Haejeong bowed his head in a perfectly polite apology, which only made Haejeong more needlessly irritated.
“Hey, you did that on purpose.”
“Pardon…?”
“You did it on purpose. You knew I was there and you just sprayed it everywhere.”
“…I barely sprayed any….”
Munyeong wasn’t wrong. Munyeong had been so careful about it that he’d even angled the nozzle away, just in case it might splash on him.
“My eyes are burning like hell right now.”
Haejeong lifted one eyelid dramatically and complained. Munyeong hadn’t thought it could have gotten into his eyes, and stood there flustered and awkward. He might need to find some eye drops — were there any in the staff room? Munyeong thought for a moment.
“I said my eyes are burning! Look at them!”
Haejeong exaggerated his anger further and thrust his face forward. Munyeong hesitated, then carefully examined his eyes as Haejeong demanded. With the sudden closeness, the faint warmth of Munyeong’s breath grazed Haejeong’s cheek.
“…They’re not red….”
Munyeong said it seriously, leaning in with a worried look to examine the eye closely. But as the distance narrowed, this time it was Munyeong’s scent that hit the tip of Haejeong’s nose. And with Munyeong’s face now suddenly right in front of him, Haejeong jolted upright in an instant. The abrupt movement nearly caused a collision, and Munyeong blinked in surprise. For a moment, Haejeong’s face wore an expression of embarrassed confusion as he muttered a curse out of nowhere.
“…Shit.”
His face looked like something catastrophic had just occurred. One second he’d been making a huge fuss telling Munyeong to look, and now he was suddenly pulling away — Munyeong watched the jarring shift in behavior with a puzzled expression. Then, just as abruptly, Haejeong shot Munyeong a disgruntled look from head to toe, kicked the desk in irritation, and walked out of the office.
**
The truth was, nothing had gotten into his eyes at all. If nothing else, Munyeong was a professional — he paid attention to even the smallest details. He’d even turned his body to act as a shield, in case any of the cleaning solution might splash in Haejeong’s direction. Haejeong had been picking a fight for the sake of it, since Munyeong hadn’t given him any real cause to complain — and then it was Haejeong who had been thrown off by Munyeong’s face suddenly appearing right in front of him.
It had happened occasionally back in their school days too. Munyeong had a way of not gauging distances properly, drifting too close without realizing it. With completely innocent intentions. Every time it happened, there was that scent — persistent, irritating. It only grazed him for a moment before disappearing, so he’d never caught it properly. Which somehow made it worse, leaving him more unsettled and annoyed than before.
“Ah…. They already turned the heating on.”
Haejeong grumbled as he splashed cold water on his face at the bathroom sink. His face had gone inexplicably warm, and he glared at the inoffensive air vent fixed to the ceiling.
“Damn, don’t they know electricity costs money.”
He scrubbed his face dry and came out of the bathroom, sticking his e-cigarette in his mouth. The glass wall was completely transparent, with no blinds drawn, so the sight of Munyeong cleaning was fully visible from where he stood. Even without anyone watching, Munyeong worked diligently.
He was gazing idly at Munyeong working away without a trace of slacking off, when a presence appeared behind him. It was Director Hwang, striding in with his briefcase and a sour expression, practically stomping his way in. He was a shrewd man who had climbed his way to executive rank by riding the coattails of Yeon Chayeong — the current Senior Managing Director and a nephew of Chairman Yeon.
Haejeong stood there with his e-cigarette dangling from his mouth, watching Director Hwang bang his way down the corridor as though he’d been furious since morning. For reference, Chairman Yeon’s nephew and Rep. Chu were hostile toward each other. Yeon Chayeong was the son of Chairman Yeon’s older brother — his direct line sibling — and unlike Chairman Yeon, who had no shortage of half-brothers, he and his brother were rare among the family in that they genuinely got along. A large part of that had to do with the influence of the late chairman, who had been notorious for his womanizing. Haejeong’s late brother had been a man of truly good character — someone who had lived out a genuine noblesse oblige. He had devoted himself entirely to service and dedication for those who had the least. He was the kind of person whose nature was simply good and, in a way, naively so — and Chairman Yeon, as his younger brother, had looked up to him and tried to learn from his example. Chairman Yeon had sincerely respected his older brother.
After that brother and his wife died young in an accident, Chairman Yeon had fallen into deep grief and had even grown physically ill with sorrow. That was why he cherished his nephew — his beloved brother’s only child — like a sore spot that never fully healed. And since he also held Yeon Chayeong’s abilities in high regard, Rep. Chu had made her discomfort with Yeon Chayeong openly apparent. She worried that he might become an obstacle to her own son’s succession.
In all of those power struggles, Haejeong had always maintained a watching stance. He hadn’t cared even when he was essentially exiled to an overseas branch. But once Yeon Chayeong began building his own faction within the company, Haejeong had eventually been pressured by Rep. Chu into returning to headquarters.
Having Haejeong’s older brother Yeon Juhyeok — from the direct line — back him up would lend legitimacy to his standing, and would be well-received by the more traditional executives and shareholders. Rep. Chu had stressed it repeatedly. Look after your brother properly.
He was watching Director Hwang with that idle, observational gaze while pulling on his e-cigarette, when their eyes met. Director Hwang had glared at Haejeong with a look that said how dare you stare at me — until he apparently realized who he was looking at, and his eyes went wide as he quickly bowed.
“Good morning, Executive Director!”
He’d been at the inauguration ceremony too, so of course he knew who Haejeong was. And Haejeong was the well-known youngest son of Chairman Yeon — there was no way he wouldn’t.
“Yeah—.”
All trace of his earlier foul mood had vanished, replaced by a soft, ingratiating smile. Haejeong watched him and answered indifferently, e-cigarette still in his mouth.
“I caught your inauguration speech yesterday. Very clever of you.”
Director Hwang was a middle-aged man pushing into his late forties. Haejeong had barely crossed into his thirties. And yet, regardless of the age gap, Director Hwang was busy flattering someone far younger than himself.
“The Chairman was so proud of you. He seemed to be in such good spirits yesterday that he even had a drink or two.”
“…….”
“I’m truly honored to have the opportunity to serve under you this time around. The work must be quite new and overwhelming for you, but I’ll be right by your side supporting you. Going forward, let’s build something together and lead—”
“Is Yeon Chayeong telling you to do this.”
Haejeong cut right through Director Hwang’s enthusiastic declaration. At the mention of the Senior Managing Director’s name, Director Hwang’s face visibly stiffened.
“Ha ha, what do you mean by—”
“I’m asking if he sent you to make this much of a scene in front of me.”
“…If something I said made you uncomfortable—”
“Forget it. Let’s just each do our own thing. Each of us.”
Build something together? What a load of ass-kissing nonsense.
Haejeong let the smoke curl from his lips and gave a mocking smile. Making it entirely clear he had no intention of playing nice, he patted the considerably older Director Hwang on the shoulder.
“Got it?”
He tilted his head at Hwang, who had gone quite rigid, and asked. Director Hwang paused, then gave a slow nod. Even with the line being drawn this blatantly in his face, Director Hwang forced a stiff smile in an attempt to keep his expression under control. Then he turned away from Haejeong and headed toward his own office — and the moment he did, his face twisted into something ugly.
This little brat….
He muttered curses at Haejeong, who hadn’t just had the nerve to say the Senior Managing Director’s name so casually to his face, but had thoroughly embarrassed him on top of it. Grinding his teeth, he took it out on the marble floor with each heavy step — and just then, he ran directly into Munyeong, who was pushing his cleaning cart out of the executive office. Director Hwang raised his voice viciously at the cart blocking his path.
“What, you’re not moving?”
He barked as though taking out his frustrations, and Munyeong startled, then bowed quickly.
“Filthy thing, first thing in the morning. Damn.”
Director Hwang kicked the cart hard in his anger. Munyeong kept his lips pressed shut and just kept his back bowed.
“What. Different face.”
Whether it was because he’d harassed the previous employee Yeongsu a few times, Director Hwang took notice of the unfamiliar face.
“Ah, yes. The employee who had this area before quit.”
“What? Honestly. Young people these days have no backbone. Quit at the drop of a hat, tsk tsk.”
Jang Yeongsu had quit without a word, but it hadn’t been for lack of backbone. He was an employee who had been working since high school to earn money for his only parent’s surgery. But Munyeong said nothing to the person in front of him who had no way of knowing any of that, and stayed outwardly unmoved. Don’t let yourself get swept up — that’s how you win. A lesson Munyeong had learned from living his life.
Director Hwang grumbled with displeasure. He sniped at Munyeong with remarks that didn’t even need to be said.
“Anyway, do your job properly. I can’t stand anything dirty.”
His office was the dirtiest of all of them. Munyeong simply nodded quietly.
“And if you’re ever caught stealing anything, you’re done. There are cameras everywhere here. Understood?”
It was a degrading thing to say. The contempt for a person’s character — just because he was a mere cleaner — was laid bare in every bit of his manner. So that’s why the reputation’s so bad, Munyeong thought — and then quietly bowed one more time and pushed his cart past him.
