CWFH 11

Chapter 11

Their small welcome party continued into a second round.

The second round was at the lounge bar on the first floor of the hotel.

Jian ordered a martini, while Dayeon ordered a cocktail simply because she liked its pretty color.

As she slowly looked around the bar, where soft jazz melodies were playing, Dayeon said,

“This company dinner is way too fancy. Usually, company dinners are grilled pork belly and soju, and then we go to karaoke for the second round.”

“Then how about we drink soju for the third round and go to karaoke for the fourth?”

“Hmm, no thanks. I guess I’ll enjoy something a little more classy today, thanks to you.”

Dayeon lifted her orange-colored cocktail and brought it to her lips.

“But you’ve really made it, huh?”

At that, Jian gave a small laugh.

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“Yeah. I was a little surprised.”

“About what?”

“When they said they were recruiting outside talent, I heard about your credentials. You worked at Google too, right?”

“Yeah.”

He had graduated from a prestigious university that was difficult to get into even in the United States, then worked as a highly skilled professional at a famous IT company.

Knowing what Jian had been like in high school, Dayeon couldn’t help being surprised when she heard about his impressive background.

“Why did you leave such a good company? If it were me, I’d stay at a world-class company like that until I died.”

“Because I wanted to start my own business.”

Dayeon looked at Jian once, clicked her tongue, and turned her gaze away.

“I’ve seen plenty of people leave big companies like that to start their own businesses and then completely screw things up. Why leave a perfectly good job just to start a business? Tsk, tsk.”

Jian smiled as he slowly swirled his cocktail glass.

“But when did you go to the States? Did you study abroad?”

“Yeah. I attended university until my third year, took a leave of absence, served in the military, and then immediately prepared to study abroad.”

Dayeon almost asked, With those grades, you even got into university? but decided it would be rude and kept her mouth shut.

“Why did you suddenly decide to study abroad?”

At the question, Jian glanced at Dayeon before turning his gaze away again.

“To forget. Whenever I was in Korea, I kept thinking about it. I thought I was going crazy.”

“Forget what?”

Jian slowly turned his gaze back toward Dayeon.

She had absolutely no idea he was talking about her, yet she looked so innocently curious.

“Was it your first love?”

Jian’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at Dayeon’s face, which was full of curiosity.

Could she know it was her?

“You got dumped, didn’t you? I can tell just by looking at you. You got dumped while you were in the military, right? And because you couldn’t get over her, you went far away?”

Jian merely smiled without answering.

It was you, Han Dayeon. You were the person I couldn’t forget.

That was what he repeated only in his mind as he slowly swirled his cocktail while looking down at the glass.

“Ooh, you’re more of a devoted romantic than I thought.”

Thinking that Jian had a painful love story in his past made him feel more human to Dayeon.

She slightly regretted having been so cold toward him and decided she should treat him a little better.

“Cheer up! Let’s have a drink. Huh? Your glass is empty. One more drink, please.”

After several cocktails, Dayeon started feeling a little tipsy.

Once she was drunk, she laughed more freely than usual.

She giggled at even the smallest things.

Jian had never seen Dayeon smile like that at him before.

He had seen her laughing and chatting with her friends from a distance, but she had never once given him a smile like that.

Seeing Dayeon laughing so freely under the influence of alcohol, Jian rested his chin on his hand and gazed at her.

Then Dayeon suddenly turned her head toward him.

“You!”

Jian flinched.

“Yeah?”

“I want to ask you one thing.”

“What?”

“Why did you tell me to be your secretary?”

Dayeon stared straight at Jian, her eyes slightly unfocused.

“You’re curious?”

“Yeah. Really curious.”

Jian quietly gazed at Dayeon’s face.

Because I want to keep you by my side. Because I’m afraid you’ll run away again.

Those words kept circling around in his mouth.

“Answer me already.”

“I don’t think I’ll tell you.”

“What?”

“The day will come when you figure it out yourself.”

Dayeon frowned at Jian.

“What’s so important about it? What is there for me to figure out myself?”

Jian simply smiled as he brought his cocktail to his lips.

“Let’s go. You look a little drunk too.”

“I’m going to the bathroom first. Then we can go.”

Dayeon got up and headed toward the restroom, while Jian paid the bill at the counter.

“Could you call a designated driver for us?”

“Yes. Please wait a moment.”

After finishing the payment, Jian waited for Dayeon at the entrance.

Meanwhile, Dayeon washed her hands in the restroom and was walking out when she ran into a foreign man at the door.

{Honey, where did you go? I’ve been looking all over for you.}

The drunk foreigner spoke in English and treated Dayeon as if he knew her.

“Who? Do you know me?”

With blond hair and a face flushed red from alcohol, the man looked incredibly colorful.

{Baby, we were only apart for a little while, but I already missed you. I think I’ve already fallen for you.}

“What? What are you saying? Pardon? Can you speak Korean?”

{Honey, I want to go to the room and spend a hot night with you. You want that too, right?}

Eventually, the foreigner wrapped an arm around Dayeon’s waist and leaned in to kiss her.

“Eek! What the hell! What’s wrong with him?! Go away, go away!”

Dayeon pushed the foreigner away and turned her face aside.

Apparently mistaking Dayeon for another woman, the foreigner looked hurt by her reaction.

{Honey, are you already tired of me? You said earlier that you wanted to go to my room.}

“Let go of me! Get away!”

{Honey~ Aaargh!}

The foreigner, who had his arm wrapped around Dayeon’s waist, suddenly screamed and was pulled away from her.

Jian had grabbed the arm around Dayeon’s waist and twisted it sharply behind his back in one swift movement.

{Aaaagh!}

Standing behind the man, Jian said in a cold, low voice,

{Take your hands off my woman right now. Before I break your wrist.}

Since Jian spoke in English, the foreigner understood him immediately. His eyes went wide as he looked at Dayeon.

{Your woman? You had a girlfriend? You said you didn’t have one!}

“James!”

But there was another woman watching the whole scene.

{James, what’s going on?}

A Korean woman approached the foreigner, and only then did the man realize his mistake.

{Damn it! Why do Asian women all look so similar?!}

To a Korean person, the two women didn’t look particularly similar, but their builds and clothes were somewhat alike, so apparently they had looked similar to the foreigner.

{Sorry, I made a mistake. So let go of me.}

Once the man admitted that he had mistaken her for someone else, Jian released his arm.

The foreign man glared at Jian with an irritated expression while rubbing his aching wrist.

{You can make a mistake. Did you really have to restrain me like that?}

{If another man had put his hands on your woman, you would have done the same thing I did.}

Apparently unable to argue with that, the foreigner merely glared at Jian before leaving with the woman.

“Are you okay?”

Jian approached Dayeon and asked, and Dayeon rubbed her chest as she tried to calm her racing heart.

“I’m okay. I was just startled. But did he really mistake me for that woman?”

“Yeah. Looks like it.”

“What the heck? We don’t look anything alike.”

Dayeon pouted as she watched the foreign man and woman walk away.

“But earlier, I think you said something about ‘my woman’ in English?”

“When did I?”

“Did I hear wrong? I can read English, but I’m not very good at speaking it.”

Dayeon tilted her head as she looked at Jian.

Jian’s face was still stiff, as if he were angry.

Dayeon had been a little startled when she saw how frightening Jian’s expression had become in an instant when he subdued the foreigner.

He’s really scary when he gets angry. I’d better be careful from now on. I shouldn’t provoke him.

Dayeon reminded herself once again that Jian was her boss.

---

Jian still looked angry, the ends of his eyebrows raised sharply.

The feeling of blood rushing to his head when he saw an unknown man with his arm around Dayeon’s waist still hadn’t faded.

He hadn’t known he could get this angry.

I can barely stand the thought of anyone even looking at her, and that bastard dared to put his hands on her waist?

He was barely keeping his anger under control as he walked through the hotel lobby with Dayeon.

At the center of the hotel lobby was a large decorative fountain, and every hour on the hour, a fountain show was held.

As it happened, the fountain show began right then, accompanied by music.

The fountain, which had been peacefully flowing, suddenly began shooting water violently into the air.

Whoosh!

With a tremendous roar of water, streams shot more than three meters into the air before cascading down on both sides.

“Ahhhhh!”

As Dayeon was walking through the lobby, she suddenly screamed and collapsed to the floor.

Sitting there, Dayeon curled up and covered both ears with her hands.

“Dayeon, what’s wrong?”

Dayeon kept her ears covered, her face twisted with pain.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”

Since she was covering her ears, Jian wondered if they were hurting.

The hands covering Dayeon’s ears were trembling.

Jian was flustered by her reaction, his face filled with confusion as he had no idea how to help her.

“Dayeon, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Dayeon suddenly sprang to her feet and started running.

“Dayeon!”

She ran straight through the center of the lobby where the fountain was and out through the hotel’s main entrance.

Jian hurried outside after her and found Dayeon standing there with one hand pressed against her chest, breathing heavily.

“Are you okay?”

Dayeon turned her head toward Jian and slowly nodded.

“Sorry. Did I scare you?”

“Are you really okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“I don’t need to go to the hospital.”

Still, Jian was relieved that Dayeon seemed to have calmed down.

“Actually, it’s because I have a fear of water.”

“A fear of water?”

Dayeon silently nodded.

At the words fear of water, Jian remembered that day more than ten years ago.

“When I see that much water, I feel anxious and terrified.”

He was certain that incident was the reason she had developed her fear of water.

“That’s why I can’t even think about going to the beach or swimming pools. It’s kind of stupid, right?”

He had never known that Dayeon was dealing with a trauma like this.

“I see.”

As Jian slowly nodded, a sharp ache pierced somewhere in his chest.

“Did you call for a designated driver?”

The designated driver, who had already arrived, approached Jian and asked.

“Ah, yes.”

Jian opened the rear passenger door of the car and said to Dayeon,

“Get in.”

“I can take a taxi home.”

“I’ll take you home.”

---

“Going by your place first will make you take a huge detour. Your designated driver fare will get pretty expensive.”

Jian was already worried sick after seeing how anxious she had been earlier. Why was she worrying about the fare on top of that?

“Don’t worry about the fare. Just get in.”

“Then I’ll take you up on that.”

Dayeon got into the back seat, and Jian sat beside her.

Once the car started moving, Dayeon took a deep breath and leaned her head against the seat.

“Wake me when we get there.”

Less than three minutes after saying that, Dayeon’s breathing became slow and even.

If he could have done whatever he wanted, Jian would have wrapped an arm around her and held her tightly while she slept.

Apparently she had fallen deeply asleep, because her head drooped forward before coming back to rest against the seat.

Then it dropped again.

Jian shifted his body, moving a little closer to Dayeon.

Then he subtly pushed his shoulder toward her.

Her head, which had kept falling forward, bumped softly against Jian’s shoulder.

The warmth of her body against his shoulder made Jian’s heart swell.

Her warm body heat seeped into him, growing hotter in his chest before spreading throughout his entire body.

When he tilted his head slightly, a pleasant scent drifted from her hair.

Jian couldn’t even breathe deeply or move his body.

Feeling her warmth and her scent, he wished time would stop right there.

---

“We’ve arrived.”

The designated driver spoke toward the back seat, where there had still been no movement even after the car reached its destination.

“Yes. I know.”

Even after answering, Jian didn’t move.

Dayeon was still fast asleep, her head resting against his shoulder.

He simply couldn’t bring himself to wake her while she slept so peacefully.

No—more accurately, he didn’t want to wake her.

He could only resent the fact that they had arrived so early.

When Dayeon still didn’t wake despite the car being parked, Jian spoke to the driver.

“I’m sorry, but could you drive around the neighborhood once? I’ll pay you generously for the extra time.”

The car started moving again.

They drove around the neighborhood near Dayeon’s home once, then went around again.

Dayeon finally woke when the phone in her hand began ringing.

Rrrrrr.

The phone ringing through the silence made Dayeon open her eyes and lift her head.

She was startled for a moment when she realized she had been leaning against Jian’s shoulder, but she cleared her throat and pretended nothing had happened.

“Ahem. Hello?”

[Where are you?]

It was her friend Hyuna.

“I’m on my way home.”

[Why are you so late? You said you left earlier.]

Before Dayeon left, she had texted Hyuna to let her know she was on her way. Hyuna had been getting worried because Dayeon still hadn’t arrived.

Dayeon looked out the car window and realized they were near her home.

“Oh, I’m almost there. I’m near my house.”

[Okay. Hurry home.]

After hanging up, Dayeon checked the time, and her eyes widened.

“Gasp! It’s already past midnight? Didn’t we leave before eleven?”

It was only a fifteen-minute drive from there.

Wondering why it had taken so long, Dayeon asked Jian, who calmly made an excuse.

“There was a little traffic.”

“There was traffic at this hour too?”

“Yeah.”

Jian calmly nodded, while the designated driver, who had driven around the neighborhood several times, glanced at him through the rearview mirror.

“Thanks for bringing me home.”

When Dayeon got out of the car, Jian got out with her.

Looking up at the old-style corridor apartment building, Jian asked,

“What floor?”

“Huh? Seventh floor.”

“You live with your friend?”

“Yeah. Oh, right. Do you remember Im Hyuna? We went to Jurye High School together. She graduated with you.”

“I’m not sure.”

Hyuna hadn’t been particularly significant in Jian’s memories, so he only vaguely remembered her.

“Hyuna has been really curious about you for a long time.”

“You weren’t curious about me?”

“Huh?”

“You don’t have to answer. I know you weren’t curious about me.”

“Well, I mean… I transferred schools.”

Even her friend had been curious about how he was doing, so how could Dayeon possibly have been so uninterested in him?

Jian felt hurt.

“Let’s go. I’ll wait until you get inside.”

“No. I can go alone. The driver is waiting. You should go.”

“I said I’d watch you go inside.”

The apartment was old, with no security guard booth at the entrance. How could he know what might happen between the elevator and the hallway?

“Just go. The driver is waiting. You’re going to have a huge designated driver bill today.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Why had she been worrying about that measly fare since earlier?

“Are you finally here? Why are you so late?”

At that moment, Seojun came out through the apartment’s communal entrance.

“Oh? Seojun.”

“I was waiting to see you come home before leaving, and I happened to run into you.”

Seojun approached and stared at Jian, who was standing with Dayeon.

He instinctively realized that this was the classmate Dayeon had mentioned—the one she was now working with.

There was a strange wariness in Seojun’s gaze toward Jian.

“Who?”

Seojun already had a pretty good idea who he was, but he pretended not to know and asked.

“Oh, the classmate I told you about yesterday. The one I said I’d be working with as my boss.”

Seojun held out his hand toward Jian for a handshake.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kang Seojun.”

Jian also sensed the unpleasant feeling in Seojun’s gaze and didn’t look at him particularly warmly.

“I’m Lee Jian.”

The two men shook hands and exchanged greetings, but their intense gazes were like those of boxers standing in the ring before a match.

“Seojun is my college friend. Hyuna, Seojun, and I are really close friends.”

At the words really close friends, the ends of Jian’s eyebrows rose unhappily.

Close friends? They’re comfortable enough to come and go from each other’s homes…

There’s no such thing as friendship between a man and a woman!

The two men’s hands were gripping each other so tightly that their veins were bulging, and a palpable tension hung between them.

“Jian, take care. See you tomorrow. Seojun, you too.”

Dayeon waved at the two men as she entered the apartment.

Both men continued staring in the same direction until Dayeon disappeared from view.

Once she was gone, the two men simultaneously turned around, only to meet each other’s eyes.

“I heard you’re her high school classmate, and that you offered Dayeon a secretary position?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know whether that position really requires a secretary, but I want you to know that Dayeon was more or less forced into taking the job.”

Just as expected, Seojun was treating him warily. Jian gave him an ambiguous smile.

“As I understand it, Secretary Han also received benefits as part of the position change.”

At the word Secretary Han, Seojun’s brow furrowed slightly.

He had heard that Dayeon was going to work as a secretary, but hearing Jian actually address her that way made him feel worse than he had expected.

“As you know, Dayeon is quite a capable professional. She’s well-regarded at the company too.”

“Ah, you don’t have to worry about that. She’s doing this alongside the work she was already doing.”

Seojun kept his mouth shut, realizing it would be difficult for him to interfere any further since he had nothing to do with the company.

“You’re a college friend? Were you in the same department? You two seem pretty close.”

Seojun took a business card from his wallet and handed it to Jian.

“We weren’t in the same department, but we are close.”

The business card read: Kang Seojun, Korean Medicine Doctor, ○○ Korean Medicine Hospital.

A Korean medicine doctor…

The fact that Dayeon had a male friend with such an impressive profession around her was extremely irritating to Jian.

“I don’t have my business cards yet… Anyway, I’ll be going.”

Jian gave a slight bow and got into the car.

He looked at Seojun’s business card for a moment before squeezing it tightly in his hand until it crumpled.

“There’s something about that friend that I really don’t like.”

Meanwhile, Seojun watched the expensive foreign car drive away from the apartment complex with an equally displeased expression.

---

The next day was their second day of working from home.

Dayeon was also getting better at adjusting to her secretary duties than she had been on the first day.

“What should we do for lunch, Chief?”

As noon approached, Dayeon asked Jian because she needed to take care of her boss’s lunch.

“Whatever Secretary Han wants.”

Jian answered without taking his eyes off the monitor.

“I don’t mean the menu. I mean whether we eat out, get takeout, or order delivery. Let’s decide that first, and then choose the menu.”

“That too. Whatever Secretary Han wants.”

Whether Jian was simply being lazy or trying to accommodate Dayeon, he left every decision entirely up to her.

“Then shall we order delivery?”

“Sounds good.”

Dayeon opened a food delivery app on her phone.

“I’ll order Chinese food. Delivery is fast too.”

If they wanted to eat quickly and have a little time to rest afterward, Chinese delivery was the best option.

“I’ll have whatever Secretary Han is having.”

Seeing Jian insist on having whatever she wanted, Dayeon ordered two bowls of jjajangmyeon.

The jjajangmyeon arrived within ten minutes, and the two sat across from each other, mixing their noodles.

“About that friend yesterday.”

Jian spoke as he casually stirred his jjajangmyeon with his chopsticks.

“Who?”

“That Korean medicine doctor from yesterday.”

“Oh, Seojun? Why?”

“Are you really just friends?”

“Of course. We’re friends.”

Dayeon answered as if it were obvious and slurped some jjajangmyeon into her mouth.

Maybe it was some kind of male instinct, but Jian had clearly sensed that the man yesterday had feelings for Dayeon beyond friendship.

“Do you really think a man and a woman can be friends?”

“Of course they can. I can prove it. Seojun really is just a friend. A male friend.”

“That might just be what Secretary Han thinks. You don’t know what he thinks.”

Dayeon shook her head while chewing with both cheeks full of jjajangmyeon.

“Mmm, no. How many years have we lived like siblings? We can even drink together and sleep in the same room without anything happening.”

“You sleep together?”

Jian’s head shot up.

“Hehe, we’ve done it plenty of times. There were lots of times when we drank all night at Hyuna’s place and ended up sprawled out asleep in the living room.”

“You mean you all sleep together?”

“What’s with that wording? In college, it was normal for guys and girls to hang out, drink, and then just pass out wherever they were. It’s just something that carried on naturally.”

“Even if you were young back then and caught up in the spirit of youth, you’re both adults over thirty now, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you refrain from doing things like that now?”

Jian spoke in an extremely serious tone.

“Actually, Hyuna started dating someone recently. She said her boyfriend doesn’t like us all getting together at her place to drink.”

“Of course he doesn’t.”

“So I think it’ll probably happen less often now.”

“It should. Where is there such a thing as friendship between adult men and women? ‘Friend’ is just a label. I think it’s a potential romantic relationship.”

Dayeon lifted some jjajangmyeon with her chopsticks and asked,

“Then I guess you and I can’t be friends either, Chief?”