Brutal Honesty (feat. WJSN Luda)

Another Monday at the company, and another lunch break for you and your co-workers and friend group. Morning meetings were as slow as could be, and paired with the grey rainy weather of the outside world, it really was as dull as it could get.

However, Valentine’s Day was right around the corner. So outside of the company and in the group chats of the employees, the air was buzzing with romantic potential. And for those who really couldn’t be bothered, there was an extra amount of stuff for the mind to mute out.

By the time you approached the table with your tray of bibimbap and a lemon iced tea, 4 of your friends were already there, chatting excitedly about something.

“You all look like you’ve got energy today.” You comment as you sit down.

“Just talking about how someone from marketing tried asking Exy-unnie out this morning after her client meeting.” Eunseo mumbled between bites of her lunch.

“Oh? Pray tell.” You lean in to try and catch up.

“The guy that was practically fawning over her ever since his cubicle got moved close to the finances department. Guess he grew a pair and shot his shot. In typical Exy fashion, she wasn’t having any of it.” Seola explained simply.

“Oof, poor guy. Probably should’ve seen it coming though, they don’t call Exy the ‘Finance Department Ice Queen’ for nothing.” You sympathize with the mystery man.

“Consensus in the advertising department group is that he lost a bet and had to.” Seola shrugs.

“I don’t know, I think it’s kinda cute. Imagine, the looks of longing through the glass walls, glancing looks around cubicle walls, sharing elevators at the end of the day…” Bona begins dreaming about various romantic scenes out loud.

“That’s because you’re a hopeless romantic, and the first word is doing the heavy lifting.” Luda quips flatly.

“Yikes, come for the jugular, why don’t you?” Bona dramatically clutches her chest.

“At least that makes two of us, right Bona?” You try to console her.

“You’re not helping!” She shouts back, throwing a french fry at you.

“At least Bona-unnie has an actual chance. You’d fail to swoon a character in a visual novel even if they only have a romance route.” Luda adds on at you while her eyes are still on her jjigae, something she rarely did.

“Holy… Wow, that hurts so much worse when you’re on the receiving end of that…” You comment in surprise as Luda drops her infamous blunt honesty directly on your forehead.

“I TOLD YOU!” Eunseo yells, making Seola flinch and cover her ears.

“Did I just see Luda-unnie take pot shots at Y/N-oppa? Did that just happen?” Yeoreum asks with wide eyes as she arrives at the table.

“Here lies Y/N, his immunity from a Luda-bomb officially expired. May he rest in peace.” Eunseo dramatically said like she was at a wake.

“What did you do to warrant that? Luda-unnie never goes for you.” Yeoreum sat down next to you, her tray making a clattering sound, to which you just shrugged.

“I’m not here. Please leave a message after the beep… Beeeeep.” You mumble, forehead down to the table from the sheer brutality of the Luda-bomb.

“Anyways, do you all have plans for Friday evening? With it being Valentine’s and all, I figured it would be another year of drinking at someone’s house and making fun of bad rom-coms.” Yeoreum asks the table.

“Well we know Exy isn’t going on a date.” Seola adds flatly.

“I’m going to the spa with Soobin and Dawon.” Bona says next.

“Dawon is finally using those vouchers we got for her birthday?”

“Only took her 9 months.”

“What about you, mister so-called hopeless romantic number 2?” Bona teases you.

“Probably stay in again, it’s not like I’ve got dates to go on or anything.” You mumble while shoveling bibimbap into your mouth.

“Man, you’d think out of a friend group of eleven fairly attractive people, at least one of us would be either in a relationship or going on a date this year.” Yeoreum sighed, her spoon aimlessly pushing some food around on her tray. “It really hasn’t been the same since the chinese trio left; almost as if they took all of our collective romantic ability with them.”

“Wouldn’t that be something…” Eunseo shook her head slowly.

“I don’t know, I never really worried about it. I mean, it might be nice, but I also like my peace and quiet, you know?” You manage a simple shrug.

While all of this back and forth was happening over company cafeteria food, even with her brutal burn on you only a few minutes prior, Luda was subtly keeping up with the conversation and was taking mental notes on you and what you were saying.

That evening, the grey skies had darkened and by the time the employees were going home, a gentle shower was covering the rooftops and streets of Seoul.

Those who were caught out by the rain hastily ran to the nearby Metro station or bus stop, or waited for their taxis in the lobby of the office building itself. And those who were prepared became umbrella holders for those who clambered beneath the canopy.

Because of some project that had gone wrong throughout the day, you were one of the last to leave the office. So after grabbing your things and taking the short elevator ride down to the lobby, almost everyone from the company was gone, and only some people from the other offices were lingering about, waiting for the rain to let up.

Surprisingly though, while you were getting the umbrella opened up outside, you felt the presence of a person walk up right behind you, even feeling their jacket brush against the back of your legs.

“Hmm? Oh, Luda?” You turn around to see the top of her head, and stand very much right against you so as to fit under the canopy of your small folding umbrella.

“It’s raining.” She returns in such a quiet voice, you barely hear it.

“Rain? Yeah.”

“Station?”

“Yep, want to walk with me?”

Without a proper response, she joined you beneath the folding umbrella, walking along the rain-soaked sidewalks towards the Metro station entrance a couple of blocks away.

The dynamic between you two was pretty much just like this: understanding silence. Unless there was something that needed to be said, you two were more than fine going long durations without saying anything.

This set you and Luda up to be prime teasing targets from the others, but they all understood that you two as well as Dawon were the quiet ones in the group, and sometimes you needed to just exist sometimes.

Which is what made Luda’s earlier comment so out of character for her. Sure she gave you some one-liners here and there, but this one during lunch today was the biggest one she’d ever dropped on you. You knew that it had no malice behind it like any of her actual “Luda bombs”, but there was something about the suddenness and complexity of it that almost felt like there was something hidden there. But you didn’t dwell on it too long, and just let it be.

So while you and Luda were huddled together beneath the umbrella, you didn’t think much of it other than helping a friend in need. That was until a careless driver turned into the intersection too close to the curb, and drove right through the growing puddle with some pace, splashing several people waiting for the crosswalk light to change.

Luda, wanting to not get wet from the muddy puddle water, jumped back to hide from the splash. And while you were more than fine with her doing so, you quickly noticed that she was clutching your hand, which was holding onto the handle of the umbrella.

Despite the strange set of circumstances, your heart fluttered a bit from the contact. Sure, her hands were cold from the rainy evening, but outside of casual friend hugs and hi-fives, you hadn’t had that much human contact like this in general, let alone with her. And with everything working together—the setting, environment, weather, and situation—your hopeless romantic heart was loving this.

But Luda quickly composed herself, not even acknowledging what had just happened, or at least showed any indication towards it outwards before standing close by you.

“Talk about the gall of some people, huh?” You try to make light of what just happened.