Chapter 17: Chapter 17.
Chapter 17.
Shin Kim kept checking the chatting app over and over again. He ignored the message from Minjae who asked him if he wanted to have lunch together. What Shin cared about was the message he sent to Woojin today.
-Assistant Manager Woojin, do you want to have lunch with me today?
During the last few days, Woojin and Shin lunched together everyday. Because they were in different departments, they rarely passed by each other. That meant the only time for Shin to get to see Woojin was during lunch time.
Jihoon looked at them curiously whenever they were together at lunch time, but Woojin didn’t react to it.
Shin continued to wait for Woojin’s reply.
‘Why isn’t he answering my message?’
Woojin always replied immediately, but today, it seemed that he wasn’t even reading Shin’s message. It was almost lunch time already, so Shin sighed in frustration. When he couldn’t wait anymore, Shin finally replied to Minjae’s message.
Minjae sent a message back quickly to Shin.
-Let’s meet at the first floor.
Shin grabbed his jacket and walked out of the room. As he walked to the elevator, he noticed that Woojin’s seat in the policy room was empty.
‘Is he out for business again?’
When he arrived on the first floor, Shin spotted Minjae who was waiting for him. Minjae worked in the HR department, which was located on the sixth floor. Shin also saw that Yeonwoo was standing next to Minjae. It seemed that the three of them were going to go to lunch together.
Shin asked Minjae, “Did you get home ok last night?”
“Yeah. Hey, why didn’t you come to the office dinner yesterday?”
When Minjae asked as he tapped Shin’s shoulder, Shin replied, “Well, I was tired.”
“Yeonwoo had a really bad day today, so I asked her to join us for lunch. She is really upset.”
“What happened?”
“You work on the same floor as she does. How come you don’t know?”
Shin turned towards Yeonwoo and noticed that her eyes were a little red. Yeonwoo looked down and groaned a little. When Shin raised his eyebrow, Yeonwoo bit her lips and replied, “I made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“The press release information I passed on to Chief Seulgi Kim had a huge mistake on it, so I got in trouble with my boss.”
Chief Hyunsoo Lee was known for his horrible personality and rude manners, so Shin frowned unhappily. When she saw that, Yeonwoo’s eyes teared up again as she continued, “And my supervisor changed too…”
“Who?”
Yeonwoo made a whiney noise again before replying, “Assistant Manager Woojin Choi…”
Minjae exclaimed, “What?! But he is known to be so cold and mean!”
Shin looked at Minjae quietly. Now that he remembered, Chief Seulgi seemed unusually hectic this morning, making many calls. Shin thought that it was a continuation of yesterday’s trouble she got into with Chief Soojin, but he must’ve been wrong. It was because of Yeonwoo’s mistake.
And what bothered Shin the most was the fact that it seemed like Woojin Choi was now loaded with this problem. His workload must’ve doubled at least.
Shin frowned, upset about Woojin’s situation, but Yeonwoo saw Shin’s sigh as caring for herself. She sighed and began to complain, “I know, right? Even this morning, I was crying because I was so upset, but all Assistant Manager Woojin did was tell me I needed to get back to work. No comforting words or anything. He told me to send him all the associated documents…”
“Why would Woojin Choi want that information?”
“Because Assistant Manager Woojin was ordered to clean up this situation.”
Shin yelled angrily, “What? Woojin Choi wasn’t the one who created this mess, so why does he have to fix it?”
Yeonwoo’s eyes widened in shock as Shin’s face crumpled furiously.
So again, it was Woojin Choi who had to do all the work, not Yeonwoo Ji or Jihoon Kang. This must’ve been why Woojin worked so late so often. He had to take care of everyone else.
It was obvious Woojin was selfless, as he did the other people’s work for them, so Shin just couldn’t understand why everyone called Woojin Choi cold.
It didn’t make sense at all.
Shin asked intensely, “Who was responsible for this task?”
Yeonwoo replied, “Well, it was me and Assistant Manager Jihoon Kang…”
“Then shouldn’t you feel thankful that Assistant Manager Woojin Choi is taking it on for you and fixing it?”
Things were getting tense, so Minjae stepped in as he looked at Shin in confusion, “… Why are you getting angry at Yeonwoo?”
Realizing that he was making a scene, Shin slowly looked down at Yeonwoo. He always thought she was cute, but her face was now crumpled in an unattractive frown.
Shin said to her, “I’m sorry I yelled at you, but…”
“…”
“I just thought you were being too harsh and unfair to Assistant Manager Woojin Choi. I mean, he now has to do all the work, yet you are complaining about his personality. It’s really hard to hear.”
Shin sighed and pushed back his hair. He felt irritated and exasperated.
Everyone called Woojin cold. No one knew the real Woojin Choi who always looked tired and indifferent. No one, not even Shin Kim himself. Perhaps the problem was that no one even tried to get to know him.
Maybe with his indifferent face, Woojin was trying to tell the world that he was sick and tired of it all. Whatever the truth was, one thing was certain: Shin Kim wanted to learn more about this man.
He couldn’t understand why it took him so long to realize this. Why he was trying to keep his distance from Woojin Choi.
Minjae asked, “Hey, Shin, I think you are becoming too emotional here. Did something happen to you too? Maybe something similar, like someone dumping their work on you or something?”
“Maybe.”
Shin laughed awkwardly as he added, “It must be because I’m so stressed with all the work.”
Shin patted Yeonwoo’s shoulder and apologized to her. Yeonwoo smiled up at him awkwardly. Normally, he would’ve tried to comfort her even more, but Shin didn’t feel like talking to her anymore. He looked away.
***
Returning to the dark office, Woojin looked for the light switch but failed. He finally took out his cellphone and noticed that it was already 10:15 PM.
He used his phone light to find the switch. As expected, the office was empty.
It was a very long and hard day for him. He had to visit many of the reporters in person to fix the mistake. Meeting people, especially for work-related business, was a very difficult and stressful task for Woojin who was very shy.
Woojin sighed deeply. He had to drop off some documents at the office and that was why he came. He turned on this computer and began to update a few files. He also made some notes on his schedule and stood up.
“Ahh…”
The room suddenly spun around him and he almost fell. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t eaten anything today. He felt very tired.
“…”
He had to take the subway to return home. Woojin felt daunted at the thought of having to ride the crowded train. He had been considering moving to a place near his office, but Gangnam was too crowded and busy for him.
The faster he got home, the more he was going to able to rest. Woojin quickly grabbed his briefcase and got onto the elevator. As it went down to the main floor, Woojin looked at himself in the mirror.
He rarely checked himself in the mirror, so looking at his own face felt a little strange. Thin face, pale skin, the blue veins that were clearly on his forehead, and light brown eyes.
His eyes looked so empty and tired that Woojin covered his face with his hands. He remained this way until he heard the “ding” as the elevator reached the main floor.
He had to walk out before the elevator door closed, but he felt so tired that it was hard to make himself move.
Someone please… Help me…
Just then!
“Assistant Manager Woojin.”
From the dark lobby, he heard the familiar voice. Woojin looked up and their eyes met.
“I see that you’re working late today.”
The sudden scent of him engulfed Woojin as his wrist was grabbed and pulled by the man. Now there were two of them in the dark lobby.
“… Shin Kim?”
Without letting him go, Shin looked down at Woojin. The darkness felt comfortable around them, but the feeling of Shin’s stare was too much. Woojin looked away.
But Shin refused to let him go; he grabbed Woojin’s chin and forced Woojin to face him.
The places where their skin touched burned.