Imina – 2

We went back to the office and offered coffee to everyone.

People seemed stunned by the sudden coffee offering.

Well, I guess so. The person who messed up the office atmosphere and left was now buying coffee, so cognitive dissonance was bound to occur.

“Have a cup of coffee and get back to work.”

Mina, with her usual stern face, tossed out a word and returned to her seat.

It’s so strange… I wonder if that’s her real face or if she’s just good at keeping a poker face.

Was it because of her slightly softened demeanor? The atmosphere in the office seemed better than in the morning.

I sat down at my desk, finished my coffee, and searched through the shared folder.

I need to study hard from now on so I don’t struggle when learning the job on the weekend.

[Lee Mina: Kang In-ho]

As I stretched my neck like a turtle to look at the monitor, Lee Mina sent me a message.

[Lee Mina: What kind of movies do you like?]

Along with the question, she attached a captured image of the latest releases from the movie theater website.

Why don’t I know any of the movies or actors?

Seeing this makes me realize that the Dimensional Shift is real. It’s similar but subtly different.

I searched each of the movie titles she sent and skimmed the general plot, but there wasn’t a choice that particularly appealed to me.

But it wouldn’t be polite to reply with “None,” so I chose a melodrama.

Actually, I believe that it’s better to watch movies with a large screen and sound system, like blockbusters, in theaters.

But I thought a genre like that, with lots of explosions, might have mixed reactions, so I thought a safe choice would be better.

[Lee Mina: Okay. Then I’ll book tickets for around 4 o’clock.]

She says she’s going to book them already, as if she’s in a hurry.

[Kang In-ho: But it’s only Monday. If we go to see a movie at 4, we’d have to leave the office around 3.]

[Lee Mina: Don’t worry. I’ll teach you everything before then.]

Why are you deciding that?

[Lee Mina: What if all the tickets are sold out? We should book them even if we might cancel later.]

I agreed with her and went back to work.

Well, it’s understandable to be excited about a date with someone you like.

It felt like a fresh, youthful feeling of someone in their twenties, which was cute.

Okay, let’s focus again.

30 minutes later

[Lee Mina: How’s the food here? I heard it’s a steak restaurant.]

[Kang In-ho: I like all kinds of meat.]

[Lee Mina: Hmm, but it seems like all the reservations are full and the waiting list is long. Just a moment.]

10 minutes later

[Lee Mina: There’s this place too. It’s an Italian restaurant.]

[Kang In-ho: Okay, that looks good.]

[Lee Mina: Is Italian food okay with you, Inho?]

[Kang In-ho: Italian is good, Korean is good, everything is good.]

[Lee Mina: Ah, do you prefer Korean food? Just a moment.]

[Kang In-ho: No…]

30 minutes later

[Lee Mina: Here’s a Korean restaurant.]

[Kang In-ho: Okay. That looks good.]

[Lee Mina: It looks good, right?]

[Kang In-ho: It looks delicious.]

[Lee Mina: Here’s the menu.]

[Kang In-ho: Oh… I like noodle dishes.]

I was about to type, “They have noodle dishes here, so it’s perfect for me.”

[Lee Mina: Ah? Really? Then I’ll look for a pasta place.]

The Alchemists were wrong. Ouroboros is not a snake biting its tail, but Lee Mina repeating the same conversation.

This is written in the Kojiki as well.

It took exactly three hours from when she started sending messages to choose a restaurant.

The days were getting longer, so it was still bright outside, but the clock hands had reached the finish line of quitting time.

People who had been concentrating on their work also started packing up their things in time with the ticking of the second hand.

“I’m heading out.”

Kim Yuna, who was sitting next to me, got up and said goodbye.

She didn’t intentionally raise her voice, but it seemed like she was trying to make sure Mina couldn’t hear her.

She slowly and secretly headed towards the exit.

“Yuna. You can get me the quarterly settlement data by tomorrow morning, right?”

A clear voice came from the other side.

The expression on Kim Yuna’s face as she turned around was as heavy as her foundation.

“Ah, well… it’s almost done. About 90%.”

She rolled her eyes back and forth.

“I see. So I can get it tomorrow morning, right?”

Mina asked again.

“If I come to work tomorrow and organize it for an hour or two, I can give it to you.”

“What time do you come to work tomorrow?”

The company has flexible working hours from 8 to 11.

“Around 11… I live far away…”

“If you come to work at 11 and it takes an hour or two, that’s the afternoon. So it’s not the morning, is it?”

As if asking something obvious, Mina asked Yuna for confirmation.

“Th-that’s right.”

“Give it to me by the morning.”

As if she wouldn’t make any allowances, Mina emphasized “morning,” and Kim Yuna, who had been giving various reasons, simply agreed and left work.

If it were me, I would have finished it and left. She won’t be able to rest properly at home because she’ll be worried about work, so what is she doing?

With Kim Yuna’s departure, some of the people who were about to go home put their things back down and started working again.

Surprisingly, the people who had finished their work shared it with her and left.

Ah, of course, the people who had rushed through it roughly were left behind again.

So, at 9 o’clock.

Everyone who was going to leave had left. Mina and I were the only ones left in the office.

I managed to review all the work I had done in the past.

Damn… I did a lot of work.

“Inho. Are you roughly done with your work?”

“I haven’t done anything though.”

When I replied with a serious face, she chuckled.

For some reason, I’m glad to see her expressionless face break.

“Why haven’t you done anything?”

She seemed to have finished preparing to leave, and she rested her chin on the headrest of my chair.

I turned my head back to look at her face.

“I just looked at what I’ve done so far, so I haven’t done anything.”

I smiled slightly at her as she stared at me with wide eyes.

“Why haven’t you? Studying hard is also a type of work.”

She took my words and returned them to me.

Ah, I’m a little embarrassed.

“Do you know your face is red, Inho?”

She smiled and took her head off, as if she was in a good mood.

“Hurry up and get ready to leave. You haven’t had dinner yet.”

Yoon Hye-young was not in a good mood because she was leaving work later than usual.

Thanks to the unexpected overtime, she was late for her date with her boyfriend.

“So why did she do that?”

Her boyfriend asked while they were having coffee after dinner.

“I don’t know. Maybe she’s on her period.”

Why is she suddenly acting up? She muttered.

“You said there’s a male employee at the company.”

“Yeah. That guy, Kang In-ho?”

“He’s acting strange too. He used to just do whatever I asked him to do.”

Hye-young frowned as if she found it strange.

“But today, even if I ask him to do something, he cuts me off, saying he has his own work to do.”

“Well… maybe that’s just how it is?”

Her boyfriend didn’t seem to sympathize with her, which made her even angrier.

“Ugh, I don’t know. Honestly, that pushover did almost all the work, so I was able to work comfortably. What am I going to do now?”

“You’re going to have a lot of work to do.”

“If they keep giving me work like this, I’m going to have to talk to the director.”

“How? That they’re giving you too much work?”

“Not exactly. I talk to the director often and we’re close. I’ll subtly tell him that it’s unfair.”

“Uh… I feel like that wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“Ugh, whose side are you on right now?”

“Ah, okay, I’m sorry.”