Good News and a Bad Omen
Clink! The beer mugs smacked together with a satisfying crack, and the beads of beer that leapt free sparkled under the lights.
It was a hof a short walk from Daejeong Mulsan.
"Drink up! Today's on me!"
At Kwak Young-ho's roaring declaration, Shin Jeong-ah set her glass down with a laugh from across the table.
"If you're the one treating, Department Head, we could've gone somewhere nicer."
"Go easy on me, Manager Shin. You know payday's a lifetime away."
"I'm kidding. Besides, I'll chip in too."
Brief though it was, the whole team had seen Kwak Young-ho waver.
"No, no! It's a good day today — it's only right that I treat."
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
Shin Jeong-ah turned a warm, fond smile on Lee Jin-pyeong, seated beside Kang Hyeong-seok. "Congratulations on the promotion, Assistant Manager Lee!"
"Thank you, Manager."
"Congratulations, Assistant Manager Lee!"
With even Namgoong Min-ah delighted as though it were her own accomplishment, Lee Jin-pyeong went shy and smiled a sheepish smile.
Glug, glug, glug.
Having put away his beer at impressive speed, Kwak Young-ho pushed out a big "Pwah!" of breath and looked over Kang Hyeong-seok and Lee Jin-pyeong with fond admiration. "You really did great work. I wrapped the report up nicely myself and sent it upstairs, so don't you worry about a thing."
"What did the top have to say?"
In answer to Kang Hyeong-seok's question, Kwak Young-ho grinned and popped one of the colorful crackers from the complimentary snack plate into his mouth. "Surprised? Naturally. Bringing a dead contract back to life is always the harder feat. And since when is that place just any old client?"
"I heard they've been with us since the early days."
"That's right. I opened that account myself."
The memories hit Kwak Young-ho before the alcohol could; he smiled for a moment, then reached for his beer again. "And another thing — the moment the contract was signed, a big order came rolling right in behind it. Upstairs loves the way that looks."
Hard to argue with that. A contract was only ever a means to an end; the real results came from the deals themselves.
Kim Yeong-chan's furniture factory had placed a hefty timber order the moment the ink dried — meant for the memorial tablets and the memorial pavilion, but good business for Daejeong Mulsan either way.
"And from what I hear, the son's taking over the family business. He's still in his twenties — that's one proper long-term client secured. How could the top brass not eat that up?"
Kwak Young-ho was sweeping the team with a face that begged for agreement when the chicken arrived. Strangely, though it was the same one bird you'd get delivered, fried chicken at a hof always looked like more.
"All right, let's eat! Dig in, Assistant Manager Lee."
"Thank you."
"You too, Manager Kang!"
"Yes, sir."
Smiling, Kang Hyeong-seok picked up a piece of chicken and moved it to his own plate.
The dinner had been thrown together at the last minute — and yet the mood couldn't have been better.
Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.
"Min-ah, aren't you sprinting out of the gate a little too fast?"
"It's a good day! Hehehe."
Shin Jeong-ah indulged her like a far younger sister, and Namgoong Min-ah kept grinning back, bright and easy. She understood, after all — understood just how much landing a single good contract could do for a person in sales.
"I hope you make Manager soon too, Assistant Manager Lee."
"Hold on — then this team would have three Managers in it?"
"Then Manager Shin could just move up to Deputy General Manager."
It was a throwaway remark from a tipsy Namgoong Min-ah, but Kwak Young-ho caught it with a look that said, huh, not a bad idea. "Manager Shin, let's work hard and aim for Deputy General Manager."
"What? How much harder am I supposed to work than I already do?"
"Easy. Land one big fish."
"Easy for you to say! Those don't just drop out of the sky."
"Don't I believe in you, Manager Shin?"
"Oh, Department Head!"
Loud as her voice got, Shin Jeong-ah's expression stayed good-humored. While the two of them bickered back and forth, Kang Hyeong-seok took a sip of his beer, smiling.
Draft beer at a hof. The most ordinary beer there was, nothing special about it whatsoever — yet somehow, whether it was the mood or something more, it felt as if it were rinsing his very heart clean.
"Whew! Congratulations, Assistant Manager Lee."
Lee Jin-pyeong smiled bashfully and ducked his head. "It's all thanks to you, Manager. Not me."
"What do you mean, not you? I know full well how hard you prepared for those meetings."
Lee Jin-pyeong had even brought a tablet along and run the meetings with the client's staff himself. Even if Kang Hyeong-seok had set the timber order in motion, it was Lee Jin-pyeong who had turned the chance into something real. And because he knew better than anyone how diligently the man had prepared, Kang Hyeong-seok put on a look that said, sincerely, well done.
"Thank you."
Grateful that his effort had been noticed, Lee Jin-pyeong smiled quietly.
"Next time there's good news, let's do this again. Anyway — congratulations on the contract."
Kang Hyeong-seok held out his glass, and Lee Jin-pyeong raised his own to meet it. They each knocked back a long, refreshing swallow, and Kang Hyeong-seok picked out a piece of chicken breast and set it on his plate.
"Hm? On a diet, Manager Kang?"
He must have been conspicuous about it — painstakingly stripping the fried coating from the meat — for Shin Jeong-ah to ask. Kang Hyeong-seok gave a small shake of his head and tore off a bite-sized piece of the breast with his fork.
Only then did Shin Jeong-ah catch on. She popped up from her seat, glass raised. "Come on, everyone — a toast!"
"Out of nowhere?"
"Why not, Department Head? If not now, when?"
Kwak Young-ho lifted his glass with a fair point look on his face. In the meantime, Kang Hyeong-seok dropped the morsel of chicken breast below the table.
'You've worked hard too.'
Baekseol-i.
The spirit of the white Spitz Lee Jin-pyeong had raised. For that little one — still keeping close at her master's feet even now — Kang Hyeong-seok had set down a piece of chicken breast, then raised his glass and toasted with the rest of the team.
Lap, lap.
The sound of the Spitz lapping up the offering reached his ears. The dinner rolled on smoothly from there, the evening slowly winding down, until the team stood outside the hof with a cold drink apiece, trading a few last words.
"I'll head off first, then! Thank you for today, Department Head!"
To Namgoong Min-ah, bowing a full ninety degrees, Kwak Young-ho waved with a smile. "Get home safe! See you tomorrow!"
"Yes, sir!"
Namgoong Min-ah disappeared inside, and Lee Jin-pyeong gave Kang Hyeong-seok a small, polite bow. "Goodnight, Manager. Get home safe."
"You too, Assistant Manager."
"Thank you for everything."
Honestly. In the strangest way, Lee Jin-pyeong had a quiet gift for tugging at people's hearts.
Kang Hyeong-seok smiled and said, "See you tomorrow," and Lee Jin-pyeong set off at a leisurely shuffle toward the bus stop. He was watching Baekseol-i spin in giddy circles beside him when—
"Shall we start heading in too?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Oh — right. Take this."
As though it had only just occurred to him, Kwak Young-ho dug out his wallet and held out three fifty-thousand-won notes.
"Wait — what's this for...?"
"Call a designated driver and head home. Drop Manager Shin off on the way."
"Oh no, Department Head, we can't—"
Startled, Shin Jeong-ah clamped her hand around Kwak's wrist where he gripped the bills, but he laughed and waved her off. "It's fine. I know how hard Manager Kang has worked."
Not that Kwak Young-ho knew any of it — that Kang Hyeong-seok was a man who received a god, or that he had chased off the vengeful hound that had been stalking Kim Yeong-chan and Kim Yeong-jun.
"Our Manager Kang's the steadfast sort; he never lets anything show. But he's working harder behind the scenes than anyone, you know that? I'm grateful to him for looking after Assistant Manager Lee, too. Take it."
He did know how great Kang Hyeong-seok's efforts were, churning out results every single time as they did.
"Department Head, really—"
"It was my job to begin with. Part of this is guilt for passing it off on you, and part of it's plain thanks for doing it so well."
The sincerity coming off him was so palpable that Shin Jeong-ah finally released his wrist, and Kwak Young-ho pushed the notes a little further toward Kang Hyeong-seok.
"Just take it already. My shoulder's gone and caught the fifty-year curse — even holding my arm out like this hurts."
"...Thank you."
"No, no — thank me. All right then, get home safe! Let's see each other smiling again tomorrow!"
Looking lighter than he had all evening, Kwak Young-ho waved and drifted off down the street.
Left alone at last, Kang Hyeong-seok clutched the bills and let a smile tug at the corner of his mouth.
"Well, that I never saw coming."
At Shin Jeong-ah's words, Kang Hyeong-seok huffed a laugh through his nose. "Tell me about it. The Department Head's always been like this, hasn't he."
"Aigoo. Well, thanks to him I get to ride home in comfort."
"Shall we get going?"
"Want a coffee? My treat."
"Coffee at this hour might keep me up."
Shin Jeong-ah pointed at the convenience store just down the block, smiling. "Then whatever warm thing you like. Come on."
The two of them walked the night streets, talking quietly. A designated driver was already on his way, but it would take him a while to arrive, so there was no need to hurry.
Pop.
"Hello, everybody!"
Yoon-sang launched the stream in his usual bright, ringing voice.
But that was the thing about livestreaming. The chat never felt quite the way you did.
"I know, I know. I've got no face to show for it, really."
Yoon-sang, who'd been full of beans right up until the moment he went live, let his shoulders sag and his face fall.
"I've been scarce lately, haven't I. And I haven't been putting out the exploration content like I used to."
"Who's a nuisance?! I swear to the heavens above, I have never once — not one single time — been a burden to that hyung! Everyone who's watched my streams knows that. Right? Right?!"
Click.
Having shown the viewer who'd crossed the line the door, Yoon-sang drew a long, deep breath. Honestly, keeping his expression together was a struggle today. The viewers had chosen today of all days to keep jabbing him right where it hurt.
"I do miss it too, honestly. It's been a while since I last saw him. But that's exactly why — I respect him, I look up to him — so I can't bring myself to push it, begging for a collab or shoving some project at him."
He took in every message with a smile — all but the last. Dragging the corners of his mouth upward by force, Yoon-sang heaved a great sigh, then faced the camera with eyes gone clear again.
"The stream's been sparse lately, and pretty low-key, right? So I'm cooking up something with an old-school flavor to it."
"No! As it happens, a tip came in about a week ago. From someone out of a pretty well-known factory complex, and get this — they say a genuinely famous yokai has appeared there."
The viewers' curiosity was waking up. Guesses trickled in, but not a single one of them named the yokai from the tip correctly.
With a strange little smile, Yoon-sang pulled up an image file, confident as you please.
Click.
"Yes!"
Yoon-sang even clapped his hands, laughing as he jabbed a finger at the chat of the viewer who'd served up exactly the reaction he wanted. "It's a Japanese yokai, so some of you may not know it. Let's start with the name."
Yoon-sang met the camera's gaze and let his expression settle into gravity, for the sake of the broadcast's mood. Then, in a solemn voice, he named the yokai he'd been tipped off about — the one glowing on his monitor.
Yoon-sang seized the mouse and blew the photo up to full size. A drawing of a person whose neck hung long and writhing as a serpent's. Rendered in the style of an old Japanese folktale painting, the yokai looked all the more grotesque as it filled every viewer's monitor to the very edges.