Chapter 812: Cheering On (2)

“A man should...!”

Vrooooooom!

Jo Gyu-Min’s foot stomped even harder on the poor accelerator.

“Understand! What! Vacation time means!”

He was pouring his heart out in despair.

How long had it been since he last got a day off? He couldn't remember the last time he had the whole Sunday off and could rest without worrying about work. For the past few months, the concept of 'vacation' to Jo Gyu-Min morphed from resting at home to working from home instead!

He finally had the chance to escape from that horrifying cycle and become one with his living room couch, so why! That day had finally arrived for Jo Gyu-Min, so what kind of frustrating situation was this?!Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

“Is this your idea of payback, Mister Jin-Ho?!”

There was no doubt about it. This had to be revenge!

‘But! Was what I did worthy of revenge?!’

Any upstanding moral person wouldn’t hesitate to force a chronic workaholic to get some rest. Especially when said chronic workaholic’s condition had noticeably declined! Recommending a lengthy break would be the usual thing to do in such a case.

If you went to see a doctor in a hospital, it was pretty easy to predict what they might say, no? Stop smoking, reduce alcohol consumption, and get plenty of rest!

‘Who doesn’t know that!’

It was just that living like what the doctor ordered wasn’t possible for regular schmucks like Jo Gyu-Min!

‘That’s why, stop scaring me with tales of how my blood pressure is going up!’

A doctor's job should be helping his patients maintain robust health even if they smoked nonstop, drank every night, and worked themselves to the ground! So why...!

‘...! What the hell?! How did I end up thinking that? In any case!'

Jo Gyu-Min gnashed his teeth. He could sense strong malice in this situation.

That itinerary! It couldn't have been sent to him with innocent intentions. The sender must've calculated that today was Sunday, so Jo Gyu-Min must be relaxing at home!

‘Even though I had nothing to do at home and didn't want to suck on my thumb, so I was thinking about doing something! Even though I was seriously thinking about going back to the office and doing Monday's work to make the next week a bit more tolerable! Even though I had no one to meet or talk to and was wondering what to have for dinner!'

That was when Jo Gyu-Min was struck by a sudden realization.

‘...Hang on. With things like that, shouldn't I be... grateful that I have something to do now?'

Jo Gyu-Min dazedly stared outside the car’s window before hurriedly shaking his head.

‘That was too close!'

He almost started accepting his fate just now. No, that was a lie. He had already half-accepted it! And the evidence of that was him in his car, speedily heading back to his work right this moment!

‘Bloody hell! I'm actually going back to work?!'

‘Going back’ implied Jo Gyu-Min was merely heading to where he was supposed to be. If such a term had to be used somehow, maybe the best time would be when he was clocking off work and heading home for the day... And not when he was rushing back to work like this!

“Dammit. This is all wrong.”

A blurry layer of moisture quickly filled up the edges of Jo Gyu-Min’s eyes.

He became someone who couldn’t live without his work. While everyone else was forming labor unions and whatnot to fight and struggle every day for their rights, here was Jo Gyu-Min, willingly becoming a slave and worrying about how to dedicate himself more to the company with zero benefits for himself!

Worrying about work should end at that—worrying, and not spilling into real life!

Jo Gyu-Min grew even more sorrowful at how he was rushing back to work on an idyllic Sunday without hesitation or opposition just because his boss had called him out of the blue.

However, what could he do about it now? Jo Gyu-Min’s body was already deeply stained by work. And work fueled his blood coursing through his veins.

In other words, Jo Gyu-Min was already beyond the point of no return.

Last week, he had a rare opportunity to meet up with his mother. And what she told him that day had been haunting him ever since.

“Son, I hear young people these days don’t get married early.”

“Do not worry, son. A good person for you will show up sooner or later. Don't be in a rush, okay?”

“Yes, son. Marriage isn’t all that important, now is it?”

If Jo Gyu-Min's mother pestered him like mothers of other families, he'd simply brush it aside as mere annoyance and move on with his life. However!

‘Damn it! To think mom would try to comfort me!’

It seemed even to the dear mother's eyes, Jo Gyu-Min... had zero prospects of getting hitched. However, she was right. Mother could tell her son was always at work through all the phone conversations they shared over the years!

They said you must look up at the sky first if you want to catch the stars. In that case, how could a man stuck in his office the whole day date someone and get married eventually? Unless he met an Office Fairy, that wasn't going to happen in his lifetime!

Other than where their priorities lay, the two men were eerily similar. If someone told them they couldn't do something, they wouldn't ask, 'Why not?' like everyone else. No, they would nonchalantly ask, 'Have you even tried it before? How do you know you can't if you haven't?'

That should've been the case, so why was Kang Jin-Ho's response this time so out of character...?

“You heard the man. He says he can’t do it,” said Kang Jin-Ho while glancing behind him.

That was when Han Jin-Seong, who had been on standby until then, slowly nodded away in helpless acceptance.

“He said it’s not happening today,” said Han Jin-Seong. And then...

“It’s not happening, guys.”

“Yeah, Chief Jo said no.”

“...We aren’t going out today.”

“It's a no-go.”

Jo Gyu-Min’s eyes slowly widened.

All the kids ‘waiting’ outside the living room’s exit began entering one by one while making depressed faces and nodding in acceptance of their fate.

‘W-what is this?’

Something seemed wrong with this situation, somehow! Shouldn’t the kids go outside the room after being rejected? Wouldn’t that be the normal response?

So, why were they flooding inside this room? Why? What did they want from Jo Gyu-Min?!

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at them. “Chief Jo said no.”

“...Nnng.”

The depressed-looking children stood behind Kang Jin-Ho. One... by one.

Jo Gyu-Min reflexively pushed his chair back just a little and leaned back as much as possible after realizing the number of children was rapidly ballooning up.

‘You... You damn brats! Why couldn’t you curse at me or something instead?’

Jo Gyu-Min would've resolutely dealt with these children if they had thrown temper tantrums. After all, he lost count of how many times he had dealt with that kind of nonsense. The thing was, he started his career in Jaegyeong's protection and security office before settling down as the Chief Secretary.

Simply put, Jo Gyu-Min had a master’s degree in handling people who liked to argue about illogical nonsense. But this situation, it...!

“Urgh...”

Eyes with hints of tears were now staring back at him. And those eyes weren’t saying, ‘Can’t you make it happen, somehow?’ No, they were sorrowfully saying, ‘Although it’s too bad, we’re okay. We’re used to this sort of thing, anyway.’

Would anyone remain unyielding after being subjected to those eyes? Yes, some people might have. The world was vast, after all. However, Jo Gyu-Min wasn't one of them!

If you could remain unshaken even after receiving a barrage of those looks... Then, you weren't a human being!

“Since you heard him, go back to your rooms and resume whatever you were doing, okay?” Kang Jin-Ho addressed the children. “Chief Jo said today is a no, so let’s not put him in a difficult spot.”

‘That son of a...!’

Jo Gyu-Min felt his heart burn at the sight of Kang Jin-Ho relaxedly saying all those things.

“...Okay.”

The Seongsim Orphanage kids dejectedly nodded, then began trudging outside the room again. One of the little ones held in the arms of a bigger kid stared at Jo Gyu-Min with wide-open teary eyes.

He must endure this. Yes, he must endure! As long as he could endure this moment, he’d get to rest for...

‘...I’d rest for the whole day?’

While feeling like crap? Him not ripping up his couch in guilt would be a bloody miracle at this rate!

“...Fine. I’ll get things ready,” said Jo Gyu-Min.

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head. “Sorry?”

“I said, I’ll get things ready, Mister Jin-Ho! That’s gonna sort out everything, right! I’ll take care of everything, so don’t worry about a thing and get going! Okay?!” Jo Gyu-Min shouted while shooting up to his feet.

With that, the looks on the children’s faces instantly brightened.

Just as feelings of gratification and aggrieved unhappiness began filling him up, Jo Gyu-Min’s hearing picked up Kang Jin-Ho’s collected tone of voice.

“If you’ve changed your mind, that’s fine, but why are you getting angry at us?”

“...!”

This was the moment when ‘Kick Kang Jin-Ho in the shin’ got added to Jo Gyu-Min’s bucket list.