#Side Story 17
The advice from my older brother Saheon, who was approaching his tenth year at the company but was still known as ‘the thief dating someone 11 years younger,’ seemed quite realistic.
I awkwardly hid the ring on the fourth finger of my left hand under the table. It was something I passed off to others as a lucky charm I had received as a gift.
“Don’t people come on to you? I’d think someone like Cheongmyeong would get a lot of attention.”
“No, senior. I’m not popular.”
I denied it with an awkward smile. Under the table, I was fiddling with the ring I hadn’t taken off since that spring when I was twenty, like a lucky charm. I couldn’t understand why this sudden investigation had started.
“Don’t tell me you’re secretly dating someone at work?”
“What? No, no!”
It was an awkward exclamation that anyone could see through. I bit my tongue. The first thought that crossed my mind was that I had messed up. If I had noticed it myself, there was no way the seniors hadn’t. Instantly, all eyes at the table focused on me.
“Oh my, what’s this? Cheongmyeong, could it be…?”
“No? I’m telling you it’s not!”
“What did I say? Oh, but didn’t Jiseo mention having a boyfriend last time?”
“What?”
This time, it was the turn of the senior next to me to be flustered. I glanced sideways. The senior, with a slightly flushed face, waved her hands in denial.
“No, it’s really not like that.”
“Really? It seems like it is.”
“Are you two involved?”
“What’s going on here?”
The situation seemed to worsen as the office manager arrived and joined in. The elderly office manager looked at me with an expression similar to a mother watching a drama.
Everyone was looking at me and the senior with intrigued faces. The place was buzzing as more team members arrived for the scheduled 30-minute meeting. Perhaps due to all the attention, the senior, with a bright red face, hung her head low.
Except for me and the senior, everyone else found the situation fascinating. I fidgeted with my fingers, feeling like I was sitting on pins and needles. The weight of the ring on my left finger felt heavy.
“Good luck, you two.”
“Senior, it’s really not like that!”
The senior shouted with a red face. Everyone giggled. They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. I could guess what kind of misunderstanding the team members had. They seemed to think that the person I was dating at work was this senior.
Thinking I should apologize later for creating a situation that could lead to misunderstandings, I awkwardly hoped this topic would pass. The senior was fanning herself, glancing at me from time to time.
“Oh, isn’t that the captain over there?”
Fortunately, the topic changed due to an unexpected occurrence. One of the team members had spotted the flight crew entering the restaurant. I quickly turned around at the mention of “captain.”
It was Saheon. To be precise, it was Saheon and the other pilots. There were other flight crew members around him, but my eyes were fixed only on him. I hadn’t heard anything about him coming for breakfast. I couldn’t take my eyes off his unexpected appearance.
“Shall we ask them to join us?”
The office manager asked for our agreement first. Since it would be odd for crew members who had been on the same flight to be distant, the opinion was unanimously agreed upon. They seemed to have spotted us too, approaching with welcoming faces.
“Fancy seeing you here again.”
Saheon, the most sociable among the flight crew, greeted us as if it were a real coincidence. As soon as he broke the ice, invitations to sit down came from all directions. He naturally pulled up a table next to me and took a seat.
I swallowed hard. Perhaps because we had just been talking about office romances, I felt oddly tense. Even though I knew there was no way we could be found out, my heart, once it started racing, couldn’t be stopped.
“What were you all talking about so excitedly?”
The elderly captain sitting across from Saheon asked. I had to try hard to hide my look of despair. I could feel the topic that had been burning just moments ago reigniting in an instant.
“Oh, we were just saying how cute Cheongmyeong is.”
“And that it seems like he might be dating someone at work.”
With the mischievous addition from a usually playful senior, the cabin crew team burst into laughter. I glanced at Saheon to gauge his reaction. He was calmly looking down at the menu, as if he hadn’t heard anything.
“Captain, have you decided on your menu? What about Jiseok and Gihyun?”
Saheon skillfully changed the subject, acting as if he hadn’t heard the previous conversation. The elderly captain grumbled, seeming a bit displeased.
“Koreans should eat proper meals.”
I instinctively realized that this captain was probably the one who had arranged tonight’s drinking session. Thanks to being dragged along by seniors in college and captains after joining the company, Saheon wasn’t particularly fond of drinking. Having quickly grasped the situation, I secretly glared at the captain who was tormenting Saheon.
Thanks to Saheon changing the subject, everyone at the table was now busy deciding on their menus. Since the breakfast menu options were limited, I carefully studied the menu to determine the quantities.
Finally, when everyone had decided, I, being the youngest, called over the waiter who had been waiting. The waiter asked in broken English:
[Are you ready to order?]
It seemed he was a foreigner living in the UK. As I was about to answer mindlessly, I noticed a hint of French in his accent and asked tentatively in French:
[…Are you French by any chance?]
I could feel the people around me widening their eyes as I spoke in a language other than English. I felt a bit embarrassed, but the waiter’s delighted response soon made me forget about it.
[Yes, that’s right. You speak French?]
[A little. Um… I’ll order now. Three French toasts and five omelettes. And…]
It was French I had barely used since joining the company, except for Paris flights, so I stumbled a bit as I finished the order. Although I was confused about some grammar and vocabulary, it seemed he understood everything. The waiter, seemingly pleased to meet someone speaking his native language, nodded repeatedly and left with a spring in his step.
“Wow, Cheongmyeong. You can speak French?”
“That’s so cool.”
Praises poured in from all around. I responded with an awkward and shy face.
“I majored in French Language and Literature in college.”
I glanced at the owner of the gaze I felt from beside me. Saheon was watching me with an interested expression, his chin resting on his hand. The temperature of his gaze felt prickly. When our eyes met, he gave me a gentle smile.
“It suits you well, Cheongmyeong.”
Saheon complimented me as if he had been completely unaware of this fact until now. Suddenly, I had the illusion that the surroundings were darkening and a pin light was shining only on me and him.
Our relationship that no one knew about. The secret known only to us, pretending not to know each other in front of others but actually being lovers for a long time, suddenly made my heart feel ticklish.
“…Thank you.”
Swallowing hard, I managed to nod just in time. Under the noisy table filled with conversation, Saheon secretly reached out with his right hand. I turned my gaze away and briefly held his hand with my left before letting go.
It felt like the warmth of our touch was transmitted straight to my heart. With flushed cheeks, I tried hard to suppress the corners of my mouth that threatened to rise.
Not long after, the food arrived. The waiter winked, saying he had given us more than the usual portion because he was happy to meet us.
The meal time seemed to proceed in a friendly atmosphere. However, for some reason, this gathering that had once broached the topic of romance showed no signs of ending.
Everyone seemed desperate to set me up with someone. It might have been because it was a gathering of men and women in their prime.
While I was struggling with mischievous questions like “Does Cheongmyeong really not have a girlfriend?”, “Is there someone you like?”, “Is there anyone here you’d like to date?”, fortunately or unfortunately, the topic of conversation moved on. The new subject was Saheon.
It started with the office manager. The office manager, who had been busy teasing me, opened her mouth playfully towards me, who was refusing by saying I didn’t need to be set up.
“Cheongmyeong. Are you really not interested in meeting someone? I’d like to introduce you to a nice person.”
“If there’s a good person, introduce them to Saheon first. He seems to be in a more urgent situation.”
“Captain Kwon? Why?”
“Why? Saheon is what, thirty-eight or thirty-nine this year? And he still doesn’t seem to have any thoughts of marriage.”
“What?”
The office manager exclaimed in surprise. She wasn’t the only one surprised. The cabin crew, who had been giggling and watching, also widened their eyes.
“He should be getting support from a wife now. Right?”
Although it seemed to be something he had experienced many times, Saheon just brushed it off with a “yes, yes,” but the nagging continued, saying things like he should understand the weight of being a head of household, and he should have children to contribute to the country. However, it was the cabin crew who were more shocked by this conversation.
Usually, when there’s a flight, the flight crew and cabin crew maintain a relationship that’s neither close nor distant, so it seemed they didn’t know Saheon’s exact age.
Everyone in the cabin crew, except for me, seemed surprised by the fact that this young and handsome captain hadn’t married yet. Once the ice was broken, it seemed the flight attendants’ typical meddling began, and the cabin crew swarmed like moths to a flame.
“Captain, you’re not married yet?”
“We thought you were already married!”
“Did you think I’d been there and back? I haven’t even gone once.”
Saheon seemed to be trying to move past the topic, answering jokingly. But once they had caught onto something, there was no way they would let it go.
“I thought you were married because you wear a ring.”
“Oh, this?”
Suddenly, everyone’s attention turned to the ring Saheon was wearing. I tried to nonchalantly hide my left hand under the table. Although the design of men’s rings was pretty much the same, I was afraid someone with a keen eye might notice that it was exactly the same shape.
