The morning after he arrived at work, Seungju displayed all the samples he’d bought yesterday in the conference room. Then he spent the entire morning organizing the store information and photos he’d taken into a document.
Seungju hated this task. After all, there was still another process remaining where he’d have to show the Director the materials he’d brought, then reorganize the parts the Director confirmed according to the proper format. The grunt work Seungju was doing now was completely unnecessary if the Director would just look through the photo folder himself once, with the important files already marked, and just point out what caught his eye.
However, the Director required his subordinates to report everything in printed documents. He thought that finding fault with materials neatly organized into documents was the work style that best demonstrated his competence. Fucking old-timer. It’s naturally easier to look at something already made and revise it than to create something from zero. To feel competent just from nitpicking confirmation materials—honestly, something was seriously wrong with that.
It really was a waste of paper, a waste of ink, a waste of manpower, a waste of time. Making people do work twice over was the Director’s nasty habit. And Seungju hated himself for being unable to move his hands with a blank mind even after doing this shit for over five years. If only he could do it without thinking, at least he wouldn’t be stressed. Why can’t I do that? Seungju cursed a thousand times just during the morning today.
Of course, there were parts of him that had been tempered over five years. No matter how much he wanted to beat his boss inside, he could always pretend to be an energetic and obedient subordinate in front of his superiors. So Seungju took advantage of a moment when the Director seemed to be in a decent mood and spoke to him.
“Director, I’ll report the market research results from yesterday after lunch.”
“Sure, then.”
“Um… and I have a lunch appointment today.”
“Yeah. What, people are going to think I don’t even let you eat lunch freely, Seungju.”
Even at the Director’s sarcastic remark, Seungju laughed as if he’d heard an amusing joke. Hahaha… But it’s true, you bastard.
As lunchtime approached, the Director called Team Leader Shin. Team Leader Shin called General Manager Kang, and the three gathered around the Director’s desk and started chattering about lunch menus.
You shouldn’t mistake this for the office atmosphere loosening up before mealtime. If anyone else got up from their seat or started chatting along with them, the Director would notice it like a ghost. And he’d definitely give them hell for it later. Were you that hungry?
What a truly unlucky bastard. So the rest of the office staff, excluding those three, were just rolling their mice around, hoping the Director would hurry up and get the hell out of the office. Seungju was the same.
He was glaring at his monitor as if he’d get sucked into it, tapping away at his keyboard. He wasn’t actually working. He’d roughly finished what he needed to do in the morning. He was furiously cursing out the Director in the Quitters Club group chat window he’d hidden in a corner of his monitor. Team Leader Cha, who had just come back from getting approval this morning, happened to be spamming the chat room with curses about General Manager Kang.
So Seungju didn’t notice the shadow cast over his head. He naturally didn’t hear the chatter that had quieted down a bit either.
“Team Leader.”
“……”
Seungju’s heart dropped with a thud. Fortunately, he didn’t make a fool of himself by jumping up from his seated position in shock. However, both hands flying over the keyboard flinched and trembled. He instinctively pressed a shortcut key to hide the chat window.
Then Seungju slowly raised his head. He had to lift his head for quite a while before he could see a face. This is ominous.
“Wrap up and let’s go eat lunch.”
Muyeon looked down at Seungju. Seungju unconsciously twitched his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes. That roughly meant something like, what the hell do you think you’re doing?
Then Muyeon blinked. That roughly meant something like, ‘So what?’
Heat rushed to Seungju’s head. The Director, Team Leader Shin, General Manager Kang, Team Leader Yoon whose seat was closest to his, and even her team members were all looking at Muyeon and Seungju. No, they had probably been watching him the entire time Muyeon walked from his seat to this spot.
Seungju quietly got up from his seat and turned off his monitor. Then he grabbed his wallet and pushed in his chair with a more modest attitude than anyone. Without raising his head, he bowed to the Director.
“Enjoy your lunch.”
Then he followed Muyeon, who had already started walking out. Head bowed deeply, more obedient than anyone.
Seungju kept his mouth shut until they got on the elevator. When the elevator doors closed, Muyeon spoke first.
“What were you doing that made you so busy? You didn’t even notice I came.”
“Just… just. General Manager, no… the Director hasn’t even left yet, so is this really something to come to my desk and call me for?”
“It’s almost noon. So we should go eat.”
Seungju looked at him with resentful eyes. The person excluded from the Director’s rules was the President’s son, not Seungju.
“Next time, please go out first and then call me. The Director doesn’t like it when Planning Division employees leave their seats first.”
“Will you eat with me next time too?”
“Ah, well, we’ll eat sometime.”
At Seungju’s irritated response, Muyeon burst into laughter. An amused attitude.
“I have to watch the Director’s mood? Team Leader, that’s funny.”
Just because a voice sounds gentle doesn’t mean everything sounds nice. Seungju was a little scared of Muyeon at times like this. And he also got a little heated. That, that, that damn mouth of his.
“The General Manager doesn’t have to watch it, but I do. The Director already…”
“……”
“I mean, the Director.”
“Your true feelings are coming out? You don’t like watching people’s moods either.”
He hit the nail on the head. For a moment, Seungju couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. It was too accurate to pretend otherwise and deny. Seeing Seungju laugh, Muyeon laughed along.
The elevator doors opened and they crossed the lobby.
“Aren’t you taking your car?”
“No, there’s a good place about a five-minute walk from here. Korean home-style meals okay?”
“I’m fine with that. When you live alone, you don’t take good care of meals.”
“What do you usually eat?”
“I eat well for lunch at the company, but when I don’t have plans, I often just make do for dinner. I can’t really set out rice with side dishes and eat properly.”
“You should eat properly. Team Leader Seungju, you’re too thin.”
“That’s just my constitution.”
The quite concerned tone almost made his heart go soft again. Seungju instinctively pulled himself together.
The restaurant Muyeon led them to was a place Seungju also went to often. Seungju realized why Muyeon had called him out early. It was a place with many side dishes, each one delicious, so if you arrived even a little late it would already be full. Fortunately, there were seats.
As soon as they ordered two set meals, side dishes were laid out in an instant. Picking up his chopsticks, Seungju continued the earlier conversation.
“General Manager, I’m in a position where I can’t help but watch the Director’s mood. The Director wouldn’t say anything to you. But he does say things to me.”
“What does he say? Why are you going to eat? That’s picking a fight.”
“Eating isn’t the problem. I’m telling you, he doesn’t like people leaving their seats before he does.”
“Old-timer.”
It was too accurate. Seungju almost smiled broadly despite himself at the satisfaction.
“It’s not like the Director is doing the right thing, so why do I have to go along with it? Team Leader, you shouldn’t worry about it either.”
“How can I not worry about it?”
When Seungju objected once more, Muyeon paused the hand holding his spoon. Seungju rolled his eyes to check his expression. Muyeon squinted one eye slightly with a face devoid of laughter. An expression of displeasure.
A plausible suspicion suddenly occurred to him.
Could he have deliberately called me in front of the Director?
Seungju’s head became complicated in an instant. He was reminded again of his situation, caught between the invisible fight between the Director and General Manager Mu, his back getting crushed like a shrimp between whales. Surprisingly, an emotion stronger than the sick-and-tiredness and self-pity for his poor self rose up. It was a sense of betrayal.
A sense of betrayal regarding his expectation that General Manager Mu wouldn’t insert him between himself and the Director.
Why did I have those expectations? Ah, right. Because the General Manager’s work style is rational, I thought he wouldn’t engage in petty political fights. But when you think about it, it’s harder to imagine General Manager Mu swaying around in a power game, pushed and pulled by the Director.
Look at yesterday. Although it wasn’t in the realm of work, General Manager Mu was an absolute genius at push-and-pull. In terms of work evaluation, he’d be rated A+. There’s no real need to be disappointed. But even thinking that way, his heart didn’t settle easily.
Seungju’s thoughts eventually reached the source of this faint sense of betrayal rising from beyond his consciousness. The thought that if Muyeon respected him as much as he showed interest, he could have exercised consideration to not make him uncomfortable in front of the Director.
Then an impulse surprising even to Seungju himself arose. He wanted to confirm just how clear Muyeon’s interest was. Without realizing it, Seungju abruptly spoke.
“Want to meet tomorrow?”
“…Tomorrow?”
“There don’t seem to be any good movies to watch, so let’s just eat. We can drink too.”
Muyeon blinks. What is he thinking? It’s unknowable. Seungju realized that figuring out his thoughts was a low-probability event. Intentions that only flowed out when he wanted to show them.
Soon he answered with a smile.
“Sure.”
