How about Cosmic Horror? Chapter 13

“But what about the company?”

“It’s just a decoration I created for a fancy business card. Even if it goes bankrupt tomorrow, it won’t affect our lives.”

His nonsensical answer left her dumbfounded.

“Even so, you have a responsibility to run it. You have employees.”

“They’re probably happier when the boss isn’t around. You felt the same at your job, right?”

As a former employee, she couldn’t argue. She’d hoped her boss would stay out of sight, not be completely absent… Well, if she were to be honest, she did wish her boss would vanish from existence.

What if this man really stayed home and never went back to work?

Sensing danger, she stopped eating her pancakes and said seriously,

“I want to visit the company.”

“The company?”

“Yes. You said I worked there before we got married, right? I thought maybe it could help me recover some memories.”

He put down his fork and touched the underside of his box-head, where a chin would be on a human.

“That’s not a bad idea. How about we go after we’re done eating?”

“Really? That’s fine with me.”

“Good. I’m excited for our date.”

She didn’t know when “going to work” had become an “outdoor date” for a CEO. But having achieved her goal, she silently resumed eating her pancake.

By the time they reached the parking lot, his secretary was already there—how and when they’d communicated, she didn’t know. This was their third meeting.

“Hello.”

She greeted him awkwardly. Nia simply nodded silently. It was a vague gesture, neither particularly polite nor rude.

As always, her husband and his secretary got into the car without exchanging a word. At this point, she was starting to think they were communicating telepathically. Or were they on such a wavelength that they didn’t need words? If her husband was that close to another man…

While these thoughts swirled in her mind, she was distracted by the hand continuously toying with hers. Her hand hadn’t belonged to her for a while. It was basically his toy.

He poked, prodded, and pulled it like a curious cat. He intertwined their fingers, shook them, laid her hand on his knee, flipped it like a pancake, wrote invisible letters on her palm, folded and stretched each finger like he was exercising a baby’s hand, and repeated it all in a different order. It was a never-ending cycle.

“Yohan.”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Don’t you get bored?”

“Of what?”

“It’s not like you get fed when you touch my hand, or get medicine. And it’s not like I have honey on it.”

“It’s cute.”

“What?”

“Small, soft, delicate.”

She’d thought he was joking, but his tone suggested sincerity. She was silently horrified. What on earth had the pre-memory-loss version of herself done to this man to put him in such a lovesick trance?

“Ha.”

A dry laugh came from the front seat. Since the passenger seat was empty, it had to be the secretary. Her husband’s lovestruck rambling must have been too much for him. Embarrassed, she pulled her hand away.

“Stop saying weird stuff. We’re not alone.”

“So it’s fine when we’re alone?”

“Well…”

Glancing at the driver, she whispered her agreement so the secretary wouldn’t hear.

“Yes.”

“I suddenly want to throw him out of the car. Should I?”

His extreme remark startled her.

“Throwing someone from a moving car can kill them.”

“Yes. Humans do.”

He knows that and still says psychopathic stuff without blinking?

For the first time, she questioned her husband’s character. They say people become ruthless when they run a business, so could it be that he…

“He’ll be fine even if I throw him off Earth, not just the car.”

Before she could call him out for his ridiculous boast, he spoke to the driver.

“Right?”

“Right.”

Nia answered without a hint of hesitation, and Irae grew more uneasy.

So this is what it’s like in the real world… you agree with your boss no matter what garbage they spew. Earning money is rough.

Looking at her husband, the embodiment of a terrible boss, she swore she’d properly rein him in someday. Meanwhile, they arrived at the company.

It was far bigger and more impressive than she expected. She had assumed it would be a small IT startup, but instead, she was looking at a full-blown corporate headquarters.

“Are you just renting one floor in this building?”

“Why would I rent when it’s my company’s building?”

Clinging to her fading sanity, she pressed on.

“Oh, so you rent out the other floors and only use a few?”

“We use the entire building.”

He corrected her, drawing a vertical line in the air with his finger. The sheer scale boggled her mind.

“Are you saying… you’re the CEO of this company?”

“Yes.”

“But you don’t go to work?”

“I can work from home.”

“What are you talking about? It looks like you’d be swamped even if you worked around the clock.”

“I value work-life balance.”

Work-life balance. Important, yes. But if you have this many people under you, it’s a different story. This man held the livelihoods of countless people in his hands.

“You have to take care of your employees.”

“The only one I’ll take care of in this entire universe is you.”

His over-the-top flirtation made her jump. Say that stuff at home, with a human face, not a box, and not in public.

“Besides, the amount of labor isn’t what matters. Money makes more money faster than labor ever could. I just need to make the decisions.”

“Hmm…”

“Where do you want to go first? Your old team? Or my office?”

She figured visiting her old team would be more helpful in regaining her memories. But she was more curious about his office.

“I want to see your office first.”

“We have a lot of memories there, too.”

He looked genuinely delighted.

“Memories?”

“Yep. We did all sorts of things there. Want me to describe them one by one?”

She quickly shook her head. She had a bad feeling she shouldn’t know.

 

Before she knew it, he was holding her hand again. She’d definitely pulled it back when they got out of the car…

He naturally interlaced their fingers and started walking. His secretary, Nia, swiped a key card whenever necessary. They boarded what seemed like a private elevator—oddly quiet for such a large company—and arrived directly at what she assumed was his office.

It really was a private elevator just for him.

Impressed, she scurried around, taking in her surroundings. It was so spacious that she couldn’t see everything at once.

“You could practically live here.”

It was an office, but it had a large sofa, a bathroom, and even a bed hidden behind a bookshelf. It lacked the homey feeling of their actual house, but it was still livable. It was also much larger than most houses.

The most surprising thing was the bed. Curious, she loitered near it. Did he use it to take naps when he was tired? Even a ten-minute nap on a bed would beat slumping in a chair.

“That looks familiar, doesn’t it?”

Her husband spoke with a tone of amusement.

“Well, we did use it often.”

“What?”

“You know, we spent plenty of time here, together.”

Her eyes widened. She couldn’t believe it. To do ‘that’ at the office?

A bed conveniently placed in the office? And while others were slaving away downstairs?

How could I, in this sacred workplace… No, scratch that—workplaces aren’t sacred. They’re grimy.

While other employees were sipping Americanos and working with bleary eyes, I was up here doing… that… with him?

Just imagining it gave her the creeps. Of all the times and places… why during work hours in the office?

He tilted his box head, seemingly watching her—though with no eyes, nose, or mouth, it was just a guess.

“Not your thing, I see. What a shame.”

Before she could process his meaning, he added calmly,

“You used to lie here to rest when you were tired.”

The words hit like a slap to the back of her head. That’s what he meant by “spent time”? This time, it wasn’t her brain being twisted. He had deliberately phrased it to mislead her.

When she glared at him, he just shrugged shamelessly.

“Why’re you looking at me so passionately, honey?”

Maybe it was the expressionless box that he seemed extra brazen to her. Impulsively, she beckoned him.

“Come here and sit down.”

He obediently sat down on the edge of the bed where she patted. She pushed him, and he fell back without resisting. She then climbed on top of him. Well, to be precise, she wasn’t touching him, just hovering above him, but he seemed surprised, judging by the question marks that poured out from his box-head’s opening and scattered across the bed.

How’d this bizarre scene happen? Was her brain translating his shocked expression into this? Staring at the surreal sight, he spoke.

“What are you going to do on top of me?”

He now regained his composure, his voice devoid of any surprise. The question marks had turned into hearts —very red ones, in fact.

What she saw reflected reality. So what were these? Certainly not the red hearts of socialist revolutionaries. There was only one answer: this was arousal.

Originally, she’d planned to get back at him for his suggestive remarks. But now she realized: nope. Better not. If this went any further, she’d be the one suffering the consequences. Deflating from her bold start, she slid off and lay beside him, keeping some distance.

“Y-you said we used to lie here together, right? So I thought maybe if I recreated it, it might help bring back my memory.”

He chuckled at her rambling excuse, and at the same time, the hearts that were scattered around gathered together, forming a black rabbit. The rabbit hopped back into the box, and the opening closed neatly, as if nothing had happened.

Watching the scene, she gave up trying to understand what had just occurred. The level of abstraction was too high.