“I’ll be going now.”
Seungju picked up his bag and bowed to the Director. The Director looked displeased. He waved his hand without even properly responding.
He had reason to be in a bad mood. Seungju had brought the Director the materials he wanted by the morning. He also succeeded in defending against all the Director’s nitpicking and fits. The Director was upset because things didn’t go his way to the very end.
Seungju, who had to go through that, was naturally in a bad mood too. Where else is there a superior who gets upset when a subordinate does the assigned work well? However, at this company, any absurd thing was possible.
Seungju waited for Muyeon in front of the parking lot. Seeing the car that soon appeared, he paused for a moment. What stopped in front of Seungju wasn’t the black sedan he always drove around at work, but a white SUV. The car Muyeon had brought out on the weekend.
Getting into the passenger seat, Seungju thought anew about what had happened here last week. His ears felt like they were getting hot.
He opened his mouth to shake off the thought.
“Can I also look at some things to reference for next week’s PT today?”
“Go ahead. Buy samples if you need them too.”
“I also have some samples other teams asked for. Is it okay to buy them together?”
“Other teams?”
“Team Leader Minyeong asked me, and she said it would be good if I could buy them but it’s okay if I can’t. Still, it would be good to buy them for her.”
“Team Leader Minyeong is the Team 5 leader, right? The person sitting next to Team Leader Seungju?”
“Yes.”
Muyeon said “Hmm” and didn’t answer for a moment. He tapped the steering wheel with his index finger. Then he soon opened his mouth.
“Sure, then. If circumstances allow, it would be good to buy them for her.”
The soft voice was gentle. Of course, Seungju had experienced similar patterns in conversations with Muyeon enough not to be immediately reassured by that voice. What doesn’t he like? Has he suddenly become stingy with company money?
He thought about it a bit, but no particularly plausible reason came to mind. So Seungju decided to just think he was being a bit sensitive.
The market research proceeded in the same way as last week. Walking around the store taking photos, examining good display stands if there were any, picking up noticeable items and having conversations. Seungju thought anew. Except for taking photos, it really wasn’t much different from a date. Perhaps because of that, it didn’t feel like work and was enjoyable.
The last place Muyeon stopped at today was also the kids’ corner. To be precise, it was the area within the general goods store where toys and dolls and such were gathered. After taking a few photos of the display with his phone, he spoke to Seungju.
“What do you think?”
“The kids’ corner? General Manager, it seems to be really weighing on your mind. You asked me about it last week too.”
“That’s right. I know it would be good to have one. But then it doesn’t seem like there would be any differentiation from other stores.”
“Just looking at the store concept proposal, it seems like the kids’ corner should definitely be included. Since the main customer target is from their 20s to 30s. We have to consider buyers with children too.”
The meeting notification email Muyeon sent to the entire planning department had attachments including the store concept, interior, display utilization plans, and such that the Sales Team had discussed and organized so far. To summarize that concept proposal in one line, it could be said to be a mid-to-low price design lifestyle product brand store targeting the younger generation.
However, even Seungju, skimming through the content, could immediately think of several similar brands. Whose head did such an uncompetitive concept come from?
From just a few words in the concept overview, Seungju could tell this was the President’s choice. He sneered, then sighed and continued reading the concept proposal.
However, Seungju, who reviewed the materials to the end, discovered an unexpected fact. The store’s main products consisted of imported products from foreign brands, not their own company’s products.
‘Is what you and the President have in mind a select shop format?’
‘Ultimately the goal is to fill it only with our own products, but the President is rushing to open the store. But even if we start planning store products now, well, unless we do alchemy, when would we finish producing everything? So at first we’ll fill it with foreign brand products that match the concept and later replace them with ours.’
Seungju, who felt the angle of overtime as soon as he received Muyeon’s email, immediately sought out Dawon. The best way to reduce wasted effort and futile work is to accurately grasp the superior’s demands. It was urgent to figure out what the Sales Team, or precisely General Manager Mu and the President, were thinking when requesting new product proposals.
Dawon was very pleased with the dacquoise and coffee from the dessert shop near the company that Seungju had brought. Sitting on the rooftop eating snacks, she looked happy and was ready to tell everything.
‘Fill it with foreign brands and then later replace them with ours? One hundred percent there’s going to be a fuss about making copycat products of the currently selected foreign brands.’
‘Correct. They’re already excited saying we can also make pretty things just like these.’
‘So what’s the reason for rushing the store opening?’
‘They want to open it before the President’s grandson’s birthday, or something. Isn’t that crazy? His birthday comes next year too. It’s a new business where they’re pouring costs into real estate, production, and who knows how many places, but anyway they just think everything works out if you push ahead recklessly.’
As expected, the Quitters Club members meshed well with Seungju. Seungju agreed with her opinion a hundred times over and gulped down his coffee.
So the reason General Manager Mu kept worrying about the kids’ corner was probably also because of the President’s demands. It wasn’t difficult to infer that thought—since the store had to open before the President’s grandson’s birthday, there should also be a corner for the President’s grandson. Seungju crossed his arms and watched Muyeon, who was examining the items in front of him, from one step behind. This man is also having a hard time, really hard. He felt a sense of sympathy with him anew.
“Now that I think about it, Team Leader Seungju was handling toys until recently, right?”
“Yes. But the period was so short that I don’t know much about it either.”
“Have things like slime gone out of fashion? If we make the packaging pretty, wouldn’t it look good when displayed?”
“It would be fine, but whether we should stock it is a bit uncertain.”
“Why?”
“Slime is the number one toy parents avoid. It gets on clothes, gets on walls, they don’t know it’s in pockets so they run it through the washing machine and a catastrophe happens. It’s not a toy you buy with your own money.”
“Ah… my goodness. Running it through the washing machine, that’s really terrible.”
Muyeon put the item in his hand back in its place. His genuinely disgusted expression and slightly awkward gestures were cute. Seungju didn’t hide his smiling expression. Muyeon, who turned around, looked at him and stuck out his lips a bit.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.”
At the clearly teasing tone, Muyeon narrowed his eyes.
“Looking closely, Seungju-ssi doesn’t seem to be all that nice either.”
“Am I nice?”
“Weren’t you?”
Seungju laughed briefly. Nice—he could guess why Muyeon thought that. Because at work he lived as an extremely docile herbivore. The pitiful prey that lived with “I understand,” “I’m sorry,” and “thank you” always on his lips.
However, becoming accustomed to the company this way didn’t mean becoming nice. It meant becoming poisonous. And Seungju was qualified to be poisonous enough to seem nice. All his life he’d always lived that way. Working hard.
“I’m grateful you think so.”
“No, Seungju-ssi is nice. I can tell from the way you talk.”
“So where?”
“You accept any topic smoothly and well, and you have a good heart. Even when something makes you angry, you don’t say it outright.”
Despite being the one who asked in detail where he was nice, when suddenly given a high evaluation, Seungju felt momentarily at a loss for what to do. Especially at the last part. Was he letting the cursing from their second meeting on the rooftop become a thing of the past? Seungju answered with an embarrassed smile.
“Muyeon-ssi is like that too.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you take really good care of me.”
His eyes met with Muyeon, who was looking down at him. A smile spread across his face. One fact that can’t be overemphasized is that when he smiles, he’s really pretty.
Seungju realized his smile resembled a sense of relief. Then a corner of his heart stirred. As if drawn in, he smiled along.
The two who left the store headed to the parking lot. When the elevator door opened, people poured out in a rush. Muyeon grabbed Seungju’s arm as if wrapping around it and pulled him. At the action of positioning Seungju behind him and the natural contact, Seungju couldn’t help but feel fluttering.
Getting into the empty elevator, Muyeon brought up the words that would be disappointing to skip today too.
“Want to have dinner?”
Was this the reason he didn’t bring the car he always drives at work? But Seungju couldn’t give a positive answer today.
“I don’t think I can today.”
“Why?”
“Because I have work to finish after returning.”
“You’re returning at this hour?”
If he went back to the company now, it would be past 7 o’clock. Seungju knew well. And the person who least wanted to go back was also Seungju. He answered in an unwilling tone.
“Do you think I’d go because I want to? If I don’t finish today, I might have to come in on the weekend. I really hate that.”
“What are you so busy with?”
“I’m working alone.”
“……”
Muyeon had no answer again. Seungju urged him in his heart. So fill the position, fill it. Preferably with someone experienced. If a newbie comes, it takes more time to teach them. Muyeon grumbled.
“Dating an office worker isn’t an easy thing.”
