Chapter 27
“Don’t Laugh Like That”
“Is that friend you’re meeting after such a long time a man?”
Lee Yeon, who had been about to enter her room, turned her body back and looked at Do-hyun.
Do-hyun’s gaze, fixed on her, was deep and dark.
His eyes were serious, stubbornly clinging to Lee Yeon, as if he was dying to know who that man was.
Normally, neither of them ever wondered whether the other was home, or who they had gone out to meet.
But today, unlike usual, Do-hyun seemed curious about who Lee Yeon had dinner with.
Why?
“Yes, he is a man, but it’s been such a long time since we met that it was awkward.
I almost choked while eating.
I was so uncomfortable that every time the taxi shook, my stomach did too.”
And my head, too.
Just remembering it made the pain in my head flare up again.
Because of the unexpected conversation I had with Ji-hoo, I couldn’t even clearly recall how the dumpling hot pot had tasted whether it had gone down my throat or up my nose.
For now, I didn’t even want to look at the dumpling hot pot.
“What did you two eat?”
“Dumpling hot pot!
Did you not have dinner yet?”
Do-hyun’s tone suddenly turned sharp.
Was it because he hadn’t eaten until this hour and was irritable, or because he resented Lee Yeon for eating alone?
I couldn’t read what he was thinking at all.
“I ate.
Someone else was happily enjoying dumpling hot pot, while I just had a simple home-cooked meal.”
Do-hyun’s voice was low and husky.
The auntie’s home cooking was objectively delicious.
It was certainly better than that dumpling hot pot whose taste I couldn’t even remember.
“So, you did eat?”
Do-hyun said nothing more, but he stood there unmoving, as if he still had more to say.
‘What is this?
Does he want dumpling hot pot?’
“Shall we go have dumpling hot pot together next time?
I don’t really remember the taste, so I kind of want to go again…”
Even though I had just vowed not to eat dumpling hot pot again anytime soon, if Do-hyeon wanted it, I was willing to take him.
Slowly, Do-hyeon nodded.
What was this?
Such a cute reaction.
“Can I go inside now?”
Hit square in the heart, Lee Yeon couldn’t bring herself to look at Do-hyun and instead spoke toward the empty air on the opposite side.
When Do-hyun gave his consent, she fled upstairs to her room.
Do-hyun stared at the empty space she left behind for a moment, then pressed the power button on the remote and went into his own room.
Collapsing onto his bed, he stared at the white ceiling above and placed an arm behind his head.
‘I’m having dinner with a friend I haven’t seen in a while.’
When Lee Yeon had said that, something about the genderless wording had bothered him.
The only friend of hers that Do-hyun knew was Ha-yul.
If it was a friend she hadn’t seen in a while, then who was it?
Was it a male friend?
Were they drinking together?
What time would she be coming home?
There were so many questions he wanted to bombard her with, but he barely swallowed them down and only told her to go ahead.
And now, he regretted it.
He couldn’t focus on work anymore.
Preparing to leave the office as usual, Do-hyun felt parched and decided he needed a cold glass of water, so he headed to the break room.
He gulped down ice-cold water.
The sharp chill that burned his throat oddly made him feel a little better.
When he came out of the break room, Lee Yeon’s seat was empty.
‘Bathroom?’
For some reason, he felt compelled to look over her desk carefully.
In a small trash bin to the side, snack wrappers were piled up.
Pfft.
Cute.
He thought to himself that he should buy her a whole bunch of those snacks later.
As his eyes roamed here and there, they landed on something unexpected the flickering of her office messenger window.
When he stepped closer, he saw it was from Eom Ji-hoo.
What?
Why was that sly fox messaging her right before the end of the day?
Wait.
Lee Yeon had said she had plans tonight.
Don’t tell me… she’s with that fox?
Do they even have a reason to be messaging each other?
No, no way.
She’d said it was a friend she hadn’t seen in a while.
But even after returning to his desk, Ji-hoo’s message kept gnawing at him.
Watching Lee Yeon’s back as she left work without a clue about his feelings felt infuriating.
‘Maybe I should’ve made her work overtime.’
Maybe he should’ve forced her to stay in front of his eyes, whether she was meeting a man or a woman.
He had intended to throw a stone into Lee Yeon’s calm heart, but instead it felt like she was the one throwing stones into his.
His mind was in such a fog that he couldn’t do anything.
On his way home in the car, Do-hyun glanced at the passenger seat.
Those clear eyes he wanted to be the only one to know them.
He couldn’t stand the thought of someone else noticing.
The way that Fox kept looking at Lee Yeon grated on him.
He suspected that bastard had already realised it, too.
Do-hyun’s grip on the steering wheel tightened again.
When he arrived home and opened the front door, the still, empty air greeted him.
“I should’ve gone to work out or something.”
He needed to focus on something else, anything to shake off this bad mood.
After washing up, Do-hyun filled his stomach with the auntie’s side dishes even though he had no appetite, then checked the time.
It still seemed like a long while before Lee Yeon would come home.
Yet his eyes kept drifting toward the front door.
Should he text her?
Ask when she’d be back?
He decided sitting in the living room was at least a little better.
To break the silence, he sat on the sofa, turned on the TV, and put on a random movie.
He tried to focus on the sound from the high-end speakers flanking the TV, but in the end, he couldn’t escape the swirl of thoughts in his head.
It wasn’t until he heard Lee Yeon’s voice without even realising when she had come in that he snapped back to reality.
The heavy, suffocating feeling in his chest, like a stone weighing down his heart, eased as soon as he saw her.
Without her noticing, Do-hyun let out a small sigh.
When Lee Yeon, saying she was tired, was about to head to her room, he finally asked the question.
Was the friend she met a man?
When she said yes, it felt like the anger he had barely kept down surged up again.
He didn’t care who it was he just hated it.
He wished those shining eyes would only look at him.
But then, that anger melted away at her suggestion that they go eat hot pot dumplings together next time.
Do-hyun felt like he was losing his mind.
The way his mood rose and fell with her words he feared that one day, when his reason truly snapped, he might cause real trouble.
“Good morning, Secretary Yoo.”
The voice’s owner lifted the corners of his mouth in a wide grin, flashing his white teeth.
“A new variable has appeared.”
“What did you say?”
The new variable that appeared before Lee Yeon that morning was Ji-hoo.
“What brings you here so early?”
“I have a draft that requires the Vice President’s approval.
It’s urgent, so I came to ask him to review it quickly.”
‘So why didn’t you submit it earlier?’
Just seeing Ji-hoo made Lee Yeon rub at her throbbing temple.
“He seems to be at work, but maybe he stepped out for a moment.”
“I saw you lying down just now, you know.”
Exactly because I don’t have time to entertain you.
Before reporting today’s schedule to Do-hyun, she had wanted to rest with her head down for just a little while.
But this variable kept interfering.
Unaware of her irritation, Ji-hoo kept smiling brightly, chatting away without any intention of leaving.
“You’re just going to wait around like this?
Don’t you have work to do downstairs?”
“I’m still a newbie.
It’s okay for me to step away this much.”
“Your trainer won’t think it’s okay.
Assistant Manager Kang must be craning her neck waiting for you.”
“Assistant Manager Kang is super chill.”
So Yeon-jeong was his trainer?
How ridiculous.
“Fine then, if the Vice President comes, just send me a message.”
“I’ve waited this long.
I’ll just meet him and go.”
Ji-hoo found something hilarious and laughed so hard his cheeks nearly burst.
‘What on earth is so funny?’
As Lee Yeon gave an awkward smile, Do-hyun appeared, walking toward his office.
“Good morning, Vice President.”
Without a word, Do-hyun looked between Lee Yeon and Ji-hoo, then went inside his office.
Ji-hoo quickly followed him in.
It seemed he finished quickly, because soon after, he came out saying, “I’m off now,” and left.
Lee Yeon headed to the break room.
“Americano, right?”
She prepared the morning coffee that would start Do-hyun’s day.
Then, carrying both the coffee and the day’s schedule to report, she came back out.
“Here you go.”
Whoa startled.
It was Ji-hoo again.
Not long after disappearing, he had reappeared, this time with a small box in his hand.
Inside the clear plastic case, white rice cakes and honey-filled rice cakes were neatly packed.
“This is for the Vice President.”
Lee Yeon accepted the boxes from Ji-hoo and placed one neatly on the tray beside Do-hyun’s coffee.
“If it were the old Yoo Lee Yeon, I probably would’ve come up more often, just to treat my eyes.”
“Good thing then, since you won’t have many reasons to come up often.”
She gave a broad, professional smile, but her eyes were spitting curses.
Hurry up and f— off.
“Secretary Yoo, come in right now.”
At that moment, Do-hyun opened the office door and cut off her conversation with Ji-hoo, his gaze on her icy and sharp.
It was the kind of expression he only wore when a massive mistake had been made.
“I’ll head back downstairs, Vice President.”
The new employee, Ji-hoo, gave Do-hyun a polite bow and returned to his desk.
Lee Yeon, carrying the tray she had been delayed in bringing, stepped toward Do-hyun.
“I’m sorry.
I was a little late, wasn’t I?”
Unable to guess why Do-hyun was upset, she decided to admit to the only possible fault delivering the coffee late.
If it wasn’t that, she had no clue.
Do-hyun, quietly watching her with an atmosphere quite different from earlier, finally spoke.
“Don’t smile like that.”
His mouth twisted slightly, then dropped again, as if her smile really got under his skin.
The laser in his eyes pierced right through her.
So it wasn’t the delay it was the smile he hated?
Lee Yeon suddenly felt wronged.
She wanted to say something, but ended up closing her mouth tightly.
Not to smile like that how unfair.
