Netkama Punch!!!

I must’ve nodded off while overthinking everything. And when I opened my eyes, I felt a very obvious gaze on me.
I immediately frowned and glared at Shin Heejae sitting nearby. God knows how long he’d been watching me like that, and yet, even after seeing my twisted-up expression, the bastard didn’t bother looking away.

“Did you sleep well?”
He even had the nerve to talk down to me.
I snapped at him with a curse.

“…Are you insane? Why the hell are you using informal speech?”
“I drop honorifics when I’m dating someone.”
“Ugh, seriously? First thing in the morning?!”

But Shin Heejae didn’t flinch at my complaint—he just leaned in. And before I could even react in my half-asleep daze, his lips touched my cheek. A disgusting little smooch sound followed.
“What the hell?!”
I immediately threw off the blanket and shot up, only for Heejae to flash a smug grin and say:

“Get up, babe. Gotta go earn some money for us.”
“You—!”
I smacked him on the arm, hard. But he just kept grinning, completely unfazed. If anything, I was the one backing away.

The bastard was riding the mood—clearly interpreting my disgusted face as some kind of pouty act. That look in his eyes said it all.
‘This lunatic…!’
In the end, I couldn’t stand the way he looked at me—like I was cute or something—and {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} ran off into the bathroom. I kept grumbling the entire time I washed up. Just because he liked me, does that mean he can act all cocky like that? Am I seriously that easy to push around?

‘This is what happens when you let shit slide…’
Even after showering, my irritation hadn’t cooled off. Determined to put him in his place, I flung the bathroom door open—
And then...

“You drink milk too, noona?”
I walked in on Shin Heejae flipping toast in front of the frying pan.
I squinted at the absurd sight. But he didn’t give a damn about my expression and even made a fried egg, placing it on the plate along with some slightly-less-burnt toast than last time.
“…”

He also made two slices for himself.
‘What’s with this out-of-nowhere effort…’
I sat down, but I didn’t touch the food. I just watched him eat, on guard.

Heejae didn’t care that I was hesitating and casually finished off his plate. Then, when he looked at me like, Why aren’t you eating?, I had no choice but to finally start on the sugar-drenched toast.
He poured me a cup of milk, too, and started talking—unprompted—about his plans for the day. He just went on and on, listing out his schedule, even though I wasn’t really reacting.
And at the end, he added:

“I’m stopping by Seoul for a meeting later… What time do you get off?”
“…Me?”
“Yeah.”

I answered without thinking.
“Today… around five.”
To which Heejae casually replied:

“Perfect. I can come pick you up.”
“You’re coming to pick me up?”
“Mm-hmm. You hate taking the subway, right?”

Then he added that he could give me a ride this morning, too.
I wanted to refuse on the spot—but the guy had just made me breakfast. And I was literally eating it. It felt a little too cold to shoot him down right then. So… after a long internal struggle, the best excuse I could come up with was:
“There’s no parking… anywhere.”

Even the nearest public lot was a five-minute walk from the center, and the front of the building was a massive eight-lane road. It was a pain to park anywhere. Getting in and out of the basement garage wasn’t much better either… Not that I’ve ever done it myself—just overheard coworkers who drive.
But still, I had zero interest in showing up to work in Heejae’s flashy imported car.
Unfortunately, he just smiled like he didn’t get it.

“I’ll drop you off right in front. No need to worry.”
Who said I was worried about you?
I muttered internally but gave up.

In the end, I left the house about ten minutes later than usual and got into Heejae’s car. The unfamiliar route flew by, and we arrived outside my office building before I knew it. Worried I’d run into a coworker coming in late, I jumped out of the car in a panic.
As I shut the door, I gave Heejae a quick glance. He waved lazily, then hit the gas without a second’s hesitation. Clean and efficient—completely undermining my worry that he’d cling or make things awkward.
“…Haa.”

I watched the car drive away with a heavy sigh.
He must really think we’re dating now, after what happened yesterday…
I frowned as an uncomfortable weight pressed in from deep in my gut. How the hell am I supposed to deal with this guy?

* * *
Heejae
This place is tasty
Let’s come here together next time ㅇ.ㅇ
Before I knew it, it was lunchtime. I was at a budae-jjigae place near the office when Shin Heejae sent me a photo of his lunch—apparently he was eating with coworkers too.

It was a neat bowl of rice topped with assorted fried stuff. All of it looked good, but there was one black piece I didn’t recognize, so I asked:
What’s the black one?
Heejae
Seyoung tempura ㅇ.ㅇ

The fuck are you talking about —
Heejae
lmaooo it’s seaweed tempura
Want me to pack some for you?
“…What is this idiot even saying…”

I frowned and replied with a curt [nope]. Just then, the team lead sitting next to me commented:
“Seyoung, you’re really picking at your food today.”
“Huh? Oh… I had a big breakfast, that’s all.”

It came out automatically, but once I said it, I realized—it was actually true. Because of Shin Heejae, I had eaten more than usual this morning. I usually skipped breakfast altogether.
Ugh… still full.
In the end, I barely finished half the bowl before excusing myself. Meanwhile, Heejae kept sending messages.

Heejae
What’d you eat, noona ㅇ.ㅇ
Don’t tell me… budae-jjigae again?
That surprised me a bit.
Wait, how’d you know?

Heejae
You always say your team eats that too much and it’s disgusting lol
…Did I really say that?
I couldn’t remember, but honestly, I had thought it plenty of times. So I didn’t deny it.

But still, the way Heejae acted like he knew everything about me was starting to get on my nerves. Of course, he had no idea I felt that way, and kept rambling. I skimmed through his messages about who he was meeting and what they talked about, thinking he was weirdly chatty.
Why’s he telling me all this random crap…
Even when I answered with just one word, Heejae somehow managed to keep the conversation going.

Heejae
Then I’ll come get you later ㅇ.ㅇlolol
Right on time for my lunch break, he wrapped up the chat.
Yup

Honestly, I wanted to tell him don’t come, but I didn’t have a good excuse, so I just gave a vague reply.
Sure, getting a ride from him was convenient. But the more he did things like this, the heavier my heart felt. Is it really okay to just go along with this, when I know I can’t return his feelings? That question kept repeating in my head.
I feel like I’m just setting myself up to get blamed later…

But no matter how much I agonized over it, there wasn’t a clean solution. I sighed deeply and stuffed my phone back in my pocket.
* * *
“What? Right now?”

Not long into my afternoon shift, something came up. A company that had scheduled an interview for tomorrow suddenly asked if they could move it to today.
Normally I would’ve declined. But since our client really wanted that job, I rushed to get them ready and accompanied them to the interview. That alone took three hours.
And even after the interview, I had a pile of documents to process. Finishing everything by closing time was impossible.

So around 4:30 p.m., I texted Heejae:
Work piled up out of nowhere today
I’ll probably finish around 6 or 6:30, so don’t come
Honestly, I felt relieved saying it. The thought of sitting alone with Heejae in his car after work had been making my stomach churn. So I sent that message and deliberately flipped my phone facedown to focus on work.

By the time I wrapped everything up, it was already 6:10. I finally checked my phone—but there was no reply from Heejae. Just a read receipt on the last message.
Is he sulking…?
I let out a long sigh and left through the front gate, heading toward the subway station. Then, suddenly, someone gently grabbed my arm from behind.

“Whoa! What—?!”
It didn’t hurt, but it startled the hell out of me. I turned around—and there was Shin Heejae, smiling that same damn smile he had this morning.
I was so surprised to see him I couldn’t even form words. Heejae just looked at me playfully and said:

“What’s with that reaction?”
“No, I just…”
Wait, did he really wait here over an hour? That question almost slipped out.

But Heejae didn’t complain. He didn’t act annoyed. He simply linked arms with me and looked down with a relaxed smile.
“The iced Americano from this place sucks, by the way.”
“…Huh?”

“Next time let’s get a latte. That one’s drinkable at least.”
His eyes sparkled like he was genuinely having the time of his life.