Chapter 28: Finding the cause
TL: Pineapple
Editor: Isalee
Shi Won lowered her head to look at the flowers and smiled as she got closer to him.
A gust of wind blew through the petals and the moonlight along with the street lamp illuminated her.
The beautiful girl gave a bright smile.
It was a beautiful spring night without any imperfections.
The gorgeous girl stopped one step in front of him and stared at his chin.
"This is for you. You seemed to be in a bad mood today."
He accepted a bouquet of flowers from her two hands that passed it on to him.
"The best thing you need right now is a clear mind, so I brought you some fog flowers. Do you like them?"
She looked at him with a smile and he gave her a serious expression.
The silence lasted about 10 seconds? He opened his mouth slowly.
"I can't help but like it."
"Glad to hear… Uh…Uh…"
His long arm extended toward her, pulling her into his broad and hard chest.
Due to his strong pull, her back instantly curved and her hair bounced.
She fit deep into his arms and she hugged him back tightly.
"Uh… It hurts."
*Muah!*
Her painful voice gave him a brief break as he lifted his head, kissed her forehead, and hugged her tightly again.
"Who told you to act like this?"
"A pretty person has to act prettily."
"Uh… Why aren't you laughing? How embarrassing?""Since you are pretty, I don't think it's gonna work this way."
"No… Take it easy."
She raised her hand wrapped them around his waist, slightly hitting his back.
"However… Manager Moon…"
"Yes?"
"We are…here…now…on the road…"
"Ah…"
They weren't doing anything too overboard, but he just realized that they were outside.
With a little bit of space, Shi Won looked into his eyes.
"Are you feeling okay? Why were you so sensitive today?"
"Something went wrong?"
As she kept asking him questions, he just smiled.
"Everything is settled."
Here was a beautiful, lovely girl that was worried about him all day. He felt sorry for himself that he was depressed all day.
"What a relief, I was worried all day."
"Really?"
"Yes, but I am fine now. Because you are okay."
He gently wiped her hair with one hand, and smiled as he looked at her face.
He looked at the fog flower in his hand.
He thought this flower didn't have any fragrance, but now that he got a good whiff of it, he thought it was the best smelling flower in the world.
"I'm hungry."
Shi Won's statement made his eyes widen
"You didn't eat yet?"
Although he hadn't eaten all day, he didn't even think about eating anything until she mentioned it.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you eat until now?"
"I was waiting for you."
"Oh…"
"Let's hurry. What do you want to eat?"
"The giblets. Small intestines."
"Giblets?"
"Yes"
"Okay."
With one hand holding the bouquet, and the other holding Shi Won's hand, they walked quickly.
"Wow! It is really delicious here. I am really full now."
She ate enough for two people, then she looked at him him with a face full of satisfaction.
"Somebody might think that you starved for a few days."
"Hehe."
Regardless of what he said, she happily smiled and rubbed her stomach.
"I wanna eat delicious things with you everyday."
Manager Moon knew that the main point of what she said was not eating something delicious but that she wanted to eat with him everyday.
"Do you want to go to eat something delicious tomorrow too? What do you want to eat?"
Shi Won contemplated on what she wanted to eat then remembered the meeting that she had to go to.
"Ah! I have a meeting tomorrow. Fellow-worker meeting."
"Fellow-worker meeting?"
"Yes. We entered this company in the same year. Even some people are coming up from another county… I don't think we can eat dinner together tomorrow."
'Han Shi Won is very popular. There are a lot of co-workers who are interested in her among the employees.'
Suddenly he remembered Do Hoon's words. He looked Shi Won blankly without giving an answer.
"Huh? Manager Moon? Manager Moon?"
"Oh…"
"What do you think?"
"Ah! No… What time do you meet tomorrow?"
"7 o'clock? I don't know. I think I'll go with co-workers after work."
He thought of Do Hoon due to Shi Won's word "with", but he smiled at her.
"You should have fun with them."
"Are you going to wait?"
"Pardon?"
"Are you going to wait until I'm home?"
"My understanding is, I must wait for you?"
She closed her lips and nodded.
"Okay."
"Wow. Good."
Manager Moon laughed out loud as if he was talking to a child.
"But are you usually honest like that?"
"What?" She drank the cider in front of her and looked at Manager Moon.
"I just thought you are incredibly honest with your feelings."
"Well, I don't like to say no if I don't like it, but I'm very good at saying yes for the things that I want. My mom says so…"
"Oh, but what do your parents do?"
"You asking me this so early."
Shi Won smiled and looked at Manager Moon.
Shi Won thought for a moment and looked into Manager Moon's eyes.
"My father works at a company and my mother is a housewife. I have an older brother in America but he hasn't come back since he moved."
"Since when did you live separately from your parents?"
"As soon as I graduated from college. My dad really loved me. He always said, "My youngest daughter… my youngest daughter…" But he's like a sword. As soon I graduated college, he gave me a one month deposit for my apartment and said, 'You are responsible for your own life.' Those words made me crazy. I was a really precious daughter to him. He was too much for me, right?"
She seemed to be in a good mood while talking about him.
That was perhaps because she received so much love and loved him a lot too.
"Now get up. It's late."
It was already 11 o'clock.
They came out of the restaurant and held their hands as they headed back to the apartment.
The 12th and 13th floor buttons were pressed inside the elevator.
When the elevator arrived on the 12th floor they gazed at each other as if they missed each other.
"See you tomorrow Shi Won."
"Okay, good night."
The two of them went to back to their apartment, reluctant to part.
6:30 PM.
Do Hoon showed up with the employes in front of Shi Won's office. She got up and grabbed her bag.
Shi Won wished he could've waited outside the office, but he had come to her place and urged her to go.
"Assistant Manager Kim, I will turn off the computer. Please wait for me outside because people are working right now."
Shi Won whispered to him and he just nodded with a light expression. Shi Won could feel Do Hoon seeing Manager Moon so she frowned.
Shi Won sat quickly at her seat and turned slightly before whispering to Manager Moon.
"I'll be back. I will not drink."
Manager Moon turned his head slightly to Shi Won and smiled as he nodded.
She got up from her seat and wandered around to see if anyone had seen the two talking to each other.
"Ha…"
Seeing Do Hoon's expression towards Shi Won while she left the office made Manager Moon take off his glasses and stare at him.
"Waah!~ We're here!"
"Omo, it's been so long! Have you been well Do Hoon oppa?"
"Uh? Han Shi Won. Wow. You've become so pretty."
When she arrived at the place, everyone greeted her and Do Hoon.
Shi Won was also happy to see her fellow co-workers who had started work around the same time as her and happily chatted with them.
She saw the beer and delicious food lined up in front of her. She had a great time with her friends.
They all talked about how unlucky they were to have bad bosses and half of the stories were about love and marriage because they were all getting older.
"Hey, Shi Won, are you seeing anyone right now?"
Shi Won was looking at her phone for a bit when someone suddenly asked her a question.
"I know right? Han Shi Won, it's been awhile since you broke up with your last boyfriend right? What about now?"
Shi Won looked at the person who asked her the question.
"Me? I do."
She gave him a short and concise answer and went back to her phone.
Do Hoon, who was sitting next to her, gave her a weird expression but Shi Won didn't notice as she was staring at her phone.
"Really? Really? Who is it? What does he do?"
As soon as that girl started asking questions, the others chimed in.
"I'll tell you later."
Shi Won tried to nonchalantly move on from this subject.
"Come on. Who is it? Have you been dating for long?"
"No. Not that long. That's why I'll tell you next time we meet."
Shi Won was tight-lipped about this subject, so her friends eventually moved onto a different subject.
While they were all laughing and having a good time, Shi Won took out her phone and sent a text.
[Did you get off?]
She put her phone on her lap and went back to the conversation.
*Buzz*
[Yes. I came home. Are you having fun?]
She tried really hard not to smile.
[We're just having fun talking about past stuff. What are you doing? Thinking about me?]
[I already do that everyday. I'm just reading a book.]
As she was reading the text, Shi Won suddenly got up.
"I'm gonna go to the restroom for a bit."
Shi Won exited the bar and quickly texted back.
[Uh. It's over?]
He was surprised to receive an unexpected call from her.
"No. I just wanted to hear your voice."
[Ah… But aren't the others waiting for you? Because you haven't seen them in a while…]
"It's fine. Don't you wanna see me right now?]
There was silence in between them for a moment.
[Come back now. Hurry.]
"What?!!?"
[I'm kidding. It's a joke! It just means that's how much I wanna see you.]
Shi Won laughed.
"I have to go back now. I'll call or text again later."
[Don't, just have a good time with your co-workers that you haven't seen in a while.]
'You're not here, so how can I have fun?'
That's how she felt, right?
Shi Won said to him,
"Okay. Goodbye."
The moment she turned her back, she was smiling to herself.
"Ah! You surprised me oppa!"
As she turned around, she saw Do Hoon standing behind her and she yelled out in surprise.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"I thought there was nobody around. But why are you here?"
"I have something to tell you."
Shi Won began to feel uneasy because of his serious demeanor.
She felt like she knew what he was going to say without him saying it.
"Okay. Tell me."
She tried to bite her lips in order to maintain her composure and facial expression.
"Are you dating Manager Moon?"
Shi Won expressionlessly said,
"I told you that I would tell you guys later. Didn't you hear earlier?"
Shi Won wanted to go back inside to be away from this atmosphere. She looked over his shoulder at the co-workers and stared back at him.
"Oppa… let's go back in…"
"I told Manager Moon."
"That I like you."
"What?"
"He said good luck?"
Shi Won put on an angry expression.
"You said this yesterday?"
Do Hoon's eyes slightly widened at her response.
"You told Manager Moon yesterday right?"
"Yes."
"No wonder…"
"What?"
Shi Won took a deep breath to calm down.
Do Hoon gave a confused expression as if he didn't know what she was talking about.
And Shi Won whispered with a look to show that she wasn't pleased. "The cause was here. That's why he was acting that way."
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