Muyeon took out from his pocket not the phone he’d been holding in his hand until just before, but a different phone. That phone dedicated to Seungju. He turned on the camera and handed it to Seungju.
“Take some pictures for me. So I can look at them when we can’t meet.”
“I drank, so I think they’ll come out weird.”
“You’re pretty, so just take them.”
There probably aren’t many things as unadaptable and goosebump-inducing as hearing “you’re pretty” from a pretty man. Seungju shuddered for a moment. Taking the phone, he looked at the screen and scrunched up his face. Seungju turned off the phone screen and looked back at Muyeon.
“I’ll send you ones that came out well later.”
“It’s okay.”
Muyeon’s retort was like an iron wall. Seungju eventually chose and chose a basic filter and took the picture. With a man sitting next to him looking at him with shining eyes, trying to make an expression that looks good in a selfie was insanely embarrassing.
In the end, Muyeon reached for Seungju’s bright red earlobe. Only after leaving a photo showing Muyeon’s hand holding Seungju’s ear could Seungju return the phone to Muyeon. Seungju sighed, turning his gaze to a distant place. Right, I seem to like him enough to endure this embarrassment.
“Seungju, let’s go eat lunch.”
That was the Director’s own version of a reconciliation gesture.
That’s entirely by the Director’s standards, that is. Because it wasn’t a welcome proposal to Seungju at all.
Seungju scrunched up his left eyebrow and left corner of his mouth, invisible from the Director’s seat. While working at the company, he’d even gained the skill of using his facial muscles like Count Ashura. Really, I do all sorts of things, all of them. Seungju barely answered:
“Ah… yes… yes. Where shall we go?”
“How about we go eat that soft tofu set meal after a long time?”
“Yes…”
“Come down to the parking lot.”
The Director stood up from his seat first and left the office. Only then did other people start gathering their coats and wallets one by one. Seungju also sighed and picked up his phone and wallet. He turned off his monitor and was about to leave his seat when his eyes met Muyeon’s.
So, their eyes meet precisely when it looks like Seungju is being dragged around on a leash by the Director. Seungju scrunched up his eyes and nose once. Why.
Muyeon puts strength in his eyes with a similar feeling. Then he shakes his head slightly. He doesn’t know exactly what it means, but it must be that something doesn’t sit well with him.
Seungju turned his head with pursed lips. Do you think I’m going out following the Director because I like it? I have no choice if I want to make a living.
When Seungju just arrived at the parking lot, the Director was backing out his car. Seungju ran to the passenger seat.
“Shall I drive, Director?”
“No, it’s fine. Get in.”
He definitely seems to be thinking of giving a carrot today. It wasn’t appreciated at all and wasn’t welcome at all, but still, it was a hundred times better than being hit with a stick. Seungju bowed his head deeply and got in the passenger seat.
Throughout lunch, Seungju, as usual, echoed the Director’s bragging about his kids, the Director’s perspective on political news that proved he was stupid, industry trends that everyone else already knew but only the Director didn’t know. In other words, the Director’s usual long and winding tangents before the main point.
Only after sitting at a cafe near the restaurant with coffee in front of them did the Director bring up the main point.
“Seungju, you were really angry last week, right?”
“Yes? Huh?”
“That youngest kid on Jeonghyeon’s team is originally kind of flaky, you know. I heard everything.”
“Ah… yes…”
It really wasn’t appreciated at all. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear from the Director. It was a clear work mistake that he’d gotten angry at Seungju about, scolding and questioning him, but now that it became someone else’s matter, it was annoying that he covered it up going on about being flaky.
Nevertheless, something welled up inside Seungju. That feeling of his upset heart being relieved. No, anyway, it wasn’t even something I did wrong, but there’s nothing more annoying than me taking the blame. It’s because of that. Because he wanted to ignore that the Director’s barely-words-like consolation touched his emotions even a little bit, Seungju tried to be cold.
“So handovers need to be done meticulously. Hey, and you bastard, you also need to know how to clearly say in front of your superior, ‘This is how the work turned out.’ Right? You just go ‘uh uh’ so you end up taking the blame. You’re too soft…”
Even without Seungju trying particularly hard to find coldness, the Director found coldness for Seungju on his own. Who was the person who threw a fit yelling at the level of character assassination when someone was trying to speak? Seungju organized his expression and nodded.
The Director adjusted his posture and picked up his coffee cup.
“It’s evaluation season now.”
Right, here comes the main point.
“They say the method will change a bit, but what could be so different from previous years?”
“Yes…”
No? It needs to be very different though?
“I know well that you’re struggling alone, Seungju, okay? I know how hard you’re working. Hehe… And, our Seungju getting promoted to team leader now—I made that happen for you, didn’t I?”
Fuck, ‘our Seungju’…. Can I vomit? And acting like he did me a favor by making me team leader when he created a shitty one-person team and made someone struggle like a dog.
“Anyway, since the company introduced things like mutual evaluation with good intentions, we should also suit it accordingly, okay? Do well positively?”
“Yes…”
Seungju picked up his glass. He gulped down his iced americano. Thinking about it, Seungju only drinking iced americano even if he freezes to death started after entering society. During his university days, he was a country bumpkin who didn’t even know the taste of coffee.
But the company made him this way. His insides burn and sting and anger boils like fire from within, so he has to constantly pour in something cold. Of course, to endure overtime, special work, weekend attendance, and the sickening work intensity, he needs to inject the power source called caffeine.
But obviously, gulping down cold coffee doesn’t actually cool his insides. That can’t be a fundamental solution. So Seungju put down his glass and opened his mouth.
“Multi-rater evaluation definitely seems like a good system. I’m grateful that the company considers employees like this and invests in new areas.”
“Right, right.”
“So doing it as sincerely as possible, as it is—that would be an employee’s duty.”
“Mm…”
“Director.”
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t angry about last week’s matter.”
“So?”
Of course it’s a lie. Looking at the Director’s relieved expression, Seungju nodded.
“When work goes wrong, we just need to judge and handle where, how, and why it went wrong, and therefore how to solve it.”
“……”
“If there are mistakes, of course I’d be angry since I’m human… but rather than getting angry, I thought it would be more efficient to properly reflect it well in future evaluations.”
“Mm-hmm, hmm…”
“This time seems like the opportunity the company arranged like that. What reason would I have to be angry? I wasn’t angry.”
Of course it’s a bald-faced lie. How much alcohol did Seungju pour down over that day’s matter?
The Director wasn’t smiling now, but Seungju smiled with the corners of his mouth raised. The Director isn’t an idiot precisely in things like this, so he would have understood well. Those who emotionally do political shit at the company shouldn’t think they can roughly cover up their past atrocities with one meal, one cup of coffee, or lip service that isn’t even sincere—wait for the aftermath of a strict evaluation.
Seungju looked at the Director while picking up his coffee cup. It feels like looking at the other side of a river he can’t cross back over. He didn’t know this would feel so good and also be such a thrilling thing for the first time.
Anyway, being able to fearlessly kick away the Director’s carrot was thanks to Baek Muyeon. The president’s son’s halo isn’t bad. Seungju covered his mouth with his coffee cup and smiled again.
***
Thursday is the day for external work. Today they decided to go to a famous character’s pop-up store that opened last week. As soon as Muyeon entered the store, he pointed at dolls piled up like a mountain.
“Look at that.”
“I’m looking.”
“They’re so cute.”
“Anyway, General Manager, you don’t look like someone who’d like these things, but you do.”
“I like cute things.”
Muyeon says that while looking at Seungju. Seungju looked back at Muyeon for a moment to understand the meaning of his gaze. Ah—Seungju let out a sigh of realization. When Seungju crumpled his expression, Muyeon smiled.
“Everyone liked it when I said they were cute.”
“Who?”
When Seungju retorted, Muyeon closed his mouth. Muyeon picked up a medium-sized doll and played dumb. Seungju looked at him with narrowed eyes, then picked up his phone and took pictures of the display and dolls.
Muyeon brazenly changed the subject.
“This is KC certified, right?”
“Yes.”
Seungju scrunched up his face while looking at the product information on the doll Muyeon was pointing at. Bad memories came back again. He did have one phone call with Team Leader Kim from Team 3 right that day, but the result wasn’t satisfying. Team Leader Kim is someone who can say sorry to Seungju to his face then suck up to the Director behind his back, so who knows what aftermath might come again.
Team 3’s youngest was also utterly infuriating, but he couldn’t catch someone else’s team member like catching a mouse. After that, the Production Department called Team 3’s team leader and youngest separately to have them check the data once more, so all the work had left Seungju’s hands. Muyeon asked while kneading the doll:
“Is getting this complicated?”
“If you make it at a proper factory, it’s not complicated. It just takes time. If you get a disqualification judgment in an unexpected area, you modify it again and apply again, and it eats up time like that.”
“I see. I should know this.”
Muyeon, who put down the doll regretfully, looked at Seungju and said:
“When we go out on external work together like this, it’s fun hearing practical aspects from you, Seungju. Fashion was good too, but design products are also fun. Should I say it feels like finding a new aptitude?”
