Chapter 44. A Man Blessed With Too Much Work (6)
At a seaside pension in Tongyeong.
Iseul pulled her cap low and quietly slipped out of the living room.
Is that Assistant Manager Oh’s room? His snoring is intense.
She walked on tiptoe into the yard.
After checking that nobody else was around, she made a call.
“Oppa. Sleeping?”
-No. Not yet. Something wrong?
“Nothing serious. I just need to talk to you. You can talk now, right?”
Taesik didn’t answer.
After a short silence, a blunt voice came through.
-You told me not to contact you because you were on vacation.
Iseul squeezed her eyes shut.
She remembered sending him a message in the car to Tongyeong telling him to stop texting.
“Are you sulking?”
A word capable of instantly irritating almost every man in existence.
Even if he actually had been sulking, Taesik couldn’t admit it.
He sighed.
-Ha... Forget that. What do you want?
His tone was still cold.
Since she was the one asking for a favor, Iseul cleared her throat.
Then, in a surprisingly sweet voice that didn’t resemble her usual manner at all, she said,
“...Division Director. I actually contacted you because I have a small request.”
-...
“Director? Are you listening? Hello? Dear older brother?”
-Why are you suddenly speaking politely? Do you need money?
Being treated like a money grubber immediately broke Iseul’s polite mode.
“No! It’s actually about work!”
She quickly explained.
It had nothing to do with the company directly.
Still, considering Seongun Group regularly carried out social contribution projects, it wouldn’t look especially strange.
-So how are you planning to help that restaurant?
“Do you know anyone at Tongyeong City Hall? There’s a huge pile of construction waste near a pavilion on the coastal walking trail. I think we need to clear it.”
-Construction waste? The city will remove it eventually. Why are you worrying about it?
Iseul used the justification she had prepared.
“Because we don’t have time. We can’t stay here forever. We decided to use the workshop as an opportunity to test commercial district recovery.”
-Tell me more.
When Taesik showed interest, Iseul explained the solution she had thought of on the way back to the pension.
Make the sign of the grandmother’s noodle restaurant clearly visible to tourists walking the Tongyeong coastal trail.
“What do you think? I think if we turn the pavilion into a photo spot and make the restaurant visible, it could work. But right now, the waste completely blocks the view. If we clear it and make the noodle shop sign a little larger, that should do it. Isn’t this the kind of mutual growth Dad always talks about?”
-Mutual growth means both sides benefit. What exactly do we gain?
“A good corporate image? Don’t tell me you became a slave to money too. Should I call Dad?”
Iseul’s threat had almost no persuasive power.
Still, on the other end of the phone, Taesik’s lips curved upward.
A commercial district recovery test?
He had told them to rest for the final two days.
Yet even after reaching Tongyeong, the Commercial District Analysis Team was trying to revive a dying commercial area.
Team Leader Kang Jinhyeok really is someone who only knows how to work, no matter where he goes.
It was a misunderstanding.
Jinhyeok was sleeping so deeply he knew nothing about any of this.
Still, Taesik liked what he believed was Jinhyeok’s endless passion.
His younger sister, whom he had thought was only pretending to work because she had no choice, was changing too.
That change was clearly because of Team Leader Kang.
Taesik felt both dumbfounded and pleased.
The Jinhyeok he already wanted beside him suddenly seemed even more valuable.
-Fine. I’ll request cooperation from Tongyeong City Hall first thing tomorrow morning. If we offer to cover part of the cost, they’ll have no reason not to hurry.
“As expected! You’re the best! Thank you, Director Oppa!”
Iseul happily used the strange title.
-But Iseul.
“Yeah? What?”
-I need rest too. Calling me whenever you feel like it during my personal time isn’t very fair, is it?
“What? What are you—”
Click.
“...O-Oppa? Hello? Hey! Choi Taesik!”
He had hung up on her.
It was obvious.
This was revenge for stopping his messages during the drive to Tongyeong.
“How petty. Using that against me like this.”
She complained, but she was satisfied.
She had accomplished her goal.
The biggest physical obstacle to reviving the dead alley was basically solved.
Hehe. Everyone’s going to be shocked, right? Once that pile is gone, everything should work.
Iseul smiled confidently while staring toward the shoreline piled with construction debris.
“Huh...?”
In the darkness, a familiar silhouette was moving around busily.
One hour earlier.
Manager Park Jongil couldn’t fall asleep.
The grandmother’s story from the noodle restaurant kept bothering him.
A woman who had spent her whole life making noodles in one place.
A woman who refused to charge her regular customers more simply because she was struggling.
If he let someone like that get pushed out without doing anything, he felt he would never be able to face himself.
“To hell with it.”
Jongil threw off his blanket and got dressed.
If your head doesn’t work, then at least move your body.
Kim Seokhun had always said it mockingly.
But the man who failed to do even that had been pushed out of the company.
Meanwhile Jinhyeok, who lived the opposite way, was respected by everyone.
Jongil would follow that road too.
Nobody knew better than him how Jinhyeok had lived.
The answer was always in the field.
Thinking that, Jongil retraced the route they had walked after leaving the noodle shop.
The pavilion they had passed earlier still had quite a few people even after ten at night.
Couples taking pictures with the sea in the background.
Men sitting on benches drinking canned beer.
There were people here.
