Ten
Ten
That night, Seo Se-na deliberately didn't come out of her room.
While she was drinking with him, and it was even after she'd passed her first part-time job interview since coming to this apartment, he had the nerve to go take a call from another woman!
Of course, she knew it was only possible because of Oppa's great help in providing a fixed place to live, but...
'Still, I hate the look of it.'
Seeing Jin-man talking to a woman made her feel uncomfortable for some reason.
The problem was that Seo Se-na knew exactly what that feeling was.
Jealousy.
So, she had been acting petty because she hated seeing Jin-man talk to another woman.
She thought about going outside to clear the table and do the dishes, but she didn't want to leave, so she just stayed on the blanket spread out on the floor.
'Hmph, I even let him ejaculate inside me that day.'
She had done it because she was worried that Oppa, who had failed his blind date, might be heartbroken, even if he didn't show it on the outside.
She had even helped him by saying he should forget a woman with another woman.
Even if he was a man after all.
Anyway, she was the type to stay holed up in her room on purpose, even knowing Jin-man was leaving the next morning.
Click.
Only after the door closed and the sound of the door lock engaging did Seo Se-na sluggishly crawl out of her room.
'I'm hungry.'
As she entered the kitchen, she paused for a moment, looking at the table.
She had roughly guessed that Jin-man's financial situation wasn't great, but the object placed there was enough to immediately soothe Seo Se-na's petty heart.
"No, this Oppa... how can he apply something like this to his hands while touching a customer's hair?"
He probably gave it without knowing, but his heart was so warm.
You only know these things when you receive them.
That person, Cha Ye-seo, must also know this side of Jin-man Oppa's heart, which is why she's still aiming for him even though they didn't work out.
"Ugh, Oppa, you're mean. Now I can't even be petty."
Seo Se-na was smiling before she knew it.
She hugged the hand cream tightly to her chest without realizing it.
Thinking that she would do what she couldn't do yesterday because she was in a bad mood, she prepared for her first day of work.
*
- Oppa! Don't stop anywhere else today, you have to come straight home, okay? Got it?
11:30.
In the middle of working, her phone vibrated, and she saw a message from Seo Se-na.
What is she planning to do today that she's telling me not to stop anywhere else and come straight home?
'But why isn't Jeong Hae-in coming?'
Usually, if I were working, she would have stopped by to throw out a comment asking if I wasn't going to go eat.
Maybe she's so busy with work today that she doesn't even know it's lunchtime.
Hmm.
Since she's taken care of me in the past, I thought I'd take care of her this time, so I stood up from my seat.
If you're a person, you have to give and take.
'It's not like work is busy anyway.'
The entire PC replacement project for the information training center that I was handling was finalized yesterday, so now I'm just waiting for the delivery.
I head to the General Economic Support Division where Jeong Hae-in works.
It seems everyone else has already gone to eat, as there are almost no people left in the office.
"Oh, Assistant Manager Jin-man. What brings you here?"
"Hello, Team Leader-nim, I came to see Assistant Manager Jeong Hae-in."
"Oh, really? Hae-in-ah. Your peer is here?"
The team leader, whom Jeong Hae-in used to badmouth so much, is actually very kind to people from other departments.
Perhaps it's because, as a boss, he is strict with his subordinates, but there's no need to be that way with others.
"Hae-in-ah? You couldn't focus on the meeting this morning either, are you tired?"
"Ah, ah Team Leader-nim..."
When I went to Jeong Hae-in's seat, she was slumped over.
But her condition looked a bit strange.
"Jeong Hae-in, what's wrong with your face?"
"......Does it look like that?"
Why is her face so red?
She wouldn't have been drinking during work hours.
For her face to be that red, it doesn't seem like it's just a fever.
"Oh my, look at her. She's burning up, isn't she? Assistant Manager Jin-man, I'm sorry, but could you take care of our Hae-in?"
"Ah, yes. Understood."
Why on earth did this person come to work when she's not even feeling well, just to be slumped over like this?
"Oh, what, is it you..."
"Hey, why did you even come to work."
I help her up.
I take the elevator down and show Jeong Hae-in to the manager who has nursing qualifications in the agency's Health and Safety Team.
Sure enough, her fever is nearing 38.5 degrees, and the manager gives the opinion that it's best for her to go home immediately.
"I'll write a note for Assistant Manager Jeong Hae-in, so give it to your team leader and process it as sick leave."
"Yes, thank you."
I tell our team leader, and then I bring Assistant Manager Jeong Hae-in, along with her belongings, to the car.
Sitting next to me, breathing as if she's half-asleep, her condition definitely doesn't look good.
"Call out your address. Where is your house."
"......No, it's fine. Just to the subway station-."
"Stop being stubborn again. You're not borrowing a hand, you're sick and going home, so just call out the address."
I barely managed to get the address of the house where Jeong Hae-in lives, put her in the car, and pulled out of the parking lot.
Vroom-.
The sound of the car engine adds acoustics to the interior, where not even music is playing, only the quiet sound of the road.
"We're here."
The house where Jeong Hae-in lives was a studio villa.
I take her up and enter her house.
Opposite to the apartment I live in, the desolate sight of her house, where everything is packed into one room, greets me along with a strong smell of alcohol.
'What is that, liquor bottles?'
I lay Jeong Hae-in, who seems to have lost her mind, on the bed.
Leaving her to fall asleep soundly, I examine her room.
Next to the kitchen sink, there are several uncleaned liquor bottles, and there are many clothes that Jeong Hae-in has taken off on the floor.
At first glance, I thought it looked quite neat, but then I remembered Seo Se-na's room, which I could see through the gap in the door, and I was convinced for a moment.
Of course, her room is filled with various game merchandise rather than being messy with clothes and liquor bottles like this, so the type is different.
Anyway, messy is messy.
'Ah, I need to go back.'
Seeing the state of the messy house, I couldn't bring myself to just leave.
But I couldn't just go back without telling the company...
Even though I came by car, there was some distance, so it was certain that I would pass lunch time if I went back, so I hesitated for a moment, then said "screw it" and called my team leader.
- Uh-huh, Jin-man-ah.
"Team Leader-nim, I today..."
- Hae-in is in bad shape, right? I heard the situation from Team Leader Lee Shin-ae, so I'll process your sick leave for today. See you tomorrow.
Wow, seriously, where else in the world would you find a team leader like this?
For a subordinate to be unable to work would usually be a burden on the team leader, but he allows it without making a fuss.
'Is this why other teams like our team leader so much?'
He throws a lot of work at us, but thanks to that, when we ask for collaboration from other teams, even if they find the requests annoying, the working-level staff often help our team willingly.
Feeling infinite gratitude to the team leader who was considerate, I started cleaning Jeong Hae-in's house.
'Phew, it would have been comfortable if I had worn sweatpants.'
Cleaning the house in a dress shirt and dress pants was no easy task.
I took out the trash, including liquor bottles and food waste, and tidied up the clothes in the house.
Sweating profusely, I unintentionally learned about the tastes of my intake peer, which were different from Seo Se-na's, and I even carefully picked up her underwear and divided the sorted clothes to run the laundry.
While organizing the remaining items on the floor, I opened something that looked like a high-end purple felt certificate.
And I doubted my eyes.
'What is this, a medical license?'
The photo and name recorded on the paper suggest that the license number written on that medical license belongs to Jeong Hae-in.
With this crazy qualification that doesn't seem to fit this studio apartment, I look back and forth between the peer sleeping on the bed and the license.
If she has a medical license, there should be many paths open to her, so why on earth, and what is she lacking, that she got a job at this Small and Medium Business Promotion Agency and lives every day getting scolded by her team leader?
With that question in mind, I closed the license and quietly placed it on the bookshelf.
At that moment, Cha Ye-seo's current profession, which I had heard from Jeong Hae-in, came to mind.
Did she say she was a university professor?
To be close to someone like that, she must be recognized to that extent, so as expected, there is no such thing as something happening without a reason.
'Full of medical books...'
As I lifted my gaze, the bookshelf was indeed full of various medical books, proving that she was someone who had obtained a medical license.
And it was a fairly large bookshelf for a studio apartment, as tall as me, and that bookshelf was full of medical books.
When I was in the middle of struggling with computer engineering textbooks and empty screens, it seems I can see her life, which she has lived struggling with these many books.
"Ugh..."
I check the clock.
It's been a good two hours since lunch time ended.
Perhaps she recovered a little while sleeping, as I heard Jeong Hae-in's groaning from behind me.
Turning around, Hae-in asked, eyes wide as she looked at me.
"Wh, what, Lee Jin-man. Why are you here..."
"You couldn't even keep your head straight, so your team leader dumped you on me because we're peers. You were fucking heavy carrying you on my shoulder."
I answered, laughing at the stupid face she was making, she who always smiled as if life was fun.