Chapter 1. The Person I Like
“Dana, I have something to tell you today.”
Dana clutched her pounding heart as she watched Jihoon come to her desk, meet her eyes, and whisper.
A handsome, warm appearance and a gentle smile. A sweet voice.
Han Jihoon, her colleague at the company and her same-aged friend, whom she had secretly loved for two years.
“What is it……?”
“Well, I’m a little embarrassed to say it. Do you want to meet for a moment in front of the emergency exit during the break?”
“In front of the emergency exit? Y-yeah. Let’s meet there.”
“Then see you later. Fighting today, too.”
Jihoon gave her a gentle smile before leaving. Dana placed a hand over her chest.
Thump, thump. Her heart was pounding like crazy.
Something to tell her? What could it be?
“Could it be…….”
Today…… is the day……!
The day she would receive a confession from the person she had secretly loved!
“Dana.”
“Hmm?”
When she raised her head, Yoonseo, likewise her colleague at the company and her same-aged friend, was looking at her with a puzzled expression.
“Are you okay? Your face is red. Do you have a fever?”
“Me?”
At those words, Dana placed her hands on both cheeks. Then she leaned closer toward Yoonseo, who was sitting in the seat in front of her.
“No, Jihoon said he has something to tell me.”
“S-something to tell you? Can’t you guess what it is?”
“I don’t know. But, Yoonseo. I’m going to tell him, too.”
“Tell him what?”
“My feelings.”
“Your feelings?”
“To the person I like.”
Yoonseo sprang to her feet like a spring.
“What! Who is it?”
Han Jihoon.
Her heart raced as though it would burst just thinking about him.
There had been countless times when she wanted to ask Yoonseo for advice about her unrequited love. But since both Jihoon and Yoonseo were her colleagues, she had felt too embarrassed to speak openly about it.
Besides, weren’t the three of us friends?
“Is he someone from the company?”
“Yeah……. I’ll tell you later.”
Since things had turned out this way, I’ll announce it proudly once everything works out.
“You really will, right? You have to tell me later, okay?”
Dana told Yoonseo that she understood and that she would definitely tell her.
She would definitely tell her after things worked out.
…….
…….
But that didn’t mean I wanted her to come out here with him, did I?
Only an hour after making her momentous decision, Dana found herself facing Jihoon and Yoonseo, the two of them standing side by side in front of the emergency exit.
Why are the two of them together?
If this continues, I won’t be able to confess!
“Why are you two together…….”
Somehow, she sensed an ominous atmosphere.
A feeling that she didn’t want to hear this, a feeling that she shouldn’t hear it.
Sure enough,
“We’re getting married.”
……What?
“Actually, we’ve been secretly dating.”
W-what…… are they doing?
“You’re surprised, right? I’m sorry. We kept meaning to tell you, but once we missed an opportunity, we just couldn’t seem to bring it up.”
“When you said you were dating someone…….”
“Yeah. It’s Jihoon.”
The two looked at each other lovingly. Their gazes were unmistakably those of lovers who were deeply in love with each other.
“Since when, exactly…….”
“Well, we both fell in love at first sight as soon as we saw each other…….”
At first sight……? They first met two years ago when they joined the company as colleagues, and they’ve been dating since then?
Jihoon awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
“You’re the first person we’re telling that we’re dating, Dana. We thought we should tell you before handing out the wedding invitations. It’s really embarrassing. Haha.”
Ah, so that’s why he said he was emb……arrassed…….
Because this was the first time they were revealing their secret relationship?
Dana was so deeply shocked that she couldn’t even tell whether she had truly registered the shock.
Yoonseo asked,
“But Dana, did you confess to the person you like? Did it work out?”
“Uh……?”
“You said there was someone at the company you liked, and that you were going to confess today.”
At those words, Jihoon’s eyes widened as he looked at her.
“Did that happen? Who is it?”
Jihoon’s gaze made her throat tighten.
“Ah…… well…….”
“You haven’t confessed yet?”
Well, I said I was going to confess to Jihoon……
Wait, did I just declare in front of Yoonseo that I was going to confess to her boyfriend?
The belated embarrassment of what it would have been like if I had said it back then came rushing over her.
“Who is it? Is he in your department? Maybe in our department?”
“Right. Dana, is he in the Marketing Team? You went there often.”
“No…….”
“Who is it? Another team? Ah, maybe in the Planning Office…….”
“T-The president!”
Dana hurriedly shouted.
“……Yes?”
“It’s the president! The person I like!”
Yes, the idol of our company.
Someone so popular among the employees that even if she said she liked him, no one would take it seriously.
The person she needed most—and the most useless person—to get her out of this crisis.
A man she could never become involved with, and never would have any reason to become involved with.
He was none other than.
“Raheon?”
Jihoon tilted his head.
“You mean President Raheon? President Ra?”
“Uh, right! Raheon! I like President Ra! I’ve liked him so much ever since the first moment I saw him after joining the company!”
Dana, who had completely lost her senses, couldn’t stop talking. Yoonseo’s eyes widened.
“Then you said you were going to confess to the president?”
Well, did it really…… turn out that way? Haha.
“No, I mean, there’s no way I could confess to the president. But I felt like I’d go crazy if I didn’t tell someone. So that’s why I said I’d tell you two. If I really were to get married, I’d want to marry the president! I like him so much!”
Crazy. No matter how much I’ve liked someone, I’ve never even thought about marriage before!
“Ah…… you really do like the president…… a lot. But doesn’t the president have a fiancée……?”
Oh, really? I had absolutely no interest in the president, so I didn’t know.
Come to think of it, I think I saw it in the company newsletter.
At Yoonseo’s words, Dana smiled awkwardly, narrowing her eyes.
“W-well, exactly. Since the president has a fiancée, I’m just telling you guys, that’s all.”
“Fair enough. At least tell us and get it off your chest. Since when have you liked the president that much? When you first joined the company, you told me right away that there was someone you liked, so I wondered if it might be our Jihoon…….”
“What are you talking about! Of course it’s the president!”
“Then…… you’ve liked the president for two years?”
“Uh…… d-does it really turn out that way? Right. I’ve liked the president…… for two years.”
How miserable. The person she had loved for two years was standing right in front of her.
Dana looked at Jihoon with slightly sorrowful eyes.
“That’s right. I liked him for two years. Very, very much……. Even though he’ll marry another woman, I wish, I wish him happiness.…….”
Just as Dana, whose mind had become hazy, was blurting out whatever came to mind.
“Hm? The president?”
Her eyes met those of the man she had never imagined she would encounter here.
Her heart sank with a jolt.
It was the president!
The very person she had just said she liked.
Why was someone she had never encountered even once until now coming out here?
Her mind suddenly went completely blank.
What was I just saying?
While she stood there, utterly flustered and not knowing what to do, he left without saying anything.
The three of them looked at one another with the same expression.
“D-Did he hear that?”
“N-No, he couldn’t have.”
“R-Really?”
Then why are all three of our pupils trembling?
“Well, there are all kinds of presidents. There’s also the president of a business partner…….”
“Didn’t you specifically say President Raheon?”
So, that means he did hear it, doesn’t it, guys?
Not only had she been brutally rejected by the person she had secretly loved for two years, she had also become someone who confessed that she loved a completely different man.
And he had even heard that confession?
The president of a major corporation whom an ordinary employee could hardly ever meet.
And I’m just an ordinary employee who has no need—or rather, no way—to make excuses?
……The president will understand, right?
With an appearance like that, he must have received confessions like this many times.
A perfect face that was so flawless it was difficult to even bring oneself to speak to him when standing beside him.
A towering height close to 190 centimeters, with broad shoulders wide enough to embrace all the employees who adored him.
A human sculpture seemingly sculpted with painstaking care by God Himself!
He’ll probably just think I admire him as a fan and let it go.
“Right. He doesn’t look like the kind of person who’d even pay attention to it. To the president, I probably looked like just some stray cat passing by. He’ll probably think I just went ‘meow’ or something…….”
