Nonetheless, her pose and posturing were enticing to him. Her see-through outfit in the middle of the winter would be suitable for an actress attending a film festival, and it looked like she was fully confident of her full bust.

“Oh, you must have been working up until now. Thanks for your hard work,” said Minhye, approaching him as if she had been waiting for him.

“Well, performance does matter more than my hard work. I wish I could have shown you some tangible outcomes. By the way, why are you still in the office at this hour?”

“I’ve got to take care of some paperwork. I’m done now. Did you have dinner?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Shall we have some beer? I’d like to have a beer with you today of all days. You don’t have any other appointment, right?”

Then, she embraced his forearm lightly. He felt her full bust more fully because of her open shirt.

He just scratched his head. Of course, he had no appointment. Though he had a lot of friends or acquaintances in Seoul, all of them were busy. Since she moved to the headquarters in Seoul, she persistently tried to tempt him. At the first gathering for dinner in Seoul, she wanted to have a great time with him alone, and whenever she was available, she called him.

She had only one purpose: winning his heart.

Initially, Hyunwoo responded to her request favorable a couple of times, but at some point, he decided he should stop it. In particular, he was afraid Younggu might misunderstand his relationship with her. It took lots of time and efforts to turn Yonggu, his one-time rival and enemy, to his side. Hyunwoo couldn’t afford to lose a valuable friend like Younggu because of Minhye, especially since he was not interested in her at all. It was also for the benefit of Minhye. When he clearly showed her that he was not interested, she would not approach him anymore.

“My friends are waiting for me now. Why don’t you have a beer with Yonggu?”

At that moment, she pulled a face because she knew Hyunwoo was lying, but she could not argue with him.

With a reluctant smile she said, “Oh, I see. See you then.”

Hyunwoo left the office. He was planning to stay in the office that night because he felt more comfortable there than in his small apartment that only had one bed and a small desk for his computer and cost 350,000 won a month. Instead, Hyunwoo went straight to his lodging. As it had no restroom, he had to use the common restroom. The only benefit he got from staying there was that it was within walking distance from Space Design.

As soon as he arrived, he took off his clothes and turned on the computer.

He wanted to work on Story Mecca a little more, but too tired to do so.

He also had to get up early in the morning to move around several studio sets.

“I can’t do anything now. I need a break.”

Hyunwoo turned off the computer and hit the sack.

In the meantime, Minhye went back to her office pretty upset.

Of course, she was angry about Hyunwoo.

You’re going to keep acting mean to me like that?

She felt she needed a winning move.

After a little bit of agonizing, she turned her mouth up slightly and then murmured, Okay, let’s see who wins the game. You’re a man, aren’t you?

*

Hyunwoo ran around the sets every day. Though he missed the field work when he was in the office, he now missed the office work as he was too physically exhausted out in the field.

When he got back late at night, he found the lights were on again.

He thought it was Minhye, but it was someone he never expected to see.

He was Youngsu Park, the former purchasing team manager and now sales executive of Space Design.

“Sir, you haven’t called it a day yet?”

“Oh, you’re late today. Well, I’ve got nothing to do at home. Today of all days nobody is calling me for a drink.”

“Sometimes you need a break, hahaha.”

“You’re right. Still, you have to if you feel like a drink. Do you have any appointments?”

Hyunwoo just scratched his head. Though he had no appointment, he knew that once he had a drink with Youngsu, he knew he would have to stay with him at least until 2 am.

As if he already read Hyunwoo’s mind, Youngsu giggled, “Until midnight only. I’ll let you go then. You had better be a good drinking pal in a situation like this.”

“Hahaha, yes, sir. Let’s go now.”

Both of them had a drink over pork backbone stew.

Youngsu was completely different from his past. He treated Hyunwoo not as his subordinate but as an old pal. As he was so good at cracking jokes, two hours passed quickly.

He drank a lot. As he promised to let Hyunwoo go by midnight, he had to drink a lot quickly.

Despite that, he was still sober.

At that moment, Hyunwoo picked up his mobile phone to check the time, but Youngsu noticed it and raised his voice, “Hey, dude. That sucks. I’ll let you go on time, so don’t grab the phone from now on.”

“Got it.”

Hyunwoo quickly put the phone in his pocket and checked out the time on the wall clock.

Youngsu already got wind of it and said, “You don’t have to confirm it. It’s only 11 pm. Oops, I’ve got only one hour to go. Let’s go to another place. Let’s have a very fine drink there.”

They moved to a cocktail bar and ordered one cup each. A while later, a woman came in without any friends. She was none other than Minhye. What’s more surprising was she was pretty drunk already.

She was about to fall, walking with faltering steps.

A surprised waiter came out quickly to support her.

“Oh my god. Are you okay? You look drunk. Why don’t you go home today…”

But he was stopped by Youngsu, “She is my family.”

Only then did Minhye begin to recognize Youngsu.

“Oh, who is this? Hey, brother~”

Youngsu pulled a face at that, raising his voice, “Where did you drink so much?”

“With my friends, of course. I just wanted to take away the aftertaste here.”

“Then, sit over here,” said Youngsu.

As she was staggering so much, he placed her on a stool between him and Hyunwoo.

At that moment, Youngsu got a call from someone.

“Hey, dude. If you call me at this time, when are you going to end the drinking? What? Have you ever seen me avoiding the drinking occasion? Where are you now?”

And then he looked at Hyunwoo, “Sorry, but please take care of her. Okay?”

“Oh, yes, of course…”

Then, he quickly left the cocktail bar, leaving Hyunwoo and Minhye alone.

Minhye was so happy to be with him alone that she clapped her hands and laughed.

“Wow, we’re left alone. Great!”

With a perplexed expression on his face, Hyunwoo said, “Let’s go. Let me give you a ride to your hotel.”

“No, no. I’m going to have just a cup of tequila. You order a whiskey.”

She ordered a cup of tequila and Valentine whiskey in slurred words.

“Okay, then. That’s the last drink.”

“Shh! You shouldn’t press on me when I have a drink. Okay?”

Then she raised one of her fingers and put it on his lips gently.

She began to lament her hard fate such as “I haven’t met a man I really love until now,” “the man she really loves doesn’t like her,” “I can’t go to sleep because of the burden of succeeding her father’s business.”

Hyunwoo just listened to her without replying.

She leaned against him saying that she was tired, held his arm saying she was lonely, or held his face exclaiming, “How handsome!” and even touched his groin. Of course, she did so by mistake, or it might have been her intentional act disguised as a mistake. Completely drunk, she fell and instinctively reached out her hand to balance her body. It was rotten luck that the spot she reached out her hand was his groin.

He was stunned enough to feel as if his heart stopped. He might have shouted if he had the wherewithal.

“Oh my god, what is this?” said she, holding his groin. It only lasted just one second.

If Hyunwoo hadn’t stopped her, she was about to open his zipper.

No matter how patiently he controlled his desire, he was aroused.

He quickly stood up, though, as he was so embarrassed.

“Let me go to the restroom for a minute…”

And then he went outside quickly.

Calming himself down, he went back inside.

He found her resting her chin on her hand, with her eyes closed.

Though Hyunwoo woke her up, she didn’t react at all as if she was asleep.

He paid the balance and took a taxi.

When the taxi arrived at her hotel, she woke up, but she wouldn’t go inside, and she didn’t show any ugly behavior a moment ago.

“Why don’t we have another drink?”

Hyunwoo nodded and said, “Yes, but not me. You had better have a drink with that friend of yours.I’m too drunk now.”

Hyunwoo gestured his eyes toward someone.

Minhye turned her head with a suspicious look, and she was quite surprised enough to flinch.

It was Yonggu.

“Oh my god, Manager Yonggu!”

Minhye instantly distanced herself from Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo smiled bitterly, murmuring, “It was what I expected. She tried to deceive me. I think I did it right to call Yonggu.”

Yonggu slowly approached her. She seemed tense as if she was caught dating another man, but Yonggu didn’t get angry or embarrassed or even resentful.

He just silently came to her and said courteously, “May I stay with you?”

With an embarrassed look, she looked at Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo said, “Let me take my leave then.”

Hyunwoo left, Yonggu will take care of her anyway.

And Minhye would clearly realize that it was a far fetched dream to make Hyunwoo her man.

As soon as he arrived at his lodging, Hyunwoo threw himself on the bed.

He felt that the small room looked very large because he was alone there.

Suddenly, he missed Suji. He would feel so at peace if he heard her voice.

At that moment, he opened his eyes wide and saw a text message from her during the day.

It said, “Suji is sick.”

He sent back a text message, but as he was so busy, it was just a routine response. Reading his simple message, she texted him another message and he replied. Like that, they exchanged several text messages, and she kept sending the messages, but he stopped the messages, with the excuse that he was too busy.

Come to think of it, obviously, Suji was upset.

He quickly opened his cell phone.

Damn it. It’s already past 1 am.

It was too late for him to call or send her a text message.

Shall I still send her a text message just like a crazy guy?

He agonized for a moment, and that made him feel happy. He felt as if she was his girlfriend.

Suddenly, he recalled Yu Zung’s words back in Vietnam. She talked about the yardstick that differentiates a girlfriend from a sweetheart.

Based on her yardstick, Suji was only a girlfriend to him.

However, Hyunwoo felt that Suji was his sweetheart although he didn’t have any active physical contact with her. Suji tried to meddle in everything related to him.

In particular, the way she reacted when he decided to move to Space Design clearly showed she also felt he was her sweetheart. At that time, she had been really nervous about separating from him. That was enough evidence that she also thought of him as her sweetheart.

When he thought as far as that, his agony was gone instantly.

If both felt they were sweethearts, they should be able to have contact anytime, night or day, whenever they wanted to without any burden, he thought.

Sure, let me just send her a text message.

After he sent it to her, he waited for a response, just in case, but she didn’t reply. Perhaps, she was asleep because it was past 1 am.

About the same time Suji was lying in bed, with the light turned off, but she was awake. In fact, She could not go to sleep because of Hyunwoo. She suddenly sat up in bed and gently opened her cell phone to check if there were any messages from Hyunwoo, but there was still no message or call from him.

She threw it on the bed cutely and said, “What the heck is this person? Why is he so mean to me?”

Suddenly, she regretted sending him text messages during the day. She even pretended she was sick to draw his attention. Though Hyunwoo was not aware of it, she felt ashamed of herself because she felt she was now turning to all kinds of methods to tempt him.

“What am I doing now? Why should I look so cheap to him?”

She even thought of ending her relationship with him. If she did so, he would rush to her and kneel down with profuse apologies. Come to think of it, it was ridiculous that she would declare an end of the relationship with him. It was true that both of them had favorable feelings toward each other, but they were not on intimate terms.

“Yea, we’re not dating anyway. I don’t have any reason to get nervous like this. Let me just stop paying attention to him from now on.”

And then she lay down in bed again and pulled up the blanket over her head nervously.

At that moment, she heard something like a vibration from her cell phone.

With a feeling of pleasant surprise, she quickly sat up in bed and snatched the cell phone.

At that moment her face brightened, “It arrived!”

It was a text message from Hyunwoo.

She looked at it as if her cell phone was his face, “Chee. Were you so busy? I was, too.”

She habitually composed her reply but quickly pushed the cancel button.

“Oh my god! What am I doing now?”

It was already 1 am. If she sent it now, it would give him the impression that she was waiting for his message.

Suji once again looked at the phone with a smile on her lips.

“Bah, you kept me waiting all day long. It’s your turn to get anxious. Do you think it’s that easy to get a reply from me?”

And then she closed the phone and lay down in bed again as she felt that she could finally go to sleep peacefully.