The following day at 1:30 pm, Hae-kyung’s phone rang.

“Yeobseyo.”

“Guess where I am?” Hwan-gun asked immediately she answered.

“Where are you?” She responded, placing a hand on her chin.

“In front of your office building. Remember we agreed to do lunch today.”

She went out to meet him and saw him standing at the door with a smile on his face and a lunch bag in his hand. “Oh, I usually have lunch at Ki-joon’s café though.”

“Oh. Then what should I do with this?” He asked, indicating the bag he was carrying.

“We can eat at Ki-joon’s café some other time.” She said, and with a smile she took his hand and led him to the office cafeteria. “Did you have to wake up early to make this again?” She asked as he opened the lunch box he had packed.

“Nah, I just threw together a few things I had in the refrigerator.”

“Hmm, this is delicious.” She said.

“Do you want to go for a picnic this weekend?” He asked as they ate.

“Sure. Sounds like fun. The Han river?” She said.

He nodded. “Do you know how to skateboard?”

“No, I don’t. Do you?”

“Absolutely, I used to go skateboarding all the time when I was younger. I haven’t been able to since I got so busy. I could teach you.”

“Alright. Will you come get me from home?”

“Sure.” He glanced at his watch and gasped. “I have to leave; I have to conduct a final interview for the secretarial position in twenty minutes.”

They packed up the now empty lunch box and Hae-kyung walked him out to his car.

“Talk to you later?” She asked as he started the engine and he nodded. He waved and drove off and Hae-kyung returned to her office with a smile on her face.

On his way back to the office, he got a call from Min-jae.

“Eo sunbae.”

“Do you have some time today? I need to discuss the convention with you.” Min-jae replied.

“I thought you had a few more weeks before it holds.”

“Yeah, but I decided to draw up the contract sooner because the NAP was going to give the business to another planner and I really need this.” He answered.

“Alright, I’m on my way back to the office right now but I have a meeting in about twenty minutes. I think I can see you in about forty-five minutes. Is that okay?”

“Absolutely. Thank you Gunah, you don’t know how important this is to me. I’ll see you then.”

Ah-reum stretched in her office and rubbed the back of her neck. She was exhausted after debugging for the past five hours. She glanced at her watch and realized that lunch time was over. She hadn’t planned on working all through her lunch break but just as she was about to step out, she had gotten a call from G-force gaming about a bug in the program she had written for them. She figured she wouldn’t be able to go to Ki-joon’s café now and decided to just order some Chinese food to be delivered.

“Team leader, we need you to sign the form if you’re going to attend the MT this weekend.” One of her subordinates said as he stood at the door with a clipboard in his hand.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To Busan.” He replied.

“Oh yeah! I love the sea.” She said and signed the form before returning it to him.

“We leave on Friday after work, we already rented the bus and everything.”

Her food arrived and her subordinate left to let her enjoy her food.

The bell above the door rang again and Ki-joon glanced at the door for the thousandth time that day, it wasn’t her. He glanced at the clock and realized that it was already past lunch time.

“I guess she’s not coming today.” He opened his phone and looked at the message she had sent him the night before “Ki-joonssi, I completely understand your position and it’s okay.” He re-read it a few more times and sighed before putting his phone away to attend to a customer who just walked in.

“Alright, you can start tomorrow Ms. Kim Min-joo. I look forward to working with you.” He said and shook hands with his new secretary before she left. After she left, he picked up his phone and dialed Hae-kyung’s number.

“Yeobseyo.” Hae-kyung said when she answered.

“What are you doing?” He asked, leaning back in his chair.

“Working.” She replied. “You?”

“I just hired my secretary, she seemed like a really nice lady. I have a meeting in a few minutes. I missed you.”

“What? We just saw each other.” She laughed. “What is wrong with you?”

“It’s strange, isn’t it? I miss you all the time.” He laughed in return.

“Jeogiyo Seo Hwan-gunssi, you can’t keep making my heart flutter this much when I’m at work. What am I supposed to do?”

Just then, there was a knock on the door. “One second.” he said to her and then called for the person to come in.

Min-jae entered the office and waved at him.

“Oh sunbae, sit down while I finish up this call.” He said and Min-jae sat down. “I’ll talk to you later. The person I’m having the meeting with just arrived.”

“Alright, later.” She said and hung up.

Ki-joon walked into apartment that night after shutting down the café. He pulled out his phone and began composing a text message to Ah-reum.

“Are you okay? You didn’t stop by the café for lunch today. Were you upset because of my message?” He looked at the message for a while, erased the last part and then hit send. He waited for a few minutes and when she didn’t reply, he dialed her phone. It rang twice but she didn’t answer so he called her again, and when she didn’t answer he gave up.