After 8 hours of working all day and being bothered by Han Min-Jun left and right, I stretched in my chair. ‘Thankfully I don't have to work overtime tonight.’ While I began packing my things up and placing them in my bag, I saw how some of my co-workers were also busy tidying their desks for the night while others still looked as though they were buried in paperwork and excel sheets. When I was done cleaning my desk, I stood up from my swivel office seat and looked one last time at my workspace, going through a mental checklist. Seeing that I had everything, I began my escape, hopping into the elevator with my briefcase in hand. ‘Time to get out of here.’ My comfortable bed was calling out to me from far away with my best friend, Ms. Bae, who was waiting for me at home. She is very cute and caring to me, she’s the person who I can talk to about all of my troubles. Lastly, I can hug her whenever I like, my beautiful duck plushie. ‘No one is allowed to judge me for having plushies! They are so cute and soft! Everyone can agree with that!’
"Mr. Baek-Yang, are you going home straight away?" Han Min-Jun suddenly approached me as I was about to exit the building.
‘Well yeah, I'm going home. Why would I stay out late in the middle of a workweek when it's more comfortable to lay in my bed hugging Ms. Bae?’ I could feel my expression become strained. “Yes, Mr. Han Min-Jun, Why?" I answered him with dread. ‘He better not—’
“Ahm, I recalled our agreement that you would treat me sometime later, so I wanted to use that chance now for us to hav-”
"Excuse me, Mr. Han Min-Jun, but I have urgent matters to attend to at my house. Maybe we can meet next Saturday instead." I interrupted him from finishing whatever he was going to say to me. I knew it was rude to dodge him like this, but it's true I had pressing matters at home that I absolutely must attend to.
"Fine, but can we at least go home together? Since we are neighbors? Please?" He begged with sad doe eyes.
'Damn it! Why can't he just get the hint already?! Just leave me alone!' I felt my face twitch and then sighed, "Fine." with reluctance as I surrendered to being forced to walk back to our houses with him.
"Great! Shall we go then?" He said, immediately cheering up and began to walk away, opening the door for me.
I huffed and rolled my eyes, stepping through the open door and trudging ahead, not waiting for Han Min-Jun to catch up. While we were walking silently side by side, I noticed several groups of friends laughing as they walked home from work together. ‘How nice. I wish I had a friend to commute with, and not an overly pushy neighbor.’
"So, what's the urgent matter at home Mr. Baek-Yang?" He asked me while we were walking.
‘Why should I tell you?’ My thoughts were almost a snarl, but I kept my actual voice level and calm. "Well, it's none of your business, so don't act so familiar and pry into it."
"Hmmm, I guess you're right… Sorry, Mr. Baek-Yang, I won't ask anymore." He said, surprisingly giving up.
‘Good, he let that go unexpectedly easily. Did he reach his quota for being stubborn for the day? Maybe we could finish the rest of the walk home without any more useless questions.’
We continued walking in silence, until someone roughly rammed into my shoulder, nearly sending me tumbling to the ground. Han Min-Jun reacted fast and grabbed me by my waist to prevent me from falling, but that forced both of our faces so close together that we could feel each other's breath. It occured to me that Han Min-Jun's irises were a deep red, similar to that of roses.
"Mr. Baek-Yang, are you alright..?" He asked me and it made me awaken from my stupor.
"Oh, yeah, I'm alright. Thank you." I said and hurried to move away from him.
That was close, I don't know what came over me. The heavy gaze of his red eyes that I felt on me made me go silent and avoid looking at him again. After our long walk we finally arrived in front of our houses. I turned to him.
"Well, good night Mr. Han Min-Jun and goodbye, have a nice evening." I bid my farewells in a hurry to get away from the man and scrambled away inside my house without even waiting for his reply.
After getting home, I considered taking a bath to calm my nerves. The combination of long work hours and my clingy neighbor wore me down to the bone, leaving me with a tension headache beginning to pound at the front of my skull. When I stepped into the bathroom I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror... a slightly red lump had formed on my forehead. I touched it gingerly, it didn't hurt that much anymore. ‘Oh right, I was supposed to ice this when I got home. But maybe I don't need to anymore since we did it when I was having my break? It doesn't look as bad anymore.’
Stepping out of the bathroom while drying my hair with a towel, I decided to ignore my doctor's instructions and skipped straight to changing into my pajamas. I dipped into my bedroom to pick up Ms. Bae, my cute yellow duck plushie, then walked into my living room and turned on the TV. I set Ms. Bae on a cushion next to me and let commercials run while I prepared food in the kitchen then returned to join her on the couch.
"Ms. Bae, what do you think today's episode will be about? It’ll probably be another murder case." I asked Ms. Bae conversationally and fast forwarded past the rest of the commercial break.
"It's always about murder Baek, it's never anything new!" Ms. Bae answered me as I lifted her up in front of me, well she didn't really, I'm only using my voice at a higher pitch.
The very urgent matter I used to blow Han Min-Jun off was this. Watching the recording of my favorite anime series. It was the newest episode of the ‘Great Detective of the East’, one of my absolute favorite series to watch.
"Well you have a point there Ms. Bae, but despite it being repetitive, it's still great, right?" I agreed, acknowledging her opinion and setting her back down on her cushion.
While watching the episode of ‘Great Detective of the East’ playing on the TV screen, I brought a spoonful of my sweet and extra spicy curry to my mouth. Of course I’d paired the dish with rice, and that was the only correct way to eat it. I was taking no arguments on this. The spiciness made my nose run slightly and I sniffled. Certainly not because of the emotional scene in the anime, but because of the spiciness. As I continued to watch the animated scene where the boy in a blue suit found out the shocking results of a DNA test, I was reminded of my time in high school. That’s when my friend, Jee Chin-Sun, finally roped me in to start watching anime.
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I leaned back in the chair at my school desk and was looking at my phone, browsing for the available free game apps to decide if there were any worth playing.
“Bestie!” A familiar face poked into the classroom from the doorway and yelled my name, startling me so badly that I almost dropped my phone.
“Chin-Sun!” I said her name, my brows scrunching up as I saw her annoying face.
The girl skidded to a stop beside my seat, followed with a squeak of her plastic school slippers against the classroom floor. She gave me a peace sign with a small giggle. ”Sorry, bestie.” Chin-Sun sat on one of the empty chairs in front and shoved her phone in front of me to show me something, but I didn’t bother to look up, just keeping my eyes on my own device. “Check this out bestie, I just watched it yesterday and it’s so good!” Chin-sun still excitedly insisted that I should look at the screen.
‘What nonsense does she want me to look at now? This girl has been bothering me to watch dramas and anime she loves so often… it's like she is trying to indoctrinate me into some kind of deok-hu cult!’ I finally lifted my gaze but instead of her phone screen, I looked at Chin-Sun herself. ”Promise me that the picture you're going to show me is not weird. I haven’t forgotten about the last time...” The memory made my skin crawl. ‘I have to make sure, because some of the anime and dramas this crazy girl has shown me before were… perverted.’
“Yes, don't worry it’s not, it's a perfectly normal anime series.” She put on a face of absolute innocence, but I didn’t buy it..
“Fine.” I surrendered somewhat reluctantly. I looked at Chin-Sun’s phone and saw a picture of a seemingly normal young man wearing a blue colored suit while smiling. ‘Wow, he’s handsome.’ I blinked, surprised and relieved Chin-Sun had been telling the truth for once. “Great Detective of the East?” I read the title.
“Yes, it’s a crime and mystery genre. You said that is the kind of show you like to watch, right? Crime dramas?” Chin-Sun explained cheerfully, watching my expression for any changes like a hawk.
‘Hmmm, I’ll try watching this, but I’ll be damned before I tell Chin-Sun about it.’ I kept a look of absolute disinterest on my face, “Oh really?” I said, continuing to browse for game apps.
“Damn, was this also a miss…? When can I convince you to watch anime or dramas with me?” Chin-Sun whined, laying herself over my desk while her chocolate brown hair fell in her face. God must have had to balance her unique looks with a strange personality, because having such pretty hair was frankly unfair to every normal person out there, including myself.
“I guess never?” I chuckled with a grin.
Later that night, when I tried to watch the series with the handsome, smiling man and I became completely hooked, losing myself to the world of deok-hu culture..
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After finishing the recording of ‘Great Detective of the East’, I spent the rest of the evening catching up with the latest episodes from season 3 of the drama ‘War in life’. In the middle of one of the episodes I heard my phone ping, pulling my attention away from the television. I had received a notification from Instogram, but what had really caught my eye was the time. It read 2:57 on the digital clock and I cursed heavily.
Only a few hours later, I was rudely awakened by a noisy alarm clock. I stood up from the bed and trudged to the bathroom. Looking at myself in the mirror, I saw the reflection of my very haggard face, deep circles under my blue eyes that made me look almost like a blonde raccoon. I grimaced, tugging off my sleepwear. I forced myself into the shower using all of my willpower and unwillingly prepared myself for another painful day at work.
Shoving stale plain toast in my mouth I peeked out my front door, surveying the area for any brown haired jerks lurking around. When I finally confirmed my annoying neighbor was not in the vicinity, I swiftly exited my house and tiptoed away from the house. When the distance from my complexe was far enough, I burst into a sprint to avoid being caught by Mr. Han Min-Jun on the off chance he decided to leave early. Bastard always seemed to appear out of nowhere when I least expected it. Seeing the front of the company building, I grinned knowing I had avoided meeting my next door idiot first thing that morning.
When I entered the company lobby, I observed that there were only a few people who had arrived for work so far. I went straight to the still open elevator and hopped on, pressing the number for my floor. Shortly after I arrived at my office floor I stepped off, going straight to my desk. Once there, I pulled out my seat and sat tiredly in the swivel chair.
"What happened to you, Mr. Su Baek-Yang? You look like you just came back from the dead." Ms. Chang Jieun said in surprise, passing by my desk and spotting my worn out face.
I just smiled awkwardly. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine." I replied to her, suppressing a yawn. Ms. Chang nodded slowly, still side-eyeing me with worry as she continued towards her own space. The faint smell of coffee coming from the break room on our floor drew my attention. I knew the stuff in there was awful, but it was free and I was in desperate need of a boost today. I hefted myself back up and made my way into the small kitchenette, beelining towards the still relatively full coffee pot. Some angel had made enough for several refills. I grabbed one of the plain white office mugs and poured myself a cup then reached for the box of sugar packets, ignoring the taped on rule of three packets per person. I dumped copious amounts of sugar into the crappy office coffee to cover up the bitter flavor and lazily stirred it. 'Note to self: Only watch anime and dramas on the weekend or when you don't have work the next day.’
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