The Executive's Dinner
“If it were me, I’d say, ‘But shouldn’t you be delegating this kind of work to the associates or assistant managers?!’”
“Everyone is busy in their own way.”
Eunbyul kept asking questions. It reminded him of his previous secretary. She had been four or five years older than him. When he first entered the secretary’s office after his promotion, the General Manager he was supposed to serve was always fumbling around, and there wasn’t a single thing properly organized. He remembered how he and the secretary had to stay until 9:00 PM every night just to prepare and arrange everything. At first, the General Manager couldn’t even speak properly and was always nervous.
As he thought about that and looked at her, she said, “Hey, isn’t everyone just pretending to be busy? General Manager, you’re too naive...”
“Quiet. Or I’ll send you back to the Procurement Team and make you do the secretarial work on top of that.”
“.....”
Good. That shut her up! But then,
“What is this?”
“It’s the executive-only intranet site. You handle administrative tasks here.”
She opened her mouth to start asking questions again. “What about this?”
“From the left, it’s major public institution international information, incoming mail, outgoing mail, approvals, progress monitoring...”
“It’s a bit different from what I use!”
“...Obviously...”
She began to manipulate his computer, sliding her hands onto his keyboard and mouse. He stared at her blankly, thinking, ‘Ugh. She really is the exhausting type...’
He continued to teach her the work. When he told her that work started at 8:00 AM, she looked like she was going to faint, but it was necessary to keep up with the schedule. He taught her simple things, like how to write a schedule listing his tasks for the day and how to revise and announce changes if they occurred. Normally, one would be expected to be trained and ready before being deployed, but he wasn’t the type to wait for that.
“But I don’t understand why the other employees make typos and don’t even proofread. It’s such a major corporation.”
“People make mistakes when they do things. Even I didn’t notice the weird parts while I was writing it.”
“...That’s because you seem a bit of a klutz, General Manager...!”
“You do it all, then.”
When he tossed a pile of documents at her, she was startled and quickly caught the falling stack of paper. Then he said,
“Stop looking down on the other employees. Is that your natural personality?”
“Ah... I, that is...”
“Don’t make excuses. I don’t know what kind of person you are, but the other employees are working their fingers to the bone here. Someone might be the head of a household, and someone else might be a working mom who dropped her baby off at daycare all day and is constantly worried. Why do you keep looking down on people like that? Just because you became a secretary and got promoted quickly, do you think you’ve become something special?”
He had been listening quietly, but he snapped at her as if he were angry. It was strange that he felt so angry. He was usually the type to laugh these things off. When he looked at Eunbyul after saying that,
“...I didn’t say it with that intention, I just...”
“...?”
“I, I wanted to get close to you, Senior... so...”
He looked at her, his lips curling slightly, then let out a deep sigh.
“I came here to work. We are colleagues who see each other for work. What is there to be close about?”
“....”
“I hate people who come to the company to meet people instead of working. Fix it.”
— Today’s company dinner.
— Personnel transfer.
— Handle it yourself.
He sent a message like that. If someone asked why he was so polite to his ex-wife, it was just his personality. If someone was at home, whether it was his ex-wife, his wife, or a friend, he always let them know. He would tell them he couldn’t make it because of this or that. It was his habit to inform them even if he was going to be late.
Where did he learn that? From his father.
“Get up, you brat.”
“Yes.”
“Time is gold, and a promise is trust!!! Didn’t I clearly tell you to come home early today?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s not just that your credibility drops; it’s the same as you stealing someone else’s gold bars. Just as your time is precious, you must be considerate of others’ time.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not scolding you for being late, you idiot! ...Even if it’s a last-minute realization, you must ask for understanding from the person you made the promise to, and even if you are late, you must keep the promise you made. Keep that in mind from now on.”
His father was that kind of person. If his son wanted to go to a gaming cafe with his friends for a bit, he would let it slide. However, he hated two things the most: not keeping promises and causing harm to others. That was why he always said things like, ‘I’m really sorry for causing you trouble.’ Of course, he meant that ‘trouble’ in a different sense. That was how he became the person he was. While receiving that kind of education, he learned with his body and heart that it was important. If he broke a rule, he had to stay in a push-up position all day. He couldn’t even go to school. When the homeroom teacher contacted them, his father would say,
“Yes. My son made a big mistake, so I will not be sending him to school today; I will educate him at home.”
“Ah... yes. That... yes, I understand.”
“I’m sorry for the concern. Please, I ask for your understanding.”
He would say things like that. After that, he entered the dinner venue with his secretary, her, and all the staff from the Support Division. In any other department, they would have been desperate to escape, wondering if it was another company dinner, but the moment he sent the note saying they would have a dinner,
“...? This person, no, this gentleman wants to have a company dinner?”
“I didn’t misread that, did I...?”
“Pa, pack your bags immediately... Hurry, hurry, make a restaurant reservation too... What does the General Manager like? Today is our chance to get into his good graces.”
“...I’ve never had a company dinner with him, so I don’t really...”
“Be... Beef! Let’s go for beef, Team Leader.”
He had married early, at the same time he was appointed as an executive, and in the first year, he said he couldn’t attend any dinners because he was a newlywed. In the second year, until the divorce,
“Ah... I have to pick up my wife and take her home. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t really drink. I don’t like it... so you all should go ahead and drink. On my card... here.”
“I’m young, so... it’s a bit, a bit difficult, haha... Please drink comfortably.”
That was how it had been. It was a dinner where all department members attended. Not only the department members, but because the rumor spread through the messenger, employees from other departments who were acquainted with him were actively asking the Support Division members if they could sneak in, too. It couldn’t be helped. They had expectations: what kind of person was the Chairman’s son outside the company, and if they could talk comfortably in a setting like this, they might get closer and benefit from it, or even climb the promotion ladder.
“Let’s go in. It’s hot.”
“So, the General Manager just then...”
“Really? Amazing, what do we do?”
“....No, well, that was just... it happened that way while I was working, so I...”
“Were you summoned?”
“I had no choice... Life is just like that...”
Usually, in a dinner where an executive is present, the frozen atmosphere would be turned into a freezer, and someone would say, “Come on, come on. Drink comfortably. Don’t think I’m here.” But he had already built a professional rapport with the staff. Just as he was about to say something awkward, the staff were already focused on him, bringing up anecdotes related to him one by one.
“But I have a question.”
“...?”
“By any chance, have you ever eaten instant ramen, General Manager?”
“Yes?”
“Pwahahaha, what are you talking about! Of course he would!”
“No, chaebols might not eat things like that...”
He had eaten a lot. Really a lot. Because his wife didn’t cook for him. While he kept his mouth shut and smiled, thinking that, Eunbyul suddenly said,
“He must have eaten it. I think he’d like ramen!”
“...That’s right. No, chaebols aren’t anything special! I also... over there, I like Hansot Dosirak! Eh? Over there, that... PC cafe! I go to PC cafes often, too!”
“Commoners don’t brag about going to places like that. General Manager!”
As she snapped at him, he couldn’t say anything and just glared at her, while the staff looked at him and burst into laughter. No one found it strange that Eunbyul, who had come today for the first time, was speaking so comfortably. How did the company become like this...
“What else is there?”
“...I won’t tell you. I’m sulking.”
“She says she’s sulking, oh my god!”
Usually, the female employees would throw huge questions at him, and the male employees would throw a question or two from the side. Even so, they laughed at everything they could. He couldn’t avoid drinking. Although he had blacked out last time... well, this much wouldn’t even come close. Back then, he had been drinking without stopping. After he emptied another glass, Eunbyul, who was sitting next to him, brought everyone’s glasses over to mix soju-beer, reminding him of his college days, and they bombarded him with questions.
“What kind of cigarettes do you smoke, General Manager?”
“I... th-this... I smoke 0.1.”
“Wow... that’s a real old-man cigarette...”
“This is mild and good, that... no, well... my father, no, the Chairman smokes this often, so I followed...”
“Try this later instead of that.”
The team leader placed a grape-scented cigarette in his hand. He smelled the capsule and whispered softly that it was okay. While he was carefully putting it back into the cigarette case, more questions followed.
“Is your wealth really 10 trillion won?”
“That is... ha...”
“What does it feel like to have 10 trillion won?”
“No, you can’t even really use that. It’s all stocks, mostly? And if the news says the Chairman’s son sold company shares, the stock price hits the lower limit immediately. People think something must be going on. There’s not much I actually spend.”
“General Manager, you’re married, do you give your whole salary to your wife?”
Eunbyul looked at him sideways.
“Ah... well, sometimes I give it...”
“...Wow...”
“Even a chaebol is no match for his wife.”
“This is why everyone says you shouldn’t get married. Hey, us? Male employees, okay? Listen to the Team Leader.”
“How do you know, Team Leader? ....Ah~”
“...I didn’t want to know.”
He leaned back comfortably, mingling with the idle chatter, and when the glasses were filled, everyone raised them for a toast. While the sound of “For the sake of!” rang out, Eunbyul emptied her glass and said,
“If it were me, I wouldn’t take my husband’s money.”
“...?”
“It’s money your husband earned by working hard. Why would you take that? I’ll earn enough so that I won’t need to take that money.”
Slowly, she looked at him and said.