#044
Hwi-kyung thought of the Bodhisattva grandmother. The face of that grandmother, whose gold tooth showed when she smiled, no longer came clearly to mind. Even though she was the one who had cursed him to regress whenever he got a job at a black company, her features were now hazy.
Unfortunately, Hwi-kyung’s memory wasn’t that exceptional. His short-term memory was fine, but long-term memories tended to be either embellished or forgotten altogether. Having regressed fourteen times, enough time had passed that it was impossible to remember everything clearly.
However, Jung-hye gave off a similar feeling to the vaguely remembered Bodhisattva grandmother. It was strange to get such a feeling from Jung-hye, who was neither elderly nor had gold teeth. Hwi-kyung almost asked her, “Are you perhaps a Bodhisattva?”
“Anyway, BK International is out of the question.”
“Why do you keep interrupting when I’m talking with Hwi-kyung?”
“Because Jung Hwi-kyung is my person!”
“Oh my.”
“…”
“You two are really something else.”
Despite being cautioned not to speak like that… Gyo-ha was quite persistent. Hwi-kyung struggled to keep the system window from maximizing while maintaining an expressionless face.
Thinking about how BK International, where Lee Sung-ha had risen to become Executive Director, would eventually fail, his foolishly swelling heart cooled down. Remembering the pitiful Manager Kang Moon-chul who would be split in two, even his stray thoughts about Lee Gyo-ha faded away.
“Well, I’m okay with not joining International.”
“Why? Is it because of Sung-ha after all? If it’s really not to your liking, how about coming directly under me?”
“…”
“I’ll arrange a position in the secretarial office. What do you think? I’ll even offer a higher salary than what you’re getting now.”
“Noona!”
“I need to give you a position now to avoid future troubles!”
While Hwi-kyung had seen plenty of scenes where a white envelope was offered to break up with someone’s son, it was new even to him to receive a job offer to make him “her person” to avoid future troubles if he broke up with her brother.
Hwi-kyung was tempted by the position that didn’t match his age and the higher salary than his current one. It would be difficult for any human not to be swayed when faced with honor and money. But what good would it do to obtain them? Jung Hwi-kyung would have to start over as a job seeker the moment he took the wrong job anyway.
“I’ll just stay as I am.”
The fourteenth iteration was essentially already ruined. Although working as a housekeeper suited him, the system window that was making a fuss just because he had developed some feelings for his employer wouldn’t let him stay in this iteration.
If he didn’t prepare his resume and submit it to a new company right away, he didn’t know when or how he’d move on to the fifteenth regression. That damned J Planet, the National Tax Service audit, and the condition of startups with five or fewer employees always tripped him up.
But Hwi-kyung wasn’t as anxious as before. His grandmother was still alive, and in this iteration, he could watch Kim Tae-pung’s concert from a VIP seat without having to get scalped tickets.
His current job was sometimes hectic, but it was fun because he felt like he was learning new things, and Yoon Marcia, almost his only coworker, was always kind to him. This wasn’t such a bad life either.
If it were Jung Hwi-kyung alone, he wouldn’t have experienced this iteration even if he had died and woken up thirty times. Hwi-kyung couldn’t establish a corporation like Gyo-ha, nor could he have thought of employing a housekeeper as a regular employee.
The regression system seemed to periodically judge Hwi-kyung’s fourteenth iteration as a “failure,” but for some reason, Hwi-kyung didn’t feel like moving on to the next one right away. It felt okay to stay like this a little longer.
If it was going to be a failure anyway, wouldn’t it be alright to take a little rest? This was truly an uncharacteristic judgment for the usual Jung Hwi-kyung.
“Are you really okay with this? It’s rare for me to make such an offer. If you refuse this time, I won’t offer twice.”
“Yes.”
“Hah… Well, if that’s what you say, I can’t force you. Since you’re here, why don’t you take a look around the company before you go? Gyo-ha, you show him around. I have to go to a meeting now.”
Jung-hye stood up first. The secretary waiting outside the door hurriedly informed her of her next schedule. It seemed obvious that working directly under Lee Jung-hye would lead to forced regression within three years. Or one might die from overwork before that.
“Want to take a look around the company?”
“Is it okay?”
“Of course. I’m the Executive Director.”
“Why do you always become an Executive Director?”
“Because it’s easy to add and sounds prestigious…”
“Sounds more like another name for a parachute appointment.”
“In romance novels, the male lead is always an Executive Director too.”
“Stop reading those novels.”
Hwi-kyung followed Gyo-ha, who offered to guide him around the company, out of the reception room. Surprisingly, Gyo-ha no longer made him uncomfortable. They had even kissed, but now that Gyo-ha was calm about it, Hwi-kyung found himself not dwelling on it either.
The American influence was truly terrifying. Hwi-kyung repeated sad thoughts in his head again. If he let his guard down even a little, he felt like the system window would suddenly open up even while he was exchanging jokes with Gyo-ha.
However, Hwi-kyung’s sad thoughts didn’t need to continue for long.
As soon as they arrived on the fifth floor where Gyo-ha’s personal office was located, a beauty rivaling celebrities welcomed the two of them.
“Executive Director!”
“Ah, Se-young.”
“You’re late today?”
The woman called “Se-young” greeted Gyo-ha in a cheerful tone. Unlike International where Gyo-ha had a whole floor to himself, at BK Entertainment, other department offices were attached within the fifth floor.
“I’m on my way to buy coffee for the marketing team. Can I get you anything?”
“It’s okay. Here’s the card.”
“Kyaa, Executive Director, you’re the best! Thank you.”
Hwi-kyung experienced culture shock seeing Se-young casually receiving the corporate card. Even for a parachute Executive Director, is it okay to be this casual? This was the collapse of corporate culture.
To Hwi-kyung, who had only worked in companies with dress codes and vertical structures that only claimed to aim for horizontal structures, Se-young was truly an ill-mannered “modern employee.” While physically 27 years old but with a mental age in the late 50s, Hwi-kyung’s eyes trembled watching Se-young, who seemed to think she should buy something expensive now that she had the Executive Director’s card.
Is this really okay? Do young people these days (Hwi-kyung is physically one of them too) get along this well with their superiors? Is it alright to use the corporate card to buy the most expensive strawberry parfait frappuccino or something from the cafe?
Regardless of Hwi-kyung’s thoughts, Gyo-ha seemed to have no concerns. It was clear that Gyo-ha wouldn’t say anything as long as Se-young didn’t use the corporate card to buy the entire cafe.
“…You seem close with your employees.”
The reason Hwi-kyung blurted this out as soon as he entered Gyo-ha’s personal office was, he swears to heaven, absolutely not because of jealousy. He was just concerned about the new marketing team employee’s lack of formality.
Of course, it was true that the pretty Yoon Se-young subtly bothered him. Between the blunt and businesslike Jung Hwi-kyung and the cute and casual Yoon Se-young, the more popularly likable one was obviously the latter.
Lee Gyo-ha, being human, would probably find it more comfortable to deal with Se-young than with Hwi-kyung. So Se-young must be comfortable with Gyo-ha too.
“You even gave her the corporate card so freely when she said she was going to the cafe.”
“She’s buying coffee for the whole team, you know.”
“They could use the team’s operating budget for that.”
“Come on, how could I not give it to her when we ran into each other?”
“…”
“Don’t tell me, Hwi-kyung…”
“It’s not like that.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“Just don’t say anything.”
“Are you jealous?”
Gyo-ha meant it as a joke, but it was a direct hit for Hwi-kyung. Jealous? What’s that? Hwi-kyung suddenly felt wronged. He was already exhausted from the system window pestering him, and here was Lee Gyo-ha, oblivious to everything, saying such things.
Hwi-kyung turned towards Gyo-ha to retort that it wasn’t true. He thought Gyo-ha would have said such things with that usual grinning face of his.
Due to the fluorescent light, he had to tilt his head slightly to see Gyo-ha’s face properly. Hwi-kyung looked directly at Gyo-ha’s face without much thought. He was ready to snap at him to stop talking nonsense if he saw that grinning face.
But Gyo-ha wasn’t smiling at all. Rather, he looked a bit flustered and embarrassed, raising his hand to rub his cheek. He even deliberately avoided Hwi-kyung’s gaze first.
The moment he recognized that awkward face, Hwi-kyung’s tightly wound nerves loosened like a screw coming undone. This was beyond his control. Seeing such an expression on someone who seemed incapable of feeling shame, Hwi-kyung couldn’t help but be flustered too.
Condition not met: You have developed personal feelings for your employer.
Condition not met: Signs of office romance detected.
The system window, having reached its limit, displayed a new window right in front of Lee Gyo-ha’s face as if it had been waiting for this moment. Hwi-kyung was so surprised that he could only freeze like a stone.
“Huh?”
Although he closed the window again within seconds, Hwi-kyung’s face quickly turned bright red. Gyo-ha learned for the first time that a person’s face could turn that red.
“…Did you see it?”
“Uh… personal feelings?”
“Shit, really…”
Hwi-kyung, with his face thoroughly reddened, could only rub his face dry. Gyo-ha just watched Hwi-kyung cautiously. He was having stupid thoughts like, surely those personal feelings couldn’t be murderous intent, right?
