Real Man

Chapter 44

Park Seung-woo, the assistant manager, sprang up from his seat and bowed deeply.

Clack clack.

He did not raise his head until the sound of the shoes faded away.

It was such a breathtaking moment.

“Phew,”

He let out a sigh of relief after Jo Chan-young, the director, completely disappeared from his sight. 

He wiped his sweaty hands on his pants.

What on earth had happened?

He thought he would get scolded for writing such a thing, but he just let it go.

And he even smiled warmly at him, something he had never seen before.

Park Seung-woo felt both nervous and happy.

It was just a pat on the back, but it felt like all his hard work had paid off.

Being a salaryman was nothing special.

He worked hard to get recognition and praise.

Park Seung-woo unconsciously smiled.

“You did well to stay.”

Meanwhile, Yoo-hyun returned home and sank into deep thoughts.

People can change with a word of praise or a warm word.

Yoo-hyun, who had a long career in the company, knew this very well.

But he was not a generous boss who gave compliments.

“Crazy.”

Even he thought he was too perfectionist.

So no matter how good the results his subordinates brought him, he was never satisfied.

Maybe his cold demeanor pushed people away?

“I didn’t have to do that.”

He muttered to himself and sat at the table. 

He picked up the picture frame next to him.

There was a portrait of Yoo-hyun drawn on it.

It was a work by his younger sister Han Jae-hee, who insisted on giving him a gift when he joined the company.

“Right. You did well.”

He was not an art expert, but he liked it.

His sister regretted studying art in the past, but that was because she had no one around her to boost her confidence.

Yoo-hyun immediately picked up his phone and looked for his sister’s number.

-Huh, oppa?

After several repeated rings, Han Jae-hee’s voice came out with a twisted tongue.

She sounded like she had drunk a lot.

A conversation with his drunk sister?

It was the first time.

He was such an indifferent oppa.

“Just called. You’re doing well, right?”

-What? Doing well, of course.

“I’m using the handkerchief you gave me. Thank you.”

-Don’t say that again. Oh, that’s expensive. So you have to give me something expensive. You know? Puhaha.

Han Jae-hee’s voice was brighter than he expected.

There was no awkwardness trying to match him.

If he tried harder to get closer, wouldn’t he be able to see this cheerful side of her even when she wasn’t drunk?

Like a normal sibling relationship that people often see.

“And you know the portrait you drew of me. Mom sent it to me by courier.”

-Huh?

He put sincerity in his voice even though it was over the phone.

“I looked at it again and I think you drew it really well.”

-What? What? Why did that go there?

“I framed it and hung it on the wall. I told you I raised an art school sister well, right? Thank you so much.”

-Yikes! I told you to throw it away. It’s ruined!

Then a short scream came from the other side of the phone.

Yoo-hyun calmly replied to Han Jae-hee’s words.

“How can I throw away something with your sincerity in it?”

-It’s not sincere, okay? I drew it wrong. So please throw it away.

“No. You really have talent. How can you draw a picture in such a short time? Especially I like your nose.”

-Oppa, are you trying to piss me off? Mom said my nose was squashed and laughed at me.

She even started to react violently.

“Your nose is not squashed?”

-Wow, Han Yoo-hyun. Are you trying to piss me off by calling me talented? Hang up!

She abruptly hung up the phone.

“Jae-hee…”

Click.

Yoo-hyun stared blankly at the call end sign on the screen.

“What is this?”

A compliment didn’t work for everyone.

…

The next day, Park Seung-woo greeted Yoo-hyun with a particularly cheerful expression when he came to work.

“Good morning indeed.”

“Did something good happen?”

“What good thing? Nothing like that.”

He said that but he curled his lips up slightly.

Yoo-hyun chuckled and didn’t play along with him.

He was the type who would tell him everything if he just stayed quiet.

Sure enough, Park Seung-woo couldn’t stand it and spilled what happened last night.

“Actually…”

“That’s amazing.”

“He’s a bit hot-headed. But he’s got some guts.”

“Is that so?”

Yoo-hyun let go of his half-mixed bragging and thought.

It was better than expected.

To be honest, he wasn’t sure if Jo Chan-young, the director, would really look for Park Seung-woo.

He had induced his behavior, but it was a low probability.

The conclusion?

He was lucky, and Park Seung-woo made that luck his own.

Yoo-hyun looked at Park Seung-woo with satisfaction.

“Kid, you’re funny. Yeah, it’s all thanks to you. If I had just gone drinking with the deputy manager yesterday, it would have been terrible.”

“What are you talking about? I just told you what the interview was about.”

“Anyway, it worked out, right? Let’s have a cup of coffee. Hehe.”

Park Seung-woo wanted to repay his gratitude to his junior, but now was not the time.

The report to the director was tomorrow.

Park Seung-woo needed time to prepare now.

“Ah, aren’t you busy preparing for the report tomorrow? Let’s do coffee next time.”

“Should we?”

“Yes. A more expensive coffee next time.”

“You brat.”

Thanks to Yoo-hyun’s luck, he bought some time.

It was impossible to make a satisfactory report in this state. 

His first goal was to avoid getting scolded too much.

Then he could take a break and prepare for the next step to correct his mistakes.

It didn’t seem too hard to squeeze a little more.

He was organizing his thoughts when it happened.

Park Seung-woo, who had gotten up from his seat to go to the bathroom, greeted someone with a bright voice.

“Oh? Did you come, manager? Wow, it’s been so long.”

“ assistant manager Park, long time no see. How have you been?”

“Hahaha, of course. I missed you, boss. Oh, who is this? Yoo-hyun, nice to meet you.”

A woman with a neat short-cut hair and a stylish outfit stood in front of Yoo-hyun, who had just risen from his seat.

She was Choi Min-hee, the section chief.

Her well-maintained body and attire showed that she was meticulous about her self-care.

Her confident and haughty expression suited her very well.

Yoo-hyun bowed his head as he recalled an old memory.

“Hello. I’m Han Yoo-hyun.”

“Oh, you’re the new employee? Nice to meet you. I’m Choi Min-hee.”

Choi Min-hee gave Yoo-hyun a brief eye contact and then sat down on her seat.

She didn’t seem to give him any chance to get closer to her.

That was her style.

She didn’t care about others and only focused on her career.

She was very similar to Yoo-hyun in the past.

And she admitted it herself.

Tap tap tap.

Yoo-hyun turned his head at the sound of the keyboard that had been ringing since morning.

It was Kim Young-gil, the deputy chief.

Kim Young-gil had gone on a business trip to the Ulsan factory over the weekend and returned after a long time.

He had apparently suffered a lot there and he looked busy even after he came back.

Kim Young-gil had built his career as a mobile circuit engineer for about five years after joining the company.

He had a decent reputation, but he moved to the product planning team with the ambition to see a bigger world.

He wanted to negotiate with foreign companies and control the development team.

He must have imagined a cool team, but he was disappointed when he actually came here.

It wasn’t easy for a newcomer to fit in.

He couldn’t speak English well and he was not good at talking either.

No matter how rich his engineering experience was, he couldn’t get recognition.

But he wanted to be recognized so he tried harder at everything.

To Yoo-hyun’s eyes, his strength was his persistence.

He was the best person to decide on the specifications when planning the development.

He also went down to the field himself and solved the problems when there were issues in development, quality, or production.

But that could also be a weakness in other aspects.

Like right now.

Yoo-hyun leaned forward and looked at the report that he was making frantically.

-Product Planning Team September Team Dinner Venue Plan

He even made a fancy PowerPoint cover for it.

He probably did this to ask for the team leader’s opinion on where to have dinner.

He always asked for evidence for everything.

Even if it was the team leader’s preference, this was too much.

And the result would be futile anyway.

Because the place that the team leader wanted was not included in this list.

Yoo-hyun approached him casually and asked him softly.

“Do you need any help, sir?”

“Huh? No. I’m fine. You do your work.”

He glared at the monitor and waved his hand dismissively.

He hated him as much as Park Seung-woo, the deputy chief.

As Yoo-hyun kept looking at him, he seemed annoyed and gestured him to come over.

Squeak.

Yoo-hyun brought his chair over and sat next to him.

On the screen, there was a list of places for dinner and a timetable for it.

Toast, birthday celebration for September-borns, introduction of new employees, etc…

There were many things that he had to endure at dinner parties.

But why did he have to put these things on the list?

He could just do them spontaneously at dinner time.

And it wasn’t just one page of data.

There were items related to cultural activities such as musicals, plays, bowling, etc., as well as various restaurants in Seoul.

The pros and cons and the estimated prices were written as well.

Yoo-hyun exclaimed at this level of preparation.

“Wow.”

He clearly worked hard on this.

Kim Young-gil explained slowly as he watched him quietly.

“The team leader always wants us to have more innovative dinners.”

“Really? Did you do this last time too?”

“No. He was too busy then. I’ll try again this time.”

“…”

He was too passionate about it.

And in a useless way.

This meant that he cared about dinner even when he was on a business trip or even on weekends.

It wasn’t worth it at all.

He might have done this much preparation because he wanted to be recognized, but the result would surely be bad.

Because the place that the team leader wanted was not included in this list.

But Yoo-hyun still gave him a polite compliment.

“You must have worked really hard on this.”

“What are you talking about? This is my job.”

“You must have spent a lot of time on this.”

Kim Young-gil looked more relaxed as he heard Yoo-hyun’s words.

He probably didn’t know what Yoo-hyun was thinking.

“What do you think is good? Let me hear some creative ideas from the newbie.”

“Does it have to be creative?”

“Of course. Our company’s core slogan is ‘Let’s innovate’.”

It didn’t seem relevant at all.

Kim Young-gil was definitely wrong about this.

There was no point in talking more about this here.

He would only make more useless data.

Yoo-hyun suggested a moderate compromise.

“I like the pork belly place in front of us.”

“Pork belly for a team dinner? Come on, give me something more creative. The team leader will just ignore it if he sees that.”

Yoo-hyun felt awkward as Kim Young-gil clicked his tongue.

He didn’t have to argue with him here.

“I just can’t think of anything else. You don’t have to put it in.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll put one normal thing in there.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. Anyway, thanks. Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work out.”

Kim Young-gil thanked Yoo-hyun with a smile.

Yoo-hyun smiled inwardly and got up from his seat.