“There was something on your face. Anyway, the hat looks good on you—perfect from front to back.”
But Kang Hakyung was not an easy opponent.
Maintaining a sharp look in his eyes, he replied,
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? I was just looking in the mirror—I knew there was nothing on my face.”
“Then maybe something got on it just now.”
The conversation ended with Muheon poking Hakyung’s cheek once more.
In the blink of an eye, Hakyung had been poked twice, and his lips stuck out in a pout.
“If you bought new clothes, don’t stay up too late showing them off. Go to bed early.”
“Okaaay.”
“You have to prepare breakfast tomorrow too.”
“Oh, are we eating together again tomorrow morning, you and me?”
Mu-heon gave him a look as if to say, Why are you even asking that?
At that, Hakyung quietly took out his pajamas.
Just like the man said, the best way to get Muheon to leave was to go to bed quickly.
The overly mild reaction had already taken the fun out of showing off his hat anyway.
If he’d shown the new hat to his grandmother back in the countryside, she would’ve patted his butt affectionately and said, “My little piglet is a supermodel!” and adored him…
Instead of this boring boss’s compliments, it was the excessive praise of his loving grandmother that he missed tonight.
***
Five days had already passed since the day Mu-heon had said, “Just try working for a week.”
Waking up early every day to cook breakfast with fresh ingredients, helping out around the office—all of it had become routine, and he was getting good at it.
To be honest, it was much, much easier than catching and selling sandfish from cold water every day.
If he could, Hakyung wanted to break the “just one week” agreement and ask to stay and work forever.
But the more he worked, the more he felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.
The reason, of course, was the boss.
Every morning, Mu-heon would come up to the dorm and quietly eat three bowls of rice.
It was almost endearing.
But then Hakyung would see how the other employees acted around him—with stiff, formal attitudes and hardened expressions—and his comfort would shrink down to a speck.
As a result, curiosity about this scary boss only grew.
Today as well, after finishing his tasks, Hakyung went up to the rooftop during lunch break to rest for a bit.
“Huh…?”
He had expected the dorm rooftop to be as quiet as usual, completely empty.
But someone had gotten there before him and was sitting on the bench at the entrance.
It was Muheon, the owner of the company.
Hakyung hurried over in surprise, as he had never seen anyone use the rooftop bench before.
“Boss! Hello!”
“Yeah.”
Muheon gave a half-hearted wave but kept his gaze fixed on the sky.
Was there something up there?
Hakyung looked up too, following Muheon’s line of sight, but saw nothing.
Only the blue sky turned a little hazy with the warming weather.
Soon, it would be the season when yellow dust swept in with the wind.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“What are you doing?”
Unable to find anything interesting, Hakyung asked.
If there was something to see, he’d watch it with him.
If not, he figured he’d just go back to his room for a quick nap.
After what felt like an eternity, just when Hakyung wondered if he’d have to wait until morning, Mu-heon finally spoke:
“Thinking it might be time to make it rain.”
“…Huh?”
The response came in clearly in Korean, but its meaning wasn’t easy to grasp.
“Make it rain?”
What did that even mean…?
Hakyung tilted his head to the side in confusion.
Rain falling was, in the dictionary sense, just one of many natural phenomena like the sun rising and setting.
It wasn’t something ordinary humans could control.
Maybe he meant watering the flower bed near the pond?
That seemed more likely—especially since the boss liked to maintain those kinds of poetic images.
Either way, neither interpretation was something Hakyung could get involved in.
Just as freshwater dolphins are strong in freshwater, Kang Hakyung had terrible compatibility with plants.
When he helped the elderly lady next door with weeding, he often ended up pulling out healthy vegetables too.
And whenever he watered plants, their roots would start rotting in rows.
At first, the adults had thought he’d improve with practice, but even after years, his destructive touch never changed.
They eventually gave up and told him he’d be better off catching another basket of shellfish in the river than working in the field.
With that kind of relationship to plant life, Hakyung simply replied,
“Okay! Do your best!” and returned to his room.
Thirty minutes later, Hakyung was woken by the buzzing and spinning vibration of his phone alarm on the floor.
It had been a blissful nap.
With a short yawn and a stretch, he stepped out of the dormitory for his shift.
That afternoon, he had agreed to help Bugeunrim with paperwork.
Among the staff, he was one of the youngest, which meant he usually got Hakyung’s help last.
Still, he never seemed to complain about the senior staff.
Maybe it was because the staff were either genuinely close or followed an extremely strict hierarchy…
After five days of work, Hakyung was leaning toward the latter.
No one had ever raised their voice around him, but there was definitely a vibe.
Having spent a lot of time around adults, Hakyung had sharp instincts that kicked in during moments like these.
In any case, since Bugeunrim waited until the senior staff had finished their tasks, it looked like Hakyung would be stuck with paperwork all afternoon.
He massaged around his eyes before leaving the room.
As if wishing him luck, the wind-chimes rang with a clear, pleasant sound.
It was a sound that always lifted his mood.
He passed through the empty dormitory, put on his shoes at the entrance, and stepped outside—only to feel raindrops start to fall from what had just been a clear sky.
“Huh?”
Standing under the eaves, Hakyung stretched out his hand.
Droplets landed one after another on his palm.
It was real rain.
And the weather app he checked before lunch hadn’t mentioned anything like this…?
The phrase “make it rain,” which Mu-heon had said earlier, flashed through his mind, but he shook his head.
It had to be a coincidence.
It wasn’t raining too hard yet, so he figured he could hurry down to the office.
He would’ve liked to use an umbrella, but he had no idea where to find one in the vast dorm.
So Hakyung used both hands to cover the crown of his head.
If you wore a hat in the rain and it got wet, the soggy hat could clog the vents and make it uncomfortable.
That’s why, on rainy days, his top priority was keeping the crown of his head—and the hat on it—dry above all else.
Especially since the hat he was wearing now was brand new.
Just imagining it getting stained by rain nearly brought tears to his eyes.
He spread his hands as wide as possible to shield his head and took off running.
Muheon, the man—the boss—was still sitting on the bench, looking up at the sky.
Judging by the dampness of his shoulders, he must’ve stayed there the whole time since Hakyung had gone back inside.
If he kept that up, he was going to catch a cold.
Just looking at him made Hakyung feel a chill and shiver.
He felt like he should go down there and dry him off—he was just about to call out to him when it happened.
Muheon, who hadn’t moved an inch, lifted his right hand to sweep back his wet hair.
As he did, the sleeve of his shirt slid down his arm, revealing not the color of normal human skin, but something black and smooth beneath.
Gasp.
Hakyung sucked in a breath before he even realized it.
That small sound made Mu-heon’s previously lidded eyes turn in his direction.
His endlessly dark, deep eyes glinted with a bright blue light.
For a moment, Hakyung recoiled in shock at the sight of his bare black skin, but then he froze completely, like a mouse in front of a snake.
Neither of them said a word.
Hakyung was too scared to speak, and Muheon was still assessing the uninvited guest who had interrupted his work.
When Muheon wasn’t performing his public-facing job as the company president but doing the work he was born to do—his real work—no one dared disturb him.
Everyone knew just how sensitive he became during those times.
Who has the guts to make a stupid noise right in front of me?
Muheon narrowed his widened perception and curled one side of his lips.
But as the silhouette before him grew clearer, the crooked smile straightened.
It was Kang Hakyung, trembling like a leaf with a dumb expression on his face.
And now that he thought about it, he had told him he could use the rooftop freely… yet here he was, about to snap at him because he got too absorbed in his work and forgot.
Chiding himself for being so spaced out after returning to work for the first time in a while, Mu-heon clicked his tongue and got up from the bench, walking toward Hakyung.
“Why are you just standing there like an idiot?”
The sleeve had fallen back down, so the black skin was no longer visible, but Hakyung was still too stunned to open his mouth.
Mu-heon stared at him for a moment, then raised a finger and gently closed his slightly parted lips for him.