Just Stay Put
"Whoa. Total outcast, huh."
Jung Jin-ah jolted at Park Su-hwan's words. If she had to sum up her situation at the company in a single phrase, that was exactly it.
For real... It's just like Oppa said.
"An outcast?"
"...!"
Jung Jin-hyuk whipped his head around and fixed her with a piercing stare. The easygoing smile he had worn all through the meal was gone without a trace.
Jin-ah, thinking she was thoroughly screwed, forced an awkward laugh.
"Haha. Oppa. That's, uh..."
"Spit it out."
She worked her lips, stalling. She had no idea how to talk her way out of this.
I'm dead. I was going to ease into it somehow...
But Su-hwan had struck the bull's-eye so cleanly that every plan she had prepared fell apart at once.
Jin-hyuk mistook her hesitation for stonewalling.
"Or I can ask him myself."
"W-wait a second!"
"Would you be able to tell me what happened to her?"
Despite his rigid face, Jin-hyuk's manner was scrupulously polite. It was the same reaction shared by everyone who had witnessed Su-hwan's abilities even once.
"One moment."
Su-hwan stared down at the grains of rice scattered messily across the table. At a glance, it looked as if he were concentrating on reading a divination.
In truth, his mind was in chaos over what had just happened.
What the hell did I just do.
He had been about to deliver a flashy performance and some plausible-sounding fortune-telling.
Then, out of nowhere, the words he wanted to say had surged up, and the inside of his mouth had itched like mad.
It was so unbearable he could not keep them in. So he had blurted them out—and they had been dead right.
"Well?"
"Oppa. Seriously!"
Su-hwan glanced at the two of them and swallowed a sigh. The itch in his mouth was starting up again.
Whatever. I'll think about it later.
"I can't figure out why everyone keeps making such a fuss about Jin-ah. It doesn't seem like she's done anything all that wrong, either."
He spoke carefully, sneaking a look at Jin-ah's face. Don't tell me this one's right too.
"...That's right. You're really incredible."
Heh. I just said whatever came to mind and it turns out to be true?
Su-hwan felt as if he had become a real shaman.
"You were really being bullied? What about HR? No—let's report this to the Ministry of Employment right now."
Jin-hyuk fired the words off like bullets.
"Oppa..."
"Why are you only telling me now!"
"How was I supposed to tell you! It was too upsetting!!"
The feelings she had been holding back finally burst. Jin-ah broke down crying in earnest.
Fortunately they were in a private room with decent soundproofing. Otherwise every other diner's eyes would have been on them.
"Here. Tissue."
Jin-hyuk had never once imagined that his little sister—always so bold and strong—had been carrying this kind of pain.
Whenever he asked how work was going, she would smile and say it was fine. So he had truly believed it.
"I told them a hundred times I'm not some parachute hire, but nobody believes me! I got the job because I'm good at what I do... Waaah!!"
She was an advertising designer who had been making a name for herself in the industry lately. That reputation had earned her a generous scout offer, and she had transferred to a bigger company.
"There's one person who really goes after you, right? She's the source of it all."
But that very transfer had become the root of the trouble.
"Yes. That crazy bitch!"
In the end, the rough language Jin-ah had been holding in came flying out.
"Kim Yu-jin! That woman really hates me, you know? She's older than me, but my rank is higher, so—"
She escalated into calling her a woman rotten with inferiority complexes and other raw curses. Jin-hyuk nearly had a fit trying to rein her in.
"Then she should just be good at her job!"
"J-Jin-ah!"
"Let go of me, Oppa. It's already out. She completely refuses to cooperate on anything."
So she never even got a chance to prove herself with skill.
"They share information only among themselves and keep their mouths shut, you know? They treat me like a total invisible person. Teacher."
In a structure where collaboration was essential, being cut off from information was a direct path to being branded an incompetent designer.
At this rate she was going to be dismissed as a failed hire and kicked out. Or, more likely, she would get so furious she would storm out on her own two feet.
"What do you think will happen with this job? Honestly, that's what I wanted to ask you about today. I've completely lost any affection for that company."
She let out a deep sigh.
"If I'd known it would be like this, I never would have left."
Her previous coworkers had been so good that the present situation felt like hell by comparison.
That was when Su-hwan casually dropped the next line.
"I think you'll be fine just staying put."
"What?"
So was he telling her to keep enduring every kind of oppression and humiliation? But Su-hwan was the savior who had spared her brother's life.
Instead of leaping to a conclusion, she asked again as if verifying the truth.
"You mean I shouldn't leave the company?"
"Yes. Because someone's going to fall away."
"When you say 'fall away' here..."
Jin-ah rolled her eyes in thought for a moment, then opened her mouth.
"That bitch..."
"Jin-ah."
"Okay. Oppa. I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Really."
"From what I know of her, she's not the type to step down on her own. She's so good at office politics, and such a vicious bitch. She should spend that time actually getting better at her—"
"Jin-ah!"
"Ah, okay. Oppa."
Jin-hyuk did not want to show this shameful side of his family in front of the man who had saved his life.
"I didn't say 'on her own.'"
Su-hwan said it with a faint smile.
"Then what do you mean...? Could you explain just a little more?"
"That's all for now."
Su-hwan gathered the rice into one place.
"What? Please! Teacher!!"
Even through her pleading, he did not stop clearing the table.
Weird.
The moment he said what he wanted to say, the strange symptoms vanished as if they had never existed. All that remained in his head was the desire to eat a nice cold bowl of naengmyeon.
"You'll find out everything later anyway."
She said I got everything right, so this should be right too.
"What? Please. Teacher..."
Su-hwan would have liked to explain the meaning of those last words for her sake, but he could not.
Because now he truly could think of nothing but naengmyeon.
"More importantly."
"Yes?"
Hope lit up in Jin-ah's eyes again.
"Would it be all right if I ordered a bowl of naengmyeon?"
At the unexpected request, the tension drained out of her all at once. She sagged and answered.
"Yeees... You're really not going to tell me, are you. Let's eat together. Oppa, water-based or spicy mixed?"
After polishing off even dessert with impressive thoroughness, Su-hwan went straight home. Rubbing his thoroughly stuffed belly, he sank heavily onto the floor cushion.
"Upsy-daisy."
That was seriously good.
Tender beef, rich doenjang stew, steamed egg, and naengmyeon on top of it all. A perfect meal.
He already wanted to eat it again.
With a full stomach, sleep began to press in. He would have liked nothing better than to lie down and pass out right there, but there was something he needed to check immediately.
What on earth was that earlier.
In a case like this, there was only one possible explanation.
Did my mouth open? As in, the spirit-speech?
But that only happened when a god descended.
What god in the world would take Park Su-hwan as a disciple? Especially a guy who had stolen the ledger of life and death and was throwing heaven's order into chaos.
Maybe some random ghost just whispered it and left.
But when he thought about the pouch at his waist, that made no sense either.
The pouch was stuffed full of coarse salt and blood-red azuki beans. On top of that, a rare piece of Byeokjomok—jujube wood that had been struck by lightning three times.
The idea that a lowly ghost could have gotten near him did not hold water.
Haah... Seriously. This is so weird.
Su-hwan opened the small rice jar beside his divination table, scooped up a handful of grains, and scattered them across the table with a sharp sshhk.
"Let's see."
He studied the shapes and arrangement of the grains.
"Mmm..."
Unlike before, his mouth did not itch, and nothing rose unbidden into his mind. Right now it was just a mess of scattered rice, same as always.
Why is there no reaction at all.
He scattered the rice once more, but nothing changed.
"Hoo..."
He already had a mountain of things to think about. It felt as if another heavy weight had just been dumped on top of the pile.
"Your part is the most important. You understand?"
"Manager. Leave it to me. I can do this."
Cha Hyun-seok gripped the shoulder of the subordinate who trusted and followed him most tightly.
"You have to do this well. Really. My neck is on the line with this."
"Of course, Manager. Leave it to me. I'll pay back every bit of the favor I owe you with this."
"Just this? You know I cleaned up after that order screw-up that nearly blew a five-hundred-million-won hole, right?"
"Yes, yes. That's why I keep saying how grateful I am."
"Thank you. Don't worry too much. Executive Im will cover for us anyway."
"How can you be so sure of that?"
"I have my reasons. Anyway—you really can do this, right? It has to be exactly three-forty. And your face must not be seen under any circumstances."
The time Park Su-hwan had stressed over and over. Originally, that was the moment when Cha Hyun-seok himself was supposed to go storming into Executive Im's office, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Yes. Of course. I even bought a helmet with dark tinting. I'll change clothes and head out right away."
With a resolute face, the man nodded and left. Alone again, Cha Hyun-seok returned to his seat and dry-washed his face over and over.
The die was cast. There was no going back—only forward.
Cha Hyun-seok waited a beat, then rose and flung open the door to Executive Im's office.
Bang.
"Executive Im."
"Ah! You startled me!"
Executive Im jumped and hurriedly shoved the document in his hand into the pile of papers on his desk.
"Manager Cha. What the hell! Knock before you come in!"
Cha Hyun-seok glanced at where the document had been hidden and spoke in a casual tone.
"Sorry. There's someone in the lobby shouting for you at the top of their lungs."
"For me?"
"Yes. They say they're from Seongchan Hi-Tech."
"W-what?"
"Seongchan Hi-Tech. They said if I gave you the company name, you'd know who they are. What kind of place is that, exactly?"
"Th-that's... Never mind! I'll go down and see myself!"
He bolted out of the office like a dog that desperately needed to relieve itself.
It was just as Park Su-hwan had said. Seongchan Hi-Tech.
To panic at that single name... He really had been planning to take a kickback from that company.
There was little time left. He had to find the under-the-table contract before the man came back.
Cha Hyun-seok quickly eased the office door shut and rummaged through the stack of papers where Executive Im had stuffed the document.
Found it.
Locating the papers was not hard. After reading the contents, Cha Hyun-seok let out a hollow laugh.
"...You son of a bitch."
Executive Im had fully intended to pocket the bribe. On top of that, he had already taken fifty million won of it as an advance payment.
With this, he could take the man's head clean off.
And he would do it at the exact moment the man proudly presented the stolen project in front of the CEO and the executives.
I'll drag you down properly.