## Chapter 251 – 251. The Gloomy Childhood Friend’S Worries

“Haa… I miss Oppa…”

So-jin, relaxing on her bed at home on the weekend, looks at a secretly taken photo of Joo-hyun on her phone, trying to soothe her longing for him.

“I never thought I’d actually want to go to work…”

Being shy and introverted, she finds it incredibly difficult to talk to others, let alone make eye contact.

She’s been with her current team for almost a year, so they’re better than others, but she wouldn’t call anyone close.

Ji-soo, who is the same age as Joo-hyun and the youngest, is not the type to have easy conversations with, so they don’t talk much. The rest of the team is older, so it’s awkward, and they rarely talk about anything other than work.

The only person she could call a friend is her team leader, Mi-young, who is a caring boss who looks after the timid So-jin, which has helped her adapt to the company. Still, for her, the company is not a place she wants to go.

So-jin, a hardcore introvert who enjoys spending time alone in her room playing games, originally wanted to find a job that allowed her to work from home. However, she somehow ended up at a mega-corporation like Choi Han Group.

‘Still, it’s thanks to my parents that I met Oppa again.’

She never intended to apply to Choi Han Group, but her adoptive parents, who took her in when she was young, recommended it. She applied without much thought, and when she got the job, she was happy but also terrified because it didn’t seem like a place for her.

She even considered canceling her acceptance, but seeing her parents genuinely happy and moved, she couldn’t. She went to work with a heavy heart, and at first, she resented her parents a little because it was so hard to adjust. But now, she’s more grateful to them than anyone.

She never dreamed that she would meet Joo-hyun again after losing all contact with him. Since he started working at the company, she’s been more eager to go to work than anyone else.

It’s still difficult and uncomfortable for her to socialize with others, but being with Joo-hyun is more than welcome. Even though she has trouble waking up in the morning, she’s been trying to get to work earlier than usual lately… Of course, it’s only about five minutes earlier.

Anyway, thanks to Joo-hyun, her work life has become enjoyable. Even though she doesn’t have anyone to meet on weekends, she used to be happy spending time alone. Now, she wants to go to work just to see him.

“Sh-should I contact him?… No, but it’s his weekend, so he might think I’m bothering him… But, but Oppa also enjoys spending time with me… or maybe he doesn’t…”

Lately, she’s been spending her weekends thinking hundreds of times about whether to contact Joo-hyun, only to let the time pass by.

Even though they grew up together in the same orphanage, it’s been a long time since they last saw each other, so it’s a bit ambiguous to say they’re as close as they were in childhood.

Of course, Joo-hyun still treats her comfortably and well, but since So-jin is his senior at work, he sometimes uses a more formal tone when they’re working, which makes her feel a little sad.

She knows that work and personal life should be kept separate, but every time she feels like there’s a line drawn between her and Joo-hyun, she gets depressed.

“It’s nice when we’re together…”

It’s nice when they have lunch together and he treats her comfortably, but those moments alone are rare.

They’re not dating, and they’re just people who knew each other in childhood. It’s strange to spend a lot of time together since they’re practically strangers.

“Ugh…”

So-jin holds her phone, agonizing over whether to call or text him.

The reason she’s hesitating so much is not just because she’s shy, but also because there’s another big problem.

Joo-hyun has a girlfriend.

‘If I contact him and his girlfriend sees it and they fight… Ugh…’

She’s worried that her text might cause a fight, so she can’t do anything and just frets.

Since she went to all-girls middle school, high school, and university, she’s had almost no contact with men. As a result, she doesn’t know how to talk to them.

When she talks to Joo-hyun, it’s mostly about their childhood, and even those topics are starting to run out, so she doesn’t know how to continue the conversation.

‘Ugh… If only I had gone to a co-ed school… No, even if I had, I probably still wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone…’

She was so shy that she barely made any friends even in an all-girls school, so if she had gone to a co-ed school, she probably wouldn’t have been close to anyone.

‘Everyone at university only talked about how bad men are, which made it worse…’

So-jin went to a women’s university, and for some reason, many of her classmates were hostile towards men, which made her very wary.

So, she barely talked to anyone at university, and her social skills didn’t improve. She spent her university years alone, focusing on her studies to graduate as quickly as possible, which she did half a year early.

After that, the only man she talked to before starting work was her adoptive father, so she doesn’t know how to talk to men. Even when she’s alone with Joo-hyun, she can’t keep a conversation going for long.

There are long silences when they’re together, but even those silences are comfortable and peaceful when she’s with Joo-hyun.

She knows what her feelings for him are, but he has a girlfriend, so she can’t express those feelings. She can’t even be with him as much as she wants, which frustrates her.

She would be happy just to text or call each other, but she doesn’t know how to text or call a man, and she’s very worried about his girlfriend.

“Since she’s dating Oppa, she must be prettier, kinder, and more ladylike than me…”

She hasn’t heard any details about Joo-hyun’s girlfriend, but in her imagination, she’s already decided that his girlfriend is far superior to her in every way.

It’s a delusion caused by her lack of self-confidence and inferiority complex, but it’s a sad reality that her delusion is not far from the truth. However, So-jin doesn’t know that.

She wants to get closer to Joo-hyun, but she’s also worried that she might cause trouble if she approaches him. This makes her even more hesitant to contact him.

“But the team leader seems to be close to Oppa… And Ji-soo seems to have gotten closer recently, even though she was cold at first…”

It’s socially unacceptable to show interest in a man who has a girlfriend, but there’s no big problem with talking about work or just being friends.

From So-jin’s perspective, the team leader and Joo-hyun seem to have become quite close, and she’s seen him being friendly with Ji-soo recently, which makes her wonder if it would be okay for her to approach him.

‘But I…’

She knows that her feelings are impure because her feelings for him have grown too big to just be colleagues or close friends. This makes it even harder for her to approach him.

If she could just be friends like the team leader or Ji-soo, she wouldn’t have these worries, but what she really wants is a relationship beyond that.

However, she’s kind-hearted, so she thinks that her feelings would be a burden to Joo-hyun and his girlfriend. That’s why she’s been agonizing over whether to contact him on the weekends for weeks.

If So-jin got closer to him and crossed the line, Yeon-ji, Joo-hyun’s girlfriend, would actually like it, but So-jin doesn’t know that. She thinks of her as a pure woman, which makes her feel even more sorry.

“Ugh… Oppa…”

So-jin is also jealous of Yeon-ji.

She liked him first and knew him longer, but she feels jealous that Yeon-ji is dating him first.

Of course, she knows that this jealousy is absurd, but human emotions are uncontrollable, so she just feels regret and suffers alone.

“Haa… I can’t send it… I’ll just see him after I go to work…”

Today, So-jin just agonized and couldn’t even send a text, let alone call him. She went to her computer with a gloomy heart.

“I’ll just play games…”

She turns on her computer to play games, which is her only hobby and one of her greatest joys.

She spends her weekends at home, wearing just a t-shirt and panties. She plays games in her dark room, not knowing that her wish and dream will come true later. She just spends her time alone with a slightly depressed heart.

She has no idea that Joo-hyun is currently carrying Su-jeong around as his portable onahole…