Chapter: 04
Eunjae thought that this moment was some kind of cruel joke played by fate. But before long, she realized that it was not merely a joke of fate, but a disaster that had befallen her life.
Not long ago, she had ended up stealing the…… lips of the person sitting at the very top of the company where she worked.
‘This can’t be happening!’
Once she learned Joo Taegun’s identity, all kinds of wild imaginings unfolded in Eunjae’s mind. Most of them followed a scenario in which Joo Taegun demanded that she take responsibility for the kiss before firing her.
While she was being swept away by such dark thoughts, Assistant Manager Moon began chatting and laughing with the others.
“Shall we head out soon? I heard today’s company dinner is at the Japanese restaurant in the building next door. Sounds delicious.”
When Eunjae turned her head, she saw the other employees who, like her, had already finished preparing to leave work. Everyone looked just as excited and happy as Assistant Manager Moon.
“I, I…….”
There was only one person.
Only Eunjae, whose face had gone deathly pale and who was even sweating, shook her head.
“I still have some work left to finish. I’ll wrap this up and join you.”
“Really? Team Leader Seo told us to come right away…… He said the vice president is going to give us some words of encouragement, too, since he’s coming, so make sure you fill your seat.”
Ms. Moon Jihye, that’s exactly why I can’t go…….
Eunjae swallowed the excuse she could not bring herself to say aloud and forced a smile.
“I’ll come even if I’m late, so please go ahead.”
Without even blinking, Eunjae lied her way out of the crisis.
“Okay. Then hurry over, all right?”
Assistant Manager Moon smiled brightly and left the office together with the others.
Once everyone had gone and the office had become quiet, Eunjae stared blankly at her monitor.
‘I should go as late as possible!’
The reason Eunjae could not leave the office was not simply because she did not want to run into Joo Taegun.
At the moment, she was being crushed beneath the project that Team Leader Kang had abandoned and left behind. Therefore, even if she really could not attend the company dinner, she had a perfectly valid excuse.
“Would he even remember my face? Am I jumping to conclusions too much?”
Eunjae let out a deep sigh as she took a sip of her fifth cup of coffee of the day.
Unlike the conspicuously handsome Joo Taegun, she was rather ordinary-looking. Perhaps there was a good chance that he did not remember her face at all.
‘No, even so, I should minimize the chances of running into him as much as possible.’
Joo Taegun was highly likely to go abroad again on business soon, so she only needed to endure for a few days.
Comforting herself with that thought, Eunjae once again began a long staring contest with her monitor.
Tick, tick…….
The sound of the second hand on the clock hanging on the office wall echoed through the room where she was alone, and it was only when it had grown completely dark outside the window that she rubbed her bloodshot eyes and raised her head.
“It’s finished…….”
She was on the verge of collapsing, but at least she had finished the report that needed to be submitted by tomorrow. The gap left behind when Team Leader Kang departed had been larger than she expected, so there was nothing she could do about it.
“Still, this is better. If I’d submitted my resignation back then, I would’ve been the only one losing out.”
Muttering to herself, Eunjae drained the little coffee that remained in her cup. At the same time, her phone vibrated briefly. She hurriedly checked it and saw a message from Assistant Manager Moon.
[Assistant Manager, when are you coming?]
[The vice president just left.]
[He’s seriously handsomeㅋㅋㅋㅋ I thought he was an actor.]
[Come quickly and eat. Everything is seriously delicious.]
The news that Joo Taegun had already left was wonderful news.
Eunjae silently cheered inside, but she gave a bitter smile at the last message. Everyone was probably enjoying delicious food to their hearts’ content by now…… but such a feast was only possible when your stomach was in good condition.
“Ah, my stomach hurts…….”
Eunjae had chronic gastritis. Lack of sleep, irregular meals, and stress caused by overwork. There were many possible causes, but today, the culprit seemed to be the five cups of coffee she had thrown into her empty stomach.
It was amazing that her coworkers, who had also suffered through several days of working overtime alongside her, still had enough energy to go all out at the company dinner. Eunjae was so exhausted that she would not have found it strange if she collapsed on the spot.
‘I shouldn’t have drunk all that coffee. My stomach really hurts…… The pharmacy must already be closed.’
No matter how bad her stomach felt, she could not really skip the company dinner, so she decided to drink some water and then go home.
Eunjae gathered her bag and staggered toward the door. Her eyelids kept drooping, and her feet felt as heavy as lead.
But the moment the automatic office door opened and she took one step outside—
“Ah!”
With a thud, a sharp pain struck her forehead. More precisely, she had bumped her forehead directly into someone’s chest.
As a result, the tumbler she had been holding fell toward the other person.
“No!”
She screamed and reached out her hand, but the tumbler had already left its owner’s grasp. She watched in slow motion as the tumbler overturned against the other person’s chest, spilling water all over him.
At the same time, she lost her balance and fell forward.
If an arm that swiftly reached out had not supported her waist, she would have tumbled to the floor along with her tumbler.
‘Oh, my God.’
Eunjae, dangling from the man’s arm, gasped for breath with a deathly pale face. Her ears were ringing from the pounding of her heart.
“Th-thank you…….”
After barely getting her feet back on the ground, Eunjae looked up as she offered her thanks. Before she could even finish her trembling words, the other person fired a sharp question at her.
“Is throwing yourself at just anyone your specialty?”
“What? What did you say?”
No, when have we ever met before for you to call me that?
Eunjae glared at him, having completely forgotten that she had not only soaked his shirt but had also practically thrown herself into his arms.
But when she properly looked at his face beneath the orange-colored lighting……
“Gasp!”
A shock and terror strong enough to stop her breath struck Eunjae like a blow to the head.
At her reaction, which had stiffened so completely that she could barely breathe, the man nodded as though he had expected this.
“It’s been a while.”
The man looked down at her with his large frame and terrifyingly expressionless face. He was none other than the protagonist of today’s welcome dinner and the vice president of Kodiak Bear.
And the man who had shared Han Eunjae’s first kiss, Joo Taegun!
Eunjae was so shocked that she nearly hiccupped. Trembling all over, she shrank in on herself as much as possible. She had heard that he had left after attending the company dinner, so she could not understand why he had suddenly returned to the company instead of going home.
Joo Taegun was dressed in a neat suit, but because Eunjae had spilled water on him, only the area around his chest was damp. Despite looking rather ridiculous, his handsome appearance somehow made him look like he had stepped straight out of a photoshoot.
Without realizing it, Eunjae’s gaze fell on the slightly opened area of his shirt.
“Han Eunjae.”
At the same time, Joo Taegun narrowed his eyes and muttered in a low voice.
“Is that your name?”
She was startled when he suddenly called her by name, but she soon realized that he had seen her employee ID badge. The next moment, a red warning light began flashing loudly inside Eunjae’s head.
‘……Right, let’s run!’
Without having time to think about anything else, Eunjae immediately thrust out her right foot and moved. It was the kind of reflexive reaction that a herbivore in the wild might make when trying to escape the threat of a predator.
“Ah!”
And today, for the second time, she screamed as she fell straight down.
She had stepped directly into the puddle of water she had just spilled from her tumbler.
“Han Eunjae!”
Joo Taegun shouted in surprise, and that was the last thing she heard before she felt a powerful impact against the back of her head. Her vision spun, and soon a painful sensation arrived so intense that tears welled up in her eyes.
‘No wonder I thought my luck was finally improving this morning after Team Leader Kang quit…….’
It was only as her vision blurred and she began to lose consciousness that Eunjae realized she had hit her head against the floor.
While unconscious, Eunjae had a ridiculous dream.
She had turned into a honeybee and fallen into a huge jar of honey, where she was desperately floundering around.
‘Ah, it’s so sweet…… No, I can’t breathe! Save me!’
While sweet honey poured into her mouth like a waterfall and made it difficult to breathe, a huge black-brown bear was watching her from above the jar like she was prey.
Even though it was a dream, an incredibly vivid terror washed over her. She desperately flapped her wings and began begging the bear.
“Haah, ugh…… I don’t taste good!”
When she opened her eyes with a clichéd dying cry straight out of a cartoon, the sweet, sticky honey had vanished without a trace. Instead, she saw the view of a room bathed in the bluish light of dawn.
“Uh…….”
Huh? Where did the honey jar go?
Eunjae placed both hands over her chest and caught her breath. Her pounding pulse gradually slowed until it returned to its normal rhythm.
What? I fell asleep…….
Just as she formed a faint smile—
“You finally woke up.”
A quiet voice came from right beside Eunjae, causing her to freeze solid.
“Ms. Han Eunjae.”
It was Joo Taegun’s voice, which had already become strangely familiar.
