The Break Room, That Scene Again

A pork-belly place in the alley behind the office. On the cast-iron grill the meat hissed and browned, and the smell was good, but the mood was off. Both of them were staring at the meat and nothing else. The tongs flipping it made more conversation than either of them did.

"Sunbae, won't you have a drink?"

"I'm good. I drove. Calling a proxy driver's a pain, and I've got work in the morning. What would I even do with alcohol."

She waved him off and poured canned cola into a glass in a rush. I cracked open a lemon-lime soda.

"Same here. I've still got to run the numbers on the ampoule materials one more time later."

So our table held three servings of pork belly, a cola, and a soda. Not a drop of liquor. Stone sober. There had never been a hole in the evening we could later blame on being drunk. Looking back now, I think she'd calculated even that.

"Anyway, that Manager Park. I honestly don't know how long he plans to keep this up."

She dunked a piece of meat deep into the ssamjang and spoke first.

"You stay up all night building the sheet, he slaps his spoon on it and starts going on about the big picture, and I swear I want to knock his jaw off. Doesn't it make you furious, the way he swaggers around flashing that fake watch? Don't just sit there this time. I'll lay down heavy covering fire from beside you."

"Just knowing that is plenty. But that Temu Human can talk all he wants on his own. The second a real operational question comes up, the whole cheap interior shows."

"Temu Human? Pfft! Hey, that nickname fits perfectly. Flashy on the outside, bargain-bin all the way through."

She burst out laughing and clapped. Cursing Manager Park was what finally loosened the air. Nothing bonds two office workers faster than tearing into a boss. Then she picked up a lettuce leaf and asked, out of nowhere.

"Hey, you… are you seeing anyone these days?"

"Sorry? Out of the blue?"

"Just wondering. What you even do on weekends. You're not in your room every day just hammering Excel functions, right?"

"Where would I find the time to date? A contract worker's already got his own nose to wipe. What about you, sunbae?"

"Me? I'm, well…"

She let the end of the sentence fray and dropped her eyes to the corner of the grill. I remembered the way her face had gone red in the elevator on the way home, the moment someone called her Da-hee. Our eyes met, and the air turned sticky all at once. The number above her head was climbing off 73 by degrees. 76. 79. Faster than the meat was cooking.

"…Ah, the meat's burning! Eat, quick."

"Huh? Oh—oh! It is, it is. What a waste."

Both of us startled and shoved a wrap into our mouths. Cheeks ready to burst, neither of us able to meet the other's eyes, just mumbling around the food. Not a thing a twenty-six-year-old and a twenty-nine-year-old ought to be doing.

When we came out of the place it was past ten. The summer night wind cooled our flushed cheeks. We walked together toward the company lot, and she stopped in front of a convenience store along the street.

"Hang on. I'll grab one more cola. The meat made me thirsty."

She went in and stayed longer than I expected. When she came out there was a single can of cola in her hand, and the back pocket of her slacks was faintly bulging. I didn't know what it was then. At the entrance to the company lot she dug through her bag and stopped again.

"Oh, right. I left my laptop and the external drive in the office."

"You could just grab them in the morning."

"No. Tomorrow morning's report materials are all on there. I'll run up and be right back, so you go on ahead."

"I'm not sending you up alone at this hour. I'll come with you."

And so we went back into the building with the lights out. The twelfth floor was dead quiet, not so much as a mouse. We collected the laptop, and then, on the excuse of getting some water, stepped into the break room. She shut the door behind us. There was a click of the lock, and even then I didn't know what the sound meant.

That moment, when the orange streetlight came in long through the gap in the blinds.

What followed was exactly as I said at the start. The tie was pulled. She rose onto her toes. A 91 floated over her head. Honestly, in that moment, numbers barely registered at all.

The first kiss ebbed, and our lips parted. She was breathing hard, both fists clenched tight in the chest of my shirt. Her bob was a mess, stuck to her forehead, and her eyes were wet.

My heart felt ready to burst too. She opened her trembling lips.

Not a single word of it went the long way around. Exactly like her.

"From when you came in all lost and stayed up all night learning Excel, all the way through you getting ground down by Manager Park and still hanging on… I noticed all of it. Read the room and take it clean. I'm not joking right now."

Something dropped hard inside my chest. Two years of her acting breezy, acting indifferent, right there beside me—it snapped together all at once, like a puzzle. Eleven triangle kimbap. The are you an idiot. The canned coffee she set down without a word every time we worked late. But this was the company. That part had to be said out loud.

"Sunbae, are you really sure? This is the break room. At work."

She let out a short breath of a laugh, gave my chest a light push, and jerked her chin at the handle behind her.

"That's why I locked the door the second we came in. I'm the one who said let's do this. Don't tell me you chickened out."

Her eyes were a dare, but the hand fisted in my shirttail was shaking hard. All the bravado, and she was carrying it alone.

"I did not chicken out."

The moment I answered, she pulled something from the back pocket of her slacks and pressed it flat to my chest. A single foil packet caught the light leaking through the blinds.

"…Sunbae. This."

"Bought it when I got the cola earlier. What, my prep game is actually insane, right?"

"From before we even ate the pork belly?"

"Shut up. I told you to read the room."

Chagall. She really came locked and loaded tonight.

I bit down on the laugh that wanted out. This time I moved first. I cupped the back of her neck and kissed her deep, and she rose onto her toes and swayed. The instant our tongues met, her mouth tasted of cola. Every time I drew on those sweet lips, her hand wound my tie another turn. The tie cinched at my throat, and I didn't even notice I was running out of air.

I caught her around the waist, lifted her, and set her on the marble island. The top must have been cold; she yelped a tiny hk and hunched her shoulders. Then she immediately wrapped her legs around my waist and pulled. Cold was cold. She had no intention of letting go.

She went for my shirt buttons first, like she meant to tear them off. She got about three from the top undone, her fingers slipped, and she made an irritated sound and yanked the rest open all at once. One button hit the floor and rolled.

"Ah. How am I supposed to wear this to work tomorrow."

"Just come in with your jacket on. I'll sew the button back."

Then it was my turn. I undid the remaining buttons of her shirt, one by one. On purpose, slowly. Every button that opened made her chest rise and fall harder. When the white shirt, faintly damp with sweat, slid off her shoulders, a pale beige bra came into view, a ribbon no bigger than a fingernail at the center. The woman who wore nothing at the office but colorless shirts and slacks.

"…A ribbon?"

"Don't look. No—you can look, just don't say anything."

But what caught my eye wasn't the ribbon. It was what was under it. On a small body of a hundred and sixty-three centimeters, the flesh was full enough to spill over the cups, nothing like the frame it sat on. For two years, loose shirts had been hiding all of it. I looked down without a word for a long moment, and she covered her chest with her arms.

"…What. What. Say they're big and you're dead."

"I didn't say anything."

"Your eyes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did! Your eyes!"

I took her arms off one at a time and set her hands on the island top. Then I reached behind her and undid the hook. The heavy weight of her breasts spilled free with a soft sway. When I gathered them in my palms they were far heavier than I'd thought, and hot. Soft flesh overflowed between my fingers. I rubbed a nipple with my thumb and it stood hard almost at once, and she grabbed my shoulder and swallowed a breath.

"Ha… why are your hands this good at it."

"Because they were trained on Excel shortcuts."

"You lunatic… nnh."

I bent and took one nipple into my mouth. I rolled it slowly with my tongue, then sucked, just a little, and her waist jerked on the marble. The other I caught between my fingers and twisted, gentle. Every time I switched sides, mouth and tongue and a light pull, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sound leaving her climbed a note.

"Good?"

Instead of answering, she pulled my head in harder against her chest. That stamped the approval.

I undid her slacks and drew the zipper down, and she lifted her hips for me herself. Slacks and underwear came down together to her ankles. When she saw the beige pair, a set with the bra, dragged along with the slacks, she covered her face with her hands. I drew my fingertips up the inside of her thigh, her legs parted on their own, and where my fingers arrived she was already soaked.

"…Sunbae. You've been like this since we were eating pork belly?"

"I told you not to say it……!"

I went to my knees right there. She looked down between her fingers and startled hard.

"Hey—hey, what are you—haah!"

I kissed the inside of her thigh and worked slowly upward until my tongue met the wet seam. Her knees clamped tight around my ears. I licked a long stroke from bottom to top, then stopped at the small bud above and circled it. Her hand fisted in my hair. Whether she was pushing me off or pulling me in, she probably didn't know either.

"Ah, there… keep going there……. This is insane, at the office, nnh……!"

I did as I was told. I kept my tongue working the bud and slid one finger in, and the hot flesh inside clenched down and held. When I made it two, she grabbed the edge of the marble. Every time I pressed up along the inner wall there was a wet, sticky sound. Until today, the loudest thing I'd ever heard in this break room was the coffee machine. That changed tonight.

"Woo-jin, wait, I'm already—nnh, ah…!"

Her thighs locked around my head, then slowly let go.

Once.

When I stood, she dropped her forehead against my shoulder and dragged in breath after breath. Then she yanked my belt.

"…You just got me off and only me. That's cheating. Take it off. Now."

The buckle came undone, the pants went down, and her gaze dropped and stuck—and then it simply froze.

"……Hey. This is not a contract-worker size."

"Please factor it into my full-time conversion review."

"Shut up. Seriously."

She swallowed, audibly, then reached out and wrapped her hand around me. Her fingers didn't meet. She stroked up and down once, twice, clumsy enough that it was somehow worse.

"…It's hot. And why is it this hard."

"Because for two years you've been walking around beside me with two shirt buttons undone."

"That was because I was hot, okay?!"

She tore the wrapper open with her teeth and rolled it on herself. Her hands shook, and it slipped twice. Then she looped her arms around my neck and spoke right against my ear.

"Put it in. Slowly."

I set the tip against her and pushed in, slow. It was tight. Soaked as she was, the inside was narrow, and every inch that went in drove another fingernail into my back.

"Hhk… big, too big… but don't stop……."

When I was all the way in, both of us stopped breathing. She clenched around me, then eased, then clenched again, and if I moved now I didn't think I'd last thirty seconds.

Hold it, Choi Woo-jin. Finish in thirty seconds here and this woman will mock you for the rest of your life.

I gritted my teeth and held, and she was the one who started to squirm her hips.

"What are you doing… move. I said the approval's already stamped."

Slow, at first. Every time I drew back, she followed and tightened like she hated the loss, and when I pushed in again her hips slid on the marble. So I took her ass in both hands, held her up, and drove in deep.

Wet. Wet.

"Haaang…! Ah, there, there, that's good……."

"Here?"

"Yeah, there, hhk, keep going……!"

I picked up speed and the sound changed. Wet flesh meeting flesh bounced off the break-room walls. The moans she'd been biting down at the start came loose a little more with every thrust. By the end she didn't look like she meant to hold anything back.

Smack. Smack. Smack.

"Hnn, ah, aah…! Woo-jin, I—I feel strange……!"

She clenched around me like a spasm.

Twice.

I still hadn't.

I lifted her down off the island and turned her around. She looked back, not understanding, and only caught on when my hands caught her waist and drew her hips back toward me.

"Hey, from behind? At the office? You really……."

She said it like that, and then braced both arms on the counter herself and lowered her waist. The slacks caught at her ankles kept her from spreading her legs wide, which only made the round of her ass ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stand out more. Orange light through the blinds slid long along the curve of her waist. Two years of looking at nothing but the back of those slacks, and this was what had been inside them.

I pushed in again, and the angle was different, so I went much deeper than before. She set her forehead on the counter and swallowed a breath, a muffled hnnn.

"Deep, this is—deep……. It's different from before……!"

Every time I gripped her ass in both hands and drove in, the flesh swayed. Under my palms the white skin flushed red. She turned her head and looked at me over her shoulder. Wet eyes, a mussed bob, lips parted.

"…Don't look. Not like that. It's embarrassing."

"You're the one who looked back, sunbae."

"I did it because I wanted to see your face, you idiot……!"

So I turned her again and sat her back up on the island. She'd said she wanted to see my face.

The mouth that used to cut Manager Park off in every meeting with a single that's not right couldn't say anything now but my name. Her eyes had gone soft, and the tip of her tongue showed between her parted lips. In Brand Team 2, I was the only one who knew this face.

"Da-hee."

"…Yeah?"

"I liked you too. From back when you stayed up all night teaching me Excel."

Her eyes went wide, and then she smiled like she might cry.

"…You're late, you idiot. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Nnh… then do more. Two years' worth."

Two years was a lot. Fine. Gladly.

I set her legs up on my shoulders and drove in deeper. Every time I reached the end, her waist bowed like a drawn bow.

"Oh—ohhk……! Deep, there, you're hitting there……!"

"Woo-jin, I'm—again, I'm going again……!"

"Sunbae, I'm about to, too……."

"Together… come with me, Woo-jin……♥"

I buried myself deep one last time, and she bit my shoulder and shook all over.

Three times.

I let go with her. While I spilled in pulse after pulse, she never once unlocked her legs.

For a long while both of us only breathed. Foreheads together, and then a laugh leaked out of us with no one deciding to go first. She pushed her sweat-damp bangs back and tapped my chest with the back of her hand.

"You… you're way stronger than I thought. That is not contract-worker stamina."

"That's because you're pretty, sunbae. And you were pretty aggressive yourself."

"Hey, don't get slick on me… you're embarrassing me."

She was flushed and giggling, just starting to put her clothes back together, when it happened.

Tock—

The sensor light in the break-room ceiling went out. Pitch dark.

"Huh? What?!"

"I think the sensor timed out."

"Hey, turn the light on! Wave your arms, your arms!"

Half-undressed in the dark, the two of us flailed our arms in the air like windmills. The sensor refused to notice for a good while. We'd waved something like five times before the light popped back on. The second we saw the wreck we'd made of each other under it, we both burst out laughing at once. In two years of making coffee in this break room, I had never hated that sensor light this much.

She hurriedly pulled her bra straps up and did her shirt buttons, whispering.

"…Hey. There isn't a CCTV in the break room, right?"

"If there is, we both resign tomorrow."

"I must be out of my mind, seriously!"

She smacked my back. In that instant a huge gold window, nothing I'd ever seen before, unfurled in front of my eyes with a rustle.

At the same time, in the empty air just in front of my fingertips, something like a black gap the size of a fist flickered once and vanished. She went on fastening her shirt buttons with the face of someone who hadn't seen a thing. This was visible only to me.

…A subspace? And a final reward?

In a game, this was the window that popped when the tutorial ended and the real story began. But this wasn't a game. It was the company break room, and standing beside me was my mentor, with one button done up wrong. I was still wondering whether I ought to tell her the buttons were each off by one when she took the door handle.

"…Don't act like you know me at work tomorrow."

"What?"

"If you act like you know, I seriously won't be able to keep my face under control."

She said it, opened the door, and left. The buttons stayed off by one, all the way to the end.