Maybe it wasn’t even intentional. Maybe he was just so giddy from being in love that he couldn’t see anything around him. That would explain why he kept bragging about everything related to Gwak Seon-woo, completely indifferent to whether Eun-jae’s stomach turned listening to it or not.
Lately, he’d been wearing the same tie pin to death—so much so that every team member had, at some point, asked him where it came from. At first, Seung-hyeon would casually answer their questions, like it was no big deal. But somewhere along the way, he seemed to get the urge to mess with Eun-jae specifically, because he kept directing the topic back to him.
“Assistant Manager Seo, do you know what it means when someone gives a tie and a tie pin as a gift?”
“How the hell would I know that.”
He snapped back with a chill in his voice, and Seung-hyeon just giggled and strolled back to his seat like it was nothing. It was infuriating. That tie pin looked expensive as hell—like, even if Eun-jae stripped off every piece of clothing he was wearing and sold it all, it probably still wouldn’t be enough to cover that one accessory. That petty, bitter thought kept chewing away at him.
Well, it made sense. Seung-hyeon was dating a chaebol, someone who lived in an entirely different world from a lowly office worker like himself. Of course the scale of their gifts would be on another level. It wasn’t even about jealousy or anger anymore. Not exactly. It just felt unfair. He just really, really wanted to punch Seung-hyeon in the face for being such a smug asshole.
…And the worst part? Eun-jae—Seo Eun-jae himself—ended up looking it up. Actually opened a browser and typed it in because he couldn’t stop wondering what the hell that gift meant. And he hated himself for it.
***
[Blog Post] Meaning of Gifting a Tie Pin / Meaning of Gifting a Tie / What It Means to Give a Tie and Tie Pin Together
Today we’re diving into the meaning behind giving someone a tie pin~~ (thumbs-up emoticon)
You’re all curious, right? I was super curious too~~ (turning around with rose petals emoticon)
Let’s start with the meaning of gifting a tie!
Apparently, giving a tie means… “I want to make you mine”! (sobbing uncontrollably emoticon)
Isn’t that just sooo romantic~~?
So what happens when you gift a tie along with a tie pin? What does that mean?
I’m dying to find out~~~ (winking emoticon)
And that’s it for our little dive into the meaning of giving a tie and tie pin~~
If this helped, don’t forget to like and comment!! (sparkly-eyed greeting emoticon)
***
To make things worse, Eun-jae had landed on one of those completely useless blog posts.
Annoyed, he kept digging through Google until he finally found a real answer: Giving a tie together with a tie pin means that the pin holds the tie firmly in place—so it symbolizes a stronger, more intense version of “I want to make you mine.”
He shouldn’t have looked it up. What the hell was he expecting to gain from poking into someone else’s love life? And to top it all off, the person who gave a gift to his own team leader that basically screamed “I want to make you mine”……was Gwak Seon-woo.
This was someone he’d once had a crush on. The taste in his mouth turned bitter. Gwak Seung-hyeon, that son of a bitch. He either needed to quit, or just get the hell out already.
***
Seo Eun-jae, who had practically made a habit of grumbling those thoughts on loop, was hit with a major headache one day.
They had just come back from lunch with their coworkers when Seung-hyeon was seen leaving the office. Eun-jae felt a small sense of relief—thank God he wouldn’t have to see that insufferable face for a while—but something felt off. The atmosphere among the remaining team members was… strange.
“What’s going on?”
There was no way someone as nosy and well-connected as Seo Eun-jae could sit still in a situation like this. If only he could curb that damn curiosity, he might spare himself the agony of overhearing things he’d rather not know. But no matter how many times he’d suffered for it, Eun-jae just couldn’t seem to break out of that cycle.
“Why? Where did the team leader go?”
He asked again, glancing around at the flustered team members. When he leaned in with a pointed look, one of them finally caved and spilled.
“I mean… I only heard it secondhand, but… apparently, the Team Leader got summoned by Executive Director Maeng.”
Executive Director Maeng. He was one of the new executives brought in after a major purge of Gwak Sang-cheol’s faction due to an upper-level corruption scandal. Rumor had it he’d been handpicked and placed there directly by the chairman himself.
Even if the chairman’s role had become largely honorary, he was still the chairman. So naturally, Executive Director Maeng strutted around like he owned the place. His behavior was so off-putting that people said there wasn’t a single employee in the company who actually liked him. And since his surname was Maeng, he earned a whole string of unflattering nicknames around the office: Maeng-kkongi, Maengtang, Maeng-goo, Maeng-chung-i, Maeng-tteong-goo—every one of them some half-playful, half-rude jab.
As much as Eun-jae couldn’t stand Seung-hyeon, not even he was worse than Executive Director Maeng. He went from feeling relieved at not having to see Seung-hyeon’s face to actually thinking, “Damn, poor guy.” That’s how bad it was.
“Yikes… what happened…”
Eun-jae clicked his tongue with a mix of pity and disapproval. And yet, he couldn’t help thinking, “That’s what you get for being a jerk. Should’ve just left good people like me alone.”
But apparently, that wasn’t the end of the story. One of the team members lowered their voice, whispering just loud enough for Eun-jae to hear.
“But… it’s not just some regular meeting. I heard the Team Leader’s being set up on a blind date.”
“What? A blind date?”
“Yeah. I overheard it in passing—something about introducing him to his daughter or maybe a relative.”
Eun-jae gaped, stunned speechless. A blind date? So Gwak Seung-hyeon had followed Executive Director Maeng off somewhere, completely clueless, not knowing what he was being dragged into?
“B-but… doesn’t the Team Leader already have someone he’s seeing?”
“Exactly. Not like he’s hiding it either, right? He makes it pretty damn obvious. But that’s what makes this even worse.”
“Why?”
“Because that bastard Maeng is part of the Chairman’s line. Word is the Chairman set this whole thing up himself. So from the Team Leader’s side… how the hell is he supposed to say no to that?”
A team member looked toward the spot Seung-hyeon had just left with a face full of pity, like they were about to cry. Eun-jae, who was still sitting there with his mouth hanging open, only snapped out of it when someone muttered, “Careful, Assistant Manager Seo, you’re gonna catch flies like that.” A familiar, inevitable sense of frustration followed.
‘Sigh… do I call him or not?’
If nosy meddling were a genetic trait exclusive to Koreans, then Eun-jae was the most Korean person alive. He’d already been staring at his contacts list for quite a while, torn between ‘I should at least let him know’ and ‘Why the hell is it my job to do this?’—his mind a chaotic tug-of-war.
To be completely honest, he found Seung-hyeon so goddamn irritating that the thought “Go ahead, let’s see you suffer for once.” had definitely crossed his mind. But then there was Gwak Seon-woo—Seung-hyeon’s boyfriend—working away, blissfully unaware that his partner was being dragged into a blind date. What had he done to deserve that? Sure, he was the one who had ruthlessly dumped Eun-jae… but that didn’t mean Eun-jae wanted to see their relationship crash and burn like this.
Eventually, after letting out an exaggerated, exhausted sigh, Eun-jae—who hadn’t called Seon-woo once since he got back from his trip—finally gave in and made the call.
***
“That damn geezer. If he wants to take up a hobby, couldn’t he pick something a little less deranged? What kind of sick pastime is it to kidnap people for blind dates?”
“Um, but… why am I here?”
“When it was me, same thing happened. Said he was sick and in the hospital, on the verge of death, laid it on thick. I show up, and what do I find? Some complete stranger waiting at a restaurant. It was mortifying. Thank god the person wasn’t actually interested, otherwise what the hell would I have done?”
“Um, Director? But I’m still not clear… why am I here?”
“Sure, forcing people into blind dates is exactly what you’d expect from an old fossil like him. But look at the match. His daughter? His relative? He couldn’t ruin someone’s life any harder if he tried. Why’s it gotta be Maeng of all people?”
“I get that, I really do, but…”
Still doesn’t answer the question.
Sitting in the passenger seat and listening to Seon-woo go off, Seo Eun-jae finally let out a deep sigh. It was clear Seon-woo wasn’t planning to hear a word he had to say anyway.
Then again, this was the same man who, just that morning, had still been walking around proudly showing off the tie and tie pin Seon-woo had given him—for the third straight week—like some kind of love trophy. Now he’d suddenly been yanked off to go on a blind date with Executive Director Maeng’s relative. Of course he was spiraling.
Still, none of that explained why Eun-jae had to be dragged along. All he’d wanted to do was pass on the information and be done with it, but thanks to Gwak Seon-woo, he now found himself more or less forcibly loaded into a car, on the way to personally witness his own team leader being set up on a blind date.
Well… he was kind of curious how it would go down. Even if he’d let go of his feelings, it still felt a little surreal, watching someone who used to chase after him get pulled into a situation like this. The more he saw sides of Gwak Seon-woo that he hadn’t noticed back then, the more he realized—he’d only ever seen part of the full picture.
Screw it. Since I’m going anyway, I might as well get a front-row seat to whatever chaos Seon-woo’s about to unleash. And hey, might as well score a good meal out of it while I’m at it.
