Chapter Text
Jihye watched as her appa turned his gaze to his son, the son given to him by the woman he’d married, not the woman he’d impregnated and left to die alone as a single eomeoni.
She knew they hated each other, she knew Appa would’ve preferred a son who sided with him instead of the long-suffering sad-sack woman she was supposed to pretend was her eomeoni.
Appa had a child who loved him and wanted the best for him right beside him, one who was ready to do whatever he asked and take over the company to bring it to new heights.
But she wasn’t a son. And she hadn’t come from Kim Inae.
So instead, she had to sit here and watch as Appa turned to the son he had almost nothing in common with, a son who would stab him in the back at the slightest opportunity if he could, a son who meant to run all of them out of the company as revenge for what he believed they did to his eomeoni…and smiled.
“A Green Future We Draw Together,” he said hesitantly, nodding slowly. “Those Europeans will glom onto an idea like this. Building a future with kids in mind. Trees growing alongside multiple generations of kids…”
She couldn’t stand it. So she sat forward with a jolt, getting the attention of everyone in the room as she spoke up. “Chairman-nim, planting trees wastes the company’s time and money. While we’re off in parks putting trees everywhere, some other company that sells baby products will already be reaching into foreign markets, snatching up potential partnerships over there. And all we’ll have to show for it are saplings and sweet sentiments about children and the future. With no capital to show for it.”
“The capital will come when they see our company’s intent is sincere,” Jihyeok challenged. “Western markets are ripe for initiatives that have to do with environmentalism. Solar panels on roofs, bridges for animal crossings over and under major highways, composting initiatives, green energy. That’s the future of every industry. If we don’t keep up with it, we’re left behind. Every parent wants their child to grow up in a healthy world. That’s a priority. You heard it from Choi Director-nim as well.”
Jihye shook her head and rolled her eyes. “It’s paltry sentiment. It won’t make us money.”
“This isn’t just about making immediate money from consumers, Jihye-ya,” her appa cut in. “It’s about winning foreign investments. You win investments with ideas that have the future in mind. When foreign investments come in, the consumers will follow. That’s when the capital will pour in, and our brand will be known worldwide.” He pushed to his feet then, walked around the table towards Jihyeok, and stuck his hand out.
She was left in the dark again.
Spite bubbled up inside of her. A deep hatred for the one person in the world who she would never be able to beat. And not because he was smarter, a harder worker, or even better-looking. It was just because he was lucky enough to be born male and to a legal wife.
She was offal. Tossed to the side the second the not-so-prodigal son came back to Natural BeBe. Again. Always passed over, always shoved out of the way.
This had been the black cloud over her head since she told her appa she wanted to join in his footsteps and learn the Natural BeBe ropes, since he first pulled her into a high position in the company as his daughter. All Gong Jihyeok had to do was decide to come back to the company and all of the work, the foundations she’d built, the overnights and stress-induced illnesses, would be steamrolled. It would be for nothing.
Because Gong Changho would push his assets, his company, to the son over the illegitimate daughter every time.
She heard Ma Choonggu lean over and breathe, “This is ridiculous. What are we supposed to do now? What a ridiculous—”
“Dakchyeo,” she snapped in a whisper. He shut up. “Call Jessica’s rep. Tell them we’re very sorry we wasted their time.”
As the applause went through the room, Gong Jihye pushed up from where she sat and glared death daggers in the direction of the man who was supposed to be her brother. He’d been a leech, a weak, vulnerable little leech that she wanted to stomp on. Even when he was a kid, always hunched forward and frowning. Stretching out a hand towards her as though they would be friends if only she chose it. It was bullshit, always bullshit. He hated her deep inside, hated her for what happened to his eomeoni, as if that attempted suicide was her fault instead of the fault of the woman holding the sharp object and swiping it over her wrist.
All of them were making choices all on their own.
Her appa had just made a choice as well.
And now she had to lick her wounds again. Knowing full-well that her idea was the only one that would actually help the company. Knowing full-well that Gong Jihyeok would bring the company to its knees with stupid, sappy tree-planting ideas his eomeoni had failed to implement twenty plus years ago.
He was such an idiot, a loser. He had a one-track mind.
Then again, it’d make it that much easier to bring him down. And she would. Maybe not today. But eventually, she would.
The board members and her appa left first, chattering excitedly about the stupid tree planting bullshit. She sent them barely there smiles, her insides boiling. And then she watched as the Market TF Team, the biggest losers she could’ve ever found to hire to a company she cared deeply about, just to watch her brother fail with them, left the room.
Her own team left alongside them. And she stepped in to head for the exit just as Gong Jihyeok did, their shoulders nearly brushing as they followed their teams into the hallway.
She pointed for Ma Choonggu to leave and he guided her marketing staff away. And then she turned back to Jihyeok and looked up into his sniveling little face. “Good work,” she said through gritted teeth.
He stuck his hand out and she took it, squeezing it hard, unable to keep from being at least a little immature about this. It didn’t seem to bother him as he chirped, “You, too.”
When she moved to pull away and let go, he kept hold, making her stumble just slightly. She clenched her jaw and glared, yanking her hand from his. He smirked. She wanted to grab a blunt object and crash it across that smirk, breaking his face, damaging that handsome face that got him in rooms he had no business being in forever.
Instead she stomped away, ripping her name tag off from around her neck and overtaking her team. “Gaja,” she snapped at them. She was going to leave work for the day, find an expensive bar, and blow money on high-end whiskey.
Fuck this.
o+ooo+o
Gong Jihyeok watched his half-sister stomp away, looking like that teenager he used to know, the one who lorded her height and thick, meaty hands over him by slapping him around until he overtook her in height and strength once he grew older.
She used to get so furious when his appa gave him opportunities she didn’t get. He understood her fury… and then he also wished she’d take even a second to think about Kim Inae, her utter breakdown, the pieces of her life scattered around her feet. The fact that none of this would have happened to his eomeoni if Jihye hadn’t shown up at their door seemed to always be lost to her.
And instead of being grateful, warm, any number of things to win over Kim Inae and her son Jihyeok, she’d been a rabid beast, driven by a lust for power.
It seemed he’d won today. He doubted his sister would lay down her arms, though. She’d go drink lots of whiskey and then she’d go back to the drawing board to plot some more.
He turned on his heel and stuffed his hands in his pockets with a small smile, deciding he could at least feel triumphant today. But he halted when he saw that his Market TF Team had stopped halfway down the hallway, all with their heads bent together almost as if they were doing some plotting of their own. They looked up at him as one, sneaky growing smiles on their faces.
Gong Jihyeok’s gaze fell on Go Darim, because his eyes would forever be drawn to her first. The look on her face made his heart race, his spirits shoot through the ceiling.
And then they crashed towards him, making him stagger back a few steps in fear.
They screamed in celebration, Nansook yelling, “TIMJANG-NIMMMM, YOU WERE INCREDIBLE!”
He’d been working in business now since he was practically a teenager, even throughout his time in university, and every win had been punctuated by drinks with peers, a boss patting him on the shoulder and giving him a little bonus, when he started his own company, he was the one tossing bonuses around.
But nothing had ever been like this.
They began to hop up and down, arms linked, so much pride in their faces. Jinhee even had tears in her eyes.
This was his team.
And they were a real team. They’d worked so hard, so many sleepless nights, and they’d done it on their own.
Screw it.
He threw his head back with a laugh, linked arms with Go Darim at his left, Gyeongmin at his right, and he began jumping with them, beaming, his eyes finding Darim’s.
The four leaf clovers she’d given him had done their job.
When the jumping in circles stopped, they all clapped and moved more slowly down the hallway, arms thrown over shoulders, side hugs given. Gyeongmin clung to his arm and hugged him. “Hyung, this feels so good!”
He chuckled and nodded. “It does.” And then he turned to walk backwards towards the elevators, pointing at all four of his team members individually. “Team dinner and drinks tonight. On your timjang!” He pointed to himself.
They cheered again, throwing their arms up as he pushed the button to call the elevator.
It felt good.
Gyeongmin was right.
He thought few things in his career had ever felt quite this good, not even the billion won contracts he’d signed. He didn’t know why. But he’d embrace it.
o+ooo+o
Darim knocked lightly on the office door, her chest still filled with things she’d never felt before in her life.
It wasn’t just a sense of accomplishment.
She’d worked so hard alongside her colleagues, and with their brains and hands and experiences, they’d built something so good it beat the pants off of a marketing team that had years of experience under their belts.
For the first time in her adult life, she found success in a professional job. She’d done something amazing alongside coworkers. She’d won an advertising pitch. She was a real employee at a real company, making a real difference.
It felt like her life was starting to pick up, just a little.
“Coming!” came the voice from inside.
And the door opened to reveal Gong Jihyeok, towering over her, a look of surprise on his face at finding her on the other side of the door. He shrugged his coat on and stepped out, shutting the office door behind him. “Everyone’s ready?”
“Ne.”
But his coat’s collar got tucked under and it looked so dopey and cute as he smiled over her shoulder towards the team, the women babbling about what kind of food they wanted to eat once they got to the restaurant.
Go Darim knew she had to be more careful about not giving in to impulse, so instead of reaching up to fix it, she pointed. “Your…collar,” she said quietly.
“Mm?” He raised his eyebrows. Then he glanced towards where she pointed. “Oh.” He tried to fix it, but his fingers seemed a bit clumsy. “Better?”
No.
She gave him a closed-mouth smile and shook her head.
Well, she tried. She really did.
Darim reached up with both hands and tucked her fingers under the collar, feeling his body go tense, and she pulled the collar out, running her fingers along to the back of his neck to straighten it. Then she ran a hand down his lapel.
Every movement she made brought them closer, but she focused on the coat, careful not to look at him, afraid of what she’d see in his face.
She wanted him to move on. She didn’t want him to move on. It was better if he moved on. It’d be for the best if there was absolutely nothing on his face.
If he didn’t expect anything from her.
Like she didn’t expect anything from him.
“Gomawoyo,” he mumbled quietly.
She nodded, gave him one more smile, and they moved as one towards the rest of the team.
Darim hated the way her heart reacted to him.
It still felt so intense.
Always.
But he wasn’t hers, and she couldn’t be his. They would enjoy this night with the team, celebrate, and she wouldn’t dwell on any of the extra stuff. The way he’d changed the presentation a bit to make himself vulnerable, to hit his abeoji in his heart, and the way he’d changed the words she’d read aloud to hit her in her heart as well. That had been so wonderful and so unfair.
Gong Jihyeok was clearly sentimental, capable of sweetness that surpassed even the things she’d seen in the dramas she watched with Eomma and Dajeong.
They all decided to walk to the restaurant, as it was only a few blocks.
Timjang Gong and Director Kang walked the whole way with their arms over one another’s shoulders, the latter doing most of the talking, looking happier than she’d seen him in the month since she first met him.
She was smushed in the middle of the Market TF Team intern foursome, their arms all linked, their steps in sync. It felt so good to be in a team like this. There was a sense of being protected and valued here that she’d not felt in any other job. Ever.
“Did you see what Timjang-nim did, walking to that Choi man and using that deep voice…How did you feel when you held your child for the first time?” Bae Nansook mimicked Jihyeok’s deep voice and made them all giggle. “Ooooh, Timjang-nim, I got chills.”
“Ne! I was so impressed, Timjang-nim!” Jinhee piped up.
Jihyeok turned to smile at them over his shoulder and nodded in thanks.
They arrived at the restaurant and as the others followed the wait staff to a private room booked by their timjang, Darim excused herself to use the restroom first.
She stood in front of the mirror and stared at her reflection for a while. For the first time in her life, she felt like she was looking at someone who was accomplishing great things. She’d only needed one opportunity, and look at what she was doing with that opportunity.
It felt good. She was proud of herself.
And she needed to cling to this feeling for as long as she could. She didn’t want to lose it for anything.
But as she emerged into the room after leaving the facilities, she saw the chair they’d left empty for her was the one to Gong Jihyeok’s right, where he sat at the head. She knew it hadn’t been purposeful by anyone.
So she took the seat and smiled at everyone, even turning a smile on Jihyeok.
The wine was poured, food brought out in droves, earning squeals of excitement, cheers.
Everyone finally raised their glasses. “Good job, everyone!”
Darim giggled, clinking her glass with everyone else’s, and then she brought the red wine to her lips.
She was shocked when Jihyeok reached over to cup the upper part of the glass, careful not to brush his fingers with hers it seemed, and guided the glass away from her mouth. “You have gastritis. I read alcohol exacerbates it,” he said quietly.
Darim pulled her lips back between her teeth for a moment, peering at him. “Oh.” He read that? Did he research gastritis? “Well, I can’t not drink after a day like this,” she said with a tentative giggle. “I coated my stomach with medicine earlier, so I’ll be perfectly fine,” she insisted, beaming at him confidently.
He was quiet, watching her closely. But he nodded in assent once. And then he picked up a plate of prawns and set it in front of her. “Okay. It’s your choice. But at least eat something first, hm?” He moved her water glass closer to her as well. “And make sure you’re drinking water.”
Jihyeok didn’t look at her, sipping his wine, glancing off to the side. But she could only stare at him, her grip tightening around the stem of her wine glass.
“Ne,” she said, nodding. She began to pick at the food he gave her, reveling in how good it tasted, but the natural way he was protecting her health, not making a big show of it, but just being quietly present, was clawing huge gaping gashes into her resolve. And it wasn’t fair at all.
“Yaaaaah, our Timjang-nimmmm,” Jinhee said over the sound of silverware and chopsticks digging into the many dishes on the table, “I totally fell for you today. Did you all see him giving that presentation? So suave. So persuasive.” She winked down the table at Jihyeok.
He sniffed in amusement, smiling as he bowed his head to her and held up his wine glass towards her. “You all did the real work, I just presented it.”
“Ani!” Nansook added. “So eloquent, digging deep into everyone’s heartstrings. Ooooh.” She put a hand on Darim’s shoulder. “You know if he tried to sell me electric jade mats, I would have one in every room in the house.”
They all laughed at that, even Gong Jihyeok as he tipped his glass towards Nansook as well.
Even Lee Goeun spoke up from where she sat on Kang Gyeongmin’s other side. “I agree. You’re amazing, Timjang-nim.”
Darim’s heart grew as she watched them praise him. She was perturbed with herself for the pride she was feeling. It wasn’t her business to feel pride where Gong Jihyeok was concerned. He wasn’t hers. They weren’t supposed to be anything to one another but a boss and his employee. That was it.
But he’d done so much to turn the tide with her colleagues. In just a month, he’d won them over when he’d been such a jerk at first…and it was clear they’d won him over in turn. She felt a mutual respect and trust now, and it was everything to her.
She let out a big sigh as Gyeongmin piped up. “Hyung hired me at his firm…mmm was that seven years ago?” Jihyeok nodded once. “There’s a reason when he came back to the family business, I followed him. I’d follow this guy everywhere. He’s special. A powerhouse. I can trust him to do what needs to be done, and he’ll do it better than anybody else. Maja?”
The glowing look the other man sent their timjang made Darim’s heart swell even further. It was clear there was real affection and friendship between the two men. The way Deputy Kang swooped in to smooth things over when Gong Jihyeok was too blunt, the way Jihyeok let him take the reins in explaining things sometimes because he knew the Market TF Team members liked Gyeongmin. It was a fascinating partnership, and they seemed to know one another’s next moves without talking about it at times, too. They seemed to take care of each other, and not just Deputy Kang taking care of his boss, but in the other direction as well.
It seemed Gong Jihyeok was alone otherwise. When she thought back to the first time she met him, before Jeju Island, in that club where she’d unfairly accused Jihyeok of being a sexual predator, it had been Kang Gyeongmin who’d been there with him.
Did Jihyeok have friends besides this man? If he did, she’d never seen or heard about them. Maybe Yu Hayeong but she still couldn’t really figure that situation out. And Jihyeok was clearly at odds with his sister and had a strained relationship with his abeoji. He was doing his best to protect his eomeoni as she stayed in the hospital.
Go Darim knew it wasn’t her place—again—but she was glad Gong Jihyeok had at least someone. And she hated how powerful the sensation was inside of her chest…the deep want to be there for him so that he wasn’t so alone all the time. Whatever he was dealing with when it came to his eomeoni, he seemed to be shouldering it all. And whatever brought him to Natural BeBe, the competition between him and his sister, the look of mutual distrust between them, the outright hate she’d seen flash in Gong Jihye’s eyes when she looked at him, felt like something he was handling all alone as well.
She didn’t want him to be alone.
But she couldn’t be his person. She couldn’t be the one who was there for him. She had too much to deal with, too much that needed her paychecks still even with the debt gone. And still, she had every intention of paying Jihyeok back. But she had to save the home she lived in, the home Seonu owned and lived in with Jun as well. She needed to keep her eomma in the hospital to rehab comfortably. She couldn’t deal with a scandal, with charges that her connections to the chairman’s son were why she was hired, why she was given opportunities.
She had to do this on her own terms.
For the first time in her life, she was doing things on her own terms and she wasn’t going to let anything derail that.
Not even the deep need she felt when she saw Gong Jihyeok sitting alone in his office with his head in his hands, shoulders slumped, tiredness in him. Darim had always been that person everyone could rely on. Eomma relied on her, Dajeong relied on her, her friends, coworkers…she would swoop in and save the day even when she had to sacrifice something for herself.
That drive she’d always had to protect others was raging inside of her as she glanced up at him and saw him swirling his wine glass at the end of the table, quiet.
He spoke up then, interrupting Gyeongmin’s further praise. “I’ve never had a more impressive team with me than this one.”
“Ooohhh.” Nansook covered her mouth, her eyes happy crescents over her hand.
“Facing childish idiotic bullying from other Natural BeBe employees, being completely counted out, underestimated, dismissed as a team that was only created to give the chairman’s son a role in the company, and all of the ridiculous gossip I’m sure you had to hear in the cafeteria and elevator about the MTF Team. You put your heads down and used your valuable expertise not just as an eomeoni…” He cast his gaze around at specifically Goeun, Jinhee, and Nansook. “But as someone who is raising children in this sometimes tough world, and you created an advertising pitch that beat the crap out of the marketing team. That team’s soul purpose is to do the thing you beat them at. You made them all eat their words.” A smile tugged at his lips as he held up his glass for all of them, and then his gaze fell on Darim and her heart seized in her chest. “You should all be immensely proud of yourselves, using your skills alone to do something the company thought you couldn’t do.”
“Ugggh, Timjang-nim, you’ll make me cry,” Jinhee said.
He smiled genuinely this time. “Don’t cry. Just clink glasses with me, mm?”
They all cheered, raising their glasses, clinking them.
“What does everyone want to eat? Pasta? Lobster? Whatever you want, we’ll order,” Deputy Kang announced then. “There’s so much to celebrate and our own Timjang-nim is covering the bill!”
They cheered again. Nansook teased, “Jinjja? Can I order enough for my breakfast tomorrow?”
He beamed and made a Have at it gesture, causing them all to cheer again.
Darim giggled and shifted her elbow on the table as she reached for the beef, but she saw her spoon tilt over the edge of the table. It clattered loudly onto the floor as she gasped.
Oops. Clumsy.
She scooted her chair back just an inch or two and quickly leaned down to pick it up off of the floor. As she came back up again, she froze. Because her eyes fell on the sight of Gong Jihyeok’s hand gently cupping the hard, pointy corner of the table that was near where her head just was.
Her gaze slowly lifted to him. He wasn’t even looking at her, sipping his wine with his other hand, laughing at something Jinhee had just said. She dropped her eyes back to his hand on the table. It was so natural, protecting her from hurting herself, like he hadn’t even had to think about it.
There were so many implications that came with this one caring gesture, this attempt to keep her safe, and she swallowed hard as she sat up to put the spoon back on the table, staring down into her food. She picked up the wine glass and threw more of it back quickly, hoping it would do something to dull the intense emotions spilling through her.
“Why didn’t we invite Kim Seonu-ssi and Yu Hayeong-ssi to our little celebration, anyway?” Jinhee piped up then. “They should’ve been here! They did a lot for this project, too!”
“Ne!”
Darim reached over to grab the bottle and pour more wine for herself. She wasn’t sure if she was just imagining the feeling of being watched, or more like watched over, but she didn’t want to chance stealing a glance at Gong Jihyeok, so she kept her eyes nailed to the glass in front of her.
Deputy Kang spoke up. “They said they have some business to attend to but will come and join us once they’re finished.”
Business to attend to? Seonu hadn’t said anything about having business with Yu Hayeong tonight. That was an interesting development…
“Ahhhh, what a shame,” Nansook said then. “I could sit across the table and give Kim Seonu-ssi my seat, hmmm, Darim-aaaa?” She nudged Darim with a significant wink.
Darim choked a bit on wine. “Mwo?”
“Mwo mwo mwo,” Nansook teased. “Mmmhmmm. Come onnnn, Darim-a. Young hot photographer. Neither of you are attached, hm? Same age about, I think. Gotta love an artsy man.”
“Yaaah, I was wondering if I sensed a few little sparks,” Jinhee added unhelpfully.
“Ani-Aniyo!” Darim rushed out, swiping her hand through the air. “That’s not… Am I not allowed to have a conversation with someone without it being misconstrued as romance? Nothing is there.”
“Oh, please…” Jinhee groused. “You’re the only one of us who doesn’t have a kid, Darim-a. And you’re single. How could you not be at least a liiiittle interested in Kim Seonu-ssi?”
“He isn’t my type,” she blurted. “Not at all.”
The table went silent. Goeun leaned in a little, finally breaking the silence. “How can someone that handsome not be your type? Go Darim-a, as a fellow single woman, I found myself staring a few times, too.”
Deputy Kang choked a bit on some beef and Goeun grabbed his water glass and pushed it into his hands as he wheezed a thank you.
This was not the conversation she wanted to be having. Her hand reached for her glass and she picked it up, downing more red wine, grabbing the bottle to fill it again. “I’m just not attracted to him at all. Simple enough.”
“You don’t like handsome men?” Jinhee asked, and snorts echoed around the table.
“He’s not my type of handsome, I guess,” she said with a shrug, drinking more wine.
“What is your type of handsome, then?”
Darim pursed her lips and shrugged. “I don’t know what my type is, I just know when someone isn’t my type. And that’s Photographer-nim.”
“The camera around his neck doesn’t do anything for you?” Goeun asked, giggling. “Mm. Something so attractive about a man who’s good with tools like that. Especially if he’s artsy. And he was so good with the kids, too.”
“Neeee,” Nansook crooned. “He was teasing and playing with them. I’m married and even my heart was racing.”
Darim shook her head no, trying not to seem too vehement, lest they accuse her of being in denial or something like that. “Nothin’. Mianhae.”
“Darim doesn’t like the professional photographer type, the artsy handsome man with the squishy heart,” Jinhee said, leaning forward so that she could eye her better. “Let me see, I bet I can guess her type just by looking at her.”
“Looking at me? Ani…” she chuckled, sipping more wine.
“Mmmm… oh! Got it!” Jinhee clapped her hands together and pointed at her. “I know your type. The rich CEO with the suits that fit him perfectly. Not that scruffy artsy type but clean-cut, suave, a man with money who can take care of you, hmmm, Darim-a?”
“Ooohh, the handsome CEO!”
Darim felt her eyes nearly pop out of her head at that and she guzzled more of her wine, clearing her throat, laughing it off. And because she was starting to lose control of the situation, it meant she was losing control of her responses as well, and her head turned towards Gong Jihyeok to gauge his reaction to all of this.
He was staring right at her, with that intense stare of his, the one that left her feeling so off-kilter, out of her depth. She looked away from him again and shook her head, this time not caring if the head shaking was too vehement or not. “Aniyo. Definitely not the CEO type. That’s way too much for me to handle. That wealth gap will be a big problem.”
“How?!” Jinhee gasped. “You’re taken care of for life!”
“Yah. And how about his family? His eomeoni would throw water in my face when she finds out I’m poor and have debts to pay!”
They all laughed. “Darim-a, you watch too many dramas!” Nansook said through her laughter, nudging her again.
“How am I supposed to fit into his life and how does he fit into mine? That’s too much angst, I can’t deal with all of that,” she rushed out. “I have too much happening in my life already, too many bills to juggle, too much pressure, trying to cling to this job with both fists, hm?” She made fists in the air in front of her. “I can’t have that extra burden of a boyfriend who’s too much to handle on my shoulders. I’d topple.”
“Mmm, that is a lot of weight,” Goeun agreed quietly. “But it’d be nice to be taken care of. To have to worry about…less stuff. Share your burden with somebody else.”
Nobody noticed Deputy Kang slowly lifted his gaze to peer at Lee Goeun, the way his Adam’s apple bobbed, and then the way he quickly looked away again when she turned towards him a little.
“I don’t have the bandwidth for more burdens. And I wouldn’t want to push my stuff onto some guy just because he’s rich and can pay for stuff for me. That’s an unequal situation and I don’t want inequality in my relationship,” Darim reasoned.
She realized only then that she’d been talking way too much, that she should’ve just kept her mouth shut after initially denying her coworkers’ insinuations.
Because Gong Jihyeok pushed up from the table and set his napkin down, buttoning one button of his suit jacket and stepping away to leave the room.
“Timjang-nim…”
“I’m going to use the restroom and get more wine for the table,” he said, but he didn’t look at them, merely leaving as quickly as possible.
And Darim stared down at the food he’d continued pushing towards her subtly all night—not subtly enough because she’d noticed every time and it had made her heart race every time.
Had she just hurt him again, though?
Or was she giving herself way too much importance? What if he was just going to the restroom and getting more wine for the table? What if he’d moved on, given her up, and was merely protecting his employee with the hand on the corner of the table thing, the making sure she ate food thing, the researching whether she could drink with gastritis thing…?
Darim took a deep breath and swirled her wine, finishing another glass and then pouring more.
She needed to stop focusing on things out of her control and have fun. After a day like today, it was best to just enjoy the company and celebrate. So she poured even more wine.
o+ooo+o
Gong Jihyeok led the way back into their private room he’d booked at the restaurant, the waitress following after him with bottles of wine he’d specifically just picked out in hand.
She opened them for the table and left again as he went to his seat and sat down. He felt Go Darim’s gaze on him but he decided he’d pretend he didn’t.
That conversation had him swinging every which way and he’d made a decision to remove himself from the room for a bit in case anything showed in his face.
He’d swung from jealousy he knew he shouldn’t be feeling about his employees erroneously sticking Darim and Seonu together, to disappointment he knew he shouldn’t be feeling about Darim insisting a rich CEO wasn’t her type because it’d create too much inequality in the relationship and would only serve to become yet another burden on her.
So he wasn’t her type.
He’d be a burden.
And deep down he’d known these things…
It still hurt badly to hear her confirm it to her peers. In front of him.
It felt like yet another rejection when he hadn’t even asked anything of her this time.
Jihyeok was foolishly still wallowing when he heard Nansook gasp, “Whooaaaa, look at the year on this bottle of cabernet! Timjang-nim, this must be expensive. This bottle of wine is older than my oldest kid!”
They all laughed.
“Should I not spring for good wine on the day when my amazing team trounced a bunch of marketing team jerks led by the biggest jerk of them all, Ma Choonggu?” he asked calmly.
They cheered. “I love petty Timjang-nim!” Jinhee added with a laugh, grabbing the other expensive bottle, ogling it, and pouring some for Goeun, then Gyeongmin, Nansook, and finally herself.
Nansook moved to pour her own bottle for Darim, but Darim held up a finger for her to wait, downed the rest of the wine in her glass, and then thrusted the glass out for more, humming happily.
“Yah, if there wasn’t an age gap, if I wasn’t already married and popped a kid out, I’d absolutely be into a rich young man,” Jinhee said. Why was this conversation continuing, he thought tiredly. He’d been so sure he’d been gone for enough minutes that they’d moved onto something else. “There are some really good ones. Look at Timjang-nim. So handsome and well-put-together, never a hair out of place. And you look great in your suits, Timjang-nim.”
He gave her a crooked grin, trying to tease the conversation away as he waggled his finger at her and joked, “Careful with stuff like that. I might go to HR.”
The table burst into laughter and he hoped he’d steered the conversation away enough that someone brought something else up. Anything else.
“Yaaaaah, Hyung is already spoken for,” Gyeongmin said with his loose damn lips. Jihyeok jerked his head around to stare at his friend with wide eyes. The whole table was so silent, even the scrape of the spoon against Goeun’s plate stopped.
Apparently his little friend had enough wine now that he wasn’t reading the shock in the room at all, or the glare from his “hyung”, because he kept going cluelessly, “Ne. Well, I shouldn’t say that. He isn’t spoken for, per se. It’s more like he is super hung up on a woman already so that’s taken him off the market. Hm, Hyung?”
Gong Jihyeok couldn’t believe his ears.
Was Gyeongmin really doing this right now?
Sure, he had no idea that the woman in question was sitting at this table, but why would he talk about Jihyeok’s private business at the table with their employees like this? Clearly he didn’t want to see thirty, this fucking guy…
“It’s…not like that,” he tried.
“Timjang-nim… I’ve always wondered. A strapping young man who’s so successful, top class, with a very powerful family. Why aren’t you married yet?” Nansook asked.
“I…I feel like that’s probably something a little private and maybe we shouldn’t—” Go Darim tried quietly, but she was quickly cut off.
“Ne! You’re a real catch, Timjang-nim!” Jinhee groused. “What’s wrong with the women around you?”
“Who is she?”
Jihyeok blinked, then whipped around to look at Nansook. She wore a secretive little smirk on her face. “Mwo? W-Who—?”
“Ne. The woman. Will we be hearing wedding bells soon?”
“Ooohhh!”
“Not likely,” Gyeongmin spoke over the others, still totally clueless, his mouth still fucking going. “She doesn’t return his feelings. So he’s just sitting around feeling really sorry for himself because he’s been rejected.”
Jihyeok was nothing if not a masochist apparently, because he chose that moment to steal a glance at Go Darim. She’d sunk low in her chair, her eyes squeezed shut in what was likely mortification, and she was drinking her wine.
He looked away again, glaring daggers at Gyeongmin as the other women at the table tossed sympathetic words his way, grousing that this woman must be out of her mind, how could anyone reject their special Timjang-nim?
There were no words to describe how he was feeling in this moment, he thought. But he did know that Kang Gyeongmin would end up murdered and floating in the Han River before the night was out.
He couldn’t believe he’d tossed him under the bus like this.
It was embarrassing. He felt awful. And Darim was sitting two feet away from him, experiencing all of it, knowing she was the woman he was “still hung up on”, the woman who’d rejected him and had made it so that he was sitting around feeling really sorry for himself. She was the woman who didn’t return his feelings.
“Yaaaah, Timjang-nim. Nothing feels worse than unrequited love.”
“It isn’t like that,” he said again. “Gyeongmin-a just drank too much. And apparently he has no real love for life otherwise he would’ve protected it better than this.” He pointed at the slightly younger man and mouthed, “You’re dead”.
Deputy Kang gritted his teeth sheepishly, but still didn’t seem all that worried as he turned to Lee Goeun and added, “He’s mad at me for this, but honestly, I just think Hyung needs a little push to get this girl out of his heart. Hm?” He turned back to Jihyeok. “You’re the best guy in the whole universe, Hyung!” He slapped his palm on the table loudly. “If she doesn’t want you, it’s her loss!”
“Ne!”
“That’s right!”
“Find someone better!”
“There is no one better.” Had he…just said that? Oh. This was bad. He hadn’t meant to say that. And now he absolutely felt her eyes sizzling into the skin on the side of his face. Whatever he did, he couldn’t look at her.
“Whooaa, listen to the way he just said that,” Nansook breathed. “Timjang-nim, you really mean it.”
“Oooh…”
“But you’re right,” he said, his voice a little louder, steadier. “I do need to move on. First, I’ll kill Kang Gyeongmin-a.” And he burst up from the table to pretend to lunge for the other man.
Everyone laughed, the subject changed as they took their seats again, but his chest was aching, Darim’s eyes burning the side of his face, and he decided he sort of just wanted to go home.