By Zephyria 
Rather than looking like he had received a confession, the man staggered backward with a look of shock, as if he had been struck in the head with a blunt object. The emotion that soon began to spread across his pale, drained face was agony.
“……Jiha.”
He couldn’t even say the name he always called so affectionately; he cleared his throat several times, yet his voice still came out wretchedly cracked.
“Did I… make you misunderstand? Did I do something wrong?”
It would have been better if he had just gotten angry and asked what kind of nonsense this was.
Yoo Jiha couldn’t answer either. His heart, which had been floating high in the sky, plummeted and crashed down without mercy. There was no name for this feeling.
* * *
The child was dissatisfied with everything. The strange road where everything was just white, and the man’s field jacket that he was forced to wear. To show he was sulking, he pushed away from the arms holding him and pouted his lips, but the man, who always indulged his whims, only looked troubled.
Eventually, he let go of the man’s hand and plopped down on the ground.
〈I hate it here. Where are Mommy and Daddy?〉
A loud wail burst out uncontrollably. He felt sorrowful. Sorrowful that he couldn’t go home, and that he couldn’t see his family. In particular, it had been far too long since he had seen his father and grandmother.
The man picked the child up again and patted him.
〈Shall we go somewhere else to rest for a bit?〉
The ‘somewhere else’ the man spoke of was not home. It was a strange place where strange people did strange things. However, it was better than this stark white road, so the child rubbed his cheek against the man’s neck while shedding sorrowful tears.
The troubled face of the man still bore the likeness of Jeil Heon.
“…….”
Waking from the dream, Yoo Jiha let out a silent scream and kicked his blankets several times. To dream of this on the day he confessed—and on a day he achieved a score of 1 confession and 3.5 rejections—felt embarrassingly fatal.
Because of that, he couldn’t forget and instead recalled it vividly. The expression on the man’s face when he received the confession. Banging his head against the pillow, Yoo Jiha tried to scatter that image and calmly analyzed his own psychology. Jeil Heon appeared in his dream again. That was understandable. Being rejected didn’t mean his feelings would vanish in an instant.
But the fact that he kept appearing as a child in his dreams… Was his subconscious whining like a child, wanting to stay by his side even if he were four years old? But if he were four and still got rejected, that would be a crime. He feared his own subconscious, which seemed intent on turning the man who rejected him into a criminal.
He even said he missed his grandmother. It was a thought only an extreme masochist could have. To think his subconscious was a masochist charging forward without brakes like a broken truck. This was all because the world hadn’t ended and Monday had returned despite him being rejected.
“Ah, damn it, I don’t want to go to work…….”
Yoo Jiha writhed under his blankets. He could have bolted to his parents’ house over the weekend, but there was no company where a mere team member could successfully flee from their team leader. Was this why Jeil Heon said he didn’t do office romances…?
“Hey. You awake? Mom and Dad went out, what do you want for lunch?”
His sister, Yoo Jisu, burst through the door without knocking and sat on the edge of the bed.
“I don’t know……. I have no appetite…….”
“What the hell did this brat eat? Why have you looked like a corpse since yesterday?”
“Because tomorrow is Monday…….”
“Weren’t you the one saying you loved the company so much you wanted to work on weekends?”
She patted the blankets and opened her eyes meaningfully.
“Did you happen to confess to a coworker and get dumped?”
“N-n-no, I didn’t?!”
“Yep, that’s it. If you were the kind of person to spout the crazy lie that you wanted to work on weekends, there’s no other reason for you to suddenly end up in this state. It’s obvious.”
“…….”
Inside the blankets, Yoo Jiha bit his lip hard. He could see the future clearly—how much his sister would nag and tease him over this…!
However, Yoo Jisu only said one thing: “I knew it from the time you came home crying and snotting everywhere after being dumped by your girlfriend in elementary school,” and didn’t say much else. She simply gave him advice as an older sister.
“Don’t even think about quitting your job just because you got dumped. You’re an adult who has to take responsibility for his own work, right?”
“…….”
Yoo Jiha, who had briefly considered resigning from the Management Bureau, flinched.
“There are plenty of people who walk around with a thick skin and act shameless even after their affairs are exposed; getting dumped is nothing. No need to worry. Just do your best from now on.”
If she hadn’t added that she’d buy him lunch to commemorate his rejection, he might have been touched by her consolation by a tiny fraction. Anyway, while tearing into the chicken bought with his sister’s wallet, Yoo Jiha sank into deep thought.
It was already August. The new semester started at the end of the month.
To be honest, he had been so busy pondering his confession that he hadn’t made any plans for the second semester. The Water Abnormality Worship Management Bureau guaranteed many benefits for its employees, especially those with the rare true eye. For those with student status, they guaranteed leave until graduation and provided various conveniences for those balancing work and study.
Since his major suited him and he found studying interesting, he didn’t want to drop out. To be frank, getting into Sungyoung University with his grades was a miracle born of under-enrollment. He had vaguely thought that balancing both would be best, but the situation had now changed.
‘I should probably take a leave of absence, right?’
If he took a leave until graduation and then returned to work while fulfilling his alternative service, two or three years would pass in a flash. That would be more than enough time for his feelings to settle. The man’s expression would fade in the passage of time, and he would be able to smile again without any issue. That said, if he cut ties completely, Jeil Heon might be isolated as an Aberration, so he should show his face occasionally…
Q. I’m a rookie employee who is half-student, and I confessed to my team leader and got rejected. I don’t think I can even make eye contact, and it’s obvious my joints will lock up just being in the same office. What should I do?
A. Work.
The next day, as he trudged to work on the shuttle bus, an email from the Personnel Department had arrived. It was a notification asking employees currently enrolled in university to confirm whether they would be taking a leave of absence by next week at the latest.
While he was slowly filling out the leave application, the team members arrived one by one, and finally, Jeil Heon walked in.
“Good morning.”
The usual greeting was excruciating to his ears. Yoo Jiha replaced his morning greeting by curling up behind his monitor and simply chewing on his lip. It was harder than expected. He didn’t know how to look at his face. It would be so obvious that things were awkward; what should he do? Why wasn’t the Earth exploding, and why was it rotating today without any problems?
Just as he was desperately wishing for a meteor to strike Earth so that all of humanity could follow in the footsteps of their dinosaur ancestors, a gentle voice suddenly drifted in from behind him.
“Ah, a leave application? Good thinking. It’s better to finish your studies first.”
“……?!”
What. What is happening right now. For a moment, his brain overloaded, leaving him unable to think. Jeil Heon stared at the monitor over Yoo Jiha’s shoulder and spoke as he usually did. Just like usual.
“You said you’re in the second semester of your second year, right? Do college students these days take a lot of leaves of absence?”
“Team leader, is Jiha-ssi taking a leave?”
“We don’t need specs here, but you might leave the company and exit this field eventually, so get your certifications while you’re in school!”
“It’s also good to travel while you’re young.”
Song Hilda and Kim Min-seop each added a comment, but he couldn’t hear them properly. So, they were really just having a normal conversation right now? The man who had such a shocked face just the other day was acting as if nothing had happened.
As if his confession had never existed.
“…….”
Amidst the confusion, reality slowly etched itself in, and the situation became clear. Perhaps he was trying to make the confession a non-event. Maybe this was an opportunity. If he also pretended not to know, following the man’s lead, he could maintain their past relationship. If just being by his side was enough, it wouldn’t be a bad choice.
But he couldn’t do that.
〈Just as you said, no one knows what will be added, whether such a day comes or not. Anything could be added.〉
Wasn’t Jeil Heon the very person who had made his heart flutter with those words?
Stubbornness surged within him. Even if he had to achieve a score of 2 confessions and 4.5 rejections, he could not let his feelings be dismissed as if they never happened. That, too, would be a relationship that could be newly added.
Yoo Jiha resolutely closed the window.