Among them, only Munyeong kept moving diligently, as if nothing were happening. In truth, the moment he heard his voice, his body had faltered for just an instant — but it passed quickly. Munyeong composed himself right away and moved as steadily as he always did. The oversized ashtray bin — nearly the height of a grown woman — had been too full of cigarette butts to empty while they were all standing around, but now he lifted it without hesitation and poured its contents into a waste bag. The stench spread immediately, and the employees around him covered their noses and began drifting away.
“I’ve been meaning to introduce myself when the opportunity arose. Our sales division has a business plan for the second half of the year that we’d like to formally present to the Managing Director——”
“Isn’t it work hours right now?”
Leaning both arms against the rooftop ledge that came up to his shoulder, Haejeong looked down coldly at the deputy general manager speaking to him so deferentially. At the abrupt remark, the deputy general manager blinked blankly, clearly failing to grasp the situation.
“…Pardon?”
“I’m asking whether everyone should have their heads buried at their desks right now.”
He had a cigarette between his lips and was checking the time on his wristwatch. He tilted his head up and said it with a look of pure irritation, and everyone clasped their hands together politely and glanced at each other. The words were blunt, but they weren’t wrong. It wasn’t even lunchtime, and they had been loitering in the smoking area for quite a while.
“Ha ha… yes. That’s true… ha ha.”
“…….”
“…W-well then, we’ll head back down first.”
With a crestfallen face, the deputy general manager hurried to leave. Haejeong watched their retreating backs as they practically fled, and clicked his tongue with a shake of his head.
“Honestly. All they want to do is slack off.”
The tone was withering, and Munyeong — who had been keeping his head down pretending not to hear — barely managed to suppress a laugh. You’re the one who slacks off the most. But he kept his mouth shut and said nothing, sweeping the floor with his mop as if he hadn’t heard a word.
For a while, all was quiet. The two of them were going about their own business as if they were strangers who had never met.
After a brief silence, Haejeong finished his cigarette and flicked the butt, deliberately dropping it right at Munyeong’s feet. Munyeong glanced down at the still-smoldering butt with a small startle, quietly stepped on it to put it out, then picked it up without a word and dropped it into the waste bag. Watching him, Haejeong’s mouth curled into a petulant little twitch.
His expression was one of someone who didn’t like Munyeong’s utter lack of reaction or acknowledgement.
Still, he didn’t bother saying anything about it. Instead, as he turned to leave, he reached over and casually helped himself to the coffee sitting on Munyeong’s cart. At the sudden move, Munyeong looked up at him for the first time, and Haejeong said, with the unabashed look of a child who felt no guilt at all:
“I’m thirsty.”
And then he strolled off with the coffee the deputy general manager had given, as though it had always been his. Despite the absurdity of it — stealing something and then bothering to make an excuse — Munyeong let out a deflated breath.
Munyeong shook his head quietly at the incomprehensible ways of Yeon Haejeong, and got on with wrapping up.
**
Haejeong stared down at the coffee in his hand without thinking.
He had been there for a good while already. Which meant he had seen all of it — the deputy general manager being familiar with Munyeong, offering unsolicited kindness, and casually putting Munyeong to work as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He hadn’t been able to help himself — he’d walked off with that coffee on the off chance that Munyeong, being the guileless person he was, might actually drink it. But he couldn’t make sense of his own behavior, and in irritation he tossed the coffee into a nearby trash can.
At that moment, he heard footsteps from the direction of the rooftop restroom, and Haejeong turned his gaze toward the sound. Two of the employees who had been slacking off on the rooftop earlier still hadn’t gone back to their desks, and were now ambling out after having taken their time with a bathroom break on top of everything. The deputy general manager and one other employee, who hadn’t noticed Haejeong, were standing in front of the elevator chatting idly.
“God, what if we’ve already gotten on the Managing Director’s bad side?”
“Ugh, I don’t know. I’m suddenly parched.”
The deputy general manager replied irritably, visibly flustered about the embarrassment from earlier, tugging at his shirt collar. The employee beside him politely offered what was left of his own coffee.
“Would you like some?”
“Ugh, that’s been in your mouth.”
“I know, which is why — why did you even give yours to that person?”
“What. You mean Munyeong?”
“Yes. That cleaner. I’ve noticed it before — why are you always so kind to him?”
“He works hard.”
“I saw you gave him a meal voucher last time, too.”
“And I feel a bit sorry for him.”
The deputy general manager clicked his tongue with a look of mild pity and spoke.
“He’s not that young anymore, but the fact that this is all he can do — it just gets to me a little, you know?”
“Ahh.”
The employee nodded slowly, as if that explained it.
“And you don’t see someone that conscientious at his age very often.”
“Still, he’s just a cleaner.”
“I feel for him. From what I’ve heard in passing, sounds like he doesn’t have parents either.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Do you have any idea how hard it is growing up without parents? Next time you see him, at least give him a proper greeting. For people like that, even something that small means a lot.”
The deputy general manager gave the employee a light pat on the shoulder and left it at that as a bit of casual advice. Thud. Thud. The footsteps that had stopped behind them resumed — and both employees’ shoulders visibly stiffened. They seemed to realize right away who those footsteps belonged to, because they didn’t bother turning around. They simply fell quiet, and the look they exchanged with each other said everything. Their mouths had frozen shut.
Ding. The elevator arrived and the doors opened. As if they had been waiting for exactly this, the two of them split to either side and gestured respectfully for Haejeong to board first.
“P-please, after you.”
At the deputy general manager’s words, Haejeong stepped in with a blank face and then stared sidelong at the two of them still standing outside.
“You’re not getting in?”
Sweating invisibly, they smiled as best they could and answered.
“We’ll take the next one. Please go ahead.”
They bowed so deeply their faces nearly reached the floor, and Haejeong twitched his cheek and replied with barely concealed irritation.
“Just get in.”
“…Pardon?”
“I said get in.”
“…….”
“I’m not the kind of person who makes it so you can’t even share an elevator with me.”
“…….”
“Do I look like that kind of insufferable person to you?”
He looked at them sideways as if to say — why would you make me out to be that? — and the two of them yelped “N-not at all!” and scrambled onto the elevator just as the doors were closing. A heavy silence descended.
“…….”
“…….”
The two of them stood there with their shoulders practically up to their ears, having hit the floor button, eyes fixed on the numbers ticking downward in discomfort. They stole glances sideways, sweating at having to navigate the enormous presence that was Yeon Haejeong behind them.
Haejeong gripped the handrails mounted to the elevator wall with both hands and leaned back against it. He gazed down at the two trembling lambs before him with a half-lidded look, tapping his fingers on the rail at regular intervals. His expression was measured, as if he were turning something over carefully in his mind.
With each floor the numbers changed, the tap on the handrail landed in perfect rhythm. At that sound, the two men in front stiffened a little more each time. Whether he knew it or not, Haejeong pressed his lips together with the same contemplative expression. Then, with a mechanical chime, the elevator stopped. As it arrived at the floor for the sales division, color began returning to the two men’s faces. That brief ride had felt like an eternity to them — they waited desperately for the doors to open. And then.
Thwack!
“Ow!”
The deputy general manager was struck in the back of the knee and went stumbling out of the elevator. He collapsed outside the doors with his knees buckled, and looked back at Haejeong, still standing motionless inside the elevator, with a face drained white — an expression that screamed what on earth was that for. All pain forgotten, the deputy general manager’s face was flooded with sheer disbelief.
“Deputy General Manager, are you alright?!”
