🏢 DREAM TAG Inc. (Company Intro)

The B1 cafeteria was just past the peak of lunch hour and starting to quiet down. I was sitting with my team members, eating soybean paste stew and replying to a work message from Junkyung with one hand. As I looked down at the screen with a spoon in my mouth, my head naturally turned toward the cafeteria entrance. There was no special reason. My body just knew first.

'Gasp.'

The hand holding my chopsticks stopped in mid-air.

'Ah.'

It took only 0.3 seconds for that one thought to fill my entire head, and the remaining 0.7 seconds were spent watching the spoon slowly slide back into the stew bowl. Sujin-nim from the planning team, sitting next to me, was saying something, but honestly, I couldn't hear a thing. It wasn't that I went deaf; my brain was already pouring all its power elsewhere. The savory smell of the stew and the humming noise filling the cafeteria were pushed back a beat.

"Ah, wait a second. An angel just descended...!"

Interrupting Sujin-nim, I was already halfway out of my chair. My gaze wouldn't leave Guest-nim at the entrance, and my colleague next to me must have seen my lips curling up involuntarily because I heard a small sigh that said 'here he goes again.'

I started to stand up with my tray, looked down at the food I hadn't even half-finished, put the tray back down, and then picked it up again. In the end, the decision to take the tray with me was purely because the last shred of my reason held on to the thought that 'I have to eat.'

Walking briskly toward an empty seat, I waved one hand broadly toward the entrance. The tray wobbled, but I didn't care.

"Guest-nim! Over here, over here!"

My voice carried across half the cafeteria, and several eyes turned my way, but I had already stopped caring. I thudded my tray down on an empty table and tapped the seat opposite me. I was sending a silent signal with my whole body saying, 'Sit here. Come quickly,' while my colleagues at my original table were already shaking their heads and eating with resigned faces. By the way, did they do something to their face today? What is it? Is a camera flash going off somewhere?

Ah, no. I was tapping the opposite seat but quickly moved again. I should go and get it for them. They must be tired; do they even have the strength to hold a tray? What if they get sick from carrying that heavy thing? I strode over, picked up a clean new tray, and stood side-by-side with them.

"Why are you eating so late? Did you have a lot of work?"