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Minwoo isn’t sure what he’s looking at, exactly. The rage with which Su-yeon throws the flowers in her trashcan and then starts to step -so violently she’s almost jumping- on them is not a sight he expected coming into work today. But here he is, standing uncertainly on the threshold of her office, with eyes wide as saucers.
The scene keeps unfolding before him, until Su-Yeon straightens up with a huff and see him there. Her hands come to her hips, and she’s suddenly very intimidating.
“What ?” She snaps.
“Remind me not to piss you off.”
“Oh, you could never piss me off like he did,” she spits with more venom than he’s ever heard from her.
“Why ? What did he do ?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“Ah.”
“What ah ?”
“Relationship drama.”
She seems even angrier, if possible, sending him a dark look that is, in his opinion, totally uncalled for. It’s not his fault, whatever she’s going through. Though he’d very much like to punch whoever is responsible.
“Why do you care ?” She provokes, tilting her chin up with defiance. “What are you even doing here ?”
“Hey, if you want to have a breakdown, do it with your door closed.”
“Close it on your way out.”
Minwoo resists a snort, taps once on the doorframe and exits her office with a shake of his head.
He is not entirely sure when this became a habit, eating with the other attorneys. Especially with Su-Yeon, given how many times they bicker and fight and just don’t see eye to eye on things. But it did become a habit, and he has even gotten used to Youngwoo’s whale rambling, although today she has calmed down on that subject given Junho is absent and Su-yeon is complaining.
“What does this jerk think, exactly ? That a few flowers will make up for him being a lying, selfish ass-”
“Yah, who would have thought blind dates could go that badly ?” Minwoo interrupts her, maybe teetering on the edge of mockery.
“You know what,” she exclaims, throwing her hands up in the air, “I should just give up on men altogether. That’s it. No more serious relationships from now on.”
“But your one night stand with that man did not bring you the fulfilment you were seeking.”
Su-Yeon jerks in her seat, head whipping to face Woo Young Woo. Min-Woo bets he looks as shocked as her.
“Are you crazy !”
Su-yeon lowers both her head and voice, pleading :
“What the hell happened to no personal talk during professional hours ?”
“Woah,” he interjects, a hand over his mouth, “I never would have pegged you for the type to…”
“You shut it,” she hisses with a finger in his face, spurring him to lean backwards.
Under Youngwoo’s uncomprehending gaze, Su-yeon buries her face in her palms, groaning slightly. Minwoo finds himself unable to look away, for some reason.
What reason, exactly ? She’s an adult. It’s not like her relationship status has ever interested him before, except for the curiousness spurred when she strolled in and declared she was going on blind dates.
Maybe it’s the thought of her going out in a bar or a club with the purpose of having a one night stand. Maybe it’s just the thought of her wide eyes and tilted lips and the red that comes to her cheeks when she gets mad at him, all of that being admired and engulfed by a stranger.
“What did your boyfriend do to you, anyway ?” He asks, because he might as well use the personal talk to learn things he won’t admit he wants to learn.
Her jaw clenches, chopsticks playing with her food.
“Not my boyfriend.”
“Sorry. Boytoy ?”
Su-Yeon chokes on her own saliva, wide eyes snapping to his as she coughs in her elbow.
Minwoo has to bite back his smile, and then he can’t, because she’s laughing, and Young-woo is staring at them curiously.
Minwoo is aware enough to realise he has been in strong denial.
Su-Yeon has told him that she likes him -twice.
The only way to keep from making a mistake, to keep himself from dwelling on it every day, is to ignore the hell out of it. But he can’t well do that now, can he ? Now that she yelled at him in his office not three days ago, the subtle admission still echoing in his head. Now that he’s let himself change, let himself be exposed at work because she said that his behaviour was keeping her at a distance.
Now that she’s laughing with Junho at something or another, a few inches from him only, the drink in her hand filled again by a watchful attorney Jung Myung-seok at their usual (almost daily) after-work reunion.
There is nothing to be done for the way he can’t tear his eyes away from her. His stomach swoops at every bark of laughter, at the unrestrained smile on her lips, at the gaze glowing with alcohol and mirth. Her elbow bumps into his side when she shifts, and she addresses him an apologising nod. Minwoo can’t handle this.
His arm comes up to the back of her chair, feels her hair brush his skin.
“Did attorney Jang talk to you again about the case ?” Attorney Jung draws him back to reality.
“Uh, not really.”
His senior narrows his eyes and leans forward, and Minwoo is reminded again how good he is at reading people.
“Tell me.”
His eyes lower to the drink between his fingers, watch the liquid mount on the glass and settle back down as he tilts the shot.
“He… He wasn’t happy with how I handled the case in court.”
“What did he say ?”
“That I better never do something like this again, or he’d make sure no senior attorney ever worked with me.”
He can feel the gaze on the side of his face, hears the abrupt stop of Su-Yeon’s laughter. Attorney Jung leans back in his seat, lips pursed like he tasted something sour. Minwoo suddenly has the urge to keep talking, if only to fill the deafening silence at his left, despite Junho’s chuckles, Youngwoo’s chipper tone and Geurami’s loud voice.
“I told him I wouldn’t have to do that again if he listened to his team next time.”
A sharp intake of breath at his left. Su-yeon’s shoulders press against his arm.
“You did well,” attorney Jung smiles.
The warmth the compliment gives him is unfamiliar, and beautiful, and makes him clear his throat. He is not used to this, to having other people’s back.
He has only ever had to look out for himself, never cared for others because they would not care for him. At Hanbada, he had to learn how to work as a team, within a team. And he was very bad at it.
But then Su-Yeon came around, and honestly… They made a good team. Because they bickered and fought, but in a way that pushed them further and made them better. Underneath the competition, underneath the banter, he can’t lie; there is an underlying affection. He holds her in his esteem, and if something were to happen to her career because of a jerk like attorney Jang, by God he would throw hands.
“Excuse me,” he says, getting to his feet.
He refuses to look back as he goes to the bathroom.
Once there, the white of the tiles soothes his headache, the silence a world apart from the room next door. Minwoo looks at himself in the mirror, wonders what exactly has changed. What shifted with attorney Woo’s arrival ? Since she came around, it seems like the world is falling from under his feet, hard-learned convictions being obliterated in a second, mistakes lining up mercilessly as he tries to make the best of his situation.
Jeju’s trip was the last nail in the coffin, he supposes. Far from the firm, truly working as group with hang-out sessions and cohabitation, with good meals and joyful atmosphere. It felt a bit like home, like before his parents’ health came down on his shoulders. Before the pressure of making money and being the best rotted his ambitions and dreams.
The door opens and closes, and even though he can be quite blind sometimes, he doesn’t have to guess now.
The lock echoes like a gunshot against he walls. He refuses to speak first.
“Why did you do that ?”
Minwoo has to huff at the tone, at the question itself. Trust her to make it sound like an accusation, just like she did on that balcony in Jeju.
“Do what ?”
“I was the one to speak up first.”
“So ?” He says, playing dumb. She’s too smart for it though.
“So I know attorney Jung would have rather chewed me out than you.”
With a sigh, Minwoo leans his hands on the counter, meets her eye in the mirror.
“What do you want me to say ?”k
“Did you take the blow for me ?”
His jaw works. He doesn’t like her phrasing, because he didn’t do a selfless act out of the goodness of his heart. He had to be convinced, and he had to gather his courage, and he had to go against his instincts in order to respect his beliefs. Sure, he stood up in court. Sure, he believed in the cause he was defending, believed it was the best defence. But he didn’t seek attorney Jang out so he’d spare Su-Yeon and Youngwoo. He did it because it was the right thing to do, and he stood up to him and…
Minwoo didn’t exactly take the blow, is all he is saying.
At his silence, Su-Yeon’s eyes widen, lips parting on a realisation.
“You defended me.”
“Of course I did,” he replies too harshly. “You were in the right.”
“Still, you didn’t… You didn’t tell me.”
Minwoo glances away with a shrug.
When she takes a step, the sound of her heel freezes him up. He doesn’t dare look, doesn’t dare budge, is reminded of his inability to react on the balcony, faced with her admission and the temptation that was her every breath.
“You risked it all,” she whispers, too close, the heat of her body threatening at his back. “Why ?”
He honestly wants to get mad at her. He wants to scream and yell and accuse of her of doing this to him, but he did it to himself. Becoming a better person is much, much harder than he knew.
But she told him she liked him, and it was her speech that convinced him, in his office, the sheer simplicity of “I like guys who are like that.”
Instead of slipping into anger, Minwoo turns around, coming face to face with her.
It’s easy to finally give her an answer. So easy to lean down and press a kiss on her mouth, feeling her startle against him but not pull back. She’s soft under him, softer than he expected; he’s too used to her iron will, her strong intent. Su-yeon tilts her head and opens her mouth, and all becomes mellow heat as her tongue strokes his. It shouldn’t feel natural to press her closer, to kiss her back with more intent than he expected from himself. But then again, the only reason he hasn’t made a move before was because he didn’t allow himself to dwell on it, or on the fact that she deserves better. But he’s trying. He’s really trying, and isn’t that all any of them can do ?
It’s a long while before they part, both inhaling sharply in surprise at what they’ve done. Her eyes are heavy lidded, and her taste lingers, intoxicating.
“Live like a fool, right ?” Minwoo breathes against her lips, his hands clenching on her hips as if afraid to let go. Maybe he is.
Against all expectations, Su-yeon beams at him.
“You didn’t do it for me,” she smiles, breathless. “You did it because it was the right thing to do.”
“Maybe,” he murmurs, a bit dazed by it all.
Her next words are offered right against his mouth, her hand in his, her faith in him a bright sun glowing in his chest.
“Let’s live like fools, then.”