The noon sun beating down on the asphalt made it surprisingly hot, and as a result, the indoors felt even cooler. Wondering if anyone was there, I knocked and waited for about thirty seconds before pressing the keypad and entering the ten-digit password.
There were no shoes in sight at the entrance. I hung the thin coat that had been draped over my arm on the coat rack and headed towards the dressing room when my phone in my pocket buzzed.
[The meeting seems to be running late.]
[If you’re hungry, go ahead and eat something.]
I paused at the threshold of the dressing room to type a reply, but another message popped up belatedly.
[Don’t stand in front of the entrance today.]
A dry voice seemed to echo in my ears. I deleted what I was typing and sent a response.
[I’m inside the house. Don’t worry about me being hungry. Finish your meeting and come in. Let me know if you think you need to have lunch outside. Just contact me.]
Although the phone should have been on silent during the meeting, I typed the message several times, sending it all together instead of sending it separately. I waited for a moment, but there was no response.
I retrieved a bottle of cold water from his refrigerator and poured it into a glass. I added two square ice cubes from the freezer, then carried the glass back to the living room. The sunny spot in the middle of the living room was like a golden puddle.
It was fortunate that I had brought the documents in my bag. I took out the folder I had seen on the subway on the way and sat at the table. The ice in the glass clinked as it melted with each sip of water. Tiny droplets formed on the outside of the glass. The rug under my feet felt plush.
Around one o’clock, my phone rang. It vibrated regularly. I picked it up, dropping my pen.
“Hello?”
– My name is on the screen, right?
He spoke calmly. His voice through the hands-free sounded distant, as if he were far away.
– Last time it showed up with my job title.
“…Isn’t my name preceded by ‘TF Team’ on your phone as well, Team Leader?”
– Not anymore.
He replied crisply, so I asked,
“Have you changed it since then?”
– Now it says ‘Consulting Team 2.’
There was a hint of laughter in his tone, but it wasn’t clear. Despite it not being a significant topic, I couldn’t help but feel my lips curling upwards as I leaned back on the couch.
– Have you eaten anything?
“No, not yet. Have you, Team Leader?”
– I didn’t eat before I left. If there’s something specific you want, let me know. I’ll pick it up on my way home.
“I don’t think there’s anything specific.”
– Then I’ll just grab something on my way. Rice dishes or bread, which do you prefer?
“If it’s okay with you, Team Leader, I’d prefer bread.”
He replied decisively.
– Understood. I’ll be home in about twenty minutes. I have to drive, so I’ll hang up now.
“Yes, see you soon.”
– Take care, Lee Seodan. Don’t wander off somewhere else.
The call ended. I put down my phone, picked up the cup with some water left in it, grabbed a tissue from the table, and wiped off the moisture on the table.
About fifteen minutes passed. I was operating the coffee machine in the kitchen with relative ease, something I hadn’t done in a few weeks, when I paused and looked around. The coffee grinder in front of me was noisy, and his apartment was well soundproofed. Nevertheless, I felt as though I could hear the sound of the elevator stopping outside, footsteps crossing the hallway. Following a hunch, I set down what I was holding and left the kitchen.
I reached the entrance. Just as I arrived, I heard a knock at the door. I expected to hear the sound of the keypad being pressed, but instead, someone knocked on the door three times at regular intervals.
“…Who is it?”
There was no answer. I slipped on the shoes lying around and approached the door, taking a few steps closer. I brought one eye close to the round hole in the middle of the door. As my eye adjusted, I saw the distorted corridor through the convex lens, and a man standing in front of the door.
I unlocked the door and opened it slightly. Han Team Leader looked at me with a slight frown.
“Did you forget the code?”
When he asked, I didn’t answer but instead leaned my body into the wide-open gap of the door and closed it behind him. With a bag in one hand, he glanced down for a moment before setting it down right in the entrance. I reached out to take it, but my wrist was grabbed.
“Team Leader-.”
“They say the fine dust is bad these days.”
He held both of my wrists and leaned me against the closed door. My foot slipped on the sneakers beneath me. The marble beneath my bare feet was cold.
“Better wear a mask whenever you’re out. Get a good one.”
“Mm.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Or just don’t smile outside at all.”
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As he withdrew his lips and looked down at me, holding my wrists, he pulled me into his embrace, wrapping his arms tightly around me. I leaned my cheek against his solid shoulders wrapped in fresh fabric. In his breath, I recognized a familiar and warm scent.
“I come home, and Lee Seodan is already here….”
He murmured softly into my ear with his low voice.
“It feels, different.”
“…I thought it was someone else because of the sudden knock.”
“Don’t open the door for anyone else.”
He released me. The warmth that had left was empty and regretful. I took the bag he picked up and followed him as he took off his jacket and walked into the living room.
“Were you making coffee?”
Looking at the sturdy bag handle, he asked.
“Yes. Would you like some, Team Leader?”
“If Lee Seodan serves it. I’ll change and come out, so if you’re hungry, eat first.”
I watched him for a moment as he entered the dressing room and then set the bag down on the table. There was a clink as the glass touched. I reached in and pulled out various sandwiches, triangular and square ones in custom plastic boxes with logos attached, along with baguette sandwiches. The cold feel of a glass bottle was detected at the bottom of the bag. I thought it might be a drink, but when I pulled it out, it turned out to be pudding in a small container. There were two of them.
Running my fingers along the smooth surface of the glass, I took one of each in my hand and went to the kitchen. I placed them in the refrigerator and brought down two cups of coffee. I also brought a large plate for the sandwiches and placed it in the center of the table. Meanwhile, Han Team Leader emerged from the dressing room in casual clothes. His impeccably combed hair now looked somewhat tousled. As I set the plate down, I moved my hands that had been suspended in mid-air and said, “I put the pudding from the bag in the fridge.”
“I bought it when I saw it next to the bread,” he replied as he sat down.
As he opened the sturdy bag, he said. There was a faint smile lingering on his lightly wrinkled eyes.
“They said it’s caramel flavored.”
“…Yes. I like those.”
“Got it.”
As he brought the sandwich box, he said. There was a faint smile hanging on his lowered eyes.
“I won’t eat, so Lee Seodan can have both. You can eat now or later.”
“Yes. Will you cook dinner at home for real?”
“Today is the least busy Saturday. I’ve already bought the ingredients.”
Come to think of it, when I opened the fridge, the ingredients were neatly arranged in each compartment. I took a bite of the sandwich. The sound of several layers of lettuce crunching was heard. Even though I had cereal with milk for breakfast, I felt hungry as if it were my first meal. Moreover, my eating speed was faster than Han Team Leader’s, so while he was still eating his first sandwich, I finished one big and one small sandwich.
While I was carefully reading the sticker indicating the contents to choose the next sandwich, I felt his gaze. When I looked up, Han Team Leader was silently looking at me.
“Why?”
“…No reason.”
He suddenly laughed. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, revealing his white teeth.
“I just watched you eat well. Sometimes when I sit across from someone, I get annoyed because they chew too loudly.”
I set down the sandwich I had been holding. There was a subtle change in his expression, as if he had remembered something. Looking down at the plate, he said, “But you seemed to enjoy the sushi when I bought it for you….”
“The sushi at that hotel was worth eating.”
He agreed. Then, in a dry voice, he added,
“That day seemed like the day Lee Seodan didn’t want to be with me in the elevator.”
“….”
A heat rose in my ears. It felt like an event so old that I needed to rummage through my memories. Did he ever imagine that the atmosphere and our relationship would change like this, allowing us to bring up that memory? The man who used to be so terrifying and dark even in the same space now sat in front of me on a sunny Saturday afternoon, placing sandwiches and coffee in front of me.
“Lee Seodan.”
After a brief silence, he spoke directly.
“Did you bring the keys?”
“…Ah.”
What I had forgotten suddenly felt heavy in my pocket.
“Yes… Here you go.”
Without searching, as soon as my hand went into my pocket, I grasped the firm keys. I stretched my arm over the table slowly and handed them to him.
It was a situation similar to that of a few weeks ago. Han Team Leader, who had returned the keys to me back then, now looped them around his finger without hesitation. After turning them a few times slowly, he gripped them in his palm.
I took out a sandwich shaped like a mini baguette and put a corner into my mouth. Han Team Leader calmly picked up an olive that had fallen onto the table with a tissue and said,
“A while ago, when I went down to Busan, I found a decent café.”
“…Yes.”
“It’s in a remote area, so I’m not sure if it’s still open. The sandwiches there were delicious. The coffee was good, and they had a nice garden.”
“Yes.”
My pronunciation was muddled from eating. After swallowing a large piece of bread, I looked up to see Han Team Leader looking at my face.
“You’ve got sauce on your lips.”
“…Here…”
“No, not there. The left side.”
As I dabbed the side of my lips, he reached out and quickly wiped the opposite side with a tissue, dryly saying,
“I meant your left from Lee Seodan’s perspective.”
“I interpreted it as the left from Team Leader’s perspective.”
It felt like where his finger touched was burning. He pulled out a tissue and handed it to me. After wiping my hands, I picked up the empty plate. His cup, brought over from the other side of the table, was also empty. There were still untouched sandwich boxes stacked up.
“Have you eaten enough?”
He asked.
“Yes. It seems like you didn’t eat much, Team Leader….”
“Don’t worry, I’ve eaten enough,” he said as he picked up the stacked plates and stood up. I hugged as many sandwich boxes as I could to my chest and followed him. Going back and forth twice, we neatly filled the remaining boxes into one compartment of the refrigerator. Meanwhile, Han Team Leader quickly finished washing the dishes and wiped the table. It was something I had intended to do, but to my surprise, the wooden surface was already clean without a single crumb.
I glanced up at the closed door at the top of the stairs. Taking a deep breath while holding onto the railing, I asked,
“Shall we go up now?”
“To where?” Han Team Leader asked as he emerged from the kitchen.
I couldn’t think of what to say, so I pointed towards the bedroom door. He raised an eyebrow.
“Why? Are you tired?”
“…I thought you were going to show me the wardrobe?”
“…Me?”
He looked puzzled as he approached from the direction of the dining table.
“When did I say that? I asked you to bring the keys.”
“I thought… you meant to show me what’s inside while we talk about the play.”
“Why would Lee Seodan be involved in planning the play and need to check my wardrobe?”
Of course, I didn’t need to check the wardrobe. The tension in the air dissipated as if a knot had been untied. I had been preparing myself for days to face the scene inside the wardrobe that I vaguely remembered, but it turned out to be an unnecessary worry. With a bewildered expression, he passed by me. In his hand as he entered and exited the study, he held a notepad with perforated lines and a fountain pen, the kind used even at the company.
“I don’t know what you were thinking by yourself,” he said, looking at me as he fiddled with the staircase railing.
“I asked you to bring the keys because I have something separate to use them for. It’s unrelated to the play discussion.”
“…Yes.”
“Go sit on the couch, I’ll bring some fruit, washed and ready.”
Despite feeling full, I nodded. He handed me the notepad and pen and disappeared into the kitchen. I sank onto the rug, lying down. Now I realized that the problem he had posed was not multiple choice but rather an essay question.
“Will you stay there?” Han Team Leader asked, placing a shallow dish of strawberries and a pudding on the table. Sitting on the sofa, far from the rug where I sat, I nodded.
“As you wish.”
He sat on the sofa and spread the notebook on his lap. With the cap off the fountain pen, he poised it on the nib. It was the same posture as when preparing for note-taking in a meeting room.
“Are you going to write?” I asked, although the answer was obvious. He looked up, holding the pen loosely.
“I need to write it down for future reference.”
“It’s not much content, so I don’t think it’s necessary to write it down….”
“Lee Seodan.”
“…Yes.”
“You might feel uncomfortable having this conversation face-to-face with me, but wouldn’t it be strange to submit it like a report and have me comment on it?”
Now I thought it would be better that way. Without uttering a word, my entire body ached with stiff tension. My cheeks and ears were as red as if I had a fever.
Han Team Leader leaned back comfortably in his chair, legs crossed. Holding the pen loosely, he said,
“Let me know when you’re ready, it’s not urgent. Have something to eat first.”
His gaze was angled towards the paper. Without looking at him, I spoke.
“Well, for now….”
“Yes.”
“I think it would be nice to wear a dog collar.”
The pen at the edge of my vision paused for a moment. A brief silence ensued. Eventually, the sound of the pen scratching against the paper echoed in the room. Neat handwriting on the yellow paper would likely read ‘dog collar’. I wished I could just disappear.
“Are you talking about one made of leather? Embedded with iron or with holes drilled in?”
The voice that came was perfectly indifferent. I just nodded. There was another sound of the pen moving. As I glanced up, I caught sight of the long, handsome fingers gripping the pen at the edge of my field of vision.
Han Team Leader continued in a business-like tone, “When you say you want to wear a dog collar, are you saying you want to act like a dog?”
“…Yes?”
“Do you want to bark like a dog, or crawl on all fours?”
He kindly extended his arm and used his fingers to mimic crawling on all fours on the table. The hand shaped like a dog wandered across the table. I answered before he finished speaking, as if slamming a door shut.
“No. It’s not like that, just the dog collar….”
“Understood. Anything else?”
The pen tip stood still, waiting for me. Even the details of the shadows cast by the sunlight on the table seemed like a delicate nightmare. Remembering the videos I had watched between my fingers for weeks and the long documents, I quickly spoke up with a sense of desperation.
“Tying up and getting spanked, as long as it’s not too painful… And-”
“Slow down, one thing at a time. What do you want to be tied up with?”
I froze. Han Team Leader patiently waited for my answer, as if he would bring any kind of string for me to use.
“…I don’t really mind. A tie, or anything…”
“I’ll take note. Spanking?”
My throat felt dry. I looked up to put a strawberry in my mouth, but unfortunately, his hand, holding the notebook and fixing it in front of him, was right in my line of sight. I could even see the shape of his nails at the end of his long fingers. A flush rose slowly to my cheeks. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
“My hand?”
He asked casually. I couldn’t say anything, feeling a lump in my throat.
“A hand spank is pretty safe. Easy to control.”
“…….”
“How many do you think would be appropriate?”
“…That’s up to you….”
“If I decide, Lee Seodan might regret it.”
His eyes were smiling. It seemed like I was the only one wishing for this situation to end quickly.
I took a deep breath and adjusted my posture. The calculator in my head was spinning fast, as if I were at an auction. Finally, after recalculating once more, I cautiously opened my mouth.
“About forty… would that be okay?”
It was a carefully calculated answer. There was no response, so I looked up, and Han Team Leader’s eyebrows were slightly furrowed. As he tapped the notebook with the tip of his pen, lost in thought, he sat up straight.
“If Lee Seodan wants it, I’ll do it that way, but it seems like a lot.”
“…Yes?”
“I’m not asking for the maximum you can endure, I’m asking for what you can enjoy with ease. I think ten or twenty would be enough from my perspective.”
“…Are you going to hit really hard?”
At that, he chuckled softly.
“That’s a problem for Lee Seodan to decide, but that’s not the intention behind bringing it up.”
“But then….”
“Yes?”
“If you only stick to my standards, wouldn’t it be boring for you, Team Leader?”
He looked at me with an incredulous expression.
“Did I ask Lee Seodan to come up with a play while trying to read my mind?”
“But still… I thought if I’m having fun alone and you’re bored, it wouldn’t be good.”
“That’s a pointless worry. I’m having fun now and will continue to do so in the future.”
With a smiling face, as if to dispel any doubts, he spoke firmly, leaving me with nothing more to say. I hugged my knees and sat, gazing down at the soft fur of the rug.
It’s good to see them working on their relationship and having compromises. Both people having to give and take from one relationship, not just one.
Thank you for the chapter!