In the end, she chose to reply to Yeon-Ah's question.
"It was really fun. The restaurant they picked was very good. It's not far from here and the food is delicious."
Su-Jin noticed Seo-Jun opening his mouth to say something, but before he could speak, Ji-Won's voice called him from his office.
After Seo-Jun was gone, Su-Jin continued to tell Yeon-Ah what happened during the date. The latter listened patiently, only interjecting to ask a thing or two, but mostly it was Su-Jin talking.
When she was finished going over the details, Su-Jin leaned back into her chair.
"You know…" Yeon-Ah began to say quietly. "I am really glad the date went well. You seemed a bit nervous yesterday so I was worried."
"Oh, I was very nervous and unwilling to go at first. But now I am glad I went." Su-Jin beamed. "Jeong-Ho is really a nice guy. Even though we haven't spent that much time together, I feel that we somehow hit it off." she paused, then broke into a laugh. "At the very least we were both upfront about not searching for a partner. This made things much easier and less uncomfortable."
"So do you plan on meeting him again?"
"Mh, I don't know." Su-Jin shook her head, still retaining a small smile. "We didn't make any promises or exchange phone numbers. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
With that, Su-Jin gave a light shrug and began working on her tasks.
~~~
Meanwhile, inside Ji-Won's office the atmosphere was quite different from the jovial one outside.
Kang Ji-Won was sitting at his desk with a stack of papers on his left and a few papers in front. His eyes shifted between the documents and the computer monitor. From time to time, he would lift his fingers to type something on the keyboard.
Seo-Jun pulled a chair from the meeting table and took a seat across from Ji-Won. His lips were pursed and his expression looked sulky.
"Why did you have to call just then? Couldn't you have waited a little bit?" he chided his friend with a huff.
"Why? Were you too busy?" Ji-Won inquired drily.
As he spoke, Ji-Won didn't pause in his movements, nor did he lift his eyes to look at Seo-Jun. Judging by his cold attitude, though, it was clear that he wouldn't care either way. Busy or not, he needed Seo-Jun to follow up on the newest changes on their proposal draft.
As such, Ji-Won continued to work while expecting the other man to hand in the necessary documents and start discussing the situation.
However, Seo-Jun's next words were quite unexpected.
"I was busy gossiping about Miss Park's date. She was just telling Miss Lee and I about it when you called me in here." he finished with a dramatic wave of his hand.
Hearing this, Ji-Won was stunned silly, his fingertips freezing on the keyboard.
After the first moment of shock had passed, Ji-Won sucked in a breath of cold air and exhaled it slowly. He tried steadying the wild beatings of his heart.
Nevertheless, even after suffering through all this, he simply refused to show the smallest weakness by renouncing his cold demeanor. Instead, he raised his eyes and fixed them sternly on Seo-Jun's face. Only then did he reply.
"Is that really something to gossip about? What are you, a schoolgirl?!"
"Yes, yes, I'm acting like an old man who's no fun." Ji-Won grumbled, rubbing the place between his eyebrows. With a sigh, he cast a wary glance at Seo-Jun. "Would you please get the files ready? We need to review them once again before I go meet the owners of the inn."
"As you say, boss." Seo-Jun lifted both hands in defeat.
With a shrug, he got up and went to get the documents Ji-Won had asked for. As he walked to the door, he kept his back towards Ji-Won. Once his hand touched the door handle, though, his footsteps suddenly halted.
Without looking back, Seo-Jun threw one last sentence over his shoulder.
"Ji-Won, regardless of what choice you make, just be sure you won't regret it."
As a reply, Ji-Won simply nodded.
With this, the two friends somehow reached a tacit understanding. Ji-Won wouldn't ask more about Su-Jin's date, nor try to find out, and Seo-Jun wouldn't brother telling him anything even if he knew something.
In this peaceful manner Thursday went by in a flash. Then Friday came, but it was gone just as quickly. By the time it was the weekend, Su-Jin and her colleagues had finished working on their project. The proposal draft was completed and it only needed the big bosses' approval.
Since they didn't need to work on the concept anymore, Mi-Suk's task was also over. Monday morning she was supposed to come one last time in order to discuss with the Human Resources Department about her contract.
If there were still changes that needed to be done in the near future she might still be called in, but there wasn't any need for her to stay inside the company at all times.
Furthermore, when the project finally got a green light from the management and they would start the implementation phase, any modifications would be done by the Marketing Department.
After finishing work that day, Su-Jin met up with Mi-Suk in the lobby. Both of them walked side by side, quietly pondering over different matters.
All of a sudden, Mi-Suk leaned her head back, letting out a deep sigh.
"You know, I'll actually miss working for Kangji Tourism. This past week has been really fun." she said, staring at the sky above.
The bright blue was now tinged with a darker hue, signaling the approach of sunset. On their way to the subway, they saw lots of people walking along the street. The groups varied from young to old, either noisy or quiet.
Su-Jin looked at the bustle like she was seeing an entertaining spectacle. Her lips soon quirked up in a smile and she gave a noncommittal hum.
"But now you get to work on that webtoon. Don't you have a deadline for it?" Su-Jin asked, tilting her head to look at her friend.
"Of course I have! And it's a tight one at that." Mi-Suk sighed, shaking her head dejectedly. "But I can't help it. Whenever I find something interesting to work on I just get so immersed that I forget about anything else."
"What can I say, you're a true artist." Su-Jin teased, gently bumping into her friend's shoulder.
Just then, Mi-Suk's phone chimed.
The young woman pulled out the phone and glanced at the screen. There was a notification that she had received a message from someone.