At the drinking session, Donghyeon and Seoyeong just made pitying expressions. The Production Department and Design Team were also departments under the influence of the Planning Division Director, but the two departments had independent approval lines. If necessary, they could get confirmation directly from the President without the Director’s approval. All they could give Seungju was sympathy.
Seoyeong clicked her tongue and said:
“It’s annoying how the Director runs his mouth. He completely leaves out Seungju’s story and goes ‘Team 3 will do well~’ with that bullshit. Team Leader Jeonghyeon runs over and sits there backing him up from the side.”
“When he’s stealing what Team Leader Seungju did and giving it away, really.”
Donghyeon chimed in agreement. Seungju poured alcohol into his glass too. In front of them, the gopchang hotpot he’d wanted to eat for weeks was boiling. When Seungju raised his glass, everyone followed and raised their glasses to toast. For a moment, they focused on eating. Delicious. Seungju’s anger instantly dissipated.
This is why eating delicious food is important. The reason restaurants are clustered in office districts is simple. If office workers don’t eat delicious food, they could literally die from stress.
Suddenly Baek Muyeon, who wasn’t particularly obsessed with eating, came to mind. On a day like this, and even at completely unrelated times, I think of this man—aren’t I kind of serious?
As if trying to escape from his own thoughts, Seungju put down his chopsticks and said:
“Well, thinking differently, dividing up work is the Director’s job. I also said my hands aren’t free right now. It’s not my work but company work, so if there’s an efficient way to do it within the company, we should do it that way.”
“Wow… Team Leader, that was really something a team leader would say just now.”
At Donghyeon’s reaction, Seungju scrunched up his face.
“Are you saying I’m that steeped in company life now?”
Donghyeon shrugged his shoulders with a laugh. Seoyeong interjected with a serious expression.
“But are you really okay? Still, it was work you did, but he suddenly gave it to another team.”
“Being greedy for work only leaves you with overtime.”
“That was when you were a team member. You’re a team leader now.”
Seoyeong was one of the few colleagues from Seungju’s entering class still left at the company. The rest had all resigned. Seungju hadn’t been close with her from the start. They became drinking buddies after she moved to Sojeong’s team. However, they sympathized with each other as colleagues from the same year, and perhaps because of that, Seoyeong sometimes grasped Seungju’s position quite well.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean you have to protect your team’s work. Since you’re the team leader, the work your team does will become your portfolio as is, so you should be greedy.”
She was right. Seungju let out a deep sigh. He rubbed his eyes with both hands and replied:
“What I’ve learned over 5 years is working only to give it to others, so how can I easily have that kind of motivation?”
“True, it’s a company with no reward for work, only responsibility. That’s why I don’t want to be a team leader here. I need to stick under Team Leader Sojeong as long as possible.”
Sojeong was a good team leader. “I want to be a designer from now on, make me a team member too” was one of the variations of Seungju’s “I want to quit” repertoire. The fact that Seoyeong, who used to talk about quitting all the time, came to attend the company with some focus was also after she went to Sojeong’s team.
“I don’t need them to be as good as Team Leader Sojeong, but please, I just wish my superior’s personality wasn’t trash like the Director’s. I said it that way earlier, but today’s matter too—the Director didn’t do that shit to work efficiently, he just did it to screw me over. Really… his hobby is tormenting team leaders in turns, so even when I think ‘ah, my turn has come,’ I can’t take it anymore.”
“Right, this rampage is kind of long, the intensity is severe, and he’s not even giving a carrot.”
At Seoyeong’s question, Dawon answered right away:
“It’s because he thinks Team Leader Seungju got on General Manager Mu’s line.”
“No, then why does he pull that shit on Seungju right in front of General Manager Mu where he can clearly see?”
Seungju, who had drunk and put down his glass, replied to Seoyeong:
“He didn’t like that General Manager Mu stirred up the work distribution as soon as he came up to Planning Division. He told me that too. That General Manager Mu does things however he wants without knowing practical work or planning work. So the Director wants to show in front of the President that he knows practical work better than General Manager Mu, that he knows better who should get which work.”
“Ah… I really hate it.”
“He can’t touch General Manager Mu directly, so he uses me to… ah… thinking about it makes me angry again….”
“The Director really has no ability but his head works well only in that direction.”
Seoyeong, who finally understood, shuddered. Seungju very much agreed with her words. He refilled his glass with alcohol. After eating snacks until he found reason, Seungju joined the three people cursing the Director’s old-fashioned authoritarianism and rock-bottom personality.
“What I hate most is that the Director puts political intentions into everything. I also hate working according to his mood. I hate most that he rages without looking ahead or behind when things don’t go his way.”
***
Today too, Seungju drank blended pear juice. Actually, he’d also eaten a Tank Boy on his way to work. Ice cream from the morning—it feels like being an adult. In his hangover, he took comfort in the single fact that today was Friday.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t met Muyeon once this week. In the end, Muyeon didn’t reply yesterday. However, after quite some time passed and the day changed, as always, he sent a morning commute greeting message. Good morning. Hang in there today too.
He said he’d make an effort while I was thinking, but did he suddenly cool off? His heart became a bit anxious. Should I ask to meet today? Then that would be 4 consecutive days of overtime last week and 3 consecutive days of drinking this week. At this rate, I’ll really die. So throughout the morning while working, Seungju kept worrying about whether to send him a message or not.
However, soon an incident occurred that would blow away Seungju’s worries.
“Director, I contacted the factory and they said the quote will come soon. And when I called this morning, they said they forgot and sent this sample right away by quick service. Remember? The 20cm doll.”
“Oh, Jeonghyeon. Right. Look at the sample once. Is this the final sample?”
“Yes. It came out pretty and well.”
“It did. Leave it here so I can show it to the President.”
Seungju glanced once at the Director’s desk. That was one of the toy and doll products Seungju had taken on as soon as he became team leader. He’d finished what was in full development and passed it to the production stage, but then had to hand it over to Team 3. The person in charge was that team’s youngest member.
Seungju’s long—if you could call it long—work life intuition squirmed. Ah… I have a bad feeling.
After a brief silence, the Director picked up the receiver.
“Hey Jeonghyeon. Isn’t this for kids?”
After enough time passed for Team Leader Kim to call the youngest Song Junhyeong to ask, the Director said:
“If it’s for kids, doesn’t it need to have a safety certification mark? Where is it? Is there separate packaging? Is it there?”
Again, enough time passed for Team Leader Kim to ask Song Junhyeong the same thing. And clearly some answer came from his mouth that would offend the Director.
“Come here.”
The Director hung up the phone. A moment later, Team Leader Kim came running. He shrank his shoulders as if he’d committed high treason.
“It’s correct that we don’t need to get KC (Safety Confirmation Report), right?”
“No… Yes. We applied for KC certification completely. We received it too.”
“But it’s not here?”
“That’s… it seems that part was omitted when we received the handover. Fortunately, since we don’t put that mark on the doll body itself…”
“What?”
The Director’s voice became menacing. Seungju’s face also hardened. Did he just say handover?
“Don’t you know how sensitive an issue this is these days? Who did you receive the handover from?”
“We received it from Team 6…”
Seungju blinked his eyes once deeply. Ah… fuck.
“Hey Heo Seungju. Come here.”
“Yes, Director.”
Seungju stood up from his seat and stood in front of the Director’s desk.
“What’s going on with this?”
“I applied for KC certification and passed the relevant details to the Production Department, then proceeded with the handover to Team 3. I told them it would be issued soon, so please check the number later and reflect it in the product information.”
“Team Leader Seungju didn’t tell me that.”
At Team Leader Kim’s words, Seungju’s eyes widened. No, this bastard? That’s because you didn’t even attend when receiving the handover and dumped it on the youngest, right?
“I definitely told you. The file too, to Song Junhyeong…”
“Junhyeong said he doesn’t know either?”
“Hey, hey! What are you guys doing in front of me? Heo Seungju, you say something this important casually and let it slide? Won’t you get your head straight?”
“No, the thing is I…”
“Don’t make excuses, you bastard. It’s obvious without even looking. I pampered you saying you work alone, and there’s nothing you do properly!”
“Oh my, Director. I’m sorry. Please stop.”
Team Leader Kim makes a show of stopping the Director. Seungju’s expression darkened. Starting from his chest, he felt all his organs freezing cold. Anger rose to the top of his head, then not knowing a way to burst out, came back down and choked his throat. Finally, fury twisted his stomach. He felt like his insides would turn over.
Seungju barely answered:
“…I’ll check with the Production Department and quickly have them pass the product information design again including KC.”
“Hey! Won’t you say a word of apology? Look at this bastard’s stiff head. You rude bastard…”
“Team Leader Heo, you should say you’re sorry.”
Was it escapism? Strangely, his head was cold. It was like becoming a third party observing this situation from outside. Looking at the situation with that gaze, Seungju thought: This is really absurd. It’s a ridiculous sight. Suddenly he remembered the story he’d told at yesterday’s drinking session. I hate most that the Director rages without looking ahead or behind when things don’t go his way.
Attending the company for a long time, I even learn how to prophesy. Seungju wandered between escapism and desperation with a spirit that seemed to have an out-of-body experience for a moment.
In the end, he moved lips that seemed to belong to someone else.
“I’m sorry.”
