After eating lunch, Seungju went to find the Director with his market research materials. The Director usually gave approvals at his desk. However, this time he told Seungju to reserve a conference room.
The intention was obvious. With General Manager Mu watching with hawklike eyes, he thought Seungju wouldn’t speak candidly about what happened with General Manager Mu right in front of him.
The approval wasn’t difficult. With the actual samples on hand, it was a bit easier to explain the parts where the Director raised objections. At the end, there was the usual pointless nagging about why he’d even bought samples like these, but anyway.
The Director checked a few places on Seungju’s materials with a highlighter and handed them back to him pompously. An effective method to look like you’ve done work when you haven’t done any work at all.
“And, well. Was there anything else? You seem to have gotten pretty close with General Manager Mu?”
“Ah, yes… just… he suggested we have lunch together.”
“You must have been happy to leave early for lunch following General Manager Mu, Seungju.”
“Not at all….”
Seungju ground his teeth inwardly. That’s exactly why being noticed in the office always leads to things like this. And it wasn’t just the Director, was it? General Manager Kang, Team Leader Shin, Team Leader Yoon too. There were plenty of people who would probe about what happened at lunch today if they got the chance. Seungju resented General Manager Mu again.
“So, I’m asking if there was anything else?”
“Ah, he briefly mentioned the kids’ corner. But it doesn’t seem like anything’s been finalized yet. It doesn’t seem like it’s been decided whether to include it in the store or not either.”
“Seungju. Would General Manager Mu decide that on his own? He’d have to discuss it with the President.”
“Yes….”
The President was just an excuse. This was simply disregarding General Manager Mu’s decision-making authority.
“Alright. You can go.”
“Yes, thank you.”
He wasn’t thankful at all, but Seungju answered respectfully. No, wait. He should be grateful for being freed from the infuriating Director himself. Seungju achieved a mental victory once more.
Returning from the conference room, Seungju started on his original work again. Paper products weren’t difficult in terms of design or production, but there were too many types. Even when relevant matters were neatly organized by item category, they were difficult to manage, and on top of that, all those numerous items had been scattered across various teams until now. Seungju was planning to organize them in an easy-to-read format now.
It was around the time he thought he should escape from the endless Excel cells and get some coffee. An Outlook mailbox notification arrived. Seungju reflexively clicked on the alert. He only checked the subject line after the email opened.
[Sales Team] Product Planning Meeting for Store Merchandise – Month 00, Day 00, 2 PM
The sender was General Manager Mu. Sales Team Baek Muyeon. The recipients were everyone in the Planning Division. Of course, the Director was included too.
Seungju tilted his head. It was a cleanly formatted email. The sentences and what they conveyed were concise. The problem was in the content. Since the handover according to the new work distribution that had been carried out after the Sales Team merged into the Planning Division was roughly finished, now each team should prepare proposals and presentations for product lines suitable for inclusion in the store. The meeting was Wednesday of the week after next.
Seungju rolled his eyes while still seated. He got up from his seat and headed to the break room. He dumped three packets of coffee into his beloved large-capacity tumbler and dissolved them with hot water. He poured ice into it and filled it to the brim with water. After stirring the coffee well with a straw, he threw away the bitter straw.
Returning to his seat, Seungju opened his throat and poured the coffee down. Existing work plus new item search, proposal writing, PowerPoint preparation, and presentation preparation.
When am I supposed to do all that by myself? The Planning Division’s only one-person team screamed internally. Tears of blood flowed in his heart, forming a river.
When he met General Manager Mu tomorrow, he wanted to say nothing and just punch him once in the solar plexus.
***
Coming out of the shower on Saturday morning, Seungju was regretting having made plans today.
He stood in front of his closet for a long time. So, he had no clothes. No clothes.
Objectively and on average, Seungju didn’t have few clothes. When he was stealing wages at the company, he mainly went shopping. For relieving work stress, first was drinking and second was spending money on frivolous things.
Seungju got through each month fluctuating between those two until payday when his account balance was refilled. When he really went crazy wanting to quit and was jumping up and down, he bought something on installment. Then he could endure for three months. His peers were at an age where they should be diligently saving money, but Seungju had no such intention. Because he wasn’t going to get married.
Even though he’d worked hard emptying his bank account like that, he had no clothes. Seungju felt hollow for a moment. But he soon changed his mind. It’s not that I’ve lived my life wrong. The suddenly warm weather is the problem. Just thinking about having to dig through the transitional season clothes packed away in storage boxes already felt bothersome.
Seungju looked once at the mirror attached to the inside of his closet. Then along with annoyance, he felt anxious. Thinking of the face of the person he was meeting today, he felt tension that no matter how bothersome it was, he couldn’t go out looking like a beggar.
After rummaging through his closet for a while, Seungju settled his internal struggle with cotton pants, a white t-shirt, and a light-colored coat. A combination that wouldn’t fail anywhere. Then he worked hard on fixing his hair. The appointment time was approaching, but he still had time.
[What time and where are we meeting tomorrow?]
Yesterday after work, Seungju deliberately sent Muyeon a very plain message. He didn’t want to send it in the polite tone with periods or emoticons that he used with the Director or other team leaders—in other words, his superiors. Who would care, and it was petty insecurity, but it gave him the feeling of showing how exhausting his work life was, which made him uncomfortable.
The reply was also very chic. “1 o’clock. I’ll pick you up.”
His fingers were already typing “no, it’s okay,” but Seungju smiled a little as soon as he saw the message. After a few more rounds of push and pull, they agreed that Muyeon would come to the subway station closest to Seungju’s house.
Standing at the subway station exit in front of the crosswalk, Seungju shoved his hands into his coat pockets. As expected, the coat was a bit much for this weather. He’d probably get hot soon. The phone in his hand rang.
– You’re already out? Turn around.
At the voice that skipped greetings as soon as he answered the phone, Seungju whipped around. With perfect timing, the window of the car behind him rolled down. It wasn’t Seungju’s fault for not recognizing it. The car behind him was different from the one Muyeon drove around at work.
How many cars does this guy have? The President had five just counting the ones he’d seen at work.
Seungju hung up the phone and opened the car door. He bowed his head in greeting.
“Hello.”
“Yes. Hello.”
Muyeon laughed, drawing out his words. At his response, Seungju realized he’d just greeted him respectfully like he had at the company. No matter how much he’d thought he didn’t want to treat him like a superior or whatever, was this slave mentality ingrained in his body unavoidable?
Muyeon called to Seungju, who had fallen into self-reflection. Seungju-ssi.
“Yes.”
“You need to put on your seatbelt.”
“Yes….”
Why do I keep showing only foolish sides of myself? As he fastened his seatbelt, Seungju couldn’t help but admit he was trembling a little. And for good reason—he didn’t know how many years it had been since he’d been on a date.
When had he broken up with that bastard? It was during his rookie days, so easily four years had passed. Now he had no feelings left so he didn’t need to call him a bastard, but when he tried to say the name, his stomach churned again. Anyway, that bastard was obsessed with games. The only place they went when they met was PC rooms. So it had been more than four years since he’d had a proper date.
“Do you like pasta?”
“I can’t get enough of it.”
“Then I can go where I want to go, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
Pasta, now that’s really a date course. At least he felt relieved that Muyeon had decided where to go. Seungju quickly answered that it was good, afraid Muyeon might change his mind. After a brief silence while setting the navigation, Muyeon started the car and spoke.
“What do you usually do on weekends?”
“Nothing much. Last year I used to go play tennis…”
“Tennis?”
“Yes. Why?”
“My mother likes tennis. Are you good at it, Seungju-ssi?”
“I was just at the level of going to learn. It was a private lesson class, so I couldn’t do it when it rained, and if there was something like a wedding on the weekend I couldn’t go out, and then it got cold so I couldn’t do it, so I did it for about half a year and then quit.”
“Don’t you have any plans to start again?”
“Probably not for a while. Why?”
Muyeon smiled slightly. Seungju rolled his eyes to look at him. Today his hair wasn’t styled with effort like when he came to work. The natural hair covering his forehead suited him well too. As expected, when he let his hair down, he looked his age.
“It would be troublesome if you were busy on weekends. You have to meet with me.”
“Haha, hahaha….”
With that young-looking face saying such a cute line, laughter burst out unavoidably. Cute. Really.
“General Manager… Muyeon-ssi, what do you do on weekends?”
“I have family gatherings, and I meet friends.”
At the watered-down bland answer, Seungju quickly guessed the reason. It meant he usually went on dates. However, he had enough sense not to dig into the topic and ruin the atmosphere by letting stories about people he’d dated before flow out.
Another brief silence passed. Seungju spoke to Muyeon again.
“You have two older sisters, right?”
“Yes. You know well.”
“I hear about it often from the President.”
“Did you hear a lot about me too?”
“Of course… The President was so proud… I mean, he praised you so much.”
“What did he say?”
“That you’re handsome and smart….”
It was true, but somehow it felt embarrassing to talk about it with the person in question sitting right next to him.
