Marriage Mate: 17

After finishing the consultation, Yu-young sighed as he held the prescription bag and headed home.

“That bastard, such a jerk, heartless fool, not even a drop of blood would come out if you stabbed him…” No matter how many curses he threw together, his anger wouldn’t subside. Just a few days ago, he had merely thought he was annoying and unpleasant, but now, looking back, those feelings seemed almost childish.

No matter how unlucky and annoying he was, if he was just a neighbor living next door, wouldn’t it be enough to just avoid him? Even if they met, he could simply ignore him and walk by. But for some reason, he had ended up in an entangled relationship that he couldn’t escape.

“Even worse, he’s someone my father paid a lot to bring in.”

Just the fact that he was brought in made him so angry he could barely stand it. Of course, his father didn’t bring him in personally, but still, allowing someone with such a bad personality to join, and worse, praising him as a great and solid young man—Yu-young couldn’t stand it.

His father even told him, “If you naturally feel a fondness for him, don’t suppress it,” and even started making plans about having children. Remembering those words, Yu-young felt genuine disgust rise in him.

“What’s this? Children? Ha! Unbelievable…”

Sorry, but even if all of humanity were to go extinct, leaving only Choi Do-won and himself on this planet, there would be no way they would have children. The hope for humanity?

Sorry, but that’s where humanity’s future ends.

Grumbling, Yu-young reached the 27th floor where his apartment was. Seeing the house next door eerily quiet, he figured his neighbor hadn’t returned yet. What did it matter? After glancing at the front door of the apartment next door, he slammed his door shut and entered his home. Slumping down onto the couch, he barely managed to take off his tie and toss it to the side.

“I want to quit… Damn it.”

A beast-like groan escaped from hos throat. Writhing on the sofa, Yu-young couldn’t shake off the terrible day he had.

….

“Assistant Han, good morning. When did you leave work yesterday…?”

“Oh, yesterday…”

Yu-young forced a bitter smile as he thought about last night, which he didn’t even want to recall, while Kim Ju-yeon tried to engage him in conversation.

“I left pretty early, around 7?”

“I see. It must have been tough, huh? You didn’t even have lunch.”

“I’m fine. The team leader…”

Yu-young waved his hand dismissively to Ju-yeon, who was sympathetically looking at him, and looked around. The team leader’s office light was still on, and the door was wide open, indicating he was at work but had stepped out for a while.

“By the way, where is the team leader?”

“Oh, he’s just visiting another department for a bit. By the way, did the team leader treat you to dinner?”

“Haha, that’s not likely. That guy…”

Yu-young almost insulted him out loud but stopped himself. He hadn’t known him for long, but it would take a long time to explain all the incidents he had already been involved in with him.

“Anyway, not like that, he just bought me a sandwich for lunch.”

“A sandwich?”

With her eyes wide open, Ju-yeon covered her mouth with her hand.

“Wait, the team leader bought you a sandwich because he thought you’d go hungry!?”

“Uh, yeah. But…”

“Wow! That’s so sweet! I can’t believe it! How can someone with such a perfect face also have such perfect character?”

Watching her clap and shake her head in disbelief, Yu-young was speechless. Perfect character? Even a dog walking by would laugh and cry upon hearing that.

“That guy just thinks if a team member goes hungry, it makes him feel incompetent, so he bought it for me.” Yu-young almost said that out loud, but just then, the office door opened, and Choi Do-won entered.

“Good morning, team leader. How are you?”

“Good morning.”

Ju-yeon greeted him cheerfully first, and Do-won responded in a calm, gentle voice, though not smiling. He wasn’t as unfriendly as he had been with him, but his voice and demeanor made him seem very gentlemanly to an outsider. Yu-young couldn’t believe his eyes. It was completely different from how he had been with him, and je was disgusted by it, but since he was his superior, he had to greet him, so he reluctantly lowered his head.

Do-won spoke in a stiff, business-like voice.

“Assistant Han, please come to my office.”

With just that, he turned and walked into the team leader’s office. It was a completely different attitude compared to how he treated Ju-yeon. Yu-young, frustrated and ready to talk behind his back, looked back at Ju-yeon, but Ju-yeon was already looking at Do-won with an expression of someone completely in love.

“Isn’t he just so cool? His voice is so… sexy.”

“Sigh… Ju-yeon, that’s not his real side. He’s really not a nice person. Didn’t you see how he treated me in the team leader’s office yesterday?”

Yu-young muttered under his breath, and Ju-yeon nodded emphatically.

“Ah, that’s true. Yesterday, seeing how the team leader completely made the deputy director’s life miserable…”

“What do you mean? Did he make the deputy director miserable?” Yu-young asked, confused.

“Wait, you don’t know? Oh, right. You didn’t have lunch with us.” Ju-yeon bent down and whispered to Yu-young.

“Yesterday, when we went to lunch, the deputy director looked completely down. I guess I casually asked why, and he said the team leader told him to rewrite the report.”

“…What? The report?”

Yu-young’s eyes widened. He’d never heard that before.

“Not just fix it, but completely redo it, from scratch, like a blank sheet of paper.”

“No way, that took over ten days to finish…”

“Exactly. To be honest, if it were someone like Assistant Han, it would have taken ten days, but if it were the deputy director, he probably would’ve been stuck with it for a month. But apparently, he was told to redo it within two weeks.”

No wonder the deputy director’s face had been completely rotten after lunch yesterday. But if that was the case, his personality would’ve made him subtly pressure me to go over the report together…? Yu-young tilted his head, and Ju-yeon added an explanation.

“Also, he warned the deputy director not to let the contents of the report overlap with yours. He said if he freeloaded off your work again, they’d have a disciplinary committee. He said that with such a fierce look on his face.”

“Wow.”

Yu-young sighed in disbelief.

To be honest, yesterday had been frustrating and upsetting. It wasn’t just about being scolded by the annoying team leader or being asked to rewrite the report from scratch.

It was unfair that he had to take on work that wasn’t even his, but it was even more frustrating to see the deputy director doing nothing while he was the one getting scolded. He had even wondered if he was just trying to make him suffer because of the bad blood between them over the past few days.

But it seemed like he was more fair than he’d thought. A little piece of the resentment he’d built up inside seemed to melt away.

“He really has an amazing personality. Well, handsome people do tend to get away with a lot, don’t they? But Yu-young, aren’t you supposed to go? Didn’t the team leader ask for you in his office?”

“…Sigh… Yeah, I should go…”

Yu-young stood up reluctantly, feeling like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse. Just looking at the team leader’s office door made his head throb.

“He’s definitely going to say something. After I made such a mess yesterday…” He hadn’t said anything too harsh to the team leader, but he had stood his ground. If his father found out, he would probably think he was a disappointment. He would ask if he’d caused another problem because he couldn’t handle things for just a few days, telling him to quit the job and just get married quietly instead.

Judging by the team leader’s cold demeanor, he might have already reported it to his father. Yu-young let out a sigh, trying to maintain a calm expression as he knocked on the team leader’s door.

“Come in.”

Hearing the business-like voice, Yu-young opened the door.

Today, I’ll just hold back. I can’t cause any more trouble.

Resolutely, he stepped into the office, hos mind set. Walking up to Do-won, who was looking at his monitor, he stood before him. He slowly lifted his gaze from the screen to meet his.

He took a deep breath in and out. His eyes, staring directly at him, were calm yet intense. No matter when, his gaze always seemed to look straight through people without hesitation.

“Did you… call for me?”

“Did you go to the hospital yesterday?”

“…Huh?”

Yu-young had expected him to scold him first, asking why he had acted up the way he did and left, or perhaps make a comment about the report. But his first words were completely unexpected, and he blankly repeated his question.

Without offering any other response, Do-won raised his eyebrows, prompting Yu-young to realize the meaning of his words a moment later.

“…Oh, yesterday… I went for an evening consultation.”

“I figured as much.”

“….”

Yu-young had taken his medication this morning, so the concentration was likely much lower compared to yesterday. Remembering his calm and indifferent expression as he breathed in and out, Yu-young’s ears turned red for no reason.

Do-won let out a short sigh, still staring at Yu-young with unwavering focus. He slowly began to speak.

“I’ll correct something that Assistant Han seems to have misunderstood about yesterday.”