BTUB 12

Chapter: 12

Since it was lunchtime anyway, someone would surely come back soon and open the door for her. The problem was that she couldn’t eat in the meantime.

‘No! I wanted to have cold noodles!’

Her plan to fill her stomach at her usual naengmyeon restaurant near the company had completely fallen apart.

“L-Let’s call someone first.”

Eunjae hurriedly turned on her phone and searched for Assistant Manager Moon’s number. She had just left, so surely she could come back quickly.

However, no matter how long the phone rang, the other person didn’t answer. She was probably so absorbed in her plan to buy the salt bread and return that she hadn’t even noticed her phone vibrating.

“Good grief, why does nothing ever go right for me?”

Eunjae sighed and plopped down on the nearest chair. Honestly, she didn’t even have the energy left to make a fuss. She had already used up all her strength during the meeting.

“Someone else’s number….”

She searched through her contacts, but the only people there were those who had gone out for work, someone who happened to be taking a day off today, or people from other teams. Team Leader Woo Seokhyun was among them, but she felt awkward about calling her boss, who had probably already left to eat.

Besides them, if she had to pick just one person….

‘Joo Taegeon.’

But calling this man was even more ridiculous than calling Team Leader Woo Seokhyun. For one thing, the fact that the Vice President’s phone number was saved on the phone of an ordinary employee like her was ridiculous enough.

When she remembered the red ginseng extract that he had practically forced into her hands and made her take one packet every day, she felt a bitter taste rise in her mouth for no reason.

‘Although, thanks to that, I do feel like I’ve been less tired lately.’

There probably wouldn’t be any noticeable effect from taking it for only a week, but it was strange how she felt healthier than before. If she could just tolerate the faint smell of red ginseng, she thought she might be willing to keep taking it from now on.

People around her had occasionally looked at Eunjae with curiosity when they noticed her suddenly taking red ginseng. Most of their questions were things like whether she had finally decided to take care of her health or whether someone had given it to her as a gift.

Whenever that happened, Eunjae would give a troubled little smile and choose an appropriately vague answer, such as, “My parents sent it to me.”

“…Anyway, once I finish everything I received, I won’t have any reason to get involved with him anymore, right?”

That man had said he would give her more after a month, but by the time then came, there was a greater chance that he would simply forget.

He had to.

Eunjae glared at Joo Taegeon’s number on the screen for no particular reason before putting her phone away.

“Huh? Ah, no!”

But at that very moment, her thumb accidentally pressed down firmly on his phone number.

By the time she realized her mistake, the call was already ringing. With a scream, Eunjae hurriedly pressed the button to end the call.

“Eek!”

Huff, huff….

While she was breathing heavily, she suddenly jumped in surprise and let out another scream. Joo Taegeon had immediately called her back. Even though she had hung up quickly, apparently a missed call had still been recorded on his end.

Eunjae sprang to her feet and nervously stamped her feet as she hesitated. She couldn’t bring herself to answer the incoming call.

Not long afterward, perhaps because he had given up, the call abruptly ended. Only then did Eunjae relax and cautiously approach the table she had moved away from.

[Han Eunjae.]

At that moment, a newly arrived message appeared on the screen.

[Where are you?]

The two firm words asking directly about her whereabouts made Eunjae freeze stiffly.

According to the schedule she remembered, Joo Taegeon should have been out of the office around this time, inspecting products that had been placed in department stores. A product scheduled for release had recently attracted attention on social media, so they needed to increase its inventory.

And yet, during a time when he was probably busy, or perhaps even in the middle of a meeting with a business partner, she had left behind a completely pointless missed call!

[I called by mistake. I’m sorry.]

Eunjae quickly tapped out a reply before nervously biting her lip.

She desperately hoped Joo Taegeon would just pretend nothing had happened, but as fate would have it, he showed no intention of doing so.

[Were you thinking about me?]

Her eyes widened at the reply, and her face turned bright red like a tomato.

“Ha! No, seriously, wh-what kind of thing is that to send so casually?”

How ridiculous!

Eunjae let out an incredulous gasp, clicked her tongue, and put her phone away.

Apparently, Joo Taegeon had quite a lot of confidence in his appearance. How could he possibly attach so much meaning to one accidental phone call?

But the reason she secretly felt a pang of guilt was because she really had been thinking about him until just moments ago.

[I wasn’t. I’ll be more careful.]

The moment she sent the reply in as stiff a tone as possible, a strange question came back.

[Have you eaten?]

It sounded almost as though he had secretly been watching her situation from somewhere and was asking to confirm it.

Eunjae checked the time. Thirty precious minutes had already passed. As expected, there was no sign of anyone returning early, and the area around the conference room remained quiet.

“I’m hungry….”

Even after a long lament, she had to wait another full hour before she was finally able to escape thanks to an employee from the Sales Team who happened to come to the conference room.

“Make sure you heat them up when you get home! They’re seriously delicious.”

The salt bread that Assistant Manager Moon had handed her in abundance smelled so delicious that Eunjae could tell it would taste amazing just from the aroma. It was that well-baked.

Which was precisely why it was torture.

After the Sales Team employee rescued her, Eunjae returned to the office without mentioning out of embarrassment that she had skipped lunch. Naturally, none of her team members had any way of knowing that she hadn’t eaten.

In the end, while her team members happened to move into the break room for a moment, Eunjae slipped her hand into the paper bag.

Her fingertips touched the still-warm salt bread, freshly baked to perfection. Grains of salt were dotted across the glossy surface of the bread, and the center was generously filled with fruit jam.

“Ha….”

I seriously can’t resist this!

She hurriedly grabbed one of the salt breads and rushed into the hallway.

There was actually no problem with eating it inside the office, but Eunjae was self-conscious about it. At her previous workplace, she had once eaten a snack during work and ended up being the subject of gossip for quite some time.

“Eunjae, I can’t concentrate on my work because the smell of snacks is everywhere. This is a shared space, you know. You need to be considerate, okay? And you already ate a meal, so how can you fit in more snacks? That’s why you’re getting fat in places….”

Eunjae hurriedly escaped the office and headed straight for the staircase beside the photocopier. At this hour, no one usually went in and out through the stairs.

Thud.

After the door closed behind her, Eunjae quietly took a deep breath and raised the bread in her right hand. Bringing it close to her nose, she found that its savory aroma was even stronger than before. She cautiously took a bite, and a salty yet sweet flavor immediately spread through her mouth.

‘You’re so delicious!’

Assistant Manager Moon had bragged about it so much, and she had been absolutely right! It really did taste like something that could become a sensation on social media. Apparently, the claim that they were selling out like hotcakes wasn’t an exaggeration after all.

Eunjae began devouring the bread without a second thought. Every bite was bursting with richness and flavor. It felt as though her empty stomach, which had been starving all this time, was swallowing the bread while shedding tears of joy.

“Han Eunjae.”

But when an unwelcome voice came from above her head….

“What are you doing here alone?”

She felt as though the entire sky had collapsed.

Eunjae looked up slowly in horror. At that moment, she felt as though she had become the protagonist of a horror movie. At the top of the stairs, a figure was leaning casually against the railing, looking directly at her and tilting his head in confusion.

Joo Taegeon was standing there in a suit, his hands tucked into his pockets.

“Are you going to keep staging a silent protest like that? I don’t mind. It’ll be fun digging the truth out of you.”

When Eunjae didn’t answer, he slowly began descending the stairs, looking as though he intended to find out for himself.

Step. Step.

Every time the sound of his dress shoes echoed through the stairwell, Eunjae’s face grew a little paler.

‘Why now of all times?!’

What kind of cruel joke was fate playing on her?!

Every time she ran into Joo Taegeon, something strange happened. She couldn’t tell whether it was merely her imagination or if she really was cursed with bad luck. At this point, she was starting to seriously suspect the latter.

Regardless of Eunjae’s confusion, Joo Taegeon quickly descended the stairs and stopped directly in front of her. He folded his arms arrogantly and looked down at her, a trace of curiosity flickering in his eyes.