That autumn, Park Jongseong was almost always by her side.
He would scoop side dishes onto her tray in the cafeteria line and tousle her hair in front of the lecture hall.
She would laugh every time and smack Jongseong’s arm.
Every time I saw that, I looked away.
I thought they were dating.
That seemed natural.
They’d been glued together since freshman year, and anyone could see they were close.
There was never any place for me to step in.
So I decided to let go.
Not that letting go made it happen.
"You’re weird again lately."
Seunghoon said. I didn’t answer.
*
December, the end-of-semester assembly for second semester.
I came because it was my final semester.
I decided to think that was the whole reason.
I sat in the corner seat I always sat in.
She was at the center table, laughing among her classmates.
After a few drinks had gone around, someone said loudly.
"Ah, but you and Jongseong are dating, right? Just say it already. We all know."
The table erupted in a roar.
I set my glass down.
But she wasn’t laughing.
"Absolutely not."
Her voice was firmer than I expected.
She set down her chopsticks and went serious.
"Jongseong is just a friend. Seriously. Don’t say things like that."
"Ugh, I don’t like it either."
Jongseong waved his hands dismissively.
She hit Jongseong on the shoulder, and laughter broke out at the table again.
The conversation quickly moved on to something else.
I was the only one left frozen there.
Absolutely not.
That one line kept echoing in my ears.
What I’d spent months trying to fold away all spread back open at once with that one sentence.
I said I was going to the restroom and ran into Seunghoon on the landing by the stairs.
Seunghoon saw my face and laughed.
"You heard it?"
"...Heard what."
"Forget it. Tell her before graduation. For real this time."
Instead of answering, I nodded.
It was the first time.
The first time I’d nodded at anything about her.
"Finally, huh."
Seunghoon smacked my back hard.
*
February, graduation day was clear.
All the while I wore my graduation cap and took photos with my family, my hand in my pocket was damp with sweat.
I’d decided what I was going to say weeks ago.
A sentence I’d rewritten dozens of times and read aloud dozens of times.
That umbrella is mine. I liked it from the first time I saw it.
After taking a group photo with my classmates in front of the department building, I turned around when someone called my name.
"Senior Jungwon!"
It was her.
She was holding a single yellow freesia in her hand.
"Congratulations on graduating."
She held out the flower to me.
I took it.
Our fingertips touched for just a moment.
"I’m giving one to each of the seniors in the department. I picked yours. I thought yellow would suit you."
Yellow.
I looked down at the flower.
The sentence I’d prepared had risen right up to under my throat.
That umbrella is mine.
"..."
"Senior?"
She tilted her head.
Her classmates called her name from behind.
Yeoju, let’s take a picture.
She glanced back once, then looked at me again.
"...Take care."
That was all I could get out.
"Yes! You too, senior. Oh, and congratulations on getting a job! Stay well at the company too."
She smiled brightly and ran back to her classmates.
I stood there for a long time, holding the yellow freesia.
That night, Seunghoon called and asked.
"Did you tell her?"
"...I got flowers."
"That’s it?"
"Yeah."
Seunghoon let out a very long sigh on the other end of the line.
*
After graduating, I joined HY.
Seunghoon came in the same year.
Work wasn’t hard.
After a year, the team leader started handing me the difficult cases first.
"Assistant Manager Yang doesn’t make mistakes."
When the team leader said that at a team dinner, Seunghoon laughed silently across from me.
On the way home, at the convenience store in front of the company, Seunghoon handed me a canned coffee and asked,
"Still thinking about her?"
I popped open the can.
I didn’t answer.
On rainy days, I still looked for a yellow umbrella on the street.
There were more of those umbrellas than I’d expected.
Not one of them had the black cat attached to it.
The key ring changed a few times.
The black cat never came off once.
*
In my third year at the company, it was the second week of February.
The team leader passed around a sheet of paper at the end of the meeting.
"Next month’s new hire placement list. One person’s coming to our team. We need to decide who’s taking the mentor role..."
I took the paper.
I skimmed the names absentmindedly.
Brand Marketing Team. Kim Yeoju.
My hand stopped.
It could have been the same name.
It was a common name.
But the school and department she’d graduated from were listed in the next column.
The school I’d attended, the department I’d been in.
"I’ll do it."
The words came out first.
Before the team leader had even finished speaking.
The conference room went quiet.
The team leader looked at me over his glasses.
"...You, Assistant Manager Yang? You already have a lot on your plate."
"It’s fine. The task I’m handling right now happens to be good for a new hire’s first assignment. Rather than training separately, it’d be more efficient to have them work alongside me while I explain my tasks directly."
"Now that you mention it, you’re right. All right, then Assistant Manager Yang will handle it. Thank you."
The team leader closed the papers.
As I left the meeting room, Assistant Manager Ahn Yujin, who had been sitting across from me, was looking at me with her chin propped on the tip of her pen.
With the face of someone who’d found something amusing.
I pretended not to notice and went back to my seat.
Then I opened the list again. In the sales team column was one more familiar name.
Park Jongseong.
For just a moment, the fingertips of my hand went cold.
Then I remembered that pub in December.
The face that had gone serious after setting down his chopsticks.
Absolutely not.
I folded the list and put it in the drawer.
*
From that day on, I worked overtime for a week straight.
There was already an onboarding guide for new hires.
A ten-page document the company had made, the same one everyone got.
I spread that out and opened a blank document.
Frequently used internal systems and menu locations.
Which format each team member preferred for receiving reports.
The time slots that often overlapped when booking meeting rooms.
Which floor the printer jammed on most often.
How to use the pantry coffee machine.
Restaurants that were less crowded at lunch.
By the time I was done, it had grown from ten pages to twenty.
When I saved the document, it was already past eleven at night.
"Assistant Manager Yang, you’re still here?"
Assistant Manager Yujin, who was leaving work, glanced at my monitor.
On the screen was the twenty-page document.
"For the new hire?"
"...Yes."
"Are you taking care of them that much because they’re a junior, or because you know them?"
Assistant Manager Yujin said only that much before walking toward the elevator.
It was the kind of stride that was trying not to laugh.
*
The first Monday in March.
I came to work an hour earlier than usual.
There was nothing to do by coming in early.
The guide document was already printed and put into a clear file.
My desk was already organized too.
I turned my monitor on in the empty office, then off again.
Ms. Kim Yeoju.
I called the name once in my head.
It was a name I’d never once called out loud in college.
Because it had always ended with nothing but a greeting.
When I actually tried to say it, another address felt like it might come out first.
Casual speech.
Like Yeoju.
That wouldn’t do.
This was the company, and I was her mentor.
She had to stay comfortable, not be put off by my feelings.
Ms. Kim Yeoju.
Polite speech.
I repeated those two things over and over in my head.
As nine o’clock approached, the office began to fill up.
The team leader came in, then Assistant Manager Yujin, then Mr. Kim Sunwoo came in carrying coffee.
I pretended to be looking at my monitor.
None of what was on the screen registered at all.
"Ms. Kim Yeoju? Nice to meet you. I’m Team Leader Choi Jungmin."
The team leader’s voice came from beyond the partition.
My heart thumped hard once.
"Our team runs on a mentor system. For the first few months, you’ll learn by sticking close to your mentor. Assistant Manager Yang!"
I stood up.
She was standing near the entrance.
In a suit jacket, clutching a temporary access pass in her hand instead of an employee ID. Her hair had gotten a little longer.
Other than that, nothing had changed.
She looked at me.
Her eyes went wide.
Then she smiled.
Like a crescent moon.
"Senior Jungwon!"
She was even waving.
Everyone in the office looked at her at once.
She didn’t care.
Just like the day she’d run into that pub in March, she had the face of someone simply glad to see me.
I stopped for a moment.
Just a moment, really.
In that brief instant, several years passed all at once.
I barely managed to hold on to the two things I’d repeated all night.
"...It’s been a while, Ms. Kim Yeoju."
A look of puzzlement flickered across her face for just an instant.
I pretended not to see it and held out my hand.
The handshake was brief.
If I held on any longer, she might notice my hand shaking.
"She’s my junior from college."
As I answered the team leader like that, I thought this time I wouldn’t miss my chance.
That was the day it started.
Words that never got stuck in meetings kept tripping over themselves only in front of her.
I proved from that day on, every day, that liking someone makes you stupid.
Hello! Author here 🙌
At last, Jungwon and Yeoju have safely reached the ending. To all the readers who stayed with them from the main story through the side stories, thank you so, so much!
While writing about Yang, who’s flawless at work but only in front of Yeoju pushes around a plate of fries, stares at the number pad, and turns red from the ears down, I was laughing along too. Jungwon, six years is a really long time to wait... You worked hard 🥲
I thought Yeoju was clueless until the very end, but it turns out she was the one who found Jungwon the cutest of all. From here on, the two of them are going to keep getting stupid in front of each other and live happily ever after 💛
Thank you for being with me all this time! See you again in the next story ☂️
