Chapter 5. Do I Like You?
“It’s lunchtime. We should go eat.”
“But why aren’t you putting on your coat…….”
“We’re going to the company cafeteria. Why would I dress up?”
“T-The company cafeteria?”
Why is he going to the company cafeteria, which he has never once visited until now, at this timing…….
“Aren’t you coming? If you have an appointment, you can eat separately.”
“That’s fine…… No. I’m going now.”
***
……I got rejected.
Without even getting to confess.
Sob, sob. How many days had it been since I spent my nights crying my eyes out?
When I looked up from my work, I saw Yoonseo and Jihoon making something resembling sign language before heading outside.
Ah, so that was their signal.
I can’t believe I’m only seeing it now.
You bastards!
My pain, my wounds!
My wounds hadn’t even begun to heal yet.
And I still had to eat with the two of them.
I even considered going out to eat separately.
Seriously, I had no appetite, so why did it have to be braised pork ribs today of all days?
Such a beautiful, glossy brown color.
And the meat comes right off the bone in one bite.
Just as I was tearing into the ribs, thinking that since things had come to this, I might as well nourish my body at least.
I heard someone exclaim softly.
“It’s the president!”
Then came the whispers.
“The president? The president?”
“It’s really the president!”
“No way!”
“What’s the president doing in the company cafeteria?”
Dana raised her head.
Who turned on the lights?
A face so radiant it was almost blinding, sexy eyes, and captivating lips.
A being so beautiful that even the god of beauty would be jealous had entered the cafeteria and was filling his tray with food.
But what was going on?
Not another executive, but the president himself in the company cafeteria.
It seemed to be the first time since I joined the company.
Ah, he must have been busy.
Judging by the fact that he was wearing only a dress shirt without a jacket or tie, it seemed he had just come down after working.
He really does look like the protagonist of a comic.
He has everything—the looks, the physique, the aura.
His family owns Lion Group, and his position is president.
He’s smart and good at his job, too?
What kind of life would it be to have nothing lacking?
Someone like that probably never experiences the pain of heartbreak.
I had lived thinking that an ordinary life was the best kind of life.
But today, of all days, I envied him.
I was looking at the president with nothing more than simple curiosity, as though he were a celebrity, when I wondered if it was just my imagination that our eyes met as he looked around.
It probably was.
The distance between him and the table where I was sitting was quite far.
But the fact that he was walking this way didn’t seem like a delusion.
That’s right.
It wasn’t.
The president sat down at the table right beside Dana.
“…….”
Right.
Everyone has the freedom to sit wherever they want.
I was about to start eating again when Jihoon and Yoonseo began staring at me with eyes full of interest, as if they were watching some dating show.
“Why……?”
Yoonseo and Jihoon kept shifting their eyes toward the table beside us.
They even smiled slyly from time to time.
Why?
What?
What is it?
When I turned my head in the direction their eyes were pointing, puzzled.
My eyes met the president’s.
Our eyes met with a click.
Oh my.
He’s handsome.
He’s startlingly handsome even when you already know it.
It wasn’t my cafeteria, but I was still amazed that such a distinguished person had come to this shabby cafeteria……
Wait!
Along with the feeling that I had suddenly forgotten something, an ominous sensation swept over me.
What is it?
What?
What is it?
At the strange feeling that suddenly came over her, Dana looked away first.
Then Yoonseo suddenly placed her hand over Dana’s and whispered softly.
“Lucky you, Dana.”
What was lucky about this?
“You get to look at the face of the person you like while eating.”
What is she talking about?
Who is the person I like……
Gasp!
“Crazy!”
Ah, right.
Don’t I like the president?
……I barely stopped the words from escaping my mouth by covering it with my hand.
I had completely forgotten.
Who I had been lying to, and what kind of lie I had told.
Only after realizing the situation did my face grow hot.
Earlier, I had simply thought he must have come down because he was busy.
But surely the president hadn’t come down to the company cafeteria because hearing my confession had caused some kind of change of heart, right?
“……,”
Come on.
No matter how I looked at it, that was far too self-important.
This company belongs to the president, not me.
He can eat wherever he wants, can’t he?
Still, as a member of the Crisis Management Team.
What should I do if, just in case, just in case, this whole situation had happened because of that ridiculous confession?
‘Um, President. What I said recently wasn’t sincere.’
‘Who are you?’
Haha, of course.
Why would the president know who I am?
He might not have heard me.
It wasn’t exactly far enough for him not to hear, though.
Besides, didn’t I speak rather loudly?
I had spoken loudly enough that even someone inside the completely closed emergency exit could hear me.
No.
Maybe he has bad hearing?
Since the president is perfect in every way, surely he could have at least one flaw, right?
Adding thought upon thought, I subtly covered my face with my hand and glanced sideways at Ihun.
I flinched.
Somehow, I felt like our eyes had met again, so I quickly looked away.
Damn it, should I prostrate myself before him and apologize even now?
‘Um, President. The truth is, I don’t like you.’
‘And?’
‘Pardon?’
‘So what? How many women who like me do you think there are?’
……Yeah.
That sounds right.
He would probably say something like that.
He looks so aloof that he seems impossible to even approach.
“But it’s my first time seeing the president this close. He really is handsome.”
Jihoon, sitting across from me, whispered in a very low voice.
Yoonseo, sitting right beside him, opened her eyes wide and replied.
“Even you think so, Jihoon?”
“Yeah. He’s tall, his skin is so good that it practically glows. I think he’s more handsome than most actors. His proportions are like the protagonist of a webtoon. It’s such a waste for someone who looks like that to be a company president. Such a waste.”
“He’s good at his job, too. Our company’s stock price has gone up like crazy lately.”
“Exactly. He’s handsome, he’s capable. The woman who marries a man like that wouldn’t be ordinary either…….”
Thump.
Yoonseo nudged Jihoon while watching Dana’s reaction.
As if he had realized his mistake, Jihoon gave Dana an awkward smile.
“Dana. You know you’re pretty too, right?”
Really……?
She almost fell for Jihoon’s sudden compliment, but quickly came to her senses.
If you knew I was pretty, why did you date Yoonseo?
You probably didn’t think I was prettier than Yoonseo.
You bastard.
You could’ve at least told me beforehand.
Yoonseo, you’re no different.
As I fired curses at them with my eyes.
Jihoon quietly placed a braised rib onto Yoonseo’s rice right in front of me.
Yoonseo discreetly looked around, then smiled slightly as she tore into the rib.
Han Jihoon, Kim Yoonseo.
Are you two seriously flirting right in front of my eyes?
Come to think of it, I should have been depressed while looking at these two……
But somehow, because the president sitting beside me was distracting me, I didn’t suddenly feel heartbroken anymore.
I mean, it strangely felt like I was caught in some invisible net.
No.
Everything was just in my head.
It’s all in my head.
Right now, I should be focusing on the pain of heartbreak.
Be sad!
Let’s hurt!
But it wasn’t easy.
Wasn’t the person who had heard my confession sitting right beside me?
On top of that, the confession had been a lie.
He was even someone to whom I couldn’t give any kind of explanation.
Without even knowing what they had made me do, Yoonseo and Jihoon continued acting lovey-dovey right in front of my eyes.
I didn’t even have time to be sad.
My head was simply a mess.
The current algorithm inside my head.
President, a fake confession to the president.
Explain myself to the president.
What should I say to the president?
The president has no interest in me, but I have no interest in him either.
It seems like time will solve everything.
The braised ribs are delicious.
Should I get some more?
……That was it.
