Office Romance Management App

A certain manager at a fairly large corporation—one big enough to own a professional baseball team…

"…From now on, I think Jichan will have to handle things."

"……."

He died.

The cause of death was crystal clear.

Traffic accident.

A few days ago, after getting drunk and jaywalking, he got hit by a car and left this world just like that.

Sadness… not quite.

There was a sense of regret that a pretty good person, a good hyung, and a good senior was no longer in this world.

We weren't that close privately, after all.

And…

"Still, well… Jichan, you should look on the bright side. Yuhon's gone, but if you fill his spot well from now on, your promotion will come that much faster."

"Ah… yes."

"Then I'll leave it to you. From now on, work from Yuhon's desk."

Tap tap—

As a mere office worker worn down by the ways of the world, there was also irritation that I had to fill the hole left by one person vanishing from the department.

Honestly.

The work I was already doing was annoying enough to make me want to die, and now more of my work was being piled on top of it.

Handover?

There was no such thing, so I had to figure out and imitate what that person had been doing on my own. Going forward, I had to handle both my original work and his at the same time.

Otherwise I'd get fired.

This is a company, after all.

Kim Yuhon.

About a week after the manager of Gaon Corporation left this world, there was no one left who positively missed this person.

I'd barely clocked in that morning when the team leader hit me with that speech.

Sure enough, it went exactly as I'd expected.

The company showed no mercy to the guy now handling both his own work and Manager Kim Yuhon's at the same time.

…So what else? Overtime, of course.

A little past the official quitting time of six—six-thirty.

Of the just-under-ten people in Planning Team 1, I was the only one who still hadn't left.

No.

Even if I widened the scope to Planning Teams 1, 2, and 3 combined, I was the only one still here.

"…This is fucking creepy."

The lights were on, sure.

But the fact that I was the only person hammering away at a keyboard in this wide, lit-up space made it feel even more alien.

And of course.

"Hey."

"Ah… shit, you scared the hell out of me."

"Why so jumpy?"

"…I've been alone this whole time. Of course I'm gonna jump if you suddenly call me from behind."

My entry-cohort colleague, Park Humin, grinned and pointed a finger toward the outside.

The gesture clearly meant "let's smoke one," so I pulled out a cigarette and followed him out to the terrace.

Snap!

The turbo lighter's neck clicked and the cigarette caught flame.

Pssht—

I cracked open the can of coffee Park Humin handed me and tasted that unpleasant sweetness.

And then.

"…This is bullshit."

I described my current mood without any filter.

Park Humin seemed to share the feeling…

"…But why haven't you clocked out yet?"

"I'm about to. Just stopped by for a bit before heading out."

"I'm so jealous I could die."

"Then why'd you go to Planning?"

"You think I came here because I wanted to…?"

"Fair enough."

I'd been wondering why he was still around.

Apparently he'd just dropped by to mess with me a little before going home.

"Still, hang in there. In a way, this is an opportunity."

"Opportunity my ass."

"I'm not wrong, though. The company's already looking at you pretty favorably. If you nail this too, aren't you gonna make manager before you even hit thirty?"

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting…?"

"Still. Out of all our cohort, you're the only one who made assistant manager."

"You think I made assistant manager because I wanted to?"

Being the only assistant manager among my entry cohort could maybe count as something to brag about.

But the sociologists analyzing this would say they just found one easy sucker to dump work on and promoted me for that reason.

Still, humans are animals of adaptation.

A year after making assistant manager, I'd somehow been navigating the flood of work without any major screw-ups.

And then…

"…But not right now. No matter how easy a manager looks, a manager is still a manager."

…Manager Kim Yuhon had disappeared, and I'd been left to take over his role.

"But you can't stay a staffer or assistant manager forever anyway. You promote, you get a fat paycheck, and then you get married too."

"Marriage… you thinking about getting married?"

"Not really?"

"And you're bringing up marriage to me?"

"So what? Manager Kim did it."

"Manager Kim…"

…Yeah. Manager Kim Yuhon had gotten married. Yeah, he had.

"It's possible, right? Even if his ability was… kind of whatever, he was still a manager at a big corporation."

"Still, I was kind of jealous."

"Of what?"

"His wife. I mean, I know it's weird talking about a dead guy like this, but his wife was seriously drop-dead gorgeous."

"Yeah… that's true."

"There's a rumor that he was hitting on this girl and that girl until he finally landed the one who's his wife now. You know those four at our company."

"Those four? Ah… ah."

"Those four might not talk to other guys, but they used to chat with Manager Kim a bit. And then they all shot him down."

This was a pretty well-known story around the office.

Apparently Manager Kim Yuhon had just been a little closer to those "four" than the average employee.

But it had only been closeness—nothing had ever developed with any of them.

"So after getting shot down a few times… he met his current wife, who's got a kind heart. From where I'm standing, this one's pretty credible."

Coming from Park Humin, a guy specialized in chasing women, it did sound somewhat believable…

But keeping the conversation on a dead man was starting to feel off.

"Manager Kim must've had his own charm. His wife fell for it. That's how we should think about it. What's the point of talking about someone who's already gone?"

"Yeah, true."

Park Humin, too, seemed to realize a beat too late that he'd gone too far. He hurriedly stubbed his cigarette into the ashtray and gave an awkward smile.

"Anyway, hang in there. Honestly, at my level, that's about all I can say."

"…Yeah. Thanks."

Park Humin really did feel like a friend.

He was genuinely worried about me—or congratulating me.

But a few other people were looking at me with envy.

As the guy who'd lucked into assistant manager and might now luck into a fast track to manager as well.

Without even knowing what was going on inside someone else's head.

"I'm out."

"Go…"

The one cohort mate who actually got me left with a simple "see you tomorrow" and headed off alone.

"……."

Stub—

Irritably, I ground my cigarette into the ashtray and headed back to my seat.

The seat where Manager Kim Yuhon used to sit and work.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Sitting in a dead man's chair and working felt somehow strange.

Not quite creepy.

Just, literally, a strange mood as I poked around the previous manager's computer.

Looking through it, I could at least confirm I wasn't completely hopeless at work…

"Why the hell did he organize it like this…"

Among the export lists Manager Kim Yuhon had left, I cleaned up one that had been arranged in a way that made it hard to read, making it a little easier on the eyes.

But since I had to do all the copy-pasting by hand, it took a bit of time.

By the time I finished, it was seven-thirty.

"…Guess I'll have to push through till ten."

I didn't really have any hobbies anyway.

I had friends, but they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were all out in the provinces. If I went home I'd just eat, mess around on my phone a bit, and fall asleep.

In that case.

It was better to fill the time solidly until ten, when the overtime pay kicked in, and fill my bank account along with it.

Judging by how the company was running… Manager Kim Yuhon's work was definitely going to land on me for good.

"They'll hire a junior for me, right?"

I said it even though I knew there was no chance of that.

I glanced once at the seat I'd been sitting in until yesterday, then started hammering the keyboard again.

Nine fifty-five.

It was about time to wrap things up.

At ten o'clock—plus the one-minute grace period they gave you, so ten-oh-one—every computer in the building shut down.

And they wouldn't turn back on.

I'd already finished today's share of work anyway.

"…Might as well take a look."

In the remaining five minutes, I decided to explore Manager Kim Yuhon's computer.

It was going to be my computer from now on, and it had belonged to my predecessor.

Who knew what hidden cheat sheets might be buried in here?

I poked around the files with that in mind, and then—

"…Office Romance Management App?"

I found something weird.

"…What the hell is this?"

The administrator field was empty.

…If I had to guess, Manager Kim Yuhon had been running it until he died, so the seat was vacant now?

"So what, after Manager Kim passed… someone took his name off the administrator slot?"

If someone else had removed Manager Kim Yuhon's name from the administrator field… that would mean other people knew this Office Romance whatever-it-was existed.

But that part didn't really catch my eye.

Because all four names listed underneath…

"Seon Yeonwoo, Senior Chu, Eunseo, and that bitch…"

…were the women at our company who most easily drew men's eyes.

These four were the very "four" Park Humin and I had been talking about earlier.

Something—I needed some kind of explanation that would help me understand this better.

I poked around until I found a text file at the bottom that looked like instructions.

I opened it right away.

…That was the gist.

Reading a little more carefully, it said that the moment someone was added as a management target, office romance became forbidden for them.

But what the hell did that even mean?

"…No, wait."

…I thought about it.

Our company was a big corporation in its own right, so it had its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fair share of decent-looking guys.

Come to think of it.

All four women whose names were written here had outright hated those guys' advances.

Except for one person.

"The administrator is exempt…"

Except for Manager Kim Yuhon.

What kind of person had Manager Kim Yuhon been?

Objectively and subjectively… he'd been an ugly guy.

His family background wasn't anything special either.

Manager was a high rank if you stretched it, but not a position you could throw around at just anyone.

"Coincidence…"

Ding!

But I didn't have any more time to think.

One minute.

"……."

I sat there fretting for that one minute, and then…

I put my name in the empty administrator field and hit save.

A week had passed since I wrote my name in as administrator of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Office Romance Management App, but nothing particularly dramatic had happened.

No matter how I tore it apart and examined it from every angle, there was no further detailed explanation about the Office Romance Management App.

Which meant I had to figure it out myself. And the most reliable people to ask were the four who had been listed as management targets.

Seon Yeonwoo, Chu Yeonju, Park Eunseo, An Jihye.

All four of them had their own distinct charms… the kind of women who, if they ran social media, would have racked up a serious follower count.

In fact, An Jihye was on the trendiest SNS of the moment—Innergram—and had around sixty thousand followers.

And whether by coincidence or not, all four of them had some kind of connection to me as well.

First of all…

"…Eunseo."

"Hm?"

"Ah… never mind."

"What? You call me and then nothing? You've been working overtime a lot lately—are you that tired?"

Park Eunseo.

My cohort mate, and a woman the same age as me.

With her black hair pulled tight into a ponytail that showed off her neckline, Park Eunseo gave me a sly little smile.

"…No, it's nothing big. Just wondering if anything's been going on with you lately."

"Nothing much with me."

"……."

Park Eunseo and I could be considered pretty close… or rather, we had been.

Thanks to being cohort mates along with Park Humin, she'd been one of the people we'd leaned on together.

But at some point a strange distance had started to open up between Park Eunseo and me.

I couldn't pin down exactly when it had started…

"…You were close with Manager Kim Yuhon, right?"

"Manager Kim? Not really close. Just someone who worked at the same company."

…What if that distance had started right after Manager Kim Yuhon put Park Eunseo's name in the Office Romance Management App?

"What are you doing after work today?"

"Wanna grab a drink?"

"Yeah. Just a simple beer."

"Hmm… sure. Things must be rough lately. Alright, go ahead and dump all your hardships on this noona—."

"What noona…"

It seemed like a good idea to talk with Park Eunseo today and dig into this a little.

"But are you gonna be okay? You've been doing nothing but overtime lately."

"…I'll leave early today. I've been working late every day and I've pretty much finished taking over everything, so today's a bit freer."

"Ooooh… as expected of Choi Jichan. So cool—."

"Think you might fall for me a little?"

"A little?"

She was such a little tease.

She drew a heart with her fingers and smiled, and that look mixed with her signature foxy features made her look especially mischievous.

"And even without that. It's Friday—you should rest a bit…"

"Yeah, message me when you're done. I might finish even earlier than you, so I'll wait."

"Okay. I'll text you later."

"Hang in there—."

I left Park Eunseo there and headed back to my seat.