Ji-Won had been caught off guard by Min-Jun's open gaze, so his eyes ultimately showed some of his inner turmoil.
Registering his uneasy expression, Min-Jun immediately snapped out of his daze. He retracted the intensity from his eyes and shot Ji-Won a small smile.
"Thank you very much for looking after her." he addressed Ji-Won in a grateful tone.
"It's nothing. I apologize for not being able to bring her home directly. As her boss, I should have…"
Ji-Won began to explain himself, but was soon cut off.
"It's alright, Director Kang. You've already done more than enough by staying with her." Min-Jun said, bowing his head slightly. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Park Min-Jun. I am Su-Jin's…"
However, Min-Jun's next words were completely covered by Su-Jin's loud voice, calling out for him.
"Min-Jun, take me home. Carry me." She demanded, raising her hands up towards him.
With an exasperated sigh, Min-Jun picked up her phone and bag, then turned with his back towards her. He bent down, gently pulling her by the arms and placing her onto his back. When he was sure that Su-Jin was holding on tightly, Min-Jun snaked his arms around her legs and straightened himself up. With his head turned to the side, he smiled tenderly at her.
At the same time, Su-Jin was already snuggling her head into his neck, getting ready to fall asleep again.
During this entire time, Ji-Won had simply stared at the two, keeping quiet like a statue. Once again he was hit by the feeling that he shouldn't be watching them. But before he could convince himself to look away, he saw Su-Jin's arms tightening around the young man's neck, her face nuzzling intimately at his back.
This obvious display of affection gave his stomach another small churn.
Just when his eyes were about to move away from that sight, Ji-Won's gaze unexpectedly fell under Su-Jin's arms. There he saw a delicate silver chain with a familiar looking ring hanging by it. The silver band looked exactly like the one Su-Jin had around her neck, but this one was slightly bigger in size.
With this discovery, there could be no doubt that the two pieces of jewelry were couple rings. Although he was now certain of his own conjecture, Ji-Won still couldn't give up on his previous thoughts on the matter.
'I still find it strange. Why would a couple wear their rings like this, instead of putting them on their fingers?'
As the same question from earlier popped into his head, he felt even more baffled.
'Could it be the case of a secret relationship and they don't want it to be exposed?'
A moment later, though, he once again scolded himself for minding someone else's business.
Once outside, Min-Jun thanked Ji-Won once more for taking care of Su-Jin. Then, he turned around and began walking away slowly, holding Su-Jin tightly around the legs, while her feet dangled freely on either side of his body.
After gazing at their retreating form for a couple of moments, Ji-Won turned on the spot, and headed straight for his own apartment. As he walked, his mind was busy thinking about the earlier events.
That night had indeed proved to be quite eventful. He thought how lucky he had been to have her phone ring just then. Otherwise, he didn't know what he would have done.
~~~
The next morning Su-Jin woke up with a powerful headache, followed by a strong desire to stay in bed all day. Unfortunately, she had work and, if she didn't get up soon, she would most certainly be late.
Since she didn't want to deal with Director Kang's look of displeasure, Su-Jin could only force herself to get out of bed.
Ignoring the uncomfortable sensation in her stomach, she took a quick shower, then slowly put her clothes on.
All this while, Su-Jin kept squinting her eyes with a grimace. She glared fiercely at the windows, as if the light coming from outside was her mortal enemy. Every loud noise caused her head to throb painfully, making her slightly dizzy.
By the time Su-Jin finally went downstairs, Min-Jun had already finished preparing breakfast. Their friend was already sitting at the table, doodling on a piece of paper. As soon as she saw Su-Jin enter the kitchen, she smiled widely, waving a hand in salute.
"Good morning, sunshine." Mi-Suk said cheerfully.
Her greeting had been earnest, yet, it earned a scowl from her friend.
"Good Morning my butt. My head is killing me." Su-Jin groaned, flopping onto a chair across from Mi-Suk.
No sooner had her rear touched the chair, that a bowl of steaming soup appeared on the table in front of her.
"Bean sprout soup for the invalid." Min-Jun said, showing a rare smile.
"Ah, the royal hangover treatment. You're spoiling me too much, little brother." Su-Jin grinned, clicking her tongue appreciatively.
"It's good that you know." Min-Jun gently poked the side of her head.
Afterwards, they ate in silence, each too preoccupied with their food to think of anything. But not even five minutes later, Su-Jin decided to ask the question that had been bugging her from the moment she opened her eyes.
"How did I get home last night?"
"So, you don't remember anything?" Mi-Suk asked with faint amusement. Her eyebrows were raised as she continued to tease. "You were pretty talkative when you got home. It's such a pity that Min-Jun and I didn't think of recording you."
"R-Really?" Su-Jin asked in astonishment.
As soon as she asked that, a foreboding feeling suddenly struck her.
This time, it was her brother who replied and, sure enough, as soon his words fell, Su-Jin instantly began trembling with anxiety.
"Sis, you were a tyrant. My poor back still remembers the harsh treatment it received last night." Min-Jun sighed, shaking his head theatrically.
"Oh, stop it with the drama and tell me what happened." Su-Jin snapped at him.
Hearing her impatience and witnessing his sister's apprehensive look, Min-Jun finally relented. After all, it wasn't too nice of him to tease a person who was currently battling a hangover.
He sighed deeply, shaking his head slowly from one side to the other. As he recounted last night's events, Min-Jun kept a deadpan expression. Not even his tone fluctuated, sounding quite robotic and unpleasant to the ears.
"You got drunk and fell asleep. When I called you, your boss answered the phone instead. He gave me the address, so I came to pick you up. But, who would have imagined that not only you didn't want to go home, you even wanted to take a stroll around the city. There was no way to dissuade you, so I had to walk with you on my back for another forty minutes. Eventually, you fell asleep and I called a cab."
Min-Jun calmly finished his narration and gave a light shrug. Then, he proceeded to fill his mouth with rice.