The Flower in the Vase
"So, how did it go?"
First day back at the office. Kang Hyeong-seok and Shin Jeong-ah had run into each other at work and ended up talking in the break room.
With a long hiss, the coffee machine poured a rich shot into Shin Jeong-ah's tumbler, filling the space with the calm of early morning and the quiet comfort that only coffee brings.
"It all got sorted out."
"...Glad to hear it. I even checked to see if a stream was up. Couldn't find one."
"Yoon-sang's stream?"
"He's the only one worth watching anyway."
Shin Jeong-ah leaned against the table lined with coffee mixes, tea bags, and snacks, and let out a shallow sigh.
"Speaking of which — you must be tired too, Manager Kang."
Kang Hyeong-seok took a long slurp from the straw planted in his drink before answering.
"It's nothing, really."
It wasn't the sugar-free Americano he usually drank. It was coffee milk — the kind with a little yellow cartoon cat printed on the label — and for all its cute packaging, the caffeine inside was nothing to sneeze at.
"It looks kind of off, seeing you carry that thing around."
"It tastes better than I expected."
"No, it's not that... yeah."
Shin Jeong-ah nodded with a look that said far more than she let on, brows drawn together, the corners of her mouth curling upward. Her expression stayed so hard to read that Kang Hyeong-seok's gaze ended up fixed on her before he knew it.
"Buyong? Nothing came through for her, I take it?"
"No. We couldn't reach her anyway."
"Why not?"
Kang Hyeong-seok gave a small shake of his head and let out a breath thick with the scent of coffee milk.
"That's for the best. We only know each other through the stream — one wrong step and it could turn into a problem for me."
The coffee machine let out a grinding rattle and shoved the spent grounds out in one clump.
Shin Jeong-ah filled her tumbler the rest of the way with cold water and ice, her eyes seeming to weigh something.
"Shame. After all that hard work."
"We all went through it together this time."
"Still, from what I saw, that gut went on for ages."
She wasn't wrong. If you subtracted the hours he'd spent sleeping or washing, it was no exaggeration to say he'd poured everything else into it.
"You never know when or how a favor might find its way back to you."
So live kindly. At the very least, don't pile up karma. It always comes back around — sooner or later, in one form or another, in ways you could never imagine.
"Still feels a little unfair, though."
"More importantly, are you holding up all right, Manager Shin?"
"Huh?"
Kang Hyeong-seok silently lifted one leg a few inches and set it back down.
The memory of the split-second kick she'd thrown flashed back to Shin Jeong-ah, and her face went red with embarrassment.
"No, no — forget it. Nothing worth worrying about. Oh, right — sounds like Ha-yoon's started filing complaints. She said she's gotten through to a few of them."
Kang Hyeong-seok nodded with a faint smile. It looked like that mother and daughter, who deserved every curse coming to them, would be paying for their sins in court as well.
"That's good to hear."
"Ahh."
"Something wrong?"
"I don't know. It's just — it's really over, huh. Just like that."
"It's over."
As always, a brief brush with the extraordinary had come and gone, and the everyday had come knocking again with its familiar face — like the Monday that shows up every week without fail. That was all there was to it.
"Good morniiiing."
Namgoong Min-ah came drifting in, swaying like someone quietly weeping over the Sunday that had abandoned her, her eyes swollen puffy with exhaustion.
"We should head back out too."
"Yes."
Kang Hyeong-seok left the break room with Shin Jeong-ah.
"Hellooo."
"Good morning."
"Oh? Coffee milk. I'm so jealous."
Kang Hyeong-seok was laughing beside the rambling Namgoong Min-ah when the door banged open and Kwak Young-ho stormed into the office, his face a portrait of displeasure.
"Good morning, Department Head."
"Huh? Oh! There you are."
"Is something the matter, sir?"
"Hm? No, no."
"Like it isn't. It's written all over your face."
"Haah. Say, could I steal you for a quick meeting? No, wait — Min-ah, you don't have to come."
"Okaaaay."
Kwak Young-ho shot her a look that seemed to ask why on earth is she swaying around like that? — then flinched, startled, when he noticed Lee Jin-pyeong sitting soundlessly at his desk.
"When did you get in, Assistant Manager Lee?"
"Just now."
"Oh, oh. Right. Keep at it."
Kwak Young-ho headed up to the rooftop with Kang Hyeong-seok and Shin Jeong-ah. The fact that he didn't so much as stop to grab a coffee on the way said plenty about how rattled he was.
The rooftop door banged open.
"What on earth is going on?"
Instead of answering Shin Jeong-ah's question, Kwak Young-ho pulled out a cigarette and set it between his lips.
"Aigoo..."
A lighter clicked twice, then caught.
"Whoof—! Ah, this is turning into a headache."
"Why? What happened, sir?"
When Shin Jeong-ah asked, brows knitted, Kwak Young-ho exhaled a plume of smoke like a sigh and started talking.
"I got a call on my way in to work this morning."
"From whom?"
"Sales Team 2's department head."
"What?"
Kwak Young-ho let his cigarette burn, his face betraying the anxiety gnawing at his gut.
"Shinjin Construction dropped a whole pile of orders on us this time around. Everyone knows that, right?"
"Of course."
"Yes, we know."
As Shin Jeong-ah and Kang Hyeong-seok answered, Kwak Young-ho took a deep breath through his nose and ran his tongue over the bitter taste of smoke coating his mouth.
"So we've been busting our backs trying to fill those quantities first, but you think meeting a suddenly ballooned order is easy? Sales Team 2's been running themselves ragged because of it."
The company's clients didn't begin and end with a single account. Big or small, every one of them mattered.
"And there they were, bragging their heads off about how they'd crack open a wallpaper factory all on their own — and now suddenly it's too hard for them."
"...And why is this being brought to us this morning, of all times?"
"My question exactly!"
Kwak Young-ho raked a hand through his hair, looking half out of his mind.
"What did they say?"
Shin Jeong-ah's voice came out cold as ice, and Kwak Young-ho's brow drew down even tighter as he answered.
"They want us to help them."
"What?"
"The gall. The sheer gall of it."
There was something Kwak Young-ho had left unsaid: the jealousy Sales Team 2 harbored toward Kang Hyeong-seok. After all the crowing they'd done all this time, here they were begging Sales Team 1 for help. It meant they were that desperate — and he couldn't help finding the whole thing galling.
"So I have to get over there sometime this morning. Any chance you two could come along?"
"I could manage it this afternoon."
"That won't do. No telling what might happen — better to move fast. What about you, Manager Kang?"
"I'm available."
Kwak Young-ho nodded, gratitude and apology tangled together on his face.
"Then let's head out together this morning. This comes before anything else."
"Is there anything I should prepare?"
"This kind of thing, you just charge straight in."
It was the hardest situation sales had to offer. With an existing client, there was always some way to work things. But a brand-new account, with no connection whatsoever — and worse, one another team had already failed to land — was like diving barehanded to the bottom of the sea and coming back up with a pearl.
"Hooowhee! God, this is driving me nuts."
"Oh, come on! Manager Kang's going with you — what's there to worry about?"
Shin Jeong-ah forced the brightness into her voice, and Kwak Young-ho rubbed his face, sheepish, before his expression finally eased.
"Right, right. Think positive."
"Positive, huh."
"Either way, Sales Team 2's the ones who tossed it to us. If it works out, we get to turn up our noses at them; if it doesn't, the blame lands on their heads."
Kwak Young-ho was smiling — but neither Shin Jeong-ah nor Kang Hyeong-seok was fooled. They both knew he was choking his anxiety down by force.
This industry was a small world. Bad word traveled in an instant, and once it did, selling only got harder.
"Understood. I'll get ready for the trip right away."
"We'll take my car."
"Yes, sir!"
Kang Hyeong-seok answered gravely, and Kwak Young-ho threw Shin Jeong-ah an apologetic look before bounding down the stairs ahead of them. Once Kang Hyeong-seok had followed, Shin Jeong-ah — left alone on the rooftop — set a cigarette between her lips.
A click, a flare of flame.
"Whoof—!"
The smoke drifted past a face that seemed to say it all: another headache, and not even an hour into the workday.
The engine rumbled, deep and heavy — Kwak Young-ho's car made its presence felt from the very first note, no matter when you rode in it.
"Heading out like this first thing in the morning, it almost feels like playing hooky for a day trip. Am I right?"
Kwak Young-ho forced the cheer, and his intention was plain as day. They were like soldiers charging into battle with no preparation whatsoever. As department head, he simply didn't want to plant needless unease in his subordinates' minds.
"If things go well, how about a team dinner tonight?"
"Oh! Now that's an idea! Love it."
"It'll be on me."
"Huh? Why would you pay, Manager Kang?"
"Let's just say I have a personal reason to celebrate."
Kwak Young-ho's face creased into a grin, and he added one more thing.
"We'll decide that once we see how today goes."
With that, Kwak Young-ho's lips sealed firmly shut.
The engine rumbled on. As they drew toward the huge wallpaper factory looming in the distance, a guard waved them through, and Kwak Young-ho parked along the perimeter. Of all hours, it had to be shipping time — forklifts were loading pallet after pallet of goods onto big trucks, and the whole place crackled with busy motion.
"Ah, that must be the place."
Kwak Young-ho, who'd been craning around at the factory grounds, took the lead. Kang Hyeong-seok followed, and employees who asked how on earth they'd gotten in this far ended up guiding them to the office at the very back.
Perhaps because the place dealt in interior goods, noise and bustle were a given for any factory — yet the office inside was not only soundproofed but kept immaculately tidy.
"Hello, sir!"
The owner, who had been dabbling at his computer, narrowed his eyes and pushed back his chair — and that was when Kang Hyeong-seok saw it.
That flower...
In a vase on the table set out for guests sat a flower resembling a rose of Sharon.
A buyong.
"Have a seat for now."
"Yes — thank you."
A tense Kwak Young-ho sat down on the guest sofa beside Kang Hyeong-seok, while one of the office staff mixed up paper cups of instant coffee and set them on the table.
"You're Department Head Kwak Young-ho of Daejeong Mulsan, I take it?"
"Yes, that's right."
Kwak Young-ho answered with a smile, but the owner's expression only hardened as the moments passed.
"So someone else has come this time. Ah, dear me."
"We're truly sorry for the inconvenience. But sir, we've come to see you in person because there's something we really must ask of you."
"That's not the issue — we run on schedules of our own, you know. I'm sorry, but please come back another time."
"Our business is genuinely urgent. Couldn't you possibly work us in, just this once?"
"You saw the state the factory's in just now."
This really won't be easy.
Amid the heavy atmosphere, Kang Hyeong-seok was quietly studying the buyong in its vase when—
The door burst open.
"Dad! Why'd you keep the door shut?"
A familiar voice rang out.
"Oh—oh!"
The scowling owner sprang to his feet and turned toward the door, his face lighting up — and Kang Hyeong-seok's gaze went there too.
Then he drew in a short breath. He hadn't meant to show it, but for an instant his eyes wavered.
"Daddy's talking with some guests right now, so..."
"...Huh?"
She'd seen him too.
One of Yoon-sang's viewers. The victim of the ghost marriage. And the woman who used the very same nickname as the buyong flower in that vase on the guest table.
"Hm? What? You know him?"
The owner, noticing Buyong staring at Kang Hyeong-seok, asked the question — and Buyong, meeting Kang Hyeong-seok's eyes squarely, shook her head slowly.
"No. It's our first time meeting."
That it was a lie was plain to see. Then again, unless you worked in sales, you'd never have caught it.
Kang Hyeong-seok smiled faintly and gave Buyong a small nod. Buyong, as if following his lead, nodded back, a smile held upon her lips.
The thanks she couldn't put into words was pressed deep, deep into her eyes.