TROBL 08

Then someone spoke in a low voice.

“Stop it, Assistant Manager Kim. It’s obvious just by looking—Nahi-ssi and Gyeongjun-ssi are in a relationship, and Doa-ssi isn’t. If one side was chasing him unilaterally, it’s pretty obvious. I didn’t think Doa-ssi was like that… kind of scary.”

“Yeah, I got chills just now.”

“Still, I don’t think Doa-ssi is that kind of person…”

As the atmosphere gradually tilted in her direction, Nahi brought out her decisive statement.

“She looks normal at the office, right? Even I sometimes think she’s finally moved on and has properly sorted her feelings. But when it’s just the three of us… she even claims she was the one who prepared the wedding goods we bought together.”

“…No way.”

“Come on, that’s too far, Nahi-ssi.”

“Nahi-ssi wouldn’t just make something like that up.”

“Why don’t we just ask Doa-ssi?”

“Ugh, how could we ask something like that directly?”

Inside, Nahi felt a surge of triumph.

Even if someone actually asked Doa, the answer would be obvious.

She would say she really dated Gyeongjun and that she truly prepared the wedding items.

Because that was the truth.

But would people who had already been told everything was a lie still believe Doa’s situation so easily?

A fiancé’s supposed ex-girlfriend preparing wedding goods in his place, only for him to run off with both the money and her best friend instead?

They would think it was ridiculous.

“Anchoring effect.”

It was a term she had heard in a general education class in university. People tend to rely heavily on the first information they hear, and once that belief is formed, it doesn’t easily change no matter what comes afterward.

A faint smile, hard for others to notice, curled on Nahi’s lips as the situation flowed exactly as she wanted.

Something had been strange since morning. Her coworkers’ greetings were oddly dry, and even their laughter sounded unfamiliar. Was it really because of that nonsense?

Blinking in confusion, Doa received another message.

[Assistant Manager Kim Hyejeong: Nahi-ssi said you’ve been following Gyeongjun-ssi around like a stalker. If that’s not true, I think it should be corrected.]

It was a short sentence, but Doa felt her blood run cold. Her fingertips trembled so badly she could barely press the keyboard.

Who was following whom? Who was the stalker here?

This was blatant hypocrisy.

Doa turned her gaze toward Nahi.

She was calmly sipping coffee and looking at her monitor as if nothing had happened.

Doa, her fingers shaking, typed a message and sent it to Nahi.

[Meet me at lunch.]

The reply came immediately.

[Wedding-Item Highway Robbery Accomplice: Okay. Come out to the terrace.]

There were about two hours left until lunch.

Doa’s fingers kept moving, but nothing she did registered in her mind.

Still, time passed, and the moment the clock struck twelve, she pushed open the glass door at the end of the hallway and stepped onto the terrace.

Since everyone had left for lunch, the terrace was wrapped in silence.

Breaking that stillness, Nahi entered with her back straight and chin raised, looking utterly confident.

“What is it?”

She clearly knew why I called her.

Clenching her teeth, Doa said,

“When did I ever stalk Gyeongjun? That’s defamation. You know that, right?”

She had lost her boyfriend to her closest friend, and even the money for wedding preparations had been taken.

Yet she had not told anyone at the company.

She didn’t want to expose her private humiliation, and above all, she believed her target of revenge was Gyeongjun, not Nahi.

But this time, she couldn’t hold back.

Arms crossed, Nahi let out a faint laugh in front of her.

“Defamation? Then what you’re doing isn’t stalking? Texting, calling, even showing up at his workplace. If that’s not stalking, what is it?”

“Am I doing it because I like it? If you just return the wedding money I spent, I’d beg you not to make me follow him—but I still wouldn’t do it!”

“Wedding money? There you go again. Doa, you weren’t even married—what wedding expenses are you talking about? That’s delusion. You should go to a hospital.”

At those words, Doa felt breathless. She had personally gone around choosing every appliance piece by piece, and Nahi had even seen her doing it.

And now she was denying everything?

“Doa, get a grip. Gyeongjun and I are getting married. If you keep obsessing like this, you’re only hurting yourself. I really think you should go get counseling. I’m saying this for your own good.”

“You two are the ones who need counseling! What kind of illness is it to lie so shamelessly?”

Nahi shook her head.

“I’m really worried about you.”

Doa let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

It felt like Nahi had repeated her lies so many times that she now believed them herself.

Unable to even speak properly, Doa just stared at her.

Nahi turned away as if she was no longer worth dealing with and left the terrace.

Just as Doa was about to follow her, a rustling sound came from the corner.

She turned around to see an employee holding a watering can, looking flustered.

“Ah, D-Doa-ssi. Sorry, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop. I was watering the plants, and you and Nahi-ssi suddenly came in…”

With a brief apology, the employee quickly left the terrace.

In the end, what happened that day came back to Doa as a massive aftermath.

The next day, the office atmosphere was even colder than before.

When Doa passed by, conversations stopped abruptly, and coworkers she met in the hallway deliberately turned away.

Still, she occasionally heard whispers.

“They say the stalking thing was true.”

“Even the wedding money story—she must be seriously delusional.”

Unable to endure the injustice, Doa tried to show her purchase records for the wedding items, but it only made things worse.

To make matters even worse, Gyeongjun officially filed a complaint through Aevo regarding the incident where Doa kicked him in the groin.

Unfortunately, the CCTV had captured the scene, forcing Aevo to personally bow their heads to Hyunsin Department Store HQ in order to contain the situation.

Within a single day, Doa’s reputation had completely collapsed beyond repair.

After work, Doa sat alone in a corner of a bar.

“Yeah. Of course they’d avoid me. If someone was stalking a friend’s boyfriend and delusionally demanding wedding money that was never even given, anyone would stay away.”

She bumped her head lightly against the wall.

“But the truth is the opposite! I’m the victim! The ones who should be ostracized are Kang Nahi and Woo Gyeongjun, not me!”

Overwhelmed by anger and injustice, she clenched her glass and drank shot after shot, banging her head against the wall each time she swallowed soju.

She noticed the strange looks from people around her, but didn’t care.

This bar wasn’t even near her company anyway.

In a fit of rage, she had even gone all the way to the Hyunsin Department Store headquarters, but in the end couldn’t go inside and ended up at this nearby bar instead.

“You idiot, moron, hopeless fool… how long are you going to keep taking this? You have to take revenge somehow. Even if it takes ten years, a hundred years—even if I have to do it after I die.”

In front of Doa, who could barely handle one beer, two soju bottles were already empty.

Her body felt light and floaty, her head dizzy, but she didn’t stop, shouting in a slurred voice.

“One more bottle of soju, please!”

“Um, ma’am… we only take orders through the kiosk. And I think you’ve had quite a lot already, maybe you should sit down—”

At the employee’s words, Doa stared intently at the rectangular table order device.

She leaned her face right up to the screen, hot breath fogging it.

Then she politely bowed toward it.

“Um… one bottle of soju, please. Yes?”

At that absurd sight, laughter burst out from nearby tables.

Even the employee standing beside her trembled trying not to laugh.

“Ma’am, the kiosk doesn’t take voice orders—you have to press the screen…”

Hearing that, Doa pressed her finger firmly right in the center of the screen.

“One bottle of soju, please!”

Laughter spread through the bar again.

Just as the employee looked at her helplessly, a tall man appeared beside Doa without anyone noticing.

He looked down at her, still pressing the screen, and asked calmly,

“I’ll order for you. One bottle of soju, correct?”