And that's how it ended up. As if by mutual agreement, Dinan and Ganin acted as though nothing had ever happened between them—not the conversation in the elevator that night, nor their past from seven years ago.
Everything went back to normal. At least, for everyone else. Including Ganin. There was no more talk about seven years ago. No deliberately prolonged glances. Ganin seemed to have chosen to respect the boundaries the woman had set.
“Dinan.”
She turned from her computer screen. Ganin was standing beside her desk with a folder in hand.
“This is the document I asked you to check this morning. Once you’re done, please deliver it directly to Mr. Arya’s office.”
Dinan accepted the folder. “Yes, sir.”
Ganin slipped both hands into his pants pockets. “I’m leaving early today, too. I have something to take care of outside.”
Too much information.
Where he was going, who he was going with, what he had to take care of, or why he needed to leave early—none of it belonged on the list of things she needed to know.
A little while later, Dinan got up from her desk and headed for the director’s office.
Saras turned to Dion, who was sitting beside her. “You see it yourself, right, Dion? I told you. Ever since Ganin started here, Dinan’s been different.”
Dion stopped typing. “That’s called being professional.” Even though, in reality, he agreed with Saras.
“Like…” She searched for the right word. “A robot. Dinan’s usually so animated when she talks to us. In front of Ganin, it’s just, ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Right away, sir.’ ‘It’s done, sir.’”
“Maybe it’s because he’s her supervisor.”
“Damar’s her supervisor, too. She can still laugh around him. Dinan’s even the only one who refuses to address Ganin casually, even though they’re the same age.”
It was true. From the beginning, Ganin had asked the entire division to call him by his first name instead of addressing him formally.
The Dinan they knew was quick to laugh, always willing to help, and capable of making a boring office feel a little more alive. Even when she was buried in work, she still found time to ask whether the person beside her had eaten.
But whenever Ganin appeared, Dinan seemed to press a certain button inside herself.
Click. Professional mode. Flawless. No excessive emotion. No openings.
“Suspicious…” Saras was completely swept up in her own assumptions.
Dion, who had initially seemed uninterested, now looked deeply invested in Saras’s theory. He lowered his voice. “What if…?”
“What if they—”
“Hey.” Risti, passing in front of Saras, immediately elbowed her. “Don’t turn this into a soap opera. Dinan already has a boyfriend.”
Dion nodded in agreement, as though he had just completed an important investigation. The conclusion was simple.
Dinan had a boyfriend.
So there was no way anything could be going on with Ganin. They went back to work in peace.
Ganin entered a well-known boutique, where rows of beautiful dresses filled the room. He looked around the entire space.
“Ganin!”
He turned and saw Tara waving at him. He walked over to Tara, who was beaming. “Help me pick out a dress for our engagement party.”
Ganin smiled and nodded, letting Tara choose the dress she liked. The back of his neck felt heavy. Two months earlier, when Arya had told him he wanted to arrange a match between Ganin and his daughter, Ganin had welcomed the idea. He had no reason to refuse.
Ganin was simply a young man who wasn’t particularly interested in pursuing romance. Arya had been his father’s superior at his former company before eventually becoming the director of his older brother’s company. Arya knew perfectly well that Ganin met the requirements to become his son-in-law. At the very least, he could be relied on to rein Tara in a little.
But who would have thought that life was always full of surprises? The person who had made Ganin stop pursuing matters of the heart had shown up on the very first day after he accepted the arranged match with Tara.
Once again, Ganin felt that fate had never been on his side.