The last workday before a sweet weekend—Friday.
Some people were wrapping up the week, leisurely waiting for quitting time and the weekend. Others were fighting a desperate battle to clear as much work as humanly possible before Saturday.
Yoojin's messenger window flashed red nonstop, as if begging her to look.
[Please confirm the samples.][The fabric POs are done, right? Did you get the lead time from the vendor?][Need lead-time confirmation][Has the color been approved?]
Her long lashes fluttered rapidly, throwing soft shadows across her cheeks.
Her inbox was probably stacking up just as fast—requests for help from overseas buyers piling in under her name.
If I don't finish this quickly, I won't be able to go look at apartments with Dongha tomorrow… and I won't make it to the salsa club with Seryun either. I've gotta focus. Hard.
Then, one intrusive thought snapped the tension in her shoulders like a twig.
He said he has a girlfriend, and he's still going apartment hunting with me? His girlfriend's going to hate that.
The emotions she'd been shoving down flared up—triggered by overwork and exhaustion—and began to writhe to the surface.
Why would you say you don't care about your girlfriend and that you care about me instead? Why confuse me like that?
Her lips pressed into a hard line… then suddenly, the image of middle-schooler Dongha at her father's funeral surfaced.
Did it shock him when I said I wasn't dancing ballet anymore? Is that why he's been so hung up on me all this time? No. Focus. You need to focus right now.
Yoojin tightened her gaze and looked down at the sticky notes plastered under her monitor.
Yellow, pink, mint-green squares were layered all over the bezel in a messy collage.
Time kept flowing, but the work never seemed to thin out.
She felt buried under tasks, breathless, the ends of her fingers locked stiff over the keyboard.
No matter how deeply she inhaled through her nose and mouth, it never felt like enough air.
What am I supposed to do…?
Her face heating up, Yoojin reached her limit and began to push back from her chair—when a crisp, cool scent wrapped around her.
Dongha.
Dressed down for casual Friday, he walked over and set a sample packing list and a bundle of fabric swatches on the edge of her desk.
They were the exact samples Sales had been pinging her about on messenger.Her chest loosened with a soft whoosh of relief.
"Thanks, Dongha. You're busy too, but you still took care of the sample incoming."
"Yeah. That's why I'm not doing it anymore starting next week."
He answered with a teasing smile.
While Yoojin blinked in confusion for a beat, he handed packing lists and swatches to Seonyoung and Assistant Manager Kang Jin-uk as well.
"Dongha?"
A woman's voice called him from the hallway. It was Assistant Manager Se-young Lee from HR.
Normally, he kept people at arm's length, but he walked over to her with an easy, open smile.
"Yes, ma'am. I was actually about to head up to see you."
"It's fine. Let's talk in the conference room."
Se-young walked off down the corridor with him in tow, the two of them disappearing from sight.
Yoojin suddenly remembered the way Se-young had looked at him in the elevator a few days ago.
So his girlfriend is Assistant Manager Lee?
Her doe eyes sharpened into little triangles as she turned back to glare at her monitor.
Right on cue, a message from Assistant Manager Oh Myung-joo popped to the top of her chat list.
[Send me the lead time for the extra POs. Make it quick.]
"Make it quick"? You're the one who sent the extra POs late.
There were three production vendors on the style. Two of them had already replied with production feedback, but one still hadn't responded.
Great. Now what? Do I just pass this straight back to Oh Myung-joo on messenger?
Yoojin clicked the mouse and stared at the screen.
"Who is it?"
Catching the shift in her mood, Seonyoung glanced over.
"It's Assistant Manager Oh Myung-joo."
Her round "acorn" bob cut swayed as she narrowed her eyes, making them bulge like little snowballs. Then she spoke quickly, her tone sharp.
"Don't answer on messenger. Reply by email and copy everyone involved. Okay?"
"Yes."
Yoojin nodded and began typing a stiff, strictly-business email to Manager Oh.
She wrote that the POs had been sent out yesterday morning, that two vendors—since their order quantities were small—had requested to use sample yardage for production and needed Sales to confirm, and that one vendor still hadn't replied yet, so she would follow up and get back to her.
Since this was a live issue between Overseas Purchasing and Sales, she kept it as short and objective as possible, CC'ing the relevant people in both teams before hitting send.
Then she shot Oh a quick messenger reply: [I've replied by email.]The status bubble flipped to "read" immediately.
For a mere single email, the back of Yoojin's neck had gone stiff with tension. It felt like a time bomb was ticking somewhere near her head, ready to go off at any second.
Near quitting time, a message came in from Dongha.
[I'm working late tonight. Let's go home together later.]
The last thing Yoojin wanted was to cause trouble or make his girlfriend uncomfortable.Her gaze turned icy as she stared at his text.
Worry about your girlfriend. Why do you keep insisting on giving me rides home?
She tapped out a reply.
[I don't want your girlfriend to get the wrong idea.]
Thunk.
Something hit over at his desk.She rose slightly in her chair and peeked over the top of her monitor.All she could see was his broad back and the glow of his screen beyond.
…Maybe not?
She tilted her head. A moment later, his answer arrived.
[There's nothing like that. See you later.]
Her only response was a snort.
Yoojin didn't bother replying and shifted her focus back to the monitor.
All day, Dongha learned in real time what it meant to have your patience gnawed away.
One offhand line from Yoojin at the coffee shop that morning—"I don't have a boyfriend"—had sent this tiny building into a frenzy.
Everywhere he went—down in the basement, over to Sales, up to HR on the 6th floor—people only had one topic for him.
[So, Dongha, you joined with Yoojin, right? Same intake?][Yeah.][Then you'd know—does she seriously not have a boyfriend?][For real? Someone that pretty and she's single? No way.]
By the afternoon, the rumor had grown wings.
"Doesn't have a boyfriend" had been magically translated by the male staff into "Actively looking for one."
Just thinking about what happened down in the basement made his brows twitch.
Right by the warehouse entrance, three guys from Sales and Systems Operations had stopped him.
[Hey, Dongha. You and Yoojin joined together, right?][Yes.][Then you'd know. Does she like coffee? Or… what does she like?]
Dongha was speechless.
Sure, some people couldn't drink coffee—but who actively "disliked" it?
And what did they mean, "What does she like?" Why ask him?
The two Sales guys beside them snickered.
[Just ask your team lead to organize a team dinner. Once you all go out together, it's easier to get close.][Why would Systems Ops have dinner with Overseas Purchasing? Our Sales team should be the one doing that.]
On the surface, they sounded like they were cheering on the Systems Ops guy.
But they were really just jockeying for their own shot.
To Dongha, they looked like a pack of jackals, lurking around some small, gentle animal, waiting for their chance to pounce.
[Overseas Purchasing and Sales have tons of stuff to coordinate, right? We should definitely have a dinner.]
He clamped his mouth shut.
If Yoojin happened to run into one of those jackals in the basement or around the office…
A jagged impatience clawed at him, and he turned away, scanning for the warehouse supervisor.
The supervisor—mid-forties—was unloading bolts of fabric from an international courier truck at the underground loading bay.
Since Dongha had been going back and forth to the warehouse lately to handle sample incoming, he approached him with easy familiarity.
"Did the fabric come in?"
"Oh, Dongha. Yeah, I stacked today's lot over there."
"Got it, thanks."
He looked over the piles of rolls and began processing the incoming goods with practiced efficiency.
With his height and build, he moved between the tall stacks of fabric with ease.
The supervisor watched him with clear satisfaction.
When Dongha flashed him that half-moon smile, the man chuckled.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we had a part-timer like me down here?" Dongha said lightly.
Just picturing it made the supervisor's mouth tug upward.
"Kid, I wish everyone was like you. We hire someone and they quit after a week 'cause it's too hard. I'm scared to even try hiring now."
"They quit?"
He frowned.
"Who'd wanna stick around, when you spend all day in a corner of the underground parking lot, buried in fabric? On top of that, Sales and Overseas Purchasing treat you like their personal errand boy."
"I know some guys who'd kill for a gig like this. Want me to introduce them?"
"That'd be great."
He answered without hesitation.
"Then I'll ask one of them to swing by tonight?"
"Tonight? That fast?"
"Yeah. If I call, he'll come."
"If he can start next week, he's more than welcome. More than."
The supervisor laughed out loud, sounding so uncharacteristically cheerful that passing Sales staff glanced over, puzzled.
After finishing the sample incoming, Dongha went to meet the temp with HR's Assistant Manager Se-young Lee and the supervisor.
The new part-timer was one of his beat crew members, just out of the army.
With his easygoing eyes and brisk manner, he won over HR and the supervisor immediately.
They confirmed the hire on the spot.
Only then did Dongha finally exhale.
At least for a while, Yoojin wouldn't have to go digging through what looked like a trash heap to find sample packages—or haul fabric for incoming herself.
He checked the time. Quitting hour was close.
He was supposed to meet her for lunch tomorrow, but tomorrow was tomorrow.
Right now, he just wanted to see her eyes, hear her clear voice right by his ear, and fix her image in his mind again.
Should I ask her to have dinner tonight?
But she looked so busy.
They'd promised to eat together on Wednesday, and he hadn't been able to keep that promise.
Since then she'd only gotten more swamped.
At this rate, she's going to burn herself out.
He texted her, asking to head home together.
He wanted to drive her back and make sure she got home safely.
But the reply that came back blindsided him.
[I don't want your girlfriend to get the wrong idea.]
Seriously? Yooin, what are you talking about? You're my girlfriend. Who's misunderstanding who here?
A wave of hollow disbelief washed through him, followed by sharp panic.
Before he even realized it, he lashed out with his foot and slammed the wall behind his desk with a loud thud.