The Unexpected Company Dinner

Jung Wonwoo is a prominent figure.

He is famous simply for being the eldest son of the Hanshin Group and securing the position of Executive Director at a young age, but he is also a prominent figure with a good reputation for his character.

If I were to state my impression, having stood by his side as a member of his secretarial staff, he doesn’t seem like the genuinely good person the rumors make him out to be.

Hardworking, polite, and kind.

The rumors are overly positive.

Still, for the eldest son of a chaebol family, this is undoubtedly a highly commendable level.

I sometimes had a hobby of swapping my situation with someone else’s.

If I were the son of a chaebol family.

And the eldest son, receiving all expectations at that.

Well.

I doubt I’d live with as much courtesy as him, even if I wasn’t as bad as the black sheep second son.

Wherever you go, the family’s personal secretary follows, and the company’s schedule is meticulously managed by myself and the secretarial staff.

Nevertheless, the Executive Director’s unspoiled character does seem genuine.

Furthermore, there are widespread rumors about his appearance, and when it comes to this aspect, the expression ‘for a chaebol’s son’ isn’t necessary.

I often heard rumors that he played American football while attending graduate school abroad and wasn’t pushed around even by those well-built foreigners.

He was that well-built.

And he has the kind of handsome face that is highly suitable for use as an in-house magazine model, with straight, firm lines that inspire trust.

On top of that, he’s an Alpha.

No further explanation is needed here.

The Executive Director is someone who evokes so many impressions.

Among those countless thoughts, there is one that suddenly pops up and torments me for over a year.

The answer is obvious and won’t mean much.

But if given the chance, there was a question I wanted to ask the Executive Director, who had gone behind the massive walls of the conference room after subtly informing me about the previous report.

What kind of impression could a colorless, odorless Beta like me evoke in you?

It had been two hours since the meeting began.

There was no way an Executive Director of Hanshin Electronics would have only one secretary assigned to him.

A small department called the secretarial office had to support his work.

The elderly Chief Jeon, who was a close aide to the Chairman and had many rumors about him because he didn’t speak much, had gone up first after checking the progress of the meeting, and Secretary Kang, an elite who studied abroad, had gone down to the marketing team to relay the Executive Director’s instructions.

I was standing in front of the conference room, having just checked the schedule and returned.

The meeting took longer than expected, so I took out my notebook and jotted down some notes.

They say tablets and mobile phones are convenient, but taking handwritten notes was a habit of mine.

Perhaps the meeting had ended, as the faint voices of people coming from inside began to give a different feeling.

Standing near the door, I straightened my posture.

Just as I took a step back, the door abruptly opened with perfect timing.

The executives came out, led by the Executive Director with his refreshing stride.

I admired the Executive Director’s profile as he passed by, wondering if the meeting had gone well today.

His pitch-black eyes moved minutely, glancing at me once before staring straight ahead again.

Having missed the timing to hold the door open, I walked behind him.

While walking down the corridor, the other executives parted ways with a greeting and headed to their respective destinations.

It was Director Kim and I who rode the elevator together with the Executive Director.

I pressed the floor number for the elevator.

38th floor.

It was the Executive Director’s office.

Even while the elevator was moving, the Executive Director talked about work.

Director Kim stood a step behind the Executive Director, who was young enough to be his son, and listened politely.

“Have the interior designs come out?”

“I will submit the report sometime next week.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Director Kim. Secretary Yoon.”

“Yes.”

“Next schedule?”

“A dinner was scheduled with Assemblyman Park Jungsoo, but we just received a call from his office. He requested to have the meal on another day due to poor health.”

“Do that. Anything else?”

“Nothing else.”

“Is that so?”

There was a brief groan.

The doors, which had closed after the Director got off, opened again on the 38th floor.

Walking towards the Executive Director’s office, the Executive Director’s pace was leisurely, unlike his usual brisk walk.

It was a habit he had when he was deep in thought.

Passing by the reception desk, he gave a slight nod to the greetings of the secretarial staff and then suddenly turned around.

This was uncommon, so I stopped walking and smiled reflexively.

The smile looking down at me deepened slightly.

“Secretary Yoon. Didn’t you say there was a company dinner today?”

“Yes. It’s not a big one, just a casual gathering among the secretarial staff.”

“Should I tag along?”

“Pardon?”

“Would I be a nuisance if I go?”

“How could that be?”

As the answer flowed smoothly from my lips, I realized even I couldn’t feel any sincerity in it.

The staff standing behind the Executive Director quietly became busy.

Everyone was sending me signs with their eyes and mouths.

Even so, there was no way I could dare say he’d be a nuisance.

And most importantly, if the highest-ranking boss came, we wouldn’t have to listen to Chief Jeon’s tiresome old stories and the company’s history.

Still, do the others hate the Executive Director more?

Maybe I’m the only one who likes it.

Anyway, the scale of the company dinner suddenly grew.

Thanks to the Executive Director deciding to attend the company dinner on the day of, the secretarial office naturally did what had to be done.

We canceled the reservation for the frozen pork belly restaurant where we originally planned to have the dinner and started making calls after choosing a candidate among dozens of company dinner venues.

Even considering all the alleys on both sides of this main road packed with large corporations, securing a dinner venue on the day of is akin to war.

It was important to have good parking and not be noisy.

Although the Executive Director is an executive, he is an incomparably young man in his thirties, so he wasn’t particularly fussy.

Rather, he was an informal and friendly person, just as his rumors suggested.

The problem is that the background for that was always a situation we had poured our utmost sincerity into setting up.

And even if he tried to hide it, he had a way of thinking unique to someone who had reigned from the top all his life.

It’s hard to explain, but there was that aspect to him.

Anyway, it meant that no matter how comfortably he treated us, we could never serve him in a raw, unprepared situation.

The place we managed to secure after pleading over the phone was a Chinese restaurant that had a room available due to a same-day cancellation.

As soon as the reservation was barely completed and I ended the call, everyone gathered in a circle let out a sigh of relief.

Chief Jeon, who often broke into a cold sweat, took off his gold-rimmed glasses, rubbed them against his shirt, and said to me.

“Anyway, thanks to Secretary Yoon, we’re going to have a good company dinner today.”

“How could I honestly tell the Executive Director that he’d be uncomfortable? Let someone with that kind of guts step forward.”

“You should have acted cute or figured something out as the youngest member. Huh?”

“I don’t have that in me.”

How great would it be if I had that kind of personality to begin with?

The company demanded that I act cute just because I was the youngest.

Ah, looking at other departments, it was fascinating to see the youngest members acting cute to cater to their bosses.

It was also true that I was envious.

But is that something that happens just by trying?

I can only let out a delayed sigh of admiration at how they cater to people’s moods like ghosts.

Even after closing time, everyone was still at their desks, attending to their work.

A little late, the Executive Director came out, putting on his suit jacket.

I thought about running straight to him and grabbing his coattails to help, like the youngest member of the strategy team I saw last time, but my body didn’t easily move forward as it wasn’t something I had done before.

While everyone took the elevator down together, the Executive Director looked around at us once and asked.

“I wonder if I’m being a bother.”

“Oh, no. It was just going to be a gathering to share a drink and chat.”

“Is that so? That’s a relief.”

Pleased by Chief Jeon’s answer and everyone’s brightly smiling attitude, the Executive Director glanced at me standing beside him.

My timing was a little off, and I couldn’t arrange my expression.

At my delayed reaction, the Executive Director let out an ominous chuckle and turned his head.

Ah, what is it.

Did it show on my face?

I reflected on my thoughts from a moment ago while checking my reflection on the smooth, golden surface of the closed elevator.

The thought that people’s perfectly painted attitudes might be artificial.

And the thought of whether the Executive Director was teasing us, knowing full well.

And the last thought was, the Executive Director looks good in his tie today.

A red tie and white shirt that compliment his slightly tanned skin from a short vacation recently, and a deep blue suit.

It would be a big problem if the last thought was found out.

Lost in these thoughts, the group went down to the underground parking lot and drove to the Chinese restaurant.

The reserved Chinese restaurant guided us to a private room.

As soon as the door opened, I subtly surveyed the inside so as not to make it obvious.

Dark red wallpaper, a folding screen, moderately red lighting, and the round table had ample width even excluding the floral centerpiece.

The noise from the room next door wasn’t too bothersome either.

This should be a pass.

I kept a close eye on the people sitting in a circle and sat in the remaining seat.

The seat between Secretary Kang and Nara, who was in charge of PR, was empty.

When I sat down, I was directly across from the Executive Director.

The Executive Director, who was half-heartedly reading the menu handed by the Chief, ordered without hesitation.

He endlessly called out items from the menu, seemingly without considering the number of people, which was five.

Then he did look up once and glanced around at us.

“What would you like to drink?”

“If you recommend something, Executive Director, we will take the opportunity to learn from you.”

“Shall we do that?”

The alcohol he ordered in that way gave me a premonition that the alcohol content would be no joke just from hearing its name.

As soon as the order was finished and the door closed, the Chief started a conversation so that an awkward silence wouldn’t ensue.

“Thanks to the rank reorganization plan announced by the HR department this time, everyone’s talking about it when they meet.”

“It must have been talked about since the team system reorganization plan came out.”

“Still, it seems awkward now that it’s actually happening.”

“Ah. Let’s stop talking about work. We’re off the clock.”

At this, we once again bloomed smiles across our faces.

Then what should we talk about?

By any chance, what are your hobbies these days, Executive Director?

Or the newly released…

No.

It’s obvious the conversation will spark to the product again.

Or, dare I mention the Executive Director’s fiancée, who frequently travels abroad on a whim?

As a somewhat chilling imagination popped up, I firmly resolved once again to mind my own tongue.