Lee Hyeonha had worked on the same team as Seungju for about a year. She worked well, was cheerful, and drank well, so Seungju was quite fond of her. Even when talk of Seungju’s promotion came up, both Team Leader Kim Eunseong from Team 2 and Seungju all thought Hyeonha would follow Seungju to Planning Team 6. Of course, that was a story that would become a mirage or bubble. Because the Director pulled the dirty trick of creating a one-person team.
That Director was now leaving the company too. Feeling the impermanence of life, Seungju raised his glass. Hyeonha blocked Seungju’s wrist with her hand.
“No drinking alone. Let’s toast.”
“Okay, let’s toast.”
They made a noisy toast and everyone downed their soju glasses. Keu, keuuk. Kyaaah. Since Baek Muyeon wasn’t here today, Seungju also freely let out ahjussi-like exclamations. Hyeonha immediately refilled the glasses again.
Seungju thought again while holding his glass. The previous Director leaving, a new Director coming—these are things that can happen. But the new Director who’s coming to replace the previous Director being my lover is a kind of black comedy. It’s ironic that I’m feeling like a bat or a gray element among people badmouthing the company like before.
Hyeonha asked Dawon.
“But what kind of person is General Manager Mu?”
“General Manager Mu? He’s not bad.”
“In what way?”
“Well, he’s rational. I mean, there are parts where he doesn’t know the practical work. But he tries to learn.”
Seungju nodded from the side. Although Seungju and Muyeon weren’t people who had worked together directly, there were parts of Dawon’s words he could relate to. Baek Muyeon doesn’t really know about separating work and personal life, but he understood what I was saying well…
Ignoring Hyeonha’s words about no drinking alone, Seungju emptied his glass by himself again. This solo drink was to paralyze with alcohol his thought circuits that only thought about Baek Muyeon like flowing through a funnel no matter what topic came up, even though he came out to play with others.
This time Seoyeong filled Seungju’s glass. As she did, she said.
“Whoever comes will be better than the Director.”
“Yeah, I think so too.”
Seungju replied after a long time. Everyone nodded. Dawon raised her glass and everyone toasted once more. After drinking three glasses of liquor in a row, it suddenly felt like the alcohol was hitting hard. While Seungju was pouring water into his water cup, Hyeonha, who had emptied her glass, tapped the table and tilted her head.
“It’s strange, it feels like there’s been vibrating since earlier. Whose phone is it?”
“It’s not mine.”
“What, whose is it?”
Everyone looked around their seats. When the vibrating sound stopped, everyone went “Eh, must be someone else’s” and stopped moving. However, another possibility occurred to Seungju’s alcohol-addled head. Seungju rummaged through his coat pocket and took out the phone Muyeon had given him.
His expectation wasn’t wrong. Muyeon’s name was filling up the phone densely.
Huh? Densely?
Seungju blinked and counted the number of missed calls and messages. Four calls, twenty messages… and it was ten o’clock now.
What’s all this fuss when it’s only ten o’clock. What if someone sees? Seungju noticed Hyeonha sitting next to him looking at him and hurriedly turned off the phone screen. If she discovered Baek Muyeon’s name on the screen, he’d be fucked.
However, Hyeonha’s eyes were already gleaming.
“It’s a lover, right?”
At that question, Seungju’s brain stopped for a moment. Of course, the fact that he’d promised to call Baek Muyeon also flew out of his head together.
Seungju made a desperate effort to block the three women’s teasing but failed.
“Come to think of it, I’ve never heard Team Leader Seungju talk about a girlfriend.”
That was the start when Dawon began. Hyeonha answered.
“It’s been a while since you broke up with your girlfriend, right? The person you were dating when you were on our team. A little over half a year?”
He didn’t know Hyeonha still remembered that bullshit lie he’d told to gloss over his private life to Team Leader Kim from Planning Team 2 and the Director. Seungju vaguely glossed over his words.
“Well, that’s how it turned out.”
“What kind of person are you seeing now?”
Hyeonha came charging in without even a blinker. Seungju stammered, feeling like he was stepping backward and falling on his back.
“Uh… that’s… uh….”
“Are they pretty?”
This time Dawon jumped in. That wasn’t a very difficult question. Seungju nodded and answered in a crawling voice.
“Uh… yeah….”
“Oh, Senior Dawon. There’s no way Team Leader Seungju would be trash who says his girlfriend isn’t pretty.”
“Hey, Seungju. Do you have a photo?”
Seoyeong dealt the finishing blow without brakes. Seungju’s eyes widened. And he screamed in a voice almost like being strangled. What, a photo?
The three people burst into laughter. Then Dawon picked up a bottle and silently forced it on Seungju. Seungju quickly poured the liquor that had filled his glass down his throat. Dawon filled Seungju’s glass to overflowing again.
“You don’t have a photo? Then drink.”
“When did you meet? If you can’t answer, you’ll have to drink another glass.”
“How many years age difference? You can’t say that either? Then you have to drink again.”
Right, Lee Hyeonha was Kang Jihye’s colleague. The Planning Division and Design Team’s crazy alcohol demons. Making a senior, a team leader drink like this, isn’t that too much? Is forcing drinks all you learned while working at the company?
The two didn’t even pretend to listen to Seungju’s lecture, and Seoyeong was even clapping her hands while laughing. Hyeonha snorted and tapped Seungju’s glass with the bottle. Drink up, Team Leader. Pour another.
Sadly, Seungju was in a position where he couldn’t say “I’ll do everything you ask, so please just spare my life.” He could have brought out just enough to brag that his lover was two years younger, very pretty, rich, and cute when jealous, he could have said that until just now he’d been thinking only about his lover the whole time, but Seungju couldn’t do that.
It would be very troublesome if they caught any hint from somewhere that his lover was a man or a company person. So Seungju followed the three people’s rule of drinking if he couldn’t speak.
The second round ended just before Seungju nearly died. Seoyeong paid for everything at once. She said she’d let them know about the settlement next week. Seungju let out deep sighs reeking of alcohol as he saw off the three people. He waved to them as they disappeared one by one in taxis.
And Seungju staggered into a street convenience store. He bought two cans of beer, one hangover remedy, and one oriental raisin tree drink. And he sat down at the parasol in front of the convenience store.
Ah… I’m dying.
Opening one can of beer and chugging it down, Seungju tilted his head back and looked at the sky. In Seoul’s night sky, half covered by the parasol, a light that could be a satellite or airplane was blinking. Seungju let out a deep sigh and thought: If I can see that, it means there’s no fine dust. At least that’s fortunate.
Seungju tilted the beer can again and poured liquor into his mouth. Continuing to drink once drunk on alcohol was Seungju’s long-standing drinking habit.
Who knows when this habit of having to see it through to the end so that alcohol completely devours him started.
Seungju let out another deep sigh as if pushing liquor down his throat while pushing out the alcohol with sighs. At the same time, thoughts occurred to Seungju’s mind in sequence: What time is it now? Is it about eleven? Right. I was supposed to call Baek Muyeon.
Seungju took out his phone from his pocket. Turning on the screen, his eyes widened.
What surprises modern people most are things like unexpected late-night calls or urgent message bombs. As if proving that fact was true, the missed calls filling the screen and the message notifications about to burst were enough to make Seungju’s heart plummet from the valley of alcohol.
Seungju rubbed his eyes and looked at the phone again. First, the clock caught his eye. It was just past twelve o’clock. No, when did time flow so fast? As expected, when drinking alcohol, you can’t gauge how time passes. Well, if it had only been eleven o’clock, the last trains wouldn’t have stopped running, so there would be no reason for everyone to catch taxis.
He first checked the missed call notifications. Since the time he checked earlier, five more calls had come. Then he went into the message window. There were about fifty new messages. Living all this time, it was the first time seeing that many new notifications in a personal message window, not even a group chat.
Even so, isn’t this a bit much? I should have known from when he said with his own mouth that he gets very jealous. I should have.
Seungju picked up the beer can and gulped down the alcohol. Then he began reading the messages one by one.
[Are you having fun?]
[Is it fun?]
[You said you’d call?]
Hmm, right. I was supposed to call. Seungju drank beer again. I should have bought some snacks, my mouth tastes bitter.
[I’m waiting]
[Is it over??]
The two question marks were kind of funny. Seungju drank again. Looking at it, it seemed the pattern was sending a message, calling once, and when he didn’t answer, sending another message.
[Seungju-ssi]
[You said you’d call…]
[I’m worried]
Reading up to there, he finally felt sorry. Honestly, when Seungju saw the pile of accumulated contacts, he worried that Muyeon might be angry. However, he had waited for Seungju and worried.
Seungju emptied one entire beer can. And opened a new can. The very last message had come just 20 minutes ago.
[Can I go to sleep first?]
Seungju, who poured alcohol down his throat gush gush, let out a deep sigh. And he put the phone on the table and covered his face with both hands. He felt like trash.
