The Start of Everything (35)
"...Anyway, that's how it went."
"Is it drunk driving, Senior?!"
"No!"
I didn't drink. Seriously, these tits... why do women never believe a word I say?
"Anyway, that girl is really persistent. The way she keeps hitting on you like that..."
"Tell me about it. It was exhausting."
"..."
Eunbyul looked grumpy the entire time she listened. While I was talking, she muttered to herself—
"Eunbyul, no strange thoughts."
"Exactly, how can you just hit someone with a car and kill them?"
Jia was surprisingly docile even after hearing the story. It seemed the shock of the divorce and Eunbyul's presence had left her unfazed by things like this.
"It would be better to just invite her to Master's house. Then I could just slit her carotid artery with a kitchen knife. The cleanup is easy, too."
"...."
"....S-Sister?"
"Master could just erase the CCTV footage, so I'd just have to stab her to death..."
This crazy bitch is saying such things so calmly. Did she break again?
"Anyway, so what does everyone think?"
"Master. This is... my opinion, um..."
"Yeah."
— In front of the Support Division office. While employees were coming in and out of the door, they kept glancing at a woman leaning against the wall next to it. Eunbyul had already started work early, and I had requested some leave to get my car serviced. Oh, for the record, this company allows leave to be taken by the hour. We use a flexible work system, but it doesn't apply to executives. So, if I say I'm taking leave from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM, Eunbyul hears it, reports it to the upper department, and gets it approved.
Anyway, as for who the woman leaning against the wall was right now.
"Who is that person?"
"I don't know... who is it? Team Leader, who is that in front of the door?"
"Ah, that's a DW Chemical employee. She must have something to report to the General Manager."
"Aha. Is it because of that accident...?"
"Did you all not tell anyone over the weekend?"
"Yes, yes."
"Good. Everyone, watch your mouths. If this leaks, we're all screwed."
It was Min Suyeon.
"..."
It's annoying, why make a woman wait... Min Suyeon thought, then clamped her hand over her mouth. What did she just think? She called a man who makes a woman wait "trash"? Min Suyeon, who had a bit of a feminist streak and tried not to distinguish between genders, felt embarrassed realizing she hadn't just referred to herself as a woman, but had been conscious of him the whole time.
I'm not waiting.
An apology for what happened yesterday...
Actually, an apology to a man. To that scum. It was an act she couldn't possibly understand, but after sobering up and preparing for work, she remembered what happened yesterday. She had screamed so loudly the bathroom mirror almost shattered, and she was worried sick about how to handle this massive disaster. That was why she had come to the headquarters this morning. She had used a half-day of leave for the first time, even though she had intended to cash out all her annual leave.
She didn't want to apologize, but strangely, her body was drawn to him. She had to do it, she had to... even if it killed her. Even if? Why?
"Hello, yes, yes, good morning."
"General Manager!"
"Yes? What is it?"
"I've been looking for you everywhere!"
"My car broke down, so I went to get it fixed. What is it?"
"We made a mistake in the numerical display of our planning proposal, so I don't know how high this went up..."
I told them it wasn't a big deal. The expected profit through infrastructure construction should have been marked as 13.82%, but due to a new employee's mistake, it had been approved as 138.2%. A team leader in his late 30s had run up dozens of floors in one go to beg for his life.
"This approval line..."
"It seems to have gone to the Business Management Control Director."
"It's fine. I'll go see the Director, get a good earful, and it'll be over!"
"...."
"I'm joking. You must be busy, so go ahead and get back to work."
"...Thank you..."
As I walked down the hallway, the closer I got to the door, the more I saw someone who shouldn't be there. To Min Suyeon, who hurriedly turned her head and pretended to be busy when our eyes met,
"Ah, hello. Ms. Min Suyeon."
"...Get lost."
Is that the right way to greet someone?
"Yes, it seems you have something going on. Good luck..."
"Hey... you, come with me..."
To the rooftop?
"Where are you talking about? I'm sorry, but I have to report to the Director right now..."
"For fuck's sake, just come if I tell you to...!"
Min Suyeon grabbed my wrist roughly and walked somewhere. An empty conference room. She didn't even lock the door, so I locked it instead. The LED indicating it was in use lit up, and,
"I'm really busy right now, so quickly..."
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
"...?"
"Why aren't you even contacting me?"
Looking at her, saying, You know my phone number,
"What kind of contact are you talking about?"
"...."
But she would rather die than say what she did yesterday. It felt like she had blown nearly 100 million won. And she had tried to pounce on her superior... a high-ranking executive. It was hard to admit that, so,
"Fuck, I don't know, ...I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I was trying to say I'm sorry!"
"...?"
Oh, she's apologizing after two days? That's a huge improvement. But I wasn't expecting an apology...
"Ms. Min Suyeon, the apology is fine. Why go this far?"
"No, just hurry up and accept the apology."
"...Yes. Accepted."
I wanted to say, Where's the Apple?, but I stayed quiet, thinking I might actually get slapped. This wasn't the attitude of someone apologizing. There was hostility and anger in those eyes for some unknown reason. Not knowing that it was just her being mortified by her own actions, I thought yesterday might have been a temporary phenomenon,
"Well, then, you've apologized. Are we done?"
"...?"
"Why, what is it now?"
"...If you apologize, then..."
Come to think of it, Min Suyeon had never apologized to anyone in her life. So she thought if she apologized like this, the other person would say something, and then she would have to say something back, but,
"Is this it?"
"...? This is... if you apologize, then..."
Shouldn't she be asking for something if she apologizes? Like, I can't accept this for free, do this and that. Isn't there something like that? Min Suyeon thought, but I was stressed out of my mind thinking about reporting to my superior again.
"Yes. So...?"
"..."
I don't know what kind of life she's lived, but at least Min Suyeon thought that by apologizing, she would be demanded to pay a huge compensation or offer her body. Of course, she couldn't pay if money was demanded, so she planned to muddle through with her body. After waking up and remembering yesterday, and then remembering his face and his upper body in a suit, her underwear had gotten damp again. ...To be honest, she still wanted to do it...
"Well, if you're done speaking, then..."
"...No, shouldn't you demand something? Do you just accept it if I apologize?"
Hearing Min Suyeon's words as I was about to get up, I looked at her for a moment, pondered, and said,
"Ah! That's right."
"...?"
"Ms. Min Suyeon, there's somewhere you and I need to go. A demand, sure. I'll make a demand. This conference room schedule..."
Finding out on my phone that the conference room was empty,
"Now, from now on, until I come back, just stay here quietly. Got it?"
"That's... the demand?"
Actually, Min Suyeon had been very worried, so before setting foot in the headquarters building, she had visited a nearby convenience store and bought condoms. ...Because she thought they might do it at the company. Min Suyeon, fiddling with them in her pocket, felt a sense of futility.
"Yes, there's somewhere we need to go. Just wait here quietly."
"Director~"
Two knocks. I heard a "Yes~" and entered the Business Management Control Director's office, one floor up.
"What is it? Our big star, the General Manager?"
Business Management Control Director, Executive Director Kim Yungyeong. She's a female executive. Oh, for the record, she worked at ISG for 10 years before sitting here.
"Do you have a moment?"
"Yes~ I do, since our little Chairman has graced me with his presence without even making an appointment."
"...."
The Director likes giving nicknames. If she's in a good mood, she calls me Suhyun-ie or Little Chairman like this, but if she's in a bad mood—
"HEY!!! HAN SUHYUN!! DO YOU THINK YOU'RE ALL THAT JUST BECAUSE YOUR DAD IS THE CHAIRMAN!!!!!!"
She's the type of person who says that. Anyway, standing in front of her with the crumpled document,
"Regarding the Doowon Card Open Banking infrastructure construction... there's an error in the planning proposal, so I came to correct it."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Please correct it."
"Is that so?"
This lady is always like this... She teases me like that, but her work is efficient. People who have cut their teeth at ISG are like this. They are people who focus on fixing things quickly without getting angry even if you make a mistake.
So,
"I know. No, Suhyun, what is Open Banking?"
"It's where you can see all account, card, and loan details from other financial institutions at one financial institution..."
"Does total revenue go up by 138% just by doing that?"
"No, it doesn't."
"You knew that, yet you submitted the approval like that?"
"I'm sorry."
She does this, but,
"I already fixed it. It was a decimal point error, right?"
"...! Yes, that's right..."
"Yup. Are you done?"
"Yes..."
Thank goodness. If it had gone any higher, I wouldn't have been able to fix the error...
"Then I have something to say, too."
"...?"
"Sit down. Over there."