2. Kindness (2)
If there was one thing Mun Dawon hated most, it was unintentionally drawing the attention of others. If the place where such a thing happened was the company, nothing could be worse than that.
The day after Seo Eungyu’s welcome party, she found herself in the worst possible situation.
“No, Deputy Manager Mun, I’m telling you, we have better price competitiveness than Konex or Baeneotec!”
“Director, any company that receives a disqualification in the technical evaluation is excluded from the price bidding. So even the estimate you submitted now, we cannot open—”
“How are we supposed to believe that!”
Why had I scheduled a meeting at the company café? Mun Dawon looked at the huffing middle-aged man before her and deeply regretted it.
Sim Myeongsu, director of Owon—one of their biggest clients—had suddenly come down to Hanseong Innovation City, and at that very hour, all the conference rooms were booked. Since they couldn’t very well talk in the hallway, she had brought him to the café on the first floor.
But who could have imagined he would shout so vociferously like this?
A colleague from another team standing at the pickup counter was looking at her with pitying eyes, and employees sitting at nearby tables kept stealing glances at her.
“Director, please calm down and let me explain—”
“Who knows if you already opened all the estimates in advance, picked the cheapest company, and passed them through the technical evaluation!”
The International Contracts Team was chronically short-staffed precisely because they constantly suffered through malicious complaints like this. With hundreds of millions of won at stake, everyone was on edge.
“Then would you please wait a moment? I’ll bring the unopened estimates. You can see with your own eyes that I haven’t opened them first.”
Mun Dawon rose from her seat. Sim Myeongsu, who had been crunching ice noisily, waved his hand.
“No, miss. Sit down for now.”
“Miss?”
Mun Dawon bit her molars and repeated the word. She could feel the always-noisy café go quiet in an instant. The soft background music flowing from inside became distinctly audible. The table next to them openly turned their heads to watch.
Her fingertips trembled slightly. Outside, thick snowflakes were swirling down, yet it felt like hot water was being poured only over her head. This man was really pushing his luck.
“I’m not a miss. I’m Deputy Manager Mun Dawon.”
“Yes, yes, Deputy Manager Mun Dawon. Please sit down first. I’m not trying to pick a fight; I just want to have a calm conversation, don’t I?”
The man—who had clearly forgotten who had been shouting all this time—gestured at the chair. She was torn between the urge to kick back her seat and leave the café immediately and the rationality of having to respect a client.
“Oh, isn’t this Director Sim Myeongsu?”
A gentle voice broke through the tense confrontation. When she turned around, Seo Eungyu was walking over with a bright face and long strides.
“Yes, Eungyu. No, should I call you Chief now?”
“Please feel free to address me however you like. If I had known you were coming today, I would have joined you.”
Director Sim Myeongsu changed his complexion and sprang up, grasping Seo Eungyu’s hand. Mun Dawon, caught in the middle, looked back and forth between them with an uncomfortable expression.
“Is your father doing well? It’s been so long since the alumni reunion, I must be forgetting his face.”
“Yes, he’s doing well. I’ll let him know you asked.”
In Korea, you couldn’t omit school ties, regional ties, and blood ties, yet Seo Eungyu had all of them covered. With a bitter taste in her mouth, she looked down at the carpeted floor.
“Since Deputy Manager Mun Dawon and I are on the same team, if there are any urgent matters or inconveniences that need separate attention, please don’t hesitate to tell me.”
“Oh, how could there be any such thing? Deputy Manager Mun has been taking such thorough care of me. Still, now that we have Chief Seo here, I’m very comfortable and pleased.”
Sim Myeongsu no longer raised his voice. He chuckled and backed down. He bowed respectfully even to Mun Dawon before leaving the company.
“It’s all cold now.”
Seo Eungyu picked up the coffee she had been drinking and muttered.
“I’ll buy you a new one. Drink it slowly and come back up.”
She looked at the man pulling his wallet from his back pocket with puzzled eyes. His face, having put away his perfunctory smile, looked as chilly as the cold outside.
“The conference rooms were all full, so I was having a meeting over there too.”
He pointed to a corner table on the opposite side of the café. It meant he had watched the entire situation unfold. A rush of shame flushed her face red.
“Want something cold? To settle your stomach.”
“No, I’m fine.”
Mun Dawon gathered the planner and phone on the table and left the café first. In that moment, she hated her same-age superior—who looked down on her with an attitude of knowing everything—more than the client director who had treated her rudely.
She knew. That it wasn’t Seo Eungyu’s fault.
The problem lay entirely with her. An immense desire to somehow beat that man. Yet the cruel reality that she had never once overtaken him. That gap turned her mood into a quagmire.
Unable to even walk along the promenade on a snowy day, she went into the restroom and washed her hands for a long time to calm herself.
When she came out wearing her social mask again, the noise mixed with people’s voices, ringing telephones, and the multifunction printer spewing out documents welcomed her.
“Huh?”
When she returned to her seat, a granola yogurt from the first-floor café was sitting on her desk. It was her favorite.
Mun Dawon entered her password and logged into the company messenger. But there were only work-related messages piled up; there was no note from anyone saying they had left the yogurt.
Her gaze turned to the empty seat on her left. Seo Eungyu, who had newly claimed that seat since yesterday, did not seem to have come up from the first floor yet.
She messaged Staff Jeong Juhwan, the most approachable person in the office.
[Juhwan, did you leave a yogurt at my desk?]
[Yogurt? No. Who gave you yogurt?]
She looked at the left seat again. Surely not? While she was lost in thought, Jeong Juhwan asked persistently.
[Who? Who gave you yogurt?]
[A colleague left it.]
Mun Dawon brushed him off and handled her backlog of work. Every so often, the yogurt in its round cup entered her field of vision. But no matter how hard she stared at it, she couldn’t find anything unusual.
Beyond the partition, the general manager’s office door opened, and Seo Eungyu came out. Perhaps because he was so tall, his smug face was visible at a glance. The man, who had briefly reported to the team leader, sat down at his desk without showing any particular reaction to her.
So it wasn’t him after all. She nodded to herself and reached for the yogurt.
“Deputy Manager Mun, about the Ulsan power plant transformer bid—”
Mun Dawon, who had been opening the yogurt lid with the thought that she should quickly eat it and be rid of it, flinched. She hastily withdrew her hand and turned to the side.
“That company had been sanctioned for unfair practices, but the penalty was lifted two weeks ago, so you may proceed with it anew.”
Mun Dawon rattled it all off before her superior could even ask. Having heard the answer, Seo Eungyu slowly nodded and dropped his gaze to her desk.
“Thank you.”
His gaze seemed to linger on the yogurt for a moment, but he soon turned to his file tray. Because his manner was so nonchalant, she began eating the yogurt without much resistance.
So focused was she on the refreshing taste filling her mouth that she failed to notice Seo Eungyu’s lips curving softly.
* * *
The employees who hadn’t recovered from the aftermath of last night’s company dinner escaped the office as soon as the clock struck six. Team Leader Yi Yongseong had countless flaws, but if one had to name a single virtue, it was that he didn’t pressure them about working hours.
However, Mun Dawon sat at her desk like a stone statue, exchanging messages with European clients who had just begun their workday. Her figure remaining late in the third-floor office was familiar to everyone, but the man sitting in the seat next to her was an unfamiliar change.
“As expected of our aces. See you tomorrow.”
Once even the team leader, who had been suffering from a hangover all day, quickly left for the day, the wide office was wrapped in a deathly silence. Even the sound of typing on keyboards rang out loudly.
[I’d like to confirm whether the dealership contract with Aipak has been extended—is that possible?]
Seo Eungyu’s voice, speaking in English with a manufacturer in France, could be heard. He was insufferably capable in every way, and even his voice was pleasant. Though she found everything about him disagreeable, she couldn’t help but admit that his low, gentle voice was exceptional.
Rubbing her left ear for no reason, Mun Dawon got up from her seat and headed to the document room. She lowered the stopper and fixed the door wide open, letting the hallway lights flood the outermost rack.
“Yeongdeok Machinery Team… Yeongdeok Machinery Team…”
She was running her index finger over the binders starting with “Y22,” bending deeply at the waist to find the file she wanted, when she felt it was unusually dark today. As soon as she straightened up again, she found the cause.
Seo Eungyu, towering as high as the top shelf, was casting a deep shadow. He too seemed to be looking for a binder related to the Yeongdeok power plant, standing close beside her.
The document room, newly remodeled six months ago, had become twice as large and no longer smelled musty. But standing side by side with a man of such large build, the air felt stifling.
Mun Dawon took a deep, silent breath. From him, there was none of the sour sweat smell or musty dust smell that ordinary male employees gave off.
Only a faint fabric softener scent wafted from him. Perhaps he didn’t wear cologne; the smell of cleanly washed and well-dried laundry brushed the tip of her nose.
…What am I thinking right now?
She decided to ponder later why she had been analyzing Seo Eungyu’s scent, and reached her hand toward the second shelf from the top. The thick binder she was looking for was wedged tightly between packed documents.
Just then, Seo Eungyu’s large hand approached. Their fingertips brushed. The moment they touched, she curled her hand away. The man effortlessly pulled out the binder.
A sharp gaze latched onto her hand. The hallway light covered only the right side of his face. His left side was submerged in the darkness of the document room.
The whites of his eyes, set within that exquisite contrast, took on a chilly gleam. Mun Dawon swallowed dryly and hid the hand that had touched him behind her back. Only then did his gaze reach her face.
Before long, his eyes curved softly. He skillfully concealed his true self and returned to a gentle demeanor. The man courteously handed the binder back to her and left the document room empty-handed.