The Struggle for Control (2)
Even with the HR Management App in the palm of my hand, it wasn't truly omnipotent. Limits existed, and a pretty significant one at that.
The number of Intensive Management Targets.
Directly applying HR scores. Raising, lowering, or otherwise adjusting Promotion Desire. Tacking on extra conditions through the Remarks field. All of that required registering the person in question as an Intensive Management Target — and the maximum number of slots was only about ten.
The one silver lining, if you could call it that, was that there were no particular restrictions on registering or unregistering people.
"Woojin. A new product just dropped — could you check the schedule for me?"
"Ah, yes. Of course."
Which meant that to everyone outside those ten Intensive Management Targets, I was nothing more than a regular Assistant Manager.
So I had to actually work.
If there hadn't been a cap on how many people I could register... I really would have signed up every last person in this company and turned the whole place into my personal playground.
The fact that I couldn't was nothing short of a shame.
"Haaaaah..."
Get out here, you little yellow sponge who said Mondays were great. I'll wring the fuck out of you.
Mondays already sucked as it was. Coming back after a four-day mini-vacation spanning Thursday through Sunday made this particular Monday suck even harder.
I hammered the keyboard like I was trying to smash it to pieces. Made calls, took calls, ran errands. By the time I'd gone down to the first floor and climbed back up to the seventh, a glance at the clock told me it was already pushing five.
Part of me wanted to grab Lim Jiwoo and play around, but I was so buried that the thought didn't even surface as the end of another hectic day drew near...
"Ah..."
And when I got back to my desk, someone was hovering in front of it.
If it had been anyone else, I would have asked what they needed.
"Where were you that you couldn't even pick up your phone?"
"I was talking with the president of Daejin Industries."
"......"
This woman, though... I just didn't feel like it.
Just look at her.
"So? Why are you here?"
"Woojin, didn't I tell you to send up the new-hire roster the second orientation was over?"
Even if I had fewer years at the company, even if I was her junior — I was still an Assistant Manager. And even if she was from another department, calling me by name like that...
"I was about to. It's ready — I'll send it over."
"What were you doing that you didn't send it?"
"I only just received the compiled—"
"Forget it. Just send it already."
Ju Harin.
I half-listened to the HR employee's words, sat down at my desk, and Ju Harin shot me a look dripping with irritation before stalking out of the office.
I sent over the new-hire roster as she'd requested, then pulled out the HR Management App like it had already become a habit.
"Ju Harin..."
Promotion Desire: High.
She had a pretty strong hunger for promotion, and yet she'd still treated me like garbage just now. Probably because she wasn't an Intensive Management Target.
Which made a thought suddenly occur to me.
"Hmmm..."
Looking at Ju Harin's profile photo, a completely different kind of thought came bubbling up.
Honestly, Ju Harin was a pretty decent... no, no. She was a very fine woman.
Lim Jiwoo with her fox-like features. Chae Dayeon with her baby-kitten face. Han Minah with her warm, big-sister charm. And Ju Harin, with those enormous eyes and a face so striking she could have been a movie actress — a classic deer-like beauty.
Someone I could manage with the HR Management App... no. Someone worth managing.
In that case.
Might as well do it right now.
Honestly, I was a little excited. The image of an HR employee who wielded enormous power within the company, groveling at the feet of someone she personally despised, all because she wanted a promotion.
It might seem similar to Lim Jiwoo at a glance, but not even close. Ju Harin's "examination" was bound to unfold with a completely different flavor.
"You're so fu—"
"Woojin."
"Yes?!"
Jesus.
Someone called my name right as I was about to say something I really shouldn't have, and when I looked up, it was none other than Han Minah.
...She didn't hear that, right?
"W-what can I do for you...?"
"Did you meet with Daejin Industries?"
"Ah, yes. I was just about to submit the report, actually. It's all ready — I just need to send it over."
"Then please do so right away."
Whether she hadn't heard, or was just pretending she hadn't...
Han Minah gave me a gentle smile — the kind that belonged on the face of that angelic teacher everyone had a crush on at least once in school — and walked away.
"...This won't do."
I'd been trying to be careful because she was a married woman.
Starting with Ju Harin right away wouldn't have been a bad idea, but right now, healing the rotten mood she'd left me in felt like the better choice.
That face. That body. That voice.
I wanted to "use" Han Minah for a little healing.
I started with the most basic Remark, designed to create opportunities for the two of us to be alone... but.
"Good work today..."
Unfortunately, whether it was because it was Monday or not, no such opportunity presented itself.
The next day, however.
"Good morning, everyone~"
Han Minah came in looking the same as yesterday, but the moment she arrived she stared at me for a good long while before heading to her own desk.
Even after that, she kept stealing glances at me, like she had something she wanted to say. Every so often our eyes would meet and she'd quickly look away. After getting caught once, though, she seemed to decide she'd been found out, and stopped looking at me altogether.
Which meant I could stare at Han Minah as openly as I wanted, drinking in every detail.
An angel of a boss.
Her personality was genuinely wonderful, and what made that personality shine even brighter was Han Minah's appearance. Not a sly, fox-like eye-smile — a real smile, the kind that came naturally because she was a genuinely good person. Talking to Han Minah felt like there was an actual halo glowing behind her.
If I were to compare her to Lim Jiwoo...
Where Jiwoo had slightly narrow eyes, Minah's crinkled into a bright, beaming smile. Where Jiwoo's lips were thin and elongated, Minah's were full and plump. Where Jiwoo wore her long hair in waves, Minah had a soft, airy medium-length cut, loosely tied at the nape of her neck.
That was the kind of woman she was.
"Um, Woojin."
"Yes, Team Leader!"
Eventually, around eleven in the morning.
"Do you have a moment? It's nothing difficult — it's about last week's orientation."
"Of course. Shall I come now?"
"Yes, let's go to the small conference room."
Han Minah beamed — the kind of smile that made whoever saw it feel better — and got me up from my seat.
I stood up immediately and followed her out of the office. Her in front, me trailing behind.
Naturally...
Click. Click. Click. Click.
As Han Minah walked, the sway of her ample ass was impossible to miss.
I couldn't help but keep comparing her to Lim Jiwoo. She was a little shorter. Her chest was bigger than Jiwoo's E-cups. Her hips were just a touch wider, too. And... where Jiwoo had felt firm and springy when I'd grabbed her, Han Minah looked so soft that if I squeezed, my handprints would stay behind.
I walked along staring at that marshmallow-soft backside, and when we reached the small conference room I lifted my gaze and stepped inside.
Thud.
The door closed behind us.
"Have a seat, Woojin."
"Ah, yes."
She was a married woman. That just meant I had to be a little more careful about doing the same things — or similar things — I'd done with Lim Jiwoo. But since I'd already decided to make a move, the faster I acted, the better.
"Would you like some coffee, Woojin?"
"Ah, yes. I'll go make it."
"Mm-mm, no. I'll make it. You just sit tight."
While Han Minah stood in front of the coffee machine, I pulled out the phone with the HR Management App.
And then.
I set Han Minah and myself up as a marriage counselor and a married woman.
Except I wasn't getting paid for the counseling.
"You worked so hard on the orientation, Woojin. You spent almost a whole month preparing. Honestly, when you got pulled for the orientation team, it was pretty tough."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Why do you think? The department barely functioned without you. You have no idea how hard it was."
Because we were close. Close enough that she could spill even her most personal embarrassments — the easy, unguarded intimacy of a familiar noona and her little brother.
The chairs in this small conference room might as well have been those plastic bar stools that have you spilling your guts the second you sit down.
And so.
"It was pretty hard for me too."
"Why was it hard for you? I mean, you worked hard, sure, but didn't you have it pretty easy while you were there?"
"It was comfortable, yeah. But I couldn't see you, Team Leader. That's what made it hard."
A subordinate telling his team leader, to her face, that he'd had a hard time. A team leader telling her subordinate, to his face, that he'd been slacking off. A male subordinate throwing an obvious flirt at his female team leader.
And yet Han Minah—
"What are you saying? Woojin, you can't say things like that. I'm a married woman."
"Why? Do you think you know what I meant by that?"
"Then what did you mean?"
"I meant it purely. Just... that it was hard not seeing my wonderful team leader. That's all."
"Honestly..."
She smiled — bright and fresh, so citrus-sweet it made you think of tangerines.
In that state, Han Minah continued listening to the orientation report I'd already submitted. What had happened. What we should watch out for next year. How last year had gone one way and this year another.
After listening for a while, Han Minah said—
"...I'm jealous."
"Of what?"
"They're all so young. So fresh. Did anything like that happen during this orientation? Before, two new hires hit it off and it turned into a whole incident."
"Really?"
"Really. Of course, as a team leader I couldn't just let something like that slide, but... I'm just jealous. In a way, that's the kind of thing only people that age can do."
She suddenly started lamenting her own age.
It felt like a signal.
"That's not true at all. You don't look like that in the slightest, Team Leader. You look about the same age as me."
"...Do I really?"
"Yes. Honestly, who would look at you and think that age? I could look at you right now and go wow."
"...Even if you say that, Woojin. I don't think I look that way to my husband."
"Why not?"
"Why do you think I'm saying this? Because our nights together... well, they're not exactly satisfying."
There it was.
So I had to ask.
"...In what sense are they unsatisfying?"