Please Be Quiet And Take Off Your “Something”

ng in, Na-Yool’s eyes anxiously stared towards the outside while the door closed.
Despite all the insignificant and harmless memories that Sang-Hoon had left behind, right now it did not seem incongruous at all that someone, him or whoever else, was lurking in the dark ready to spring out and barge in.

Just as the door closed with a click and Na-Yool had turned to go to the upper floor, a sudden ringing startled her.
Panicked, she quickly retracted her feet which were about to climb up the stairs and reflexively glued herself to the wall, only to feel her own action quite ridiculous the next second.
She slowly lifted her cell phone up to her eyes, resolutely facing the unknown fear and determined to immediately throw the phone away if a strange call number was to be displayed.

[President Kwon Si-Jin]

A deep sigh of relief released itself from her abdomen.
With just that one call, waves of reassurance surged in her heart.
Na-Yool leaned on the wall and slowly resumed walking up to her apartment floor as she picked up the call.

“Hello?”

‒Where are you?

“In front of my apartment.
Almost in.”

Literally.
She indeed was pressing the dial keys.

‒Did you part?

“What?”

‒With Lee Seung-Jae.

“We already parted a moment ago.”

‒What do you mean?

“What do you mean, Mr.
President?”

Na-Yool’s body relaxed as she entered the room warmed by the boiler turned on.
She adjusted the temperature as she mumbled a “I forgot to turn it off again” out of habit, when the slightly irritated voice on the other side sounded even more annoyed.

‒You stuck to Lee Seung-Jae to hang out together on your way back…

“I told you, we take the same train home.”

‒…but did you really go home alone?

While ‘stuck to Lee Seung-Jae to hang out together’ clearly voiced out a form of displeasure, his last question was closer to a fist of anger.
Na-Yool rebutted with agitation.

“…Should I have brought him in then?”

Si-Jin smiled sharply as if he had heard something greatly offensive.

‒That would be fun.

“Your tone does not sound so amused, though.”

‒I’m not freaking amused.

Si-Jin’s attitude flipped, as natural as ever, bluntly affirming he was not having fun.
All in all, she really could not figure him out… Na-Yool glanced down at her phone and pouted her lips.

‒Why does this bastard insist on leaving work with you if he is not even going to take you all the way back home?

“How could he, he does not even have a car.
It’s just that we live in the same direction, and that we finished work around the same time…”

Some grumpiness clouded Na-Yool’s eyes.
It was strange for him to be angry that Seung-Jae did not take her right to her apartment door, when Si-Jin himself hated the fact that they had left together.
Because, at the very least, it meant that Na-Yool reaching home not alone was more important to him than his irritation about her leaving with Seung-Jae.

How could such a case not bring more wishful thinking? Na-Yool organized the clothes lying under her feet, in an attempt to ward any unnecessary thoughts off her mind.

‒He doesn’t even have a car, yet he dares? What a frugal bastard with nothing to show off.

“Saying it like that, it sounds like you are instead praising Lee Seung-Jae.”

As if he felt so too, Si-Jin remained silent for a moment.

‒You ride together for only two stations, that’s it.
And walk up a few station stairs.
But he would stick to you even like this just to exchange a few words with you, isn’t he cute?

“Really, what’s wrong with all of you… Seung-Jae does not like me!”

‒That’s what you want to believe.

“That is not what I want to believe, it is a fact.
Do you know what he told me today?”

‒How would I know?

The voice was soft, but because it was, it rather sounded like a subtle “how dare I pretend to know the deep meaning of that guy’s words” grumbling.
Of course, Na-Yool had become accustomed enough to Si-Jin’s vague way of speaking to ignore it.