#90
As Ho-woo quietly approached from behind, Oh-yul acknowledged him without turning around.
“You’re here?”
The Esper, who had fried the egg into a perfect sunny-side up, carefully transferred it to a plate and placed it in front of his Pair. The simple breakfast of buttered toast, egg, and milk perfectly suited Ho-woo’s taste.
It was as if he had really looked inside Ho-woo’s mind.
“Would you like to stay here from now on?”
Oh-yul casually asked as he sat across from Ho-woo. Ho-woo took a bite of toast and met the gaze of the man looking at him with his chin propped up.
“If you don’t want to go to work, you don’t have to. What do you think?”
The man’s gaze fell on Ho-woo’s slender wrist, as if measuring it. His slightly narrowed eyes formed a gentle curve.
“I can’t just not go to work because I don’t want to.”
The man tilted his head slightly, still smiling. Seeing Oh-yul’s eerily pleasant smile, Ho-woo tried to change the subject as naturally as possible.
“By the way, what’s happening with Bae Gi-hong and his group?”
Ho-woo’s choice to switch to an appropriately important topic was excellent. Oh-yul narrowed his eyes for a moment but answered Ho-woo’s question readily.
“They’ll be dealt with according to the corporation’s rules.”
“That…”
“Ho-woo, it’s late. Don’t worry, I’ve brought your clothes.”
Oh-yul cut off Ho-woo’s attempt to say more about Bae Gi-hong and smiled, pulling up the corners of his mouth.
“I’ll drive you to work.”
The man didn’t forget to be kind, but he also didn’t lose his coolness. It was obvious that he didn’t like Ho-woo getting deeply involved in this matter. Ho-woo tried to ask about it a few more times, but Oh-yul kept dodging the subject.
In the end, unable to ask more about Bae Gi-hong, Ho-woo finished the remaining food and prepared for work. As promised, Oh-yul safely escorted Ho-woo to his workplace.
“Have a good day.”
Sitting in the driver’s seat, the Esper held Ho-woo’s hand and lightly kissed the tips of his fingers. It was a ticklish display of affection, but Ho-woo watched the departing car for a long time before finally turning away with a complicated expression.
***
The week was unlucky from Monday.
In fact, it was such a disastrous week for Ho-woo that being kidnapped by Bae Gi-hong might have been a premonition of this ill fortune. The team leader caught Ho-woo like a mouse after discovering a typo in the approval documents.
His sneering remarks about how Ho-woo’s work life must be getting easier were clearly him taking out his own bad mood on others. Ho-woo swallowed his curses and bowed his head, saying he would correct and resubmit the document immediately.
Sympathetic glances fell on him. They were all victims of the team leader’s hysteria at least once today. Ho-woo returned to his desk and submitted the report after another round of corrections. He thought there wouldn’t be any reason to be called again since he had corrected it without any issues, but the team leader summoned Ho-woo once more.
This time, the complaint was why Ho-woo made him do the work twice if he could handle it like this. At this point, it was clear it was unreasonable, but Ho-woo had to endure it.
After being harassed twice, Monday ended in a daze. He hoped Tuesday would be better, but the team leader was still in a bad mood, and the team members concluded that he must have fought with his girlfriend and was taking it out at work.
Throughout the week, Ho-woo, who was persistently harassed and even had to work overtime, received silent comforts. Most of them were simple drinks occasionally placed on his desk.
At the end of Friday, a little past 5 o’clock, Ho-woo hoped he could leave work on time today. Isn’t working overtime for five days straight a bit too much? As Ho-woo was thinking that if the team leader had any conscience, he should let them go on Friday, he despaired at the task given to him 30 minutes before the end of work.
Right, if he had such a conscience, he wouldn’t take out his personal issues on others either.
Once he resigned himself, he wasn’t angry anymore. He just missed Oh-yul, whom he hadn’t seen all week, whether due to the Bae Gi-hong incident or something else.
As Ho-woo was watching the backs of those preparing to leave work with gloomy faces, Yu Mi-yeon caught his eye and gave him a sympathetic look.
“Do you have a lot to do?”
“…”
Ho-woo gave a bitter smile. It seemed like it would take about an hour or two to finish, but he wasn’t in a good mood. Mi-yeon took out a small chocolate from her drawer and handed it to Ho-woo, offering a small apology, “I’m sorry I can’t help, I have an appointment.”
Ho-woo pushed her away, telling her it wasn’t her fault. He stretched long after she left. The empty office was quiet and silent.
In the space where only the sound of computers running could be heard, Ho-woo closed his eyes and relaxed for a moment before focusing on finishing the remaining work. Checking if the supply unit prices of business partners in Excel were correct was a simple task, but it required concentration as even one wrong number could cause problems.
After fixing his gaze on the computer monitor and printed papers for a long time, Ho-woo finally let out a long breath when he finished checking the last line.
Fortunately, there were no mistakes. Now that he had done one round of inspection, it seemed he could finish the rest of the work on Monday and submit it. When Ho-woo reflexively checked the time, he was surprised to see how much time had passed. An hour and a half had flown by.
Was his concentration always this good?
Maybe it was a miracle of concentration brought on by the desire to leave work early on Friday evening. Chuckling inwardly, Ho-woo tidied up his desk one last time and left the company. The humid and sticky air felt heavy, as if it would pour rain at any moment.
Ho-woo quickened his steps towards the subway. Without an umbrella, he wanted to get home at least before the rain started pouring. Half-running to the subway, passing through the turnstiles, and luckily boarding a train that had just arrived, Ho-woo answered a phone call without even having time to catch his breath.
“Haa… ah… Hello?”
“What are you doing to be out of breath… never mind. It’s past work hours, why aren’t you home yet?”
At Do-hyun’s suspicious question, Ho-woo loosened his tie slightly and let out a long breath. The weekend runs seemed to be helping his stamina a bit, as he wasn’t too exhausted.
“I just got off work.”
“So you’re on the subway now?”
Do-hyun’s voice could be heard muttering the station name, apparently able to hear the announcement of the next station and the noise of the subway through the phone.
“It’ll take about 30 more minutes then.”
Do-hyun grumbled, estimating the time based on the remaining stations.
“Alright. Come quickly.”
“Come quickly? Hey, where are you…”
Before Ho-woo could finish asking where Do-hyun was, he hung up abruptly.
Is he waiting in front of my house?
Ho-woo tried calling Do-hyun again, but he didn’t answer. This made Ho-woo anxious, and he started running again as soon as he got off the subway.
Plop, plop, thin raindrops hit Ho-woo’s shoulders. Luckily, he arrived at the apartment before the rain intensified. He saw Do-hyun leaning obliquely against the door and weakly raised his hand to wave.
“You’re here?”
“You should have called before coming.”
Do-hyun pouted, holding a black plastic bag and shopping bag in one hand, with the other hand in his pocket.
“I thought you’d leave work on time since it’s Friday.”
As Ho-woo opened the door, Do-hyun entered first and quickly placed the contents of the bags on the dining table.
“What’s with the tteokbokki?”
“I bought it because I wanted to eat it, but it’s all soggy because you came late.”
Do-hyun stabbed a fork into the swollen tteokbokki soaked in sauce and chewed it with a disgruntled face.
“We’re meeting tomorrow anyway, why did you come to my house to eat tteokbokki?”
“Because we’re meeting tomorrow, I came to see you in advance today.”
Do-hyun glanced at the shopping bag. Following his gaze, Ho-woo noticed the clothes inside and realized that Do-hyun hadn’t just come to hang out, but had come prepared to stay overnight.
“If we’re going together, we’d have to meet halfway, but it’s easier to just leave from one place.”
Since Do-hyun’s words weren’t wrong, instead of complaining, Ho-woo loosened his tie and sat across from him, putting a piece of tteokbokki in his mouth.
“Oof―!”
Ho-woo’s face instantly turned bright red from the spiciness spreading in his mouth. With his tongue tip burning from the sauce, he swallowed the remaining tteokbokki in his mouth almost without chewing and frantically waved his hands. At his urgent gesture, Do-hyun took out a drink from the bag and pushed it towards Ho-woo.
Tears welled up in Ho-woo’s eyes, and he gave Do-hyun a reproachful look.
“Hey, are you crying?”
“…”
“Come on, crying over something like this.”
“I’m not crying!”
Seeing Do-hyun’s grinning face, it was clear he had done it on purpose. Grumbling, Ho-woo changed clothes, washed up, and came out to find Do-hyun finishing up all the tteokbokki and cleaning up. He threw a towel at Do-hyun.
“Wash up squeaky clean and come out.”
“Wow, isn’t that a dangerous statement?”
“…?”
Even as Ho-woo’s face contorted, Do-hyun hugged himself with his arms and looked at Ho-woo coyly.
“Pervert.”
Was there something wrong with the tteokbokki we just ate?
When Ho-woo just stared blankly with narrowed eyes without any particular reaction, Do-hyun grumbled, “You’re no fun,” and slipped into the bathroom with his change of clothes.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
