CH 64

At the meeting, the story of love blossomed for a long time. The hottest topic at the party was about love affairs, as almost all but a few team leader-level employees were unmarried men and women.

“You don’t know how much my mother worries because I work here. She says that since I work with celebrities, I am more picky, so I might see issues with everyone and not get married.”

“Ha ha ha ha ha. So does my mother.”

“Why don’t you try getting a little more attention by ignoring their issues? ha… Is there any good-looking, kind-hearted, wealthy, blind man who likes me?”

“What about me? Me.”

“Kyungsoo is ugly, has a belly and has no money!”

“Are you blind?”

“Ha ha ha ha ha.”

Everyone burst out laughing. In a friendly atmosphere, Inseop sat quietly so as not to break the excitement.

“Does Inseop have a girlfriend?”

“What?”

“Girlfriend.”

“He doesn’t have one.”

It was Lee Wooyeon who answered.

“How do you know that, Mr. Wooyeon? Because, by nature, gentle people are good at dating. If you think about it, even when I was in school, the most docile and feminine girls got married early.”

“Right. Those kids were getting married early. If you watch him closely, Inseop might have a lot of girlfriends.”

“Mr Inseop doesn’t have any.”

Lee Wooyeon replied with a smile.

“He doesn’t? Really? May I introduce you to someone?”

Team leader Hong asked Inseop implicitly.

“No. I’m fine.”

“Chief Hong. Why didn’t you introduce them to me and only to Inseop?”

“You only drink and flirt. Not a man like you, but a real man is like him. Because he is a family man, sincere, and kind. How about it? Mr Inseop. If you have any thoughts, tell me.”

“It’s fine. Not yet, I don’t intend to.”

“Then when are you going to have that thought?”

Inseop turned his head to Lee Wooyeon at the question. As soon as his eyes met, Inseop’s goosebumps rose. He had a glass of wine in his mouth, so he couldn’t see his lips clearly, but Lee Wooyeon’s eyes were smiling coldly.

“If you don’t think about it now, it will happen later. Right?”

“Why? Are you worried that Inseop will quit as your manager if he gets married?”

“That’s right. I am also worried.”

Lee Wooyeon smiled again and turned his head. Seeing that his tone had loosened, Inseop sighed. No way. Lee Wooyeon won’t get angry in front of so many people.

While Choi Inseop was soothing his heart, the topic of the drinking party shifted to a movie that was released a while ago.

“The female lead in that movie really looked just like my first love.”

“Ah, where can you find such a first love on Hyungsik’s face?”

“First love is always beautiful.”

“I heard that all the men who watched the movie shed tears saying it was their story. They are the main characters of the movie.”

“Have you seen the movie, Inseop?”

“Oh, I haven’t seen any movies lately.”

“Why? Don’t you like movies?”

“I like it. But I don’t have time…”

He liked movies. When he was in the United States, he would go to the movies with his family once a week, and play a game of predicting the future of a movie by watching the trailers that were released before the release with Jennie.

Lately, he has been watching and researching only the movies related to Lee Wooyeon dozens of times, so he hasn’t thought of looking into other movies at all. Come to think of it, how long has it been since he went to the movies? Inseop was quite surprised when he counted the date by himself in his head.

“I haven’t watched in a really long time…”

“We’ll go see later. After dinner with the people in our office, sometimes we go to a late-night movie.”

“Okay. Mr Inseop. Let’s go together.”

These days, Lee Wooyeon’s schedule has lightened, so he has more time than before, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he has his own personal free time.

“No. It’s fine.”

“Why? Do you want to go out with your lover later?”

“It could be. He’s trying to sneak away.”

“No. I’m not trying to sneak away.”

“Hey, look at how red your face is. You really are dating someone.”

Inseop waved his hand vigorously in denial, but those who had fun at his naive reaction continued joking.

“I am not dating anyone. Really.”

“Because you’re too bright and in denial, I’m more suspicious for some reason. Haven’t you seen Inseop’s girlfriend before?”

“How do you see someone who doesn’t exist? I don’t have a superpower.”

A cold reply came back.

The deputy, who had just been joking and joking a while ago, looked back at Lee Wooyeon with a firm face.

“Wooyeon, is there anything that’s making you angry?”

“Is that even possible? In such a good place.”

Fortunately, a soft reply came back. The reassured people started making noise again. Choi Inseop glanced at Lee Wooyeon just in case. The side view of Lee Wooyeon, who occasionally chatted with the actors at the table next to him while drinking, didn’t look particularly strange.

‘I’m a little worried. Let’s not worry.’

Inseop nodded his head as he ate the vegetables that came with it.

“My first love was really pretty, but in the end she met a doctor and got married.”

“It’s like a movie. But Kihoon does not have the main character’s face, that’s the problem.”

“Doesn’t Wooyeon have a first love?”

“Me? Of course I do.”

“Huh, really? Who is Lee Wooyeon’s first love? Tell me quickly. It’s a good thing there aren’t any reporters here. Or it will be the sports newspaper scoop tomorrow morning.”

“There’s nothing much.”

“Tell me. I want to listen.”

People perked up their ears to hear about Lee Wooyeon’s veiled past. Inseop, who was just about to chew a cucumber, put it down on the table.

“I was a book lover. They also liked books, so we met at the library, and we exchanged contact information while talking about books. That’s it.”

First love with a girl he met at the library.

Somehow he was like Lee Wooyeon, and sometimes he was not. Inseop drank the beverage alone with a strange feeling.

“So what happened?”

“If your first love comes true, is it your first love? That’s why it’s so affectionate.”

“It is.”

“I still get calls from time to time. But once a month.”

“On the phone?”

“They send a postcard. Like a verse of a poem.”

“Wow, so romantic.”

“Is this something that would appear in a romance movie?”

Inseop choked on the cider he was drinking. People were talking about Lee Wooyeon’s romantic first love anecdote.

Inseop looked at Lee Wooyeon, wiping the spilled cider on his clothes with a tissue. He was conversing with the people sitting opposite him with a bewitching smile.

‘Ah, this guy is really bad. How dare you lie like that.’

The postcard was what Inseop was sending him. It was all Jennie’s will. In her will, it was written that the postcards she had collected were for Peter. He kept the box full of postcards, but while reading Jennie’s diary, he found words that she couldn’t send to Philip, one by one. Even when she said she hated Philip, she said that she desperately wanted him to remember her.

He decided to send her words out. The words that Jenny had not been able to say, he sent them out as postcards to Lee Wooyeon one by one, every month.

Watching Lee Wooyeon make up a story about it, saying it was the woman he met at the library, or the first love that didn’t come true, Inseop was terribly heartbroken.

… … A person like that is Jennie’s first love.

“Does Inseop not have a first love?”

“Fi, first love? …There was…”

People turned their attention to him as Inseop muffled his words with a bitter face.

“There was, but what? Are you okay?”

“Yes. Yes.”

It was not going well. Inseop nodded, remembering the ongoing ruin of his first love.

“Didn’t you say it was a bad person?”

Lee Wooyeon interrupted the conversation.

“Who is it? Mr. Inseop, is your first love a bad girl?”

“You said that to me last time. She was a bad person.”

A subtle smile appeared in Lee Wooyeon’s eyes as he said that.

“She was a bad person. Gold-digger style?”

“So if it didn’t go well, it’s rather good for you.”

Lee Dayoung offered words of comfort to Inseop and said,

“Mr. Inseop, beware of bad girls. You need to find a good woman.”

“Oh, Dayoung. Are you already worried about Inseop oppa?”

“I’m a little worried about Mr. Inseop. He looks like he’ll get caught by a bad girl and get sucked in with a straw on his back.”

“Straw…”

As if he remembered a terrible scene, Inseop made a sharp expression.

“Don’t date that kind of woman, but meet a good woman in the future.”

Lee Dayoung smiled and gave Inseop a word of advice. People booed and teased Dayoung, but she laughed as if she didn’t care.

“Yes. Thank you. I will do that.”

Inseop smiled and nodded his head as she was kind, taking care of him, who was a stranger whom she saw for the first time today.

The atmosphere at the party was getting more and more ripe. People applauded and rejoiced as the drunken manager Cha sang and danced.

While drinking cider, Inseop changed his mind that it was good he came to the party. He wasn’t fully assimilated into this atmosphere, but just seeing people living happily made him feel better.