Comparison is the thief of joy -

Since discovering that Joohyun has regained her memories, Seungwan has been extra attentive to the woman.

Before, Seungwan was timid and unsure of her boundaries when she was hanging around in Joohyun’s room because she was afraid that Joohyun hated her. Now that she was certain there were still romantic feelings between them, Seungwan let her motives be known without restraint. It made Joohyun want to ask Seulgi if Seungwan was this intense during their time together as well.

Meanwhile, Sooyoung who expected an early retirement for reconnecting the hearts of the two wanted to go back in time and give her past self a wake up slap. It used to be just delivering food for the injured couple, but now her job entailed buying flowers, buying all sorts of gifts, buying chocolate, buying bubble tea… and even the occasional love poem that she had to soulfully recite. It was true that Seungwan was her close friend, but other than that she was also her boss, the compounding of the two relations made it impossible for Sooyoung to reject Seungwan’s requests.

To make matters worse, it looked like Joohyun’s attitude towards Seungwan was unaffected by whether she had her memories back or not – she still called Seungwan ‘scumbag’ like it was Seungwan’s only name, still acted indifferent to Seungwan’s advances, still complained about Seungwan’s constant presence around her. Seeing the lack of progress between her and Joohyun, and the date of her discharge ever drawing near, Seungwan felt uneasy inside, and found an already exhausted Sooyoung to discuss what she should do next.

“I’m tired, I’m seriously so tired!!!”

“When me and her are officially back together I’ll give you a month off. Fully paid.”

“I’m at your service!”

“Say, why do you think she is still so cold?”

“Who knows, maybe she just doesn’t love you anymore.”

“…”

The current version of Seungwan was a fragile one – since chapter 8, she has been crying for seven full chapters now. Upon hearing Sooyoung’s statement, her eyes suddenly swelled up.

“WAIT! Unnie! Don’t! Stop! I was only joking!”

“But she keeps treating me like this, I’m afraid that she really doesn’t want me anymore…”

“…you had this coming, she’s been hurt by you for the past two years, is she not allowed to be unhappy? Technically speaking you were even worse, at least she still talks to you, think about how before you would act like she owed you money or something whenever you two saw each other at the company! Let me ask you a question, how many times did you sleep with her before you actually bothered to ask her about her age, or find out that she was older than you?”

“…isn’t it a good thing that I thought she always looked not a day past eighteen…?”

Sooyoung seriously deliberated whether the extended vacation was worth it. There was a moment where she really wanted to strangle Seungwan to death, or strangle herself to death. After suppressing her anger toward her friend, she advised:

“I will say this, even though Chief Bae still holds a lot of grudge towards you, I could feel that she’s been much better these couple of days. There’s been a certain gentleness to when she looks at you, but you’ve just been to dumb to notice it. If you could keep up your good behaviour, I’m sure that she will turn around.”

Truthfully Sooyoung had a different set of plans in her mind. A more hands on approach to things. But it was out of the realm of possibilities given the current situation. To secure her much needed time off, she had to play with the cards that she was dealt.

“By the way, how is it going between Sunmi unnie and Seulgi?”

Seungwan suddenly asked seemingly out of nowhere.

“They've been progressing steadily from what I’ve heard, Chief Lee had a rough start, but lately I’ve even seen Seulgi visiting her at work.”

“Do you think I should ask Sunmi unnie for some tips?”

So that’s why she asked.

“You can forget about it. If Chief Bae found out that you were using the same methods on her that someone else used to win over Seulgi, prepare to be single for the rest of your life.”

“I’m not saying that I’ll be using the same methods, I just want to know how to change a person’s attitude. It looked like Seulgi wasn’t interested in Sunmi unnie at all, but now she’s accepted her.”

“…”

“Why are you looking at me like you’ve just consumed poison?”

“…unnie, you’re really something else. Forgive me for saying this, but you’ve really got the emotional capacity of a rock. How could you still not understand? It wasn’t because that Seulgi disliked Chief Lee, it was because she still had you in her heart, that’s why she rejected everyone else. Oppositely, Chief Bae doesn’t dislike you either, she was hurt by the way you treated her because she loved you too much. The way that you keep failing to realize what you have… makes you look a little punchable right now.”

“I know that I’ve been wrong… I’m trying my hardest to correct my mistakes, but she wouldn’t even give me a chance!”

“Let’s put it this way. First, your repentant attitude looks great right now, but who knows how long you could keep this up? Even I’m too afraid to bet on you right now, not to mention Chief Bae who has been hurt repeatedly. But this could only be proven with time, there’s no better way to go about it, so let’s just leave that conversation for now.

Second, Chief Bae hopes to have an equal relationship with you. In the past, she kept running after you, every word you said or action you made affected her deeply and made her happy or sad for long periods of time. She is now actively trying to change that, she doesn’t want to feel on the back foot all the time anymore, which is why she is acting the way she is, and making it hard on you. For now, just go with her demands, give a little more leeway, and let her expel all the indignation that she’s felt before. Chief Bae is not an unreasonable person, once she feels that the two of you are once again on equal ground, she will stop giving you crap.

Lastly, you know as well as anyone the problem between you two. You’ve been ‘together’ for two years, yet you barely know anything about each other below the surface level, the lack of communication has been too great. These days you’ve been gifting her this and that, but have you actually considered what Chief Bae really wants? Is she really after the pink roses that you bought? The expensive bags? She makes just as much as you do! She still loved you as if her life depended on it even when you were an to her! What you need to do right now is find t