What Is the Pure-Love Faction to Do?
"Hello there, and good morning."
"Good morning."
"Morning."
"Good morning to you."
As I opened the office door and stepped in with my greeting, my own team and the folks from the department next door called back their hellos. I flashed them a smile and returned each with a light nod.
Seonju, who must have only just settled into her seat, was bent over switching into her slippers, and offered me nothing more than a slight bob of the head.
That cold bitch — not an ounce of aegyo in her….
Still, with her waist folded like that as she slid her feet into her slippers, I was treated to a fine view of her long, slender legs stretching away beneath the desk.
Today Seonju wore a loose white T-shirt with the front tucked into a pair of denim hot pants — the same pair, I was fairly certain, she'd had on when we visited the No. 1 factory together last time.
Those long, slim legs of hers running down from the hot pants were a magnificent sight.
It was official: my taste ran not to the small and petite type like Jihyun, but to the tall and willowy kind — the Eunmis and Seonjus of this world.
Jihyun, whose taste I'd sampled only yesterday, had been lovely too, but the more I turned it over, the more I felt Eunmi still had the edge.
— Hey, pretty sure appraising the merchandise isn't what's important right now?
The Genie had read my mind again, tittering as he needled me.
Fair enough. Can't argue with the Genie there….
After the sulking Jihyun had swept out of that motel room yesterday, I'd lain staring at the ceiling, turning the whole mess over in my head until my brain was such a scramble that I simply went home.
I fired the messages off to Jihyun, but all that happened was the little unread counter blinking out — her answer never came.
The adorable little cutie at the heart of this pure-love tale of ours, Nam Jihyun, seemed to have dug in her heels over the fact that our relationship had ended as nothing more than a sex arrangement.
She'd come over so easily from the very start that I'd assumed I could simply keep having her whenever I pleased and call it game over — but the hurdle turned out to be higher than I'd bargained for.
— Kukuku… how convenient it would be if every woman on earth were an Oh Eunmi.
Tell me about it… After feasting on Eunmi alone for this long, I suppose my notions of virtue rotted away somewhere along the line.
— And where, pray tell, has our upright scholar gone, that he's turned out such a debauched lecher?
…Would it kill you to quit that sniggering habit of yours?
— Kukuku. Shall I take that as your third wish?
Forget it. Not another word. Not one….
I needed a new strategy. Unlike with Eunmi, getting close to Jihyun would take something genuinely fresh — and for that strategy to land, I first had to get her talking to me.
I ran the company messenger and fired off a chat to Jihyun.
Only after a long pause did her replies come through — and Jihyun was holding the line with real stubbornness. What on earth was a man supposed to do at a time like this?
Proper romance was such a distant memory that I hadn't the faintest clue how to navigate the situation.
Gayoon-noona had turned out to be a shameless bitch in the end, but at least she'd been a woman of broad understanding….
"Phew…."
"Is something the matter, sir?"
The moment I dropped into my chair and heaved a deep sigh, Choi Dae-ri asked.
"No, nothing…. Work's just work, you know how it is…."
Choi Dae-ri smiled as if he understood completely, then went on.
"I just placed the order for the wreath for Director Kim's daughter's weekend wedding — the one over at XX Industries."
"Good. Keep the expense records tidy, and make sure it's all within policy."
"Yes, sir. Priced it reasonably per the rules, and the florist says they'll have it delivered right on schedule. Should I attend the wedding, or would you rather go yourself, Team Leader?"
"You free that day, Assistant Manager Choi?"
"Yes, sir. I'll turn it into a little date with my girlfriend and take care of two things at once."
"Then you go. I could use the rest…."
"Understood, sir."
Even after Choi Dae-ri returned to his work, I sat there staring blankly at my monitor, still turning over how I might placate Jihyun.
And then — a thought struck me out of nowhere!
I fired up a browser and hurried to the post office's flower delivery site.
There is no woman in this world who hates flowers.
Rushing the order through the post office's flower delivery page, I found the earliest available slot was two o'clock. I placed a hasty order for a 100,000-won flower basket, asked them to list the sender as anonymous, and had the whole thing delivered to Jihyun.
For the card message, I kept it to a single word.
And a little past two, Jihyun messaged me first.
For all her talk of being embarrassed, Jihyun was plainly in high spirits — she'd even photographed the flower basket I'd sent and sent the picture over.
Yes! Success!
So the old maxim held true after all: meet a frontal assault with a frontal assault. For a girl who wanted romance, the first move was to make her feel romanced.
"Whoa~ sounds like our Jihyun's got herself a boyfriend, huh?"
Park Dae-ri announced it to Choi Dae-ri as he came into the office.
At those words, even the bachelor boys from the other departments pricked up their ears — I could see every bit of it from where I sat. Nobody in an office can resist someone else's love life, least of all when the subject is Nam Jihyun, the hottest property on the male staff's radar.
Even Seonju, who'd been buried in her monitor, glanced over at Park Dae-ri, apparently curious what the fuss was about.
"What's this about?"
Choi Dae-ri asked. With a girlfriend of his own, he was affecting studied nonchalance, but this was also the man who'd praised Jihyun's cuteness more than once. I'd once stumbled on him and his girlfriend mid-date by pure chance — and recalling her face, I'd say his taste ran to the cute type.
"I went down to the Customer Service team earlier to meet a coworker, and get this — a flower basket thiiiis big had come for Jihyun."
"Really? Is today some special occasion?"
"Beats me. Everyone's asking who it's from, and she just keeps smiling. Even the delivery guy said the sender was anonymous."
"Must've been nice for her, huh."
I cut in on the back-and-forth between Choi Dae-ri and Park Dae-ri, adding my two cents.
"Yeah — she seemed puzzled by the basket at first, but the second she read the card, she broke into this big grin."
"Hold on, the basket was really that big?"
"Yep! Seriously — it was thiiiis big."
Park Dae-ri the incorrigible ham, milking it for all it was worth. With both arms flung out to their full span, he played it up so grandly that a laugh bubbled out of me before I knew it.
"Ah, young love — I'm jealous. Flowers straight to the office and everything…."
"Oh come on, why so glum? You're still young yourself, Team Leader…."
"Me, even on our anniversary I could never bring myself to send flowers to my girlfriend's office. Too mortifying…."
"And it's pandemonium downstairs right now — every woman in the building has swarmed Jihyun's desk for a look at that basket. Say, Seonju — what about you?"
Riding the conversation along, Park Dae-ri suddenly swung the arrow in Seonju's direction. She, who had been quietly following the whole exchange, replied with a calm, "Hm?"
"Would you want a boyfriend sending you flowers here at the office, Seonju?"
"…Not particularly."
Ice delivered, she turned back to her monitor.
Ice-cold bitch!
Even on an ordinary day, Seonju kept her exchanges with the other staff to an absolute minimum — as though trading words with the likes of us were somehow beneath her…
Her attitude being what it was, she'd likewise become the favorite subject of the male staff's lewd talk. Watching a proud, untouchable woman mewling between your legs — wasn't that every man's secret dream?
Thoroughly deflated by Seonju's frost, Park Dae-ri could only smack his lips in embarrassment.
"Baskets are baskets — back to work, people."
At my word, the team filed back to their tasks.
Heh heh heh… still, that should've smoothed Jihyun's mood a notch or two. Sending that basket was the right call. And so, quietly pleased with myself, I passed the rest of the day plotting exactly how I wanted to stew her tender once we clocked out.
I, for my part, had made a point of setting our meeting at a park near Jihyun's place.
It being summer, the long days were only now beginning to tilt behind the western hills, and the light was dimming little by little. Dodging the gazes of people out on their evening strolls, I took a bench in a quieter corner and waited for her.
Before long, Jihyun appeared in a plain white T-shirt and leggings, black flip-flops on her feet.
"What was with the flower basket?"
It came out almost scolding, the moment she laid eyes on me, but there was no real venom in it. Her anger seemed to have softened considerably.
"You made it. Here, have this."
Jihyun took the canned coffee I held out and sat down beside me. She kept a stiff little gap between us at first, but when I edged casually closer, she didn't scoot away.
"I didn't explain myself properly yesterday… and I think I hurt you. I'm sorry — that's why I sent them."
"Tch…"
Jihyun jutted her lips out at my words and brought the canned coffee up to her mouth.
"I guess I'm just clumsy at putting my feelings into words. It's been a long time since I was with anyone, so…"
"Tch… while you were seeing Eunmi-unnie…."
"There's nothing — nothing — going on between me and Eunmi. I just fumbled my words, that's all. With Eunmi it was… one slip, back at the General Affairs dinner last time. Come on, don't you see it? I call her 'Eunmi-ssi,' but you — you're just 'Jihyun.' That's what I mean to say."
Watching her face the whole while, I wrapped the tidy lie in every ounce of earnestness I could muster.
"Tch… liar…"
muttered Jihyun, lips pouting out.
"I mean it. This is the truth."
I pressed in closer and slipped one arm gently around her waist. She flinched — but she stayed put.
I drew her waist in toward me.
Slowly, I brought my lips toward hers. For a heartbeat she tipped her head back as if she might resist, but soon her eyes fluttered closed, and she was waiting for my mouth.
The kiss stretched on, sweet as any true lovers', and warm little sighs began to leak from between her lips.
That did it!
"Your place… you live alone, right?"
At my question, Jihyun gave a small nod.