Since Wooyeon didn’t usually talk about personal matters, the team members’ gazes gathered on Assistant Manager Yoon. Wooyeon even felt disgusted with Assistant Manager Yoon who casually rattled off his stories, but he was already too exhausted.
Wooyeon tilted the refilled glass and put the liquor in his mouth. His brain felt like it was melting from the bitter and sweet taste. His eyelids grew heavier and Wooyeon’s long eyelashes blinked slowly.
“Assistant Manager Seo, don’t you have a lover?”
When Jeonghan’s low voice flowed out, the table became strangely quiet. Unlike his cold gaze, Jeonghan’s mouth was smiling. Wooyeon only repeated slowly closing and opening his eyes blinking, not looking at Jeonghan.
When Wooyeon didn’t answer, the eyes of the department head and team members caught in the middle anxiously turned back and forth between Wooyeon and Jeonghan. They said the two were sunbae-hoobae from the same department, but maybe they weren’t that close? The same thought passed through the team members.
“Ah, Executive Director, didn’t you know either?”
Whether he was perceptive or not. The one who broke the silence wasn’t Wooyeon but Assistant Manager Yoon. Assistant Manager Yoon laughed carelessly and turned his head toward Jeonghan. At Assistant Manager Yoon’s voice, only then did Wooyeon raise his head and look at Jeonghan. Their eyes met again past the back of Assistant Manager Yoon’s head facing Jeonghan.
“No.”
At Jeonghan’s voice answering calmly, Wooyeon lowered his head again. What do you mean you don’t know. Everything’s annoying. Is drinking alcohol originally like this? His emotional ups and downs were tremendous.
“As you would know, Executive Director, Assistant Manager Seo doesn’t talk about himself that much. But who am I? I asked Assistant Manager Seo straight out!”
“I see.”
“He told me more readily than I thought, that he doesn’t have a lover.”
“Ah……”
One of Jeonghan’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Jeonghan, who had a smile on his lips again, picked up the glass placed on the table.
“Isn’t it a waste, Assistant Manager Seo only working with that face without even a lover.”
When Jeonghan’s glass emptied, Assistant Manager Yoon immediately poured liquor into his empty glass and said.
“Indeed.”
Wooyeon was curious what expression Jeonghan was making, but in the end he couldn’t raise his head.
* * *
“Executive Director, you should go to the second round too, right?”
His vision was dizzy from the strong liquor he’d only tried a few times. Wooyeon, who stood in front of the restaurant lobby pretending to be composed, deeply bowed his head. Everyone was likewise affected by the liquor, and several flushed voices poured out flattery that wasn’t flattery toward Jeonghan.
“No, I should be heading home now.”
“Ah. Executive Director, we’ll be disappointed if you do that.”
At the voice risen with intoxication, Jeonghan slowly smiled. And he smiled and removed Assistant Manager Yoon’s hand pulling at his wrist with a gentle touch. It was such a skillful touch that if you weren’t conscious of it, no one would know he had shaken off his hand.
“You must have been very uncomfortable since I suddenly said I’d attend the team dinner today, so now you should have time amongst yourselves as team members.”
“Oh my, what are you saying. We’ll really be disappointed, Executive Director. You should at least go to the second round.”
It was a predicted tug-of-war from when Jeonghan said he’d join the team dinner. Wooyeon just closed his eyes with his head deeply bowed. He wasn’t in a state where he had the leisure to pay attention to other matters. It didn’t matter either way. Whether he went home like this, went to a second round, and whether he drank or not.
“Assistant Manager Seo, Assistant Manager Seo, you say something too. Assistant Manager Seo, you’re obviously going to the second round, right?”
When Assistant Manager Yoon suddenly grabbed his wrist, Wooyeon’s eyes flashed open. It felt like a light had suddenly turned on in his consciousness that was already quite drunk and blinking. When he raised his head, his eyes met with Jeonghan who was standing directly across from him.
When he barely turned his gaze to Assistant Manager Yoon, Assistant Manager Yoon took one more step closer to Wooyeon. It probably wasn’t even the first time, but Wooyeon felt uncomfortable with his grip strength holding his wrist.
“……What?”
“The second round. What about the place we went to last month? Assistant Manager Seo, try saying something to the Executive Director.”
Instinctively Wooyeon’s gaze turned toward Jeonghan again. He, who was a head taller than others, had lowered his eyes and was looking at Wooyeon’s wrist. Wooyeon instinctively tried to pull out his caught wrist when Jeonghan’s scent suddenly approached.
“It seems Assistant Manager Seo should be heading home now. You seem to already be quite drunk.”
Jeonghan smiled brightly toward Assistant Manager Yoon and removed Assistant Manager Yoon’s hand from Wooyeon. In this situation that everyone found natural, where even Assistant Manager Yoon didn’t feel anything strange, only Wooyeon was watching Jeonghan’s mood. Wooyeon fiddled with his wrist that had been held for no reason.
“Hey, what are you saying. We’ve only done the first round. Right, Assistant Manager Seo?”
“Ah……”
Then Jeonghan’s hand that suddenly shot out grabbed and pulled Wooyeon’s wrist. Unlike his gentle face, it was grip strength much stronger than Assistant Manager Yoon’s earlier.
“I’ll take Assistant Manager Seo home in my car, so please don’t worry and have a good time. Thank you for today. Make sure to pay with the corporate card.”
Wooyeon was dragged to Jeonghan’s side and raised his head to look up at his face. Normally he would have been stubborn about going to the second round because he hated following his opinion, but he didn’t have the strength left for that. Wooyeon closed his mouth and lowered his eyes.
“Ah. Then Executive Director, next time again……”
“Yes.”
When Assistant Manager Kim, who perceptively rolled her eyes among them, bowed her head to Jeonghan, Jeonghan nodded with a smile.
“Thank you for coming today, Executive Director.”
With a relaxed attitude, Jeonghan, who received a polite handshake from the department head who was old enough to be his uncle, turned around holding Wooyeon’s wrist. Being dragged awkwardly, Wooyeon bowed to the team members.
“Sunbae, watch your step.”
There was a threshold at the restaurant entrance. When Wooyeon, who came to his senses belatedly, stumbled with his foot catching, Jeonghan wrapped his arm around his shoulders.
“That’s why I told you to be careful.”
The low voice dug in without warning. Jeonghan’s fingers densely caressed Wooyeon’s shoulders that had frozen in surprise. Soon the elevator that came up to the floor where the restaurant was swallowed Jeonghan, Wooyeon, and Jeonghan’s secretary, and the Planning Team 2 members watching them let out long sighs.
“Ha, I was really nervous. Did I make any slip of the tongue?”
“No, Department Head. You did well.”
“Seeing Executive Director Kwon up close, he’s even more handsome. I felt like I was eating with some celebrity.”
“But anyway, why did Assistant Manager Yoon bring up the engagement there? It’s because the Executive Director received it well, but what if he’d been offended. I really thought I’d die of nervousness then.”
Assistant Manager Kim put her hand on her chest and let out another long sigh.
“What. The atmosphere was fine. Wasn’t it?”
“And the Executive Director said it was okay, so why did you keep asking to go to a second round together. I felt like I was going to get indigestion anyway.”
“When else will I get to talk with Executive Director Kwon. It’s good to get your face known at times like this.”
“Assistant Manager Yoon, didn’t you say during the day you didn’t want to have a company dinner with Executive Director Kwon?”
“Ah, at that time I really didn’t want to. But since we ended up having a company dinner together anyway, if you can’t avoid it, you should enjoy it.”
“Oh my. You’re so great.”
Department Head Jung looked at Assistant Manager Yoon with an expression that said he was fed up. They came out of the restaurant and were waiting for the elevator when Assistant Manager Yoon brought up Wooyeon’s story again.
“But Assistant Manager Seo, they said he was sunbae-hoobae with Executive Director Kwon, but they didn’t seem that close?”
“What, they seemed close. Look at earlier too. Calling him sunbae and taking him out saying he’d take him home. Hey, how does it feel to be called sunbae by the Executive Director? Even at my age I’m bowing and scraping to the young Executive Director Kwon.”
“They’re close but don’t even know if he has a lover or not? No matter how I think about it, they don’t seem that close.”
“Why. If they’re close, are you going to try to get on Seo Wooyeon’s good side?”
Department Head Jung chuckled and entered the elevator. The elevator filled up with the team members who followed in.
“Phew, of course. I can’t try to get on his good side, that little thing?”
“Then you must be disappointed since they seem less close than you thought.”
“Well, it’s not necessarily like that.”
“Hey. Judge well, Assistant Manager Yoon. From what I saw, they seemed close with Assistant Manager Seo? He kept looking and taking care of him.”
Inside the narrow elevator, someone interjected. Soon after, when the elevator arrived at the first floor, the packed elevator continued to spit out team members.
“How did it look to you, Assistant Manager Kim? You know, woman’s intuition, that kind of thing.”
“From what I saw……”
At the department head’s question, Assistant Manager Kim trailed off.
“They seem close but also don’t seem close…… Anyway it was a bit strange.”
“What does that even mean, again.”
One team member who had gotten slightly tipsy interjected in front of Department Head Jung who was chuckling.
“Anyway, where are we going for the second round, Department Head?”
“Executive Director Kwon left too, so let’s go to the gopchang place.”
“Oh, awesome, sounds good.”
“Huh, but isn’t that the car Executive Director Kwon came in earlier?”
The noisy Planning Team 2 group hesitated and stopped walking. The sight of the foreign car that had been standing on the road closing its doors and soon departing was captured in their eyes.
“Hya, when will I ever ride a car like that.”
“Let’s just go eat gopchang.”
Into the street stained with neon signs, the shadows blurred.
* * *
Wooyeon was standing in front of the copy machine with his eyes lowered blankly. Under the shadow of his long eyelashes, his deeply sunken pupils had fallen into an abyss. Into his large pupils, the copy machine’s bright light continued to pass by.
Even after the copy machine that had been ceaselessly and busily spitting out paper stopped, Wooyeon continued to stand there like that. Assistant Manager Kim, who couldn’t bear to watch as she passed by, made her presence known to Wooyeon.
“Assistant Manager Seo.”
“……”
“Assistant Manager Seo!”
At the hand that lightly came down with a thud on top of the copy machine, Wooyeon rapidly blinked and looked at her. His pale, thin cheeks were pale.
“Ah, yes.”
“What are you thinking about so deeply? Aren’t you sober yet?”
“Ah, no.”
Only then coming to his senses, Wooyeon bent down and picked up the copy paper. Looking at it now, it seemed he’d made dozens of copies of the same thing. At the absurd mistake he hadn’t made even as a new employee, Wooyeon’s breath caught.
