Chapter : 02
A few days later, Sea came to work carrying Je-eon’s jacket, which she had sent out for dry cleaning.
However, even as the afternoon wore on, she still hadn’t managed to give it to him.
If she went to the division head’s office on a personal errand, people might start gossiping. But if she simply handed it to his secretary without properly thanking him and left, that didn’t seem polite either.
No matter how I think about it, giving it to him directly is the best option…
As Sea pondered deeply, her eyes suddenly lit up.
[Hello, Division Head. This is Han Sea from the Strategic Planning Team. Thank you for helping me a few days ago. The thing is…]
She sent him a message through the company’s internal messenger, thanking him and asking how she should return his jacket.
“Sea! Could you separate out the sales figures for the serum line in Japan from last month and upload them?”
“Ah, yes!”
Hearing someone call her, Sea closed the messenger window.
She immediately pulled up the relevant data, created a new file, filled in the missing figures, and finished checking everything.
Not long after she uploaded it to the shared folder, a faint bang, bang came from the multifunction printer.
“What’s wrong with this all of a sudden? I’m already dying from how busy I am…”
Everyone seemed too absorbed in their own work to pay attention.
Sea quietly approached the employee.
“Is something not working?”
“It was working fine, and then suddenly it started doing this.”
Sea checked the error message on the multifunction printer and fiddled with a few things.
At that moment, the malfunctioning printer suddenly started working normally again.
“Oh? It works. Thank you, Sea.”
“I’m glad.”
Sea smiled brightly.
She returned to her desk and began focusing on the rest of her work.
The Strategic Planning Team had a fairly demanding workload. Every department’s reports were funneled there so they could produce the best possible results.
The office was always bustling, and working overtime was part of everyday life.
Even a single misplaced line in a report or one incorrect figure could lead to a major incident, so Sea could never afford to let her guard down.
Naturally giving up on leaving work on time, Sea organized consumer responses to the company’s major products for the first half of the year.
After working for a while, she suddenly remembered that she had sent Je-eon a message.
The little number “1” still appeared beside her message bubble, indicating that he hadn’t read it.
Is he really busy?
As she debated whether she should send another message or simply wait until another opportunity arose, she realized that she was now alone in the office.
“I guess it won’t work today. I’ll leave him a message and head home.”
[I’ll make sure to bring your jacket to you when you have time, Division Head.]
She typed the message and was just about to press send when—
[Are you still at work?]
“Oh!”
At the message she had been waiting for, Sea’s face brightened.
She deleted what she had written and was about to start typing again when her desk phone rang. The number displayed on the caller ID was Je-eon’s office.
Sea hesitated for a moment before answering.
“This is Han Sea from the Strategic Planning Team.”
—Yes, I know.
His voice over the phone sounded even lower than it had in person. It was the kind of voice that seemed to envelop her completely, leaving no room for any other sound to enter her ears.
—Why haven’t you gone home yet? Is it because of my clothes?
“Ah… I had some work to finish. I was just about to leave.”
—Really? Then I’ll come pick up my clothes. Let’s meet on the first floor.
“Understood.”
Sea shut down her computer and left the office.
She arrived first and waited in the lobby. Then she heard Je-eon’s voice from behind her.
“I feel bad for making you go through all this trouble.”
It seemed too late for a formal greeting, so Sea simply gave him a slight bow.
“Thank you for helping me that day. I had the clothes cleaned thoroughly.”
“Thank you. Have you eaten?”
“Eaten? Ah, not yet…”
She had grabbed a simple sandwich earlier, so technically, she had eaten. Yet she impulsively lied.
Even she didn’t know why she’d done it.
“Division Head, that’s not what I—”
Before she could correct herself, his question overlapped with hers.
“If you don’t mind, would you like to eat before you go?”
“Ah… You haven’t eaten either?”
“I’ve been too busy to even check my messages.”
“Then I’ll buy you dinner!”
Not knowing where she’d found the courage, Sea blurted it out.
“If it weren’t for you that day, I would have been terribly humiliated. I really want to… buy you a meal as thanks.”
She could feel his gaze resting on her.
Under his prolonged silence and gaze, she felt as though her body temperature was rising.
“I know a Korean restaurant I go to often. Let’s go there.”
As soon as they entered a private dining room, Je-eon took off his jacket and hung it on the coat hanger inside.
Sea’s eyes were immediately drawn to his broad, sharply defined shoulders.
He maintained an impeccable appearance from head to toe, yet there was something wild about him that was difficult to put into words.
Without even looking at the menu, he ordered the two-person beef bulgogi course.
While sitting across from him and waiting for the food, Sea opened the menu for no particular reason, simply to ease her awkwardness.
“…!”
The beef bulgogi course Je-eon had ordered cost over fifty thousand won per person.
She had never eaten a meal that expensive before, so she was somewhat flustered.
“I’m paying, so just eat comfortably.”
“What? No! I said I’d pay for you… I have money too.”
“That wouldn’t look right. I’ll just accept the thought.”
“Then next time… at least let me buy you coffee.”
She bit her lip, wondering if she’d gone too far by talking about a next time when there might not even be one.
Je-eon looked at Sea’s cheeks, which were gradually turning a soft shade of red, and slightly curled up the corners of his lips.
“All right.”
Bzzz. Bzzz—
The phone Je-eon had placed face down on the table vibrated.
After checking the caller, he stood up.
“Start eating when the food comes out.”
Before she had a chance to answer, his voice faded into the distance as he walked outside.
“Haa… Why am I so nervous?”
She hadn’t even been this nervous during her job interview.
Bzzz.
At the sudden vibration, her pounding heart seemed to gradually settle down.
[What are you doing? Are you off work?]
It was a message from her friend, Dowon.
Dowon, who had grown up with Sea at the orphanage, was the only friend she could truly open her heart to.
Life at the orphanage hadn’t been easy for Sea either.
She had been bullied by the other children, while the teachers simply turned a blind eye.
Just as Sea was gradually becoming helpless and withdrawn, Dowon entered the orphanage the following year and became her shield.
[Yeah, I got off work and came out to eat.]
[Eat? At this hour? With who?]
“Hmm…”
Sea’s fingers wandered over the keypad.
Dowon was her closest friend regardless of gender, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to type that she was having dinner alone with her boss.
[Someone I know.]
Because she’d never done anything like this before.
[Who? You always say you’re working overtime and never even meet me, and now you’re doing this?]
She could almost hear Dowon’s grumbling voice, which made her laugh.
She was about to continue replying when the pre-meal tea and appetizers arrived.
[See you later.]
Sea hurriedly ended the conversation.
Even with the delicious-looking food sitting right in front of her, she didn’t pick up her chopsticks.
It wasn’t until the table had been filled with the main dishes that Je-eon finally returned.
“I told you to eat first.”
He gently scolded her when he saw that she hadn’t touched a single bite of her food.
Sea smiled sheepishly. Hearing him worry about her secretly felt nice.
“Let’s eat.”
Je-eon picked up his chopsticks first.
Sea’s gaze naturally drifted toward him as he quietly chewed a piece of bulgogi.
Among the employees, opinions about him were sharply divided along gender lines.
The men disliked the roughness that emanated from his strong features, sharp eyes, and somewhat cocky attitude.
The women, on the other hand, found that very quality attractive.
Now that she was sitting across from him like this, Sea could understand it a little.
That was—the women’s opinion, anyway.
His refined table manners and delicate, neat handling of his chopsticks naturally drew her attention.
“…”
Sea subtly lowered her gaze.
For some reason, her usually unnoticed, clumsy way of using chopsticks suddenly bothered her.
She glanced at his fingers and adjusted her grip on her chopsticks, but then—
Clatter!
One of the chopsticks slipped from her hand and fell.
“I’m sorry…”
Why did I have to do something I don’t normally do…?
“It’s similar to the way you hold a pen.”
With his gaze lowered, he demonstrated by moving his chopsticks.
“You rest a pen on your middle finger and hold it with your index finger and thumb, right? With chopsticks, you lightly rest them against your middle and ring fingers to keep them steady, then move them using only your index and middle fingers. Like this.”
His voice flowed calmly and almost casually, yet every word seemed to sink clearly into her ears.
“…Like this?”
She wiggled her fingers and tried to do exactly as he instructed, but it still looked somewhat awkward.
Then, without warning, a hand reached over and touched her skin.
“…!”
“Don’t curl your fingers too far inward, or you’ll miss what you’re trying to pick up. About this much.”
Sea’s fingertips stiffened at the sudden contact.
Even after he withdrew his hand, her heart continued to pound wildly, refusing to calm down.
