Chapter 3.2

Sunday evening… It was an unwritten rule for the family to gather at Songbaekjae and share a family meal. Lee Seop, who had been feeling like this was bothersome and meaningless, made various excuses weekly not to attend, which he had been successful in doing since the end of last year, months ago.

When he arrived for dinner, his mother had already arrived before him with his younger sister, Sujin, and had been waiting for dinner. She must have been worried he wouldn’t attend this evening as well, so when she saw him enter, she jumped from her seat.

“Lee Seop! You’re here!” It was a hasty move that his mother, Seon-ae, hardly made.

“Yes, I’m here.” He smiled as he made eye contact with his mother. He then moved to greet his aunt Joon Yoon and her family, who also arrived. When seeing Tae Jun-seop sitting at the other end of the room, he smiled widely, bearing his teeth. “What’s going on? Tae Jun-seop is also here?”

“Says the one who has mostly failed to attend.” Jun-seop retorted.

“Aha, the Head of headquarters is talking like he has been faithfully attending dinner? You also don’t come.” Lee Seop spoke as he stood awkwardly with his hand in his pockets in front of Jun-seop.

Sujin chimed in, “Wrong! Since my brother was never here, it would've be too much in Grandfather’s eyes if the Head of Headquarters... no, Jun-seop oppa, was also not here.”

Lee Seop opened his mouth and glared at Sujin. Since when had she become so close with Tae Jun-seop? Was she calling him oppa?

Sujin read his expression and responded, “I told you. I decided to be a fan of Jun-seop oppa. He chose a woman over TK Electronics. It’s inspiring and so romantic. You always thought Jun-seop oppa only cared about money. You must feel dumb about it.”

“Sujin!” Seon-ae warned her daughter for being so loose-lipped as Jun-seop coughed loudly and awkwardly. It was a good thing they were in a small room connecting to the dining room where others couldn’t hear.

“Yes, Sujin, it’s not Tae Jun-seop, it’s your brother who is now worried about it and begging for money.” Lee Seop said cynically and sat across from Sujin.

“It’ll be fine, you really do best when it’s about money. That’s the charm of my brother.” Sujin responded low as she watched her mother leave the room. She then smiled, “But what I like about Lee Seop is you won’t actually go on the offensive with anyone. Even if you try to use tricks on people, it won’t matter cause it’ll be easy to see them.”

Jun-seop was fiddling with his water glass and acting like he didn’t hear Sujin, but Lee Seop didn’t miss the slight sneer on Jun-seop’s lips. ‘I guess they are close.’

“Okay... Tae Sujin, your present… return the credit card.” Lee Seop snapped his finger.

Sujin snorted at him, “Oppa! You are shameless. That was a birthday present.”

“Well, then ask Jun-seop, who you’re such a fan of, for a card.”

Jun-seop blurted out, responding. “Don't involve me, I don’t have any access to cards like that.” He then shrugged his shoulders as he stood up and walked to the dining room.

‘Huh?’ Lee Seop watched him and saw Jun-seop walking up to the Chairman entering. “That kid can’t hear anything… How did he hear Grandpa’s footsteps?” Lee Sop’s lips twitched slightly.

The dinner was more crowded than usual, with Aunt Jiyun’s grandchildren attending. When the main course was almost finished, the atmosphere naturally became disorganized with conversations and eating. Lee Seop leaned over to speak into Jun-seop’s ear. “Come outside in a moment; you can’t ignore me this time.”

“Huh? Me?” Jun-seop pretended to not understand.

Lee Seop strained his eyes and spoke in a low tone, suppressing his words slightly. “I went to your office twice this week at work, you kept making me waste my time.”

“Is that so?” Jun-seop looked at him with an innocent face as if he had no idea, but he was a million miles away from being that innocent bastard.

Lee Seop took a long look and stood up first to leave.

Lee Seop felt sick even though he hadn’t overeaten, so he grabbed carbonated water to drink and calmed himself as he walked through the garden. Soon after, Jun-seop approached, holding a bottle of Perrier in his hand. He heard the carbonation fizz as the bottle was opened and watched Jun-seop take a drink. Throwing his head back. Gulp, gulp, gulp. Lee Seop narrowed his eyes as he watched Jun-seop drink almost the whole bottle. ‘What a moronic guy’

Jun-seop suddenly said, “I was told.”

“What?”

“If you drink like this, women will think you’re a badass and sexy. I had a cousin say this, I wonder if it’s true.”

“Crazy.” Although Lee Seop looked disgusted, he couldn’t help but be a little curious. Why on earth is this bastard considered charming? Is this Jun-seop’s allure?

“Hmm? You look like you’re curious if it’s true?” Jun-seop seemed to have noticed that Lee Seop was listening and laughed. “Unfortunately for you… It’s a joke.”

“Hey.”

“Now that I think about It, I can just ask Woo-kyung what's sexy when I see her.”

Lee Seop shook his head, frustrated, “Whatever, let’s discuss it now.”

“What?”

“Kang Min-kyung.”

Jun-seop just stared at him. 

“Other than what you can read on the company database, how much on Kang Min-kyung did you report to Song Baekjae? To what extent?” Lee Seop fired off questions.

Jun-seop looked over, Inquiring, “How deep did you go?” 

“What am I even looking for? Should I be looking?” Lee Seop said annoyed.

“I was curious and looked for a few days. Director Yoo In-mok of the Public Relations Office was also bothered about It.”

Lee Seop held his cup lightly. “Her younger twin brothers are short-track athletes at H Physical Education College. Kang Min-hwan and Min-jun.”

“That’s right.”

“Even with talent, it’s still hard for TK to sponsor any athlete.”

“Let’s say the sponsorship… Sees potential.”

“You are so shameless, grabbing Kang Min-kyung by the collar with this and forcing her as my secretary? So, if Kan Min-kyung went to Song Baek-jae with this Information, would he be surprised?”

Jun-seop looked at Lee Seop momentarily and gave a strange, devilish smile. “Let’s say he wanted to eat some Makguksu, and looked up a place.”

“Low blow.”

Lee Seop had done some research about Min-kyung since they joined the company. She had student loans from university and worked an average of three part-time jobs then. He remembered that Min-kyung’s parents ran a shabby Makguksu restaurant in Gongju—probably Ganga’s Makguksu? That name alone gave the feeling of old-fashionedness and shabbyness. Ganga’s Makguksu. When he first heard about it, and also now, he got goosebumps. 

“Tae Jun-seop, the Makguksu is a bit… Isn’t it too much to disclose these family details to the Chairman from Min-kyung’s point of view?" Lee Seop questioned.

Jun-seop sighed, “I only posted Deputy Director Kang’s performance evaluation and recommendation, the other materials are from the Chairman.”

“So the story Is, the Chairman wanted to eat Makguksu from that old shabby restaurant?” Lee Seop blurted out.

“First, there have been updates, it’s not a shabby place. Just an old neighborhood spot, and it has good food reviews. With the towns growing nearby, it’s gotten more popular.” Jun-seop took his phone out and tapped on the screen, Lee Seop’s phone vibrated with an email notification. “Deputy Director Kang Min-kyung’s file. It’s the same version that Song Baekjae made. There are also quite a few photos in it, too.”

Lee Seop looked at him, dissatisfied, “Why are you giving this to me now? After you ignored me at work?”

The conversation made Lee Seop's throat go dry, feeling like he was dying of thirst and chugged his whole glass of water. 

“Well…” he started. Jun-seop stared at Lee Seop and tapped a finger to his chin, “You dripped a bit.”

“Ah,” Lee Seop placed his hand on the left side of his chin.

Jun-seop shook his head, “You have a bit of an issue with direction.” Jun-seop reached his hand out and wiped the right side of Lee Seop’s chin with his index finger. Jun-seop’s eyes widened at Lee Seop’s reaction as he quickly stepped back. “The wall is behind you.”

“I hate when people touch me. Especially my face, including family members regardless of gender…” he held his hand up, protecting himself and his space. “Please tell me why, why are you giving this to me now?”

“I was going to give it to you if you worked well with Deputy Director Kang for a few weeks. If I had given it to you before, you might’ve used it as a reason to not work together. But in that case, why should I bother showing you anything? If you know all the details about Director Kang’s situation, it will only make you feel uncomfortable and inconvenience you.”

“Inconvenience? Why would I be uncomfortable because of Kang Min-kyung?”

Jun-seop laughed and turned his head, “Yes, that’s right, there was no disruption with this.”

It was as if he was being courteous and saying, ‘I’ll just decide it all for you.’ That way, Lee Seop is so uncomfortable that he has to chase Tae Jun-seop down; from his office, poking around the Public Relations Office, and actually coming to dinner for once for all this fuss. Jun-seop didn’t say it aloud, but Lee Seop felt ridiculed. 

“So if you’re not inconvenienced, why do you ask and care? Why are you concerned how Kang Min-kyung may feel about what Song Baekjae did?”

“What?”

Jun-seop tilted his head and finished the rest of his bottle. “You can go back in. I need to jump.”

“Uh, whaa?”

“Date night. I didn’t see Woo-kyung yesterday, so I need to see her tonight.”

Jun-seop handed the empty bottle into Lee Seop’s hands as he stood there stunned and walked out of the garden leisurely. Lee Seop stared blankly at Jun-seop’s back with his cup in one hand, bottle in the other. ‘Me, caring? Do I mind? Me?’ He scoffed at the thoughts.

Obviously, he was planning to cut it off after the first day. Still, he had stopped while trying to negotiate when he was at Songbaekjae. He remembered her fingertips reaching out and shaking, trying to grab the hem of his shirt. 

Lee Seop knew the Chairmen very well, the Chairman’s habits, way of expressing emotions, flow of logic, speaking habits, and even his weaknesses, like how he felt sorry for Lee Seop, whose father was kicked out and Jun-seop took control of TK electronics, shaking his position. It wasn’t difficult to take advantage of that side of the Chairman. 

On that day, Lee Seop easily could have appealed to him and at least replaced the secretary position with someone else. Or if that was difficult, he could’ve cleverly got someone else assigned and excluded Kang Min-kyung. Plan A, Plan B… they were all in his head, but he just couldn’t put them into action.

It was all because of Kang Min-kyung’s fingertips grabbing at him, begging.

Her pleading eyes were so unfamiliar to see.

What weakness of hers or his were they investing so much time and effort into, he wondered. That was what bothered him, nothing else… crazy bastard Jun-seop.

Lee Seop nervously shook the bottle that Jun-seop had given him.