#050
To see Lee Sung-ha on his first day at work – Hwi-kyung was certain his fortune for the day was extremely bad. Park Bong-joon leaves and Lee Sung-ha comes? It certainly wasn’t great luck.
Although the company cafe was quiet after working hours, there were still eyes watching and ears listening here and there. He wanted to retort, “Why are you talking to me?” but within BK International, Lee Sung-ha was the Executive Director and Jung Hwi-kyung was just an employee.
Punching the Executive Director again on his first day of work? That was different from beating up Sung-ha at Gyo-ha’s house. Lee Sung-ha was now Hwi-kyung’s far superior. He held an even higher position than Lee Gyo-ha.
Condition not met: Your superior harbors personal feelings for you.
The system window blinked like a disaster alert every time Sung-ha approached. Sung-ha seemed to have not fully recovered from his broken nose, as he had something attached to the bridge of his nose.
Looking closely, his facial contours seemed subtly different. It looked like he had reshaped his nose bridge while it was caved in. Hwi-kyung didn’t want to believe that he had contributed to raising Lee Sung-ha’s nose bridge.
“Seems like you’ve stopped playing house now?”
“…”
“I guess you’ve finally sided with Lee Jung-hye?”
Even when Hwi-kyung didn’t respond, Sung-ha kept rambling on. He even took the seat across from Hwi-kyung.
Debating between saying “Get lost” or “Don’t talk to me,” Hwi-kyung decided to maintain silence. Lee Sung-ha wasn’t someone who could be driven out by climbing over him like Park Bong-joon.
Even Lee Gyo-ha or Lee Jung-hye couldn’t oust Lee Sung-ha without reason. No matter how crazy he was, the fact that he was Lee Baek-gyeong’s eldest son couldn’t be denied.
Even though he had entered BK International prepared for regression to the next iteration, if he didn’t want to trigger forced regression immediately, confronting Sung-ha in such an open place wasn’t a good choice.
After a brief consideration, Hwi-kyung stood up first. Staying put until Gyo-ha arrived would be to Hwi-kyung’s disadvantage. Just seeing Sung-ha’s raised nose bridge made him want to break it again. In this situation, avoiding the scene was the best strategy.
Patience a hundred times over prevents violence. Hwi-kyung bowed his head, saying he would leave first, displaying his default business smile #3.
But Sung-ha wasn’t of a good enough character to let Hwi-kyung, who had pressed the escape button, leave quietly.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Sung-ha suddenly grabbed Hwi-kyung as he tried to leave the company cafe. His cold hand gripped Hwi-kyung’s wrist tightly like a snake. The force pulling him back almost made Hwi-kyung fall.
He barely maintained his balance and tried to free his wrist, but it seemed difficult to shake off Sung-ha without roughly pushing him away. Hwi-kyung quickly scanned the cafe interior.
Although it wasn’t as crowded as right after lunch, there were eyes watching the situation here and there. The company cafe was a space where all sorts of rumors spread, similar to a smoking area. Instead of resisting violently, Hwi-kyung leaned his body closer to Sung-ha.
“Executive Director.”
Then he slowly removed Sung-ha’s hand with his other hand.
“This is troublesome with so many people watching.”
“Huh.”
“I’ll be going now.”
Despite being grabbed only briefly, a red mark remained on his wrist. Hwi-kyung inwardly clicked his tongue. He felt like his torn temple and stretched arm ligament from that guy were aching again.
They had just healed without leaving scars, why was he unluckily entangled with him again? Lee Sung-ha wasn’t helpful not only for Lee Gyo-ha’s life but also for Jung Hwi-kyung’s.
“So you’re being respectful because we’re in the company?”
“…”
“You were quick to throw punches before.”
Hwi-kyung left the company cafe with quick steps. But Lee Sung-ha’s sneering was a bit faster than Hwi-kyung’s pace.
“I heard you joined the HR team? Let’s see each other often. You should return my handkerchief that you took last time.”
Hwi-kyung, who had been reciting patience about 300 times, was grateful that he had avoided murder again today. Running into the Executive Director at the company cafe after work? This was truly a tragic event.
Condition not met: Your superior harbors personal feelings for you.
It was fortunate that this system window at least covered Sung-ha’s face. Hwi-kyung sighed. Feeling his phone vibrate in his jacket pocket, it seemed Gyo-ha had arrived in front of the company just in time, preventing him from going home alone.
Gyo-ha examined Hwi-kyung, who sat in the passenger seat, with a face slightly more subdued than in the morning.
“How was your first day at work?”
He was a bit concerned about the wrinkles in the jacket he had picked out for Hwi-kyung. Even though it was an office job and he probably didn’t move around much, the jacket sleeve was quite crumpled.
Does he pound the keyboard passionately? Gyo-ha glanced at Hwi-kyung through the rearview mirror. Even in the dark car interior, he could see the red mark left on Hwi-kyung’s wrist that was slightly exposed.
This was why having good eyesight was problematic. Just a few minutes after grabbing the steering wheel, Gyo-ha suddenly braked with a screech.
“…I don’t know about the first day at work, but I almost died just now.”
“No, what happened to your wrist?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing my foot… ‘I’m fine’ variation #7 is forbidden.”
Hwi-kyung looked at Gyo-ha, who had abruptly pulled over to the side of the road, with bewilderment. Was the wrist that big of a deal? Such a mark would surely disappear after leaving a slight bruise, or maybe not even bruise at all. But Lee Gyo-ha’s sudden stop had posed a threat to Jung Hwi-kyung’s life.
“It’s nothing, so just drive properly. You even got the navigation destination wrong.”
“Did I?”
“It’s set to your officetel.”
“Ah, unconsciously… No, that’s not it, why is your wrist injured?”
“I’ll tell you when we get home.”
“You’re just going to go up without telling me, aren’t you?”
“…”
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll come to pick you up tomorrow too.”
Hwi-kyung let out a sigh at Gyo-ha’s stubbornness. The sudden stop was more dangerous than grabbing a wrist, but Gyo-ha was only worried about Hwi-kyung as if he didn’t care about his own safety.
While feeling frustrated by his kindness, he also felt satisfied. Hwi-kyung thought he had finally gone crazy. To feel satisfied after worrying someone else, he was certainly not in his right mind.
“It won’t even bruise this much.”
The touch examining Hwi-kyung’s wrist after even turning on the interior emergency lights was delicate. Hwi-kyung quietly let Gyo-ha massage his wrist. In this state, even if he tried to pull his hand away, Gyo-ha would persistently try to examine it.
“Did Park Bong-joon do this?”
“No.”
“Then Kang Moon-chul?”
“No.”
“Can’t you just tell me without playing twenty questions?”
“Why are you making such a fuss over nothing… I ran into Lee Sung-ha while waiting for you.”
“Why?”
“Is there a reason for running into someone? He’s the Executive Director of International.”
Gyo-ha muttered glumly, “I should have gone to International…” But in this iteration, Lee Gyo-ha didn’t have a master’s or doctoral degree. He hadn’t bought any either, so he was stuck with just a bachelor’s degree.
So between Lee Sung-ha with a master’s and doctorate in economics and Lee Gyo-ha with just a bachelor’s degree, naturally Lee Sung-ha was the one who could handle ‘International,’ which mainly dealt with trade and exports. Even changing the Executive Director from Lee Jung-hye to Lee Sung-ha faced strong opposition from shareholders, but changing it to Lee Gyo-ha would have been completely impossible.
Hwi-kyung recalled various adult circumstances where Gyo-ha could become a ‘Director’ but not an ‘Executive Director.’ Even becoming the Entertainment Director was the result of Lee Jung-hye and Lee Baek-gyeong exerting their influence; in reality, it wasn’t a position Gyo-ha was qualified for.
“Don’t even dream of coming as the International Director.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because it would be troublesome if you became my superior.”
Lee Sung-ha was already a handful, let alone Lee Gyo-ha? It would be perfect for forced regression within a week. The system window would surely torment Hwi-kyung about office romance.
Hwi-kyung looked at Gyo-ha, who was still holding his wrist and only saying “Why?”, with a bewildered expression.
Come to think of it, although it seemed that his feelings for Gyo-ha had been exposed, Gyo-ha’s attitude hadn’t changed at all. The last thing he had asked was whether the personal feelings might be murderous intent.
Hwi-kyung felt a bit suffocated. Among the numerous emotions Gyo-ha showed towards him, there seemed to be definite affection, but Jung Hwi-kyung, who had never dated before, found all of Gyo-ha’s actions just perplexing.
He felt unsure about how far Gyo-ha’s “liking” extended, and even wondered if the sudden kiss was just because Gyo-ha was a frivolous person. Being nice to him was natural since Hwi-kyung was the main regressor.
If that wasn’t the case, there was no way he would remain silent after seeing the depths of his emotions through the cheat key of the system window. Hwi-kyung gently pulled his wrist out of Gyo-ha’s grasp.
Unlike Lee Sung-ha, Lee Gyo-ha easily let go of Hwi-kyung’s wrist. Gyo-ha’s ambiguous attitude kept confusing Hwi-kyung.
“Hey.”
“Yes.”
“Do you perhaps not like me?”
“…”
“I thought you liked me.”
So Hwi-kyung decided to just ask directly.
In fact, this was really unfair. Sometimes Hwi-kyung wished he could steal a glance at Gyo-ha’s thoughts in text form. But Gyo-ha didn’t have a system window to peek at.
If he couldn’t steal a look, the only option was to ask directly. Hwi-kyung felt his ears burning hot as he asked. It was an extremely embarrassing question, but if he didn’t ask like this, it seemed Lee Gyo-ha would never show any sign, solely for the reason of being considerate to Jung Hwi-kyung.
Silence continued for a while. Hwi-kyung raised his gaze to check Gyo-ha’s expression. He was curious about what kind of face he would be making.
“Is it okay if I like you?”
“…”
“You won’t run away if I like you?”
And when their eyes met, Hwi-kyung was left speechless because of Gyo-ha.
Lee Gyo-ha asked back with an even redder face than Jung Hwi-kyung. It was a face that seemed like one could easily guess his inner thoughts even without a system window.
