On Monday morning, I ran into Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon in front of the elevator.
"Good morning, Assistant Manager."
"Good morning."
The reply came back. But his eyes were on the elevator floor display.
As soon as we got to the office, Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon laid out this week’s work for me.
Five tasks, deadlines, and even where to find the reference files.
All at once, without missing a thing.
"Any questions?"
"Nope, none."
"Then let’s proceed like that."
Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon returned to his desk and turned on his monitor.
That was the end of it.
I looked down at the notebook where I’d taken notes.
It was a perfect explanation.
Nothing to fix.
Somehow, that felt strangely unfamiliar.
*
3 p.m.
Without meaning to, I looked down at my desk.
There was nothing there.
3:10. 3:30.
Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon didn’t even go out on external business.
He just kept typing at the desk right next to mine.
He didn’t go out for coffee, and he didn’t go to the break room, either.
In the end, I went to the break room alone.
I drew an iced Americano from the coffee machine.
When I took a sip, the bitterness spread sharply across the tip of my tongue.
It was the same taste I’d had on my first day at the company.
I’d been drinking it every day for nearly four months, and it had been this bitter?
*
On Wednesday, Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon came to work in a sky-blue shirt.
It was the same shirt as that day in June.
I steadied my breathing and, like that day, said casually,
"That shirt really suits you today, Assistant Manager."
Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon looked at me.
Just for a moment.
"Thanks."
Then he looked back at his monitor.
He didn’t ask me back like he had that day.
He didn’t come over right before lunch to say thanks again.
His ears didn’t turn red.
In the afternoon, feedback on the report came through the company messenger.
It was a neat message, with three places to revise, plus the reasons and how to fix them.
If it had been before, he would’ve pulled over a chair and turned the monitor toward me.
We were right next to each other, but it was the messenger.
"Assistant Manager, this part here. If you explain it directly……"
"I wrote it in the message. Just do it that way."
He wasn’t wrong.
The message was perfect.
I nodded and sat back down.
"Talking about work on the messenger is more accurate, after all."
Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon added that, without taking his eyes off the monitor.
*
Thursday lunch, the company cafeteria.
Hyunseo tapped my tray.
"Did you fight with the assistant manager?"
"……No. Why?"
"You two haven’t been talking lately. Everyone on the team noticed. Manager Yoo Jin asked me yesterday, too. She wanted to know if something happened between you and Assistant Manager Yang."
I set down my spoon.
Something happened.
I wanted to know that too.
There was only one thing that came to mind.
At the department store on Saturday, right after Jongseong barged in.
Congratulations.
At the time, no matter how much I turned it over in my head that night, I couldn’t make sense of it, but in front of Hyunseo’s question it suddenly sounded different.
We came to buy rings.
We’ll be late for our appointment.
That’s what Jongseong had said.
Holding the bouquet, holding the jewelry shopping bag, dragging my arm along with him.
And then Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon looked at my left hand.
"……No way."
"What?"
"No, I mean, maybe the assistant manager thought Jongseong and I were……"
As I trailed off, Hyunseo’s eyes went wide.
After I briefly told her about the department store, Hyunseo slapped a hand to her forehead.
"Hey, anyone would misunderstand that. Ring plus flowers plus dinner reservation? That’s a proposal."
"Jongseong has a girlfriend. Jiwon. That ring was Jiwon’s, too."
"How would the assistant manager know that?"
I had nothing to say.
"But isn’t it weird? Whoever I’m dating, why would the assistant manager go that far……"
Hyunseo didn’t answer.
She just stared at me with her spoon in hand.
Those eyes were saying,
You’re seriously asking because you don’t know?
I sipped the soup.
It tasted like nothing.
*
That afternoon, I stopped Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon in the hallway on his way to the conference room.
"Assistant Manager, wait a second."
Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon stopped walking.
He didn’t turn around.
"About last weekend at the department store. That was actually……"
"I have to get into a meeting."
My words were cut off there.
"If it’s not about work, let’s talk later."
The conference room door closed.
Through the glass, I could see his back as he sat down.
Later never came.
Not for the rest of that afternoon, and not the next morning, either.
*
Friday night, nine o’clock.
I was clutching the materials for next week’s meeting.
If things had been like before, this would’ve been the time Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon sat next to me.
Saying he wanted to look at it too.
With nothing else to do, leaving his inbox open.
Today, I packed my bag at seven.
"I’m heading out first. Finish up and lock up, please."
"Okay. Go ahead."
That was all.
He didn’t take a picture of the taxi plate, and he didn’t tell me to message him when I got home.
In the empty office, I finished the materials to the very end.
I could do it on my own.
Of course I could.
9:30.
Just as I was about to upload the file to the shared folder one last time, my hand stopped.
The appendix table I’d left blank to do on Monday had been filled in.
It was the section整理ing last quarter’s numbers, the part I got most confused about.
The file info window showed the last editor.
Yang Jeongwon. 9:12 p.m.
He’d already left work at seven.
He’d gone home, logged in remotely, and quietly filled in only the part I’d been stuck on.
Without a single message.
Without even looking at me.
Only speaking through the messenger.
Why.
Sitting on the subway home from work, my vision went blurry.
The lights of the Han River drifted past outside the window.
It was the same scenery I’d seen on my first day, when I held the orientation documents and looked out.
I started recalling every little thing about Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon.
Two spoons.
Three packets of sugar.
The button for the 25th floor.
A pen cap.
A jump rope.
And a reply that came back in one second.
At first, I liked it because it was funny.
Because it was strange how a perfect person had such an odd blind spot.
But that wasn’t it.
What I missed wasn’t the clumsy Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon.
It was the Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon who was only like that with me.
The one who broke down when he saw me.
The one who brought coffee only for me, stayed late because of me, and had red ears when I laughed.
That person doesn’t look at me now.
There was only one reason that hurt this much.
"……I think I like Assistant Manager Yang Jeongwon."
Only after I said it out loud, softly, did I understand.
The moment I realized it, he was already in the farthest place away from me.
