A week had passed since the workshop ended.
Not much had changed.
Manager Yang still called me Miss Kim Yeo-ju, and he was still flawless when he worked.
But very small things had changed.
Manager Yang said good morning first.
On the days I worked overtime, he’d say, "I have some things to look at too," and stay with me.
Around three in the afternoon, there would be a caramel macchiato on my desk.
He no longer even said he’d just bought something at random.
I liked that.
I decided to pretend not to know why just yet.
*
Tuesday of the second week of July, lunchtime.
Jongseong came all the way up to our floor’s pantry.
"Kim Yeo-ju, let’s eat. I got chewed out by a client all morning today."
"Again? What now?"
"I messed up one number on an estimate. A Yeo-ju kind of mistake."
"Hey!"
When I swatted his arm, Jongseong messed up my hair all over the place.
It was a prank we’d been doing since freshman year of college.
"Ugh, seriously. You ruined my hair."
"It was already ruined."
Laughing as I fixed my hair, I turned my head without thinking.
Through the pantry’s glass door, I saw Manager Yang standing there.
With a cup in his hand.
Our eyes met.
I reflexively smiled and gave a slight bow.
Manager Yang turned away first.
"Who’s that? Your mentor?"
"Yeah. A college senior."
"Oh, that senior. Guess I should’ve said hi."
"More importantly, Yeo-ju, are you free on Saturday?"
"Why?"
"Come to the department store with me. I need to buy Jiwon a first-anniversary ring, but if I go alone I seriously won’t be able to choose one."
Jiwon was Jongseong’s girlfriend of a year.
The three of us had even eaten together a few times.
"Lunch is on you."
"Of course!"
I looked one more time toward the pantry door.
Manager Yang had already gone back to his seat.
*
Saturday afternoon, jewelry section on the first floor of the department store.
Jongseong had been flustered in front of the display case for ages.
In the end, the clerk took out three rings.
"Yeo-ju, give me your hand. Jiwon and you have about the same finger size."
"Am I a mannequin or what?"
Even while grumbling, I held out my hand.
Jongseong tried each ring on my ring finger one by one.
"This one, or this one?"
"The second one. Jiwon likes simple stuff, doesn’t she?"
"As expected of Kim Yeo-ju."
The clerk said with a smile.
"The two of you look so good together."
"Ah, we’re not like that."
Jongseong and I waved our hands at the same time.
The clerk smiled and started wrapping it up.
As promised, Jongseong paid for lunch.
At the basement food court, while cutting into a pork cutlet, Jongseong suddenly asked,
"By the way, you look really cheerful these days? Guess you’ve settled in at work."
"Nothing much. My mentor’s been taking good care of me."
"That senior who looked so standoffish?"
"He’s not standoffish. He’s just a little weird with me. In a good way."
I talked about the workshop.
Jump rope, barbecue, convenience-store coffee. The more I talked, the more the corners of my mouth kept lifting.
Jongseong put down his fork and stared at me.
"Hey. Isn’t that guy into you?"
"What are you talking about? No."
"As if. And you too."
"Me, what?"
"Your face is red right now."
I gulped down my glass of water.
I insisted it was because the air conditioner wasn’t strong enough, but Jongseong kept grinning to the very end.
After eating, we went back up to the first floor.
Saying he still had to buy flowers for Jiwon, Jongseong led the way toward the flower shop.
I followed slowly behind.
That was when I saw a familiar back in front of the cosmetics store.
Tall frame, neat nape of the neck.
He was wearing a relaxed linen shirt I’d never seen him in at work.
As I was thinking, No way, he turned around.
It was Manager Yang.
"Manager!"
Before I knew it, my voice came out bright and happy.
Manager Yang looked at me and widened his eyes.
"……Miss Kim Yeo-ju."
"I didn’t expect to see you here on the weekend. Are you out shopping?"
"It’s my mother’s birthday."
Manager Yang slightly lifted the shopping bag in his hand.
His voice was a little softer than it was at work.
Weirdly, that made me happy.
"What did you buy?"
"Hand cream. The same one every year."
"Every year? Your mother must like it."
"She said she liked it once."
Once, and every year after that.
That was so like Manager Yang.
Smiling, I started to speak.
"I’m here with a friend—"
"Yeo-ju! Should I get these flowers?"
Jongseong came over holding a bunch of roses.
In his other hand was the jewelry-store shopping bag.
Manager Yang’s gaze moved to Jongseong.
The bouquet, and the small shopping bag.
"Oh, aren’t you Manager Yang?"
Jongseong bowed with the bouquet still in his hands.
"Hello. I’m Park Jongseong from the sales team. Nice to see you on the weekend."
"……Hello."
"We came to buy a ring, and now we’re buying flowers too. Yeo-ju, let’s go. We’ll be late for our reservation."
It was the reservation for the restaurant where we were having dinner with Jiwon. Jong
seong was already pulling on my arm.
Manager Yang didn’t answer.
He glanced at my left hand for a moment.
Then at the shopping bag Jongseong was holding.
"……I see."
A very short silence fell.
"Congratulations."
"Huh?"
Manager Yang lowered his head slightly.
"Have a nice weekend."
Leaving only those words behind, he walked toward the escalator.
There wasn’t even time to stop him.
"What was that? Is your mentor usually like that?"
"No. He’s not usually like that……"
"Then what’s he congratulating you on? Does he know it’s Jiwon’s first anniversary?"
Jongseong tilted his head, then quickly went back to worrying about the ribbon color for the bouquet.
I watched his back grow smaller and smaller on the escalator.
He never once looked back.
*
That night, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
Congratulations.
No matter how I turned it over, it was a strange thing to say.
Was helping someone choose a ring for their friend something to be congratulated for?
The voice talking about the hand cream for his mother had definitely been gentle.
But after Jongseong showed up, it had sounded harsher than the day we first met at work.
I opened my phone, then closed it.
I didn’t know what to send.
What was he congratulating me on?
In the end, I never found an answer and fell asleep.
