“Oh. Wooyeon-ssi, you’re here?”
Assistant Manager Kim, who had been talking while leaning against a partition, acknowledged Wooyeon as he entered the office. Sunken eyes and a pale, ghastly complexion. Wooyeon only hoped he didn’t look strange to others.
“Did you see your father okay?”
“……Yes.”
Wooyeon just nodded at the Department Head’s question. What more could he say. His vision kept blurring even though he wasn’t crying.
Wooyeon blinked slowly and fixed his gaze on the monitor. It wasn’t a situation where he could work at all, but if he wasn’t working, Wooyeon couldn’t find a reason for his existence.
Had everyone seen the commotion in the lobby? As he thought about that, Jeonghan’s face came to mind again. What should he say if asked? What would Jeonghan think? More than what other people thought, Jeonghan weighed most heavily on his mind. As he lowered his head, his hair cascaded down, and Wooyeon tucked it behind his ear.
“Deputy Seo, come over here and have a cup of coffee too.”
Assistant Manager Yoon waved a coffee cup toward Wooyeon. Having neither the strength nor the presence of mind to respond, Wooyeon nodded toward him and then turned his gaze back to the monitor.
“By the way, did everyone hear that story?”
“What?”
“About Executive Director Kwon.”
“Did you hear some weird story somewhere again?”
“Hey, this time it’s real.”
He had the report he was working on displayed on the monitor, but there was no way he could concentrate. With his hands on the keyboard, Wooyeon just stared blankly at the monitor. Not far from Wooyeon, others who had formed another cluster were drinking coffee and chatting animatedly.
“Really huge breaking news. Everyone will be shocked when they hear. Executive Director Kwon is getting married.”
Clack.
Wooyeon’s hands, which had been slowly typing on the keyboard, stopped.
“Huh, really? The Executive Director Kwon I know? Our company’s Executive Director Kwon?”
“Executive Director Kwon is still young, isn’t he?”
“Chaebols always marry early. At twenty-nine, it’s actually late. I heard it’ll be an engagement soon?”
“Who’s he doing it with?”
Wooyeon, who had suddenly come to his senses, took his hands off the keyboard. The cursor had been pushed out by the space bar he’d been pressing without realizing it, leaving the report completely empty.
It would be a simple fix, but even that felt impossible, so Wooyeon left his hands on the desk after removing them from the keyboard. His innocent fingertips were pressed down as if being abused by his nails.
“Well, who else would it be, it’s obvious. Wouldn’t it be with some young lady from another similar chaebol family? I heard it’ll be in the news soon.”
“Aw, we’ve heard these kinds of stories several times before, and they all turned out to be just tabloid gossip.”
“This time it’s real, I’m telling you. My college friend is a society reporter, man.”
Thump thump thump.
With his heart beating rapidly, Wooyeon no longer had the confidence to sit there detachedly. Even though he knew that he could get married at any time. No, he had rejected his proposal in the first place, so why on earth. Wooyeon anxiously bit the inside of his lip.
No, even before that, there had been countless rumors like this surrounding Jeonghan. This time might be a rumor too. It must be a rumor. A rumor.
Wooyeon comforted himself this way. He was pathetic for losing his composure every single time he heard such rumors. Enough to completely forget even the incident with his biological father from earlier, Wooyeon’s mind became empty of everything except Jeonghan.
“Deputy Seo, didn’t you say you were from the same department as Executive Director Kwon? Haven’t you heard anything?”
“I haven’t heard anything like that……”
At the voice calling him, Wooyeon looked at them, but his gaze soon lost strength and sank again. Come to think of it, they had never talked about such things. The proposal that had seemed like a joke, that he seemed to have thrown out carelessly, was all there was. Even though they had lived together for five years, each other’s futures and such……
“Anyway, just wait and see, I told you this time it’s real.”
With a triumphant expression, the Department Head leaned his elbow on the partition and drank his coffee. Turning his head back, Wooyeon suppressed his rapidly beating heart and corrected the report that had developed a large gap earlier. What had been completely hollowed out was the same as Wooyeon’s state.
“By the way, Department Head, where are we going for our team dinner today? How about gopchang?”
“Gopchang, sounds great! Oh. But can our Deputy Seo even eat stuff like gopchang?”
Wooyeon, who had been looking at the black cursor on the now-filled report, was startled by the voice calling him and turned his head again.
“Yes?”
“I’m asking if you can even eat stuff like gopchang.”
“Ah…… Yes. I can eat it.”
Wooyeon answered vacantly. It wasn’t his favorite food, but it wasn’t particularly something he avoided either. The Department Head immediately smiled broadly as if he’d been waiting.
“No, Seo Wooyeon and gopchang just don’t go together at all.”
“Ah, Department Head. Then do I match with it?”
Assistant Manager Yoon whined, and just then the phone rang on the Department Head’s desk. The Department Head, who had glanced at the caller ID, suddenly widened his eyes and picked up the receiver with both hands.
“Yes, yes, Executive Director-nim. This is Jung Soohwan, Department Head of Planning Team 2. Yes, yes. Of course.”
The team members who had been gathered exchanged glances with wide eyes, then quietly returned to their respective seats. Huu, Wooyeon let out a small sigh and rested his chin on his clasped hands.
“……Yes? Ah, well…… our team has a dinner scheduled for today…… Yes? Ah, yes, yes. If you would join us, we would be so…… Yes, yes. Yes, then we’ll see you after work. Yes.”
Still holding the receiver, the Department Head bowed repeatedly, and not long after, he hung up the phone with a groan.
“Hey, hey. Executive Director Kwon is coming to our team dinner today.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
“The Executive Director?”
“Today, everyone must attend without exception. I mean, we haven’t even done anything, but the Executive Director is coming to the dinner, really……”
At this unbelievable turn of events, everyone’s jaws dropped as they stared at the Department Head.
“Why is Executive Director Kwon coming to our team dinner……”
Come to think of it, that Executive Director Kwon fellow is being mean, Assistant Manager Yoon grumbled.
* * *
The team dinner location was changed from a gopchang restaurant to a Japanese restaurant. Assistant Manager Yoon, who had been badmouthing him saying “Know your place, what executive director crashes a team dinner,” was now stuck right next to Jeonghan, pledging eternal loyalty.
Wooyeon sat in the very corner seat of the long table and just kept drinking sake. Even the occasional sound of Jeonghan’s voice was agonizing.
“Honey, why are you drinking so fast? You normally can’t drink well.”
Assistant Manager Kim asked from across the table with a worried face.
“I know, the alcohol seems to be going down well today.”
Wooyeon answered with a beaming smile. His insides were rotting away, yet he didn’t know why he was smiling. It was a day when he wanted to get drunk.
As Wooyeon reached for the bottle of sake to pour himself a drink, this time Assistant Manager Yoon poured sake into Wooyeon’s glass. Without even looking at the table, Wooyeon gazed at the sake in his glass with a hazy expression.
“Executive Director-nim should have a drink too.”
With his gaze still on his glass, Wooyeon blinked slowly when he heard Assistant Manager Yoon’s voice. Deliberately not even glancing that way, Wooyeon raised his glass and threw the sake into his mouth. The high-proof alcohol, hot enough to burn his esophagus, cut through his insides as it went down.
“Executive Director-nim, I heard you’re getting engaged. Congratulations.”
Why did he do that? Unconsciously, Wooyeon’s gaze turned toward where Jeonghan was sitting. Where he turned his head, there was Jeonghan tilting back his glass to drink. His obliquely lowered gaze was directed at Wooyeon.
After emptying his glass, Jeonghan lowered his tilted head and smiled. It hurts. Wooyeon lowered his head again. Someone had filled Wooyeon’s glass again.
“Ahh.”
“Wow. Executive Director-nim, are you really getting engaged?”
Whether it was because he was drunk, Assistant Manager Yoon spoke familiarly. His face red up to his neck, looking so excited about something, he was getting heated up about Kwon Jeonghan’s engagement.
“Well, nothing has been properly decided yet.”
Even in his consciousness blurred by intoxication, Wooyeon could feel that Jeonghan was looking at him. When Wooyeon turned his head slightly to look at him, Jeonghan looked at Wooyeon and smiled gently again. That nothing had been properly decided yet meant that the engagement was a fact anyway. He had secretly hoped it was a rumor, but it was real.
He thought it would be agonizing enough to die, but surprisingly, he seemed rather calm, Wooyeon had such useless thoughts. The alcohol going down his throat again was bitter.
“Hey. Why is our Deputy Seo so rushed today. Is something wrong?”
“No, just.”
His vision swayed. At the Department Head’s question, Wooyeon rubbed his dizzy forehead with his fingertips. His heated fingertips were reddish, then turned pale.
“Did you break up with your lover?”
“That’s right. This is the first time I’ve seen Deputy Seo drink like this.”
“It’s not like that.”
At the team members who were pressing him even though they knew it wasn’t true, Wooyeon smiled broadly and shook his head. It wasn’t a situation to smile about, but somehow laughter burst out emptily. So this is why people drink, this is why they get drunk. Wooyeon didn’t enjoy alcohol, but at this moment he understood why everyone tried to drink. He could feel the gaze following him again, but he didn’t care about such things at all.
“Eh, Deputy Seo. I heard you don’t have a lover?”
“Really? How do you know, Assistant Manager Yoon? Why wouldn’t Deputy Seo have a lover?”
“How would I not know? What team member is more interested in Deputy Seo than me?”
Assistant Manager Yoon said in a triumphant voice.
