2.2 | A Lifetime Of You ✓

chapter 9

The last week of the task force project was hectic. But Seo Cyan didn't have one shred of doubt or fear in his mind. He worked tirelessly on his designs, while the members of his team, including Joon, watched in awe. They all unanimously agreed that Cyan would be the one doing the presentation.

But Joon had different concerns. He was worried if Lala was living well, eating well, or if she got into fights. Cyan had dropped her off at his aunt's house in the countryside, about fifty kilometers away from the city. And Joon couldn't take his mind off the little girl. She hadn't even been able to pack her raccoon plushie with her. Would she be crying? What kind of a person was Cyan's aunt?

"She puts a little too much salt in everything, otherwise she is a good woman. Loves Lala a lot." Cyan patted Joon's head in a comforting manner, just outside the conference room. Joon looked up in mild surprise. He was the one who should have been offering comfort to Joon. Not the other way around.

But in the end, that was just who Cyan was. Poking his nose in the workings of other people's minds and leaving a void there which only he himself could fill. While he was speaking in front of a large audience, and Joon was controlling the slides for him, he suddenly felt a bitter resentment towards him.

He couldn't just stop himself from feeling that way. He knew nothing about Cyan - except mundane details like he liked sweet, lukewarm coffee. He couldn't type on his phone for the love of everything holy, yet somehow used a graphic tablet at the speed of light. Cyan was not a reader, he liked movies. And hated letting his bangs fall across his foreheads. Joon thought he looked handsome when he did - he did, really, he looked at least seven years younger when he had his hair down.

"That concludes my presentation," Cyan said on the microphone and much to everyone's surprise (not Joon though) the auditorium gave him a large applause. Even the Director sitting in the front row came up to shake hands with Cyan and indulged in a rather long conversation with him.

"Kim Joon," Cyan introduced him, "more than half of the idea was his. And he made the presentation."

Lies. Joon had merely said that having a pencil-like feel in the stylus without seeing the cursor showing up every damn time would be good. Cyan was the one who decided to collaborate with the engineers from product design and innovation and make it a full fledged idea.

Looking at the faces of the board of Directors, they were definitely going to get a promotion.

"We'd be looking forward to having your team to dine with us," Secretary Cho said, and instantly handed Joon a card with Director Kim's initials embossed over its surface. That wasn't rare. Almost everyone in the Empire Corporations, except interns and new employees, had a business card of the same design.

"Thank you." Cyan and his team bowed down to them, and Secretary Cho gave her head a slight nod.

"We'd be dining with them, wow." Oh Miso, the eternally tired engineer, remarked. If Joon strained hard enough, he could make out the sounds her empty stomach was producing. And it made sounds in unison with her partner, Lee Jonah.

"I know, right? Feels like a dream." Cyan smiled.

_________

Rather than a dream, Joon found the entire duration of the dinner very boring. He sat in a very high end restaurant with about twenty five other people from task force and five people from the Director's secretarial time. Director Kim himself was somewhere in the middle of the crowd, and the head of the table was occupied by the master secretary Cho Taeri.

Personally, Joon found the woman scary. He had only talked to her twice. Once in the company athletic meet previous year, and the second time when he was assisting the Sales Department Head in the year end conference. She had black hair pulled in a tight bun, narrow steely eyes, a small baby bump, which was a relatively new addition to her person. And the way she used a knife instead of chopsticks to pick sushi up and eat it subtly terrified Joon.

He didn't stay there for long. Somehow, Seo Cyan managed to escape before the drinks began. And he took Joon along with him.

"Ah right," Joon said, as they walked along the pavement, side by side, "you hate alcohol."

"I don't hate it. But I don't like how they use it for socializing."

"Socializing? You were sitting next to Kim JaeHwan half the time. Everyone will want to talk to you now," Joon said, childishly sad that Cyan didn't get to sit beside him.

"He shook hands with you too." Cyan pointed out. "And he's not like everyone imagines, Joon. He might be like us."

Like us. Joon knew what that meant. And he also knew what big of an assumption that could be. His treatment at work would turn a straight 180, he would no longer be looked at like a promiscuous man, he would get... the same chances at promotions and leadership...

"How do you know?" Joon raised his brow skeptically.

"No man would ever have the face of another man on his lockscreen." Cyan smiled wistfully.

"It could be his brother?" Joon shrugged.

Cyan looked at him and scoffed. "Would you save your brother's picture on your device? That you get to see him every time you open it?"

Joon suddenly imagined an utterly horrible dystopia where his brother's face greeted him every damn time he picked up the phone. Kim Woong? Not a chance in hell. He would rather have Seo Cyan's face -

"Oh," Joon realised. "Yes..."

"And he said he's planning on having medical facilities at the company daycare. Now I won't have to take Lala to a hospital every time."

"That's really nice," Joon said. And then he realised what it really meant, being a single father. Society expected them to behave in a particular way - and if they didn't, they were either cowards or chauvinists. Women had high expectations, and gay men were often promiscuous.

"They don't even let us marry," Joon scoffed in realization, "and call us promiscuous when we try to court someone."

"Court?" Cyan laughed. "Who even uses that word anymore?"

"I do," Joon muttered irritably, "I am old fashioned."