The Bombshell That Set the Company Ablaze
It happened one day, without any forewarning. The incident exploded out of nowhere, flipping the entire company upside down and setting fire to all our hearts. There had been no prior notice. Suddenly, from the crack of dawn, all the executives were summoned to the large conference room. This wasn’t the usual weekly meeting held for routine reports. It was an unscheduled gathering called abruptly by the President, who had pulled in every manager at the section chief level or higher.
The President, who had convened the meeting, must have heard something somewhere that stuck in his craw. He demanded performance reports from each department out of the blue, then started barking orders—do this, do that. The problem was that his commands were completely reckless, lacking any direction or alignment with the company’s actual situation. Several veteran department heads stepped up to explain the issues, only to be shouted down and ignored in a fit of rage. We already knew he was a man full of vanity and little substance—just look at the inefficient building layout he had designed and the self-aggrandizing decorations cluttering the interior. But the orders he issued this time were not only difficult to follow but also full of bitter remarks clearly meant to vent his own frustration.
Having thrown his grenades, the President vanished. The remaining executives were left to hold an emergency countermeasures meeting. What followed was a heated spectacle of passing the buck, dodging responsibility, and blaming everyone else to minimize damage to their own teams. In the end, only a group of red-faced humans remained, somehow reaching a fragile consensus while still fuming at one another. The meeting broke up, leaving behind nothing but bad outcomes. The executives returned to their offices and departments without so much as a farewell, and that was when the second wave of chaos hit every team.
Since I was just a lowly warehouse employee, I couldn’t access real-time information. The news reached me later, after things had somewhat settled, through the women on the team. Fortunately, because the highest executive under the President was the head of the management office, and I technically fell under that umbrella, I escaped any major fallout. Unfortunately, the Fashion Design Team took the hardest hit.
The women gathered in the messenger group spent the entire day ignoring their work, venting their fury by recounting the President’s atrocities and how other departments had thrown them under the bus. Since Eunhye was the youngest among the executives, she apparently couldn’t push back properly… They said her soul had completely left her body, only to return and leave her trembling with rage. I found myself genuinely worried about her.
Naturally, the messenger chat was on fire. Messages poured in without pause. To help relieve their stress—and since I was in a great mood thanks to my recent crypto gains—I suggested treating them to something delicious.
“Lightning round, let’s gooo!”
“I’m in today, no matter what!”
“My husband has a work dinner tonight! I’m free!”
My casual suggestion of grabbing drinks was met with an avalanche of enthusiasm. They must have been absolutely parched for alcohol. After my initial offer, the Fashion Design Team women took full control, deciding the menu and venue themselves. The unmarried Kang Yumi and Kim Minjeong canceled their existing plans to clear their schedules. Lee Eunhye called her husband to get permission. Jeonghun had to stay behind to follow the President’s schedule, and Sumin decided to support him. Jiyeong couldn’t make it because of household chores.
In the end, including myself, only four people showed up for the impromptu gathering: me and three women from the Fashion Design Team. This wasn’t our first lightning-round dinner, of course. Simple get-togethers with food and a few drinks happened fairly often. They weren’t anything special, but whenever anger or headaches built up, we gathered like this to destress and strengthen our bonds.
At the end of these gatherings, I often ended up alone with Eunhye. But until our most recent dinner—the one where we had finally shared a kiss and confirmed our feelings—nothing special had happened between us. Neither of us drank heavily back then, and we were both cautious, wary of repeating past mistakes. The atmosphere never quite ripened, making it difficult for me to make a move on her. Drunk me wanted to spend more time with Eunhye, while sober Eunhye looked troubled and unsure what to do. While we danced around each other like that, she would always flee into a taxi, and the night would end in failure.
I felt a little disappointed that she put up more walls while drinking than she did at the office, but I was also relieved that I hadn’t caused another accident. I would then turn my attention to Iseul and focus on her instead. This particular gathering, however, was the first lightning-round dinner in a long time since that kiss. Given the dramatic progress I had made with Eunhye, I was honestly looking forward to what might happen after the meal. The thought of being alone with her, stealing kisses and trying more intimate touches, made me almost grateful to the President.
For that to happen, moderate drinking was key. I needed to stay clear-headed to plan and execute. So, just like before, I planned to stop after a few drinks and call it a night. I had to work tomorrow and didn’t want to ruin my condition. Besides, the sooner we finished eating, the more time I could have alone with Eunhye. I hadn’t asked for Eunhye’s opinion or consent, but given the subtle atmosphere between us lately, I was confident everything would go exactly as I wanted.
My brain knew this was wrong, yet I couldn’t help crafting these dark schemes and acting on them. It was inevitable. After spending the past several months talking with her and truly coming to understand the woman named Lee Eunhye, I had fallen deeper and deeper into her charm. Because I loved her, I wanted to cherish her. Because she was precious, I wanted to possess her. The slight mental shock this process caused her, and the physical torment of teasing and toying with her body, were trivial matters. I absolved myself with the thought that I could make up for everything later. Today, once again, I set my sights on Eunhye’s beautiful body.
The lightning-round gathering began after work. Today’s menu was samgyeopsal. Everyone piled into my car, and we headed to the bustling district we often visited. After parking with some difficulty in an empty spot not far from the restaurant, we made our way to the place the women had carefully selected.
I had planned to treat them to beef with my crypto earnings, but they insisted it would be shameless to mooch off me and chose a cost-effective samgyeopsal restaurant instead. Thinking what good people they were, I raised my internal character evaluation score for them and followed the group into the restaurant.
“The photos on social media looked incredibly delicious.”
“It has that old-school pojangmacha vibe. The place looks nice~”
“Look at the meat coming out already grilled! The color is perfect!”
“This is going to be so good~”
The women walked together in a tight cluster, scrolling through review blog photos on their phones and praising every advantage they found. The moment the restaurant came into view, they dashed forward, flung open the door, and rushed inside.
We had finally arrived at the meticulously chosen samgyeopsal restaurant. In contrast to the December cold outside, the interior was warm and cozy from the heat of grilling meat. Many other customers filled the space, eating and drinking, and their cheerful atmosphere quickly infected us. Since most seats were taken, we were guided to a corner table against the wall. We each claimed a spot around the round iron grill table.
We opened the lids of the backless round chairs, neatly rolled up our jackets and padded coats, and either stuffed them inside or placed them on empty seats. Then we all looked at the menu together. Kang Yumi, who had researched the place most enthusiastically, placed the order.
“Four assorted samgyeopsal platters, please. And one bottle of soju!”
“Yes~ Got it.”
After the part-timer took our order, we began chatting casually about how cold the weather was. Happiness spread through the small things. We laughed and talked, losing track of time, until the side dishes arrived. Famished, we tasted each one and praised the chef’s skills while waiting for the main course.
However, Kim Minjeong, whose patience had been worn thin by today’s events, started passing the first round of drinks even before the meat arrived. She brought up the main topic and the conversation began in earnest.
Clink~
“Ugh! Seriously, is the President out of his mind?”
“Right? He’s completely lost it!”
“For real! Doesn’t he think at all? Has his judgment gone soft with age?”
The moment the first drink went down, everyone’s true feelings burst out. We rode the lively energy of the restaurant and started talking noisily. Summarizing what poured from the women’s mouths: the President had called the executive meeting citing poor performance compared to the previous year. Though it wasn’t the real reason, the meeting began by comparing the still-stable warehouse business with the clothing business that had only just started gaining momentum.
The President said he could understand the clothing division’s struggles since it was a new venture, but then opened fire by claiming sales performance was below expectations. He declared that the overall decline in results was the sales team’s fault. He said it was the sales team’s job to get clients to entrust us with their goods, and that the massive inventory pile-up compared to production, along with the failure to secure enough retail outlets, was also their responsibility. Surprisingly, these were actually quite reasonable judgments and orders.
The problem arose when he started giving the sales team various instructions. The sales director, who couldn’t let everything fall on his own head, skillfully countered and pulled a classic “drag everyone down with me” tactic. To avoid responsibility, he pointed out the management team’s inadequate response, the warehouse team’s inefficient operations, the clothing production team’s constant missed deadlines, and finally, the fact that the designs coming out of the Fashion Design Team were unpopular. In other words, he dragged out every single chronic problem in the company that I had already noticed.
Of course, all the executives already knew about these issues, but everyone had been keeping quiet because they didn’t want to take responsibility or increase their workload. Once those topics surfaced in the meeting, all hell broke loose. The President, seeing problems he hadn’t stirred up himself suddenly appear, happily fanned the flames. The other team leaders, who had prepared very long excuses for these old issues, began fighting back.
That was when the real war started. They started clashing with comments like, “Why is that our team’s fault? Aren’t you the ones who caused it?” The meeting descended into complete chaos. Even though Eunhye, as the youngest executive, tried her best, the results were poor. She actively argued that it wasn’t their team’s responsibility until the President left the room. After the President, who had pitted them against each other, stormed out in his own fit of rage, the full-scale war between executives began. Eunhye fought hard against the sales director’s responsibility-dodging, but she was overwhelmed by the old-timers’ culture of “rice and manners.”
The Fashion Design Team had never gotten along with the sales team to begin with. When the sales director blatantly shifted blame onto Eunhye’s team right there, it led to the worst fight they had ever had. She simply couldn’t contain her anger. To make matters worse, the management head subtly sided with the sales team during mediation. When Eunhye hit him with cold facts, the sales director raised his voice like the old bully he was and stormed out of the conference room first.
“So in the end, it’s not selling~ It’s all because the designs suck, isn’t it?” He dropped that legendary piece of nonsense and completely ruined the atmosphere in the meeting room.
Hearing the story, I thought about it from a third party’s perspective. The company’s chronic problems had simply surfaced. These were issues everyone should solve together for the company’s growth. Instead of thinking about how to improve everyone’s capabilities, they had avoided responsibility and turned the situation into a fight, making everything worse. From what I could see, the President probably already knew all of it. He had come to tighten discipline, but when everyone started fighting like that, he felt awkward and left. In any case, the real problem was the old-timers.
It started with the sales director’s shameless blame-shifting, then spread to other teams. With the management head taking their side, Eunhye—who had presented solid facts but still lost in the political game—had exploded earlier in the warehouse before coming here. That was why I already knew most of what had happened. But this was the first time I heard the details. I had expected it, but the executives at this company really were in terrible shape. Was this just how small and medium enterprises were? It made me realize how much Eunhye must be struggling. It couldn’t be easy holding her ground among those old fossils. Especially with incidents like this, she must be under enormous stress. That was why I had suggested this gathering in the first place—her mood was so bad she couldn’t even think about enjoying a kiss with me.
The fact that she was the one who asked me to buy her drinks so she could feel better… I couldn’t even imagine how furious she must be. Losing to the sales department of all people… Yeah, that would definitely sting a lot. The sales director had always been eyeing my performance to claim it as his own achievement, so I didn’t get along with him either. If I had been in that room, I would have shut him up with the achievement of clearing out the D-dong warehouse that the sales team had never been able to sell. I would have said, “The ones without skills are the sales team. Shouldn’t a real salesperson be able to sell even shit?” But the Fashion Design Team didn’t have such weapons prepared, nor did they know how to think that way.
“It’s not like they only do sales for a day or two, but they always blame trends! They don’t even make promotional videos or pamphlets themselves! When we showed them the drafts, they approved them saying they were good, and now they’re shitting all over us in the meeting saying the products don’t sell because of the designs.”
“Shit is a bit harsh… but exactly!”
“They always ask us to make copy drafts for other companies too! Of course things won’t sell if they try to push stuff that’s already out of fashion! I keep telling them to watch fashion shows, do research, and study! They pass things with zero basic knowledge, looking bored and annoyed, and then turn around and say what? Even if customers ask us to make the clothes they want, we need buyers to at least tell us current trends so we can consider them when designing!”
“If that’s the case, at least send us to fashion shows! They give us zero support! They’re the ones who secretly ask us for favors, saying we missed things, and then dump their work on us! And they have more people than us! If each of them gave us one task, how many would that even be?!”
“Ugh! Seriously! It’s nothing but infuriating things!!”
After that, Eunhye continued describing the situation inside the conference room. But she said there was no way to beat the sales team with words. Their specialty was talking, and their skill at twisting logic made it impossible to win, which only made her feel more wronged and angry. She was clearly speaking logically, but the other side kept saying illogical things until her brain froze. She knew rationally how she should respond, but the words wouldn’t come out. And then the management head sided with them, making the situation even worse. She couldn’t even swear at them. Feeling incredibly frustrated, she took another drink.
I opened the second bottle of soju and passed the drinks around.
“Wow, that’s really bad! So what did the President say?”
“What could he say in that situation! He hasn’t been hands-on with the work for a while now, so he doesn’t even know how things actually run. He gets reports, sure, but he has no idea how busy we are!”
“Exactly! We can’t even use our vacation days because of the current schedule! They’re going to expire in two months! We still have eight left…”
“The sales team is never at their desks, always taking vacation and resting. Yet the President just kept his mouth shut, watched us fight, and then ran away!”
“It’s always the same. He only listens to the sales director from the office next door, then comes running to our office to yell at us. When we explain, he just says ‘Then get it done quickly!’ and leaves. It’s so frustrating!!!”
“Aaaargh! Just thinking about it drives me crazy!”
“Haha… Hang in there, Team Leader. You know how it is. The sales team bothers me a lot too.”
While we mostly badmouthed the President and the sales department as snacks, the meat we had ordered finally arrived. The pre-grilled, nicely browned meat was plated beautifully, just like in the blog photos. They also brought mushrooms, kimchi, and bean sprouts to fill the empty spaces on the grill.
Once everything was ready, Kang Yumi had her photo moment. Then, starving, we filled our stomachs with samgyeopsal and refilled our glasses. After exploding with anger once through the meeting story, old tales from the past started pouring out one after another. I listened to the same repertoire again, chimed in at the right moments, and diligently kept their glasses full.
“He used to have an even worse personality back then. He’s gotten a lot better now, believe it or not.”
“It’s probably because of the law. You think his temper just disappeared? Last time he gathered all the male office workers separately and threw a fit.”
“The men in our company are really… Ha. Damn! Hey! Let’s drink!”
There was truly no end to complaining about the company. No matter how much we talked, the stress didn’t dissipate—it only seemed to pile up more anger. We ordered more soju and fried rice, repeating our curses and laments about the President and the company the entire time.
When it felt like quite a lot of time had passed, I checked my watch. It was already past ten. Looking around the restaurant, only about two other tables besides ours were still occupied. Curious how much we had drunk, I looked for the empty bottles, but the staff had already cleared them away. ‘Just counting the bottle caps… we’ve already gone through eight bottles. If I don’t want it to affect work tomorrow, we should start wrapping this up soon.’
Having finished that thought, I observed the women. Lee Eunhye sat to my left, Kim Minjeong to my right, and Kang Yumi sat across from me. Kang Yumi, who usually controlled her drinking well, seemed to have failed to pace herself today. She was gradually losing energy, nodding off occasionally and following the conversation in a low voice. Seeing her looking just like Jeonghun, I teased her, only to get a back-smack from Kim Minjeong for bullying the youngest.
Kim Minjeong, as always, had been drinking heavily on her own, so her intoxication was obvious even from the air around her. Her eyes were slightly glazed, and her voice grew increasingly hoarse. She started saying things that didn’t make sense, and whenever the topic turned to the President or the sales department, she would raise her voice like an old man and curse. She must have drunk at least half of all the soju we ordered.
Finally, Eunhye still seemed to have some strength left as she continued talking, but the alcohol had clearly tired her out. Whenever she chimed in with comments that obviously showed she was drunk, she would sway unsteadily. Realizing I was the only one still sober, I predicted that I would once again end up being the one to put everyone in taxis, leaving me with no time alone with Eunhye.
As I worried about what to do, I realized that if things continued like this, by the time I sent the other two home in taxis, Eunhye would probably escape after drinking as usual. I had to prevent any more drinking. While she still had some sense left, I needed to get Kim Minjeong and Kang Yumi to go home on their own and keep Eunhye here.
Having made up my mind, I reached under the table and took Eunhye’s hand, intending to stop these two from going on a rampage. When I grabbed her hand, Eunhye turned to look at me, gave me a bright smile, and squeezed my hand back. She started playing with my hand as if promising to give me a massage today. She seemed to be in a very good mood now that the drinking session had relieved her anger. Before I could even say anything to her, she hummed cheerfully and continued talking with the other two.
“They’re asking us to revise and send promotional videos by tomorrow—three requests! Does that even sound like words that passed through a brain?”
“Exactly! Why do we have to adjust to their schedule? If they had told us in advance, fine, but shifting work they missed in their own department onto us as our responsibility? Do these people even think?!”
“They know they can’t do their own jobs, so they pretend they don’t. They’re such sneaky bastards. I don’t know how they live like that!”
“Aigoo~ Calm down. Getting angry only hurts you.”
Even as I told her to calm down, I pulled her hand, sending her a message to start slowing down on the drinks. But Eunhye glanced at me, picked up her glass with her left hand, clinked it, and emptied it in one go. As she set the glass down, she swayed slightly. Startled, I reached out to steady her so she wouldn’t fall, then pulled my chair closer and sat right beside her.
The moment I sat next to her, Eunhye naturally leaned her head on my shoulder. For the past several months, I had sat beside her every day, caring for her and warmly embracing her. So the moment I moved next to her, she instinctively sought out her familiar spot and adjusted her posture. If I opened my arms right now, would she come into my embrace without hesitation? But with the other two sitting right there, I didn’t want to do anything that risky. She was already having a hard enough time. For her sake, I couldn’t give anyone ammunition for bad rumors.
Eunhye smiled brightly and held out her empty glass to me. I sighed and filled it only halfway, but she scolded me for ignoring her. Thinking it was already too late, I filled it properly. I also refilled the other two women’s glasses, then naturally wrapped my arm around Eunhye’s waist to keep her from falling. She snuggled deeper into my embrace, shifting her weight onto me and finding a comfortable position.
Once we settled into that posture, the atmosphere became strangely charged. Of course the other two had never seen me holding Eunhye like this before, so their curious looks were only natural. To an outsider, it would look like a loving couple embracing and leaning on each other. Sure enough, Kim Minjeong asked.
“Now that I think about it, Jinsu has gotten really close with the Team Leader lately, hasn’t he?”
“Huh? Haha. I guess so. After our dinners, we always end up staying until the end, so we’ve talked about all sorts of things…”
“Jinsu is re~ally nice~”
“True. Jinsu always catches taxis for us…”
“Hahaha. Would you all like… more to drink?”
“We have to drink more! There’s still so much food left! Where do you think you’re going?!”
“Let’s drink, drink~! Let’s trample the President! The sales team! Let’s drink while crushing them all~!”
“I hope a company like this goes bankrupt~!!”
My relationship with Eunhye was something that must never be revealed. It was such a sensitive issue that even suspicion or interest had to be avoided. Before they could dig any deeper, I quickly changed the subject. Seeing them pick up their glasses again and fall back into their frenzy, I thought to myself that tonight was a lost cause. Still, I was relieved I had managed to divert the dangerous moment so quickly.
With full stomachs, the women began nibbling on the remaining side dishes again and ordered more soju. Having given up, I sighed and kept their glasses filled so they wouldn’t run dry. I kept checking my watch, calculating the right time to head home. Then, suddenly, the fact that I was already holding Eunhye in my arms rose clearly to the surface of my mind.