– Let’s leave a bit early today. Let’s meet in front of the parking lot after lunch.
“Then do you mean 1 o’clock?”
– Yes. See you later.
The call ended first. Seungju made a troubled expression, then managed his expression again when he felt the Director’s gaze. He didn’t want to show that he didn’t want to go out and make the Director happy.
It was 10 minutes before lunch. The Director called Seungju.
“Seungju, let’s have lunch together today.”
Then he stood up from his seat. Seungju raised his head a beat late. Since the Director was already passing his desk and leaving, Seungju made a face like he’d eaten shit to his heart’s content. To think he had to devote today’s lunch to the Director too. He answered in a bright voice that was the complete opposite of his expression.
“Yes, Director.”
After answering, he let out a sigh through gritted teeth and stood up. Seungju, who raised his gaze without thinking, made eye contact with Muyeon. Seungju gave a simple bow. However, Muyeon was staring intently at Seungju.
Seungju suddenly realized this situation wasn’t the first time. Was it last week? Something like this had happened then too. Did I do something wrong? Seungju tilted his head and averted his gaze. A thought suddenly crossed his mind as he headed to the elevator.
Could it be that General Manager Mu keeps staring at me? Because he’s bothered?
Seungju grinned without realizing it. In that moment, he spotted the Director in front of the elevator looking at him and twitching his eyebrows. Seungju hurriedly managed his expression. At the same time, the flower garden in his head also flew away.
Bothered and staring, my ass. Come to think of it, just moments ago Seungju had also been making a face like he was eating dog shit. With his face all rotten while answering “Yes, Director,” he might have been hateful. No, this was the more accurate explanation.
Seungju stood obediently behind the Director and let out a silent sigh. Why am I really like this?
So sitting face-to-face with him at the kimchi stew set meal restaurant the Director liked, Seungju wasn’t in a good mood. On top of that, the fact that he had to display the maximum sociability he could muster plunged Seungju into deeper self-loathing.
He agreed enthusiastically with the Director’s bragging about his son until his mouth went dry, and when the Director was curious about a variety show that was popular these days, he gave him a briefing. All the while, he fell deeper into an ominous feeling. When the Director usually repeated this kind of idle chitchat about nothing, it usually meant there was a main point waiting behind it that would surprise Seungju.
The Director dragged Seungju all the way to a cafe. He bought the coffee. If he hadn’t, Seungju really might have punched him. The Director sat down, slurped his Americano, and finally brought up the words Seungju had been waiting for.
“How’s General Manager Mu?”
“What?”
“You went to a second round with General Manager Mu on Friday, didn’t you?”
Fuck, how does the Director know this? And asking how General Manager Mu is, what’s with that tone?
I’m not sure but he seems handsome. While thinking of a rebellious retort on one side of his head, Seungju awkwardly opened his mouth.
“Ah… yes… I don’t remember very well…”
The Director twitched his eyebrows again. But it was true. Seungju really couldn’t remember at all what process he’d gone through to end up sitting in that bar that day.
“I don’t even remember how I got home…”
“You drank that much?”
At the Director’s tone implying he was pathetic, Seungju decided to laugh like an idiot. Haha, I know, right. The Director clicked his tongue and opened his mouth.
“General Manager Mu seems like a really smart person. As soon as he came up to the office, I see he’s trying to get friendly with people his own age first.”
“Yes, yes… I heard General Manager Mu is two years younger than me.”
“And that thing about taking Team Leader Seungju on field work every Thursday. You know I made a lot of concessions for that, right?”
Seungju got the picture now. Why the Director had asked to eat lunch with him today right after hearing that phone call earlier. Also, why he kept making eye contact with General Manager Mu whenever the Director called him away. The fact he discovered in the Director’s words was that Seungju’s position was in the middle of a power game between the Director and General Manager Mu.
Curses automatically came from inside him. The Director, this crazy bastard. What does he plan to do by having a power game with the president’s son? And using the youngest team leader who has no power and is utterly useless at that? Why is he doing such pointless things?
In that moment, Seungju thought of the Director’s habits. A human whose every action except breathing was politicking. When he got the title of Director of Planning Department 2, when he was competing for promotion with the Director of Planning Department 1, and even when he ultimately eliminated the department called Planning Department 1 entirely and became the Director of the Planning Division himself, his political skills unfailingly demonstrated their power. It made even less sense that this human would just sit still in the most precarious situation of his career.
Logically understanding the Director’s intentions in context was a completely different matter from fully sympathizing with his position. But in front of the Director, you had to pretend you didn’t know the former at all and only see the latter in front of you.
Seungju opened his mouth while once again hurling profanities at the Director’s face in his mind.
“Yes, after becoming a team leader, there aren’t many opportunities to go out for market research, so it’s all thanks to you, Director…”
“Good that you know. And…”
And what, more, what.
“From now on, whenever you come back from going out with General Manager Mu, report to me separately. The market research content and what kind of talk there was. That kind of stuff. Got it?”
“Yes… I understand.”
Seungju answered while swallowing a sigh.
The Director deliberately sent Seungju back 10 minutes late. So Seungju ran to the office like crazy. Dawon approached Seungju as he hurriedly gathered his phone and bag.
“The General Manager went down earlier.”
“So I see.”
“He said he was leaving work early, so it’s not like the market research time will be tight, so it should be fine.”
“Thanks, Dawon.”
Seungju smiled slightly at Dawon. Then he swiftly rushed out of the office.
In front of the parking lot, that damned expensive car was parked. Seungju hurriedly ran over and opened the car door.
“I’m sorry for being late.”
Muyeon didn’t answer. Instead, he stared intently at Seungju. Seungju awkwardly bowed his head once more.
When Seungju got in the car and closed the door, the car smoothly departed. Only then did Muyeon open his mouth.
“Why were you late?”
“Lunch ran long… I’m sorry.”
“Hmm.”
Muyeon closed his mouth. Seungju became awkward at the atmosphere in the car that had turned chilly for a moment. He turned his gaze to the window outside as naturally as possible.
“Do you usually eat meals with the Director often?”
“What? No. It’s not necessarily like that. Only when the Director asks to eat together.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, well… about two or three times a week?”
“Then eat with me tomorrow.”
“What?”
Seungju looked at Muyeon. Muyeon glanced at him sideways. Except for making eye contact from a distance earlier, this was a face he was seeing up close for the first time in almost a week. Muyeon was smiling a little.
Thanks to the smiling face, the atmosphere lightened a bit. Before he got entranced by him, Seungju turned his head again.
“Team Leader Heo Seungju is so busy with work that it’s hard to have a conversation unless I deliberately create work like this. So I have to at least make a lunch appointment.”
“What?”
“It’ll be better than eating with the Director, won’t it?”
It was true. However, Seungju couldn’t answer easily. The Director who had just tried to play tug-of-war and pick sides with General Manager Mu using him came to mind. But he also didn’t want to do something like consider the Director.
Whether he took Seungju’s silence as affirmation, Muyeon grinned.
“Let’s eat something delicious.”
“Yes…”
Though he answered reluctantly, Seungju’s mind was complicated. Was this asking to eat because of the push and pull with the Director, or was it to continue the second round from last week’s company dinner? If it was the former, things were really fucked.
Of course, even if it was the latter, he couldn’t be purely happy about it. Because some of the film from that night had disappeared forever to the other side of Seungju’s consciousness. What on earth did I do and what did I say? He felt uncomfortable, like he’d been caught at a weak point.
Today as well, the two headed to a large shopping mall. Muyeon said to purchase samples when he saw good items. While saying that, he took out a corporate card from his wallet and gave it to him. Seungju received it with both hands, feeling honored.
Vision Factory was a stingy company, and the accounting department director was someone dying to cut budgets everywhere. How could he dedicate himself so wholeheartedly to saving company money when it wasn’t his own company or his own money? He recalled the days when he’d routinely get nagged even when submitting a single receipt. Seungju grinned while looking at the card. Should I swipe the president’s son’s card to my heart’s content?
Thanks to that, when they left the first store and entered the stationery section attached to a large bookstore, Seungju was already holding a large shopping bag. Soon Seungju realized it was cumbersome to take photos while holding the shopping bag. He didn’t show it, but Muyeon noticed right away. Standing in the notebook section, Muyeon took out his phone.
“I’ll take the photos.”
“Thank you.”
Really, he was so considerate.
“All paper products went to Team Leader Seungju, right? Notebooks… the new semester has passed, so the summer season product proposals will be urgent.”
“Team 1 is in charge of that part. I’m just support.”
“Right, that’s how it was.”
Muyeon picked up a small notebook and held it up next to his face, saying.
“Isn’t it pretty?”
“Yes. It’s pretty.”
The sight of a large man dressed in a suit holding a pink notebook was worth seeing. It was clearly an extremely unbalanced sight that you wouldn’t commonly see anywhere, but instead of laughing, Seungju nodded as if entranced. Because his face was persuasive no matter what he did.
“There are also our company’s products here. Ah, this one was good.”
Seungju pointed to other notebooks with his finger. It was a monthly planner with an unusual format. It wasn’t something Seungju had planned, but he was familiar with it because Team Leader Cha had done the design.
“Who usually does the paper product designs?”
“Design Team 3 does them. Team Leader Cha.”
“Is that so?”
For some reason, Seungju read displeasure in his response.
