BYB 10

Chapter 10

Days passed in relative peace.

The reason Jiwoo thought “relatively” was because when you looked closely, there were more moments that weren’t peaceful. The man kept repeating small, trivial mistakes.

Pouring water into beer glasses, serving mismatched chopsticks, yelling at customers who asked for refills of basic side dishes that they had to pay extra… Still, since they’d never grabbed each other by the collar and fought, Jiwoo decided to define this situation as “peaceful.”

Her expectations of the man were dropping endlessly, so she felt that alone was fortunate. At this point, it would be natural to question why this man was even needed at the shop, but she decided to suppress that thought as well.

Amazingly, sales kept increasing!

“Good heavens. Business is all about the face.”

Jiwoo nodded before the hypothesis proven by exact figures. She had no choice but to admit it. Even though the employee kept making mistakes and menus of questionable quality poured out onto tables during busy hours, sales kept growing.

Moreover, they were setting new records every day.

One day.

Jiwoo, who had opened early, was putting up a new menu poster in front of the shop when Eunho, who had just arrived for work, approached her.

“Good morning, Manager-nim.”

Jiwoo, holding the poster and tape, bowed her head in greeting.

“Mr. Chunsam, you’re early.”

“Would you like some help?”

“Yes, please.”

The poster showed an appetizing food photo along with the price. She handed several sheets to him.

“I’ve already put up the front ones. You can put these on the wall next to the stairs leading up to the second floor of the building.”

Without a word, Eunho nodded and took the posters inside the building. Following him in, Jiwoo prepared the tape in advance.

“Did you sleep well?”

She tried to speak warmly since the man’s expression seemed stiff, but he only nodded lightly without further reply. Feeling embarrassed, Jiwoo lowered her head slightly and fidgeted with the tape.

As expected, he was upset.

Yesterday, there had been a minor conflict during business. When settling the bill, the amount on the POS machine and what the customer claimed differed. Eunho had checked six bottles of beer, but the customer insisted until the end that they had only drunk five. The empty bottles had already been collected and cleared away, so there was no evidence to present.

—The customer must be right. It seems our employee made a mistake. I’m sorry!

Not wanting to cause a scene, Jiwoo ultimately made Eunho back down and only charged for five bottles. She thought it was cleaner to let one beer go than to spread bad rumors. But the man seemed to have had his pride wounded. As soon as the customer left, he voiced his complaint.

—My calculation was correct.

—I know. But it’s cleaner to just let it go and end it.

—Do you always handle things this way?

She was surprised by the sharpness in his blunt tone. It felt like being dragged to a department head and scolded. It was a moment when she forgot who had hired whom.

—That’s just how business is. What can you do.

When Jiwoo murmured as if making an excuse, the man clicked his tongue as if disappointed.

—Even so, I didn’t need to apologize. Saying sorry for the misunderstanding—who should be saying that? I’ll let it slide once, but I won’t tolerate it a second time.

Jiwoo looked at him for a long time. She thought he was unnecessarily sensitive, but for some reason, she couldn’t argue with him. Because even if he lacked flexibility, what he said wasn’t wrong.

Guilt began to surface—shouldn’t I have taken the employee’s side? Regardless of whether she liked his work ethic, he was undeniably an employee of <Bravo Youth Beer>. As he said, forcing him to apologize was a rash action.

She herself had personally experienced how miserable it felt when the company didn’t take the employee’s side. Jiwoo felt unsettled, thinking she had unconsciously become the perpetrator.

A company… should be a safe haven.

Suddenly, past memories flooded in like a burst dam.

—Wow, impressive? Reporter Cha, did you sleep with a married man?

The voice that openly slandered her.

No, that wasn’t it. It was a conspiracy. Jiwoo felt wronged.

—My god. How could you do that when you have a boyfriend? No matter how much you like a man, that’s just promiscuous.

She tried hard to say it wasn’t true, but no one believed her. Even her boyfriend wasn’t on her side.

—Jiwoo, let’s break up. I didn’t know you were that kind of woman. I thought you were… dirty.

Jiwoo, who had stronger dedication and loyalty to her company than anyone, had only focused on working hard when she was suddenly caught in a conspiracy and became the subject of a sordid scandal. No one tried to verify the facts. They were just busy gossiping sensationally.

—Is she that good at night work? That’s why men can’t resist her.

The only person who took her side back then was Senior Ahn In-seok.

—Are you all crazy? Would Reporter Cha ever do something like that? This is all HK Group’s tyranny! They’re trying to bury her for exposing their waste disposal issues!

—Senior Ahn. Why? Did you sleep with her too?

Unable to take it anymore, Jiwoo eventually submitted a leave of absence. The company didn’t try to stop her. They let her go as if relieved.

The memories kept flooding in. That was when.

“What are you doing.”

A large, firm hand grabbed Jiwoo and pulled her into his embrace. Then Eunho trapped Jiwoo between the wall and his body, pressing close as if to embrace her.

“!”

“I was calling you, but you didn’t hear.”

His straight gaze meticulously swept over Jiwoo’s face. Suddenly breathless, Jiwoo could only blink.

“Coming through! Large item coming in!”

Whether they were movers or furniture delivery men, workers carrying an enormous piece of furniture were entering the building. She remembered there was a new family that moved into the fourth floor—they were probably heading there.

This building had no elevator, so even heavy items had to be carried up the stairs.

The large furniture pieces began passing by the two of them in unison with rhythmic chants.

“I’ve been telling you to move aside.”

The man stepped one step closer, and his thigh briefly brushed against Jiwoo’s stomach before pulling away. Ah. So close, so firm. The dizzying peach scent tickled her nose again. Hiding her hands holding the tape and cutter behind her back, Jiwoo stammered.

“…Ah, I was just, thinking for a moment.”

The man’s gaze followed her hidden hands. Without a word, he reached behind Jiwoo and took the cutter and tape from her hands. His fingers brushed against hers, carrying warmth.

“Don’t keep them behind your back. They’re weapons. It’s dangerous.”

Feeling the man’s eyes slowly travel from her fingers to her arm, from her arm to her shoulder, and from her shoulder to the edge of her lips, Jiwoo endured an endless moment.

“What were you thinking about?”

The man who hadn’t even answered her greeting about sleeping well suddenly asked about what had been going on in her head. Jiwoo, who had briefly recalled thoughts about affairs, scandals, and her leave of absence, shook her head and refused to answer.

Then the man’s slow gaze dropped.

Tilting his head slightly, he narrowed his eyes as if trying to read her mind. Then in a flat, not-too-loud voice, he said,

“I was thinking about you, Manager-nim.”

“!”

“That means I didn’t sleep well.”

As if he had nothing more to say, Eunho clamped his mouth shut, and his gaze landed on the poster fixed to the wall. Budae Jjigae, 8,000 won. The appetizing photo of the red stew should have stimulated appetite, but he couldn’t see it at all.

Meanwhile, one of the workers lost grip of the furniture on the stairs, causing a commotion. When carrying large furniture, breathing in sync was important, but the stamina of those climbing the stairs and those supporting from below seemed quite different.

Listening to the workers’ noise, Eunho quietly felt the woman’s breathing.

“This is the last one! We just need this to pass through!”

Another large piece of furniture came in. It was much bigger than the ones that had gone up earlier, so Eunho had no choice but to press tightly against the wall. If they had stepped back before the furniture came in, they could have avoided this trouble, but because of the dazed Jiwoo, they missed the timing and this incident occurred.

“I’ll press a little closer.”

Eunho pressed against the stiff woman and offered an apology.

“Sorry.”

But the woman was too busy being frozen stiff. If it weren’t for her slowly blinking eyes, she was standing so still he might have thought she really had turned to stone.

What had she been so deep in thought about?

She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t heard the shouts about the furniture coming in, nor the commotion of measuring the width of the stairs.

Realizing he was bothered by the fact that Jiwoo’s expression wasn’t very bright, Eunho let out a short chuckle.

Then, eventually, their bodies touched.

“Ah.”

At the woman’s gasp mixed with embarrassment, Eunho assessed his own condition.

Since when.

In a split second, he thought of countless excuses and erased them all. How could he explain it? The all-too-obvious male desire that bloomed from the body parts touching the woman—there was no excuse for it.

Because he didn’t have the ability to dress up the fact that he was getting hard from being like this with her.