8:42 pm. Na-Yool was filled with anxiousness, and here she was wasting time again in an unexpected place. Could she be even more stressed? If it was up to her, she would rather rush down the stairs this instant. Right now, even quietly waiting for an elevator was hard for her. Nevertheless, the only reason her feet were moving diligently toward the elevators was for her rationality reminding her how much slower she was than the machine.

When she reached the elevators, she saw one of them had already passed down the 31st floor and she looked at the one next to it.

It’s going down from the 7th floor… 7, the bad luck number… (T/N: Not a mistranslation. Na-Yool probably has some personal story with this number. She is also not quite sane in mind at the moment…)

She inwardly grumbled some absurdities and looked back anxiously. One going down from the 34th floor, one going up from the 27th floor… Unexpectedly, the other two elevators behind her were useless, as they stopped only on even-numbered floors except for the lower ones. If she did not quickly get rid of Sang-Hoon waiting in front of the company, it made no doubt her anxiousness would not go away.

If not only Seung-Jae, her team member she had to face every day, but also the loose-lipped Kim Sang-Hoon PD from the Planning Team with the same name, or even all the other middle-aged coworkers that hang with him were to meet him…

The mere thought of it made her head spin. Na-Yool nervously double-checked the time.

8:44 pm. The ominous sight of a double 4. (T/N: 4 is considered a bad luck number as it pronounces the same as “death” in Korean). Feeling somewhat icky, Na-Yool raised her head. Even though the number 7 felt like bad luck in this situation, it was all just superstition anyway.

“Are you going home?”

…Oh god. It seemed like it was not just superstition after all.

As she could not believe her eyes, Na-Yool alternately looked at her phone then Si-Jin who had appeared next to her.

Chapter 9 – Friday evening, 8:44 p.m.

Thinking about it, 8 divided by 2 is 4, right? Then there are four 4s. It is 4444… There are as many unlucky numbers as you can multiply them. As Na-Yool stared defiantly at Si-Jin while internally trying to force her nonsensical theory to make sense, Si-Jin quietly raised his eyebrows.

“What is it?”

“Ah, no, just…”

The time displayed on her watch had given her the most ominous feeling she ever felt ‒ how could she tell him how fascinating it was that the timing of his unpleasant arrival perfectly matched it?

Na-Yool averted her eyes towards the elevators and made up an excuse with a stern tone.

“I was just surprised by your sudden appearance.”

“Rather than being surprised… It looked more like you just discovered something important while looking at me?”

“No, not really…”

“For example, something fascinating?”

That damn perceptive man. “What could I be fascinated by? I simply looked at your face…”

As soon as Na-Yool (unrelatedly to the context) rejected its existence, that not-fascinating face of his entered once again her sight. His freakiness truly was unbeatable.

Truth is, she was fascinated. How could such a freak successfully display such a brazen face was a wonder.

“It was not the face of a person looking at a person.”

Not the face of a person looking at a person, now what was he saying…

“…I am a person. And believe it or not, so are you Mr. President, so it probably was a person’s face.”

“ ‘Probably’. Sounds like you aren’t sure either. Didn’t I say so last time? To not use words with vague meanings.”

“…I, too, already asked you many times not to act this way in the office where there are a lot of passersby.”

“What way?”

If Si-Jin could not figure his problem on his own, Na-Yool wished he would at least do some self-introspection. Without a word, her eyes slowly scanned his body. If he wanted that much to show her his brazen face, she would rather he stand right in front of her, instead of standing next to her with his head oddly leaning towards her own face.

Being together, they might be looking like a playful couple enjoying some sweet time. But had Si-Jin been on his own, no doubt he would have looked like the greatest weirdo ever. Belatedly enlightened by his voluntarily clueless expression, Na-Yool naturally turned away from him to indicate she had nothing to do with him.

An elevator stopped just at this instant. Resisting the urge to rush in, Na-Yool stuck her feet on the floor. She had waited for it for so long, but she was still under the 44 minutes curse after all. No matter how pressed for time she was, she could not risk going down together with Si-Jin, an even more tactless person than Seung-Jae whom she had barely got rid of. She was concerned things might take a very strange turn, or that he might chat her up again like the pervert he was…

But the tough conclusion Na-Yool had reached shattered in just 3 seconds. Whereas she expected him to get in without looking back, Si-Jin turned around and glanced at her with a suspicious look. And his hand holding the empty elevator’s doors so that no one else could close it.

“…What is it now?”

“Go down first, Mr. President.”

“…?”

“I will take the next car.”

“Car?”

As soon as she stupidly misspoke, Na-Yool felt even more mortified. “Ah, no, the elevator. The next one coming, the left one.”

“Why, though?” pragmatically asked Si-Jin. Na-Yool answered stiffly.

“I don’t want to take the one on the right.”

“You had no problem riding it every few mornings…”

“That’s when I am busy and do not have any other choice.”

“What’s your reason?”

“Just a mood…”

“Mood?”

“I am in a bad mood, so I don’t want to take the right one. Matter closed.”

Na-Yool abruptly brushed him off in one single breath like she did for Seung-Jae, forgetting to inhale between words. Just then, the left side elevator she had been feverishly waiting for arrived. She rushed into it in a flash, as if she had never stood in front of the right one.

She was just about to quickly press the close button, when Si-Jin slipped nonchalantly between the already half-closed doors. Those cursed 44 minutes!

“Since we took the elevator you like, please go on.”

“…”

“That talk about your favorite elevator.”

“…When I go home, I always ride the left one in a good mood. I have always liked the left side.”

“That’s quite progressive.”

“Yes. Also when I was young I used to be left-handed… though my family is conservative so they had me use my right hand to fix it. That’s why, now I am—”

“—talking absolute nonsense, am I right?”

Si-Jin bluntly shut off her nonsensical babbling meant to avoid a proper conversation, and Na-Yool closed her mouth. 24th floor, 23rd floor… She would feel better if at least someone else, even someone she did not know was here, but why was it that she always ended up in an elevator with only this man and no one else?

At least the elevator should not stop if no one was going to get in! But as if she really was cursed, the elevator took a terribly long time to reach the 2nd floor as it kept regularly stopping on other floors. While Na-Yool was trying to ignore his presence by fixing her gaze on the doors and changing numbers on the elevator panel, Si-Jin stared at her, his head leaning to the side.

“And so.”

“……”

“The reason you had to so desperately run away.”

“……”

“The stupid reason you had to take another elevator even though we would meet again on the 1st floor, what could it be?”

“… Aren’t you going to the underground parking lot?” Na-Yool involuntarily turned towards him to answer, only to promptly turn back her head with an “oops” expression. Just then his big hand roughly grabbed her cheeks and turned her head back towards him.

“I am, but we can just split up later. Was that your reason?”

Considering how he spent most of the time not showing any interest in what she was doing, it was surprising how he suddenly started interrogating her. She was indeed acting suspicious, but in normal times, he would not even pay attention to it.

…Did he feel something about Sang-Hoon? She remembered on Monday morning, when he had read Sang-Hoon’s unbelievable messages in this elevator. He had briefly interrogated her like this too, very out of character.

It can’t be that he is jealous…