Chapter 5

“Si-woon, want to grab lunch?” Manager Kim Il-young called over as noon arrived.

“Ah, I need to run by the bank today. I’ll catch up with you later.” Offering his manager a grateful smile and a nod, Si-woon felt a small prick of conscience at the white lie.

Manager Kim invited him along so consistently that Si-woon sometimes wondered if the older man worried about him eating alone; anyone else would have given up on such an unsociable subordinate years ago, yet Kim had looked out for him since his very first week at the company. I should be the one to treat him next time. Still, an errand at the bank was much simpler to explain than meeting a driving client on his lunch hour.

Watching his coworkers file out of the office one by one, Si-woon realized he hadn’t given any thought to where they should eat. On an ordinary day he would have grabbed a quick burger set by himself, but fast food hardly seemed proper for someone coming all this way just to return a lost keychain.

+ Have you had lun—
+ Is there anything you’d like to ea—

He typed out one tentative message after another in the chat window, only to backspace over each of them before a new notification popped up on his screen.

—I’ll be there soon 😊

It was too late to plan ahead now. Fortunately, his lunch hour was long enough, and he knew plenty of decent places within walking distance; he could simply ask Je-hee what he felt like eating once they met.

* * *

“Is there anything in particular you’d like for lunch?” Si-woon asked as soon as they met outside his office building.

“Uh—pardon?” Holding the small paper gift bag halfway between them, Je-hee blinked in surprise.

“Lunch,” Si-woon repeated. “Since you came all this way to bring it back to me.”

“Hmm.” Je-hee had fully expected to hand over the bag, exchange a polite word or two, and return to his car. An invitation to eat together hadn’t crossed his mind, and the corners of his mouth twitched upward before he could stop them. If Si-woon was the one offering, refusing would surely be rude. Glancing down the street, he spotted a clean-looking signboard nearby; he had no intention of making Si-woon waste his limited break trekking somewhere far, and hot broth suited the crisp weather. “It’s chilly out. How about seolleongtang?”

“Sounds good.”

At Si-woon’s easy agreement, Je-hee fell into step beside him, unable to hide the lightness in his stride.

Once they were seated and their bowls of milky ox-bone soup had arrived, Si-woon glanced at the menu plaque on the wall. “Shall we get an order of dumplings to share?”

“Dumplings sound great.” Je-hee agreed almost automatically, captivated by the quiet gusto with which Si-woon was already eating. He has such a good appetite. Food rarely excited Je-hee, yet watching the other man enjoy every spoonful made him pick up his own spoon and chopsticks with renewed interest.

“Here are your dumplings,” the server announced, setting a steaming platter between them.

“Thank you,” Si-woon said.

The dumplings arrived when Si-woon was about halfway through his soup, their thin, glossy skins translucent enough to show the savory filling inside. Across the table, Si-woon’s throat bobbed in an audible swallow, his dark eyes lighting up so unmistakably that Je-hee had to bite back a smile. Does he love dumplings that much? He had never seen that expression on Si-woon’s guarded face before.

Even so, Si-woon merely looked at the platter without reaching for it until Je-hee picked up a dumpling and placed it on his own saucer first. Was he waiting for me to start out of manners? And isn’t that thing scalding hot? Wisps of steam curled from the split wrapper, yet Si-woon popped the whole dumpling into his mouth without flinching, his cheeks rounding as he chewed. The sight was so far removed from his usual stoic composure that Je-hee found it almost unbearably endearing.

“I’m nearly full from the soup, so one is plenty for me,” Je-hee remarked casually, nudging the platter closer to him.

“…Thank you. I’ll enjoy them.” After a brief hesitation, Si-woon resumed eating with visible relish.

This is nice. In the daylight, across a warm table, he seemed far livelier than the weary driver Je-hee knew from the midnight expressways. They had only walked a block and shared a simple meal, yet catching a glimpse of this unguarded side of him was enough to make the whole week feel worthwhile.

Neatly halving his single dumpling with his chopsticks, Je-hee aimed for a conversational tone, as though the thought had only just occurred to him. “May I ask you something, Si-woon-ssi?”

“…?” Si-woon looked up.

“How old are you? You don’t have to answer if you’d rather not—I was just curious.” He had been wondering since their very first drive, of course, though he had no wish to make the man feel interrogated.

“I’ll be thirty-two after the new year.”

Thirty-one, then—three years younger than Je-hee. After all the hours they had spent side by side in his car, it was one of the few personal facts he had managed to learn. So he really is younger than me. From Si-woon’s calm bearing, he had half-assumed they were the same age, or perhaps that Si-woon was a year older. Had the man waited for him to take the first dumpling out of respect for an older client? Wait—Si-woon didn’t even know how old Je-hee was. Or had he guessed?

“I’m thirty-four, by the way,” Je-hee offered.

“Ah…”

“Just in case you were wondering.”

Si-woon simply nodded, his expression giving nothing away. Evidently he hadn’t been wondering at all.

“Oh, right—here.” Before the pause could turn awkward, Je-hee reached for the paper bag resting on the spare chair beside him and passed it across the table.

“Thank you.” As Si-woon peered inside at the capybara keychain, his whole face softened. Je-hee was dying to ask why a grown man cherished a plush toy so much, yet he swallowed the question before it could cross his lips. Pushing for personal details was one thing; finding a way to prolong their hour together was far more urgent.

“Thank you for lunch,” Je-hee said as they stood from the table.

“Not at all. I’m the one who should be thanking you.”

“Then, if you still have a little time left on your break, could I treat you to coffee? I’d feel bad letting you pay for everything.” Whenever he wanted something from Si-woon, his usual directness deserted him; he couldn’t stop padding the invitation with easy outs even as he dreaded hearing a refusal.

“I can’t go very far…” Si-woon murmured, glancing at the time.

Je-hee said nothing, merely looking back at him in quiet hope and nodding toward a small café just across the street.

“…Then thank you. I’d like that.”

It was the exact answer Je-hee had been praying for. Beneath that quiet reserve lay an unexpected softness whenever someone pressed gently enough. Monopolizing the man’s entire lunch hour might be selfish, but surely Je-hee could allow himself this one indulgence.

A few minutes later, while standing at the café pickup counter waiting for their drinks, Je-hee glanced back toward their corner table. Si-woon sat gazing toward the counter with a faint, puzzled crease between his brows, looking as though he were still trying to figure out how he had allowed a client to talk him into coffee after lunch.

Returning to the table, Je-hee set the warm mugs down between them. “Here you go.”

“Thank you.” Accepting his coffee, Si-woon immediately dropped his gaze to the tabletop. Sitting directly across from each other in a sunlit café—rather than side by side in the dim cabin of a car—seemed to make the younger man acutely self-conscious, as if he wasn’t quite sure where to rest his hands or his eyes.

“Lunch was really good, wasn’t it?” Je-hee said softly into the quiet, offering a warm smile.

Si-woon looked up for a fraction of a second before averting his gaze again, his fingers tightening slightly around his mug.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time we’ve met in the daytime, isn’t it?”

“…Yes.” Seeming to realize how clipped his reply sounded, Si-woon hesitated, his eyes falling on the small paper gift bag resting beside his elbow as he searched for something to add. “Thank you again… for bringing the toy back.”

“It was nothing.” Je-hee’s eyes curved into a gentle smile. Nothing? To him, this half hour had already become the highlight of his week, and watching Si-woon make an earnest effort to keep the conversation going only made the thought of heading back to the office more reluctant.

Taking a measured sip of his tea, Je-hee glanced out the window and steeled himself. He had spent the better part of the past week turning a single question over in his head, searching for a way to ask it that sounded like harmless small talk. “You’re already so busy during the week, Si-woon-ssi, and yet you always come out whenever I call. Honestly, I feel a little guilty asking you to drive for me on weekends, too.”

“Weekends aren’t really any different from weekdays for me, so… it’s fine.”

Je-hee kept his expression carefully neutral, though his pulse leaped. That was half the answer he had been fishing for. Pressing his luck just a fraction further, he added lightly, “Still, I’m not monopolizing too much of your personal time, am I?”

“There isn’t really anyone I need to meet, and… I take plenty of driving calls on weekends anyway. It’s honestly fine.”

Yes. Beneath the table, Je-hee curled his free hand into a small, triumphant fist. No one he needs to meet. Si-woon hadn’t specified whether he meant friends or a romantic partner, of course, but no man who was dating someone would phrase it like that—and Si-woon wasn’t the sort to lie. Even with his grueling schedule, a man with Si-woon’s looks had to draw plenty of interest, and Je-hee had privately dreaded discovering that someone else already held his attention. The relief washing through him was almost dizzying.

“Then we’re alike. My weekends aren’t much different.” Raising his mug to hide a smile that refused to behave, Je-hee took another sip. “The peppermint tea here is really good.”

A cool, clean trace of peppermint lingered on his tongue, matching the sudden lightness in his chest. For the first time in weeks, everything seemed to be going right.

* * *