My Company Is Black

#038

Thanks to Marcia finally taking his side, Gyo-ha at last got a chance to talk with Hwi-kyung alone. Hwi-kyung reflexively stepped back, but stopped when his heel touched an expensive orchid pot. This orchid cost as much as one of Jung Hwi-kyung’s organs.

“It was Lee Sung-ha who did something wrong, wasn’t it?”

“What?”

“You’ve been avoiding me since the family gathering.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Stop saying it’s nothing. What did you two talk about?”

“…”

“Don’t I have the right to ask at least this much?”

Gyo-ha examined the face of Hwi-kyung, who was about a hand span shorter than him. Though his face seemed expressionless, his eyelashes were trembling slightly, indicating that Hwi-kyung was quite flustered.

After all, no one would have bothered him like this during his company life. Feeling a bit mischievous, Gyo-ha leaned in closer.

“Ah.”

As Gyo-ha suddenly came close enough for Hwi-kyung to feel his breath, Hwi-kyung dropped the spray bottle he was holding. The light plastic bottle rolled across the living room carpet.

Instead of looking at the rolling spray bottle, Gyo-ha watched Hwi-kyung’s expression change subtly moment by moment. Looking this closely, he felt he could vaguely understand what Hwi-kyung was thinking.

He was uncomfortable and awkward with Gyo-ha’s actions… but he wasn’t showing the disgust he had before. Gyo-ha liked how Hwi-kyung was slowly adapting to him like this. Someone who would have fled the scene in panic before was now making eye contact, if only briefly.

“You’re too close…”

Hwi-kyung lightly pushed Gyo-ha’s shoulder with the hand that had dropped the spray bottle. But Gyo-ha didn’t budge. In front was a man like a rock, and behind was an orchid pot worth tens of millions of won. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Hwi-kyung’s eyes trembled again.

Every time his long eyelashes trembled with tension, shadows appeared on his pale face. Gyo-ha thought the play of light and shadow on Hwi-kyung’s face was quite pretty.

So Lee Gyo-ha leaned in and kissed Jung Hwi-kyung. It was an impulsive action. It was like a scene from those Netflix teen dramas that Hwi-kyung cursed so much. The kind of kiss that happens when you make eye contact for more than 6 seconds.

As their breaths drew closer and their lips finally met, Jung Hwi-kyung finally gave up on the fate of the flower pot and hastily stepped back. But Hwi-kyung didn’t end up having to sell an organ to replace the orchid pot. Gyo-ha reflexively wrapped his arm around Hwi-kyung’s waist as he stepped back.

A tongue slipped between Hwi-kyung’s lips, parted in surprise. Except for a peck from a kindergarten classmate, this was Jung Hwi-kyung’s first kiss in his life.

At the moment of his first kiss, Hwi-kyung thought: Damn… this Americanized bastard… I won’t forgive this…

* * *

Jung Hwi-kyung had rarely left work early in his life. He was the epitome of diligence, and usually endured even when he was sick. The only reasons for early leave in his school days were his parents’ divorce and his grandmother’s chronic illness.

Even after entering university, Hwi-kyung’s diligence continued. Jung Hwi-kyung didn’t even have the experience of skipping class, which everyone else did at least once as a freshman. Needless to say, proxy attendance or self-declared class cancellations were words that didn’t exist in Hwi-kyung’s life.

Living like this, he naturally worked at companies with extreme diligence. If he couldn’t regress, Hwi-kyung would have likely endured to the end even at his first company that made him work overtime without pay. After all, in his mid-20s when he knew nothing, he endured a month of unpaid work at a place where he was scammed into working as a “passionate intern.”

So, it was unprecedented for him to flee his workplace during work hours just because of a kiss. But no matter how diligent Hwi-kyung was, he couldn’t bear to face the situation where he had impulsively locked lips with his employer and fellow regressor.

Was Lee Gyo-ha really crazy? Hwi-kyung seriously doubted Gyo-ha’s mental state. Inserting his tongue was one thing, but when Gyo-ha bit and sucked on the tip of his tongue, Hwi-kyung reflexively pushed Gyo-ha’s face away hard.

It was fortunate that his fist didn’t lead the way like when he hit Lee Sung-ha. He didn’t push Gyo-ha away because the kiss was unpleasant or disgusting, but because he was so surprised that his hand moved reflexively.

Hwi-kyung chain-smoked in the smoking area near a convenience store. Because Gyo-ha had forbidden smoking at the workplace, this was his first smoke in the fourteenth cycle. Both in the previous cycle and this one, Hwi-kyung kept quitting smoking because of Gyo-ha.

“Is he really crazy?”

Stubbing out a cigarette burned down to the filter in a makeshift ashtray, Hwi-kyung muttered in a daze. Why on earth did he kiss me there? Is there some rule for people who’ve lived in America for a long time that they have to kiss if they make eye contact for too long?

After much deliberation, Hwi-kyung concluded that Gyo-ha must be a player. It was a truly extreme train of thought. If Gyo-ha, who had lived quite diligently in his own way, knew this, he would probably cry in indignation.

But Jung Hwi-kyung was not in a state to make normal judgments at the moment. There was no way he could be in his right mind after being kissed by his employer whom he had been avoiding for ten days while watering an orchid pot.

Smoking as if he were a born chain-smoker, Hwi-kyung finally came to his senses after his brain was saturated with nicotine. There was no way Hwi-kyung could figure out on his own why Lee Gyo-ha had acted that way.

Insufficient condition: You kissed your employer.

Insufficient condition: Workplace desertion has occurred.

Insufficient condition: You have violated a contract clause.

The system window had been going crazy about the workplace desertion issue for a while, so it was difficult to stay out of it for long. Hwi-kyung mentally gave the middle finger to the system window. Come on, stop nagging me, I didn’t initiate the kiss…

It had been about three hours since he fled the officetel. Only then did Hwi-kyung start to worry about Gyo-ha’s face, which he had pushed away with a thud. While Lee Gyo-ha had brought it upon himself by suddenly kissing him, Hwi-kyung didn’t want to damage his handsome face. Injuring a beautiful man was like damaging cultural property, after all.

Meanwhile, Lee Gyo-ha was holding his sore cheek and pondering why he had kissed Jung Hwi-kyung. Huh? Why did I really kiss him?

While Hwi-kyung was mistakenly thinking that Gyo-ha wanted to kiss anyone he made prolonged eye contact with because he had studied in America for too long (a thought he should apologize to all American exchange students for), Gyo-ha wasn’t that loose.

Lee Gyo-ha had eyes and preferences too. Even if he liked people, it didn’t mean he would suddenly kiss just anyone.

Moreover, to be frank, Jung Hwi-kyung was far from Gyo-ha’s type. For one, Gyo-ha preferred smaller and softer women. If possible, he liked the petite and cute type.

But no matter how you looked at it, Hwi-kyung didn’t give off a small and soft impression. Although Jung Hwi-kyung was about a hand span shorter than Gyo-ha, he was much taller than the average Korean man. His appearance was more elegant than cute. When he had grabbed his waist, he found it wasn’t soft at all. Rather, it was quite firm.

Yet Lee Gyo-ha had kissed Jung Hwi-kyung, who was completely outside his type. Gyo-ha hit his own forehead hard. A crisp impact sound rang out. Even to himself, he really seemed crazy.

No matter how much they say love strikes like lightning and emotions can’t be controlled, to kiss someone without permission just because of fluttering eyelashes. This was workplace sexual harassment.

“I’ve ruined everything…”

Not only was this cycle ruined, but his relationship with Hwi-kyung would surely be strained. Gyo-ha recalled the round back of Hwi-kyung’s head as he pushed him away and fled like a startled rabbit.

He was worried about how Hwi-kyung, who already thought of him as crazy, would react from now on. He won’t completely abandon me since we’re fellow regressors, right? Pushing aside his complicated feelings, Gyo-ha sent a message to Hwi-kyung.

[I’m really sorry]

[I’ve committed an unforgivable sin]

[Next time I’ll ask for permission ㅠㅠ]

Unlike Jung Hwi-kyung’s usual behavior, the read receipt appeared quickly. Gyo-ha thought his sincere apology had worked. Huh, is he willing to forgive just a kiss?

However, Gyo-ha’s misconception didn’t last long.

[Nnext]

[You’re talking about a next time]

With that, Lee Gyo-ha was blocked by Jung Hwi-kyung.