“What was your major, Seungju?”
“Sociology. What about you, General Manager?”
“I majored in business administration.”
So we’re ending up drinking like this today after all. The place Muyeon took him to had the atmosphere of a high-class traditional Japanese restaurant or kaiseki establishment rather than an izakaya, but the menu was definitely focused on drinking snacks. Muyeon told Seungju to choose the alcohol. Seungju ordered beer.
Seungju gulped down the foamy beer. His tired body seemed to instantly awaken with the satisfying coolness that reached his chest. Ah, this is killer. This is why you drink, after all. With his last bit of self-control, Seungju restrained himself from exclamations like “keuak” or “kyaa” as much as possible. That would make him seem too much like an old man.
Watching Seungju set down his glass, Muyeon said:
“If you’re from K University’s sociology department, that’s really good.”
“You went to S University, General Manager. How could that even compare?”
“How did you know?”
“The President bragged and bragged about it… Everyone in the company probably knows, right?”
“Really? Are there other rumors going around?”
“That you used to be at a different affiliate company? That you’re handsome?”
At the added remark, Muyeon giggled. He propped his chin on his hand. Seungju had now roughly caught on to the fact that the arrogance emanating from that pose wasn’t intentional but innate. He picked up his beer glass again.
“With your qualifications, Seungju, you’d be quite overqualified even at headquarters, so why did you join Vision Factory?”
“Because there are a lot of women here.”
Muyeon’s eyebrows twitched. It must be asking what that meant.
“Trading companies are tough enough as it is, but I heard headquarters has a completely male-dominated atmosphere. The basics are arriving at 8 and leaving at 8. The last Wednesday of the month you leave at 4, but there are company dinners almost every week—no, every day. Mondays and Fridays, vacation and leave are forbidden. But Vision Factory has less overtime for a design-related company, and you have a certain degree of freedom with vacation. Plus, aside from voluntary gatherings or lunch meetings, there are fewer company dinners.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s definitely true. I thought you meant something else.”
Muyeon retorted primly. Seungju chuckled.
“I don’t like women.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Don’t say weird things. What do you mean I don’t know?”
Why are you going on about someone else’s sexual orientation? This time Seungju retorted quite sharply. He’d raised his eyebrows, but soon narrowed his eyes. Could it be?
“General Manager, you swing both ways, I guess?”
“You could say that.”
Ah. Seungju smiled, only lifting the corners of his mouth. That phone call back then with the “oppa” this and that. It was obvious without even seeing it. If you look like Muyeon, just sitting there breathing would naturally bring calls and contacts pouring in from all sorts of places.
Seungju wasn’t ignorant about that kind of lifestyle either. However, Seungju had what was literally a good excuse to block romantic interest. Seungju’s alcoholic daily life, that is. If a tall, handsome man likes drinking and drinking gatherings, usually that alone is enough to significantly dock points with most women. They’d think he must’ve really played around quite a bit.
Muyeon changed the subject as if turning the conversation.
“And why do you keep calling me General Manager?”
“Um, I can’t switch that quickly. I’m always nervous at the company that I might accidentally go ‘Muyeon!’ there.”
“Really?”
Hmm, seeing that dissatisfied expression, he didn’t understand this time either.
Soon the appetizers came out. This time too, Muyeon displayed generosity. It was for two people, but there was assorted sashimi, beef tataki, karaage, and even jjamppong. Seungju, who’d already emptied one beer, ordered another.
“Hearing you talk, Seungju, I’m curious about something.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“You joined our company from a very current-employee perspective.”
It was a remarkably astute observation for someone who lived a work life that didn’t seem like a company employee’s at all. Seungju nodded. Muyeon continued speaking.
“Usually new employees don’t know those things and just choose companies. They mainly look at name value or salary. Of course, benefits are also one of the important factors.”
“I got a lot of help from seniors when I was job hunting. I also got a lot of advice on what’s important when working at a company.”
“Really? University seniors?”
“Yes, I was in a club for a long time rather than departmental activities. The seniors there got good jobs. Of course, before getting a job I’d never worked at a company, so I didn’t really feel all that stuff firsthand. What I mentioned earlier is closer to a reason for continuing to work at the company rather than a reason for joining. Um, so.”
“So?”
“First of all, I’d also done an internship here. So I already knew to some extent that the company atmosphere was relaxed. And… that was the only place I got a final acceptance from during that recruitment season.”
Muyeon smiled broadly. Seungju knew that his answer had satisfied him anyway. Muyeon spoke in a soft voice.
“Getting a job is really hard, right?”
“Oh my, thank you for understanding.”
At Seungju’s answer, Muyeon burst into laughter again. Seeing his detailed reactions, one couldn’t help but feel warm inside. Thanks to that, the beer was delicious. The alcohol went down smoothly as if seeping into his cells.
“What kind of club was it?”
“A band club.”
“Wow, I never would’ve imagined. What position were you?”
“Keyboard. Why couldn’t you imagine it?”
“Because you have this really upstanding, model student image, Seungju. Band club has kind of a… rebellious feel, doesn’t it?”
“I drink like a drunkard every day like this, so what model student?”
“No, someone like you is a diligent person.”
It seemed like they’d had this similar conversation before. About being diligent or nice. The blatant compliments were embarrassing. Especially if he himself felt disconnected from such praise, even more so. Seungju was a bit worried about what kind of image Muyeon had of him.
“General Manager… no, Muyeon, you really think highly of me.”
“That’s not true.”
“I’m not such a really nice and diligent person.”
Muyeon smiled. It was a smile with one corner of his mouth raised particularly high. That expression that made his mood prickly. Seungju looked at him over his beer glass with raised eyebrows. Muyeon answered.
“I just said things as they are.”
“You’re trying to look good, right?”
“There’s a bit of that too.”
But Seungju couldn’t help but burst into laughter. A pleasant mood and atmosphere gently settled between the two of them and stayed until the drinking session ended.
***
After three beers went down, Seungju started getting rapidly tired from that point on. He definitely felt his stamina wearing down after turning thirty. At this rate, he’d die soon. He felt a sense of crisis. Seungju had no intention of living long, but he didn’t want to die right away.
With the situation being what it was, it was hard to refuse Muyeon’s offer to take him home. Seungju got a ride in his car and came home. While feeling grateful at his added remark: “Good thing I didn’t drink.”
The weekend passed uneventfully. TV variety show reruns, a few dramas, lottery tickets bought from the convenience store shuffling out in slippers. And in between all that, Muyeon’s messages. Replying diligently to each one, grinning the whole time, Seungju thought: It really is strange not to dislike contact coming from a company person on the weekend.
Isn’t this essentially no different from dating? Seungju was aware that what he was doing was putting off thoughts and decisions and just enjoying the sweetness of this “something.” So one corner of his heart felt uncomfortable.
But the other person wasn’t someone he could think of casually as “let’s date first and then work things out as we go.” At that point, Seungju kept going round and round in circles.
It’s a problem with no answer. It would be nice if he could ask someone for advice.
There was someone who came to Seungju’s mind. Seungju hesitated a bit before contacting him again. Because it was the weekend now. But strictly speaking, he wasn’t a company person. So it should be okay.
Seungju found his name in his contacts list. Yoon Hyeondo.
He left a somewhat long message. Senior, this is Seungju… how have you been… everyone’s planning to drink on Wednesday, but I was wondering if you couldn’t make it… then how about we meet sometime and have a drink…
A reply came right away. He agreed to join them on Wednesday. Seungju nodded. Even though he hadn’t done anything yet, he felt like his heart was a bit lighter.
***
Seungju learned that the President was attending Wednesday’s PT right before the meeting started. And that was only after seeing the youngest members of each team setting up the conference room and decorating the President’s seat.
He spoke to Team Leader Yoon from Planning Team 5, who had just entered the conference room.
“Is the President coming today too?”
“Oh my, Team Leader Seungju, you didn’t know?”
She turned to look at Team Leader Kim from Team 3 entering behind her and replied. Seungju saw Team Leader Yoon avoiding his gaze and Team Leader Kim from Team 3’s exaggerated surprised expression. The intuition woven from his years of experience stood on end. The feeling was ominous.
As he took his seat, Seungju observed the team leaders filling the conference room seats one by one and the presenters from each team.
“Team Leader Shin, did you finish wrapping up the final organization well?”
“Yeah, Sumin worked really hard. How about Team 2?”
“You know us. Team Leader Shin, your advice was so helpful.”
Seungju wasn’t only in the kinds of company chat rooms where he vented impure complaints about the company or pursued private friendships. There was a chat room for all team leaders that included the Director, another chat room for team leaders that didn’t include the Director, and there was also a rather free chat room for relatively young team leaders led by Team Leader Yoon from Team 5.
However, in none of those had Seungju ever heard talk about the President coming. He’d never received other teams’ ideas either. But from the looks of it, the other team leaders seemed to know each other’s presentation contents well.
It really is ominous. He examined the meeting participants once more. Just then, the Director entered the conference room. Everyone stood up from their seats and greeted him.
“Jeonghyeon, did you prepare well?”
The Director specifically called out Team Leader Kim from Team 3. His smiling face and tone were quite amiable. It had the effect of relaxing the atmosphere, but everyone didn’t truly smile. Because there was always an intention behind the Director acting like that. And to Seungju, that intention felt even more acute.
