The Experienced Rookie
"Well, I just... since I received an award with my senior today, I thought we could have a glass of wine... and while we were at the bar, if we just talked a bit..."
Eunbyul shifted her gaze to glare at Jia as she spoke. She had been all "Jia-unni" earlier, but now she was sharpening her claws again. "I thought we could do something, but... ugh. Who had to go and interrupt us without reading the room?"
"Hey, I didn't want to come either! My parents told me I had to go, so I..."
"You didn't *want* to come?"
As he added that single remark, Jia immediately abandoned her meal and hurried over to his side, trying to soothe him by insisting that wasn't what she meant at all. He, however, acted as if he couldn't care less.
"...I'm disappointed. I thought you had changed."
"No, really! It's just that when Eunbyul said that, I couldn't just sit there and listen...!"
"So the only thing you could say was that you didn't want to come?"
Now the target had shifted to Eunbyul.
"Wait, what did I do? Why—no, the senior was the one who first said I was being inconsiderate and—"
"Hey. Stop eating."
"Ugh, it's not like the unni did this, seriously!"
"Both of you, stop... I'm tired. Seriously."
Watching them fight made me feel like I was going to throw up; I had to put a stop to it immediately. They didn't fight anymore during the rest of the meal, but instead, the conversation shifted to something else.
"Oh, right. Senior, I'm moving out on my own now."
"Where? Did you sign a contract?"
"Yes. Over there, that..."
Because she was eating, Eunbyul couldn't speak properly, so she stretched her arm out to point somewhere instead. Seriously, why point to the left?
"Finish eating before you talk."
"Mmm, yum. Ah, this is really delicious. Anyway, it's the house next door to yours."
"....?"
He looked at Eunbyul with an expression that asked what on earth she was talking about, while Jia didn't spit out her food, but she did drop the fork she was holding. As he picked it up for her, he asked, "What do you mean, the house next door?"
"The house next door. The one right next to this one."
"...? This place is expensive... Oh, right."
Right. She had plenty of money.
"I have a lot of money, you know. Why act so surprised?"
"....Oh..."
"I looked at some officetels wondering where to live, but the rent near the office is insane. I thought if I were going to buy, I should buy an apartment... and when I checked the real estate listings, the place next to yours was on the market."
"So I signed the contract as soon as I saw it. Was it 3.37 billion won? Anyway. Unit 1701 in Building G, right? The one next door."
"That's true... but this place is huge, it has four rooms."
"I don't think I'll be living there for long anyway. Hmm... maybe in about a year, I'll be living here, eating and sleeping just like Jia-unni... and doing prenatal care. Isn't that how it'll end up?"
Just how far ahead was she thinking?
After finishing the meal, he went in to shower first. While Eunbyul was organizing her clothes and worrying about where to store the award and the medal, Jia was doing the dishes. Then Jia went in to wash up, and Eunbyul went in to wash... wait.
"Why, why are you going in?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm sleeping over."
"...?"
"Or do you want me to walk all the way home by myself? Wow, Senior, I didn't think you were that kind of person, you're trash."
"Tr—I'm your boss, you can't call me trash,"
"We're not at the office, we're at home. It doesn't matter, right? I'm going in~"
He stared blankly at Eunbyul as she entered the bathroom and closed the door. After drying his hair, wrapping his robe tightly, and lying on the master bedroom bed to check his phone, Jia naturally entered the room with her hair wrapped in a towel.
"Did you say anything to your parents?"
"...Well, what is there to say?"
"And the reason you were crying earlier was really just because of that?"
"Yes. Honestly, it's embarrassing. I don't understand why I just listened to that back then..."
Jia thought the embarrassment had grown even more, especially after he had looked back on the past and swapped their positions to show her exactly what her father had said.
As they were talking, Eunbyul also came into the bedroom with her hair wrapped in a towel, wearing a robe, and lay down on the bed.
"Ah, I'm sleepy," he said, and Eunbyul replied—
"You have to wake up early. The Chairman told you to come up tomorrow..."
"That's what I mean. It keeps bothering me. What could it be about?"
"Isn't he just going to talk about GPL?"
"Maybe... but I can handle that on my own, so why would he have something special to say..."
Right. That was the reason he felt so restless and frustrated, no matter what he did. He had received an award and everything seemed to be going well, yet he was still uneasy. Honestly, even when Eunbyul and Jia had asked him to touch them earlier, under normal circumstances, he would have just done it without any sign of reluctance. Objectively and subjectively, both had great bodies—one felt like a college student, the other like a married woman—and no one would hate it when two beautiful, capable women begged to have their private parts touched.
"Why do you find the Chairman so difficult?"
"But didn't he look comfortable today?"
"Anyone could see you were nervous. Hmm... Senior, I often get the feeling that you're not really the age you are."
Jia, who had closed her eyes slightly while resting her hand on his chest, opened them again and nodded.
"That's right. Hmm, it's a bit like that."
"Hey, you said you saw me as a younger brother."
"That's just because you're a younger brother... but when you work, and today when you met the President... and when you talked to my dad earlier, you looked different."
Jia, who had been busy with her own work until now and hadn't really been interested in what he did, spoke honestly. Then Eunbyul added,
"Anyway... Senior, honestly, I don't think twenty-eight is that old. You're currently..."
"Twenty-six. Oh, suddenly I feel much younger."
"Exactly. You could throw a tantrum at the Chairman, or get angry, but you looked as nervous as an elementary school student meeting a principal."
"I can't help it. ...I've been scolded a lot."
Hearing Eunbyul say that twenty-eight wasn't an old age, he pondered for a moment and nodded. It seemed... like she was right. If a high school boy 'A' takes the CSAT, he enters university at 20, or 21 if he repeats a year. Let's say that student goes to the military at 22. He returns to university at the beginning of his 24th year, and if he attends through 24 and 25, he graduates in February of his 26th year. If he's lucky, he joins a company at the beginning of his 26th year. Then at 28, he's just a second-year employee.
"I think you're just weighed down by the title of Executive Director."
"...?"
"Actually, it's true. You're only good at work. But I don't think you're very good at other things."
"I'm good at sex."
Jia interrupted, and he immediately covered her mouth.
"...Well, I don't know about that since I haven't tried it yet. Anyway, here is what I want to say. Senior, choose one. Either become a perfectly cool person—someone who is good at work, good at social life, doesn't get intimidated, and speaks well..."
"Or just grow up little by little as a young person. I think you have to choose one. It's strange. You're good at work, but you were easily fooled by a contract the secretary gave you and signed it. Honestly, thinking about it now, it's ridiculous. Senior, if I really hated that... if being sexually harassed by you was shameful, wouldn't I have gone to the police station to report it first instead of preparing a contract?"
She was right. That was because I was a fool...
"...That's true. Hmm..."
"So, try doing just one."
After that, he thought for a moment and said,
"I want to become successful and cool enough that everyone considers me amazing."
"..."
"But I think it's hard to do it alone."
Seeing him show a self-deprecating smile, as if to say it would have been easy if it were that simple, Eunbyul said,
"Then I'll have to help you with that from now on."
"How will you, ah. ...Right. Actually... I learn a lot from my secretary."
"You should do it professionally."
"But Eunbyul, how are you so good at your job? Why does Master... why does Suhyun always praise you?"
When Jia asked that, Eunbyul told her. She explained that her father had told her to work at Seongjeong, saying that even if she didn't inherit the company, she would still need to belong to some organization to earn a living, so it wasn't just about studying.
"So that's why you're good at work."
"Actually, Doowon is on the *really* comfortable side. If I had received my dad's company, I would have overhauled the computer system first."
Hmm. How bad was it?
"How efficient are we? We have a payment document box, an outbox, personnel data, and everything else can be found on the intranet. Plus, the way we write documents is the same as the government's official document writing method, so even if an experienced hire comes, they adapt immediately. These kinds of systems are important..."
"And construction companies are a bit too... crude, cold, and like that. They lack warmth. I went to work there every vacation, but employees didn't even talk to each other much. They only used messengers with people they were close to."
Still, the company was large and had many employees. By the way, that part was a problem. When doing M&A, you have to form good relationships between employees, but Doowon Construction...
"We talk a lot."
"Have you been there?"
"Yes. It's in Seongnam."
It looks like I'm going to sleep late.