DMSD | Chapter 27

“Jinhwan,” Myeongeun said, tightening his coat against the chilly winter wind while looking at Jinhwan, who was also looking down at him. “I heard that you don’t eat food given by others. Is food from restaurants okay then?”

Jinhwan slowly closed his eyes and then reopened them before answering. “Who told you that?”

“Deputy Head Manager Kwon,” Myeongeun replied, recalling a conversation from a few days ago during a meeting about Assistant Manager Jang’s issue. Jinhwan turned his head away without much reaction, which surprised Myeongeun, though he didn’t show it.

“Restaurants are safe,” Jinhwan finally said, staring straight ahead. “Unless they intend to ruin their business, they won’t mess with the food.”

“I’d like to believe that, but there are still some shady folks out there,” Myeongeun replied, hinting at unscrupulous business owners.

“At least they’re human. They wouldn’t trick a child into eating bugs by telling them it’s juice,” Jinhwan responded nonchalantly.

“Bugs to a child?” Myeongeun was shocked, though he knew such deranged individuals existed somewhere. From Jinhwan’s words, ‘at least they are human,’ it seemed he had experienced something similar with a spirit.

“It was when I was a child,” Jinhwan explained in his typically low and blunt voice. “I was walking and suddenly felt very thirsty, and a woman passing by offered me orange juice, which I drank.”

Jinhwan said he was already trapped in the trick by the time he felt the thirst. He was on his way to a small hermitage, climbing a desolate mountain trail at dusk. It was unusual for a woman to be alone there, but by then, Jinhwan was too caught up to question her presence or motives.

Young Jinhwan had guzzled down the juice, but suddenly the liquid in his mouth formed a shape and began moving on his tongue, startling him into spitting it out. “When I spat it out, there were small maggots wriggling about the size of a fistful,” Jinhwan described impassively.

Myeongeun turned pale even though Jinhwan seemed unaffected. There was no need to ask if it was true; Jinhwan’s current aversion to personally given food spoke volumes.

Myeongeun had also been the victim of such pranks, including incidents involving bugs, which had caused him a long-standing fear. He used to suffer daily from hallucinations where dark, winged, hard-shelled bugs would scurry up his hand and spread across his body whenever he reached into his pocket.

However, Myeongeun’s bug-related stories were mostly hallucinatory. Jinhwan had physically felt and experienced the wriggling maggots in his mouth—a real sensation far different from mere hallucinations.

“I don’t always refuse to eat,” Jinhwan continued, snapping Myeongeun out of his reflections. “It depends on the situation and the person. I generally avoid eating things given by strangers, but it’s not an absolute rule.”

Hadn’t I given him dandelion tea before? Myeongeun was puzzled but was quickly diverted by Jinhwan’s next words. “If there are people who know me best in this world, it would be my brothers. But even they don’t know everything about me.”

Jinhwan’s gaze finally met Myeongeun’s. “If you have questions about me, it’s better to ask me directly.”

Myeongeun stared back, wondering if Jinhwan would actually answer all his questions. At that moment, Jinhwan smirked slightly and slipped his hand into his rider jacket pocket, adding, “Of course, whether I answer or not is up to me.”

Typical, Myeongeun thought, snorting internally as he turned away. However, a sudden thought made him gasp and clutch his head, turning back to shoot a glance at Jinhwan, only to catch a smirk that seemed to say, “Manage your expressions before you doubt.”

The group from the general affairs office had moved to the café on the first floor of the building. The place was bustling with headquarters staff already there, enjoying a 40% discount with their employee badges.

“What will you have?” Myeongeun asked.

Yang Section Chief and Supervisor Yu responded in turn, “Iced Americano for me.”

“Same here.”

Myeongeun looked at Manager Lee. “Hard to decide, huh?”

Manager Lee always deliberated intensely, though it invariably ended up being either an Americano or a café latte.

Passing over Manager Lee, Myeongeun asked Assistant Manager Kim. “I feel like today’s seasonal menu. Just a sec, I need to check the calories in this strawberry latte.”

Kim quickly pulled out her phone to calculate the calories, prompting Myeongeun to move on to Kim Junyoung. “We could just use the corporate card at Starbucks, why bother coming here?”

Kim grumbled as if talking to himself, a routine complaint during lunch outings. A trip to Starbucks would eat into their precious lunch break by an additional fifteen minutes.

“What will you have, Junyoung?”

“Just a moment, please,” Kim said with a grin, teasingly chiding Myeongeun, “You’re always in such a hurry, and we’ve got time today.”

Myeongeun pressed his lips together tightly. Irksome.

Typically, Kim Junyoung might have ordered the most expensive item on the menu just out of spite, especially after an embarrassing encounter with Jinhwan that morning, but today his snark was double the usual.

Exhaling deeply, Myeongeun turned to Jinhwan, who was staring at Kim Junyoung’s back, only glancing at Myeongeun when asked. “And for you, Jinhwan?”

“Ice yuzu, please.”

“Yuzu…?” Myeongeun was surprised.

“What? Is there a problem?” Jinhwan asked, looking at him as if questioning the issue.

“No, it’s just that, here at yuzu…” Myeongeun quickly scanned the menu. “Oh, they have it?”

Myeongeun had just discovered that the café offered traditional tea after three years of its existence.

“I don’t recall ever being such a nuisance to make a café invent a menu item,” Jinhwan remarked dryly.

“No, it’s not that; I always order the same thing and didn’t know,” Myeongeun admitted, deciding not to mention his thought that yuzu tea didn’t seem to suit Jinhwan.

As they left the café, Yang asked Jinhwan, “You like sweet things, huh?”

Holding the cup, Jinhwan casually replied, “Yeah, I guess.”

“That’s unexpected,” Manager Lee chimed in. “Do you work out, Jinhwan? You look like you do, and people who exercise usually stick to strict diets.”

Jinhwan glanced at Manager Lee, who awkwardly laughed off the sudden attention. “Not really into fitness,” Jinhwan responded.

Pleased to have gotten an answer, Manager Lee brightened and pursued, “What kind of exercise then? I’ve been gaining weight myself lately.”

However, Jinhwan answered nonchalantly, “Yeah,” and turned away to sip through his straw, looking up at the elevator numbers, effectively ending the conversation.

What to do with him? Myeongeun massaged his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

Manager Lee, slightly embarrassed but getting used to Jinhwan’s abrupt conversation style, quickly switched targets to Kim Junyoung, whispering, “Do you exercise?”

Kim, always eager to please the higher-ups, quickly responded, “I go to the gym. Want to come for a test session?”

Thanks to Kim, the atmosphere lightened quickly.

Back at the office, Myeongeun, responsible for this month’s corporate card, filed away the receipts and pulled out a toothbrush from his drawer.

“Jinhwan,” he called to his colleague, who was lounging in his chair with his legs up on the desk. Myeongeun walked over and nudged Jinhwan’s legs. “Down.”

Jinhwan looked at his own legs and then at Myeongeun as if asking what the issue was.

“It’s not a good look, so don’t do it.”

“Who’s it a bad look for?”

“Anyone.”

Jinhwan shrugged and took his legs down. “Don’t have a toothbrush? I don’t have a spare, so use this instead.”

He handed Jinhwan a small bottle of mouthwash. Jinhwan took it, placed his phone on the desk, and started inspecting the bottle as he chewed on a piece of leftover ice.

“I’ll brush in the restroom, you can use the break room.”

Leaving that note, Myeongeun left for the restroom, where several staff from the accounting and HR departments were either brushing their teeth or using the facilities. He smiled and nodded to them as he applied toothpaste to his brush. Just as he was about to start brushing, Assistant Manager Lee from the accounting team finished up and came over.

“The president’s son?” assistant Lee whispered while shaking off his toothbrush.