The First Button
"What's going on?"
"S-Section Chief! You're here."
Im Jin-gil hastily let go of Kang Hyeong-seok's hand, darting nervous glances, while Shin Jeong-ah took a slow sip from the takeaway cup of coffee she'd brought from one of the big chain cafés and shut the door behind her.
"I asked you a question. What's going on?"
"Nothing, Section Chief."
"How many times am I going to have to ask? What. Is. Going. On."
Shin Jeong-ah looked genuinely, thoroughly furious. Even with the coffee cup hiding her mouth, a vicious temper blazed out of her eyes.
"N-nothing at all. I was just having a little chat with Assistant Manager Kang..."
"Hey."
When Shin Jeong-ah fixed you with those eyes, it was genuinely terrifying.
"I heard the whole thing from outside. Where do you get off playing dumb?"
The full force of that glare landed on Im Jin-gil, and all he could manage was a dry gulp — not a single word made it out. The difference in rank and age was one thing, but the fact that Shin Jeong-ah was Executive Director Shin Chang-yong's niece loomed largest of all.
"W-well, you see..."
Was this what a mouse looked like when it ran into a cat?
Im Jin-gil hunched his shoulders, utterly at a loss, and while he stood there drained white and unable to speak, Shin Jeong-ah let out a heavy sigh and muttered under her breath.
"What an infuriating man. Seriously."
Then, pinning him with a stare cold enough to chill scalding coffee in a single gulp, she went on.
"Assistant Manager Im."
"...Yes."
"Watch your mouth. This is the office."
"...Y-yes, ma'am."
"Get out."
Im Jin-gil bowed his head — then, meeting Shin Jeong-ah's eyes, wordlessly dropped his gaze. Shoulders sagging, he dragged himself out of the lounge.
"Phew! What a fucking idiot."
Now that the two of them were alone, Shin Jeong-ah muttered it like she could barely hold her temper, then swung a fierce glare onto Kang Hyeong-seok.
"Why didn't you just deck him?"
Kang Hyeong-seok took it for a joke and tried to laugh it off. But Shin Jeong-ah's eyes stayed dead serious, and the smile drained out of him fast.
"How could I? We're at work."
"So if it weren't the office, you'd have hit him?"
"Probably, yes."
Her face said she didn't believe a word of it.
"Unbelievable! Yeah, I just bet you would."
Kang Hyeong-seok let out a laugh, huffing the air from his chest.
Strange as it seemed, Shin Jeong-ah appeared to regard him as nothing but a genuinely good man — probably a leftover impression from the very beginning. Ordered there by Shin Chang-yong or not, going to help a total stranger move house was no small favor, after all.
"You know I'm not always like that."
Kang Hyeong-seok knew the difference between a time to be angry and a time to let it go.
"Oh."
Shin Jeong-ah arched one eyebrow as something came back to her. Back when she'd walked out of that fake shaman's place clutching a nasty talisman, Kang Hyeong-seok had gotten angry — because what the fraud had done was simply wrong.
"And honestly? This time it wasn't even my anger that was needed."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
It was after Shin Jeong-ah narrowed her eyes, clearly not following, that he said it.
"One who has received the Sinnaerim lives under the protection of their Momjusin. Insult such a person, and the god itself takes offense."
Shin Jeong-ah was still giving him a look that said she didn't get it —
CRASH!
The sound of someone going down hard echoed through the office. A groan followed — Im Jin-gil's — and then the torn shriek of a woman from another department.
"Are you out of your mind! How are you going to fix this? These are new clothes!"
Even from the lounge, it wasn't hard to piece together: Im Jin-gil had collided with somebody, and it was about to cost him dearly.
Shin Jeong-ah whipped her head toward Kang Hyeong-seok in astonishment, and he answered calmly, as though he'd seen this coming all along.
"Keep your distance from that man for a while. Sparks fly off him."
"Wh-what? Why? What's happening to him?"
Kang Hyeong-seok shook his head, his face grim.
"His guardian spirit ran away."
Im Jin-gil's words and conduct had stirred a faint fury, a flicker of disgust, in the Momjusin.
It was only natural. The vessel that had taken the god in had been insulted — what patron deity would sit still for that?
Faced with that show of displeasure, Im Jin-gil's guardian spirit had bolted, and now Im Jin-gil would pay the price in full. Until it returned, every moment of his life would be an uphill crawl; nothing would go his way.
"And thank you, by the way. For getting angry on my behalf."
"H-huh?"
Kang Hyeong-seok let the corner of his mouth curl as he looked at her — at Shin Jeong-ah, who had raged as though the insult had been aimed at her.
"Never mind. Let's get back to work."
The morning was going to be busy.
Kang Hyeong-seok left the lounge with Shin Jeong-ah and settled into his seat, then buried himself in the morning's workload until Kwak Young-ho returned to the office.
"Oof, good work out there. You finish everything?"
"All the documents the clients asked for have been sent, and I've returned every call that needed returning."
"Good man. What's left on the list?"
"All the urgent items are done."
Seated in the passenger seat, Kwak Young-ho exhaled a long breath and tipped his head back against the rest. They were in Kang Hyeong-seok's car, the navigation announcing the time and distance still left to the restaurant.
"Good work today, Assistant Manager Kang."
"It was nothing. And you, sir? Any complications?"
As he always did when his mood was good, Kwak Young-ho broke into a grin that creased his whole face with wrinkles.
"Complications, nothing. Doctor says there's nothing to worry about. Recovery's a given, and then he went rattling on about whatever treatment comes next — like I'd understand any of it."
He had made it past the worst of it — that much was certain. Every word, every line of Kwak Young-ho's face said exactly that.
"That's a relief. Truly."
"Oh, and apparently Assistant Manager Lee's parents are flying back to the States this weekend. That boy, I swear — he's got the look of a man born to eat pungent fermented-soybean stew with well-aged kimchi, and who'd have guessed his parents live in America?"
Kwak Young-ho must have heard plenty of hopeful news at that hospital, to be cracking jokes like these.
"Hahaha, right?"
"Then again, I never did hear what they do over there. If things went well, could be a connection for our company, who knows."
"If that were the case, wouldn't Assistant Manager Lee have mentioned it himself?"
"You think that boy's the type?"
Kang Hyeong-seok burst out laughing before he could help it. The news Kwak Young-ho had brought had lightened his heart, that was all.
"All right! We're almost there, so look sharp! Can't have you showing up looking sloppy."
"Understood."
Sweeping the smile from his face, Kang Hyeong-seok answered. A meal with the company's executives — no casual gathering, this. And a table arranged by Kwak Young-ho and Director Shin Chang-yong.
"Just do what you always do. What you always do. You're good at this."
Kang Hyeong-seok gave a small smile and told him he understood.
The restaurant was a sprawling two-story Chinese place out on the road toward Gwangju, in Gyeonggi Province. The whole building was the restaurant itself; the parking lot was spread with gravel, and beyond it stretched an enormous lake. The kind of place that, driving past, would make anyone wonder at least once — just who on earth eats lunch here on a weekday?
Crunch.
The tires rolled over the gravel and came to rest along the parking lines, and Kang Hyeong-seok climbed out alongside Kwak Young-ho.
"Welcome. Do you have a reservation?"
"It'll be under Daejeong Mulsan."
"Right this way — I'll show you to your room on the second floor."
Following a staff member in a full suit who even wore a walkie-talkie on his belt, the two men climbed the stairs. Past the red curtain, a huge round table greeted them — the kind that spun on an axis, letting you rotate whatever dish you fancied right to your seat. A table out of a Chinese period film, and as Kang Hyeong-seok ran a hand over it, Kwak Young-ho chuckled and took his seat.
"What, never seen one before?"
"No, sir. It's just my first time somewhere like this on company business."
"Keep at it and you'll be seeing plenty. Grow big and tall — promotions, one after another. Who knows, one day you might be the one hosting a dinner in a place like this."
Kwak Young-ho's eyes held a genuine wish for that day to come.
"I'm not sure it will."
"It will. Trust me. Guaranteed."
Kwak Young-ho had just thumped him once on the back when —
Swish.
The curtain swept aside and a distinguished-looking man strode in.
"Managing Director, sir. Welcome."
Kwak Young-ho shot to his feet and bowed at the waist, and the Managing Director glanced around as he settled into a chair.
"Is the CEO not here yet?"
"No, sir. Not yet."
Right on cue, the other executives began streaming in one after another.
"Is General Manager Park Mu-sik still not here?"
"He says traffic's snarled on his route, so he'll be along shortly."
"Let me guess — didn't use his navigation again. Why won't the man use it? It gives you live traffic updates and everything."
"You know how he is with gadgets, sir."
"Aigoo, that man. Honestly."
"What's the menu today?"
"I set it myself. Their Peking duck here is out of this world."
"If Director Jo chose it, then it's chosen. When it comes to food, who else but Director Jo?"
It was no small room. In the blink of an eye the space filled with executives, warm and roaring with chatter — and Kang Hyeong-seok felt exactly like a fishbone caught in someone's throat.
And then it happened.
"So you're the one...?"
The Managing Director squinted at Kang Hyeong-seok's unfamiliar face as if racking his memory for it, and Kang Hyeong-seok bowed his head at once.
"Kang Hyeong-seok, Assistant Manager with the Sales Department."
"Ah! That's him!"
The Managing Director's voice was so thunderous that the roar of chatter cut off in an instant, and every head turned.
"I've heard plenty about you. That contract of yours was absolutely masterful."
The warm welcome drew a different reaction out of each executive. Jo Tae-sik, Im Jin-gil's direct superior, heaved a long, heavy sigh at the floor, while Kwak Young-ho, by contrast, wore the proud look of a parent whose child had just been praised.
Shin Chang-yong sipped the jasmine tea in his cup and quietly studied the other executives' faces. Fortunately, every one of them was friendly toward Kang Hyeong-seok.
"Manager Kwak! This one's your department?"
"Yes, sir, he is!"
When Kwak Young-ho answered with his chest out, the Managing Director pounded Kang Hyeong-seok's shoulder with a hand like a cauldron lid.
"Clever-looking fellow, well put together — how about we hand him over to Planning and Strategy?"
"S-sorry?"
"A joke, a joke! He's Manager Kwak's boy — how could I go shuffling people around like that?"
Kwak Young-ho laughed along awkwardly and shot Kang Hyeong-seok a brief glance. Looks like the Managing Director's taken a shine to you.
Kang Hyeong-seok returned the look with one of his own — and then —
"In any case, this young man handled something big for us, and he handled it in style. What are you all sitting there for? Somebody give him a hand. Applause!"
Starting with the Managing Director, the executives began to clap for Kang Hyeong-seok. It was no polite, going-through-the-motions applause — that much came through unmistakably in their eyes, in the very air of the room. This was the real thing.
Jab!
Kwak Young-ho's elbow dug into his ribs. Reading the signal at once, Kang Hyeong-seok bowed low to the executives in answer to their applause.
Clap, clap, clap!
Still heartier applause broke out, and the looks the executives gave him turned serious.
"All right, all right, enough of that. Let's get the man a drink first."
The Managing Director moved to the seat right beside Kang Hyeong-seok and picked up the liquor bottle. This was not an offer you refused. When Kang Hyeong-seok lifted his glass, the Managing Director filled it for him, laughing heartily.
"Manager Kwak, does this boy even know what he's pulled off?"
"He throws himself into everything he does, sir, so I doubt it."
"Ohhh, is that so."
The Managing Director looked at Kang Hyeong-seok with obvious amusement and filled his own glass as well. Kang Hyeong-seok made to return the favor, but there was no stopping the man.
"You're a young man, so this may be hard to grasp — but whatever the undertaking, the first button matters most."
He seemed content to leave it at that short remark. Even so, Kang Hyeong-seok had already heard enough from Kwak Young-ho to take his meaning. The company was toying with a new business tied to overseas direct purchasing — that was why the warehouse had mattered so much, and Kang Hyeong-seok had reached in and scratched that itch clean for them.
Thump!
A hand came down on his shoulder, and the Managing Director beamed and told him he'd done well. And it was the very next moment when —
"The CEO has arrived!"