Between Us is X (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 5
Ju Han glanced down at the convenience store bag he was holding.
“Beer. I stopped by on the way because I wanted to drink and crash hard…”
“I’ll just have one can and go.”
Ju Han’s eyes narrowed slightly. Eun Su pointed right in front of his face, showing she didn’t like that expression.
“Are you really that stingy with a friend over one can of beer?”
“Those eyes don’t look like you’re planning to wipe out more than one. So greedy.”
“Oh come on, greedy is a bit much.”
Eun Su lightly pushed Ju Han’s shoulder. Ju Han clicked his tongue a few times and went up the stairs first.
Eun Su followed casually and walked straight into the house like it was nothing. Ju Han followed casually and walked straight into the house like it was nothing. Ju Han roughly dumped the bag and carry-on he had slung over one shoulder by the door and headed to the bathroom, saying he was going to wash his hands first.
Eun Su took two cans of beer out of the bag, put the rest in the fridge, and looked around to see if there was anything to eat. It was completely empty except for water—probably cleaned out neatly before the business trip.
Eun Su asked Ju Han, who was coming out after taking off only his outer clothes and rolling up his sleeves,
“Did you really only buy alcohol? No snacks?”
“If I’d known the ‘you’ option would be added, I wouldn’t have bought any alcohol at all.”
Grumbling, Ju Han still pulled out snacks, chocolate, and other things from his bag. He went on overseas business trips so often now that there wasn’t much worth buying anymore—he just picked up enough snacks for the staff.
“This is the one you said was delicious last time! The one with cheese inside, right?”
Eun Su excitedly tore open the snack bag. Ju Han chuckled, opened the beer can in front of Eun Su, then opened his own.
“I’m really only drinking this one and leaving.”
The beer cans in Eun Su and Ju Han’s hands clinked together.
Eun Su took a cool sip and smiled mischievously.
“Nice, right? Grateful, right? There’s even a friend who drinks with you the moment you get back. Better than coming home to an empty house.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“If you’re going to answer half-heartedly like that, just don’t bother.”
“…”
“Oh? Not going to reply?”
“What do you want me to do?”
The two chatted about this and that. From the business trip stories to where to hold the staff dinner in a few days.
After sitting for about thirty minutes, Eun Su stood up.
“You must be tired. Get some rest.”
“It’s late. Take a taxi.”
“It’s only a fifteen-minute walk? The village bus is still running.”
“When you work overtime, just use the company card. Same when the weather’s bad.”
“Should I…?”
Eun Su sneakily opened the taxi app. Ju Han had arrived while she was just getting off work, so overtime was accurate.
Eun Su checked the app and grabbed her bag.
“Looks like the driver was nearby. It’s coming right away. I’m going. See you tomorrow.”
Ju Han saw Eun Su off all the way to the front door. He listened to the sound of her going down the stairs, then closed the door, walked to the window.
He could see Eun Su crossing the front yard and getting into the taxi waiting at the gate. He watched until the car pulled out onto the main road, then turned away. Only then did he press a few buttons on his phone to turn off the lights on the stairs and the garden surrounding the building.
The house became miraculously quiet. Ju Han looked at the two beer cans lined up side by side on the table, and a strange light flickered across his eyes before disappearing.
There’s even a friend who drinks with you the moment you get back.
Eun Su’s voice brushed past his ears. Ju Han smiled silently.
Yeah, whatever.
It’s nice, friend.
[This is the timeline separator]The next afternoon, while going back and forth between the showroom and office focusing on work, Eun Su suddenly realized she hadn’t seen Ju Han all day and looked up. The clock was already nearing three.
‘Is he still sleeping because of jet lag?’
Wonder if he’s eaten.
As befitted Eun Su, whose favorite four-character idiom was “three meals a day and sumptuous feasts,” that worry came first. She called to wake him up a bit, but he didn’t pick up. She tried twice more—same thing.
“What’s with him. How deeply is he sleeping…”
She happened to have something to ask Ju Han anyway, so Eun Su got up from her seat. Planning to go straight to his house, she went down the stairs, but Jae Rim, whom she ran into on the first-floor showroom, spoke to her.
“Where are you going?”
“The CEO isn’t answering his phone.”
“I think the CEO is in the basement.”
“Oh, really?”
Eun Su, who was about to go outside, changed direction and headed to the basement.
“Kim Ju Han. You didn’t answer your ph…”
At the very end of the stairs, Eun Su suddenly stopped.
Late afternoon sunlight quietly filling the space.
Ju Han was working alone. Thanks to the soft music playing low and the heavy scent of wood, it felt like a completely different world from the showroom just a few steps up.
As always, Ju Han wore a loose short-sleeve T-shirt and jeans. Just looking at the clothes might make him seem plain, but his shoulders and arms were so solid that the word “shabby” didn’t even come to mind.
In front of him was a single chair. A British vintage wheelback chair characterized by a backrest resembling a carriage wheel.
He firmly fixed one wobbly leg with tools, lightly sanded small scratches, rubbed them with an oil-soaked cloth, and overall carefully restored it as cleanly as possible—the process was cautious but without hesitation.
When Ju Han had only recently inherited his father’s shop, he literally knew nothing. There were many trials and errors, but he learned astonishingly fast. Eun Su, who had watched from right beside him, knew that effort better than anyone.
He gathered every available resource to study vintage furniture and visited craftsmen in his spare time to learn general woodworking and furniture-making.
At the same time, he personally went overseas, made contacts and expanded his network through sheer legwork. She didn’t follow him on planes for that part, so she wasn’t sure, but she guessed he probably used know-how similar to when he worked at a business consulting firm in the States.
Eun Su was blankly watching Ju Han’s hands—long and large yet with slightly blunt joints, veins clearly visible—when a voice from behind startled her.
“Director. Why are you standing there?”
So Min, holding a paper bag in one hand, was coming down the stairs with a puzzled look.
At So Min’s voice, Ju Han also stopped working and turned his head. Meeting eyes with him, Eun Su felt her cheeks burn with unnecessary embarrassment and quickly said,
“No, I came down because I had business… but I forgot what I was going to ask.”
Ju Han gave her a gently pitying look.
“I’m the one adjusting to time difference, so why is the director spacing out?”
“I remembered! So when is the next container arriving?”
Ju Han slightly frowned, then relaxed.
“The one from the States should come around the end of this month. I’ll check the exact date.”
“Okay.”
So Min looked a little awkward and raised the paper bag in one hand.
“I asked Jae Rim on the way out, and everyone in the office had already eaten lunch, so I only bought for the CEO and myself…”
“Yeah, we ate. Don’t worry about it, eat quickly.”
Eun Su quickly gestured. So Min answered “Yes” and walked over to Ju Han, took out two sandwiches and two drinks from the bag, and placed them on the side table next to the workbench.
Ju Han lightly brushed off his clothes, found wet wipes, wiped his hands, and walked over.
“This one with ‘Cucumber X’ written on it is mine?”
“Yes.”
“I could’ve just eaten anything. Thanks.”
Ju Han picked up the sandwich with a big X drawn on the wrapper and smirked. So Min smiled calmly too and picked up her own drink.
Watching them, a certain day suddenly flashed through Eun Su’s mind.
She was eighteen, second year of high school.
Eun Su was sitting in the corner of the cafeteria. As was her dulled habit, she was eating alone in silence when suddenly there was the sound of the opposite chair being pulled out.
A kid she knew was in the same class, knew the face and name, but definitely not close.
Seeing Kim Ju Han sit down with his tray, Eun Su looked puzzled.
They had only exchanged one “hello” that morning when seats were changed and they became desk partners—that was the extent of their conversation in months.
There were plenty of other seats, and his friends seemed to be over there, so why here? She wondered but didn’t ask, about to eat again silently, when Ju Han suddenly spoke.
“Desk partner.”
“…?”
Eun Su stopped her chopsticks, looked once at Ju Han’s face, then down at her own uniform top. Her full three-character name was clearly written on the name tag, so why call her that—she was thinking when Ju Han asked,
“Why aren’t you eating this?”
What he pointed at was cucumber muchim. Eun Su thought about ignoring it but answered shortly.
“I don’t like it.”
“Then can I eat it?”
Eun Su frowned. It felt weird with someone she wasn’t close to, but Ju Han used his untouched chopsticks to take the cucumbers from Eun Su’s tray and put his own rolled omelet in exchange.
“What the?”
A sharp reply burst from Eun Su. Ju Han didn’t mind and smiled.
“I’m giving back because I’m thankful. Eat quickly.”
A few years later, Eun Su had asked. Why did he call her “desk partner” in such a cheesy way back then.
Ju Han gave an awkward smile and said he didn’t know, but at the time calling “Eun Su-ya” somehow felt more ticklish, so he did that.
Turned out Ju Han didn’t like cucumber either. When she asked why he asked for it then, he said because that was the only thing you didn’t eat, there was no choice, stop talking about it, and covered her mouth with his hand…
‘What am I doing right now.’
Watching Ju Han and So Min eating at the same table like it was familiar, Eun Su suddenly felt why am I watching this and was about to go back up.
But then heavy footsteps came from above, and Jae Rim suddenly poked her head down. She was holding a camera in one hand.
“Oh, Director, you’re still here. Perfect. I want to take some product photos more naturally with the storage background…”
Jae Rim naturally pulled the about-to-go-up Eun Su back down and kept talking. Caught off guard, Eun Su helped set the chair in front of the large window with good natural light as Jae Rim asked, then suddenly snapped out of it.
“Wait a second. Why am I acting as your assistant?”
“Could you turn the handle part just a little toward me? That gives a more nonchalant feel, yes, thank you.”
“But this guy doesn’t even listen to people…”
Eun Su put one hand on her hip and glared. Ignoring that, Jae Rim, completely immersed in her artistic world, kept clicking the shutter, checked the photos, and grinned.
“Wow, killer. I create art like this again.”
“You’re being artistically annoying.”
“But having only product shots feels a bit monotonous.”
Jae Rim’s gaze slid elsewhere. Looking that way, Ju Han had finished eating and was talking with So Min. They were looking at the phone he had placed on the workbench together.
“It’s amazing they do even this part with hand-stitching.”
“Right.”
“But actually, we don’t need to restore it perfectly like new, do we?”
“That’s true. But not doing it because you lack the skill is different from being able to but choosing to preserve the feel.”
“I understand what you mean.”
Jae Rim quietly slipped in between Ju Han and So Min who were seriously talking.
“What’s that?”
Inside Ju Han’s phone, an old white-haired man was holding some unknown tool in a video.
“During this trip, in Finland, I got to watch a craftsman restore a chair from the 1930s right next to him. I got permission and filmed it.”
“Really?”
Eun Su also peeked in. Meanwhile, Jae Rim who had stepped back a bit raised the camera again.
“I don’t know what it is, but the CEO’s side profile right now leaning on the table looking down is insanely good? I’ll just take one photo.”
“Jae Rim.”
Ju Han said without straightening his bent posture.
“Let’s just sell the furniture. Don’t sell my face.”
“Huh?”
“My face isn’t handsome for using in places like that.”
As soon as Ju Han finished speaking, Eun Su added a word.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
_____
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