Chapter 37

“You know it too.”

His tone was full of hope. Considering today’s circumstances that her work was behind due to ‘focusing’, she was not pleased with his hopeful enthusiasm.

“Did you say, dinner party? That’s what I heard, so tada!”

Just then Kim Sang-Hoon PD (T/N: Acronym for production director), who was passing nearby Seung-Jae’s desk, suddenly cut in, closing the distance like a clip attracted to a magnet called ‘dinner party’.

At that moment, Na-Yool forgot to respond and frowned. Why did it have to be yet another Sang-Hoon!?!

“Let me join too, Lee Seung-Jae.”

“Married men should go home early.”

“Can’t married men enjoy some fun time with the young ones? Hm? Or you want me to go back home early on a Friday night and suffocate under my wife?”

“You bragged about her not that long ago.”

“Oh, the situation has been a bit bad for a few days.”

“At your age, please take care of your marital life by yourself.”

In moments like these, the fact that, despite being the youngest, Seung-Jae could talk candidly even with employees from other departments and whose ages were far apart from his, stuck out. To the point Na-Yool would wonder where his boastful artistic side had gone. It was also due to the company atmosphere, where seniority was not well-defined, but Seung-Jae was the kind of man you easily forgive with a ‘What a cute young fellow’.

“How mean, Lee Seung-Jae. What fun is there in just the both of you drinking together?”

“For teamwork. This is a team dinner party.”

“Yeah right, with just the two of you… Hang on. Thinking of it, this doesn’t sound like one. Why just you two, is there something else? Huh?”

Sang-Hoon of the Kim family started to babble with an inquisitive tone, while looking alternatively at Seung-Jae and Na-Yool. Na-Yool glared at Seung-Jae to look at the mess he had put her in. She already wanted to buzz off from the dinner thing, but now that it had been somewhat confirmed in front of a third party…

Seung-Jae answered while looking out for Na-Yool’s reaction. “What do you mean, Kim PD, you are thinking too much.”

“Ah, that’s right! Didn’t Na-Yool say she has a boyfriend? The one with the same name as me…”

“Oh, they broke up a while ago.”

Not that long ago, mind you…

“Then what is it about you two? How suspicious.”

“Nothing. I am telling you, there is absolutely nothing.”

Were they not supposed to be working? What was all that?

After watching against her own will with miserable eyes the war of nerves going on next to her desk, Na-Yool then turned her head towards the monitor.

Or to be precise, she intended to.

Right then, a pop-up window from the office messaging appeared on the bottom of the screen, displaying the three characters of the name [Kwon Si-Jin]. As soon as she saw it, she feared for 2 seconds that one of the men next to her would have seen it as well, then 5 seconds later she reached the conclusion that Si-Jin might not have send such a sensitive message that she had to worry about it, and only then was she able to stare straight at her screen. With, this time, her head fully turned.

“…If not, why only the two of you? Hm?”

“For teamwork, teamwork! A teamwork for which team members are more important than outsiders.”

In the midst of the commotion, Na-Yool clicked on the new message.

[Please be quiet in the office] 3:23 p.m.

……Now, what was that?

Chapter 7.B – Friday afternoon, 4:10 p.m.

“So, are you working overtime today?”

“It is the weekend, I should take it slowly.”

“Kim PD is making a fuss to have a drink. Go have some fun with them.”

“Yes, I heard him begging over and over for a dinner party. At this point, the planning team should just go have their own. How about you, Park PD?”

“Today I should be done at midnight sharp. I’m having a meeting with Hansung’s PR team, the third one since this morning.”

“Damn.”

“… And with the President coming along.” he added quietly with a voice full of regret as he placed his mug underneath the coffee machine. On the opposite side, the other party let out a sigh of compassion.

“That, you are quite…”

“Fucked, yeah.”

“Yes, sounds like it.”

It was an agreement that came from experience, without any hesitation.

“Being successful and having money at a young age, you would expect him to become more accommodating. But why is it that the more time passes by, the more inflexible he gets…”

“They say it’s even more true for wealthy people, after all.”

“Anyway, even late, I said I will be going once I’m done. So you too Yoon-Sung, come with us whenever you have time.” said Park PD as he shook his head as if to shake off his disapproval.

“I had a team dinner party last Friday. If I go, my wife will kill me.”

“Don’t group them together. That was your team dinner party. This one is our team.”

Just as Yoon-Sung was about to look at Park PD with a dumbfounded look, the devil they were speaking of walked in the break room. An awkward silence floated for five seconds.

They would not mind even if the break room was no more than a tiny space with just a few packets of instant coffee, if only it had a proper door.

Despite being spacious enough to fit in a fully functional kitchen of about 4m, equipped with a high-class coffee machine, expensive imported tea bags, snacks like cookies and muffins always available, long and stylish dining tables and comfortable sofas that could fit many employees at once, it sadly had not a single door.

The kitchen facility is attached to one wall in an L-shape, separated from the sofas by a long wall blocking the way, the only partition in the room. So if you were getting yourself a cup of coffee from the kitchen, there is no way of knowing who is on the other side of the wall or, because of the sound of the coffee machine, to even know if someone is coming to your side before they are actually there.

Therefore, many people had the unpleasant surprise to end up facing Kwon Si-Jin without knowing he was coming.

The two men exchanged a ‘Did he hear?’ look, their inner swearing almost perceptible in the air. Time had not stopped and Si-Jin strided, inevitably coming closer to them.

They politely bowed with a creaking sound, as if an invisible hand had pushed their head down. Si-Jin answered with an indifferent nod and walked to the fridge.

Yoon-Sung, who was relatively more relaxed, continued the conversation as if it was nothing.

“…That is the worst excuse you could come up with.”

Park PD, who was staring up at Si-Jin’s back of the head, flinched at the conversation suddenly resuming. Yoon-Sung glared at him to get his attention and, pulling himself together, Park PD nodded back with a vague “Oh, yeah”.

How much did he suffer to react this way? Yoon-Sung continued speaking, his voice filled with sympathy and pity for Park PD.

“If my wife heard you, she would ask why I am even following other teams to their own dinner party… Her jaw would drop.”

“It’s not like it was the first time we drank together anyway.”

Park PD finally succeeded in answering in a somewhat relaxed manner. His anxious gaze though was still fixed on Si-Jin’s every move. As Park PD wondered why he was taking out veggies – not usually found in a company’s fridge –, Si-Jin passed the two men back and headed to the sink.

“Last week I drank myself ill and got a warning from my wife. If I do it again, I will get kicked out of the bedroom.”

“Hey, only two obnoxious drunkies promised to come. Kim PD and Choi Jin-Ho.”

“Choi Jin-Ho is coming too? Ah, then I really don’t want to go.”

“Have a sense of duty.”

“ ‘As fellow obnoxious drunk let’s look after each other’, is that it?”

“You got it!”