The days following the presentation were filled with an unusual quiet between Isla and Jin Woo. There were no sharp exchanges, no smug remarks—just silence, thick with unresolved emotions. Isla found herself replaying the moment in the conference room over and over again, trying to make sense of what had happened.
Had it meant something, or had it just been a fleeting lapse in judgment?
Jin Woo was as composed as ever, but there was a noticeable distance between them now. Whenever their eyes met across the office, Isla could feel the tension bubbling beneath the surface. The casual, indifferent masks they wore were cracking, but neither of them wanted to be the first to admit it.
It wasn't until one evening, when they were both stuck in the office late again, that the silence finally broke. Isla was typing away at her computer, trying to ignore Jin Woo's presence in the corner of the room. She could feel his eyes on her, watching her with an intensity that made it impossible to focus.
Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. "Are you just going to keep staring, or are you going to say something?"
Jin Woo blinked, clearly surprised by her outburst. He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. "I didn't realize I was bothering you."
"You're not," she shot back quickly, her tone sharper than she intended. "I just—" Isla hesitated, unsure of what she was even trying to say. She hated how flustered she felt around him lately, how easily he got under her skin.
Jin Woo raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying her excuse. "You've been different ever since the presentation. What's going on?"
Isla stiffened, her fingers pausing over the keyboard. Different? Of course she'd been different. Everything between them had shifted that day, and they both knew it.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied, forcing herself to keep typing.
Jin Woo didn't let it go. He stood up and walked over to her desk, his presence looming over her. "Come on, Isla. You're not fooling anyone. Something's bothering you."
Her heart pounded in her chest, but she refused to look at him. "It's nothing. Just work stress."
He let out a soft laugh, clearly amused by her attempt to brush him off. "You're terrible at lying."
That did it. Isla slammed her laptop shut and stood up, meeting his gaze head-on. "What do you want me to say, Jin Woo? That I've been thinking about what happened after the presentation? That I can't get it out of my head?" Her voice was rising, but she couldn't stop herself now. "Because I have. And it's confusing, and it's frustrating, and I don't know what the hell to do about it."
For a moment, Jin Woo just stared at her, his expression unreadable. Then, slowly, he reached out, his fingers brushing against hers in the smallest, most tentative of gestures. "You're not the only one who's confused," he admitted quietly.
Isla's breath caught in her throat. She searched his face, looking for any sign that he was messing with her, but all she saw was sincerity. This wasn't the cocky, arrogant Jin Woo she had grown used to. This was someone who was just as unsure as she was.
"I don't know what this is," he continued, his voice low. "But I can't pretend that nothing's changed between us."
Isla felt a lump forming in her throat. She wanted to be angry, to push him away like she always did, but something inside her had shifted, too. "I don't know either," she whispered.
They stood there in silence, the weight of their unspoken feelings hanging between them. Isla could feel the pull, the magnetic force that seemed to draw them together no matter how much they tried to resist. And for the first time, she wasn't sure if she wanted to fight it anymore.
But just as she was about to say something, the office phone rang, cutting through the tension like a knife. Jin Woo stepped back, the moment shattered, and Isla quickly turned to answer the call, her heart still racing.
It was a reminder of the world outside, of the complications that still stood between them. Isla hung up the phone, her mind spinning with the possibilities of what could happen next. Could they really move past their rivalry? Or was this just another fleeting moment that would disappear as quickly as it had come?
As Jin Woo returned to his desk, Isla couldn't shake the feeling that things were only going to get more complicated from here.