"Kang Jae-su, huh... Now you're just calling me by my name."
Jae-su approached Mi-mo, lightly tapped the top of her head, and took the plastic bottle from her hand, peeling off the label.
I've seen this before...
"Oh!"
---
**Six months ago...**
It was when Mi-mo first moved into the office. As furniture, computers, and other necessary items were delivered, a lot of recyclable trash piled up.
"This is way too much."
She decided to move all the recyclables to the sorting area and separate them there. As she carried the last box to the recycling station, she saw a man she had never seen before sorting through the trash from the box she had left.
The people here must be really nice.
There's even someone helping out...
She placed her box down and approached the man.
"Thank you for helping."
The man frowned and spoke curtly.
"Who doesn't know how to sort trash? You can't just leave it here like this."
"Huh?"
"Look at those boxes. You brought them, didn't you? Everything's mixed together."
"Hey, why are you talking down to me? And who says I just dumped it here? I was about to separate it after setting everything down!"
"Hah... Now that I've caught you, you're saying that?"
"What? Who do you think I am? I'm not that kind of person!"
Not wanting to continue the argument, she turned her head and began sorting through the trash in the box. Just as she was about to throw away a plastic bottle, the man suddenly grabbed her arm tightly.
"What are you doing?"
"What are *you* doing?"
"I'm sorting! Let go of me, that hurts!"
Mi-mo struggled to free her arm. As she pulled with all her strength, the man suddenly let go, causing her to lose balance and stumble backward.
"Ah!"
Holding a plastic bottle in one hand, Mi-mo started to fall, but Jae-su instinctively caught her by the waist, preventing her from hitting the ground.
"Oh..."
She looked up at him, and he looked down at her. Their eyes met. She quickly got up, frowning.
"What's with that look? You should be thanking me for saving you from falling."
His smug tone only made her angrier.
"Why would I thank you? If you hadn't grabbed my arm in the first place, I wouldn't have fallen!"
"Well..."
Jae-su grabbed the plastic bottle from her hand. At that moment, a cleaning lady walked over, looking irritated.
"Why are you two so noisy? If you're throwing out trash, just do it quietly. Are you two going to fight until you end up falling for each other? Hahaha!"
The cleaning lady laughed as she tossed a small box into the paper bin.
"Ah, it's not like that."
The lady squinted at Mi-mo's face.
"Huh. You're new here, aren't you?"
"Yes, I moved in two days ago."
The cleaning lady then looked at Jae-su and greeted him warmly.
"Oh my, isn't it Dr. Kang! Is this newbie raising her voice at you? Quite the temper she's got. Talking back to her senior like that!"
"Excuse me? Why do you keep saying I'm the one with the bad temper? And what's this about a senior?"
"Well, of course, Dr. Kang here is your senior. He's been the well-known doctor at the clinic for two years now. Everyone knows how kind he is."
At the mention of kindness, Jae-su smiled warmly at both the cleaning lady and Mi-mo.
"Hah... Kind? That fake smile is supposed to be kindness?"
"Oh, listen to her. Dr. Kang, don't bother with her. You should head back."
"Yeah, I just need to show her something first."
The Jae-su who had been speaking rudely to Mi-mo suddenly addressed the cleaning lady politely. Mi-mo stood there, dumbfounded by his sudden change in behavior.
"You have to remove the label from the plastic bottle before recycling it. Got it?"
His sudden politeness left her speechless.
"Oh, Dr. Kang, you're so thorough, even with recycling."
"Well, it's my lunch break. I should get going."
"Ah! I need to clean the restrooms too."
The cleaning lady hurried off, and Mi-mo glared at Jae-su.
"Great, you've shown me what to do. Now go."
She picked up the large box.
"You should remove the tape from that box before recycling it."
At his comment, Mi-mo sighed loudly and yelled back.
"I know!"
"Don't get mad. You'll get wrinkles. Make sure to sort it properly before you leave."
With his hands in his pockets, Jae-su strolled back into the building. Once he disappeared from view, Mi-mo angrily slammed the box down and began ripping off the tape.
"How can that guy be a doctor?! He's a total fake! Everyone's been fooled by him. He's the absolute worst!"
---
Seeing Jae-su throw away the plastic bottle brought back memories of the events from six months ago.
"You... You're that doctor?"
Jae-su turned to face her.
"Looks like you're not too dumb to remember."
His sarcastic tone instantly brought back her frustration from that time.
"That tone... yeah, it's definitely you."
Mi-mo laughed bitterly, placing her hands on her hips and looking down at the ground.
"We didn't see each other after that. How do we run into each other here?"
"I've seen you."
"You've seen me?"
"Just because you didn't see me doesn't mean I didn't see you. You're down in the basement, so you don't have a view, but from upstairs, I can see the people coming and going. Plus, you stand out, always in those tracksuits."
"Oh..."
Now understanding, Mi-mo's expression changed, and Jae-su smirked.
"You really are slow."
"Ugh... Do you enjoy provoking me?"
"Hmm. A little. Your expressions are easy to read."
"Ugh..."
She let out a deep sigh.
"I thought we agreed not to see each other again. Just act like you don't know me here, too."
"That was about us not dating. We're neighbors now; we can't just ignore each other."
"Neighbors? Fine. Let's just stick to polite greetings."
Mi-mo walked closer to Jae-su and spoke firmly.
"Don't act friendly with me. And don't talk to me like we're close. Today, I'm leaving first."
She stormed off angrily. Jae-su strolled away, his hands in his pockets, muttering to himself.
"Don't talk to me... Hmm."
---
Mi-mo ran up to the yoga studio on the second floor. She saw Gyeoul finishing up her class and checked the schedule posted on the bulletin board.
"Ten minutes left."
She sat on the couch near the entrance and waited for Gyeoul. When the class ended, Gyeoul saw her and called out excitedly.
"Unnie!"
"It's lunchtime, right?"
"Yeah."
"Let's go. I need to ask you something."
Gyeoul, wearing a long coat over her yoga clothes, followed Mi-mo out. They went to a noodle shop, where two steaming bowls of *kalguksu* were served. Gyeoul, clearly hungry, immediately picked up her chopsticks and blew on the hot noodles before taking a bite.
"This is so good!"
Mi-mo, not touching her food yet, watched Gyeoul eat and then spoke.
"Gyeoul."
"Yeah?"
"The doctor on the fifth floor of our building..."
"Jae-su oppa?"
Surprised, Mi-mo asked,
"You knew?"
"Huh? Unnie didn't know? Jae-su oppa is famous around here. He's a great doctor and really friendly."
"Hah... There's that 'friendly' again."
"Why? What about him?"
"Did you know he's Woon-su's older brother?"
"Yeah."
Gyeoul nodded, still slurping her noodles.
"Pretty much everyone here knows. When his clinic first opened, he used to come to the café all the time... and he even promoted his brother's café to patients. I think the café's success is partly because of him."
"He went to the café often?"
"Almost every day. After lunch, he'd go get coffee there."
Mi-mo, lost in thought, began fiddling with her hands.
I've been at the café for three months... If Jae-su went there every day, he must have seen me...
"Oh no..."
Suddenly, the realization hit her, and she covered her face with her hands.
"Unnie?"
"I really am slow..."