Chapter 169
Chapter 169
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 169. Words to Say at the End
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Is this what they mean by nowhere to look?
To be honest.
Right now, I couldn't even tell if I was eating with my nose or my mouth.
I slowly turned my head, and Jang Chaeyeon watched me burst out laughing.
"You look shocked."
"...You knew and did it anyway?"
She wasn't flaunting it as blatantly as before, but her dress shirt was still unbuttoned as she gazed at me.
"Of course I knew."
"..."
"You think I'd do this to anyone else?"
Jang Chaeyeon tilted her head quizzically as she looked at me.
"...Well."
The Jang Chaeyeon I knew?
"...No."
"Right."
Jang Chaeyeon nodded and patted the seat next to her with her hand.
Was that an invitation to sit?
I sat beside Jang Chaeyeon, and she turned her head slightly to look at me.
From the side, it was even harder to know where to look.
"I had a lot of questions."
"Yes."
Jang Chaeyeon murmured, and I answered her while still averting my eyes.
But I couldn't help it.
I was confident that the moment I turned to face her for conversation, my gaze would drift somewhere other than her face.
"Leg."
"Yes?"
Jang Chaeyeon looked down at my leg.
Her face was full of concern.
"It hurts, doesn't it."
"Yeah."
Jang Chaeyeon naturally placed her hand on my thigh.
"Want me to rub it?"
She looked at me with a face brimming with pure worry.
"Ch-Chaeyeon."
"Yeah."
Jang Chaeyeon tilted her head.
As if she didn't know.
If you picked the fittest person in HR, it'd be Yoo Daon.
I'd heard she worked out separately, too.
Or maybe her Regeneration applied to stamina—I didn't know. Either way, she was the most physically capable among us.
After her came Song Arin.
Average fitness. Fine when others were fine, hurting when it hurt.
And last.
"Eek."
I poked Jang Chaeyeon's shoulder, and she shuddered.
I had muscle pain—did she seriously think she was fine?
I could say for sure.
No way in hell.
"Aren't you the one who's sore all over, Chaeyeon?"
"..."
Jang Chaeyeon clutched her shoulder and shot me a glare.
"It hurts."
"Then why push yourself?"
Dragging a sore body to cook like this.
At my words, Jang Chaeyeon turned her head and muttered.
"Because I was worried about you."
"Same here."
I sighed and pulled some pain-relief patches from my pocket.
They were from the medical team—no joke, the best ones I'd ever used.
"Here, put these on the sore spots. They work great."
"...Thanks."
Jang Chaeyeon nodded with a slightly pouty expression as she took the patches.
A brief silence passed.
"That time."
"Yes."
"Wh-when the world ended."
Jang Chaeyeon murmured as she looked at me.
"...Yes."
"How did I do?"
"Uh, what do you mean?"
How did Jang Chaeyeon do?
"How well did I protect you?"
Her words left me speechless for a moment.
She met my eyes.
"It's not meant to burden you. I was just curious."
"...Hmm."
To be honest.
Recalling that time wasn't exactly pleasant.
It wasn't a good memory for me.
Even though it had been undone now, the image of Jang Chaeyeon shoving me aside and leaving was still burned in my mind.
What if it became real someday?
What if I failed this time?
"...You okay?"
"Ah, yeah. I'm fine."
Then Jang Chaeyeon, Song Arin, Yoo Daon—they'd all die.
Everyone around me would die. And me too.
What once felt distant now seemed like it could happen any moment after living through it.
What if the same thing happened again, and the branch chief couldn't stop it? What if I couldn't stop it either, and the incident repeated?
"..."
Lately, I'd been realizing it bone-deep.
Was this the weight the branch chief had been carrying?
The fear of the world ending anytime, the need to prepare—thoughts spinning in my head.
No, snap out of it.
I closed my eyes and opened them.
We were talking now. Not the time to get lost in thought.
Feeling her steady gaze on me, I had no choice but to answer honestly.
"You threw yourself in front of me first to protect me."
"...I see."
"Should I explain the details?"
"If you're okay with it."
"..."
I took a deep breath and began recounting what had happened with Jang Chaeyeon.
Not just the overall story from before, but how she acted, what she said to me.
"..."
Jang Chaeyeon listened quietly and nodded.
"I get it."
She smiled softly.
"Okay."
"...Is that enough?"
"Yeah, that's fine. Just one thing I wanted to check."
Then she tilted her head at me.
"Hey."
"Yes."
"So, no leg massage?"
"No thanks."
Jang Chaeyeon sighed regretfully and tapped my shoulder.
"By the way."
"Yes."
"Looks like it gave you a lot to think about again."
"..."
She grinned mischievously at me.
*
After sending the man out for a bit, Jang Chaeyeon undid her shirt buttons.
"...Ow."
She slapped on the patch he'd given her and let out a big breath.
Then she started buttoning up.
It'd be a lie to say she wasn't embarrassed.
Showing her skin to anyone but him was something she'd never even considered.
But still.
"..."
Jang Chaeyeon's hands slowed as she buttoned up.
For a moment, a thought crossed her mind.
What if she wasn't attractive enough?
No way.
Even that annoying Song Arin had said multiple times that her face was pretty, and Jang Chaeyeon remembered Yoo Daon eyeing her body with envy.
No. She might even know it herself.
There was a saying that circulated like gospel in the Management Bureau.
"Never date a coworker."
It wasn't about regulations.
Jang Chaeyeon remembered.
A newlywed couple who got the branch chief's blessing for a lavish wedding in the Bureau—the husband showing up four days later, caught in an anomaly, in a state worse than death.
The containment team's story of gritting their teeth and putting him down amid the wife's pleas for mercy.
And finally, the wife devoured by the same anomaly, attacking the containment team.
That wasn't all.
Stories of workplace romances where one died and the other became a wreck or fell in battle overflowed in the Bureau.
Overflowed? More like over half the people working there ended up that way eventually.
That's why Team Leader Heo Chan married a civilian outsider, and those with solid standing in the Bureau stayed single.
And the one she'd followed so loyally—
She buttoned up even slower.
Love was a great emotion.
It turned the impossible possible, upended your most precious things entirely.
And Jang Chaeyeon had already admitted it.
Her most precious thing had already been upended.
She didn't know if it was from the countless hours spent with him in the Cube, or from what he'd shown her since.
That was why she'd asked him that question earlier.
What should she say to avoid hurting him, for his sake?
An old memory resurfaced in her mind.
Words from her "sister," who was no longer around.
"Chaeyeon."
"Yes."
"Tell him this."
Even after so long, she remembered the kind-faced woman smiling at her.
"Don't tell him I love him. It'll burden him terribly."
"..."
"Instead, explain how much I hated him, how much resentment I held."
"..."
"So."
She still remembered that pained expression from the memory.
"Tell him to forget and live on."
"...Sister."
"Let's meet again if we survive."
And until she fell at the art gallery, Jang Chaeyeon had never heard a word about her "sister."
She finished buttoning up to her chest and looked toward the door.
When that day came, luckily someone else was with him, so she didn't have to pass on those words.
She probably died with a clear conscience.
No need for her to burden his heart.
But if someday it was just them, and she had to leave him behind.
"Come in."
The door swung open, and the man sighed in relief at her fully dressed state.
She smiled at him.
She knew what to say.
It was something she'd already said to him.
But she'd have to tease him like this more often.
His flustered look was just too cute to her.
*
The rest of the talk was nothing special.
With her properly dressed again, we chatted calmly with the composed Jang Chaeyeon before parting.
Just that her expression before we parted was too calm—nothing I could say about it.
And so, the next day arrived.
[Employee Manual]
1.
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5.
No entries visible.
"...I'm really sorry."
"Still not working?"
Yoo Daon stood beside me, peering into the manual with me.
"Looks that way."
"Hmm..."
Today was the day to have dinner with Yoo Daon.
Luckily, with the patches, my legs felt fine again.
She rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought.
"There's a way for times like this."
"Huh?"
Yoo Daon smiled, grabbed the manual, and shoved it into my chest.
"Here."
"Uh..."
Leaving me stunned, Yoo Daon beamed brightly.
"They say when someone's mad, giving them time dilutes the emotions!"
"...That's true."
All emotions fade with time.
"Maybe walk it off a bit, then apologize later?"
"...Could be a good idea."
Even Yoo Daon knew women's hearts better than me, huh.
I nodded at her insight and started walking.
"Oh yeah, Jaeheon."
"Yes."
Yoo Daon, walking beside me, looked at me.
"Dinner's fine."
"Yes."
"Want to go look at furniture together?"
Her bright smile caught the sunset glow after work.