Taking Her in Hand
I'll have to take her in hand.
"Did you see the back of Jihyun's neck?"
Post-lunch smoke break. We were clustered around the ashtray outside the restaurant, and just as we all took a drag off the cigarettes clamped between our lips, big-mouthed Park Dae-ri opened the floor.
"Huh? I haven't seen Jihyun around lately, though?" Choi Dae-ri, a non-smoker, shook his head with his arms crossed.
"A kiss mark. And a vivid one at that?" Park Dae-ri pointed to the side of his own neck, just below the ear. It was the exact spot I'd sucked on when I devoured her again in Jihyun's apartment after the flower basket incident.
"A kiss mark? Since when?"
At Choi Dae-ri's question, Park Dae-ri eagerly unwound the tale. "According to a buddy of mine in Customer Service, it showed up yesterday. Hearing that, I made a point of stopping by their office earlier today to see for myself... and wow~ a whole day later, the thing was still plain as day."
"Heh heh. Hey, Park Dae-ri. So you were out gallivanting instead of working earlier?" I, who knew exactly how that kiss mark had come to be, tossed the joke out with practiced ease.
In front of me—someone who'd only just made team leader at a young age—Park Dae-ri and Choi Dae-ri felt no need for reserve. The age gap between us was next to nothing, after all.
"Aw, come on, Team Leader, really... I did finish everything I had to do before I went, you know?"
"Heh heh, good. Just make sure the work's done. So why'd you go over there, then?"
"Aw, you know how it is. Anyone with eyes can see she's been coming to work with a kiss mark ever since that flower basket showed up... which means everyone's about to find out she had herself one scorching night, all thanks to that flower basket~"
"Hey, how can you be so sure it's even a kiss mark?"
"Oh, please! We're all players here! Then what do you think it is, a mosquito bite?"
"Wow... but you've got to admit it's impressive, though. Normally, if you got marked up like that, wouldn't you cover it before coming to the office, if only out of embarrassment? Maybe she's still too young to know shame?"
At Park Dae-ri's words, Choi Dae-ri nodded along in agreement.
"Man, I'm jealous."
"What's a guy with a girlfriend got to be jealous of?" I asked him.
"Honestly, if we're being real, any man has thought about doing something with Jihyun at least once. But to go at it that passionately... heh, can't say I'm not jealous."
"Right, well, your type runs more to the cute ones, doesn't it, Choi Dae-ri? Aah... I should've recorded that and played it for your girlfriend..."
"Aw, come on, why do you keep doing this?" Choi Dae-ri groaned, wearing the easy grin of a born salesman.
"...Still, for me, I'd take Oh Eunmi from General Affairs over Jihyun..." Park Dae-ri threw in his two cents.
"Ooh~ so Park Dae-ri likes them sexy?" Choi Dae-ri asked, laughing.
"Yes, I like them a bit on the... And Eunmi, lately there's something about her—like her allure's grown even stronger somehow... ooh... wonder if she has a boyfriend...?"
"Heh heh, go make a move sometime." I said it as I ground my cigarette out against the ashtray.
Sorry, gentlemen. I've already enjoyed them both.
No, scratch that—that kiss mark, that allure you're drooling over... I'm the reason for every last bit of it.
"Not that I'd make a move and ask her out or anything... I'd just love to do it with her once! That kind of thing."
"This batch of contract hires turned out great, didn't it?"
"Doesn't it? Last time they were all middle-aged ajummas... Our HR team really knows what they're doing."
I nodded along too.
Eunmi, Jihyun, and even our own team's Seonju—every one of them had a beauty that would hold its own anywhere you put it. If my conquest targets had been a pack of ajummas, what could possibly be more miserable than that? And it was thanks to these three luscious beauties—and all the trash they talked about me—that things had ended up unfolding the way they did...
"...But still, our team's Seonju is the best of the lot... right?" Choi Dae-ri said, sneaking a glance at me. At his words, sharp-witted Park Dae-ri was quick to chime in.
"See? I knew it. At first, out of the three new hires, Seonju was the best by far—I was ready to shout a big thank-you to HR!... but as the days went by, that Ice Princess... good grief... these days I literally tremble just asking her to organize a single document."
"Today too, when we were all about to grab lunch together, she said she'd already promised to eat with other people and bailed on us..."
"From what I've seen, she usually eats alone, or with Eunmi and Jihyun."
"She's our own teammate. Team dinners might be a stretch, but lunch, at least..."
At Park Dae-ri's words, Choi Dae-ri nodded and kept sneaking glances my way.
Seonju did have an attitude problem, no question. It wasn't that she was incompetent or lazy, but the way she treated her teammates and the rest of the company was cold. Not that anyone's obligated to bond on a personal level, but her manner itself carried an air of looking down on people.
Then again... that was exactly why she could spit out things like Is he gay, or just a hopeless virgin? at me—her own team leader—back when we visited Factory 1...
"That's on me. I'll call her in separately later and have a word."
Whatever else was true, grievances about a teammate within the team were the responsibility of me, the head of the department.
"We're not blaming you, Team Leader..."
"I know. But it's partly on me for leaving Seonju alone this whole time. I'll call her in later and talk to her. Just bear with it a little longer."
At my words, Park Dae-ri and Choi Dae-ri nodded.
Now then... what am I going to do with one Kim Seonju...
On the walk back to the office with the two men, we ran into the trio of women near the building—each of them holding a coffee.
"Oh? Hello there."
Spotting us, Jihyun looked my way, dipped her head, and greeted me warmly with a radiant smile. Eunmi followed her lead with a polite little bow—but once again, only Seonju's response was lukewarm. Choi Dae-ri and Park Dae-ri, for their part, grinned ear to ear and bowed deep to the three women.
The three women who had been the subject of our conversation mere minutes ago were, without a doubt, dazzling presences even within this commercial district. Their youth—envied by everyone—went without saying, and when three beauties who'd each turn heads on her own came strutting along together, every office worker returning from lunch stole a glance at them on the way past.
Thanks to the warming weather, they all looked bolder than usual, too.
Eunmi wore a light, fluttery white floral dress with white strappy heels. At a glance the dress seemed ordinary enough, but the fabric was so thin that under the midday sun her figure kept flashing through it, teasing the imagination. The hem was short as well, ending around mid-thigh, and with those strappy heels showing off her blue-painted toenails, simply looking at her carried a strange, sensual charge.
Sure enough, Park Dae-ri—the chatterbox whose type was apparently women like Eunmi—had completely lost his composure, raking his eyes up and down her body. He was staring so blatantly that I jabbed him in the ribs as a warning.
Jihyun, a year younger than the other two, for once wasn't in a dress today; she was dressed like a college student instead. It was the style trending these days—a skin-tight top paired with loose, baggy bottoms. Up top she wore a thin short-sleeved cardigan with the buttons done up. It suited her slender frame, and where the fabric gaped slightly over the gentle swell of her chest, those parted buttons teased at the curiosity. The long pants were baggy, with a faint sheen that suggested some performance fabric blended in. There was nothing sexy about them on their own, but the seat and hips clung close to her body, so that with every step she took, the line of her panties was traced out against the fabric.
Was 'stimulating the imagination' the day's dress theme or something?
Our team's Seonju had on the most office-appropriate outfit of the three: a white blouse, a gray suit skirt, and the platform slippers she always wore around the office. It was a plain ensemble by any measure, but on a figure as spectacular as hers, even all that plainness couldn't hide the volume of her body.
"Did you get lunch?" Park Dae-ri asked, flashing a sly grin.
"Yes, we did. Did you eat too, Team Leader?" Jihyun said to me, her smile soft and warm.
Isn't she making this way too obvious...?
"Yes, I did." I answered deliberately stiffly. At my clipped, businesslike reply, Jihyun's face dimmed a touch. She was far too easy to read.
Just as I moved to go, thinking I needed to get out of here fast, that oblivious bastard Park Dae-ri looked at Eunmi and asked, "And what did you three ladies have?"
"Cold noodles."
"Ah~ so you went to that place! It's always packed, isn't it?"
"Yes, super... And what did you have with the Team Leader?"
Eunmi, why are you like this too? Why go out of your way to ask me that...
"Kukuku... Isn't it obvious? A woman's jealousy—that's exactly what this is. Toy with two women who are close to each other, and this is what happens: they start seething over one another. Did you not know that?"
Genie... weren't you asleep? I thought you'd finally gone quiet... But no, you always pick the exact moment I'm in a tight spot to poke your head in and crow.
"Kukuku... If you hate me that much, then hurry up and make your third wish and be rid of me."
"We had soft tofu stew. Fighting heat with heat, you know how it is. Next time let's all go eat together like this."
"I see. So the Team Leader likes sundubu, huh? The kind of thing that's hot and soft...?" At Park Dae-ri's glib remark, Eunmi gave a perfunctory smile and a lazy nod—the look of someone who found him tiresome, someone who could see his little routine coming a mile away. And yet there was something almost thorny in her voice.
Hot and soft... was she talking about Jihyun...?
"Let's go. We've got the afternoon to get ready for." Ushering the two men along, I hurried into the building.