Saturday at 2 p.m. The plan was a cafe near our place.
I arrived ten minutes early, but Team Lead Jung Won was already sitting by the window.
The iced Americano in front of him had already melted.
"When did you get here?"
"...A little while ago."
The water droplets on the cup had pooled into little circles on the table.
It didn’t seem like a little while ago.
When I sat down across from him, Team Lead Jung Won started to slide the menu toward me, then took it back.
"Ah, no need to ask."
Then he went to the counter alone and came back with a caramel macchiato.
With whipped cream on top.
Seeing Team Lead Jung Won outside of work felt unfamiliar.
He was wearing knitwear, and his hair wasn’t neatly swept back like it was at the office.
He looked closer to the face I remembered from college, standing in front of the student office.
"I’d rather we not tell the company for now."
Team Lead Jung Won said, wrapping both hands around his cup.
"...I was going to say that too."
Team Lead Jung Won looked at me, a little surprised.
"We’re mentor and newbie, right? If we say we’re dating, anything I do will make people look at that first, and you’ll get accused of favoritism for no reason. There’s the year-end evaluation too."
"...You just said everything I was going to say."
"Then at work, let’s act like we always do. We’ll commute separately too."
"And let’s avoid having lunch just the two of us for a while."
Team Lead Jung Won nodded, then added quietly.
"...That’s a little disappointing."
His voice was calm, but his ears were red.
At work, he was always so perfect, but now he was disappointed over one lunch.
"But outside work, we can."
"Yeah."
"Can I call you senior? It’d be weird to call you Team Lead outside work too."
Team Lead Jung Won went quiet for a moment.
He put his cup down, then picked it up again.
There was only ice left in it.
"...Yeah. Do that."
Then he smiled.
It was a helpless smile I’d never seen at work before.
We’d agreed to act like nothing was going on, but if he showed up at work with that face, we were doomed.
After we left the cafe, Team Lead Jung Won took out his phone to check the time.
I caught a glimpse of the screen. It was a notes app.
14:00 Cafe (10 min early)
15:30 Photo Exhibition (Seongsu)
18:30 Dinner (Reservation)
"...What is this?"
Team Lead Jung Won tried to turn off the screen, then gave up when he realized it was too late.
"An itinerary."
"You made a schedule for a date?"
"It’s the same as organizing agenda items before a meeting."
I held back a laugh and looked at the screen again.
Ten minutes early. The guy who had written that down and then sat there until the ice melted completely.
We walked to the gallery.
As we walked side by side, the back of Team Lead Jung Won’s hand brushed mine twice.
On the third time, I grabbed his hand first.
Team Lead Jung Won stumbled slightly, still looking straight ahead.
"...I was going to hold your hand first."
"You missed your chance twice."
Instead of answering, his grip tightened.
As if he had no intention of letting go.
His face looked perfectly normal.
Only his bright red ears gave him away.
The photo exhibition was in a small gallery tucked into an alley in Seongsu-dong.
Team Lead Jung Won read every caption all the way through.
He looked exactly like he did when reading reports at work.
But around the third room, I realized something.
While I was looking at the photos, Team Lead Jung Won was looking at me, not them.
"Senior, aren’t you looking at the photos?"
"I am."
"At what?"
"...The photos."
Team Lead Jung Won’s ears turned red.
But he still didn’t let go of my hand until the end.
Dinner was at a small Korean restaurant on the opposite side of the neighborhood.
We sat across from each other eating, and Team Lead Jung Won wordlessly slid over the side dish plate I’d reached for twice.
He was someone I saw every day at work, but this was the first time I’d watched him eat for so long.
After dinner, we walked to my place.
The moment we stepped out of the restaurant, my hand was in his again.
Whenever a car passed, Team Lead Jung Won subtly moved us closer to the road.
At the entrance to the shared building, Team Lead Jung Won stopped walking.
"Go in."
"You be careful on your way too, senior."
"...One more time."
"Huh?"
"Say senior. Just one more time."
"Jung Won senior."
"ㅎㅎ Nice. See you tomorrow, Yeoju."
Team Lead Jung Won nodded and turned away.
After a few steps, he looked back.
Seeing that I was still standing there, he started walking again.
Then he looked back once more.
In the end, I couldn’t hold back my laugh and went in first.
*
Monday morning.
"Good morning, Team Lead."
"Good morning."
Perfect.
His voice, his expression, his distance.
I applauded myself inwardly.
It was easier than I’d expected.
The problem was the 10 o’clock weekly meeting.
"Team Lead Yang, who organized the competitor materials last week?"
At the team leader’s question, Team Lead Jung Won answered naturally.
"That was Yeoju..."
The meeting room went quiet for a brief moment.
"...Kim Yeoju organized them."
Team Lead Jung Won took a sip of water.
As if nothing had happened.
Mr. Seonwoo was only looking at his laptop.
Thank goodness.
Only Manager Yoojin, sitting across from me, slowly raised his head with a pen in hand.
I didn’t take my eyes off my notebook until the meeting ended.
As I was leaving the meeting room, Manager Yoojin matched my pace beside me.
"Yeoju, the competitor materials were really neat. Nice work."
"Ah, thank you."
"But doesn’t Team Lead Yang seem to be in a really good mood lately?"
"...Does he? I’m not sure."
"Really? I thought you would know, Yeoju."
Manager Yoojin smiled and headed back to his seat first.
I stopped in the middle of the hallway for a moment.
It had only been two days since we decided to act like we didn’t know.
*
After lunch, I went to the break room.
I was picking out a tea bag when the door opened and Team Lead Jung Won came in.
We were the only two in the break room.
Team Lead Jung Won stood beside me and took out a cup.
Then without saying anything, he briefly took my hand under the counter and let go.
"...Team Lead. We’re at work."
"No one’s here."
Just then, the doorknob turned.
Team Lead Jung Won took a step back.
Then he said in his work voice, as if nothing had happened,
"Then please upload the revised version by 3 o’clock."
"...Yes, Team Lead."
"Oh, Team Lead, you were here. The team leader is looking for you."
It was Mr. Seonwoo.
Team Lead Jung Won nodded and left the break room first.
His steps and expression were exactly the same as usual.
I was the only one left standing there, tea bag in hand.
*
At 2 p.m., the company messenger flashed.
Sorry about the break room earlier
Do I really have to upload the revised version?
No, I made that up
Team Lead, you’re really good at lying
Can’t do it with you
I hid my face behind my monitor.
Team Lead Jung Won, sitting next to me, kept typing as if nothing was wrong.
Only his ears were red.
*
At 3 o’clock, Mr. Seonwoo went around taking coffee orders.
"Yeoju, you’ll have a caramel macchiato, right? The one Team Lead Yang always buys you."
Mr. Seonwoo said it casually.
For a second, I forgot to breathe.
"A mentor takes care of the newbie."
Team Lead Jung Won replied without even looking away from his monitor.
"When I was the newbie, nobody took care of me."
"Mr. Seonwoo doesn’t like sweets."
When Manager Yoojin cut in, everyone laughed.
That was the end of the conversation.
I was the only one with cold sweat on my back.
The messenger flashed.
So a mentor takes care of the newbie
Yeah, because he’s the mentor
Then does the mentor buy dinner too?
That’s what the boyfriend buys
I took my hand off the keyboard.
Seeing that word on a company monitor made my heart race strangely fast.
At the next desk, all I could hear was the sound of typing.
I started to wonder if he was really the same person who’d agreed to act like he didn’t know.
*
6:30 p.m. Team Lead Jung Won left work first.
I came out through the opposite exit fifteen minutes later.
An alley one block away from the company.
Team Lead Jung Won was standing there, pretending to check his phone.
When I walked up, he looked up and smiled.
It was the face he’d been holding in all day.
"About the meeting today. I think Manager Yoojin noticed."
"...You saw?"
"I saw everything. The part where you were like, ‘Yeoju, ...’"
Team Lead Jung Won wiped his face with one hand.
"You told me to act like we didn’t know, and who was the first one to give it away?"
"I know."
Team Lead Jung Won admitted it easily.
He didn’t look remorseful at all.
"How long are we going to keep doing this?"
"Who knows."
Team Lead Jung Won took my hand.
This time, he didn’t let go.
"Until I get caught? I feel like it’ll be soon."
