Wha-what the hell is this!
The injustice of it had Hanbyeol stamping his feet. Which, given that he was dangling in midair, only made him look ridiculous.
“Sorry?”
“I said clear it away. He’s been kept waiting so long that his mind seems to have come loose. Don’t send him off by himself, see him all the way home. And don’t come back, just clock out from there.”
“But, ...if I go, what are you going to do, Managing Director?”
“I’ll manage on my own. Quickly.”
As if he couldn’t stand holding him for one second longer, the bastard handed him over to Secretary Song like a piece of luggage and vanished from sight. Hanbyeol’s mouth opened and closed, utterly dumbfounded.
I’m literally offering to save you from a lifetime of psych meds...!
Hey! You’re doing something you’re going to regret! The curses came surging all the way up his throat, but he’d already committed to this whole sunshine-whatever cosplay act, so he couldn’t let a single one of them out.
While he was swallowing the frustration down in silence, Secretary Song quietly spoke up.
“Let’s go. I’ll see you home.”
“...I can walk by myself, so please put me down.”
Secretary Song set him on the floor like he’d been waiting for permission, and Hanbyeol followed him into the elevator all over again. His pride was in tatters, but he trailed obediently after the man all the way to the parking garage and climbed into the sedan.
Fine. It’s not like I expected to be full off the very first spoonful anyway.
...I-I really didn’t.
Lonely or sad, I don’t cry. Hanbyeol got into the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt. When asked why he wasn’t sitting in the back, he answered with great spirit.
“You’re the Managing Director’s secretary, Secretary Song, not mine.”
“But you’re a guest the Managing Director personally instructed me to see home?”
“A gue, hhng. A guest who got thrown out, sure. These days you don’t call a person like that a guest. Sniff... you call them a pest.”
“Ah...”
As the sniffling worked its way further and further into his voice, Secretary Song gave up on arguing back and started the car.
Feeling the body of the car slide smoothly forward, Hanbyeol pressed his lips together hard, exactly the way he had in the hospital room the day before. His body didn’t hurt this time. His heart did.
Why are you agreeing with me!
I hate you too. He whipped his head around, shut his eyes and leaned his temple against the window. An unspoken announcement that nobody should talk to him.
“Um, Dan Hanbyeol.”
“Sorry, but I’m not in the mood to answer anything right now.”
“Yes. My apologies. It’s just that if I’m to see you home, you’ll have to tell me your address.”
“...”
○○ Officetel, Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul. He mumbled it in a voice that crawled into the ground. Song Minseok punched the address into the navigation and put his foot down on the accelerator.
It was the evening rush, though, and the roads were jammed, so for all that pedal work their speed wasn’t much different from a snail at a dead run.
When traffic’s clear it only takes twenty minutes from this neighborhood to my place.
From the look of things, it’d take twice that. He couldn’t exactly nap in someone else’s car, and playing on his phone felt awkward, so after a stretch of watching the world go by outside the window he casually spoke up.
“Hey, Secretary Song.”
“Please, go ahead.”
“...Could you give me just one of the Managing Director’s business cards?”
The tone was courteous, but maybe the impure intent behind it showed through anyway. The man flicked a glance at the passenger seat, then faced the road again as he answered. His own card he could manage, maybe, but Managing Director Choi, no, wrong name.
What it came down to was that he didn’t have a single card of Managing Director Cha’s.
“How does a secretary, and not just any secretary but a personal secretary, not have one single card of his boss’s? I’m not an idiot.”
“...I can’t hand one over on my own judgment, without permission.”
“Then drop one on the floor by accident. All I have to do is grab it before you do, nice and quick.”
“...”
“Or tell him I helped myself to one of the spares in the car without asking. I’ve already been treated like someone whose mind came loose, so that much wouldn’t even seem strange.”
Do it that way and it’s not like you handed it to me, so it’s fine, right?
Honestly, even if Song Minseok refused, getting hold of Managing Director Cha’s phone number wouldn’t be hard. It wasn’t a national ID number or a home address; it was information printed on cards and handed out by the stack. If he set his mind to it, how could he fail to dig it up?
I’m only playing it safe because if I got caught snooping around behind his back, all I’d earn is hostility, like with Kang Taeseo.
Since the man was driving, he couldn’t pester him any harder, so he just stared holes into the side of his head.
“...Here you are.”
“Wow, thank you!”
And wouldn’t you know it, in under ten minutes he pulled a small square of paper out of his breast pocket and handed it over.
Around then the congested stretch ended too, and the rest of the way home went fast. Climbing out of the car, Hanbyeol bowed his head to Minseok.
I came home exactly like this earlier today, too.
Maybe the déjà vu was just his imagination.
Either way, he hurried back up to his apartment and pulled out his phone. He opened his contacts and saved the number printed on the card.
...He might see what I’ve saved him as at some point, though. Isn’t this too stiff?
He agonized over it for a moment, then changed it.
“Mm.”
Hanbyeol nodded in approval and immediately fired off a text to Managing Director Cha.
Thanks to him he’d gotten home comfortably, and he was grateful. That was the gist of it.
But then.
“Why on earth!”
Is there no reply!
Hanbyeol tore at his hair and glared at his phone like he meant to devour it. It had already been almost a full week since he’d sent that text.
On day one, it had been late, and the man had said his work wasn’t finished while they were talking, so Hanbyeol let it slide. He must still be at the office.
On day two, he understood. He must be so swamped that he hadn’t gotten around to checking.
“Still, this is too much!”
In case the message had gotten buried, he tried sending a few more. No answer. The moment the sun came up he tried calling, but nothing changed.
The reason was easy enough to figure out.
(February XX, 20XX)
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [Hello, Managing Director! This is Dan Hanbyeol, we met yesterday. I left you a message by text but didn’t get a reply, so I’m trying here. Thanks to you I got home comfortably, thank you hehe]
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [I’d love to see you again, when would be a good time for you? Any time works for me, so just say the word and I’ll fit myself around it]
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [Are you very busy? T_T]
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [Have you had lunch?]
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [(photo)]
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [I had Yeop-X tteokbokki and a Honey X Combo. Do you like sweet-and-salty, Managing Director?]
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [Though I feel like you’d prefer Korean or Western food over street snacks]
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [Message me whenever you’re done eating!]
(February XY, 20XX)
Dan Hanbyeol
1 [Did you skip meals again?]
1 [Please accept the gift Dan Hanbyeol sent you!]
Because when I figured maybe he just didn’t read texts and switched to KaX instead, the little “1” still refused to disappear, and on top of that the money-transfer icon vanished from his profile.
Yeah. I got blocked.
So I even sent an email begging him to unblock me!
[Dan Hanbyeol.
Dan Hanbyeol.
I’m writing because I assume you’re waiting on a reply.
I appreciate the sentiment, but I have no intention of being in a relationship. Accordingly, I have no intention of developing a personal relationship with you either.
The messages you keep sending have become a considerable burden on my daily life, so I was obliged to block your contact. I ask for your understanding.
This email will be the last; I intend to block this address as well, so please refrain from contacting me any further.
Thank you.
Sincerely, Cha Jueon]
And that got blocked too.
He’d fired back a frantic reply promising to contact him no more than once a day, swearing he wouldn’t be a nuisance if he’d just unblock him, but it was already too late.
Making a whole string of new phone numbers to text from did no good either. Texts, KaX, email, all the same. After the same thing happened a few times over, Managing Director Cha, no, that man, went ahead and changed his phone number entirely.
How did I find that out, you ask?
Because I got a reply telling me the number had a new owner and to quit texting!
Going there in person was useless too. Whatever the man had told them, they recognized his face right at the entrance and turned him away before he got a single step inside.
After dozens of attempts, Hanbyeol finally got it. Unless he planned on stocking up a few dozen phones, this approach was never going to work. Worse, after he kept opening brand-new email accounts, the system flagged him as suspicious and suspended him.
He’d only managed to get that unlocked by calling customer service yesterday, so Hanbyeol bit down hard on his lip.
Huff, huff. Breath coming short and hard, he squirmed around on the sofa like a worm on hot pavement.
“Hey, you think you’re the only one having a hard time? I’m having a hard time too!”
But if I stop, I’ll physically die, so what choice do I have?
Does that man seriously think everybody who courts him is angling to take it to the next level, screw his brains out and drag him down the aisle?
Hello, up until five minutes ago he’d been a perfectly robust adult male beta who had only just manifested. There was no way a guy like that suddenly went waaah, Mister Alpha, please marry me over one measly trait changing.
Sure, okay, I was a bit of a pest!
And yes, fine, I came on way too strong!
And I did spout a bunch of nonsense about love at first sight and destiny!
Still, it felt so unfair he could scream. Hanbyeol groaned and thrashed every limb he had.
He couldn’t go on like this.
With a grim, resolute look, he picked up his phone. After searching for something for a good long while, Hanbyeol kicked himself up off the sofa.
A few days later.
“Assistant Manager Lee. Did you see that thing out at the main gate?”
“Team Leader! What’s going on down on the first floor?”
“Wow, who do you think that’s for?”
A coffee truck had parked itself right in front of HS Group headquarters.
