The Weight of a Secret
Even if it’s a business trip with the world’s greatest sex friend, work is still work. Actually, it’s even more of a hassle because I have to drive all the way down to the province where our partner factory is located. It’s even worse when the colleague accompanying you is a passionate boss who takes her job seriously.
“The line seems to be moving fast, but I noticed several bearings that aren’t properly covered with plastic. The packaging status is…”
“Ah, well, that’s to keep up with the pace on the floor… You know how it is, Team Leader.”
“Of course, speed to meet the deadline is important. But you need to take care of safety issues as well. The area around the CNC machine feels a bit slippery—is that cutting oil leaking?”
“No, well… as I mentioned, that’s because the equipment is old and worn out…!”
“Even so, someone could slip, or it could easily lead to a major fire. You should have at least finished an inspection. Leaving risks unattended like this isn’t something to be proud of, is it?”
“…….”
Faced with such common-sense and specific criticisms, the middle-aged factory manager was sweating buckets. Even though it was a scheduled inspection rather than an emergency one, he was being called out on everything as if he hadn’t prepared at all. Well, that’s how it goes. Usually, a team leader wouldn’t even come down for this kind of field inspection, and it’s often just a formality. *‘…Am I going to get dragged into this and yelled at too?’* If I argued, it would imply that my subordinates had been slacking off all this time. It wasn’t exactly corruption, but things had just been drifting along in a lax atmosphere.
The more the Team Leader found things that didn’t meet her standards, the more fired up she got. With the symbolic white hard hat of a field inspection perched on her head, she scoured every corner of the factory. Because things got so bogged down, the inspection that should have ended by lunch dragged on until the afternoon, taking much longer than expected.
“Honestly… how have you been managing this place until now?!”
*Thump! Thump!* After finishing the inspection, the Team Leader climbed into her German-made car and pounded the steering wheel. Seeing it from the side, I honestly understood her anger. Even if it’s a partner company, if things go sideways, the indirect responsibility falls on her, so a team leader with a strong desire for promotion would naturally be sensitive about it.
“Assistant Manager Son, I’m going to request improvements for this immediately! Take pictures, attach them to today’s inspection report, and set a clear deadline for the fixes.”
“…I figured you’d say that, so I took photos of everything as we walked by.”
Her angry head snapped toward me. As if that wasn’t enough to satisfy her, she chewed her lip, and then went a step further.
“It’s not going to end with a verbal request. I’m sending an official letter.”
“An… official letter?”
An official letter. It literally meant officially pointing out the company’s faults. It was a very standard, textbook approach to the situation.
“The atmosphere on the floor is serious. You saw it too, Assistant Manager Son, right? Even though the inspection date was announced, the employees were completely checked out!”
She wasn’t wrong. The perfectionist Team Leader’s every move was likely correct, but *‘If she really sends that… there’s a 99% chance of friction in the future.’* However, an official letter carries a weight that working adults find hard to swallow. If I were on the receiving end due to my own mistake, I wouldn’t be able to eat properly, and I might even dream of revenge. It could lead to a total vicious cycle.
“Um… they said they’d do their best to improve the points you raised by tomorrow, so why don’t we decide after seeing the state of things tomorrow?”
“…Assistant Manager Son, aren’t you being too soft?”
“W-well, you could see it that way, but! Aside from the sloppy management, they’ve been accident-free until now, haven’t they?” I cleared my throat and added, “Instead of slaughtering the cow by stabbing it with a knife because we’re scared, wouldn’t it be better to handle it well from now on and adjust it to our tastes…?”
“……Cow.”
“Honestly, it’s hard for us to find another place that works as efficiently as this one, right?”
“…………Huuu.”
It was a half-baked excuse, but the Team Leader let out a long exhale as if suppressing her frustration. Seeing that she didn’t immediately dismiss the advice, I threw in a little flattery to soothe her.
“Shall I drive to the hotel we booked? The roads here are quiet, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“You commute by public transport every day, did you even get your license?”
“It’s a ‘closet license’ (unused), but I’m accident-free.”
“Haha, you’re accident-free because you don’t drive, right?”
It wasn’t a joke, but the Team Leader smiled faintly. We swapped the passenger and driver seats, and I plugged the hotel into the navigation. As we pulled out with a slow, safe driving speed, the Team Leader in the passenger seat seemed to be deep in thought before making a suggestion.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“Why don’t we buy some beer and snacks on the way?”
“!”
I arrived at the business hotel with the Team Leader. It was a reasonably priced, decent accommodation that fit perfectly within the business trip budget.
“Now, you go wash up next.”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
We couldn’t exactly book separate rooms with company money; usually, when two people go on a business trip, we book one room. I don’t know about larger conglomerates, but our company usually booked one room for two people. The Team Leader didn’t seem to have any major complaints about this.
I welcomed the Team Leader as she came out after washing up first and wearing the loungewear she’d packed, and we clinked our beer cans together on the hotel floor.
“Cheers!”
“C-cheers!”
It was a first. A drinking session with the Team Leader outside of a company dinner. *‘Team Leader, you wear… clothes like this too.’* Light dolphin shorts and a slightly loose shirt. A shirt with some unrecognizable English phrase printed on it that would show her underwear if I wasn’t careful. Come to think of it, it was natural attire, but because she always wore perfectly pressed suits, the gap was huge.
At our makeshift drinking party on the hotel floor, we didn’t talk about anything monumental. We talked about company work, rumors about people inside the company, and then moved on to personal matters, like what the Team Leader does on weekends. We clicked better than I thought. As we kept talking, this statement suddenly popped out.
“Team Leader, are you not dating anyone?”
“……What?”
“No, it’s just… you don’t have to answer if it’s uncomfortable, but I was just curious because men would obviously be lining up for you, Team Leader. Hahaha.”
“…….”
“………Ah?”
I had intended to get closer by riding the atmosphere after a few drinks. I truly had no bad intentions.
“Hey, do you really not know?”
“Yes?”
“Do you… really not know anything until now?”
“Ah, ah! A… are you a non-marriage advocate or something? I really haven’t heard any ominous rumors about you, Team Leader! Other than being a workaholic!”
At that, the Team Leader shut her mouth as if she’d been slightly shocked. She held her beer can, glared at my eyes, and then froze.
*Click.*
Eventually, she set the beer can she was drinking from onto the hotel floor. She chewed her lip, then squeezed her eyes shut as if she had made a big decision.
*Flash!*
In that state, the Team Leader—exposed her chest.
“!?”
It was exactly as it sounds. A sudden, massive incident. She pulled her shirt all the way up and showed me her breasts, perfectly encased in a black bra. My eyes couldn’t look away from the intense shock, and she asked with a flushed face.
“Hey…… how is it?”
“H-how is it………… well… you’re beautiful?”
It was an honest impression. Her breasts were quite large.
“These, you could have touched them anytime if you were able to, Assistant Manager Son.”
“Y-y-yes!?”
“Haaaaaah……” A sigh at my questioning. A deeper sigh than when she was looking at the chaotic factory. “Think about it! Why would I leave a subordinate who works moderately but occasionally has his screws loose like a fool, and take care of him like that?”
“T-that’s…”
“I specifically picked you to come on this 2-day, 1-night business trip, and we’re sharing a room as a man and woman—do you really think I have nothing on my mind?”
“T-that is…?”
“I like you! I’ve liked you all this time, you idiot subordinate!”
…I was confessed to. It was the most intense confession of my life.
*Clang!* *Splosh…* The beer can on the hotel floor tipped over as the Team Leader moved after shouting that.
“…….”
“…….”
The half-full beer can spilled its contents, but no one pointed it out. We just looked into each other’s eyes, feeling the time slow down to a crawl. I couldn’t dare open my mouth in the face of such a shocking confession. Eventually, the Team Leader, braving the shame that had reached its peak, made one more suggestion.
“Even now… do you want to touch them?”
*Gulp!* The Team Leader knew. It was an irresistible offer from someone who seemed to know a thing or two about men. I was naturally happy about her favor. As a man, I was thrilled by a woman’s interest, and my reason was being shaken to the point where I wanted to run wild—who could dare refuse such an offer?
‘…….’
But I cooled down quickly. No, my weak reason, which I had forcibly grabbed, poured cold water on it and cooled it down. Because I had to say,
“I’m sorry, Team Leader. …………I have a woman I’m seeing right now.”
Such an obvious reason existed. Because I had someone I’d just started seeing. Actually, I was conflicted here too. I debated how to answer and decided to call her a ‘woman I’m seeing’ rather than a ‘girlfriend.’ Because that’s exactly what our relationship was. Still, the woman on my mind right now was Yeoeun. When I thought of Yeoeun, and imagined her expression—though I couldn’t quite picture it—I knew I could never betray her. This was the best answer.
“…………Huuu.”
At that, her shoulders slumped slightly. Unlike her earlier sigh of frustration, it was a sigh of, perhaps, bittersweet relief. The Team Leader lowered her long eyelids. Eventually, she forcibly pulled her lips into a smile.
“Hey. It’s not like I’m saying this because I was rejected to my face, but honestly, I kind of knew.”
“…….”
“You seemed a bit different lately, so it was a woman, huh? Looks like you met someone better than me.”
“No, that’s…!”
I leaned my upper body forward. I wanted to deny it somehow, so I immediately scrambled for words to comfort her.
“If I had known sooner, I definitely would have dated you, Team Leader! I-it’s a hypothetical, but if this conversation had come up before I started seeing her, I definitely would have…!”
Here, the Team Leader became flustered. She turned her chin this way and that, as if her ears were itching.
“It’s okay. P-politeness is unnecessary!”
“No, it’s not! If you really look at it, it’s a burden on me! I’ve always thought you were a great Team Leader who works hard. You’re pretty, too. You always have passion…!”
Hearing this, the Team Leader’s face turned even redder. Perhaps because it came out so suddenly, only these blunt, unrefined phrases came out, but she reacted strongly.
“……Then.”
Eventually, she rolled her eyes. She rolled her eyes, which had nowhere to go, and looked up at me from the front.
“…Since you said that much, I’ll take just one thing.”
“Yes? What… Ugh!?”
*Thump!* I fell backward with a dizzying sensation that the world had turned upside down. When I came to my senses, I realized I had fallen onto the hotel floor because the Team Leader had lunged at me.
“…….”
“……♡”
The erotic bra was still visible because her shirt was hiked up. She pressed down on me with her weight so I couldn’t escape, and… *Kiss* ♥ We locked lips. Very lightly, just a touch. And then, deeply for over five seconds. Afterward, she pulled her face away, eyes half-lidded. She pulled away her face, which was flushed red—whether from the alcohol or the act she’d committed herself—and said,
“This is the price for being so dense and not noticing until now.”
“…….”
Then, she unnecessarily added more weight. She pressed down on my shoulders and delivered her drunken truth.
“Hey, I feel bittersweet saying this, but… I liked that your eyes changed recently. You even knew how to be stubborn lately, and you were even cooler.”
“Is… that so?”
“That’s right. Assistant Manager Son. …No, wait. Seungwoo. Don’t you know your own worth? You get even more handsome the more you polish yourself.”
She playfully poked my brow with her index finger. My heart pounded. When she called me ‘Seungwoo’ by my name, my heart, which reason couldn’t reach, beat like crazy.
“We only live once, right? Live more coolly from now on.”
…She’s truly charming. Looking up at the Team Leader, who had shown such a shocking, hot move and yet was kindly offering advice, that was all I could think.
‘…I had so many good people around me.’
I thought I had no luck, but I was overflowing with good people. I had just been passing them by with indifference; there were countless opportunities to grasp if I just reached out.
“Don’t act awkward with me starting tomorrow just because I said this, okay?”
The Team Leader smiled brightly. ♡ She smiled softly, as if she, the one who failed the confession, was perfectly fine. It was a beautiful smile. I had thought that because she was capable and pretty, she could easily choose men as she passed by, but I realized only now just how pretty she was.
“……I will keep that in mind.”
I was grateful. I was overwhelmingly grateful and sorry to Team Leader Han Gaeun.
The second day of the business trip.
“Now, shall we work hard again today?”
The Team Leader spoke at length in front of me, perhaps because she was conscious of the fact that nothing had happened in the hotel room the night before. I tried to match her forcibly raised tension, but the awkwardness was unavoidable for the time being. Additionally, although it wouldn’t satisfy the Team Leader’s standards, I was able to look around the factory, which had been improved to some extent. Seeing that effort, the Team Leader gave them enough time for further improvements and set the next inspection date on the spot. Like a true working professional, she solved the problem not with a straight line, but with a graceful curve. And so, the business trip concluded.
The work ended without incident, but…
…
…
“Honey, what are you thinking about?”
“U-uh!?”
When I came to my senses, I was in a cafe with Yeoeun. At her remark, I stiffened my spine, having been lost in thought.
“No, no, what am I thinking about…”
Eventually, I hurriedly sucked on the coffee in front of me, saying it was nothing. Anyone could see I was awkwardly brushing off the topic.
‘…Should I consider this a betrayal?’
Since that day, I’d had a lot on my mind. I had rejected the Team Leader’s favor, but the lingering sensation on my lips remained. A deep, intense lingering feeling that had suddenly entered and would never be easily erased. I couldn’t cut it off right there due to the sudden atmosphere, and it kept bothering me. I debated whether I should tell Yeoeun about this fact right away, but the fact that our relationship was merely ‘sex friends’ held me back. Even if it wasn’t intentional, the deed was done. It was a situation where it would have been easier on my conscience to confess and find peace, but…
“Honey.”
“Uh-huh!?”
“Hehehe, why are you so startled by every little thing? Hmm~ Is it because it’s getting hotter lately? It’s starting to get hot, do you want to go cool off together?”
“Ah… should we go play somewhere like last time?”
“No, honestly, I don’t really like places with a lot of people watching.”
She waved her hand back and forth. ♥ As she beckoned me to come closer like a cat calling a person, I wondered what it was and leaned my upper body forward.
‘I know a mountain villa.’
‘!’
My concentration shot up the moment I heard that phrasing. ‘It’s a place where others can never come, but it has all the camping systems set up. Let’s play there all day long. ♥’
She stroked the back of my hand metaphorically as she whispered. She rubbed it until it was worn out, like polishing a lamp to bring out a genie. ‘A place with absolutely no people, just the two of us…?’ My brain stopped right there. In this atmosphere, I couldn’t dare bring up that other topic, so it tucked itself away. As the unfamiliar word ‘mountain villa’ and the violent word ‘just the two of us’ collided, all further thought ceased.
‘Let’s just put it aside for now…’
I put the Team Leader issue aside for the moment. I would either tell her later after reading the room, or bury it forever.