Yoojin spent most of the previous night with her eyes practically open.
She forced her eyelids shut, trying to sleep, but her heart kept racing, and her mind only grew clearer.
It wasn't just the purchasing mistakes she had made.
Dong-ha's words and expressions from the night before kept replaying in her head.
His sudden confession.
The look in his eyes she had never seen before.
She would have to face him at work for the rest of her internship—could she really ignore how he felt?
And what was this restless heartbeat of hers?
Yoojin sighed and fell into the same loop of thoughts, circling over and over with no answer, until dawn broke.
By six in the morning, and a little past seven, she was back at the office.She had left at one a.m.
Not even six hours had passed.
When she turned on her monitor and opened her inbox, the emails were exactly as they had been the previous night.
It was early Saturday, so of course there was no reply yet to the mistake report she had sent.
Oddly, Yoojin let out a sigh of relief.
The fact that no new problems had appeared in the last six hours comforted her in a ridiculous way.
Slowly, she picked up Kim Jang-woo's purchasing folder.
The thick, black binder seemed almost forbidden—watching her, warning her, asking if she really wanted to open it.
Do you really want to see this? Can you handle it once you know? Just leave it closed. Kim Jang-woo will deal with it when he returns.
But Yoojin had survived things far worse than this.
This would pass, too—and right now, she needed to face it.
She took a deep breath and opened the folder.
The orders were sorted by category: Men, Women, Boys, Girls, Toddlers.
Each purchasing sheet was clipped neatly together with the sales order, yardage sheet, and notes.
There were thirty-five orders in total, and based on the dates, the first FW orders had gone out three weeks ago, in mid-October.
It was now early November.
Manager Kim Se-hee had mentioned that the FW orders weren't coming down yet, but Ocean Bay seemed to be moving very fast.
Maybe every brand had different timelines?
NB was distributed globally—maybe that was why they placed orders earlier.
In the sales request, the schedule said: fabric inbound starting mid-November, garment production completed by March, warehouse inbound in April, retail distribution starting July.
Yoojin searched the first order number in the system.
Her monitor displayed all three: the data entered by Sales, the order sheet, and the purchasing form Kim Jang-woo had created.
Something was strange.
It was too perfect.
Unlike what Manager Kim had taught her, the system information and the purchasing sheet matched exactly: specs, pricing, garment quantity, yardage, even the color order.
It was as if the data had simply been extracted from the system, sent to Sales, and then forwarded straight to the vendor.
…It can be managed like this?
A thrill ran through her.
Everything matched precisely—no errors anywhere.
Wondering about the progress, she searched her inbox for vendor mail related to the order.
Three days ago, the vendor had sent a message: A request to expedite the first dye lot's color approval.
Color approval—the step Assistant Manager Lee Hyuk had explained was required before bulk production.
It was urgent.
Instinctively, Yoojin looked around.
A gray package on her desk caught her eye—Nice Fabric, the vendor's name.Someone—Seonyoung or Assistant Manager Kang—must have brought it over.
She opened the package.
Five neatly packed swatches marked 1st dyeing lot and their lot numbers were inside.
So they're asking if they can proceed with bulk production now…
She needed to submit them to the color room.
Yoojin grabbed her notebook and quickly wrote it down:Monday morning — request color approval from Colorist.
Bulk must be on hold until approval came in.
Her face grew pale again, and she bit her lower lip without realizing it.
As she continued reviewing the orders, her phone buzzed and lit up.
[You're at the office, right? Want something to drink?]
It was from Dong-ha.
After so much stress, and barely eating the night before, her stomach burned.
[I'm fine. And don't come to the office.]
She sent the reply and thought back to the conclusion she had reached while lying awake all night.
I'm not interested in you.I like someone else.I only see you as a friend.
She had prepared phrases that she could say to Dong-ha if he tried approaching her again.
The last one seemed the safest.
But imagining herself actually saying it made her empty stomach twist even harder.
She forced the thoughts away and focused back on the folder.
Dong-ha arrived while she was reviewing the second order.
It was 8:30 a.m.—as precise as a weekday arrival.
"Did you sleep well? I brought warm grapefruit tea."
He came in carrying the cold morning air on his coat, his expression full of concern.
He placed the warm cup on her desk and nudged it toward her.
"This makes me uncomfortable," Yoojin murmured, staring at the tea.
Dong-ha just shrugged lightly.
"It's fine. I bought mine, so I got yours too. And… you've been drinking too much coffee lately, so I got tea instead."
Then he smiled—softly, warmly—something he almost never did.
Yoojin's chest tightened, and she had no words left.
He walked back to his seat, took off his coat, and turned on his computer.
Seeing him there, Yoojin realized it was time to report the purchasing mistakes to Manager Kim Se-hee and Assistant Manager Lee Hyuk.
Should she text?Should she just call?Should she say she made a mistake?Or simply that she had something to report?
This was all new to her.
Feeling pathetic, she quickly typed:
[Hello, Manager. I reviewed the orders from yesterday and found errors. May I call to report them?]
She messaged Manager Kim first.That was the hierarchy.
Manager Kim called almost immediately.
— Yoojin, what do you mean errors?
Yoojin explained:The pound-to-kilogram mistake.The color-quantity mistake.
— Pounds? Sales is going to tear us apart. What did the vendor say?
"They said the dyeing has already started."
— Great… unbelievable. And the color quantities?
"I copied them from Sales' order sheet, but the sequence didn't match."
— Did you inform the vendor?
"Yes, but no reply yet."
— There should be business cards on Kim Jang-woo's desk. If not, check the email signatures. Call the Factory contace directly and update them.
"Yes, Manager."
— …You haven't told Assistant Manager Lee yet, right?
"No."
— Then do it. Better to rip the band-aid off quickly.
"Yes… I understand."
Yoojin exhaled deeply.
She had hoped—foolishly—that Manager Kim might offer to report to Lee Hyuk for her.But of course that didn't happen.
It was her mistake. Her responsibility.
She texted Assistant Manager Lee.
He called a moment later.
— What is it now?
His hysterical tone made her throat tighten.
"I… made a mistake in the purchasing orders."
— That's how you report? Speak properly.
Suddenly all the calm logic she had a moment ago evaporated.
His voice dragged her right back to the moment he yelled at her on the stairs.
"I entered the pound quantity as kilograms for Order 3216. And for Order 3217, the color quantities were written incorrectly."
— Yoojin. Did you even go to school? Do you know the six reporting principles? When, where, what, how, why—can't you report like a human being?
She froze, then forced herself to continue clearly.
"For 3216, I didn't check that the vendor accepts kilogram orders. I entered pounds like the other two orders. I reported it to Manager Kim, and Sales will issue a new order form. I will request a production halt from the vendor."
— Damn it… How much is the over-order?
"About 18 million won."
— Are you out of your mind?!
Yoojin squeezed her eyes shut.
She continued the rest of the report.
"For 3217, I copied the color quantities in the order listed on the Sales sheet. I didn't realize the sequences differed. Three colors went out with incorrect quantities. I informed the vendor yesterday. No reply yet, but I will call the factory contact after this."
— Unbelievable. You can't even enter color quantities correctly? Can't you read?
"…I'm sorry."
Her voice echoed in the empty office.Across the partition, she could see Dong-ha sitting tensely at his desk.It was humiliating.
Dong-ha… You said this wasn't entirely my fault.Then why… why do I feel so small?
Yoojin's heart sank miserably.