“If Assistant Manager Woo reenacts the dream, I’ll bring an S-rank Esper.”
The cause and effect didn’t match. Three days ago? He hadn’t mentioned anything like that to him, but what, three days ago? Three days? Not requesting this morning, but three days? Fuck, I’m going to kill Ha Daehoon!
**5. Farewell Trip**
Ilkyung ran up to the 15th floor right away. Literally. He didn’t even have time to wait for the elevator.
“I’m going to kill him. I’m definitely going to kill him. I’ll kill him together with that shaman bastard and bury them at the fortune teller’s place.”
He ran from the 12th floor while saying terrifying things.
“Huff, haah, huff. Fuck, Mom. I must be lacking exercise.”
Ilkyung leaned his back against the stairwell wall and gasped for breath. Heat was rising in his body, but he couldn’t tell if it was from struggling to climb the stairs or if it was from being furious at being deceived. But his insides were boiling and his face was flushed.
“I won’t let this slide.”
Ilkyung clenched his fist and trembled, then climbed the stairs again. If he’d known it would be like this, he should have just taken the elevator. He thought he’d gone crazy again and run up the stairs without thinking. Ilkyung knew that when he got angry, he became crazy.
“It would be stranger not to go crazy in this situation.”
Ilkyung flung open the 14th floor stairwell door. Then he gasped for breath.
“Haah, haah. Ah, I should have exercised.”
When his noonas trained and told Ilkyung he should exercise too, Ilkyung had assured them he was young so it was fine, that he had good stamina, but if he’d known it would be like this, he should have listened to his noonas. It wouldn’t have been bad to listen to his noonas, but Ilkyung always let it go in one ear and out the other, then regretted it later.
After catching his breath, Ilkyung stood in front of the door to the director’s office on the 15th floor. He took a deep breath and knocked.
“Yes.”
Executive Secretary Min’s voice was heard from inside. When Ilkyung opened the door and went in, Executive Secretary Min made surprised eyes seeing Ilkyung.
“Oh, Assistant Manager Woo.”
“Is Director in there by any chance?”
“Director left just a moment ago. Did you have plans to meet by any chance? Did he forget? But that can’t be.”
Executive Secretary Min said in confusion. Ilkyung let out a deflated sigh.
“Where did he go?”
“He said he had a prior appointment and left, but was that prior appointment with you, Assistant Manager Woo? He left in a huge hurry.”
At those words, Ilkyung stopped abruptly and narrowed his eyes.
“He ran away, it seems.”
“Ran away? Who?”
“Who else. Never mind.”
Ilkyung huffed out a breath. It seemed like smoke would come out of his nostrils. Originally, Director Ha took Executive Secretary Min along for external meetings and took his secretary along other times too. But looking around now, all the secretaries were sitting at their seats. This was definitely him running away knowing Ilkyung would run up like this.
“Should I contact him for you? Ah, don’t you also know Director’s contact information, Assistant Manager Woo?”
“Yes, I know. I’ll contact him. I’ll head down.”
Ilkyung greeted him and trudged back toward the elevator. His insides were boiling. My precious! What should I call it? My precious purity? No, my rear wasn’t penetrated. Then what should I say? My pure… After fondling someone else’s dick, he ran away?
“Aahhh! I’m going to kill him!”
Ilkyung barked like a crazy Maltese.
* * *
“How can he do this!”
Ha Daehoon didn’t answer his phone and didn’t show his face at all. It was too clearly evident that he was doing this on purpose.
“I’m going to report him. I’ll report him to the labor office. No. Should I go to the police station?”
Ilkyung muttered.
“Hm? Assistant Manager Ilkyung, is something wrong?”
Section Chief Kang, who was looking at materials next to him, asked. Ilkyung snapped to attention, raised his tumbler to cover his mouth, and shook his head.
“What, what did I say?”
“Just now, didn’t you say something about the police station and labor office?”
“No way. You must have heard wrong. Anyway, Section Chief.”
“Yeah?”
When Ilkyung said he didn’t, Section Chief Kang didn’t ask any further. Woo Ilkyung originally had times when he spaced out like a lost soul like that anyway.
“Did that person Henry take the matching rate test?”
“Yeah, he did.”
“Did he do it with Director Ha too?”
“No. Before doing it with Director Ha, his matching rate with another Guide was good enough.”
Ilkyung actually didn’t want to say that.
“So, what kind of relationship does he have with Director Ha?”
“Well. I don’t know that much. Since he came from England, maybe they worked together?”
Come to think of it, he just arrived today, so what would he know? Even if it’s the well-informed Section Chief Kang, he probably hasn’t found out anything.
“It’s already Friday, what are you doing today, Assistant Manager Woo?”
“I don’t know. I’m thinking of resting at home for the first time in a while. I’m so tired. We worked overtime the whole time. Ah, right. No, now that I think about it again, it makes me angry.”
“What does?”
“We kept working overtime from Monday. If Director Ha knew about it and the Esper was coming from England anyway, he could have told us we didn’t need to work overtime. Anyway, that person is a bit like that.”
Section Chief Kang checked the clock and got up from his seat.
“Assistant Manager Woo, let’s eat lunch first. Get angry while eating lunch. Let’s go. I heard the cafeteria menu isn’t good today. So let’s go out and eat.”
“Ah, really? It’s not good today?”
Even while Ilkyung was rattling off words, when Section Chief Kang said let’s go eat lunch, he firmly pressed the computer save button and got up from his seat.
“Let’s have a cup of coffee on the way. I’ll buy today.”
“What money does Assistant Manager Woo have?”
Of course, Woo Ilkyung was a rich family’s son whose pocket situation was always generous disproportionate to his salary. But even so, Section Chief Kang wasn’t shameless enough to mooch coffee from a junior.
“I collected all my coupons.”
The grinning face was so cute that Section Chief Kang laughed along.
The place the two chose was a cold noodle restaurant. It wasn’t even July yet, but the weather was already hot as if summer would be long and hot. If it gets a little hotter, it’ll be sweltering, right? Sweat will drip like being in a steamer, right? But summer was bearable because there was summer vacation.
“Where are you going for vacation, Section Chief?”
“I’m thinking of going abroad. I want to go to a resort and have some fun. What about you, Ilkyung-ssi?”
He’d been too out of it since May to even think about vacation. If it were the usual Woo Ilkyung, he would have opened the calendar, checked all the holidays, and thought about where to go and what to do on every holiday. But this year, things started going wrong from the golden holiday period, and now it was June but he hadn’t even made decent vacation plans.
“I don’t think I can go abroad. If work comes up, I’ll have to be called back in.”
Section Chief Kang looked at him pitifully.
“I wish a new employee would come in next month to take some of Ilkyung-ssi’s work.”
Ilkyung nodded and looked at the menu with sad eyes. Even after ordering water cold noodles, Ilkyung was dejected.
“There are people graduating in summer, so won’t some come in during public recruitment? Before that, I hope this case ends quickly. Quickly solve the case and catch the forces behind… uh, caught him!”
Ilkyung, who had been depressed, suddenly stopped mid-sentence and stared intently somewhere.
He ran away and was here? That guy who looks like he’d always go to hotel restaurants to cut steak, why is he here? Ilkyung discovered Director Ha, whom he’d been searching for so desperately, sitting right there in front of a cold noodle restaurant table.
“Is that Director Ha?”
Section Chief Kang, who had been looking at Ilkyung who stopped talking mid-sentence, followed Ilkyung’s gaze and discovered Director Ha caught in that line of sight.
“Did he come alone?”
Section Chief Kang said while looking around.
Ilkyung couldn’t answer and was debating whether he should go and grab Director Ha by the collar right now or not. It was the moment he was considering while checking if there were people he knew around.
“Assistant Manager Woo, Assistant Manager Woo? The cold noodles came out. Stop spacing out and let’s eat quickly.”
Section Chief Kang urged Ilkyung. And that’s when it happened. The door opened and someone entered.
“Oh? It’s Henry.”
