SURE 6

“Ah…”

“The food was great.”

“Yeees…”

I said my goodbyes to the sullen face and went out to the smoking area next to the restaurant to light a cigarette. There’s no reason for a young kid’s advance to make my heart flutter, and if it did, I’d be no different from a criminal. We must have at least a ten-year age gap. Besides, I’m not even heterosexual.

I slowly smoked my cigarette, looking out at the main street. The area near my apartment was a restaurant alley, so companies often held their dinners here. Since it was a Friday night, I could see quite a few messily drunk troops of men in neckties. I wonder if the accounting team ate something delicious… Seeing as the payment notification text hasn’t come through yet, it seems they’re enjoying their Friday with gusto.

“Team Leader! Over here! Do you see me?”

A man who looked to be an assistant manager was waving his hand and running with a phone to his ear, and my gaze naturally followed him. A car with its hazard lights on stopped at the side of the road, and the passenger-side window rolled all the way down. The man practically stuck his head through it, pointing his hand behind him as if guiding them to the public parking lot.

But then the engine turned off. Then again, that car wasn’t the only one parked on the side of the road. The man who got out of the driver’s seat closed the door and locked the car.

At that moment, I was stubbing out my cigarette butt in the ashtray. The sound of two pairs of dress shoes was cutting through all the noise and getting closer.

“Would you just leave me alone? Please, enjoy yourselves without me. I’m telling you, I want to be treated like thin air by you all, okay?”

“Hey, what’s the point of a company dinner if you’re not there, Team Leader!”

“Why are you even putting meaning into a company dinner?”

“Juuust! One drink!”

He was only verbally coaxing his superior; the two were walking at the same pace. Usually, it’s the subordinate who doesn’t want to go to the company dinner and the superior who insists on mandatory attendance, but their relationship was the opposite. It seemed that navigating social life was difficult for either side… I put the cigarette pack in my pocket and was turning to go home when.

Our eyes met. It was Shin Taeyoon.

Looking exactly as he had during the day, with his stylish clothes and not a single hair out of place, Shin Taeyoon was standing at the entrance of the restaurant alley this late at night. With his eyes fixed on me.

“Mr. Joosung. You go on in first.”

“Oh! Are you perhaps a client? Hello, I’m from Shinyoon…!”

“Go.”

He sent his junior staff away as if chasing him off, his eyes still fixed on me. I gave a slight nod to the junior staff, who was glancing around uncertainly. Compared to Shin Taeyoon, my attire was much more casual. My necktie was loosened and hung below my Adam’s apple, and a cool breeze seeped in through my unbuttoned shirt. The collar of my jacket was fluttering as well.

“We’re seeing each other twice today, aren’t we?”

Just as he had when he first greeted Team Leader Lim, Shin Taeyoon lowered his head slightly to meet my eyes. After downing four glasses of beer while tired, my eyes were starting to get hazy, so despite being in front of someone I needed to be tense around, I felt limp.

“Yes. It looks like you’re in the middle of a company dinner, so you should get going too, Mr. Shin.”

“I don’t have to go.”

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

“Mr. CEO.”

He stopped me with his words as I was about to leave with a silent nod. He was a potential client, so I needed to maintain proper business etiquette, but I was just so tired, especially after the cigarette.

“If it’s about work, let’s talk about it when the second meeting is scheduled.”

“No, I wasn’t trying to talk about work.”

Shin Taeyoon strode closer and was suddenly right in front of me. I instinctively took a step back, and he closed the distance by that much. Shin Taeyoon didn’t lay a single fingertip on me as I swayed like a drunk person, but he stood at a distance that could be misunderstood by others as being pressed close and whispered.

“I was just saying, have a good weekend. And please get back to me as soon as possible.”

The voice that pierced through the noise and wind was just like the dizzying night. The scent of cologne that wafted over tried to settle softly on my clothes, which were a mess of grilled food and cigarette smoke, before being carried away by a sudden gust of wind. Shin Taeyoon was already far away.