A child who looks like me

As Jeong-oh approached, Ji-heon was immobilized by the woman who suddenly appeared, as if she had fallen from the sky, grabbing his wrist.

He completely forgot what he was doing.

His body felt strange. His emotions were off-kilter.

A name that felt as hot as the midday sun. A name that burned with heat: Lee Jeong-oh. Once again, it was her.

She had an expression that was both provocative and resigned, as if she had just come from somewhere in his dreams.

That was all.

“How could you throw that away?”

She was merely blaming him, yet just the fact that she was in front of him made Ji-heon want to pull her waist toward him, regardless of where they were.

He wanted to tug at the neatly fastened buttons of her blouse. He wanted to see the curves that were hidden beneath. He wanted to touch the white skin inside her sleeves.

He wanted to consume everything about her.

Was he going crazy? Was he really losing his mind?

It was an unusual impulse he had never felt before.

It must be all because of that damned dream.

Ji-heon resisted the strange feelings and twisted his arm to pull his hand free from hers. He didn’t understand why his movements were slow when he could have roughly shaken her off.

He rotated his hand smoothly and caught her slender wrist, just as she had done.

He reversed the situation effortlessly.

Her flustered expression intrigued him.

And then?

He looked down at her, as if searching her out, and spoke.

“Let’s talk.”

Now what would she do?

“U-uh!”

At that moment, the elevator doors opened, and a man shouted. It was his friend, Park Seung-kyu from the HR team.

As soon as he got off the elevator and witnessed the shocking scene, Seung-kyu was rendered speechless, pointing at the two of them with his finger and just flapping his mouth.

His friend was holding the wrist of a new female employee. A director at the company. The head of a department.

“Director! What are you doing here!”

Once he regained his senses, he shouted loudly, causing Ji-heon to release Jeong-oh’s hand.

What on earth were they doing like that?

Yesterday, Ji-heon had talked to him about Lee Jeong-oh, mentioning her pale face.

Seung-kyu had jokingly asked if she was pretty, but it hadn’t been a serious question.

But this situation was no laughing matter.

What should he do now? Confront Ji-heon?

Ask about what happened with Lee Jeong-oh?

“Lee Jeong-oh!”

Seung-kyu brightened his expression and stepped closer to Jeong-oh.

“I was on my way to find you, Director. I had something I wanted to tell you earlier.”

He subtly gestured to Ji-heon and hurriedly led Jeong-oh somewhere else.

After guiding her into a quiet conference room, Seung-kyu carefully closed the door and asked earnestly.

“May I ask if something happened?”

“…”

“You can tell me the truth.”

Jeong-oh hesitated before quietly speaking up.

“You know those kids who came to the company today? The director received gifts from them, but as soon as the kids left, he threw them away.”

Oh my god… Seung-kyu put his hand to his forehead.

“So, you ended up grabbing the director’s wrist to stop him from doing that…”

“And yet, it turned out that I was the one caught.”

“Yes.”

“He really messed up.”

As Seung-kyu criticized Ji-heon, she made a blank expression.

He felt relieved, realizing that she was a decent person.

“I’ll make him apologize to you.”

“You don’t have to. He should apologize to the kids… And thinking about it, I guess it was my nosiness too.”

She really was a good person.

He felt sorry for her, who bowed her head in embarrassment, thinking she had interfered unnecessarily.

Affected by her emotions, Seung-kyu added, “Director, this is a bit personal, but actually, I’ve known Ji-heon for 16 years. Although our esteemed director probably doesn’t remember properly.”

“…”

“So I can afford to say a few harsh words. I still have the guts to do that, for now.”

Jeong-oh lifted her head, which had been deeply bowed.

If he’s known him for 16 years, he must know the Ji-heon from seven years ago.

‘Then he might recognize me too, right?’

However, she couldn’t read any hint of recognition in Park Seung-kyu’s eyes. The earlier question was also ambiguous.

Ji-heon hadn’t even mentioned Jeong-oh to his close friend.

“If Ji-heon—no, if Director Ji does something weird again, come find me. I’ll take the lead on the complaint, I promise.”

Jeong-oh slowly nodded. It felt like a heavy lump of sorrow was pressing down on her chest.

“But it seems like you’re going to have an early lunch today?”

Oh, right! Jajangmyeon!

Only then did Jeong-oh remember her forgotten mission.

“Then I’ll be going!”

She hurriedly bowed and stepped outside.

After Jeong-oh left, Seung-kyu also exited the conference room and quickly headed to Ji-heon’s office.

Fortunately, Ji-heon was in his office.

“Hey! My heart just sank!”

As soon as Seung-kyu saw Ji-heon, he shouted.

“You’re going to get in big trouble! How could you hold a female employee’s wrist? Even if you get caught or tied up, you shouldn’t grab a female employee’s wrist!”

“That woman—”

“Not ‘that woman’! It’s Lee Jeong-oh! Watch your words.”

Seung-kyu’s voice rose as he realized his friend still didn’t understand.

“She spoke informally to me.”

“…You grabbed her wrist because she spoke informally?”

Oh, this guy is unbelievable.

At least it seemed that Jeong-oh didn’t harbor any ill intentions, so maybe that was a relief?

This ridiculous guy had found a match in a woman just as absurd as he was.

It felt a bit absurd.

.*. *. *. *. *. *.

Jeong-oh hurriedly ran to the Chinese restaurant that Team Leader Seung-mi mentioned.

She was supposed to arrive by 11:50, but it was already 11:53. The restaurant was already crowded with people.

Just then, someone called out to her.

“Lee Jeong-oh! Over here!”

Employee Song Gi-hoon from her team waved with a bright smile.

Jeong-oh walked in the direction Gi-hoon was gesturing.

As she entered the restaurant corridor, she found a room set for five.

“How come you’re here, Gi-hoon?”

“The team leader told me to go as well. I sneaked down the stairs to get here.”

Our team leader is really serious about jajangmyeon!

Feeling embarrassed for not fulfilling her task properly, Jeong-oh was relieved by Mi-ran’s obsession with jajangmyeon.

“Oh, thank goodness!”

Jeong-oh sat down and sighed in relief.

“Wait, you wore white today, Director?”

Gi-hoon, who had been quietly observing Jeong-oh, got up again and brought an apron from somewhere.

“Everyone else wore black today. We came here dressed for that.”

“Oh.”

“Every second Wednesday of the month is black. Remember that, Director.”

When Jeong-oh tied the apron around her neck, the other team members arrived. Just as Gi-hoon said, everyone was dressed in black except her.

“Team Leader, didn’t you tell this Director about the dress code?” Gi-hoon asked Mi-ran.

“If this Director said she doesn’t like jajangmyeon, we were going to go somewhere else.”

Her voice carried a hint of sincerity.

As Mi-ran sat down, she turned to Jeong-oh and asked, “Director, was there something going on with Director Ji-heon? It looked like you were talking in front of the elevator earlier.”

Although Mi-ran spoke casually, she had actually witnessed almost everything. She had seen through the glass door as she passed by in the corridor.

Jeong-oh had grabbed Ji-heon’s wrist, then he had grabbed hers, and then HR Team Leader Park Seung-kyu took Jeong-oh away.

It felt like something had gone wrong, so she hurriedly sent Gi-hoon to the Chinese restaurant first.

“Um, it was just a bit of a conflict over the trash. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“Why? Does he just throw trash around carelessly?”

Go Eun-joo, another employee, turned her head and asked while looking at her face in a handheld mirror.

Jeong-oh couldn’t answer clearly and awkwardly nodded.

“I just had a feeling it might be like that.”

Eun-joo snorted dismissively.

“It really looked unpleasant.”

Did Ji-heon really seem unpleasant? Could someone actually think that upon seeing his handsome face? Jeong-oh’s eyes widened in curiosity at Eun-joo’s reaction.

Go Eun-joo, whom she had observed for a whole day, was someone with high self-esteem. Others called her “Princess Eun-joo.”

Some seemed to be teasing her with her name, but Eun-joo didn’t seem to mind that attention. She didn’t dislike being treated like a princess by others.

Mi-ran said to Eun-joo, “But he is good-looking.”

“Looks and character are separate. I don’t even consider a man who doesn’t treat me well to be a man. He’s just a superior. If he weren’t a superior, he wouldn’t be worth dealing with.”

Eun-joo rebutted Mi-ran’s opinion without hesitation.

“No one can harm my dignity.”

Eun-joo’s argument somehow seemed persuasive, and Jeong-oh nodded vigorously.

Right. Everyone is dignified, yet Ji-heon threw away the cookies that the children had made for him, along with the card they had given.

“That’s right. Everyone is dignified.”

“No. I’m the only one who is dignified.”