Chapter 04.
Yuju came to her senses and darted her eyes subtly.
If she answered, it felt like she was losing; if she kept her mouth shut, she had to maintain this humiliating angle.
Ah, neither option appealed to her.
The problem was that seeing that face at this distance was violently more handsome than she had expected.
The scent tickling the tip of her nose wasn’t unfamiliar. It felt a bit like a clean soap smell, or simply the natural scent of skin. It wasn’t aggressive, but once perceived, it was the kind that kept lingering. She tried breathing shallowly, but it was no use.
The trouble didn’t end there. From the moment she recognized it, her eyes began acting up of their own accord.
From his eyebrows to the bridge of his nose, his facial features were as straight as if measured with a ruler. His black eyes, so deep their bottoms couldn’t be seen, seemed to pierce right through Yuju’s innermost thoughts, sending a chill down her spine. Calling him handsome was far too ordinary. Calling him inconvenient was much more accurate.
These were things she wouldn’t have known if not for this distance.
If she stayed still like this, she felt like she’d get caughtācaught being charmed by this scent and that face. Yuju forced out a purposely rude voice.
“If the rescue operation is complete, isn’t the proper procedure to withdraw quickly?” “……”
Haesung looked at Yuju in silence. One of his upturned eyebrows lowered very slowly. That was the entirety of his reaction, but it was easy to read in his expression that he thought she was absurd.
“I just caught someone who was about to fall.” “I didn’t ask you to catch me.” “Next time, even if you roll on your own, I won’t catch you. Since it seems being a spectator is the polite thing to do.” “……Why take it to that extreme? So devoid of human warmth.”
Haesung loosened the arm that had been holding Yuju. Very slowly, as if there was no reason to rush.
Only then did Yuju realize. The thought that she wanted him to keep holding her had caught somewhere in her throat. She couldn’t tell if she felt disappointed or ridiculous, but either way, it was an emotion she shouldn’t be feeling toward this man who looked like Jung Taeha.
Running away was the answer. Chae Yuju, get a grip.
Yuju lowered her waist first. All she had to do was pick up what she had dropped and leave the spot.
However, Haesung bent his knees first and began picking up the documents scattered on the floor. Already half of them were in his hands. Yuju briefly looked down at the sight, then silently squatted on the opposite side.
To think she was squatting on a hallway floor picking up files with the NIS’s elite black ops agent, of all rumors. It was so absurd she almost laughed.
Yet, strangely, it didn’t feel bad. The fact that he didn’t say anything about helping or ask if she was okay, but simply squatted down and picked them up like it was his own job. As Yuju swallowed a soft laugh and reached out her hand, she stopped. Haesung’s hand was reaching out in the exact same direction.
Even knowing she should avoid it, her hand froze in place. They almost touched, but Haesung smoothly altered his direction and picked up a different file nearby. Even though they hadn’t even brushed, Yuju’s fingertips burned unfairly. Feeling her neck grow hot because she seemed to be the only one overreacting, she felt a flush crawl up.
“Looked like you were coming out of the director’s office.”
Haesung dropped the words indifferently without even lifting his head.
“……How did you know? It’s not like you’re keeping tabs on me.” “Rather than keeping tabs, let’s call it interest.”
She had bristled with a thorn-laced voice, but at the unexpected word returned in kind, Yuju’s thought circuit briefly stuttered.
“So, has the persuasion worked at all?”
Answering a question with another question.
Yuju briefly looked at Haesung. The face that didn’t even spare a glance while picking up files was irritating.
“It didn’t. If it had, would I be doing this?” “Then do you plan to storm through that door every single morning from now on?” “Until the director surrenders. There’s no tree that won’t fall after being struck ten times. When it comes to wielding an axe, that’s my major.”
Only then did Haesung lift his head. He looked at Yuju for a moment, then let out a brief, dry huff of laughter.
“You’re ruthless.” “……I’ll take that as a compliment.” “It is a compliment. It’s just that I feel sorry for that tree.”
At the remark that left it unclear whether it was a compliment or sarcasm, Yuju skipped a retort, snatched up the final document bundle, and stood straight. Haesung likewise stood up, straightening his long legs.
Haesung held out the remaining bundle of files in his hand toward Yuju. Yuju looked down at that large hand for a moment before taking them back grudgingly.
The word “thanks” was swallowed deep down inside her throat. Haesung, too, showed no particular sign of waiting for a note of gratitude, merely giving a casual, indifferent sweep to Yuju’s messed-up bangs.
It was the moment Yuju tried to turn around without lingering.
“Let me ask you just one thing.”
A cool yet weighted voice from behind her anchored Yuju’s steps in place.
“Am I, and the person you mistook me for, very similar?”
Haesung lowered his eyes for a brief second, then raised them again.
“Enough to want to use me as a replacement for that person?”
His level, uninflected voice rippled heavily through the air.
Instead of answering, Yuju slowly raised her gaze to capture him in her eyes.
“Don’t cross the line.” “……” “The place where you’re standing right now is the absolute maximum limit of where we can ever mix.”
A voice without a shred of faltering froze the air between the two of them. Withdrawing her gaze, Yuju brushed past his side just like that.
Yet, the truth lingering inside her mouth was singular.
It wasn’t that they looked similar; they were identical.
Every time you breathe, it feels like that person came back to life, and it’s driving me out of my mind.
Even as she slipped out of the hallway, those words never ended up passing her lips.
As soon as she opened the office door and stepped inside, Seol-ah, who had been staring at her monitor, spun around in her chair.
“Team Leader, why is your face like that?” “What about it?” “It’s baked red. Almost like a fully-ripened tomato?”
Yuju sat at her desk and powered on the monitor. She awkwardly clicked at her innocent mouse.
“It’s hot. Especially the hallway.” “The hallway with the strongest AC in our building?” “……It’s because my blood sugar crashed. Don’t annoy me and just do your work.”
At Yuju’s blunt retort, Seol-ah narrowed her eyes. She made eye contact with the surrounding team members. Without anyone needing to go first, shoulders shrugged up and down in unison.
Blood sugar, my foot. Something definitely happened in the hallway.
Seol-ah turned her gaze back to her monitor and pressed down the corners of her lips.
Meanwhile, Yuju clicked her mouse repeatedly, trying to force her focus, but the letters on the screen refused to register.
āAm I, and the person you mistook me for, very similar?
It was the kind of question that became all the more vivid the harder she tried to erase it.
Yuju pressed her fingertips firmly against her temples. She hated herself for wavering like this over a mere face.
Forget it. They just said it’s a coincidence they look alike.
Yuju took a single deep breath. When emotions take the lead, judgment clouds. Besides, if it were Ihyeon, he had zero reason to lie to her.
No matter how great of a black ops agent he was, getting past Ihyeon’s eyes was practically impossible. That was the conclusion Yuju had reached after rolling in the same organization as him. Even if every number in the world told a lie, her trust in Ihyeon had never wavered.
She was just about to steady her mind whenā
Knock knock. Just two taps of a knock. An unfamiliar aura permeated the sensitive, tense Team 3 office. As if on cue, the agents’ gazes snapped toward the entrance.
“Excuse us.”
The face that poked its head in first belonged to a woman Yuju had never seen before. Offering a brief apology, she pushed the door open, and Haesung followed right behind her.
Both of them moved naturally. Their posture was neither unnecessarily intimidating nor awkwardly submissive. The eyes of Team 3’s members locked onto the two of them simultaneously.
Yuju’s lips curved smoothly into an arc.
“Yes, you’ve excused yourselves.”
It was by no means a welcoming smile.
The moment Yuju’s retort dropped, the air froze solid.
Team 3’s agents collectively plunged their gazes to the bottom of their monitors as if by prior agreement. The sigh of ‘Our team leader caused another accident’ seemed to mingle right in with the sound of typing.
The female agent who had followed behind Haesung momentarily froze. Her eyes trembled finely like an earthquake, but it lasted only a moment. In an instant, she bowed deeply at the waist and offered a brief polite greeting. Struggling to manage the situation amidst this precarious tension, the way she tried to salvage it marked her as a seasoned veteran, not someone who had wandered in by chance.
Haesung didn’t twitch a single eyebrow. If anything, he let out a low laugh, as if even Yuju’s rude, sharp words sounded like a sweet confession.
“Glad you’re smiling. I thought you’d be angry, but it feels like a warmer welcome than expected.”
Haesung stopped right in front of Yuju’s desk with a leisurely gait. The weight of his gaze looking down from above was considerable.
Lifting her chin as if refusing to lose, Yuju met those cool eyes head-on.
