Chapter 40. A Man Blessed With Too Much Work (2)
Ten years after joining the company.
The Commercial District Analysis Team was finally going on its first trip.
And it was completely spontaneous.
The division director had looked surprised by my quick decision.
But he was the one who said we could leave as soon as today if we wanted.
I had no reason to feel guilty.
Considering everything I had done recently, this much rest was completely justified.
I’m going to rest.
I’m going to rest.
I’m going to do my absolute best to rest.
With that single objective in mind, we arrived in Taean.
Sinduri Beach.
A place I had always wanted to visit again.
The moment the car door opened, the salty, open scent of the sea welcomed us.
“Wow! The ocean! The ocean!”
“Wow, the weather is incredible! Look at the sky!”
The sky was cloudy.
Still, my team members seemed every bit as excited as I was.
Their energy filled the early-summer beach as they looked out over the unusually wide western coastline.
There were unusual buildings that almost made the place feel foreign.
But what stood out most were the enormous dinosaur sculptures.
That was why I had wanted to return.
When I was a child obsessed with dinosaurs, my parents had brought me here.
Back then, I had begged them to let me take home a dinosaur sculpture as large as a building.
That child was now well into his thirties.
I took a photograph in front of a brachiosaurus that somehow looked smaller than I remembered.
The pension we entered afterward was far bigger than the one from my memories.
Senior Staff Choi Iseul really had no sense of small spending.
Four enormous bedrooms.
A huge living room.
She had rented a place large enough for at least twenty people.
After changing clothes and returning to the living room, Senior Staff Choi clapped to get everyone’s attention.
“All right, everyone! You remember the schedule Team Leader gave us yesterday, right? From now until five this afternoon, it’s complete free time!”
Manager Park and Assistant Manager Oh looked like they were wondering whether this was truly acceptable.
It was.
This trip was for resting.
“Yeah. We came all the way to the sea, so relax. You might learn something just from resting. Stay in your room, go for a walk, do whatever you want. Move around freely.”
I thought I had given them a decent justification.
Then Jongil asked an annoyingly responsible question.
“But don’t we need something to put in the workshop report? Shouldn’t we do at least one activity together?”
“No. Just rest. The theme of this workshop is ‘insight discovered through unrestrained free time.’ Understood?”
I dressed up we’re going to eat and play with no plan at all in fairly impressive words.
Did it work?
Manager Park and Assistant Manager Oh left the pension without even looking back.
“Senior Staff Choi, aren’t you going?”
“What? Ah... I will. What about you, Team Leader? Aren’t you coming?”
“Don’t worry about me. Go have fun. The pickup car is coming at five, right?”
“Yes! I booked it to arrive five minutes early. The restaurant reservation is finished too.”
Seongun Seafood Taean branch.
A premium seafood restaurant.
Unlike competitors that targeted downtown commercial areas, Seongun operated seafood buffets in famous coastal destinations around the country.
Its biggest characteristic was that the menu changed slightly by region.
At the Taean branch, local blue crab dishes were the main attraction.
“Good work. See you later.”
And so, exactly as planned, I was finally alone.
I took a beer from the refrigerator and walked onto the terrace.
The sea stretched endlessly before me.
Beer on an empty stomach tasted every bit as refreshing as the wide-open ocean.
I lay back on a sunbed and listened to the rhythmic waves.
Memories of visiting this place with my parents long ago naturally surfaced.
My young father and mother.
Each holding one of my hands.
Both smiling brightly.
Everything I had seen back then now carried the marks of time.
Yet the fragrance of those aged memories had become even stronger.
Next time, I should come here with my parents.
Thinking that, I slowly closed my eyes.
Good.
There was no delayed work waiting for me.
I could continue making personal investments too.
My mind felt cleaner and emptier than it had in a very long time.
Enjoying the peaceful moment...
I slowly fell asleep.
“Manager! Wait for me!”
Senior Staff Choi Iseul left the pension a little later and ran toward Jongil and Ilman.
“Where’s Team Leader?”
“I think he wants to be alone. Where are you two going?”
“He told us to move around freely, but shouldn’t we still do something? We’re going to find material for the report so Team Leader can rest properly. Want to come?”
“Should I? I’ll help. Let’s go.”
Jongil, who adored his boss far too much, led Ilman and Iseul forward with a determined expression.
There was no need to make a plan.
Occupational habits were terrifying things.
The moment they entered Sinduri’s shopping area, Assistant Manager Oh Ilman began analyzing things nobody had asked him to analyze.
“The restaurant area is positioned strangely. Tourist traffic is concentrated around the dinosaur sculptures and coastal dunes over there, but the shopping-street entrance is completely on the opposite side. You can tell whoever planned this put almost no thought into pedestrian flow.”
Jongil took a bite of his hot dog and nodded.
“Exactly. You have to walk all the way through the pension street before you even reach the restaurants. What a waste of traffic. Seriously, what a waste.”
“And why are the menu-board letters so tiny? Maybe they’re trying to hide the prices from people outside, but that’ll probably have the opposite effect. If Team Leader saw this, he’d tell them to increase the font immediately.”
Listening to Jongil and Ilman, Iseul recorded their opinions on her tablet.
Even when ordered to rest, the Commercial District Analysis Team couldn’t stop working.
Their next destination was a small direct seafood market.
“Hey! Young man! Miss! Want some blue crab? They were caught today, so they’re incredibly fresh! No need to look anywhere else. Mine are the best. I’ll give you a great price!”
Merchants rushed toward them the moment they saw the obvious tourists.
After leaving the fish-market alley, Oh Ilman laughed dryly.
“Maybe because it’s a small market, this place is especially bad.”
“Right? I heard aggressive solicitation was banned. Maybe not here?”
