“Huh? It’s the ajusshi who found Kkokko! Ajusshi!”
They’d only just stepped out of the mart. Seojin turned toward the young voice hailing him. It was yesterday’s little client, his hand held tight in Shin Seyoung’s.
The last thing I want is to get tangled up with them!
Seojin swallowed a groan, keeping it strictly internal. It was the biggest mart in the neighborhood, so running into each other here was bound to happen.
“Hello.”
“Yes, hello.”
Seojin and Shin Seyoung exchanged an awkward greeting.
“Ajusshi! Kkokko tried to run away again, but Seyoung hyung caught him!”
They’d met exactly once, and yet the lively kid was beaming at him like they were long-lost friends.
“Oh. Oh, right.”
“But who’s that next to you?”
And just like that his attention swung to Euni. Come to think of it, the two of them were the same age.
“I’m Euni, Daddy’s daughter!”
“Euni, huh. Hi! I’m Heo Juni!”
In no time at all Euni and Juni were off chattering between themselves. Seojin couldn’t exactly turn his back on them in front of the kids, so he stood there awkwardly scuffing the toe of his shoe.
“Thank you for the other day. We found Kkokko right away, thanks to you.”
“No, really. You took care of something that should have been my job. And Juni told me you were supposed to be paid for it, but you let it go with nothing but a thank-you.”
“Ah, well, that. He was a little customer, after all.”
So he knows it’s an information firm. Embarrassed, Seojin scratched the back of his head.
“Anyway. If you ever need anything, feel free to get in touch.”
The words were barely out before Seojin felt faintly sheepish about them, and Shin Seyoung was looking at him with an odd expression.
What’s that about?
Seojin blinked, puzzled, and after a beat of hesitation Shin Seyoung nodded.
“I will. Thank you.”
It was an ordinary enough thing to say, and yet somehow that short answer settled heavy in one corner of his chest.
By the time they got home, the sun was steeping every corner of the apartment in soft, warm color.
Seojin stepped into his house slippers and switched on the living room light. Meanwhile, Euni was busily tucking both their pairs of shoes into the shoe cabinet.
“Daddy, are you making dinner? Should Euni help?”
“Yeah, that’d be a big help.”
“Okay!”
“But first let’s wash our hands.”
“Okay, okay!”
The pink rabbit slippers on the little feet racing off to the bathroom made an adorable flap-flap-flap against the floor.
Listening to that flapping fade down the hall, Seojin felt the corners of his mouth lift on their own. On an evening like this, that alone was enough.
Right. So what if work is a little weird? Living in a cozy home like this with my adorable daughter is more than enough.
Of course it was. At the very least it wasn’t some rotten company that withheld your pay or handed you a termination notice out of nowhere.
Though I’m not sure ‘stable’ is the word for it either.
His conversation with Manager Kim came back to him. Not a single secretary had lasted anywhere near as long beside Yoon Haegang as he’d assumed.
The shortest run: half a day.
The longest: two weeks.
And what made it even more absurd was that every last resignation letter had blamed the writer’s own inadequacy.
“Daddy! Can Euni do this?”
A clear little voice piped up from down below; he hadn’t even heard her come back. He looked down to find Euni holding three strawberries in her hands.
“You want to wash the strawberries?”
“Yeah! And cut them all pretty!”
Word was they’d been doing kitchen play at daycare lately, and Euni, who had developed a real taste for chopping, tacked her demand on without missing a beat.
Seojin looked into those sparkling eyes and broke into a grin.
“All right. But be careful not to hurt yourself.”
Seojin took the child-safe knife out of the drawer and held it out handle-first as he said it. He didn’t forget to set a cutting board on the little prep counter he’d put together for her, either.
“Okay!”
Euni gripped the knife firmly and nodded. Then she spun around, rinsed the strawberries under the water, set them on the board one by one, and started trimming off the tops.
“Euni’s really good at this.”
“Right? Teacher said Euni could be a chef!”
“Did she now.”
Judging by how thoroughly mangled the cut edges of the strawberries were, that career seemed unlikely, but Seojin picked praise over a dose of reality.
“What are you making, Daddy?”
“Rice first, and then the sausage-and-veggie stir-fry you like, plus a rolled omelette and some seasoned cucumbers.”
“Wowww...”
Every single one of them was a favorite of hers, and her eyes lit up all over again.
“And fish cake soup!”
“Yes, yes. Got it. Then Euni’s in charge of the salad.”
“Okay!”
Euni nodded hard again and set about arranging the fruit and salad with such diligence that a little crease formed between her brows.
Seojin watched her, pleased, then hurried through his own share. He got the rice going in the cooker and knocked out his daughter’s beloved seasoned cucumbers in no time.
“That looks soooo good...”
Euni dumped her lopsidedly cut fruit and vegetables into a bowl and let out a sigh of wonder. Her little mouth had gone round, and it looked like it was filling up with drool.
“It’ll be ready soon. Just hang on a bit.”
“Okay!”
“Euni, save the dressing for the salad until later.”
Seojin, who had just started beating eggs in a bowl, spotted the squeeze bottle in his daughter’s hand and headed her off.
“Want to taste the sausage stir-fry and tell me if it came out right?”
He handed her a new mission, quick as that. Euni scurried over to Seojin and opened her cute little mouth.
Seojin speared a piece of sausage on a small fork, blew on it, and gave it to her.
“It’s yummy!”
“Yeah? Good. Then put it on a plate for me.”
“Okay!”
He got out a deep dish and held it out, and delighted all over again, she set to work loading it up.
While she did, Seojin hurried the beaten egg into the frying pan, waited for the moment it turned golden, and rolled it up with a practiced hand.
He kept half an eye on the soup bubbling away beside it, and didn’t forget to drop in the fish cake he’d sliced ahead of time.
“Euni wants to do that one too!”
The second he moved the omelette to the board to cut it into bite-sized pieces, Euni’s hand shot up like she’d been waiting for it. Seojin didn’t say no; he turned the job straight over to her and dished out the soup and rice instead, carrying them to the table.
And so the cooking was done, and the two of them sat down in front of the generous spread laid out at each of their places. Euni was so proud of her own handiwork that she swung her legs under the table in delight.
“Daddy, how come you’re so good at cooking?”
“Because I have to make yummy things for Euni.”
“Hehe... right? Euni’s good at cooking too.”
“Mm. That’s true. The salad Euni made is really tasty.”
Seojin jabbed his fork into the salad, which was positively drowning in strawberry dressing, as he handed out the praise.
“Euni’s good at cooking ’cause she takes after Daddy!”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah!”
Every now and then Euni would say things like that, that she and Seojin were alike.
Because she was good at walking. Because she was good at laughing. Because she was good at reading books.
It was so cute that the grin never had a chance to leave Seojin’s face. The two of them traded little stories about her day at daycare and ate happily.
Watching the empty dishes pile up one by one, Seojin found himself smiling for no real reason. His noona really had known exactly what he wanted.
Of course, that changed all over again the next day at the office.
Arriving twenty minutes ahead of his official start time, Seojin stopped short with his security key half raised and blinked. It was a scene much like yesterday’s.
“Good morning, President.”
The moment the door opened, there was Yoon Haegang, sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, smoking. Figures, Seojin muttered inwardly, and dipped his head in a bow.
The recipient of the greeting only stared at him, without so much as a word in return.
That little flick of his ankle can’t be standing in for hello, surely.
Seojin hurried to his desk and busied himself fiddling with the corners of some documents. His hands moved briskly over the desktop, but every nerve he had was pointed at the sofa.
Maybe it was because of his talk with Manager Kim, but every time Yoon Haegang’s gaze grazed past him, his shoulders stiffened up all over again.
Seriously, though, why is he even here?
As far as Seojin remembered, Yoon Haegang had a round of golf scheduled with the construction company’s managing director today as well. Lately that lot seemed to be seeking him out an awful lot.
What an information firm’s president and a construction company’s managing director could possibly have to meet about this often was beyond him, but well, if it was just personal friendship...
Yeah, no. Not a chance.
All of this was seasoning, sprinkled on by the sub yandere top Yoon Haegang to make the alpha-omega couple’s love burn all the brighter. Thinking about it left a sour taste in his stomach.
No. He’s a stranger to me anyway, so why do I have to get tangled up with that side of things?
Staying out of it really was the best policy. Though, resolution aside, the way he kept running into the main bottom suggested the plot was flowing somewhere strange.
