The Company's Homemaker
Inside a café with a cozy, charming interior—the kind of place women tended to love—a cluster of rare beauties sat huddled together, cackling and chattering away.
"No, seriously, so my boyfriend the other day—"
"Insane~ Hey, any of your boyfriend's friends worth a look? If so, hook me up—"
Among them was one of PlayForge's proudest assets, Art Team Leader Cha Juhui, who lay slumped across the table, only half-listening to her friends' gossip.
Yesterday she'd worked only the morning shift before clocking out, and she'd just been granted a full week of vacation—but the thought of having to grind all over again the moment she returned drained any excitement right out of her.
"Juhui. Are you even listening?"
"Mmhm... Your boyfriend got you a necklace."
"Hey! That was ten minutes ago! We're talking about Sunyoung's new job now."
At the mention of a company, Cha Juhui shot upright.
"Sunyoung, you got a job? When?"
"You don't even check the group chat? I got hired last month."
"Putting your degree to use?"
"Not really, it's just a cosmetics company. You know Natural Beauty? I got onto their marketing team."
That was a company Cha Juhui couldn't possibly not know. Several of the cosmetics in her bag were Natural Beauty products.
"Isn't that a major corporation? Congrats!"
"Hardly~ What do you mean, major corporation? We're mid-tier at best."
"Oh come on~ A company like Natural Beauty? Everyone knows that name. That's a major corporation!"
Cha Juhui knew exactly how much her friend had struggled to find work, so she congratulated her with genuine warmth.
"Oh! Right. Juhui, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."
"What is it?"
"Well, you were the first of us to land a job, right? Suji's not planning to work at all, and Hayeon still hasn't... she's busy stacking credentials to aim for a big company. So there are a few things I want to ask about working at a company."
Different industries, so Cha Juhui doubted there'd be much useful to say—but her friend could count her as a workplace senior at least, so she nodded.
"Ask away."
"Great. So, um... does your company make you work a lot of overtime too? I was starting to think mine was just unusually bad. My official hours end at six, right? But since I started, I haven't left on time a single day. Usually I'm out a little past seven. Is it the same for you?"
"Leaving at seven?! Is your company heaven?"
"Huh?"
A company like that actually exists in this world?!
At PlayForge, an extra hour was the bare minimum, and two to three was standard—so Cha Juhui couldn't help but envy her friend.
"God, I'm jealous... My average is somewhere between eight and nine..."
"They make you do that much overtime?"
"Yes! Our CEO is an absolute psycho! Like the overtime wasn't enough, he actually asks for volunteers to come in on weekends!"
"O-oh, I see.... S-so everyone works overtime, huh... And here I thought my company was the weird one..."
The friends sitting nearby, who'd been listening in, joined the conversation.
"Isn't overtime pretty normal? My boyfriend works late almost every day."
"My job-hunting study group says the same thing. Doesn't matter where you go—there's no company that doesn't do overtime. Apparently even the big corporations are the same."
Cha Juhui bristled.
"My average is eight to nine, and on bad nights I'm there until midnight!"
"Okay, that's a bit much! What kind of company does that~"
Watching her friends burst out laughing, thinking she was joking, Cha Juhui's stomach churned.
I'm not joking...
Whenever an update or a development deadline loomed, they'd call it crunch and work past ten o'clock more often than not.
"Juhui, I believe you. My team lead mentioned that our company has that happen sometimes too."
"Thanks, Sunyoung..."
"But apparently they don't even cover your taxi fare. Even after the last train's gone."
"Wait, what? Ours does?"
Wasn't taxi fare for overtime just basic decency?
"I heard it from my boyfriend. Says they won't even give him taxi money, let alone overtime pay."
"Shouldn't overtime pay be a given?"
"Well, if every company actually paid it properly, why would the labor board exist?"
They don't pay overtime?
"I do feel kind of sorry for you, Juhui. When you leave late, it takes you another hour or two just to get home, so you have no personal time at all."
"My commute's twenty minutes?"
"What? Did you move?"
"Did I not tell you? The company covers up to 800,000 won of my housing costs, so I moved into an officetel near Pangyo."
Early in her employment, she'd taken out a loan for the deposit and maxed out the company's rent subsidy to move into a decent place—80 square meters of housing for 300,000 won a month out of pocket.
"Huh?! Seriously? What about the deposit?"
"The company loaned it to me?"
"Wow. Your company must have amazing benefits~"
A strange feeling creeping over her, Cha Juhui turned to the only actual office worker among them.
"Sunyoung... how much meal allowance do you get, roughly?"
"Us? 10,000 won."
"Do they cover meals when you work late?"
"Not an allowance exactly... sometimes the boss treats us on the company card."
20,000 won for lunch, 20,000 won for dinner.
She was beginning to realize that PlayForge's meal allowance was on the generous side.
Subsidized self-development courses and free state-of-the-art equipment.
Holiday bonuses and department store gift sets.
Birthday bonuses, condolence and congratulation payments for family events, and on and on.
A premium coffee machine in the break room, with unlimited snacks and drinks.
So this stuff wasn't just... normal?
Compared to her friend's reasonably well-known company, PlayForge's benefits were overwhelming.
But so what? They make me work overtime every single day!
No matter how much they paid her, she had no time to spend it. Money on paper, nothing more.
"Juhui. I know this is rude to ask... but... could I ask what your salary is?"
"Between friends? Rude my foot. Salary? Around 36 million won."
"See? The benefits were so good I had to wonder. So a bit more than me—"
"Oh, but with bonuses, I made close to 100 million won last year."
Her friends' eyes went wide at her annual income.
"A hundred million won?!"
"Juhui, you make that much? You little brat, and here I bought your coffee because I felt sorry for you! Dinner's on you tonight!"
"Y-you're in your first year, right? I don't think even my department head makes that..."
Cha Juhui shook her head at Sunyoung's remark.
"They call it my first year, but I did two or three years' worth of work in that one year. So it's only fair, right?"
It was anything but fair. Sunyoung had never once heard of a company that gave out that kind of money just because someone worked hard.
"Juhui... when's your company's next open recruitment?"
"Huh? Why do you ask about my company?"
"Do you think I could transfer there?"
Cha Juhui thought her friend was joking, but she was dead serious. When's the next hiring round? How big are the bonuses usually? Can I apply without a 3D graphics degree if my portfolio's solid? I could start learning now, and so on.
"S-Sunyoung. Wasn't your company supposed to be great?"
"Hey! With a pay gap like this, who cares about great! Your new hires probably make double what I do! It makes way more sense to start preparing now and go to your company! Hey—if I submit an application, you won't pretend not to know me, right?"
"I-I wouldn't have the authority to do anything anyway..."
"Couldn't you at least drop a hint?"
"Our Director is absolutely ruthless about that kind of thing..."
Hiring favors were illegal, after all.
Still, Cha Juhui's shoulders squared a little under her friends' gaze, as if she were someone important.
"But if word of an open recruitment goes around the office, I'll tell you first. I could probably tell you what qualities they focused on in the last round of hiring...?"
"That much is fine! Thanks, Juhui!"
She'd spent all this time cursing Yihan as the boss of an exploitative sweatshop run by a slave-driver Director—but held up against the real world, PlayForge was actually pretty good. No, considerably more than pretty good.
"Son of a bitch. Cho Yihan, you absolute dog."
"Seung-wook. You really shouldn't spout such foul language at a friend of yours, you know."
"You dog.... Why do I have to be doing this? I literally just got discharged.... I'm supposed to be having fun until I go back to school..."
Two days since the employees had left on vacation.
Seung-wook and I were merrily working through the company's internal paperwork together.
"Cho Yihan, you maniac.... You did all of this by yourself up to now?"
"It's not bad once you get used to it. You're speeding up too, aren't you?"
"Forget efficiency, you lunatic—the sheer volume is insane! Why on earth haven't you hired anyone?!"
Well, I'd been planning to hire you and put you to work. And honestly, the workload was still within what I could handle, so I'd put off hiring for that reason too.
"Hey. Take this. The third-quarter labor cost expense report."
"Whoa~ presenting it this neatly, it's so much easier to read."
Working alongside Seung-wook had confirmed it: the guy was genuinely useful labor. He'd taken one look at the sloppy templates I'd cobbled together, declared them unreadable, and whipped up brand-new ones, organizing the labor costs and expenses into tidy, legible categories.
"Seung-wook. Any interest in working at my company? You'd be perfect."
"I haven't even finished college, you idiot. No thanks—just helping out this much is already a headache."
Every chance I got, I kept gently fanning the breeze toward joining our company, but he wouldn't budge. Still, a freshly discharged Kim Seung-wook was no match for the gaslighting of a battle-hardened corporate veteran like me.
"Shame. It was nice having you around..."
"Hire actual employees. Every company has at least one or two accountants. Why do you insist on being special?"
"I told you. You have to be able to trust them. Watch the news—embezzlement by accounting or finance staff is practically a recurring segment."
"Haaah... this is the kind of garbage nobody else would spout, seriously."
He refused to even look at me, muttering about nonsense and burying himself in the work. But I could tell. He was slowly coming around.
"Good work today."
I handed him an envelope of cash I'd withdrawn at lunch in advance.
"No, seriously, keep it. I'm just helping out."
"Take it. You're not even an employee—as far as anyone's concerned, you're external labor. If I don't pay you wages, that's a legal problem."
"What legal problem. The person involved is you, and the person helping is me. ...Anyway. Thanks."
Kim Seung-wook put up a show of reluctance, but the moment he took the envelope, I could see him plainly feeling out its thickness, gauging how much was inside.
"This is way too thick. How much did you put in?"
"A fair amount."
"It still seems like a lot..."
"Take it, take it."
Kim Seung-wook discreetly cracked the envelope open, checked the amount, made an unreadable expression, and pocketed it.
"Let's call it a day and head out."
"Dinner's on you, right?"
"Obviously. My company covers dinner when we work late. Consider this that."
"Mmm... then gukbahng? Pork bone soup? Is there a good place nearby?"
"Of course. I scouted it out ages ago."
That day, we clocked out a little early.
Day three.
"Hey. Fine, yesterday I'll grant was two days' worth—but why is today's basically the same?"
"Ah, that? Turns out I never got you a discharge gift. So I threw in a little extra out of my own pocket."
"What discharge gift! I never got you one either! And since when did we exchange gifts? You're being weird about this!"
"I just... going through working life, I've come to think I should take better care of the people around me. People you can trust are always in short supply."
"..."
He'd refused tooth and nail, and only when I threatened to burn the envelope did he finally accept it with a sour look. I laughed inside as I watched him.
Day four.
"Having a professional around really does make a difference. I didn't expect the work to be almost done already?"
"Professional, my ass. When did I ever major in this? I'm in the economics department. Completely unrelated."
"If you do the job well, you're a professional."
On my own, I would've spent the entire week the employees were away grinding through this workload. With Seung-wook helping, it took four days. It felt like one plus one wasn't two—it was closer to four.
"Thanks for everything."
"Hey. Yihan."
Watching him call my name with an uncharacteristically serious face, I could finally feel it: the bite had landed.
Nice try playing hard to get.
After four days of nonstop gaslighting and generous compensation, how could he possibly hold out?
"Yeah? What's up."
"That... the thing about working at your company... Were you serious? I haven't even graduated college."
A question I'd already predicted.
"Companies screen for credentials because they don't know what kind of person you are yet. I know exactly who you are. Why would I care about your degree?"
"I know, but... I'd be a college dropout if I joined your company..."
"There are dropouts, and there are dropouts. I'm a Seoul National dropout myself. Tell you what—if you get your degree, I'll give you a bonus buff to your job performance. Like an item?"
"..."
Kim Seung-wook deliberated for a moment, still visibly hesitant, then asked again.
"If I work at your company... what exactly would I be doing?"
"Hmm... if I had to put it simply? Handling the company's overall operations so I can focus on game development?"
"You shi—! You want me to be your CFO or CAO?"
"You lunatic, don't choke on your rice soup. When did I ever say I'd hand you those titles? What mid-sized company even has those positions?"
"Ah... right? Sorry. Got a little ahead of myself."
Quick-minded bastard. I was planning to hand him both seats anyway, once he'd earned enough experience points that I could trust him with the whole operation.
"You're sure it's fine? Won't the existing employees push back...?"
"Please. The current staff are all on the development side; you'd be in admin and finance. Completely different worlds. Different user base entirely. Besides, I was planning to make the second floor for administrative staff anyway."
"Ah. Is that so?"
Watching the curiosity spark in his eyes, I felt it: he was truly, finally all the way in.
I slid the documents I'd prepared in advance across the table to Seung-wook.
"What's this?"
"Your employment contract. The starting salary's a bit low, fair warning."
Kim Seung-wook read through the paperwork meticulously, then closed his eyes and deliberated for a long moment before setting the documents down on the table.
"So... do I call you 'Boss' from now on?"
"Call me Director. In private, well... whatever you're used to is fine."
Freedom. At long last.