madnovel Chapter 17 Boss and Employee
Chapter 17 Boss and Employee
When Li Ying'en called, Su Yu was catching up on sleep on an old sofa in the basement. His phone vibrated under his pillow, and he fumbled for it to answer, his voice still hoarse from just waking up.
"The first eight episodes are finished. When are you coming to pick them up?" Lee Young-eun's voice was still in that indifferent tone.
"Today." Su Yu hung up the phone and sat up on the sofa. The black rubber band under his pillow fell out again. He picked it up, wrapped it around his finger twice, and put it back under the pillow.
When they arrived at the coffee shop, Lee Young-eun was already sitting in her usual spot by the window, a stack of papers spread out in front of her, and an iced Americano beside her. Chae Soo-bin followed Su Yu in, sat down quietly, and placed her hands on her knees.
Su Yu pulled the stack of papers over, his fingertips tracing the pages as he flipped through them quickly. It wasn't an episode synopsis anymore; it was the official script, complete with scene numbers, character names, and dialogue. He turned to episode two, where An Gaoen appeared. "In a corner of an internet cafe, two monitors, code scrolling on the screens. Someone next to her asks her a question, and she answers after a two-second pause." Su Yu read it twice, then continued flipping through the pages, reaching the last page of episode eight before neatly tucking the papers into his bag.
"Not looking closely?" Lee Young-eun asked.
"Let's go back and check," Su Yu said.
Lee Young-eun stood up, slung her bag over her shoulder, and her gaze lingered on Chae Soo-bin for two seconds. "Playing Ahn Go-eun?"
Su Yu said "Mm".
Li Ying'en didn't ask any more questions, pushed open the door and left, the wind chimes rang for a while before stopping.
Cai Xiubin remained seated, waiting until the wind chimes completely stopped before speaking, her voice low: "What did that look she gave me mean?"
"It means you look like Angoun." Su Yu picked up her iced Americano and took a sip, the lipstick stain on the rim of the glass landing on his lips.
"How do I look like one?" Cai Xiubin glared at him, reaching for the cup. "You drink my coffee!"
"An Gaoen doesn't talk much. You don't talk much either." Su Yu raised his cup high, watching her stand on tiptoe to reach it, and couldn't help but smile.
"Where have I not said enough?" Cai Xiubin stood on tiptoe, hooking her fingers around the rim of the glass and pulling it back forcefully. "I'm talking right now!"
"You're so quiet now. You've been sitting here for ages and only said two sentences." Su Yu let go of her hand and watched her sit back down in her chair with her cup in her arms, her cheeks slightly puffed out.
Cai Xiubin opened her mouth, then closed it again. She picked up her iced Americano, took a sip, and deliberately pushed the glass towards Su Yu as she put it down, making the lipstick mark on the rim even darker. "Do you want some?"
Su Yu glanced at the lipstick stain on the rim of the cup, then at her slightly pouting lips. "Your lipstick is on it."
"Then don't drink it." She took it back and drank another sip. When she put it down, there was another mark on the rim of the cup, two lipstick marks overlapping each other.
Su Yu smiled and reached for the cup. "What are you laughing at?"
"I'm laughing at how you can make a big deal out of drinking coffee." Su Yu picked up the cup and took a sip, still holding her lipstick mark.
"You're sick." Cai Xiubin glared at him, but her cheeks flushed slightly.
She stood up, pushed the chair back, and her ponytail swayed behind her. "I'm leaving."
Su Yu followed behind. She walked in front, her ponytail swaying. Sunlight streamed in through the glass door, and when she pushed it open, she was enveloped in light, her silhouette almost blindingly bright.
At the company entrance, she stopped and waited for the door to open, her toes lightly tapping the ground. Su Yu took out his key and turned it twice before it opened.
She bent down to take off her shoes, stepping barefoot onto the linoleum floor. A raised edge bounced under her foot. "Hasn't this linoleum been fixed yet?"
"You didn't fix it." Su Yu put the bag on the table and looked at her standing barefoot on the floor.
"Are you the boss or am I the boss?" Cai Xiubin asked, hands on her hips.
"You're an employee, an employee who fixes the floor." Su Yu leaned against the door frame.
"The employees only care about typing on the keyboard, they don't care about fixing the floor." She went upstairs barefoot, and Su Yu followed behind.
Secondhand tables, secondhand chairs, and the peeling gray-blue linoleum floorboards had followed her all the way from the first floor to the second. She squatted down and pressed it; it bounced back up. "Don't press it anymore. Get someone to re-lay it tomorrow."
"Who are you looking for?" Cai Xiubin stood up and dusted off his knees.
"Find someone to lay the flooring," Su Yu said.
"The boss isn't omnipotent?" She walked to the window, her bare feet on the linoleum floor, her toes slightly curled. A breeze blew in, scattering her hair, stray strands sticking to her face, but she ignored it.
"As long as the boss can write scripts, that's fine." Su Yu leaned against the door frame.
"Su Yu," she suddenly said.
"Um?"
"I've watched three episodes of the story you wrote about, An Go-eun." She turned to look at him.
"Where are you looking?"
"I saw her sitting in the car waiting for Kim Do-ki. She waited the whole episode, and only said a few words at the end." She walked up to him, so close that he could smell the faint scent of coffee on her.
"Hmm." Su Yu looked at her face, which was so close to his.
"Why was she willing to wait so long?" she pressed.
Su Yu leaned against the doorframe, looking at her bare ankles. "Because she felt that Jin Daoqi was doing something she couldn't do."
Cai Xiubin turned her head to look at him, then turned back. After a moment of silence, she suddenly said, "I want to add a line for her."
"Add what?"
"I know. At the end of each episode, people say a lot to her, and she just replies with these three words." She looked at him.
Su Yu didn't speak. She waited a moment, then turned to look at him: "Is it okay?"
"Try it once."
"Try what?"
"Try saying that to Angoun."
She paused for a moment, then turned to face him. She composed herself, her eyes looking in his direction, but not at him; it was the look of someone staring at a screen. After a couple of seconds, her lips moved.
"understood."
The voice wasn't loud, but the second floor was empty, so it echoed. Su Yu leaned against the doorframe, watching her. She stood there, barefoot, her hair disheveled, her expression composed, her eyes not looking at him, but her words were directed at him. It wasn't Cai Xiubin speaking; it was An Gaoen.
Su Yu didn't move or speak. She stood still too. A gust of wind blew in through the window, causing a few strands of her hair to flutter. She couldn't hold back any longer; a slight twitch of her lips betrayed her.
"Will it work?"
"Not bad." Su Yu looked at the dimples at the corners of her mouth.
"What kind of evaluation is 'not bad'?" Cai Xiubin glared at him.
"It's alright. Not bad, but not so good that you'd want to slap your thigh in admiration," Su Yu said, unable to resist reaching out to pinch her cheek.
"Then take a picture and let me see. You wrote the character yourself, and you don't even know what she should be like?" Cai Xiubin slapped his hand away, her cheeks flushed.
Su Yu didn't reply. She stared at him for a few seconds, then turned and walked away. She reached the top of the stairs, stepped down barefoot, and made a soft "plop" sound. "I'm leaving. Remember to get someone to lay the floor."
She went downstairs. Su Yu stood at the second-floor doorway, listening to the thud of her bare feet on the stairs, one after another, growing fainter and fainter. She paused for a moment when she reached the first floor. Then a soft voice came up from below, muffled, as if through a floor.
"understood."
Su Yu leaned against the doorframe. That wasn't An Gaoen anymore, it was Cai Xiubin. His lips twitched, but he didn't go up to her.