CHAPTER 3
At first, Hye-joo thought it was simply a ridiculous one-night stand with someone who happened to be more impressive than the man she had been dating at the time.
Perhaps she was the only one who remembered it.
She had merely thought that she had somehow encountered at work the man with whom she had spent a one-night stand so long ago that even her own memories of it had grown hazy.
Destiny? Fate? She had never once entertained such thoughts.
‘After all, I must have disappeared from that man’s life by now.’
Since he was obviously an exceptionally successful man, Hye-joo had assumed that night had simply been one of the countless familiar nights he had already spent with countless people.
But apparently, that wasn’t the case.
At that moment, Hye-joo was doing her best to look calm as she stared at Mujin, but her body was betraying her.
Her heart was pounding so loudly that it felt as though everyone around her could hear it, while her hands trembled involuntarily and her legs shifted restlessly.
“……”
Mujin, who had been staring intently at Hye-joo with an expressionless face, slowly approached her.
At that moment, Hye-joo’s eyes widened.
‘Wait! What name did I give him that night?’
At the same time, she remembered the conversation she had shared with the man that night.
Perhaps because she had believed she would never see him again, she had brazenly lied about her name, insisting that she wasn’t some strange woman.
“Gwon, Gwon……. Joo.”
She deliberately let her voice trail off as she mumbled her name.
Why had I lied?
Regret came rushing in belatedly.
“I look forward to working with you.”
What was this? Why was he smiling?
At the sight of his crooked grin, Hye-joo felt as though goosebumps were spreading all over her body.
Why did the man who had come into the company as a new employee have to be the very man from the day she had first dared to stray from her ordinary life?
There was no point regretting it now.
Hye-joo squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them and forced herself to smile awkwardly with an indifferent expression.
“Ms. Hye-joo, please take charge of training the new employees.”
At Manager Yang’s sudden voice, Hye-joo stuck her head as far out from behind the partition as she could, looking startled.
“Yes?! Me?”
The words ‘Why me?’ rose all the way to the tip of her tongue, but Hye-joo deliberately avoided looking at Mujin sitting across from her and asked again.
“Why are you acting so surprised? You’re exceptionally good at training new employees, Ms. Hye-joo.”
“It might be burdensome to take on two at once, though.”
Right, perhaps this was actually a relief.
She would say she would take charge of Hwang Ji-yoon.
Just as Hye-joo parted her lips to speak, Manager Yang beat her to it.
“Mr. Kang Sun-woo, move your seat next to Ms. Hye-joo.”
“Ah, Hwang Ji…… Mr. Kang Sun-woo?!”
“Why, isn’t that a good thing? Instead of living as an old maid without even getting a boyfriend, you should feel the energy of a handsome new employee.”
Manager Yang was notorious for making thoughtless remarks in the first place.
He was exactly the kind of person who would make sexually suggestive comments if she told him she had a boyfriend.
Hye-joo wanted nothing more than to snap back at him, but she knew doing so would only make her life at the company more exhausting, so she forced down her anger.
‘What energy? He’ll probably suck all the energy out of you instead.’
Even though Hye-joo and Yeon-soo were both not yet thirty, Manager Yang constantly nagged them about being old maids and demanded to know when they were going to get married, even more insistently than their own parents.
On top of that, there were rampant rumors within the company that whenever new employees joined, he would touch their shoulders and even try to lure them somewhere alone with him.
‘You think I’m going to put up with this forever? Just let me get some evidence, and I’ll report you properly.’
Having made up her mind, Hye-joo calmly welcomed Mujin as he moved his belongings to the seat beside her.
“What should I start with?”
His voice was especially attractive, too.
Mujin’s voice sounded strangely sensual to Hye-joo, constantly bringing back memories of that night.
“I’ll start by showing you how to use the company messenger.”
It was strange.
While she had been dating Kang Young-moo, sex had been nothing more than a kind of obligatory ritual that happened whenever Kang Young-moo wanted it.
It was simply something she did without any particular feeling as part of the day’s routine.
Yet sleeping with Mujin, a man she had never even met before that night at the club and whom she didn’t love, had left a surprisingly long-lasting impression on her.
Sometimes, it even stirred up strange desires within her.
‘Then why am I so bothered by him? Why, of all things, does this man matter so much……?’
Hye-joo calmly explained everything about the company to him, doing her best to keep herself composed.
No matter what had happened between them, they were now connected through work.
Hye-joo calmly began teaching Mujin how to use the company messenger, starting from the basics.
As it neared quitting time, Manager Yang rose from his seat as though he had an announcement to make.
Naturally, everyone’s eyes turned toward him over the partitions.
“We have new employees joining us, so the Chairman has given us a corporate card.”
“Come on, give him a round of applause.”
Hye-joo usually enjoyed having a drink alone or having a little alcohol with her meals, but this time was different.
She had no desire to sit across from Mujin and drink simply because it was a company dinner, so she shook her head vigorously.
‘What if I remember something while drinking? I have to find a way to get out of this.’
Just then, Hye-joo stole a glance at Mujin beside her, and he turned his gaze toward her.
“Is there something you want to say?”
“Ah, no.”
Yes, that look in his eyes.
It was definitely the look of someone who knew absolutely nothing.
Even so, Hye-joo couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in her gut, and she was deep in thought, trying to come up with an excuse to skip the company dinner.
However, that determination didn’t last long.
A moment later, someone opened the office door and walked in.
He had a tall, striking figure, broad, solid shoulders, and a perfectly tailored suit.
It was Muhyuk, Chairman of Haekwang Cultural Foundation and Director of the Art Center.
“Did everyone enjoy lunch?”
His voice was deep, yet warm and considerate.
The female employees noticeably craned their necks to look at Muhyuk.
“It’s been a while since I’ve come down to the office myself.”
“I’m also grateful to all of you for doing such a good job with your work.”
“I arranged this company dinner as a way of asking our new employees to take good care of Haekwang Art Center from now on.”
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!
This was amazing, absolutely amazing!
At Muhyuk’s words, everyone clasped their hands together and covered their lips.
They weren’t openly declaring their love, but they looked like the enormous fan club of some famous idol.
However, Hye-joo’s gaze was still stealing glances at Mujin beside her.
“We don’t have a culture of forcing employees to attend company dinners at Haekwang Art Center, but I’d like everyone to participate today.”
“Chairman……. Are you going as well?”
Yeon-soo, Hye-joo’s colleague, asked in a bright but timid voice.
Muhyuk seemed to consider it for a moment before eventually nodding.
At Haekwang Art Center, company dinners were based entirely on voluntary participation.
It was an independent culture where only employees who wanted to attend participated.
Even so, the fact that Muhyuk himself was encouraging everyone to attend meant that this was not really an occasion anyone could skip.
“Then I’ll assume everyone will be attending, and I’ll head out first.”
“I’ll see you all at the dinner later.”
“Please make sure you finish the rest of today’s work well.”
After giving them a polite bow, Muhyuk left the office.
At the same time, Hye-joo’s face fell into a look of utter despair.
‘If a boss this handsome asks me to go, I have to go.’
‘Maybe it’ll be fine as long as I don’t drink.’
Unable to control her wavering resolve, Hye-joo strengthened her determination with that thought.
Because of the company dinner that evening, their quitting time was moved up by two hours.
Although she spent the entire time discussing work-related matters with Mujin, the thought of the drinking gathering somehow felt burdensome.
However, there was no way an ordinary curator like her could refuse the words of the foundation chairman and the center’s director.
‘This is what modern-day slavery must look like.’
Despite her frustration, Hye-joo eventually got ready for the company dinner.
At this point, she didn’t even know what to think anymore.
Perhaps because she had spent the entire time worrying about it, her empty stomach was loudly protesting.
The company dinner was held at a gopchang restaurant located in the food alley behind the Art Center.
As the sound of gopchang sizzling on the grill filled the restaurant, the tables were gradually being occupied.
The employees of Haekwang Art Center gathered around tables pushed together in a long row.
Everyone attended except Muhyuk, who had said he would be late because he still had some work to take care of.
With Muhyuk absent, Manager Yang, the most senior employee present, strutted around as though he owned the place.
“Ms. Gwon Hye-joo, place the order.”
“You’re usually good at finding company dinner venues and placing orders, aren’t you, Ms. Hye-joo?”
At Manager Yang’s words, Hye-joo, who hadn’t even sat down yet, nodded.
She went around the table checking the number of people and taking everyone’s orders, then approached the restaurant employee and placed the entire order efficiently.
“Ms. Hye-joo, our gopchang hasn’t come out yet.”
“Ms. Gwon Hye-joo, we haven’t gotten our soda either.”
“Yes, yes! I understand! Just a moment!”
Ah, this was driving her crazy.
Hye-joo was running around more frantically than the restaurant employees without even getting the chance to sit down properly.
Everyone kept sending her on one errand after another as though they had paid her to do it, and Hye-joo naturally went around taking everyone’s requests for them.
“Ms. Gwon Hye-joo.”
When someone called out to Hye-joo from another table, someone suddenly sprang to his feet.
It was Mujin.
Hye-joo’s eyes met Mujin’s.
“Why don’t you sit down for a while?”
“Ah, someone asked me to bring them some water.”
“That’s what the restaurant staff are here for.”
“Excuse me, could you bring one bottle of water to Table Eight?”
Mujin quickly took control of the situation.
Was that really how it was supposed to be?
Hye-joo gave an awkward smile and lingered uncertainly, and as though he had been waiting for that moment, Mujin casually patted the seat beside him with an indifferent expression.
‘Sitting right next to him is uncomfortable…….’
Pretending not to notice, Hye-joo tried to move to another seat, but Mujin caught her by the wrist and looked at her quietly.
“……Yes?”
“Sit beside me.”
“Ahaha, I was going to sit next to Yeon-soo.”
“We always sit together.”
“I don’t sit next to people I don’t know.”
“So sit here.”
What was this?
Why did he somehow seem so different from the way he had acted at the company?
Hye-joo cautiously gauged Mujin’s mood, which seemed almost as though he had already established the upper hand, and eventually sat down beside him.
