Let Me Call My Husband (2)
Eight o'clock in the evening.
In an office where everyone who could have gone home already had, how many people could possibly be left? The occasional sound of footsteps still drifted in from the hallway, but one thing was certain: right here, right now, it was just me and Han Minah.
Not that I had any particular ulterior motive in mind. I had a personal fondness for Han Minah, and no small amount of respect to go with it, so I stood up from my desk to see just how much work she still had piled up that she was pulling another late night.
"Team Leader."
"Hmm? Woojin, why haven't you left yet?"
"I was wrapping up a few things myself. I was just about to decide whether to head out when I noticed you were still here. Do you have a lot left?"
"No... uh... a little? Not that much. A reasonably large little bit?"
The awkward little ahaha that followed told me there was considerably more left than she was letting on. Curious just how much, I glanced over her monitor... yeah. She'd left herself a fair amount.
"Let me help."
"Hmm? I'm fine, really. No, you should go home, Woojin. You've been working so hard lately. I said I'd lighten your load if you took Seoeun on, and I never even managed that. It's okay."
"No, I'm okay. Split some of it with me. I'll help."
"I'm really fine..."
"I'm even more fine than you are."
Han Minah let out a small laugh and, with a look that said she couldn't win this one, held out a file folder.
"Besides this? What else is left?"
"That, and this. And I'm not just saying this to make you feel better — once those two are done, I'm actually finished."
"Really?"
"Yes. Really."
"You always say that. Tomorrow a whole new pile isn't going to come flooding in, is it?"
"That... well. That's not something I can stake my word on. I can't give you a definite answer."
Whether another wave of work came crashing in tomorrow or not, finishing what was in front of us now would help either way. I told her I understood, went back to my desk, and opened the folder. Eyeballing it, I figured it would take about thirty minutes, and sure enough, once that much time had passed, the work she'd handed off was done.
Han Minah's side, however, was another story. She was still wrestling with a stack of documents, and she looked genuinely swamped. The problem was that the work she was currently buried in — from what I'd glimpsed earlier — was the kind I couldn't help with even if I wanted to. It was a matter of rank; there was nothing I could do about it. I gave up on assisting her any further and stood up from my desk.
I walked straight out of the office. Whether she was that absorbed in her work or not, Han Minah didn't seem to notice I was leaving.
Anyway.
It was late enough that I rode the elevator down without any trouble and stepped into the convenience store right in front of the building. If I was grabbing something easy to eat, a sandwich was the obvious choice. I bought one thing to eat and one thing to drink, and by the time I got back, Han Minah was still at it — eyes flicking between her documents and her monitor, typing something in.
"Team Leader."
"Yes?"
"Eat this while you work."
"Hmm? What... ah. Thank you."
She must have been hungry. Han Minah took the sandwich and the iced tea from my hands without a hint of protest.
"What about you? You didn't buy anything for yourself?"
"I'm fine. I'm not really hungry."
"Uh... it's a little embarrassing to eat all by myself, though."
She really was embarrassed. Her face had gone faintly pink. If Lim Jiwoo was a noona just one year older than me, Han Minah was a nunim — a full six years my senior. A woman with that kind of age gap, flushing over something this small? It was almost unfairly cute.
"It's fine. Come on, eat comfortably."
"Can you not watch?"
"Why not?"
"I told you, it's embarrassing."
And on top of that, there was something almost like a little sulk in her voice. It was a completely different flavor of fussing from the bratty act Lim Jiwoo had put on a few days ago, and this time I couldn't help a small laugh.
"...Why are you laughing?"
"Because you're cute, Team Leader."
"What kind of thing is that to say."
"Just eat."
However she chose to take that laugh, Han Minah chuckled herself and started nibbling at the sandwich.
"Team Leader, how much do you have left?"
"There's really not much now. I think I can wrap it up in about ten minutes."
"Really not much left, huh?"
"Yeah. I told you."
She must have been starving. She'd taken such a huge bite that her cheek puffed out a little, and talking through a mouthful like that was so unlike the usual Han Minah that I found it genuinely adorable.
So I let out a puff of laughter.
"......"
"No, no. No, I really didn't mean it like that. Seriously. I laughed because you're cute, Team Leader, that's all. I really didn't mean it that way."
Even as I said it, Han Minah knitted her brow and shot me a look, as if she were a little hurt. Of course she wasn't being serious. She was frowning and glaring, yes, but the playfulness in her expression gave her away completely. Sure enough, after one firm glare, she grinned and took another bite of the sandwich.
She chewed, slow and hearty.
I finally understood what people meant when they said someone ate adorably. Watching Han Minah eat was filling enough that my own stomach started to feel full. She polished off the sandwich in no time, then drained close to half of the half-liter bottle of iced tea in a few long swallows.
"...Haaaah. I feel alive."
She stared right at me, her eyes bright with returning life. Then she flicked a glance toward the hallway, stared at my face again, flicked another glance at the hallway, and stared at my face once more.
"What's wrong?"
"...Woojin. You know that thing?"
"What thing?"
"You know how they say people have three basic desires. Sleep, hunger, and sex. Do you know which of the three is the strongest?"
"Isn't it in the order you just listed? I don't actually know — it just seems that way."
"That's what I thought too."
What's she talking about all of a sudden?
Han Minah had launched into a conversation about the three fundamental human appetites out of nowhere, her fingers clattering across the keyboard the whole time.
"I was actually really tired."
"You looked it."
"Right? And I was hungry on top of that. But after eating the sandwich you bought me, the hunger is taken care of. And eating something made me feel a little like I've woken up."
She wasn't wrong. Now that the hunger had been settled, Han Minah's eyes were far clearer than before, and there was real strength in the fingers hitting the keys.
"But what did I just say? Sleep, hunger, and sex — in that order. So if sleep and hunger have been taken care of... what do you think I'm feeling right now?"
It was a question so obvious it didn't need an answer. Han Minah kept her eyes on the monitor, not on me.
"...Then, Team Leader, want to take a quick exam before you go today?"
"But then... mm... haah, I don't know. I don't think today will work."
"Why not?"
"Because I have a husband. I don't know — it's times like these when a husband is completely useless."
The hollow little laugh that came with it was thick with helplessness. But from where I was standing, it wasn't as if there was no way around it.
"That's what you're thinking, right? Hard to stay out overnight because your husband's there. Hard to go to a motel."
"Right. It's not that he gives me a hard time about staying out per se. But you still have to read the room with that kind of thing. Staying out all night when your husband's sitting right there at home is a little much, you know?"
She glanced at me with a rather regretful smile, then turned her head back to the monitor.
"You could just do it here before you go."
"...Huh?"
"Here. Overtime... you already told him you'd be working late, didn't you? You would have said you were staying for overtime. Your husband already knows you've been busy lately. You don't have much work left, and the amount of time we can still reasonably be in the building is... about an hour and a half."
The moment I laid out the clean, obvious solution, Han Minah's hands faltered on the keyboard.
"Isn't an hour and a half enough? I think it would be. Over there... if we use the pantry in the back, no one else would even see us."
"......"
Whether her desire had really risen the way she'd claimed... the look in Han Minah's eyes as she turned her head toward the pantry was quite sharp.
"...Wait for me, Woojin."
And then she went all in. Once Han Minah made up her mind about something, she didn't back out. She pinned me to the spot, then hammered the keyboard and started finishing off what remained of her work. In the meantime, I quietly stood up from my chair.
"I'll go ahead and wait."
"......"
At the words that I'd be waiting in the pantry, Han Minah nodded without even looking at me.
I stepped into the pantry first and pulled up Han Minah's page immediately. The important part, as always, was the Remarks.
These were Remarks I'd originally planned to write in when Han Minah and I went to a motel or back to one of our places to have sex. In the current situation, the third one didn't seem like it would mean much, so I decided to tweak just that.
I could always put the original Remark back later. I slipped the phone into my pocket and gave the cramped pantry a once-over — a space that might have been thirty square feet on a generous day. There was nothing remarkable about it. It was the kind of pantry you'd find in just about any office, plain and predictable. It did have one window, though. Through it, you could see the office itself... and beyond that, whether anyone was coming down the hallway. That should be more than enough to prepare for any unexpected situation.
"Why isn't she coming?"
The most important person — Han Minah — was nowhere to be seen. I scanned the office through the pantry window and still couldn't find her. I was just starting to wonder if I should call when I saw Han Minah coming in from outside the office. Figured she'd gone to the bathroom, and waited. A moment later, she opened the pantry door and stepped inside.
"Where did you go?"
"I just went to gargle a little."
"Gargle?"
"Well... yeah."
"Why the sudden gargle?"
"Well, that's..."
Han Minah drew the end of the word out loooong and crept closer, step by careful step, until she was right in front of me. No — that still wasn't enough. She set her hand on my chest entirely, then pressed her breasts firmly into my upper stomach.
"......"
A sweet little smile. The smile itself was the one I knew perfectly well — the same Han Minah smile I saw every day. But a thick eroticism clung to it now... no. A decadent allure, rich and heavy.
She pinned me in place with nothing but her presence. The hand she'd rested on my chest slid upward with a soft rustle of fabric and wrapped around my neck. And when Han Minah carefully pulled me toward her...
"Mmmph... chu, sluuurp... chu, chuup... chu, mmwah, chu—!"
One hand gently stroked my cheek. With the other — the one that had been around my neck — Han Minah traced back down my body.
My neck. My chest. My stomach. And then...
...tap.
All the way down to my cock.
She stroked the thing that had already gone hard, poking insistently against her belly, and Han Minah smiled with a decadent allure so concentrated you could have tasted it.
"Chu, heheh. I like it, Woojin."