Soon the President and the General Manager entered the conference room. Seungju didn’t make eye contact with Muyeon. He didn’t want to have useless thoughts while working.
The meeting went smoothly. Neither the Director nor General Manager Mu raised any objections. Of course. The Director wasn’t stupid enough to show his hand or impatient signs in front of the President. He was busy actively agreeing with General Manager Mu and the President’s opinions and livening up the atmosphere.
However, Seungju’s instinct soon proved right. The Director’s intention.
Deputy Manager Choi from Team 3, the presenter, brought up the PowerPoint on screen. Having taken over toys and toy products as their main project, their main proposal was the kids’ corner. The presentation content mostly contained what Seungju had put in last week’s market research report.
There was no need to doubt. Even that damn slime story was included. Seungju didn’t like that idea, but anyway, because Muyeon had considered it, he’d organized it in the report. Well, they sure managed to insert it in just three days.
As soon as he heard the introduction of the presentation, a picture formed in Seungju’s head. He felt dirty. This was a typical Director style.
The Director had sufficient justification. I just read the market research report, I just shared it with the team leaders, and I just thought it would be good if items that the Sales Team was particularly keeping an eye on were included.
But there was another intention behind it. While Seungju was getting involved with Muyeon, the Director would have entered so-called management of the other team leaders. On one hand, he also openly humiliated Seungju in front of everyone. Thinking about it again, that was really a clear message conveying to others how to treat Seungju.
While doing that, he utilized information coming from Seungju and General Manager Mu. Of course, the ultimate goal would be to score points with the President, but as a bonus, he probably thought it would be even better if he could give General Manager Mu the feeling of having his initiative stolen, and give Seungju the embarrassment and anxiety of being caught in the middle.
So the real killing part for Seungju wasn’t Team 3’s presentation content. The really important part was that everyone knew about the meeting except for Seungju who was left out, and the fact that the Director spoke to Team Leader Kim as soon as he entered the conference room.
The meaning was simple. You’ve now fallen out of my line.
Who was grateful for that dirty and petty line? Seungju rolled his eyes imperceptibly and sighed. These bastards, really.
His insides were boiling. Coincidentally, Seungju’s proposal also had content about the kids’ corner in exactly the same way. Of course. It was the content General Manager Mu had been most concerned about throughout all the market research trips. Moreover, he’d glimpsed the President’s inner thoughts through Dawon.
That was clearly the President’s biggest interest. The President was praising Team 3’s presentation content to death. The Director was egging him on from the side, and Team Leader Kim was fawning over the President, not knowing what to do with himself.
Perhaps it would be a happy ending to pour the spotlight on Team 3 like this and have both the Director and President leave the conference room in good moods. It would be good to show that he’d been beaten by the Director a bit, and show some groveling too. For a comfortable work life.
Seungju brought up the PowerPoint he’d displayed in the status bar. Fortunately, the content about products for children was somewhat removed from the items Seungju was in charge of, so it was just ideas attached like an appendix. He moved his mouse to delete the last few slides.
But his hand wouldn’t move. The days spent in the office last week and his overtime log flowed before his eyes. He also hated seeing them pettily ostracizing the youngest and playing nicely among themselves. Petty bastards. Dirty bastards.
Seungju pressed cancel on the “Do you want to delete?” popup window. Whatever happens, happens. Fuck it.
***
“Team Leader Heo Seungju’s proposal content… that kids’ item at the end, it’s similar to Team 3’s presentation content?”
The President said to Seungju after he finished his PT. Seungju answered with a smile.
“Yes, that’s right. If we just had designs that fit the trend and new items, I thought products for children would be a perfect fit for our store concept proposal. So although it’s not complete, I attached it in the form of a suggestion. The fact that Team 3 made the same judgment, that the President evaluated Team 3’s content positively, and that even a mere youngest team leader like me came up with the same idea—I think all of this signifies the importance of this project.”
“Right, right. You found good samples with decent designs too. Much better than what we did last year. I especially agree with that last statement. As I said earlier, this will be a very important part of our store, and I’m pleased to see many employees thinking the same thing. Doesn’t this mean our employees are working in unity, something like that? Hahaha….”
“With the President caring this much, how could it be just unity? We have to work hard day and night.”
“Hahaha… Anyway, Team Leader Heo has such good social skills!”
The President looked very pleased. Seungju gave him a bright, beaming smile. To the President, it would look like an innocent expression of joy, but to the Director, it would roughly mean something like “Did you see that, you bastards?”
Although Seungju had practically been forced to become a team leader for the Director’s needs, that didn’t mean his qualifications were lacking. To begin with, the Director created Seungju’s position with the purpose of using him as a weapon. For that to be more effective, he needed someone who caught the President’s heart and eye.
Seungju was an overflowing candidate for that purpose. Pretty, obedient, and above all, good at sweet-talking superiors. The first was embarrassing to say with his own mouth, but anyway, the second and third were strengths that even Seungju himself knew well. Having at least that ability was why he could respond sanely even in front of the Director he detested to death.
Seungju blinked and rolled his eyes to check the Director’s forced smile. It wasn’t as refreshing or comfortable as expected. Rather, he felt tense. Since Seungju had just twisted the Director’s intention to make him look bad, an aftershock would soon come.
He regretted it a bit. If he hadn’t rubbed the Director the wrong way with data organization work or market research reports, if he’d just gone along with him, wouldn’t it not have gotten this far?
No. Everything went wrong from the moment Baek Muyeon singled him out and took him around. Meaningless regret now. Seungju answered a few of the President’s other questions, organized his laptop, and returned to his seat.
General Manager Mu wrapped up the meeting.
“Everyone worked hard, and the board of directors will discuss whether to make the projects concrete or proceed with them. The decision will be delivered by next week at the latest, so know that.”
That meant the President, whose whims changed like boiling porridge and who had no standards, would arbitrarily choose the idea he liked best. Everyone understood it that way and nodded.
Seungju returned to his seat, but the Director went to drink coffee with Team 1’s Team Leader Shin and Team 3’s Team Leader Kim. Team 5’s Team Leader Yoon was feigning ignorance and calling over the youngest who made the PowerPoint to praise them.
As the tension eased, his energy simultaneously drained completely. Seungju wanted coffee too. No. If he drank coffee now, his heart would pound and it wouldn’t be good. Seungju just poured a full glass of water and slowly drank it while organizing the meeting content.
Meanwhile, the Director returned to his seat. Glancing at the clock, he’d been shooting the breeze for 30 minutes before coming back. Anyway, must be nice having such an easy work life.
Whether or not he knew Seungju was thinking such things, the Director called him.
“Hey, Seungju.”
“Yes? Yes.”
Seungju almost flinched without realizing it. Fortunately, he just stopped at widening his eyes.
“That proposal content earlier was good. Can you come here for a moment?”
“Ah… thank you. Yes.”
As he got up from his seat and approached the Director’s desk, Seungju’s mind spun rapidly. Pulling out a chair from under the large table next to his desk and sitting down, Seungju finally found the answer. Give disease and give medicine? Since he gave the stick, is it time for the carrot?
“That content you put in the proposal. The stuff going into the kids’ corner and the Post-it holder. Let’s make the content more concrete and see?”
“What? Those two things?”
“Yeah. They’re good, so let’s look at them in detail.”
Give disease and give medicine, stick and carrot were right. However, Seungju’s instinct moved again. There was no way the Director would obediently give such a sweet carrot.
“I’m going to push it to the President. It would be good to show him before the board meeting, so let’s do it quickly.”
“Yes… thank you. When should I give it to you?”
“Shall we see it tomorrow?”
I knew it. He forced a smile and his lips almost trembled. The Director nodded and started organizing the files on his desk.
“Yes… I’ll give it to you as soon as it’s ready.”
“Yeah, let’s see it soon. Okay?”
Seungju bowed his head. Tomorrow was Thursday, the day to go out for field work. And the approval scheduled for tomorrow. He didn’t expect this pattern would repeat again. Anyway, this is absurd.
But today he couldn’t work overtime like last week. Because it was Quitters Club night. And if the Director gave him a carrot, it seemed he should at least pretend to accept it. Seungju returned to his seat and took a deep breath. He picked up the receiver.
– This is Baek Muyeon.
“This is Heo Seungju from Planning Team 6, General Manager.”
– Yes.
The Director, General Manager Mu, and even Seungju’s seat. In a triangular structure where they could reach each other if they fell forward and could hear each other’s phone conversations if they called, Seungju started a ridiculous play.
“I’m sorry, but because I’m going out for field work tomorrow, the approval schedule doesn’t match. It seems I’ll have to be absent from the market research.”
– Ah, it’s okay. I also think I need to see the President tomorrow because of today’s meeting content. We’ll either go on Friday or I’ll set a schedule for next week and let you know.
As soon as the word “President” came from General Manager Mu’s mouth, he could feel the Director perking up his ears. Ridiculous, really.
“Yes, thank you. Then please let me know when the schedule is confirmed.”
– Okay. Got it.
“Thank you. Yes.”
Muyeon hung up the phone first. Seungju also hung up. The Director cleared his throat. A snort escaped from Seungju’s nose.
