Marriage Mate: 25

Struggling, Yu-young composed himself and began getting ready for work. Even if the sky fell, he had to go to work first. The only relief was that after he had thrown up at the team leader’s house, he no longer felt nauseous. If he were to sit in the office today looking miserable after acting like a troublemaker yesterday, it would be the most embarrassing sight.

Tomatoes are the best for hangovers. After washing up, Yu-young was about to make some simple tomato juice when he remembered Do-won, who had been blending something in the mixer just a moment ago.

‘You don’t expect me to make you breakfast, right?’ His expression while trying to shoo him away with a smug look, also crossed his mind.

‘If you know, just leave, okay?’

A surge of resentment quietly rose within him. For a while, he had forgotten that the team leader was such an unpleasant person, because he had been feeling guilty and apologetic for causing trouble after spending the night at his place.

Yu-young pressed the button on the blender with an angry expression. The red fruit quickly turned into liquid.

However, he didn’t have the right to dislike the team leader. At least, not for the next few days. After all, he had been a real pain to the team leader yesterday. If the roles were reversed, and Yu-young was the team leader and Do-won was his team member, there was no way he would have taken him in and let him stay. He probably would have kicked him out and gone home.

That aside, what happens now? Yu-young clenched his lips and poured the red tomato juice into a cup.

He had said he would think it over and deal with it later, so he probably wouldn’t report it to the higher-ups right away. If he stayed quiet and did his job without drawing attention, maybe the team leader would let the incident slide without making a fuss.

Of course, given the team leader’s strict and inflexible personality, the chances of that happening seemed slim, but as he had said, he was still early in his career and very busy, so maybe he would consider it a drunken mishap and move on.

Anyway, there shouldn’t be any more mistakes.

After finishing his preparations, Yu-young got into the car with a heavy heart. His car was now running smoothly after being reparation. Reflecting on the past few days, it felt like every possible setback had hit him. At this point, he thought he should probably consult with a fortune-teller.

Forget it. Just forget yesterday’s mess and focus on work… While driving, Yu-young searched for a playlist that began with something energetic to start the day. When a familiar song came on, he started humming along loudly.

By the time he was belting out the eighth song, Yu-young arrived at the office.

“Assistant Han!”

It was still early, Yu-young widened his eyes at Yoon-seok, who had arrived early. He seemed to have just gotten there too. Yu-young awkwardly raised his hand in greeting, and Yoon-seok immediately ran over.

“Are you okay?”

“Well… as you can see, I’m fine.” Yu-young gave a weak smile, and Yoon-seok leaned down and whispered.

“About yesterday… do you remember anything?”

“Yes… I remember all of it, and it’s embarrassing.”

“Assistant Han…”

“Yoon-seok, should I just die? Haha…”

Yu-young, slumped over his desk and sounding like he was about to cry, felt something placed beside him with a soft thud. Then, a gentle hand began to rub his shoulder. Surprised, Yu-young turned his head to find Yoon-seok smiling warmly at him.

“Cheer up, Assistant Han… I bought some honey water this morning because I thought of you.”

“Yoon-seok…”

Looking at the honey water on his desk, Yu-young’s nose twitched. How could he be so kind? After all the harsh treatment he’d gotten these past few days, it almost brought him to tears to know that someone was caring for him like this.

“I should be the one taking care of you…”

“It’s alright. I’m fine. Let’s do our best today!” Yoon-seok, with smile, looked up at Yu-young and raised his fists energetically. Yu-young also smiled brightly and raised his own fists in return. At that moment, a clear voice came from behind.

“Yu-young!”

“Ju-yeon…”

“Oh, Yu-young, I’m really losing my mind! Are you feeling alright?” Unlike Yoon-seok, Ju-yeon, who was blunt, immediately ran over and started slapping his back.

“Ugh, ugh, if you keep hitting my back like that… I might throw up here!”

“Stop joking around! Do you know how worried I was yesterday?”

Ju-yeon fussed and grabbed Yoon-seok’s arm.

“Yoon-seok and I were so worried, we even considered following you in a taxi!”

“That’s right. I was really… ugh, I was scared of the team leader…”

After glancing at the team leader’s office, which had the lights on, Yoon-seok and Ju-yeon lowered their voices.

Yu-young asked with a barely audible voice.

“Why is the team leader…?”

“Why, what? Don’t you remember, Yu-young?”

“No… I remember everything clearly. I grabbed his collar, yelled at him, pressed my face to his chest… I remember everything.”

If he heard it confirmed again through someone else’s mouth, Yu-young felt like he would want to jump out of the office before even starting work. Before Ju-yeon could bring up the terrible events of last night, Yu-young made a gloomy expression.

“Do you remember everything!? Anyway, the team leader had a super scary look on his face and said he was going to take you home!”

“…Really?”

“Yeah, yeah. So we were shocked and asked if the team leader knew where your house was, and he said it was nearby. I mean, what kind of coincidence is that?!”

It doesn’t seem like a coincidence, but a bad luck… Yu-young muttered inwardly, making a grim face.

“I was so worried the team leader was going to dump you somewhere, you know?”

“Hahaha…”

“You made it home safely, right, Yu-young? You weren’t… sleeping on the street or something, right?”

“Ah… yeah… well, it’s…”

He hesitated to speak, embarrassed to say it was the team leader’s house, not the street. Although they were the same gender, it felt different—They were an Alpha and an Omega. As Ju-yeon and Yoon-seok eagerly waited for his response with curious eyes, a calm voice interrupted from behind.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Manager!”

After greeting them with a peaceful expression and raising his hand, the manager entered his office. Seeing that the manager didn’t say anything specific to Yu-young, it seemed the team leader’s words were true—that only Yun-seok and Ju-yeon knew about yesterday’s incident. Yu-young let out a sigh of relief, quietly feeling at ease.

“Anyway, I’m glad nothing major happened. Let’s stay strong!”

“Fighting! Assistant, fighting!”

“What about me, Yoon-seok?”

“Hahaha, Assistant Kim, fighting too!”

Ju-yeon grumbled as Yoon-seok raised his fist in support only for Yu-young, so Yoon-seok awkwardly smiled and raised his fist toward Ju-yeon as well. The two of them whispered something to each other and sat at their desks.

Since Ju-yeon had been Yoon-seok’s senior, their desks were placed next to each other, and even after the training period ended, Yoon-seok continued to follow Ju-yeon. For some reason, though, Yoon-seok seemed to like Yu-young even more than Ju-yeon, which occasionally made Ju-yeon jealous. Yu-young, noticing this, had quietly hidden the honey water he received from Yoon-seok as soon as Ju-yeon appeared.

Yu-young took a sip of the drink. It was warm and sweet, making him feel energized.

Yeah, let’s stay positive.

Yu-young slowly took out his things from his bag and finished preparing for work. He usually arrived early, but today he had come in a little earlier, giving him extra time.

Yu-young placed the last item he had brought from his bag onto his desk. It was a postcard from his favorite photographer, Won, which was a special postcards from the photo book he had released recently. Yu-young loved all his pictures, but this one was his favorite.

It was a photo of an endless snowy field. The untouched white snow looked almost noble. True to his usual style of black-and-white photos, this one was also in monochrome, but the brightness reflected off the snow in the sunlight made the purity of the white snow stand out.

In the distance, far away, a single bare tree stood alone. There were no other objects in the frame, just the endless snow field and the sky above it. The photo was filled with perfect, clear light, and the light particles reflected upward, almost like a mirror.

In front of such overwhelming beauty of nature, one couldn’t help but feel humble. Every time Yu-young looked at this photo, he felt a sense of detachment. Everything he had struggled so hard to hold on to seemed insignificant.

But that didn’t mean everything felt pointless. When looking at the grand nature, the problems he had carried around seemed small and unimportant. The subject in the photo always seemed to offer Yu-young comfort. It reminded him that he was doing well and not to try too hard.

Yu-young placed the postcard in a frame he had prepared earlier and set it beside his computer monitor.

Alright, ready to work.

Yu-young smiled contentedly as he turned on his computer. It seemed like the bad luck had really been sticking lately, so bringing his favorite postcard had been a good choice. Just seeing it already gave him energy.