Chapter 9. Next Time, Dinner
The next morning, 8:07 a.m.
Hyunwoo Kang put his phone in his work-clothes pocket, then took it back out.
There were no new notifications.
Even so, he turned the screen on.
The last message they had exchanged the night before was still on the lock screen.
[I’ll look forward to it.]
Hyunwoo stared at the sentence for a moment.
He wanted to see her in regular clothes.
Next time, come out dressed properly.
And I’ll look forward to it.
Maybe he had said it without any particular meaning.
But it had stayed with him longer than he expected.
“Hyung.”
Jaehoon Kim called to him from beside him.
Hyunwoo immediately turned off the screen.
“What.”
“What were you looking at?”
“The time.”
Jaehoon looked at the electronic clock hanging on the wall.
8:07 a.m.
“There’s a clock right there.”
“Am I not allowed to check it on my phone?”
“You can.”
Jaehoon smiled.
“Then why were you smiling while you checked the time?”
Hyunwoo’s expression hardened.
“When did I smile?”
“Just now.”
“I didn’t smile.”
“You’ve been saying that a lot lately.”
Hyunwoo pulled his hard hat down firmly.
“Let’s go to work.”
Jaehoon followed right behind him.
“Did you have a good time at the café yesterday?”
Hyunwoo stopped walking.
“How do you know about that?”
“Know what?”
“That I went to a café.”
Jaehoon’s eyes widened.
“You really went?”
Hyunwoo shut his mouth.
He’d walked right into it.
Jaehoon burst out laughing.
“You really went, hyung.”
“Ah.”
“I don’t even have to ask who you went with.”
“Jaehoon Kim.”
“Yes.”
“Be quiet.”
“Understood.”
Jaehoon lowered his head, but he didn’t stop laughing.
Hyunwoo sighed and walked ahead.
Yesterday, he had run into a worker from another crew at the café.
The story would probably make the rounds again sometime today.
But it bothered him less than he expected.
He kept thinking more about the conversation he’d had with Jia last night.
Next time, we can have dinner too.
Those words.
Hyunwoo smiled without realizing it.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“You’re smiling again.”
“I swear, I’m going to kill you.”
9:41 a.m.
Work started as usual.
Hyunwoo was lining up the piping on a high platform.
“A little higher.”
Taesik Park called out.
“Yes.”
The piping rose slowly.
Hyunwoo positioned it by hand.
“Stop.”
Clack.
The flanges lined up.
Hyunwoo immediately checked his safety lanyard.
Clipped in properly.
Safety glasses on.
Chin strap secured.
Taesik watched him from below and said,
“These days, I don’t have anything left to say.”
Hyunwoo smiled.
“I’ve always been good.”
“There you go again.”
“It’s true.”
“Ever since that white hard hat came into view, you’ve become a different person.”
Hyunwoo looked down.
“Lead.”
“What.”
“You really stick that onto anything.”
Taesik laughed.
“Am I wrong?”
Hyunwoo didn’t answer.
Just then, a familiar voice came from the passage.
“Hello.”
Hyunwoo’s head turned immediately.
Jia Seo.
She was wearing her white hard hat and carrying her clipboard, just like today.
But because he remembered sitting across from her in regular clothes at the café yesterday, somehow her appearance at the job site felt a little different.
Jia noticed Hyunwoo too.
Their eyes met briefly.
Neither of them smiled.
They had agreed to be careful at the job site.
Jia checked the other workers first, then slowly approached Hyunwoo.
“I’m going to check the work status.”
“Yes.”
Hyunwoo answered as normally as he could.
Jia checked the area around him.
Safety lanyard.
Passage.
Tool.
Safety glasses.
Then she looked at Hyunwoo again.
“You’re doing well today too.”
Hyunwoo said quietly,
“I promised you yesterday.”
Jia raised one eyebrow slightly.
“Promised me what?”
Hyunwoo paused.
“That I’d follow the safety rules.”
“Oh.”
Jia nodded.
“Right.”
Hyunwoo smiled faintly.
Jia nearly smiled too, but she looked around and composed her expression.
“Then keep working.”
“Yes.”
Jia turned away.
Hyunwoo turned back to his work as well.
But after she had taken a few steps, Jia said in a very small voice,
“And.”
Hyunwoo looked up.
Without turning around, Jia said,
“I had fun yesterday.”
Hyunwoo’s expression softened slightly.
He answered in a low voice.
“Me too.”
Jia kept walking.
It had been a short conversation.
It had lasted only a few seconds.
But Hyunwoo felt good for a long while afterward.
Taesik called up from below.
“What’d she say?”
Hyunwoo answered immediately.
“Nothing.”
“That face says it wasn’t nothing.”
“Just watch the work.”
Taesik snorted.
11:58 a.m.
Lunchtime.
Jia was checking her phone in the safety team office.
There wasn’t a single message.
Even so, she opened her chat with Hyunwoo Kang.
The last messages were:
[I got home.]
[I just got home too.]
[I had a great time today.]
[Me too, lol.]
And the last one:
[Sleep well.]
Jia stared at the sentence.
She had replied without thinking much about it the night before.
[You too, Mr. Kang.]
But looking at it again that morning, she felt a strange little tickle in her chest.
“Jia.”
Sohee Han called from beside her.
Jia immediately turned off her phone screen.
“Yeah?”
“What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.”
“Hyunwoo Kang?”
Jia sighed.
“Why does that name always come up first with you?”
“I can see it on your face these days.”
“See what?”
“Who you’re texting.”
Jia laughed as if it were ridiculous.
“Are you a shaman?”
“No.”
Sohee pulled her chair closer and sat down.
“How was it yesterday?”
“How was what?”
“The café.”
Jia paused for a moment.
“It was fine.”
“Fine?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s it?”
Jia smiled.
“What else is there to say?”
“Was it fun?”
“Yeah.”
“Was it awkward?”
“At first.”
“And then?”
Jia thought for a moment.
“Once we started talking, it got better.”
“What did you two talk about?”
“Just stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“We talked about work, and what we do on our days off.”
Sohee narrowed her eyes.
“Did you talk about dating too?”
Jia’s hand stopped.
Sohee noticed immediately.
“You did.”
“I just asked.”
“Who asked first?”
Jia looked away.
“I did.”
“Oh.”
Sohee’s expression changed completely.
“What did you ask?”
“If he was seeing anyone.”
“Jia.”
“What?”
“That isn’t just a question.”
Jia immediately objected.
“Why not?”
“Why would you ask a man you’re not interested in whether he has a girlfriend?”
Jia fell silent.
“I could’ve just been curious.”
“Sure.”
Sohee nodded.
“So, does he have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
Jia answered instantly.
Too instantly.
They both paused.
Sohee slowly smiled.
“You remember that well.”
“I only heard it yesterday.”
“Were you happy?”
Jia looked at Sohee.
“Happy about what?”
“That he doesn’t have a girlfriend.”
Jia didn’t answer.
To be precise, she couldn’t answer right away.
When she’d heard that fact, she had definitely felt a little happy.
She just hadn’t gone out of her way to think about why.
Sohee said,
“Jia.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you think it’s time you admitted it?”
“Admitted what?”
“That you’re interested in Mr. Kang.”
Jia pressed her lips together.
“I don’t know yet.”
This time, she didn’t deny it.
Sohee was a little surprised by the reaction.
“Oh.”
“What?”
“You used to insist it wasn’t true.”
“It’s just…”
Jia fidgeted with her phone.
“He seems like a good person.”
Sohee smiled.
“A good person.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s all?”
Jia thought for a moment.
The moment he had pulled her away from danger at the job site.
The way he had quietly watched her while putting a bandage on the back of her hand.
The way he had agonized over which coffees to buy before bringing her two.
The voice that had asked if she was all right when she was startled by the accident report.
And what he had said at the café yesterday.
A safety manager is a person too.
We can be startled. We can be scared.
Jia said quietly,
“For now.”
Sohee nodded.
“Okay. Take your time getting to know him.”
Then she added teasingly,
“But did you make plans for next time?”
Jia’s expression shifted again.
“Dinner.”
“What?”
“We said we’d have dinner next time.”
Sohee burst out laughing.
“Girl.”
“What?”
“You already made another date.”
“We didn’t set an exact date.”
“Does that matter?”
Jia eventually laughed too.
Just then, her phone rang.
Jia’s gaze dropped immediately.
Hyunwoo Kang.
[Have you eaten lunch?]
Sohee couldn’t see the screen, but she could tell from Jia’s expression.
“He texted.”
“What did?”
“The good person.”
“Be quiet.”
Smiling, Jia typed her reply.
[I’m about to eat. What about you, Mr. Kang?]
The reply came immediately.
[I ate.]
And then:
[Are you free tonight?]
Jia’s hand stopped.
Sohee asked,
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
Jia looked at the screen again.
Tonight.
It hadn’t even been a full day since they’d parted at the café yesterday.
Was he asking to see her again already?
Jia sent a reply.
[Why?]
A little while later:
[We said we’d have dinner.]
The corners of Jia’s lips slowly lifted.
[You meant today?]
[We never set a date, so today works, right?]
Jia laughed.
Sohee immediately asked,
“What is it?”
“Dinner.”
“Don’t tell me it’s tonight?”
Jia nodded.
Sohee’s mouth fell open.
“Coffee yesterday and dinner today?”
“Why?”
“You’re moving faster than I expected.”
“It’s just dinner.”
“Sure.”
Sohee smiled.
“Just dinner.”
Jia looked at her phone again.
[What do you want to eat?]
Hyunwoo’s message.
After thinking for a moment, Jia replied:
[You said you were paying.]
[That’s right.]
[Then somewhere expensive.]
Hyunwoo replied immediately.
“You’ve been saying that since yesterday.”
[No changing your mind.]
[I won’t.]
And the last message:
[See you after work.]
Jia stared at the screen for a moment.
They had met yesterday.
They were meeting again today.
She didn’t dislike that fact at all.
If anything,
she found herself looking forward to the end of the workday.
3:27 p.m.
Hyunwoo was crouched beneath the piping, sorting bolts.
Jaehoon came over and crouched beside him.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“Do you have plans after work again today?”
Hyunwoo’s hands stopped.
“You looking at my phone?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because you look happy today.”
“What am I doing?”
“Smiling to yourself nonstop.”
Hyunwoo immediately stiffened his expression.
“I wasn’t smiling.”
“That’s the most suspicious thing you say now.”
Jaehoon crouched beside him.
“Ms. Jia Seo?”
Hyunwoo picked up a bolt and placed it in Jaehoon’s hand.
“Sort these.”
Jaehoon grinned.
“So I’m right.”
“Seriously.”
Taesik called from a short distance away.
“Jaehoon.”
“Yes.”
“Quit teasing him.”
Hyunwoo looked at Taesik.
For the first time, it seemed like Taesik was taking his side.
“Lead.”
Taesik said,
“Hyunwoo has a date after work, so we need to finish up quickly.”
Hyunwoo’s expression hardened.
Jaehoon burst out laughing.
“Oh, come on!”
Hyunwoo took off his hard hat, then put it back on.
“You two are exactly the same.”
Taesik laughed.
As he sorted his tools, Hyunwoo said,
“It’s not a date.”
“Then what is it?”
“We’re having dinner.”
Jaehoon said,
“A man and a woman?”
“Yes.”
“After work?”
“Yes.”
“And you went to a café together yesterday?”
Hyunwoo looked at Jaehoon.
“So?”
Jaehoon thought for a moment.
“Sounds like a date to me.”
“I said it’s not.”
This time, Taesik asked more seriously,
“Do you like her?”
Hyunwoo’s hands stopped.
It was a sudden question.
Jaehoon stopped laughing too.
Hyunwoo said nothing for a moment.
Like her.
The words still felt a little too far away.
They hadn’t known each other long.
There was still a lot they didn’t know about each other.
But…
He wanted to see her.
He looked forward to the time Jia came around.
Her messages put him in a good mood.
He had been the one to suggest meeting again after work.
Hyunwoo answered slowly.
“I don’t know.”
Taesik nodded.
“Okay.”
“But…”
Hyunwoo paused.
“I do know I want to keep seeing her.”
The corners of Taesik’s mouth lifted.
“That’s how it starts.”
Hyunwoo said nothing and went back to work.
But he kept repeating what he had just said in his head.
I want to keep seeing her.
That much was certain.
5:42 p.m.
As soon as he finished work, Hyunwoo headed for the locker room.
Today was different from yesterday.
He wasn’t going in his work clothes.
There wasn’t time to shower, but he changed into the black short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans he had brought in advance.
He looked in the mirror.
His hair was still slightly flattened from wearing his hard hat.
Hyunwoo wet his hands and fixed it.
That was when Jaehoon came in behind him.
“Oh.”
Hyunwoo looked at him through the mirror.
“What.”
“Regular clothes.”
“So?”
“I heard you wore your work clothes yesterday.”
Hyunwoo’s expression hardened.
“How the hell do you know everything?”
Jaehoon laughed.
“You told me earlier.”
Hyunwoo thought for a moment.
Had he?
He didn’t remember clearly.
Jaehoon looked Hyunwoo up and down.
“Not bad.”
“What about it?”
“Date outfit.”
“We’re having dinner.”
“Yes.”
Jaehoon nodded.
“Dinner outfit.”
“Whatever.”
Hyunwoo grabbed his bag.
He checked his phone.
He had a message from Jia.
[I’m ready.]
Hyunwoo replied immediately.
[Where are you?]
[Near the café from yesterday.]
[Five minutes.]
Hyunwoo picked up his bag.
Jaehoon called after him.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“Have a good time.”
Hyunwoo stopped at the door.
“Have a good time doing what?”
“Dinner.”
“Right.”
Jaehoon smiled.
“Tell me about it tomorrow.”
“Absolutely not.”
Hyunwoo closed the door behind him and left.
Jia was standing in front of a convenience store near the café.
Today, she was wearing a white shirt and black pants.
She carried a small bag.
Jia was checking her phone when she looked up.
Then she stopped for a moment.
Hyunwoo was walking toward her from a distance.
He looked different from yesterday.
He wasn’t wearing work clothes.
A black short-sleeved T-shirt.
Jeans.
Sneakers.
Just ordinary regular clothes.
And yet they suited him better than she expected.
Hyunwoo came closer.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No.”
Jia looked him up and down for a moment.
Hyunwoo noticed.
“Why?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Why are you looking at me?”
Jia smiled.
“Your regular clothes.”
“You said yesterday you wanted to see me in them.”
“So you really changed before coming?”
“I didn’t feel like going home and coming back, so I changed in the locker room.”
Jia looked him over once more.
“They look good on you.”
Hyunwoo raised an eyebrow.
“What does?”
“Your regular clothes.”
“It’s just a T-shirt.”
“Still.”
Jia said teasingly,
“They look better than your work clothes.”
Hyunwoo gave a hollow laugh.
“Yesterday, you said the work clothes looked fine too.”
“That’s different.”
“You’re hard to please.”
They both laughed.
Hyunwoo asked,
“What do you want to eat?”
Jia answered immediately.
“Somewhere expensive.”
“Are you really going to keep saying that?”
“You said you’d pay for anything.”
“I made a mistake.”
Jia laughed.
“I’m kidding.”
“Tell me what you want.”
Jia looked around.
“Meat?”
“Sure.”
“Samgyeopsal?”
“Sounds good.”
Hyunwoo paused.
“But it’ll make your clothes smell. Is that okay?”
Jia smiled.
“We just worked at a shipyard all day. Why would the smell of samgyeopsal be a problem?”
Hyunwoo laughed too.
“Good point.”
They walked to a nearby barbecue restaurant.
Unlike at the café, it wasn’t awkward from the start today.
Maybe because they had talked for over an hour yesterday.
Even walking side by side felt a little more natural now.
“Do you drink soju?”
Jia asked.
Hyunwoo looked up while turning over the meat.
“I do.”
“How much?”
“Moderately.”
Jia laughed.
“People who say that usually drink the most.”
“What about you, Ms. Seo?”
“A little.”
“How many bottles is ‘a little’?”
“Half a bottle?”
“That really is a little.”
“Why?”
“My definition of ‘a little’ is different.”
Jia laughed.
“How many bottles is yours?”
Hyunwoo pretended to think.
“I’ll show you next time.”
Jia raised her eyebrows.
“Next time?”
Hyunwoo faltered.
It had slipped out naturally again.
Next time.
Jia smiled.
“We keep ending up with a next time.”
Hyunwoo chuckled too.
“We do.”
Jia fidgeted with her glass.
“It’s not a bad thing.”
Hyunwoo looked at her.
Jia pretended to be unconcerned as she stared at the meat.
Hyunwoo asked,
“Want a drink?”
“Tonight?”
“If you don’t want to, we don’t have to.”
Jia thought for a moment.
“Just one bottle?”
“One bottle between the two of us?”
“Yes.”
Hyunwoo smiled.
“Got it.”
They ordered one bottle of soju.
Hyunwoo poured it into two glasses.
“Are we toasting too?”
Jia picked up her glass.
“Of course.”
“What should we say?”
Jia thought for a moment.
Then she smiled.
“No accidents?”
Hyunwoo burst out laughing.
“Safety talk even after clocking out?”
“Occupational hazard.”
Hyunwoo raised his glass.
“Sounds good.”
Their glasses clinked lightly.
“No accidents.”
“No accidents.”
They took a sip.
Jia’s face pinched slightly.
Hyunwoo laughed.
“You can’t drink.”
“It just tastes bad.”
“Then why drink it?”
“For the atmosphere.”
“Oh.”
Hyunwoo placed some meat in front of her.
“Eat this.”
Jia dipped the meat in ssamjang.
“Thanks.”
Their conversation continued from there.
They talked about the mistakes they’d made when they first started at the shipyard.
Hyunwoo told her about getting lost on his first day and wandering around between the hull blocks for ages.
Jia told him about how, early in her career as a safety manager, she couldn’t bring herself to talk to older workers and ended up following them around for a long time.
They kept laughing.
The bottle of soju emptied more slowly than expected.
Jia’s face gradually grew red too.
“Ms. Seo.”
“Yes?”
“Are you drunk?”
“No.”
“Your face is red.”
“My face always gets red when I drink.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Jia looked at Hyunwoo.
“You don’t turn red at all.”
“I’ve had more practice.”
“You drink a lot, don’t you?”
“Moderately.”
Jia laughed immediately.
“There’s that word again.”
Hyunwoo laughed too.
Then Jia suddenly said,
“But…”
“Yes?”
“Mr. Kang.”
“What?”
Jia slowly spun her glass with one finger.
“When you first saw me, you really hated me, right?”
Hyunwoo laughed.
“Why are we suddenly talking about that?”
“I was curious.”
Hyunwoo thought for a moment.
“I wouldn’t say I hated you.”
“Then what?”
“You were a hassle.”
Jia’s eyes widened.
“Wow.”
“You told me to be honest.”
“Even so, you thought I was a hassle?”
“You stopped us four times on the first day.”
“Because you were breaking the rules.”
“Exactly. A hassle.”
Jia pouted.
Hyunwoo smiled.
“But I’m not anymore, right?”
Jia’s expression shifted slightly.
“Not anymore?”
Hyunwoo set down his glass.
“You’re not a hassle now.”
“That’s it?”
Hyunwoo looked at Jia.
Maybe it was the alcohol.
Maybe it was the lighting.
Her face looked softer than usual.
Hyunwoo hesitated briefly.
“Now…”
Jia waited.
Hyunwoo continued,
“I’m glad when you show up.”
Jia’s hand stopped.
Hyunwoo didn’t look away.
“At the job site.”
Then he added quietly,
“And outside of it.”
Jia’s face grew even redder.
This time, it was impossible to tell whether it was because of the alcohol.
Jia lifted her glass and took a sip.
“You can’t just say something like that out of nowhere.”
“Why not?”
Jia laughed.
“It catches me off guard.”
Hyunwoo smiled.
“Do you dislike it?”
This time, Hyunwoo was the one asking the question.
Jia looked at him for a moment.
Then she smiled very faintly.
“I didn’t say I disliked it.”
The corners of Hyunwoo’s lips lifted.
Silence passed between them for a moment.
But it wasn’t awkward.
If anything,
it was a little heated.
Then Hyunwoo’s phone rang.
It was Jaehoon Kim.
[Did you eat, hyung? lol]
Hyunwoo looked at the screen and immediately turned it off.
Jia asked,
“Who was it?”
“Jaehoon Kim.”
“Why?”
“He was asking something pointless.”
Jia smiled.
“What did he ask?”
“If I’d eaten.”
“That’s a reasonable question.”
“It wasn’t meant that way.”
Jia laughed even harder.
Hyunwoo laughed too.
A little while later, they finished eating and stepped outside.
The night air was cool.
Jia let out a long breath.
“I’m stuffed.”
Hyunwoo said,
“You said we were eating somewhere expensive, but we ended up having samgyeopsal.”
“Samgyeopsal is expensive these days too.”
“That’s true.”
They walked slowly.
Hyunwoo matched Jia’s pace.
“How are you getting home?”
“By bus.”
“I’ll walk you to the bus stop.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I’m headed that way too.”
“That’s a lie.”
“How did you know?”
Jia laughed.
“You said earlier that you were going the opposite way.”
Hyunwoo chuckled.
“You remember things well.”
“I can remember something that simple.”
They laughed at the same time.
Before they knew it, the bus stop came into view.
Jia slowed her steps slightly.
Hyunwoo naturally slowed down too.
It was strange.
It was still too soon to say he didn’t want to part with her.
He just wanted to walk a little farther.
“Mr. Kang.”
“Yes?”
“I had fun today too.”
“Me too.”
“And dinner was great.”
“Next time, you’re paying.”
Jia laughed.
“There’s a next time again.”
Hyunwoo paused.
Then he said,
“If you don’t want one, this can be the last time.”
Jia immediately looked at him.
“Who said I didn’t want one?”
Hyunwoo’s expression relaxed.
“Then next time.”
“Yes.”
Jia smiled.
“I’ll see you next time too.”
Just then, a bus approached in the distance.
Jia said,
“I have to catch that one.”
“Yes.”
The bus stopped at the bus stop.
Before getting on, Jia turned back to Hyunwoo.
“Mr. Kang.”
“What?”
“Your regular clothes today.”
Hyunwoo raised an eyebrow.
Jia smiled.
“They looked good.”
Then she quickly boarded the bus.
The doors closed.
Hyunwoo stood there as he was.
The bus pulled away.
Jia, seated by the window, spotted Hyunwoo and waved.
Hyunwoo raised his hand too.
The bus disappeared into the distance.
Hyunwoo stood there for a long while.
Then he smiled to himself.
“This is driving me crazy.”
His phone rang.
It was Jia.
[Text me when you get home.]
Hyunwoo replied immediately.
[Yes.]
After hesitating briefly, he typed one more sentence.
[Think about what you want to eat next time.]
Her reply came quickly.
[Are you already making plans for next time?]
Hyunwoo replied with a smile.
[Do you dislike it?]
A moment later, Jia replied:
[I didn’t say I disliked it.]
Hyunwoo stared at the sentence for a long time.
The question he had asked today.
And Jia’s answer.
The distance between them was clearly changing.
They still hadn’t said they liked each other.
They still hadn’t held hands.
Their relationship still didn’t have a name.
But one thing was clear now.
They had already passed the stage where they needed an excuse to meet again.
Both of them.
They simply wanted to see each other again.