Same as Ever
Clunk. Clunk.
The sound of crutches striking the floor echoed down the corridor of Daejeong Mulsan, drawing steadily closer to a single destination — Sales Team 1, the office where Kang Hyeong-seok, Kwak Young-ho, and Shin Jeong-ah worked.
Bang.
The moment the owner of the crutches shouldered the door open, Kwak Young-ho, who had just been stepping out of the tea room, went stiff with astonishment.
"Assistant Manager Lee!"
The cry burst out only after Lee Jin-pyeong — laid up in the hospital all this time since the car accident, and put through rehabilitation on top of that — had returned everyone's stares with a slight dip of his head.
Clatter!
Kang Hyeong-seok, Shin Jeong-ah, and even Namgoong Min-ah shot up from their chairs in surprise and hurried over to him.
"Assistant Manager Leee! What brings you here? Are you okay now? Does it still hurt?"
Namgoong Min-ah fired off her questions in a torrent; behind her, Shin Jeong-ah sent over a worried look; and Kang Hyeong-seok moved to steady him by the arm.
"Are you all right? Can you walk?"
"Yes."
Ah, honestly. This man really is the same as ever.
Watching Jin-pyeong stay as stolid as ever, Kang Hyeong-seok felt the corners of his mouth curl upward into a smile. Then his gaze drifted down to the floor at Jin-pyeong's feet.
Clink-clink-clink-clink!
It was the spirit of the dog Lee Jin-pyeong had raised in years past. The little one — visible to no one but Kang Hyeong-seok, whose Yeongan, the spiritual eye, remained open — wagged its tail as if overjoyed at the reunion.
"Hey! You could've given us a heads-up if you were coming!"
At Kwak Young-ho's grumbling, gladness laced through every word, Lee Jin-pyeong ducked his head as if to apologize.
"Ah, forget it! So, uh — you're feeling better now? The body, I mean?"
"I'm fine."
"Good. Then that's what matters! When can you start coming back in? If nothing's wrong, start today. If the walking's still rough, I'll put you on desk duty."
"Ah — thank you."
"Then we'll call it settled: back at work starting today?"
"Yes."
The exchange between the keyed-up Kwak Young-ho and the placid Lee Jin-pyeong felt like water and oil, each drifting to its own rhythm. And yet there was no mistaking it — the mood in the office was growing warmer by the minute.
"Oh, right — Assistant Manager Lee."
"Yes?"
"You know Kang, right? He's been promoted to Manager now."
Half bracing himself, Kwak Young-ho studied Jin-pyeong's face. But the man's expression changed so rarely that his eyes gave nothing away.
"He's been promoted to Manager?"
"Yep. While you were laid up, he pulled in a whole stack of results. That's how it came about."
And then, the moment Kwak Young-ho finished explaining it as though asking for his understanding, Lee Jin-pyeong turned and bowed his head toward Kang Hyeong-seok.
"Congratulations on your promotion, Manager Kang."
There wasn't an ounce of envy or jealousy in his manner — if anything, it left Kang Hyeong-seok flustered instead.
"Ah— no, Assistant Manager Lee, please—"
"You can speak casually with me."
Flustered, Kang Hyeong-seok looked at Jin-pyeong, then turned to Kwak Young-ho. Whether the older man had read his mind or not, Kwak gave a small nod and pointed up at the ceiling.
"One moment. Shall we step into the tea room together?"
He brought up the tea room because he couldn't quite bring himself to ask a man on crutches to have their talk out on the rooftop. Only once the other team members had tactfully given them space did the two of them step inside alone.
"What is it?"
Lee Jin-pyeong looked genuinely unable to fathom why he'd been pulled aside.
"I got promoted first out of sheer luck. I just wanted to check — in case."
"In case of what?"
"...In case you found it strange."
He could say this much because they were teammates with no bad blood between them. Because Jin-pyeong was not a man who carried words behind other people's backs. And so he hoped, if nothing else, that no misunderstanding would take root.
"If you've made Manager, isn't that a good thing?"
"Sorry?"
"I'm congratulating you. Sincerely..."
Kang Hyeong-seok stared blankly for a moment at Jin-pyeong, who somehow looked strangely deflated, then let out a breath of a laugh.
"Thank you, Assistant Manager Lee."
"Oh, and one more thing. Assistant Manager Ka— Manager Kang."
"Yes?"
Lee Jin-pyeong gazed at him with eyes as clear and unclouded as glass, then opened his mouth with visible effort.
"What did you do while I was in the hospital?"
Kang Hyeong-seok's face went soft. He had offered a short prayer for Jin-pyeong once, back when the man lay unconscious. Just as he wondered — surely not — whether he remembered that, Jin-pyeong scratched at his head.
"I can't tell if it was a dream or not, but it felt like you did something for me."
Kang Hyeong-seok held his gaze for a moment, then quietly let the corners of his mouth lift.
"I didn't."
"I didn't think so. Sorry for saying something strange."
"No, it's all right. Anyway — I'm sorry I got promoted before you."
"You got promoted because you're good at your job."
Grateful for the words, Kang Hyeong-seok pressed his lips together and nodded. Then, sensing eyes on him, he glanced toward the tea room door — through the little window, no bigger than two palms spread together, he could see his teammates pressed in to watch.
Kang Hyeong-seok shook his head at them, then held out his hand to Jin-pyeong.
"Congratulations on getting out. I look forward to working with you from here on."
"Yes."
Lee Jin-pyeong accepted the handshake, and Kang Hyeong-seok stepped out of the tea room first.
"So? How did it go?"
It was Shin Jeong-ah's question. Kang Hyeong-seok gave the same smiling shake of his head, and Kwak Young-ho gave his shoulder a friendly thump.
It was, after all, the kind of thing Lee Jin-pyeong could have taken badly. That it had been settled without a hitch was a good thing.
"Assistant Manager Lee. Have you got a minute?"
It was a moment when Kang Hyeong-seok and Shin Jeong-ah were both out on sales calls, and Kwak Young-ho had gone up to the rooftop for a smoke.
Im Jin-gil from the Personnel office popped out of nowhere and tapped Lee Jin-pyeong on the shoulder.
"What is it?"
"Could we have a quick word?"
"Yes."
What Jin-gil clearly wanted was a word with just the two of them, but Jin-pyeong, oblivious as ever, stayed planted in his chair and simply turned his body toward him. When Namgoong Min-ah's gaze naturally drifted over as well, Im Jin-gil, frustrated, jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
"Let's take this to the bathroom for a sec..."
"Why?"
"Just come on. Come onnn!"
And so Im Jin-gil — who nursed a jealousy toward Kang Hyeong-seok that was halfway to a grudge — half-dragged the man with the bad leg all the way into the bathroom.
Click.
Having gone so far as to lock the door behind them, Im Jin-gil furrowed his brow without preamble.
"Manager Kang hasn't said anything to you?"
"About what?"
"Ugh, you're hopeless. The promotion."
"Ah. Yes."
For an instant Im Jin-gil stared at him as though to say, what is this guy even, then scrubbed furiously at his forehead.
"That! Do you know why he got promoted?"
"Do I need to know?"
"Huh?!"
"My leg hurts. I want to sit down..."
Im Jin-gil's mouth opened and shut once before his face contorted outright.
"I'll keep it short, so listen up. Manager Kang, right? That warehouse contract you closed before everything happened? He swooped in and snatched it. That's how he got promoted."
"...I'm sorry — what?"
The moment Jin-pyeong's brow creased, Im Jin-gil finally wore the face of a man getting the reaction he'd been fishing for.
"Oh my, you really didn't know. You signed that warehouse contract and went straight into the hospital, didn't you? And right then, Manager Kang re-signed the whole thing all by himself and buttered up the higher-ups."
He even mimed rubbing his palms together, quick and oily, like a fly working its forelegs.
"...No, he didn't?"
Im Jin-gil's rubbing hands froze at the flat murmur that followed right on its heels.
"Excuse me? What do you mean, he didn't?"
"Manager Kang isn't the type to do that."
For something muttered half to himself, it carried; one of Im Jin-gil's eyebrows bent upward, and Jin-pyeong looked back at him as if he were the strange one.
"You must be mistaken. I've heard things, you know."
"No — mistaken about what? I mean it."
"I've heard things, I said."
"...Yes?"
"When I was in the hospital, the first ones to show up were Manager Kang and our Department Head. They even came by my room, and—"
"No! Then — ask around! Ask other people! He even had get-togethers with the executives, all of it!"
"But you said his promotion was recent. My accident was quite a while ago. The timing doesn't line up..."
At Lee Jin-pyeong, stubborn and unmoving in his belief in Kang Hyeong-seok, Im Jin-gil heaved a sigh through his gaping mouth.
Rattle!
"What the hell?"
The locked bathroom door shook violently, and a deep voice bled through from outside.
It was Jo Tae-sik — Im Jin-gil's direct superior.
Rattle-rattle!
"Hey, what gives? Anyone in there or not?"
Just as a flustered Im Jin-gil moved to signal for quiet, Lee Jin-pyeong — a man who could not read a room to save his life — answered at the top of his voice.
"Yes, there is."
"Ah! Come on! Open the door! It's not like we're playing games here — why would you lock a bathroom door?!"
Im Jin-gil silently poured his exasperation out at Jin-pyeong, then hastily unlocked the door — and found himself face to face with Jo Tae-sik, his features contorted to their fullest.
"What the hell? Why are you in here?"
"N-no, Department Head, sir. It's just..."
Having forgotten he even needed the bathroom, Jo Tae-sik's glare swung between Jin-pyeong on his crutches and Im Jin-gil, his scowl as ferocious as one of the Four Heavenly Kings carved on a temple gate.
"You—! You still haven't kicked that habit!"
"N-no, Department Head, sir. It's just — really — I..."
"Hey! Assistant Manager Lee! What did this bastard say to you?"
Even with the famously volcanic Jo Tae-sik roaring, Jin-pyeong answered with a perfectly level face.
"He said Manager Kang took the warehouse contract I signed before my hospitalization and monopolized it all by himself."
No matter how desperately Im Jin-gil stared at him, eyes pleading, Jin-pyeong spoke his conscience plain.
"I-I never said any such thing!"
"...Is that everything?"
"He also said Manager Kang buttered up the higher-ups to make himself look good."
With Jin-pyeong answering every question exactly as it was asked, Im Jin-gil's face went from deathly pale to a sickly blue.
And then—
"Assistant Manager Lee. Step outside."
Jo Tae-sik said, low and even.
Jin-pyeong dipped his head and shuffled out of the bathroom, and Jo Tae-sik slid the lock shut from the inside. Then he set about searing Im Jin-gil with eyes whose corners had swept up in cold fury.
"You brain-dead little bastard!"
"I-I'm sorry, sir."
"Do you even know what you did wrong?! Huh, you bastard?!"
His bellow rang off the tiled walls. Face blazing scarlet, Jo Tae-sik yanked his tie loose.
"Where the hell does a cur like you crawl in from, going around scratching at people's tempers? You! Can't you tell the places you fit from the places you don't? Who the hell do you think you are, driving wedges between people — goddamn it, goddamn you!"
Department Head Jo Tae-sik was famous for his gunpowder temper — and his subordinate Im Jin-gil knew it better than anyone. Face gone rigid, eyes nailed to the floor tiles, Jin-gil froze solid, but the roaring showed no sign of stopping.
"Kang Hyeong-seok is your own hiring class, and it stings you that much that he made Manager first?! Then claw your way up on merit yourself, you idiot!"
"I-I'm truly sorr—"
Word had spread wide through the company that Kang Hyeong-seok had recently landed the deal with Shinjin Construction. On top of that, talk was going around that Executive Director Shin Yo-sep thought highly of him — which made Kang Hyeong-seok the single most watched employee in the building.
"And what am I supposed to say to Department Head Kwak?! Huh?! What am I supposed to tell him?!"
Im Jin-gil's face had crumpled into something close to tears; it felt as though his mind had been scooped clean out of his skull.
Even with a thousand mouths, he would have had nothing to say.
"Get out! I can't even stand the sight of you!"
"D-Department Head, sir—"
"Out! Now, you bastard!"
Im Jin-gil was shuffling toward the door, head hanging to his chest, when—
"Try pulling any more of your little tricks on Manager Kang or anyone on that team! Firing a piece of work like you wouldn't even count as a chore!"
Jo Tae-sik's words flew true as a dagger and buried themselves in his chest.
Head bowed until his forehead nearly brushed the floor, Im Jin-gil dragged himself out of the bathroom. Then, rubbing at his bloodshot eyes, he trudged off down the corridor.