Reasonable Loss - 5

Startled, Eunsu quickly stood up from his chair. And he swallowed dry saliva,

“Team Leader Yoo?”

Dokwon called Eunsu.

“Yes, Director.”

Eunsu neatly clasped his hands below his navel and nodded his head in response.

“It’s about the in-house training app being made with the HR team this time.”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to take a look at it.”

“……Yes? Ah, uh, uh, now, right now?”

At the completely unexpected request, Eunsu opened his eyes wide. At the face like a startled cat, Dokwon pressed strength into the corner of his lips. To others, it looked like he was extremely displeased with this situation.

“……Don’t you want to?”

The added words were close to sarcasm. Since I want to see it. Who are you. If I say show it, you show it. The unique repertoire of power tripping echoed like an auditory hallucination from afar.

Eunsu quickly licked his dry lips and hastily added words.

“No. No. But we’re just doing the design as handed over from the HR team. If you want to see something related to talent development, it might be better to get a report from the HR team. I can contact them now……”

“No, I want to see the design.”

“Ah, aah…… I see. Then, to print it…… it will take a bit, so I will visit the director’s office in one hour.”

Eunsu signaled to his team members with his eyes. Then, the team members who had been blinking only their eyes started moving busily. They found files, organized, compiled, and checked.

Feeling like he was suddenly taking an exam, Eunsu clenched his fist tightly, and

“To the director’s office…… you’re saying you’ll come?”

Dokwon asked back with a face coldly stiffened. How sharp his expression was. Moreover, at the pheromones that suddenly expanded and emanated, Eunsu almost collapsed on the spot. Still, he put strength firmly into his soles and endured.

“Uh…… If it’s inconvenient…… shall we meet in the meeting room?”

“No. It’s not inconvenient. Good, the director’s office. It’s comfortable, just the two of us, good.”

“……Yes?”

At the somehow strange reason, Eunsu asked back, but Dokwon smiled as if it was nothing. Dokwon turned around. Eunsu loosened his shoulders, which had been stiff with tension, and Dokwon turned his back again to look at Eunsu.

“But, Team Leader Yoo.”

“Yes, Director.”

“What do you like?”

“Yes?”

“No, I thought we need to drink something for the meeting. To prepare.”

“Ah, aah……. I like anything.”

Eunsu smiled brightly. It was not some other meaning; it was purely the smile used in social life. But Dokwon did not back down easily.

“There can’t be anything you like.”

“Uh…… Then, please a cafe latte.”

“The warm one?”

“Yes. The warm one. That…… or shall I buy it and come up?”

“No. I’ll prepare it.”

“……Yes, then I’ll bring the printouts and come up.”

Eunsu bowed deeply. Dokwon walked away with somehow light footsteps. Eunsu, who had stood until he completely disappeared, plopped down onto his chair like collapsing. And looking at his sullen team members, he asked.

“Did we…… do something wrong?”

The meeting with Dokwon flowed more simply than he had worried. Eunsu kept talking, and Dokwon occasionally put in interjections as if listening. Then, when the explanation ended, he asked about another thing, and another. It was not contentious or sarcastic; it was literally just asking.

Why did you design it like this here? What icon is this? When will it be completed? Can’t you run it on your phone now? And so on. They were annoying but not difficult questions.

Then, out of nowhere, he said he was interested in app design, not app development, but design, and requested a lunch appointment. Of course, as the “eul” position, Eunsu could not refuse his call.

After that, they kept meeting for various reasons. Dokwon created pretexts to meet by citing various reasons including design to Eunsu, who majored in design: art, art, etc.

Like going together to an industrial design fair and asking for advice, or asking about the differences between a competitor’s app and our company’s app, or asking to go to a gallery together because he wanted to buy a painting hanging in the company lobby but had trouble deciding, and so on.

At first, he disliked it. How could he not feel uncomfortable with a dominant alpha and director? But as time passed, and meetings became three, six, nine times, that discomfort became minimal.

That was because Dokwon was not a bad person. He was not lacking as much as the team members worried.

He was always nice, asked for opinions first when doing something, and had manners and etiquette. He thought he was just asking for advice, but when he subtly gave opinions, he listened intently and made decisions referencing those opinions.

Above all, the good thing was the food eaten while with him.

Eunsu had studied abroad for a long time, and with the assets left by his parents plus the money he earned, he was reasonably well-off, so he had tried many good dishes. So he thought he had a picky palate. But what Dokwon bought did not allow comparison to those foods.

Unfamiliar foods whose names were hard to remember brought a smile to his lips the moment they entered his mouth.

As it went on, he started looking forward to meetings with Dokwon. Discussing art and design with him was enjoyable, the accompanying food was excellent beyond compare, and the face of Dokwon sitting across was ecstatic.

When he came to his senses, they were exchanging personal messages, eating lunch together without any special reason, drinking wine, and watching movies.

Fingertips brushing by chance, unintentionally feeling pheromones, honorifics changing from “Team Leader Yoo” to “Eunsu-ya,” from “Director” to “Dokwon-ssi,” and then ticklish feelings sprouting, evolving into love in an instant.

At first, he liked his handsome face and manners. Later, he liked his large hands, his broad back, his thick Adam’s apple.

He secretly swallowed dry saliva at the chest muscles glimpsed under the dress shirt, and unwittingly glanced at the prominent hips and thick, solid-looking thighs beyond the suit pants.

He liked the deep eyes looking at him, and when drinking wine, the opening lips and the red tongue glimpsed briefly made him feel like his soul was being sucked. When those lips moved to call him in a low tone, his muscles melted away.

Eunsu fell helplessly for Dokwon. At the moment of becoming complete lovers with him like that, Eunsu realized. That Dokwon had been planning this moment since he started coming and going to the 14th floor.

Eunsu did not know when Dokwon first knew of him, or why that great person came to look at the him stuck in the corner of the 14th floor with such eyes. Because he had asked several times but did not hear the answer.

‘From the beginning, I just liked you too much, Eunsu. You were beautiful, different from anyone else. You shone sparklingly.’

He seemed to evade the answer with such romantic words.

Whatever the reason and trigger, Eunsu was happy being with Dokwon.

And when he reached the peak of that happiness, everything shattered to pieces.

“PTSD, that is, one of the avoidance symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. We’d have to do a brain scan to know for sure, but it could also be a side effect from the surgery.”

“So, it’s something like memory loss?”

“Yes.”.

Kiho, Myunghee, and Eunsu were sitting in front of the attending physician. Eunsu was staring at the doctor’s chin with a distraught face, Myunghee was perched on the edge of her chair glaring at the doctor as if she wanted to devour him, and Kiho was trembling his legs while showing signs of anxiety.

“How much does he not remember?”

“If the patient says his age is thirty, we can estimate it’s about four years before and after.”

“Ha……. Four years, not even four months? Then he won’t remember Eunsu……”

“When will he recover? Look, our Eunsu is pregnant. And it’s early on. It’s a very dangerous time, you know.”

“Yeah. He can’t not remember that he’s the baby’s dad, right?”

“Fix him right now. Do whatever it takes.”

Kiho and Myunghee bombarded the attending physician. Then the doctor wiped the cold sweat beading on his temple and cleared his throat with a cough.

“We can prescribe medication, but it won’t have a dramatic effect. PTSD varies depending on how much impact the accident the patient went through had on him. Side effects from surgery differ from person to person too. It could come back in as little as a week if it’s short, or it might take years if it’s long. I can’t give a definite answer on when he’ll be fully cured.”

“……So you’re saying there’s nothing we can do, and you’re just rambling on about it like that?”

Myunghee said, not hiding her displeasure. Then the doctor pushed up his glasses and quickly added more words.

“We’ll proceed with medication and psychological therapy. If the patient has the will, it could happen as soon as……”

“He has plenty of will. Dokwon doesn’t just love Eunsu in an ordinary way.”

“But…… A problem in the memory system means the same as a problem in the brain……”

“The same?”