Part 7. I'm Counting On You, Assistant Manager Kang! (1)
A week passed.
CLACK-CLACK, CLACK.
Kang Hyeong-seok worked on a proposal, hammering away at a keyboard without a single scuff on it.
It was the first draft of a business proposal to be submitted to a government agency, and he had to finish it and hand it up to Gwak Yeong-ho before leaving today.
CLACK-CLACK-CLACK.
'Ah, this really is good.'
He had deliberated a long while over what to do with the lump sum Shin Jeong-a had given him.
Ordinarily he would have saved it.
But his finances had improved lately, and he had wanted to give himself a small gift for all the trouble he had been through.
So what he had ordered was this keyboard.
"Senior, how much did that cost?"
Namgung Min-a at the next desk asked with eyes full of curiosity.
"Sorry. Is it loud?"
"No. It isn't that, the sound is just nice."
When you buy something and someone reacts like that, it lifts the mood.
Kang Hyeong-seok smiled and gave the answer with his fingers.
"Seventy thousand won? Why is a keyboard that expensive?"
"I don't know either. I just picked one that came recommended a lot, but it really is different."
"Oh, maybe I should buy one when I go permanent."
"Work hard. When you go permanent I'll get you one to mark it."
"Really?"
Namgung Min-a's eyes were sparkling when someone gripped his shoulder from behind.
Only a superior would do such a thing.
Kang Hyeong-seok shut his mouth first and turned his head, and Namgung Min-a had already returned her eyes and her posture to where they belonged.
"Plenty of free time, I see. Chatting during work hours."
Shin Jeong-a was looking down at him with the eyes of a superior at work.
"Manager."
"It's working hours. Focus."
She pointed at a corner of the draft on his monitor.
"This part looks off. Check whether a formula broke. And catch the typos here too."
"My apologies."
"Nothing to apologize for. It's still a draft."
Shin Jeong-a tapped his shoulder with the documents she was holding, left a "work hard," and disappeared.
"Phew."
Namgung Min-a, thoroughly flattened by her, let out a breath and spoke to him by internal messenger rather than with her mouth.
「The Manager is scary.」
CLACK-CLACK.
「Is she?」
「She's nice normally, but when she gets angry it's no joke.」
That was true enough.
It was the moment Kang Hyeong-seok started to type a message agreeing with her.
「I think she's only nice to you, Assistant Manager Kang.」
Namgung Min-a's message came flying in and stopped his fingers dead.
So it showed.
That Shin Jeong-a was being rather more considerate toward him than toward the others.
CLACK-CLACK.
「It's your imagination. You should see how much I get told off when I'm called in alone.」
「Oh, really?」
「Yes. So let's focus on the work for now.」
「Yes, yes.」
「It's almost lunch, so hang in there.」
「Yes! You too, sir!」
Kang Hyeong-seok closed the messenger and worked the keyboard, correcting the points Shin Jeong-a had flagged.
A chill ran oddly down his back.
Having the others in the department notice that he alone got special treatment could do him no good.
'That's a little unfair, though.'
If you had to define it, it was something close to a business relationship.
Shin Jeong-a had needed help, he had given it, and he had been paid handsomely in return.
The relationship that set them apart from the others could be seen as the rapport between a firm and a main client.
No outside employment.
The company regulation flitted across his field of vision out of nowhere.
Kang Hyeong-seok shook his head and put his hands back on the keyboard.
To leave on time he needed to fill out the document template first,
"Assistant Manager Kang?"
and Gwak Yeong-ho's voice from behind kicked the focus that had barely settled into his fingers clean over the horizon.
"Yes, sir."
"Could we talk for a moment?"
Kang Hyeong-seok saved the document and rose from his chair.
"Has something happened?"
"No, just a moment. It won't take long."
Was it his imagination that Gwak Yeong-ho had glanced at Namgung Min-a, who was fixing her attention hard on her monitor?
In any case, Kang Hyeong-seok went with him into the general manager's office, and Gwak Yeong-ho spoke at once.
"How does Min-a seem to you these days?"
Kang Hyeong-seok could not answer and only looked into his eyes.
It had come out of nowhere.
As he wondered whether Min-a, with whom he had just been chatting comfortably, had done something, Gwak Yeong-ho smiled, fine lines gathering on his face.
"It isn't that anything's happened."
His eyes said he meant it.
So Kang Hyeong-seok took a moment to order his thoughts and spoke.
"If you mean her ability at the work, she has improved a great deal. Enough that I think she will be able to carry a full share before long."
He deliberately did not mention that she was too pure.
"Right? That's how I see it too. In that spirit, would you take her along on tomorrow's trip?"
"You mean the trip to Danyang?"
"We ought to start training her on field visits, and it's not a difficult one, so it's a good fit."
The company had a number of clients.
Among them Danyang could be called a good destination, distance aside.
Not so much for the client's weight as for the fact that the people there were not difficult.
"It's a business trip in name, but it's really just a meal for the sake of the relationship, so there's no pressure. Are you uncomfortable with it?"
"Not at all. I was only a little surprised."
Gwak Yeong-ho gave his easy, good-natured smile and cast a glance in the direction where Namgung Min-a would be.
"She's worked hard all this time."
From intern to permanent staff.
That seemed to be the picture Gwak Yeong-ho was drawing.
"It goes without saying, but don't go putting ideas in her head. Nothing is confirmed yet."
It was such an obvious thing to say that Kang Hyeong-seok laughed.
"I know, sir."
"Then the two of you will go together tomorrow. And if something comes up and it looks like it will run long, send me a text."
It was one of the sorrows of a sales department.
It happened now and then.
Clients who tried to squeeze the corporate card for all it was worth, or who made you burn far too much time.
Danyang was not a bad client, but they liked hiking.
Thanks to that his return had been delayed a few times, so Kang Hyeong-seok nodded with a wry smile.
"Understood."
Gwak Yeong-ho gripped his shoulder firmly with a grateful face, then let go.
It meant, I'm counting on you.
***
He sorted out dinner simply before getting home.
Stir-fried pork from the sort of place budget gimbap goes when it dies.
The taste was nothing special, but as a way to fill a meal cheaply it was not bad.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BOOP.
Coming inside, Kang Hyeong-seok took off his socks first and hung his coat on a chair at the kitchen table.
Packing for a business trip was, as always, nothing out of the ordinary.
CLATTER.
He opened the sliding cabinet in the bathroom and took out his travel toothbrush sterilizer and toothpaste, and from the wardrobe he set aside a change of clothes just in case.
ZIIIP.
A suitcase was unnecessary, so he opened his backpack.
'Power bank's in, take out the notebook and this.'
Sorting his things roughly, he stopped at the pencil case.
The pencil case with the shaman's bells in it.
'Take it out, or leave it?'
He had been to Danyang several times and nothing seemed likely to happen there. But rather than take the bells out, Kang Hyeong-seok pushed them deeper into the bag.
'Just think of it as a talisman.'
By now he knew what the shaman's bells did.
They warn of danger and drive off unclean things.
If he thought of them as a talisman that wards off calamity, keeping them on his person at all times was the right call.
ZIIIIIP!
Having set the zipped bag beside the shoe cabinet, he fiddled with his phone.
He had told Namgung Min-a roughly what to prepare before leaving work, but it seemed right to send it again by text.
That was how it had been when his own mentor trained him.
BZZZZZZ!
Awkwardly, while he was typing the message, a call came in from Namgung Min-a.
(Hello? Sir! Are you home?)
"Is this about packing?"
(Oh! How did you know?)
Kang Hyeong-seok let out a laugh and went through the necessary items one by one.
(Ah, I remember now.)
"This trip isn't a difficult one. Don't be nervous."
(Yes, yes!)
"If they ask anything I'll answer, and for you it's just greeting a client, so there really is nothing difficult about it."
(Thank you.......)
The way her words trailed off oddly, she must have been nervous after all.
His own early days came back to him, and Kang Hyeong-seok smiled wryly and picked up his tumbler.
The coffee he had brought from the office had gone lukewarm, but there was still some left.
"Anything else you want to know?"
(Can I bring snacks tomorrow?)
"...It isn't a school outing."
(Still, it's nice to have something you can eat in the car. I'll bring chocolate or something.)
At Namgung Min-a saying something so obliging and so cheerfully, Kang Hyeong-seok raised the corners of his mouth without a sound.
"All right. Thank you."
(Yes! Then sleep well, sir. I'll see you tomorrow.)
"You too. See you tomorrow."
The call ended.
In a room that seemed to have gone even quieter, Kang Hyeong-seok drew a large breath and sipped from his tumbler.
A field visit to greet a client.
There was nothing at all to be concerned about.
SIP.
But having drunk his coffee, he fetched a dish from the sink and set it on the table.
Then he went into the bedroom for a plastic bottle and poured its contents into the dish.
It was purified water.
"I pray to you."
Kang Hyeong-seok offered a prayer to his guardian god with his whole care in it.
It is the act commonly called a devotional offering, and this one was for himself and Namgung Min-a.
"Protect us so that we may go and return safely, and watch over Namgung Min-a, who goes with me, and over myself."
Looking at the still purified water filling the dish, Kang Hyeong-seok brought his palms together.
"I ask that every bond with everyone we meet be harmonious, and that my heart and my conduct be guided down the right road."
It was a prayer that he and Namgung Min-a and the client would all come through without incident.
Above all he hoped that Namgung Min-a, who might yet go permanent, would not get caught up in anything or fall out of favor with the company.
SWISH, SWISH.
He rubbed his joined palms together and ended the prayer by bowing his head three times.
Then he cleared away the dish and went into the bedroom.
He had made the devotional offering, and yet oddly his mind did not settle.
***
"This is my first business trip."
That was what Namgung Min-a said the moment she got into the passenger seat in front of the office.
Kang Hyeong-seok fastened his belt and looked at her, buoyant, with one corner of his mouth raised.
"You're not nervous?"
"Oh! Should I be nervous?"
Yes, this was Namgung Min-a.
His worry that she might be nervous felt beside the point.
Starting the engine, Kang Hyeong-seok moved the car along with the navigation's directions and spoke.
"They're a client. It isn't a difficult meeting, but a slip of the tongue would be awkward."
"Ah."
Her eyes wanted an explanation, so Kang Hyeong-seok went on while keeping his focus on the road.
"They're the ones who trade garlic with our company. And we distribute it to firms that process black garlic."
"Yes! I know that much!"
Namgung Min-a answered briskly, and Kang Hyeong-seok nodded.
"The revenue share isn't large, but they're a long-standing client. You know that?"
"Of course!"
Kang Hyeong-seok nodded firmly.
The client they were visiting had been doing business with the company since its founding.
So, revenue aside, they carried a symbolic weight.
"We're just going to pay our respects, so the business relationship stays healthy."
"Heh, that doesn't sound difficult."
"Even so, don't make any mistakes."
It mattered enough that Kang Hyeong-seok gave her a brief glance even while driving.
"If the account were ever lost, it could hit you as well. Understood?"
"Yes!"
Namgung Min-a curled her fist tight and nodded hard.