Before everyone went off to do their own thing, Seulgi called Yeji over. She pulled the other woman’s injured hand and gave it a brief once-over inspection. She didn’t pull the bandages off, but Yeji was able to flex her finger a bit more than the other day. It was healing, that’s what mattered.

  She asked about Yeji contacting the doctor that was suggested. The initial appointment to be seen was nearly three months out until she said who referred her, and then an opening was found the next week. This led to grins all around. Yeji mentioned that she was going to need some paid time off to go to the doctor.

  Boss said that she didn’t. This got an arched eyebrow until he said to just go to the doctor and not to worry about the PTO. He knew what happened, since she was protecting Seulgi, he was going to do what he could as thanks, too. This was a very minor thing and to not worry about it. Besides, he knew Yeji well enough to know that she would not abuse it.

  Yeji actually blushed tomato red and stammered a thanks. She nearly vapor locked when the Big Boss put his hand on her shoulder and patted her. When Seulgi gave her a half hug, she did need to sit down, overloaded.

  With no fanfare or accompaniment, Seulgi went back to her office. The only thing she said was “Now, where was I?” and got back to her work. The only things heard during this time were the clicking of her typing and the soft music of her pylist.

  Mostly, her soft breathing was the music to be heard. She would softly sing along with a few songs as well.

  About two hours after lunch, she made a few phone calls for information. An hour after that, she had to break out her Nearly Angry Seulgi to get a vendor to start acting right. She muttered about what was going on with some people that made like unnecessarily difficult, just because they could. She had forgotten the bugs when she said that.

  Her computer chimed at her. A notice came in from Min-jeong. Someone was pestering YeoJin. This got a “When will these people ever learn?”

  She forwarded this to Yeji asking her to look into this and take care of it if she can. If not, to let her know and she’d drop the axe on the offender. She fired off a note to Min-Jeong telling her that it would be handled. However, YeoJin needs to report these things herself. It’s good to help coworkers, but those same coworkers need to stand up for themselves, too.

  If she didn’t hear about it again, she knew that Yeji would take care of it. Sometimes it feels like cheating, using Yeji. She tends to scare people. Stupid people would be scared of her because they didn’t really know her. Smart people were scared of her because they did. Seulgi grinned in malice briefly, then went back to her project.

  Time passed as it always does.

  After work hours, she packed up her things and got ready to leave for the day. She was not up to a full proper workout today, so she thought about going to get some dinner and then do some light yoga when she got home.

  She thought about calling JooHyun and seeing Soo-Young, but she didn’t want to have a rge meal. She just wanted something light tonight. She sent off a text to Nayeon to see if she had dinner pns. She did. So did Yeji oddly enough.

  So, she sent a text off to Bhuwakul and he was free for some good street dining. Fifteen minutes ter, they meet up inside the atrium entrance. They started chatting and discussing where they wanted to go and get. Bhuwakul may be her unofficial bodyguard, but that did not stop him from expressing his opinion on what would make for a good dinner.

  This time, he said that he found a pce that had just opened that he thought she would like. As it was also on her way home, that sealed the dinner pns. They chatted about the day’s events. She gave a nasty smile and told him about siccing Yeji on some miscreant who was giving YeoJin a hard time. He winced in sympathy for the poor jerk.

  He told her about the things that he was doing as well. Well, most things. There were some things that she did not need to know about. He regaled her with the things he accomplished during the day, too. Some more interesting than others.

  They walked on, oblivious to those around them. Fortunately, this evening they did not need to be as vigint as others. They had a very pleasant conversation and walked. Then they got to the little hole-in-the-wall diner.

  Bhuwakul asked who the chef was this evening. He was told and all Bhuwakul said was “Oh, good. That means everything is going to be good.” The waiter smiled at this.

  With Bhuwakul’s assurance, Seulgi felt comfortable ordering whatever came to mind. Then she poked herself in the midsection and it was softer than she’d like. She curtailed her ordering a bit. Although she was not near the need to worry about her weight, she did not want to get into the habit of not paying attention either.

  Seulgi got a bit more refined order and waited for Bhuwakul to put in his. Both of their drinks came first, followed by a soup. The beer that she had ordered was unknown to her, but excellent. The main course would take a bit longer. The conversation ebbed and flowed. She noticed that he was much more verbose when it was just the two of them. She was even more amused when she noticed that after their second beer, his tongue got even more loose.

  The chef himself came out to see how they were enjoying the dinner. There was some pyful banter between them as well. Bhuwakul introduced the chef as a friend from home. There was more teasing back and forth. Bhuwakul actually asked him for the friends and family discount. This was ughed at, loudly, by his friend. He fired back that he ought to charge the couple more for the effort presented. The chef looked at Seulgi and winked the eye that her partner could not see. This led to another round of smack talk and bickering back and forth.

  This was a side that she rarely ever got to see. She was so pleasantly amused by the whole farce that she forgot all her worries for the moment and joined in. It got heated enough to have the manager come over to see what was up, but he was waved off by the chef. Soon after that, they quieted down.

  Dinner came to a close and it threatened to get loud again as when the bill came. Only Seulgi’s part was paid. They heard the full-throated ughter from the kitchen when Bhuwakul let out an indignant “HEY!”