While working overtime, Seungju felt unsettled. He knew well what could heal him.
Seungju started writing a message in the group chat and stopped. He didn’t want to contact people after work hours. Of course, it absolutely wasn’t to contact them about work, but still he didn’t feel like it.
That was purely the power of putting himself in others’ shoes. Seungju knew well that sinking feeling the moment a coworker’s name appeared on his phone, wondering if something had happened. Seungju recalled his former team leader who would call without regard for whether it was after work hours, weekends, or before coming to work.
The unwanted contact nearly gave Seungju neurosis. Back then he actually suffered from insomnia. For no reason, when he woke up around 2 AM and sat up with a start, Seungju would habitually check his phone, and couldn’t fall back asleep until he’d checked his mailbox.
When he became a third-year employee and got a junior, Seungju tried ignoring all contact that came on weekends for the first time. To begin with, contact that came after work or on weekends wasn’t even about things Seungju could resolve immediately. Most of it was about work his former team leader was confused about whether he’d done or not, or taking care of things he’d forgotten.
Once was hard, but twice and three times were easy. After Seungju made the excuse a few times that he was so busy on weekends, Team Leader Kim didn’t contact Seungju on weekends. However, the fact that he still couldn’t say “Don’t call me after work or on weekends for things like this” remained as a regret in Seungju’s heart.
Thinking about it that way, the fact that he’d answered Muyeon’s call the day after the Sales Team welcome party without the awkwardness of contacting a coworker on the weekend was definitely strange. Of course, it was true that he didn’t feel like it in a different sense, but still.
His thoughts kept converging on Muyeon. Realizing that made Seungju’s mood even more depressed. He definitely needed a remedy.
The next morning, Seungju went to the Director with a field work report like he’d done last week. However, the Director didn’t tell him to book a conference room. Still looking displeased, he just pointed with his chin to one side of his desk. Meaning leave it there and get lost. Seungju bowed his head, put down the report, and returned to his seat.
Only then did Seungju open the chat window with complaints about the Director’s pettiness. That bastard’s ruining the mood from the morning. Several people responded. Seungju wrote the main point. Anyone want to drink?
Of course, sadly, they couldn’t drink today right away. It would be rarer for an office worker’s Friday not to have plans or gatherings. And Seungju didn’t really want to drink right today either. He’d already worked overtime four days in a row. If he drank today, he might be discovered as a cold corpse tomorrow morning. Relieving stress with alcohol was definitely a self-destructive thing.
However, unfortunately, there was nobody whose schedule matched on Monday or Tuesday of next week either. Eventually they set the day for Wednesday. That actually worked out better. He’d be too busy with PT preparation until Wednesday anyway.
To Seungju’s great fortune, the Director was taking a half-day off this afternoon. Please grant me peace like a river even during the morning. What saved him was the Design General Manager. Having declared in advance that she had more than one or two things to get approval for, she gratefully kept the Director in the conference room all morning.
On the quiet and peaceful afternoon after the Director left, Seungju finally caught his breath. There was still work left, but it wasn’t urgent. Of course it was, since he’d worked overtime for four days. If he’d had to work breathlessly again today, Seungju probably would have died before drinking the alcohol he’d so longed for.
Just removing the Director alone could make things this happy and peaceful. His depressed mood from parting with Muyeon like that yesterday improved a bit. Seungju looked out the window while drinking coffee. When I leave work, I should go home and sleep like I’m dead. Until Sunday night, no, I shouldn’t get out of bed until Monday morning.
Seungju turned his head back to the monitor at a message notification. It was Muyeon.
While hesitating in his head, his hands dutifully opened the message window. The content was simple. ‘Let’s have dinner today.’
Seungju pondered his answer for a while. He secretly turned his eyes to glance at Muyeon’s seat. He wasn’t there. Moving his gaze back to the monitor, he discovered a missed call notification on his phone that he’d turned to silent mode. Of course it was Muyeon.
What? While Seungju was rolling his eyes, the call came again. Seungju was startled as if his phone had become a ball of fire. Gripping the phone he’d almost dropped, he left the office.
“Hello?”
– Why didn’t you answer the phone?
“Because I’m in the office. No, why did you call?”
– You read the KakaoTalk but didn’t reply.
“Your temper… I mean, you’re impatient. I was busy so I couldn’t reply.”
Of course it was a lie to roughly make an excuse. Seungju answered while opening the door to the emergency stairwell. He slowly climbed the stairs.
– The Director’s not even there, why are you busy?
And Muyeon was quick-witted. Seungju was being unreasonable.
“I can be busy.”
Why, what, why. Do I look like someone who slacks off just because the Director’s not around? He felt a bit embarrassed to say he didn’t reply while thinking about what to answer. He didn’t know why.
– Anyway, you’re going to dinner, right?
But Muyeon always hit the mark. Seungju wasn’t ready for that answer yet. The reasons were various. He chose one of them.
“Didn’t I say I needed time to think?”
– Yes, think about it.
“Is this giving me time to think?”
– Then should I just sit around doing nothing?
“What?”
– I’ve been thinking, what if you don’t want to date? Shouldn’t I do something to positively influence your thinking, Seungju-ssi?
The words were right. It was just confusing because it was a perspective heading toward a completely different development from the pattern that usually followed the words “I need time to think” that Seungju knew. Because he was flustered, his true feelings eventually burst from Seungju’s mouth.
“No, it’s just. Meeting today is a bit…”
– Why? Do you have plans?
“I don’t have plans, but…”
– Then why?
Because I worked overtime four days in a row so I’m dead tired. But saying that after talking about needing time to think seemed like it would sound like a petty excuse. Wasn’t it like a passive-aggressive response saying I don’t really want to meet with you?
Seungju eventually leaned his forehead against the stairwell wall and sighed.
“Fine, then. Let’s have dinner.”
***
Waiting for Muyeon in the underground parking lot, Seungju kept looking around. He didn’t want to be caught by any company person getting into Muyeon’s car. The questions that would pour out asking when he’d gotten so close with General Manager Mu, what they went to eat Friday evening, whether they ate something expensive, was it good, what they talked about—all that was exhausting.
Hurry up and come out, really. Seungju, who’d burst out the moment the second hand struck 6 o’clock, muttered complaints. He was worried others might see, but there was another reason. On a Friday without the Director, at the optimal opportunity to leave work on time, he didn’t want to be at the company even one more minute or second.
“Seungju-ssi.”
“General Manager.”
He heard the sound of the elevator stopping and Muyeon got off. Muyeon, who spotted Seungju, smiled slightly. Seeing that, his heart softened. What was certain was that seeing that face couldn’t make him feel bad or ambiguous.
“What do you want to eat?”
Muyeon said while taking out his car keys. Seungju paused again for a moment. Today it was yet another car. At this point, he felt pure curiosity. So really, how many cars does he have?
“We’ve eaten meat, Chinese, and pasta—we’ve had everything. Where should we go?”
“We ate sushi too. Speaking of sushi reminds me. Should we go to an izakaya or something?”
“Sounds good. Where is it?”
“It’s close.”
“Let’s not go somewhere close.”
Muyeon, who was starting the engine, looked at Seungju. Seungju looked back at him.
“Why?”
“Because it would be unlucky… no, uncomfortable if we run into company people even by chance.”
“What? You don’t dislike meeting company people, do you?”
Seungju was momentarily speechless. He hadn’t expected this answer. If you’re sitting in a restaurant during lunch and your superior walks in? Uncomfortable. Everyone at Vision Factory had a list of several restaurants the President liked to frequent memorized. Messages saying “he’s having lunch here today” busily went back and forth in the chat room right before lunchtime every day. Meaning avoid that place today. And everyone would sit at other shops and have silly conversations wondering why that restaurant owner had so few customers today.
If it was like that during lunch, then if you ran into company people at a shop you stopped by after work? That wasn’t just uncomfortable. Fortunately if it was someone you were close with it would just be a bit awkward, but if the other person was a superior or the Director, just imagining it made him feel bad. It wasn’t for nothing that Seungju had chosen places with private rooms for meals with Muyeon so far.
This was an experience any office worker would have at least once. And it was content anyone could empathize with. Seungju once again realized the fact that Muyeon’s work life was a different kind from his life.
“Even though we’ve left work, it’s embarrassing to run into company people outside. It feels like we’re still working.”
“Is that so? I guess that could be the case.”
Mm, he didn’t empathize. At Muyeon’s soulless response, Seungju roughly nodded.
“Then let’s go all the way across the river. There’s a decent place in Ichon.”
“It gets a bit far from home… but there’s a bus that goes straight home from Ichon so it’s okay. Now that I think about it, where do you live, General Manager?”
“I’m going to take you home, so don’t worry about buses. And haven’t I told you where I live yet?”
“I feel bad always getting rides.”
While receiving the signal to head toward the Han River, Muyeon laughed briefly.
“I told you earlier. I have to do something.”
Those words, honestly speaking, were cool. Cool enough to make him think, when a man like this says things like that, what am I being picky about right now? But Seungju looked out the window trying to erase such thoughts.
When Seungju didn’t answer, Muyeon added with a laugh.
“Actually I live near there. Around Hannam-dong.”
“Then I feel worse, it’s near your home but you have to come back down to Gangnam for nothing.”
“I said it’s fine.”
When Muyeon said it like that, he had no choice but to listen anyway. This time Seungju continued.
“Ah… doesn’t the President live around Daechi-dong?”
“That’s right, I live alone.”
“Wow, I didn’t know you lived on your own. Since when?”
“Not long ago. Since I moved to this company. I guess I hadn’t told you this either.”
“We probably have a lot of things we haven’t talked about.”
“Do we?”
Even though it was 6 o’clock now, it wasn’t dark. As the days gradually got longer, the weather warmed up. But the night air was still chilly. It was weather Seungju liked. The riverside scenery with the sunset beyond the car window was beautiful. He liked Seoul’s scenery at sunset.
Still looking out the window, he thought. What kind of weather he liked, what kind of scenery at what time of day he liked, even such trivial tastes—Muyeon probably didn’t know yet.
Would he have been less sad if “let’s have time to think” had sounded like that kind of meaning, to get to know each other more?
Then, as if reading Seungju’s thoughts, Muyeon said.
“Then it would be good to have that kind of time.”
“What kind of time?”
“Time to say all the trivial things.”
Seungju turned his head to look at Muyeon. His gaze was directed forward, but Seungju could feel warmth there. So, whenever he looked at Muyeon’s face, there were definitely moments like this. Moments witnessing affection and interest that didn’t need to be mistaken. At times like this, without doubt, he could know they were the same. Seungju answered with a smile.
“I was thinking something similar.”
