“Please separate work from personal matters.”
“What does it matter when it’s just the two of us anyway?”
Why is he acting like this? Seungju looked at Muyeon with an annoyed expression. Muyeon closed his laptop and faced Seungju. And before Seungju could even react, he cupped Seungju’s cheeks with both hands. The moment their lips touched, Seungju closed his eyes.
The kiss wasn’t long. It was rather fortunate. Because it felt good.
Seungju opened his eyes, thinking he was frustrated.
“You work well and you’re pretty, so what’s wrong with doing it a bit?”
“I, no, I don’t like it, Director. Please don’t.”
Muyeon wrapped his arms around Seungju’s waist like last night. He leaned his head against his nape. Seungju clearly realized. Muyeon had learned yesterday that this cute act worked on Seungju.
What was different from yesterday was that his lips touched his nape. Muyeon muttered as he brushed his lips along the neckline from his ear to his collarbone.
“I like hearing you call me Director.”
As learned over the past two weeks, reflexively a tingling sensation ran down his lower back. He disliked it but liked it, liked it but disliked it. That was always the problem. The fact that he might actually give in to Muyeon if he wasn’t careful. Warning sounds dominated his mind. Seungju’s social instincts, which always picked times and places with uncanny precision, barely seized victory.
Right, I was wrong. Anyway, it’s not just his lack of manners that stops him from wanting to give in to Baek Muyeon as he is. His shamelessness always plays a part too.
Seungju, having come to his senses, poked Muyeon’s stomach and waist with the pen he was holding. When he pressed Muyeon’s stomach with the pen in his hand with a bit of force, Muyeon grimaced and pulled away. The expression he made as if truly wronged was funny. Seungju shook his head and stood up from his seat.
Muyeon grabbed Seungju’s hand.
“Oh, take this.”
“What is it?”
What Muyeon pulled out of his wallet was a business card. Vision Factory’s business card with the design renewed at the end of last year when General Manager Kang pushed Design Team 1 with all his might. Seungju took it.
Vision Factory, Planning Division, Director, Baek Muyeon.
He rubbed the name written in neat typeface once with his thumb. Muyeon continued.
“By the way, I didn’t know business cards took this long to come out. I received them three times—when I was Section Chief, when I was General Manager, when I became Director—and they all took over two weeks. Why does it take so long?”
“The General Affairs Team is just like that.”
“And what am I supposed to do with the business cards I received before? I have hundreds left.”
“Put them in the shredder.”
Seungju imagined Muyeon standing firm in the printer room, feeding hundreds of cards in three different versions into the shredder. Seungju might not care much, but surely that sight would be a terrifying scene for the junior team members. Seungju shook his head and said,
“No, give them to me. I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have to do that. Come to think of it, Seungju.”
“Yes?”
“Give me your business card too.”
“Do you need my business card for something?”
“I just want to keep it.”
Well, giving a business card wasn’t difficult. Seungju pulled out his card wallet from his back pocket and handed Muyeon a business card from it. Muyeon put it in his wallet, and put the wallet in his jacket’s inner pocket.
Watching that, Seungju understood why Muyeon had asked for the business card. Business cards meant nothing to Seungju. He’d felt no emotion even for the business card he received with the Team Leader title.
But Seungju was now looking at Muyeon’s chest area, realizing that his name was practically nestled in his embrace. He didn’t want to deny that there was some romance in that.
***
Seungju had lunch with Bae Donghyeon from the Production Department. Baek Muyeon emphasized several times his own generosity in allowing him to have lunch alone with another man. Of course, Seungju scoffed. Whether Muyeon’s purpose was to guarantee his lover’s smooth social life or whether he was doing it purely out of narcissism, probably even he himself didn’t know.
However, having committed sins, Seungju could only scoff while turning his head away. Even if it was an action born from narcissism, it was clearly Seungju himself who provided the reason for it. Seungju let out a deep sigh. He too hadn’t completely recovered from the shock of two weeks ago. The shock of Park Dawon confessing to him, of being completely unaware until she did, and of how much bait he might have unknowingly scattered.
So when Donghyeon opened his mouth, Seungju flinched and was startled in an unusual way.
“Team Leader hasn’t been drinking lately.”
“Huh? Yeah.”
“Park Dawon is about to gather everyone again…”
Unfortunately, such a day wouldn’t come for the time being. Seungju, the cause of all the ruin, drank water without answering. Donghyeon beat the drum and played the janggu himself.
“As expected, did you find peace of mind after the Director left?”
“Well, yeah. Recently there hasn’t been much reason to drink…”
“Director Mu seems to be okay.”
“That’s something you have to wait and see.”
Donghyeon nodded. After a few more spoonfuls of food, he put down his chopsticks and said,
“Well, just looking at the workshop room assignments…?”
“The room assignments are already out?”
“They all came out this morning with the bus assignments and recreation teams. You’re slow, Team Leader.”
“Ah, fuck, I was in a shitty meeting all morning…”
“What meeting? With Director Mu? Was it shitty?”
“I don’t know, you bastard. Look at the team assignments.”
“It’s on the intranet.”
Seungju quickly pulled out his phone. He checked the newly posted announcements and attached files. While Seungju was eating half-heartedly, Donghyeon had almost emptied his rice bowl. Seungju glanced at him. The reason he ate with Donghyeon was simple. Because he ate quickly. Fast meals guaranteed a longer and fuller lunch break rest.
“Oh… Hey, this is good?”
“Right? I don’t know what’s going on.”
“I know, what’s really happening with this company…”
The workshop location was set to the outskirts of Seoul. Seungju was satisfied with just that. Since the schedule was to leave on Friday and return on Saturday, a nearby location would mean losing as little of the weekend as possible. The accommodation was as excellent as the location. It seemed like they’d rented out an entire pool villa resort complex.
It was also good that only four or five people were assigned per room. Given the company characteristic of having few young men, Seungju’s roommates were practically obvious. Production Department’s Bae Donghyeon, Planning Team 3’s Song Hyungjun, General Affairs Team’s Deputy Manager Park Daewoo. At most, it was a question of whether Sales Team’s Section Chief Jeong would be included or not. Of course, even if he was included, it didn’t really matter. It would just make Seungju, who was secretly dating the person who used to be the Sales Team boss, a little more uncomfortable.
Seungju was relieved to see that Section Chief Jeong became roommates with other team leaders who were on the older side in the Planning Division. He’d been nervous that the inflexible General Affairs Team might just herd all the Planning Division men into one room. Seungju didn’t want to be roommates with his former team leader or the Planning Team 3 team leader he’d been awkwardly involved with recently. Fortunately, the General Affairs Team seemed to have just cut by age and shoved them into rooms.
Seungju then looked at the room on the floor below where he’d be staying and raised his eyebrows just enough that Donghyeon wouldn’t notice. Director Baek Muyeon was scheduled to occupy the entire first floor of the building where Seungju was staying. Was this the General Affairs Team’s discretion or Baek Muyeon’s manipulation?
“I’m innocent.”
Muyeon said listlessly, leaning back on the sofa. Seungju was lying with his head on his thigh. Today too, as soon as he got off work, Seungju was psychologically grabbed by the collar by Muyeon and got in his car. And they had a delicious dinner and came to Muyeon’s house.
And the two of them had washed up roughly and were watching TV. To be honest, since they were meeting almost every day, there was nothing to do. The cause lay with Seungju. Because he hoped the time after work would be entirely focused on rest, he found any plans beyond watching a movie or having a cup of coffee burdensome. However, they’d now seen almost all the released movies and he didn’t want to drink coffee. To Seungju, coffee was similar to fuel that helped him endure the company. He’d already fully charged today’s fuel. So there weren’t many options. So they just chose to lie down and laze around and rest.
Seungju watched TV while fiddling with his phone with one hand. He was now liberated from the life of being harassed at the company for non-work reasons. That meant Seungju could leave work having conserved a bit more stamina. So naturally he thought about trying something different during their time together. It wouldn’t be bad to try an escape room cafe or VR experience. But would Muyeon like this kind of thing? He knew he was the type who didn’t reject new stimulation. But he didn’t know if he’d be interested in this kind of thing.
Whether noticing that Seungju had no interest in the TV at all, Muyeon brought up the workshop topic first. In the conversation that followed, Seungju asked about how they came to use the same accommodation building. And Muyeon answered that he hadn’t done anything.
“So the General Affairs Team did it on their own?”
“I suppose so.”
“Hmm… Team Leader Shin and Team Leader Kim might have lobbied to be put in a different building from the Director.”
“Why would they go that far?”
“Who’d want to watch their superior’s moods even at the workshop?”
“You don’t particularly watch my moods either.”
“How am I like that?”
“You stab me with pens. You curse.”
Seungju turned his body to look up at Muyeon. Muyeon lowered his hand to brush Seungju’s hair back. It was an affectionate touch that didn’t match the childish words from a moment ago. His hand soon touched his forehead, then gently stroked down his nose bridge in reverse.
It would be a lie to say his heart didn’t soften at the gaze looking down as if the TV didn’t matter at all and the careful fingertips. He couldn’t stop the slow spreading smile. However, Seungju chose to say what he wanted to say rather than answer according to his mood.
