together with Si-Jin. Na-Yool’s eyebrows crinkled, as if she was immersed in some serious discussion about work. Si-jin’s face, who leaned slightly towards her, was as cold and indifferent as usual, but also…

Seung-Jae, while staring intensely at this not so unusual chain of events, stood next to Min-Young who was standing by herself.

“You scared me! When did you come here?”

“……”

“Seung-Jae?”

“……”

Despite Min-Young’s quiet overreaction, Seung-Jae kept pinning his eyes, apparently deaf to his surroundings.

One look at Na-Yool’s grave expression, one look at Si-Jin’s cold face, then back on Na-Yool, and then on Si-Jin… The pair of eyes observing them back and forth was now similar to a machine. With such persistence, it could even burn holes through.

Paying no mind to Min-Young’s skeptical gaze on him, he tried hard to find any evidence. With his eyes so questioningly squinted that they seemed almost closed, as if he wanted to get caught.

Fishy. It was definitely fishy. Even if he could not see any suspicious clues, something was fishy for sure. Actually, the fact that there was no suspicious clue was even more suspicious. Be it the person on the right or the one on the left, they both were suspicious…

Seung-Jae looked at them with an unresolved skeptical feeling. Although both wore unenthusiastic expressions, Seung-Jae’s gut feeling shouted it was fishy. He was sure of it…

“Isn’t the President weirder than me?”

“What?” Min-Young, who was looking down at her phone, asked with a jolt, not understanding what Seung-Jae had said.

He slowly turned his head towards her. She did not seem to fathom at all his delusional suspicion. Even with the questionable President Kwon and Na-Yool right in front of her.

The reason was simple. It is because it was something Si-Jin usually did.

Maybe it had been his intention, so that no one would ever be suspicious. Even more so, not even Na-Yool herself.

Seung-Jae noticed a faint smile lit on Na-Yool’s face only to disappear right away, but he made little of it. His gaze moved back on Si-Jin. All doubts started with this stone-faced man.

“Oh, Seung-Jae!”

Just as she was done with Si-Jin, Na-Yool discovered Seung-Jae on her way back to Min-Young and greeted him joyfully. He answered with a nod and glanced again at Si-Jin, who looked back at him. Unlike a moment ago, he was not smiling but the impact was the same.

A threat not to pull any crap. A deathly glare, ready to slaughter him if he dared breath a single reckless word.

“I was on my way to have coffee with Min-Young, would you like some too? I’m buying.”

“No, thank you.”

It was as if his tongue was controlled by the killing stare fixed on him. After Seung-Jae unconsciously rejected Na-Yool’s kindness, a blank sensation enveloped him.

“Alright, then.”

Na-Yool nodded and turned away, when Seung-Jae suddenly shouted.

“Wait!”

“What?”

“Please buy me one. Coffee.” he said loud and clear like a primary school student reading a textbook as he straightforwardly locked eyes with Si-Jin. It was a somewhat smooth pronunciation, but overall, in a moderately awkward and earnest tone.

“Americano?”

“Let’s go together and I will think about it there.”

Out of 70% of unyielding pride and 30% of goddamn curiosity, Seung-Jae took a peek at Si-Jin as he stuck to Na-Yool’s side.

Ah.

Like a blow to the head, an instinctive epiphany struck him hard.

Could it be that he was fucked for good?

Chapter 20 – Thursday evening 7:44 p.m.

The new project ended sooner than expected. Thanks to the client giving his approval in the early afternoon, Na-Yool was done with work and happily looking forward to going home ahead of time. It was 7:35pm on the clock. At Ethical Communications, something like a time for an early dinner between colleagues.

[I’m leaving work now] 7:35 PM

Since Si-Jin would not be satisfied until he took Na-Yool back personally, what else could she do? With that thought in mind, she sent the message with a pretty coy feeling. But maybe because he was busy, there was no reply.

[Mr. President, today, since I finally got the chance, I want to leave work early] 7:42 PM

[I don’t have work left anyway] 7:43 PM

[A day like this is rare, so…] 7:43 PM

[Mr. President] 7:44 PM

She sent a few more messages, but still no reply. After all, it was a very busy time. To him, an early evening like this was, with only a small exaggeration, just the same as a morning rising after already spending 12 hours dealing with his daily work.

But this was Si-Jin’s choice as a workaholic. Although she worked as diligently as an ant, Na-Yool ultimately was but a simple employee to whom even 5 or 10 minutes of her evening were precious.

With no work left to do, she had no time to waste by staying here. She organized her desk, which had not much to pack, and checked her phone.

Si-Jin’s consideration probably did not extend to the excessive attention of driving her home at such an early and safe time. Since he had told her to report to him when she left work, she did. But knowing how busy he was, she really did not want him to drive her back.

Because to hear that he had to go back to the company after dropping her off just did not sit well with her.

And sometimes I get intoxicated by some weird feelings as well…