“Don’t know your place.”
It wasn’t wrong. A nobody who’d been rolling around in the gutter had dared to ‘envy’ the chairman’s only grandson.
Still, even if it’s Jang Hyeokjin of all people saying that kind of shit, doesn’t it make the listener feel like crap?
Taesung reached out his hand to shake off Jang Hyeokjin who was gripping his hair. Vowing that if necessary, he’d break that damn wrist.
“Have you been taking your medicine properly these days?”
But this one sentence forced him to stop his hand. Eyes that had been blazing with anger and irritation were instantly consumed by a different emotion. Jang Hyeokjin knew well that it was ‘fear.’
“Why is our President Han like this? Did you not take your medicine today?”
It was responding to a weakness by hitting another weakness.
“You’re talking shit. What are you going to do knowing that?”
Taesung grumbled curses through his pale lips.
“You need to take it properly. They say the more empty-headed bastards are, the weaker they are to pheromones, and aren’t all the guys around you like that?”
“So fuck, why are you bringing that up now?”
“Medicine has gotten so good these days that omegas in heat have become really rare. But porn is full of those bastards. Guys who don’t even know what an omega is drool watching that. A ‘real’ omega is incomparable to those bastards who just imitate them. Isn’t that right, Taesung-ah?”
The hand patting his cheek gradually gained strength.
“I could make the bastards you keep around lose their minds with one word, that’s what I’m saying.”
What made him angriest was that he couldn’t refute it—couldn’t say no, do you think everyone in the world is a perverted bastard like you. His guys listened well to Taesung, but it was also true that they scoured porn whenever they had time and wandered around looking for excuses to play with their dicks.
Being betrayed by someone he trusted wasn’t even surprising anymore.
“Looks like you finally understand.”
Only after Taesung’s spirit was broken did Jang Hyeokjin let go of his hair.
“I’ll give you a new job, so this time handle it properly to the end.”
Then he stroked Taesung’s disheveled hair and stood up.
“Answer.”
“How much.”
Watching Taesung refuse to answer obediently to the end, Jang Hyeokjin smirked.
“If you handle this job well, well.”
Then he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth. Flames rose vigorously from Jang Hyeokjin’s lighter. Blowing out white smoke as if to show off, Jang Hyeokjin continued.
“Should I let you go, Taesung-ah?”
Manager Kim was grinning while looking at a video on his phone, his car boldly blocking the entrance to Wonin Construction. It was such an ominously suspicious sight that not only the security guards who should have been ticketing parking violations but even passersby turned away.
“I told you to stop watching porn.”
Taesung limped over to Manager Kim and smacked the back of his head hard enough to make a thud. Since his head had been freshly shaved not long ago, the sharply protruding hairs pricked his palm.
“Ah, President, who watches porn in a place like this? It’s a video of Mango.”
Manager Kim held out his phone right in front of Taesung’s nose as if wronged. A black cat that had now taken on a fairly beast-like appearance was lying on its back with its white belly exposed, flailing all four paws at a feather dangling in front of it.
Taesung felt embarrassed for no reason and yanked open the back seat door with his own hand.
“So fuck, it’s not like you don’t watch porn normally anyway?”
“These days I’m too busy raising the baby to have time to watch stuff like that.”
“Baby, when you’re raising one cat…”
As he bent down to get in the car, the area where he’d been hit throbbed. Taesung swallowed the rest of his words and wrapped his hand around his chest. Manager Kim seemed to understand the situation and rushed over to support Taesung.
“Are you alright?”
Taesung irritably pushed him away and buried himself in the seat. Then he let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes. Manager Kim carefully closed the back door.
Now he doesn’t even hit visible places, being conscious of the employees.
He’d heard rumors that Jang Hyeokjin was recently snooping around trying to enter politics.
Who doesn’t know their place, fuck.
Manager Kim carefully picked up speed, not living up to his bulk. But before long, someone must have jumped into the road because he screeched to an emergency stop and muttered curses quietly. Taesung weakly lifted his eyelids. Manager Kim’s face was reflected in the rearview mirror, dripping with cold sweat and glancing at the back seat.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you name a pitch-black cat Mango?”
Manager Kim blinked in surprise at Taesung bringing up an unexpected topic.
“The thing is, the day before was a company dinner and everyone drank and passed out at the office. I had a dream where someone sent a box of mangoes as a gift to the office. Wow, it was full of mangoes the size of a baby’s head and the sweet smell was overwhelming, so I unknowingly grabbed one, but you ordered… gave an order not to eat it.”
“You just dodged that well.”
“……”
Manager Kim grinned awkwardly. At that stupid expression, Taesung couldn’t help but smirk along.
“Anyway, I kept watching for an opportunity while you kept your eye on that one mango I wanted to eat, and I succeeded in stealing one when I found the perfect opening.”
“This bastard stabs me in the back even in dreams.”
“Aw, dreams are the opposite of reality. So I hid in a corner and devoured the mango, and that dripping juice and sweet taste was amazing… You know how it’s so delicious you cry. So I was sucking on the mango pit and this guy kept meowing and woke me up.”
The kitten had fallen into the drain in front of the office and had been crying loudly and shrilly since dawn. Because Taesung threw a liquor bottle at his subordinates who were sleeping sprawled outside, saying he couldn’t fucking sleep because it was so noisy, everyone came out half-asleep and ended up rescuing the cat.
They were standing around wondering what to do with it now when a middle school student on their way to school said they should take it to a vet. So while Taesung was sleeping, Manager Kim went to find a veterinary hospital carrying the cat smaller than his palm, trembling for fear he’d crush it if he put strength in his hands.
“The vet listened to my story and said it was a conception dream. It was fate to meet Mango.”
“Looking at that belly, it seems you really did give birth to it.”
It was something worth grumbling about, but Manager Kim seemed to like being called Mango’s dad more. Taesung watched him grinning and closed his eyes again.
Well, even hippos are cute when they’re babies, so cats must be even more so.
They say when you have a child, you feel even more affectionate toward them.
But why…
“We’ve arrived.”
He must have dozed off. Taesung ignored Manager Kim’s offered hand and got out of the car. As he stepped on the ground, his knee throbbed. It should get better if he put on some pain relief patches.
“Hyung!”
“President!”
Let’s unify the titles.
Only the door of Taesung’s office with the sign ‘Hansae’ in a shabby red brick building was shiny and polished. But what good was it to cleanly remodel and move in? When you opened the door, it always reeked of a musty smell.
Whether this was the smell of sweat or the smell of semen.
A coquettish moaning sound leaked from a phone laid face-down on the sofa table. Even though them watching porn in the office in broad daylight wasn’t a one or two day thing, Taesung felt particularly sick of this sight today.
Was it because of Jang Hyeokjin’s words?
‘Fuck, look at the water dripping from this bastard’s asshole.’
‘The smell is fucking great. If it’s not heat, we fucking can’t even smell this kind of thing, but alpha bastards smell it all the time, right?’
‘Why do you take medicine? I said I’d take care of it for you when you’re in heat? Huh? Taesung-ah.’
To shake off the hallucinations ringing in his ears, Taesung threw the phone showing the damn porn on the floor and crushed the screen with his shoe heel. The cracked screen died, turning pitch black.
“How many times have I told you not to watch this kind of shit at the office?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Damn it, what’s the use of throwing a fit asking to be made team leader, to be made director because you’re embarrassed to hand out business cards? Even neighborhood thugs don’t watch porn while doing part-time work, you garbage bastards.”
“I didn’t try to watch it, I accidentally clicked the wrong link…”
Taesung grabbed the scruff of the buzz-cut guy who was cowering and making excuses and yanked him.
“Hey, Manager Park. Am I asking a lot from you? Is it too much to ask you to at least pretend to be a normal office worker?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
“I…”
As strength entered his grip, his chest throbbed again. Taesung grumbled curses lowly and flopped down on the sofa. His knees, sides, back—his whole body hurt, and he had the feeling he’d die if he went to sleep and woke up.
He couldn’t shamefully say he’d been beaten by Jang Hyeokjin in front of his subordinates. Taesung covered his face with both hands and swallowed the pain.
“Hyung?”
At the end of the puzzled voices, Manager Kim whispered. Went to Wonin and came back.
Everyone quietly shut their mouths as if they understood Taesung’s outburst now.
After a brief silence, Taesung dry-washed his face and lowered his hands. Then he looked around at his subordinates who all had gloomy expressions and clicked his tongue.
Right, because they were guys like this, Jang Hyeokjin had cut them out without hesitation like pulling out a rotten tooth. So they’d be satisfied living off the scraps they picked up under Taesung.
A dim-witted boss with dim-witted employees. So who could he blame?
