Oppa, That Must Be A Mistake - Chapter 5

“What happened Kang Seung-won?”

He had a habit of dropping by when he’s passing by the neighborhood and was hungry, but under the circumstances, she couldn’t greet warmly.  

Hye-Joo opened her door and greeted him with awkward expression.

“What are you doing so late at night?”

“Let’s eat pork feet.”

Seung-won smiled and waved what he was holding in his hand.

“What kind of pork feet are you cooking late at night?”

“Do you eat jokbal at night or during the day?”

While Hye-joo hesitated, Seung-won pushed open the door, and after setting the table, he pulled out a bottle of soju from the veranda as casually as if he were pulling out a medicine cabinet.

“Have a seat where you’re comfortable.”

Is this your place?

Hye-Joo stood still, dumbfounded, and eventually she burst into laughter.

“What are you doing?”

“Don’t ask me what I want, just give me chopsticks.”

Seung-won was a computer science graduate from one of Korea’s most prestigious universities. From a young age, he excelled in math and physics and was often called a genius. The problem was, that’s all he was good at.

“You’re so old and you still can’t split chopsticks, and I’ll never be able to do it for you, so it’s time for you to practice.”

It’s been more than four years since she’s been splitting chopsticks for him, as they always end up splitting apart. Accepting the neatly split wooden chopsticks, Seung-won stared at Hye-Joo.

“First of all, I’m…… sorry.”

I don’t know what to say as the girl who usually says nothing but nonsense holds the weight. Looking at Hye-joo, who was still chewing her meat, he said something seriously.

“My brother has a good reason, he had been stalked badly before.”

I nod.

“I won’t go into details, but as a result of that trauma, he’s extremely sensitive to stalking. Oh, and of course I’m definitely not saying you’re a stalker.”

At a loss for words, Hye-Joo continued to chew her pork trotters.

“Anyway, I’m sorry, I’ll apologize on behalf of my brother.”

Hye-Joo, who had been mechanically mouthing off, finally spoke up after pouring some soju.

“You don’t have to apologize, it’s okay, I made a mistake.”

“Oh, and I bring this.”

Seung-won pulled out his pocket for something. It was the pact and lip balm from the safe house.

“Uh, thanks.”

Hye-joo’s face turned red. It meant that Seung-won knew that what she had in her pocket the night she confronted Kang Joo-won wasn’t cosmetics.

But thoughtfully, Seung-won doesn’t pry into what was in her pocket that night. Or about the explicit confession song.

‘He’s always been like that.’

 thoughtless yet caring, vulnerable yet sincere, a man who seems to live for the game every day.

‘He knows I don’t want to talk about what I took from the hideout that day.’

I appreciated it.

“You came all the way here just to tell me that? One trip to the police station is no big deal. I’m fine.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

But what he said after a short silence made Hye-Joo’s heart drop.

“There’s more I need to tell you, Hye-Joo.”

Every once in a while, the usually easygoing Seung-won would put on a serious face. Hye-Joo knew it was coming.

“Don’t be a stranger. I’m just trying to get your attention.”

She tried to ignore the awkwardness, but her chest tightened.

She didn’t want to hear it. But.

“You know that, right?”

To his question, Hye-Joo replied.

“……Yes, I know.”

That was all she could say. Seung-won smiled dryly.

“Somehow, the atmosphere was different.”

“Different in what way?”

“I felt like the world was watching me. We don’t talk to each other anymore, and we don’t talk in the chat room.”

I don’t know why the word “we” is so bitter.

‘There were three of us.’

In a relationship that was now two and one, Hye-Joo was a complete stranger.

“Aren’t you going to congratulate me?”

“Hey, why would I celebrate? I just lost two of my drinking buddies!”

“Well, that’s kind of a bummer, because just because me and Da-hee are dating doesn’t mean we’re not friends.”

“We won’t even be able to spend Christmas together this year.”

“What’s Christmas? We’ll spend it together.”

“I don’t want to be the clueless one. Darn It! couple, solo paradise!”

He tried to comfort her with words that Hye-joo did not have, such as saying that you would soon have a boyfriend, and that our friendship would not change..

Every time he poured alcohol into her soju glass, sadness washed over her, making her feel like she was dying, but she desperately held it together.

‘I have to celebrate ……. I can do it. I have to do it.’

Two of my dearest friends in the world care about each other, but I can’t just sit there and die.

Not to lose them, not to be alone, Hye-joo laughed and laughed and laughed.

The sadness that had been building up inside her would only burst out when Seung-won left.

“Sob sob…….”

Inside the house, filled with the strong scent of pork feet, Hye-Joo cried.

“Oh, come on, really…….”

She pursed her lips to stop herself from crying, but she couldn’t stop herself from sniffling. Covering her mouth and giggling, Hye-Joo eventually fell onto her bed and cried herself to sleep.

Be happy, my friends.

Goodbye, my first love.

*

I had made up my mind to wish Seung-won and Da-hee happiness, but watching them from afar was more painful than I expected.

It wasn’t that I felt bad or that I had lost Seung-won. But the thought that the three of us would never be able to be together again if she found out always made her feel uneasy. And then there was the sudden surge of envy and the slightest hint of resentment.

When I saw them exchanging secret glances in the office, when the chat room where they were having their daily chatter was silent, when they were both fiddling with their cell phones and a smile appeared on their faces at the same time, I felt like I was one of the three of them…… in an instant.

Da-hee tried to take care of Hye-joo. She made sure t0 eat with her after work, and even convinced that the three of them to go out for pyongyang naengmyeon noodles on weekends.

She’d pout her lips whenever she refused, so they’d eat there a couple of times, but the affectionate gesture made her lose weight day by day.

‘I’m going to be so skinny.’

She needed a breakthrough event to distract them, but their daily routine was repeating itself. Just as she was getting tired of staring at the two of them all day, Kang Joo-won joined the company.

His arrival shook up the monotonous company.

“Have you seen the new CEO? Wow, he walked in front of me and he was so radiant.”

“I heard he studied in the U.S., so his physical appearance is different. I was in the elevator with him earlier and he made me feel like a nerd standing next to him.”

“I heard you’re related to Mr. Kang Seung-won from the development team. How come all the brothers in your family have superiority genes?”

His popularity was almost syndromic. Partly because it was a small company, the word spread quickly, but partly because all the employees were under 40, people were more interested in the new, unmarried CEO.

Bonbon Research was a startup with a total of about 100 employees. As the company grew from 15 to 100 employees, it was acquired by DataS, a giant mobile analytics platform in the U.S. The company’s leadership team was shuffled and the company started a new life under the name ‘DataS Korea’.

Joo Won Kang was a rising star as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at DataS headquarters in the United States.

After graduating from the Ivy League at the top of his class, he joined DataSys. He earned his MBA while working at the same time, which is unusual for DataS.

“I’m Joo-won Kang. Mobile, data, and research are all words with future value. Unlike traditional research companies that use phone or internet methods, we at DataS are constantly developing mobile-based survey methods. We will build the future of evolved research with you.”

His confident demeanor on his first day on the job was enough to attract employees. The charisma of the hotshot executive from the United States was inspiring.

“Mr. Kang, you said you’re not even 30 yet, but you’re really capable.”

“He’s a genius who never missed a class in the Ivy League.”

Even in the younger, more youthful world of American venture capital, the fact that he was able to rise to COO before he was 30 years old showed that he was very capable.

“Doesn’t Seungwon’s IQ add up to 300? I don’t know who’s going to take his brother. I’m already jealous.”

Datas had the horizontal, free-flowing organizational culture of a startup. With 100 employees spread across three floors of a building, it was common to call each other Mr. or Ms. because there were no titles.

The executives didn’t have assistants or make decisions unilaterally, meaning that even if you joined DataS Korea as a ‘representative,’ you were no different than the rest of the team.

There were some people in the U.S. headquarters who didn’t like the way he parachuted in. In their eyes, he was the one who pushed aside the executives who had been with the company for years to take the top job. They complained from day one.

“Well, we don’t know if he’ll be good at his job just because he has a fancy resume, because it’s a different story.”

But exactly one week later, their words were silenced. They were amazed at what Kang Joo-won had accomplished in a week on the job.

In a single meeting, Joo-won closed a contract that had been stalled for six months and solved a technical issue that the development team had been stuck on for a month. His audacious drive and unimaginable turnaround time left everyone speechless.

One week.

That’s how long it took for Kang to convince everyone that DataS Korea would become the No. 1 data analytics platform in Korea.

While the company was in a frenzy, Hye-Joo was just as busy. There were mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, and a never-ending list of things to do.

It was a good thing for her. She thought she would have trouble dealing with Joo-Won at work, but they were too busy to see each other.

But the peace was short-lived. Finally, the new CEO showed up at the table.

This very day, in front of the business and development departments.