The New Hire
“Ah...”
I scratched my head as if I'd only just figured it out.
That was right. This was a female-dominated company. Miss work once and you had to buy everyone drinks. A place where even the smallest mistake never got a free pass.
Especially for me — being a man, I got treated even more harshly. Even though being a man didn't mean my salary was any higher.
Honestly, I'd only been at this company for a year. Still a regular employee, bottom of the ladder. So of course I had to keep the team leader and the assistant managers happy.
I stood up from my seat with the air of a man who'd made up his mind, and called out boldly.
“I was late today, so as an apology I'd like to buy everyone drinks. Would that be all right?”
Cheers erupted from all around.
“Ohhh~ Yu Hyunwoo, you're the best!”
“Wow~”
They'd been quietly tapping away at their keyboards in the dull silence, so a cold drink must have sounded pretty appealing.
“What does everyone want? Iced americano? Or an iced americano with an extra shot?”
When I asked, Assistant Manager Seo Jiyeon cut in.
“Everyone's going to want something different, so how about we pass around a note?”
“A note? Ah... a note.”
Around here, “passing a note” meant circulating a small scrap of paper for everyone to write down what they wanted to drink.
Our marketing team had eight people total. Besides me and the other male employee, Kim Junhyun, the remaining six were women. All of them unmarried, ranging from their late twenties to mid-thirties.
If the department had been all guys, we would've just ordered iced americanos across the board and been done with it. But with this many women, even ordering drinks was a complicated affair.
The little note made its rounds, and the women each wrote down what they wanted. Once it completed the circuit, it landed back in my hands.
“One strawberry banana juice, one mochaccino, one milk frappuccino, one Einspänner, one green tea latte, one caramel frappuccino, and one iced americano. At least there's one iced americano in there.”
I was honestly surprised that anyone besides me had ordered an iced americano. Then someone raised their hand from across the room — it was Junhyun, the other guy.
“Ah, right. Haha.”
As expected, every single woman had ordered something different. They never failed to live up to expectations. I already had a mountain of work this morning — how was I supposed to haul all these drinks back? Even setting aside the fifteen-minute walk to the cafe and back, I'd probably be waiting another twenty minutes just for all these specialty drinks to come out.
“All right, I'll be right back.”
I was just about to stand when Team Leader Kim beat me to it.
“Before you go, let me introduce our new hire.”
New hire?
I blinked in confusion. We'd hired new people around this time last year and hadn't brought anyone on since. They hired someone new and I didn't even know?
Team Leader Kim continued.
“She's not a full-time employee yet — she's on a contract. She'll be working with our marketing team for six months. Her name is Ju Yewon.”
For a moment, my eyes nearly popped out of my head.
Ju Yewon?
The Ju Yewon from the subway this morning? The one whose breasts and pussy I'd groped while time was stopped?
Yewon was a common enough name, but the surname Ju wasn't. If it was the same woman, this was... destiny?
Clutching my racing heart, I looked where Team Leader Kim was pointing — and there she was, Ju Yewon, sitting in the corner seat. Same as this morning on the subway: long brown hair, blouse and suit skirt. It was definitely her.
Yewon rose shyly from her seat.
“All right! A round of applause to welcome her!”
Team Leader Kim started clapping, and the rest of the staff followed. I clapped too, but the whole situation was so absurd I could barely believe it.
It felt like I'd been having some bizarre wet dream since morning. The subway suddenly stopping, the time-stopping app materializing out of nowhere. And above all, the fact that I'd fondled Ju Yewon's breasts, sucked on her nipples, and groped her panties — it all felt like a dream. No, even the fact that the woman I'd just molested had walked into our company as a new hire felt like a dream.
Maybe if I slapped myself, I'd wake up?
I smacked my own cheeks twice in succession. Seo Jiyeon looked up at me like I was some kind of lunatic.
Embarrassed, I grabbed my wallet and made to leave again.
“I'll be back shortly.”
But right then, Ju Yewon stood up and started walking toward me. My eyes went wide on their own.
“I'll come with you.”
“Ah, th-that's all right.”
“Carrying all those drinks by yourself would be pretty hard. I'll help.”
Ah... Yewon. So she was this kind of warm-hearted person? Completely different from the foxes sitting around here. And I'd gone and groped her without knowing any of that. I'm sorry.
Guilt and gratitude tangled together in a complicated mess in my chest, when Team Leader Kim called out loudly.
“Good. Go together. Just the two of you.”
Snickers and laughter rose from around the room.
“They look good together.”
“A perfect couple.”
“Though Yewon's a bit too good for him.”
“You think so?”
Ignoring the snide remarks from the female staff, I left the office with Yewon.
The cafe wasn't far from the company. Just across the street and a hundred meters down. Technically there was a cafe on the first floor of our building, but the women would have hated that. They only liked expensive specialty drinks. Tch. Foxes.
Even though it was morning, the day was already muggy and hot. Yewon walked beside me, one hand raised to shade her forehead. Every time she took a step, the scent of her shampoo tickled my nose — the exact same shampoo scent I'd breathed deep into my lungs when I'd held her earlier.
An awkward silence hung between us as I struggled for something to say, until Yewon spoke first.
“I saw you earlier.”
I jumped at her words.
“Pardon? Saw what?”
A guilty conscience needs no accuser. It wasn't even anything to be startled about.
“On the subway this morning. We were in the same car, weren't we?”
“Ah...”
Is that all? Whew. Scared me.
“You saw me, right? I think our eyes met for a second.”
“Ah... yes.”
When I reluctantly agreed, Yewon smiled shyly.
“Hehe. So why did you pretend not to know me?”
Why did I pretend? Because I'd just groped a complete stranger — was I supposed to act like we were old friends? I'm not that thick-skinned.
“Ah... I wasn't pretending. I just didn't know you'd joined our company.”
“Ah, I see.”
Before we knew it, we'd arrived at the cafe.
Fortunately there weren't many customers, so we got our order in quickly. Of course, with all those different drinks, waiting for everything to come out would still take a while.
While we waited, things got awkward again.
This time I spoke first.
“Where do you live?”
“Sillim.”
“Huh? Same as me. Do you take the subway from Sillim Station?”
“Yes. You board there too?”
“Yeah.”
“Then this morning we must have gotten on at the same place and gotten off at the same place too.”
“Right? Weird.”
“It really is.”
We looked at each other with matching expressions of wonder.
Same station boarding, same station getting off? Sillim Station to Yeoksam Station took about twenty-five minutes. The perfect amount of time for sex.
With that much time, you could start with foreplay and finish the cleanup perfectly.
Thinking about it, I regretted not inserting myself into Ju Yewon's pussy on the subway earlier. If I'd just shoved it in right away, I could've gotten off even in that short window.
But there was still plenty of time. Plenty of opportunities.
Ju Yewon would take the subway to and from work every morning. If I timed it right, having sex with her was only a matter of time.
I was lost in these filthy thoughts about Ju Yewon when she asked,
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Ugh, did she catch me? Did she sense something lecherous in my eyes? Is she weirded out? She's not going to go badmouth me to the other women over this, is she?
“Ah, no. Was I staring strangely?”
“No. You just seemed to be looking at me... fondly, somehow.”
“Ah. I'm just happy our company got such a talented new hire.”
Lie. All I'd been thinking about was having sex with Ju Yewon.
I lied without so much as wetting my lips.
Yewon thought for a moment, then spoke.
“By the way, didn't something feel a little off on the subway earlier?”
“Off? How so?”
“Just... something a little...”
“You mean when we stopped briefly? When the lights flickered?”
“Yes. That, and also...”
Yewon opened and closed her mouth as if she wanted to say something but couldn't quite get it out. It seemed like there was something she wanted to confide but couldn't easily put into words.
But I knew. I knew exactly what she wanted to say.
After the time stop ended, she'd looked at the subway window and been startled — by her own disheveled appearance. Her bra had been back in place, her blouse buttons properly fastened, but something had been different from before. Her chest was probably damp, her panties wet. It must have felt incredibly sticky and uncomfortable.
“Are you heading straight home after work today?”
I asked.
“Yes, I think so. Why?”
“Ah, since we're going the same way, I figured if nothing comes up we could go together.”
“Together? On the subway?”
“Yeah. Would that be uncomfortable?”
“Ah, no. It's not that.”
Yewon waved her hands as if to say absolutely not. She was probably thinking she couldn't afford to make a bad impression on her direct senior on the very first day. That was probably why she'd volunteered to come along for the drinks in the first place.
“Sounds good. Let's go together after work.”
Yewon answered with a polite smile.
I cheered silently to myself.