My Neighbor Is A Freeloader

Chapter 34 [My Heart Hurts]

After Sana had posted about her lunch, she looks enquiringly at Yeeun. When Boss finally seems satisfied, she rubs her nose as she think back on the strange turn of events today.

Her story goes like this: she has closed 2 orders this morning and Yeeun, who happens to be in the shop today, is very happy when he hears about the sale and offers to buy lunch for all the sales staff. No one would dare turns down such a request of course, which is why every sales representatives in their shop, except for some staff on duty, is here at the restaurant near their showroom at this moment.

To reward Sana, Yeeun lets her choose the first few dishes. Sana knows that he can afford to treat the best and did not hesitate to pick some expensive but delicious dishes from the menu. Other colleagues follow suit when they get to order, which is how they end up with a table full of goodies. When the dishes are served, many colleagues oh-and-ah over the food and some even snapped pictures to put it up on their IG or FB. Many quickly follow suit although it does not include Sana, who merely waits with her chopsticks raised for the rest to finish taking pictures.

Yeeun is sitting next to her and feels curious. “Why are you not taking pictures?”

Why do I have to take pictures?

Still, when you are in a group, you become an oddity when you do not follow the rest regardless of how sound your reasoning may be. Giving in, Sana snaps a few photographs and shows them to Yeeun. He does not seem satisfied and reminds her. “They are all posting.”

Face with peer pressure, Sana has no choice but to post about her lunch as well. When she is done, Yeeun feels a strange stirring in his heart. She has finally mentioned his name in a public domain. If there is someone who read the post, they will know that she knows him, that they are linked somewhat. It is like two dolls sitting on a shelf – it does not matter if they are manufactured from different factories, passersby will see them together when they walk past and will register both dolls in the same glance.

He knows that he is being silly to feel elation over such a small thing and he sighs inwardly at how easily he becomes satisfied these days. Shouldn’t this feeling come only on the day they start being lovey-dovey to each other?

When all the photo-taking has come to an end, Sana aims straight for the big plate of prawns in front of her. Putting some on her plate, she starts peeling off their shells but she is rather bad at it and most of the meat at the tail gets ripped off. Since she is the impatient sort, she is not really bothered by it and can even start on a prawn before it has been properly shelled sometimes. When she has finished mutilating most of her prawns, she hears a smiling voice from above. “Dummy.”

The single word – that same word that she has heard numerous times from Tzuyu – causes her heart to ache in memory. They may be quarrelling now but she wonders what that rascal is doing at this moment. Thinking back to his “brain surgery” remark, her ache worsened. It is not the first time he has mocked her mental capabilities, but the slight cuts especially deep this time round, like she has no right to lift her head high in his presence, as if there is a wide divide between them. Darn it, now she feels even worse.

Taking a deep breath, she pulls herself back to the present and sees a plate of perfectly peeled prawns in front of her. Lifting her head in surprise, she sees Yeeun cleaning his hands with a towel without much expression on his face. “Um, thank you, Boss.”

He smiles without looking at her. “You are welcome.”

At the questioning look on her colleagues’ faces, she can tell that their misunderstanding about her and Yeeun is getting deeper.  And when they are making their way back to the shop after the meal, her colleagues intentionally leave the two of them at the back. When Sana tries to walk faster to rejoin them, Yeeun holds her back as he has something that he want to say to her.