Up and Down

When I hear my name, my whole body starts to burn. My mind went to somewhere else, where it was just him and me.

"Hyun-joo looks..." He pauses. "Like water."

I snap back and drink the entire glass of juice, trying to calm myself down. I don't know if it was his eyes, or just his expression, it locked me in. At that moment I wanted to stay there, with him, and only him. I feel that way with Ji-hun too, but something is different… With Ji-hun it's peaceful, his embrace, his sweet voice... Whereas with Won-shik it's dangerous.

"Water?" Seo-yoon asks with a face that says, 'what the hell'.

Even after Seo-yoon asks, his eyes remain on me, but now it seems more loving.

"Seo-yoon is like fire, and Hyun-joo is like water. Sometimes warm, sometimes cold, calm or strong."

"Hmm..." Seo-yoon crosses her arms, not satisfied.

"Did I say something wrong...?" Won-shik finally looks away from me, turning to Seo-yoon.

"You're right, but I was expecting... more..." Please stop there.

Afraid of Seo-yoon saying more than she should, I pull myself together and smile. Besides, I liked his comparison to me. We've only met a few times, but he already knows what I'm like, so somehow that makes me happy.

"What about me? What do I look like?" Won-shik, still looking at Seo-yoon, asks all excited.

"Are you asking me...?" From the corner of her eyes, she looks at me and then turns to him.

I bet Seo-yoon thought the conversation would be more with me than with her. I didn't even answer her, why would Won-shik talk to me?

"Ohh, well... you... hedgehog!!! Yes, you look like a hedgehog." She probably said the first thing that came to her mind.

Oh God. I put my hand on my forehead, embarrassed for her. As expected, Seo-yoon is very happy with her answer. If we were close, fine, but we barely know Won-shik, how can she call him a hedgehog?

"Hedgehog? Why?" He looks at her puzzled.

"You look cute, but your deep voice can cut us, and hurt in a good way."

"Hurt in a good way?" I do my best not to yell at her.

It's been a while since I've said anything, but I had to.

"Did I use the wrong word?" Seo-yoon turns away, thinking.

Won-shik is more than surprised, he stares at her, also confused. Deciding that the best thing to do is to fix this situation before it makes it worse, I tell him in a calm tone.

"We watched a drama where the guy said the girl looks like a hedgehog, but it seems Seo-yoon changed the meaning." I explain.

"I just adapted it to real life." She shrugs.

"Just shut up." I stare at her.

Suddenly, Won-shik started laughing. He attempted to hold it in, but when he couldn't, he tried to hide it. Seo-yoon arched an eyebrow, a little annoyed.

"Are you making fun of us?"

"Sorry, sorry..." He tried to stop, to no avail. "You two bickering is funny."

We're so used to talking like this and often forget that we are not alone. Not that Seo-yoon cares. Unless it's not the real Seo-yoon, but the chief Seo-yoon. Like Won-shik, she has two faces, in their case it's called "professionalism."

"You two are so different, and, I don't know about Seo-yoon, but Hyun-joo changes when you two are together.

Some of our close friends used to say the same thing. Time passed and we didn't change. No, Seo-yoon was worse, growing up she learned to hide this personality from some people. She wouldn't have gotten to where she is like that. Suddenly, those thoughts left my mind, something else came in.

Won-shik's laughter. He tried to hide both his mouth and the sound of it, but still... it was contagious. I ended up laughing with him. Seo-yoon just looked at us with a face saying "weirdos".

"Right, Hyun-joo told me before that she liked talking to you, after today, I agree with her."

Oh my God! She didn't do this! Please tell me I'm imagining things.

I look at her in despair. I said that, but she shouldn't tell him! Oh, how I want to kill her! While my mind is exploding, Seo-yoon is simply smiling playfully, totally ignoring me. To her, this is funny, plus it makes him think I'm interested in him.

Won-shik looks at me, and I turn my face to the side, avoiding him. I hear a small laugh and remember his smiling face. I feel embarrassed, again.

"I like it too. It's fun talking to both of you."

Both of you... My shoulder drops a little. It's no surprise that people like Seo-yoon – mostly guys – but I guess this time, I wanted it to be different.

"You guys probably need to get back to work now, I'm done and I don't want to hold you two."

"True..." Seo-yoon picks up the phone to check the time. "But come again! We are always here around this time, if you can, or want to, just say my name at the entrance."

"Then..." He bows to us and leaves.

We watch his back in silence until he disappears. Seo-yoon pouts with her head resting on her hand. She sighs, waiting for me to say something. That's just the way she is. I can tell she's disappointed, with what, I'm not sure.

"What?"

"I thought he would say 'Hyun-joo looks like my first and last love'."

I laugh at her joke and she follows me. She is not lying that she expected more than that. The topic was so unexpected that even she didn't know what to say.

"I don't think he likes me, he talked to you more".

"That's because you don't talk." Seo-yoon retorted.

"He said he likes to talk to both of us."

Seo-yoon stares at the ceiling, lost in thought. She reached a conclusion that only she would think of.

"Maybe he's a womanizer." She looks at me. "Anyway, I'm happy to see you smile and laugh."

Despite the embarrassment she put me through, I don't feel as heavy as before.

I don't know what things would be like if we didn't work together. Sure, I could have lunch with other co-workers, but it wouldn't be the same.

"Well, good luck!". Seo-yoon cheers me on as we part ways.

By the time I get to the room, everyone is back. Kyung-soo sees me walking to my desk and comes over to me. His cold face scares me…

"Here." Kyung-soo hands me a pen drive.

Trying to hide my fear, I take the pen drive and put it in my laptop. He tells me to open one of the folders and my face goes pale.

"This..." I point to the screen. "I was doing it..."

"Yes. But Il-sung finished faster, so I want you to review and just correct minor errors."

Is he serious...? And what about what I have already done? Does he want me to throw it away in the trash?

"We need to finish this project soon, we can't keep waiting for you."

I open my mouth slightly, but I couldn't say anything. I look at Il-sung, who avoids my eyes. So that's what they talked about earlier. The funny thing is that he could just tell me that, so I wouldn't waste my time doing something that he won't even watch to see if it's good or not.

Kyung-soo goes back to his desk and I stare at the screen. Watching his animation, I smirk, incredulous. Il-sung stares down, almost hiding from me.

He's not to blame, we can't say no to our boss, but he might feel guilty for not saying anything, at least I would.