"Don't you want to help me?" Mi-Suk wined, making puppy eyes at Su-Jin. "I really don't want anyone else apart from you to be there with me. Besides, apparently the other guy is around our age and works as a creative assistant for a gaming company. Who knows, you two might really hit it off."
"Really?" Su-Jin asked, arching an eyebrow and looking very much in doubt.
"Well, you won't know until you've tried." Mi-Suk shrugged. "Anyhow, didn't you decide that Director Kang is a demon that needs to be avoided at all costs? You also seemed reluctant to chase after that Ji-Su guy."
"What does he have to do with this?" Su-Jin jumped as if she had been burned.
"Well, if you don't want to chase after either of them, why not pick someone else?"
"Why do I have to chase after someone in the first place?" Su-Jin sighed.
"Then do you want to be single?"
"What's so wrong about being single? Why is that such a bad thing?" Su-Jin asked in disbelief.
"There are absolutely no reasons for you to remain single." Mi-Suk gave a light shrug.
"How about not having found my other half?" Su-Jin grumbled.
Hearing that, Mi-Suk's patience finally snapped. She placed the cup on the counter and crossed her arms. Her thin and elegant eyebrows furrowed, giving the young woman a slightly domineering appearance.
At that moment, Mi-Suk looked very much like a mother scolding her child for getting bad grades at school.
"Do you really think you can find that person by hiding yourself in the house all day long? Or by running away from people left and right? You need to get out there and meet people, Su-Jin."
"Why?" Su-Jin finally choked out.
"Because you're young, smart and beautiful. You also have a good job now. So far I see no reasons why you should hold back from having fun."
Mi-Suk's entire tirade had been said with a passion that overwhelmed Su-Jin. She knew her friend wanted what's best for her, so Su-Jin didn't want to be especially stubborn.
Just when she was wondering how best to formulate her reply, Su-Jin heard Mi-Suk say something else.
"Anyway, we'll just be having dinner and maybe take a walk. It's not like we're going to a hotel afterwards, so what's there to fuss about?"
Before Su-Jin got a chance to decide on what answer to give, there was a loud thud coming from behind the door.
Both women turned their heads to look, but they couldn't see anything. No one entered the kitchen either.
Thinking that it was probably someone in the hallway walking by they went back to their conversation as if nothing happened.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Ji-Won was sweating profusely. The phone he had just dropped was lying face-up on the floor. It looked especially pitiful, but its owner didn't seem to care.
Looking back at the current situation, even Ji-Won found it to be quite stupid.
~~~
Earlier, Ji-Won had decided to take a break and make himself some coffee. Glancing around the office, he noticed that Su-Jin wasn't at her desk, but he quickly remembered that she and her friend had left his office together.
'Since Miss Choi isn't familiar with the company grounds, perhaps Miss Park took her to the Human Resource Department. They might be together now.'
While reasoning like this, Ji-Won reached the hallway near the kitchen.
Before he was able to reach out and open the door, his phone vibrated. He took it out and glanced at the screen.
Just then, he heard voices coming from the kitchen.
'That sounds like… Miss Park and… Miss Choi?' he reflected silently.
With that realization, he suddenly hesitated to take a step forward.
Ji-Won knew that he had absolutely no reason to hide, and even less reason to skulk around the narrow hallway, listening to their conversation.
Nevertheless, as if a strange power had rooted him to the floor, Ji-Won couldn't move from that spot. His ears slowly focused on the words that were drifting from behind the door and he soon understood what the dialogue was about.
Now, even more so than before, he felt compelled to stay there, come what may.
When the conversation reached the final part, Ji-Won's hands twitched. The phone slid between his fingers, landing heavily on the floor.
Just like the ripples created by a rock when falling in a pool of water, the loud thud reverberated in the hallway. The sound hit Ji-Won's ears, making him painfully aware of what he was doing.
At the same time, the discussion on the other side of the door seemed to have stopped as well.
While contemplating whether he should press the handle and go inside, a warm hand suddenly pressed on his shoulder. Ji-Won flinched, whirling around like a spinning top and bumping into someone.
A second later, Seo-Jun's startled voice came from next to him.
"Ji-Won, what the heck are you doing here? You almost caused my soul to die from fright."
"Yeah, well… we're even." Ji-Won muttered, rubbing his chest with one hand.
Seo-Jun looked at his friend in bewilderment. Then, he noticed the phone on the floor.
"You were never the klutzy type. Are you starting to resemble Miss Park?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow.
Hearing Su-Jin's name being mentioned, Ji-Won froze. All of a sudden the conversation he just overheard came rushing back to his mind.
Ji-Won cleared his throat, not deigning Seo-Jun's words with an answer. In order to keep himself from having to look at the other man, he bent down and picked up his phone.
As he was straightening himself up, Ji-Won caught sight of the door to the kitchen in his peripheral vision.
A crisp click resounded, followed by the door slowly opening.
Su-Jin and Mi-Suk walked out together, still talking animatedly about something. When they saw the two men standing in front of them, they both stopped dead in their tracks.
Su-Jin was the first to shake off the surprise. Slightly tilting her head to one side, she stared between Ji-Won and Seo-Jun.
"Director Kang, Deputy Director Kim, do you need something from the kitchen?"
"Hm, I wonder about that too." Seo-Jun drawled, casting Ji-Won a glance from the corner of his eyes.. As he continued to speak, his lips curved into a mischievous smile. "Do we need something from there, Ji-Won or are we just passing by?"