My Company Is Black

#043

Lee Gyo-ha rushed down to the underground parking lot, avoiding Hwi-kyung, and caught his breath. He couldn’t believe that the great Jung Hwi-kyung had reached out to him first.

Gyo-ha had never hidden his affection for others. Surprisingly, he had never been rejected by anyone so far. If he liked someone, the other person usually liked him back. Gyo-ha had no particular flaws as a romantic partner, so this was somewhat expected.

For this reason, Gyo-ha found it difficult to maintain perfect composure in front of Hwi-kyung. Only those who have experience hiding their emotions can hide them well; someone like Gyo-ha, who was trying to keep a secret for the first time, was bound to show it.

If he blurted out that he liked Hwi-kyung, it was obvious that Hwi-kyung would only look troubled. It would be fortunate if he didn’t run away. Most likely, he would retort with a stoic face, “I think you’re misunderstanding,” and then turn around and disappear.

People like Jung Hwi-kyung, who overthink, often waste time trying to distinguish whether their feelings are a misunderstanding or real. The problem was that they insisted on weighing the pros and cons when they could just seriously date if they liked someone.

Gyo-ha had encountered Hwi-kyung’s type a couple of times before. The kind who worry about the end before even starting, and calculate how much they’ll be hurt when a relationship begins or ends. Most people who live as if they’re being chased, without the luxury to date, showed similar patterns.

It wasn’t easy for Gyo-ha to show affection to someone who would clearly dislike an outright confession. He had been blocked for three days after just one kiss; if he expressed his feelings, Hwi-kyung might pretend not to know him until the next cycle.

“Weren’t you going to move your car?”

“Ah.”

“You didn’t come out to the lobby, so I came down.”

Hwi-kyung, who had finished preparing faster than Gyo-ha expected, flung open the passenger door. At first, he had been uncomfortable even touching the leather seats of the foreign car, but now he leaned his head back without a care.

Gyo-ha quickly scanned Hwi-kyung’s attire. Although he had chosen it, the dark green tie suited Hwi-kyung very well. Seeing him in a suit after a long time made it feel even more special.

Unlike the previous cycle, the tailored suit definitely improved his appearance. Gyo-ha thought he wanted to keep dressing Hwi-kyung in nice clothes from now on. He wanted to take away all of his off-the-rack shirts.

“Aren’t we leaving?”

Hwi-kyung nudged Gyo-ha, who was staring at him intently. Even with this light touch, Gyo-ha felt like his heart had dropped to the third basement floor. Wait, was he always this physically affectionate?

Once he became aware of his feelings, every action Hwi-kyung took towards him seemed to carry implications. Even though it wasn’t possible, his brain, which only knew how to be positive, creaked and asked, ‘Is this a green light?’

Gyo-ha kept his mouth shut to prevent Hwi-kyung from opening the door of the moving car and escaping due to his mistake. If he kept trying to make conversation, he felt like he might blurt out things like ‘The green tie suits you well’ or ‘Can I keep buying your clothes from now on?’

It would be fortunate if only those words slipped out, but he felt like if Hwi-kyung responded with ‘That’s fine,’ he might retort with ‘It’s not fine for me because I like you.’ That would be tragic.

Maybe it would be better to confess outright… If he kept showing his affection in this roundabout way, Hwi-kyung would probably just think, ‘What’s this Americanized kid saying now?’ and let his words go in one ear and out the other.

As his thoughts reached this point, Gyo-ha felt a bit wronged.

“Hwi-kyung.”

“Yes.”

“The dark green really suits you.”

So he just blurted out what he wanted to say. Again, Lee Gyo-ha was a person who had never really tried to hide his affection for others in all his years. He always showed it when he liked someone.

And Hwi-kyung, having lived on eggshells at the company, had fairly good instincts. Jung Hwi-kyung kept making eye contact with Lee Gyo-ha, who was glancing at him sitting in the passenger seat.

It was fortunate that he maintained his stoic expression, focusing on minimizing the system window. Hwi-kyung tried to recall sad thoughts in his mind. If he didn’t reminisce about his miserable company life, he felt like he might bluntly ask Gyo-ha, “Do you perhaps like me?”

Could it be that I’ve become one of the ‘anyones’ you like… Hwi-kyung kept wanting to ask such things. Whether the goodwill Gyo-ha was showing him now was different from the universal affection Sung-ha had mentioned, or if it was the same…

* * *

Jung-hye greeted Hwi-kyung with a much more relaxed face than before. It was Hwi-kyung’s first time entering BK Entertainment’s headquarters.

BK Entertainment was mainly a place that trained actors and models. A few years ago, they had debuted a boy group and failed spectacularly, after which they completely shifted their investments towards actors.

Hwi-kyung remembered the boy group that BK Entertainment had put out. They were famous for being a group where all members looked suspiciously good at acting. They were also notorious for only releasing a debut song before all members left to pursue acting careers.

They were even criticized for supposedly making them idols just to add a line to their resumes before their official acting debuts. Wasn’t that when BK Entertainment’s stock price plummeted, and everyone said you shouldn’t carelessly invest in entertainment stocks?

This was all the information Hwi-kyung knew about BK Entertainment. For someone who had worked at the BK Group for a long time, Hwi-kyung didn’t know much in depth. What good would it do for a typical worker ant to know company secrets? It was better for his well-being to only know what was reported in the news superficially.

“Let’s look around the company as we go up. How about it? Starting as a manager in entertainment?”

“Manager?”

“Is it too burdensome? Well, I guess having the title of manager at twenty-seven would be heavy on the shoulders.”

“……”

“Ah, sis. I told you Hwi-kyung doesn’t want to work at a company.”

“Gyo-ha, you be quiet. It’s not good to block your lover’s path.”

Hwi-kyung’s heart fluttered at the word ‘manager’. He wasn’t Kira who became rich at twelve, but himself becoming a manager at twenty-seven? It’s really cool.

Although a high position isn’t always good, thinking about how the salary table would change according to the position made him want to shout ‘yes’ right away.

Inadequate condition: It’s a family business.

Inadequate condition: Received suggestion for corrupt hiring.

But the regression system always made Jung Hwi-kyung a person with 100% integrity. Hwi-kyung didn’t particularly want to live a clean life, but it was physically difficult to comply with corrupt hiring practices.

“…It’s alright. I’m satisfied with my current work.”

When Hwi-kyung refused despite being offered the position face-to-face, Jung-hye narrowed her eyes slightly. Lee Jung-hye, not knowing Jung Hwi-kyung’s situation, was inwardly thinking that Hwi-kyung was unusually modest.

Whether Jung-hye valued Hwi-kyung highly or not, Hwi-kyung was inwardly shedding tears of blood. Even Kang Moon-chul, who was almost forty, was still just a manager! How difficult is it to become a manager in your 20s!

“You’re really rare to see these days.”

“I appreciate the offer.”

“Is this why Gyo-ha likes you?”

“……”

“Or how about International? There’s an unexpected opening in their HR team.”

“No way.”

“Why do you keep interfering? Let me talk with Hwi-kyung.”

“……”

“I said no!”

Hwi-kyung recalled the minor troubles he had experienced in BK International’s HR team. It wasn’t exactly an ideal organization either, but it wasn’t bad compared to the terrible companies Hwi-kyung had experienced.

Even though hiring corruption was rampant and Manager Kang Moon-chul was the only one actually working… if Lee Gyo-ha hadn’t appeared as a parachute executive director, Hwi-kyung would have worked in that HR team for at least 10 years. At least it was a large company that properly paid overtime.

“What’s wrong with International?”

“I heard Sung-ha is becoming the vice president there!”

“What? Excuse me?”

“Hwi-kyung! Anywhere else might be okay, but International has no future now!”

“Are you saying the company will go bankrupt just because Sung-ha becomes vice president? Dad just created a formal position for him because he said he’d settle down and get married this time.”

“Of course it’s different when you’re the vice president versus when our brother is!”

Listening to Jung-hye and Gyo-ha’s bickering conversation, Hwi-kyung thought that International was also finished. Until the previous cycle, the vice president of International was definitely Lee Jung-hye, but it was too strange that Lee Sung-ha had taken that position in this cycle.

This seemed to be due to Lee Gyo-ha’s influence as well. Unlike Hwi-kyung, Gyo-ha was closely intertwined with the BK Group. Since he had abruptly given up on graduate school and returned to Korea, it wasn’t strange for Sung-ha to be acting up.

Giving him a business to coax and appease such a Sung-ha seemed a bit excessive, but thinking of Lee Baek-gyeong, who had appeared harmful to his children, it made sense.

“Sung-ha runs operations terribly.”

“It’ll be fine since we’ll appoint a separate managing director.”

“Anyway, I’m against it. Hwi-kyung will stay with me.”

“This is really… Hwi-kyung, don’t mind Gyo-ha and tell me. Wouldn’t it be better to have your own position? Creating a career when you’re young is so important.”

Jung Hwi-kyung agreed with Lee Jung-hye a hundred times. The housekeeping job at Gyo-ha’s house paid well and suited his constitution, but there was no clear retirement age.

Setting aside the uncertainty of when the regression might end, being a hastily created job, there were too many other flaws. The system window, which had been quiet at first, had recently been causing trouble, unable to access the internet as if it had noticed something.

How many times had he been warned that there was no workplace evaluation on J-Planet? Hwi-kyung was now sick of online job searching.

But to work under Lee Sung-ha, who was famous for messing up the food business just to build his resume? That would be like free-falling after attaching a parachute. Among all the businesses Sung-ha had run so far, only a few that Jung-hye had stepped in to clean up afterwards had succeeded.

“And I can tell just by looking. I think Hwi-kyung will work well.”

“……”

“Your face shows it. You’re destined to be tied to a company.”

“Sis.”

“What?”

“Why are you cursing someone like that…?”

Hearing that he was destined to be tied to a company, Hwi-kyung felt goosebumps on his arms. Although Lee Jung-hye clearly had no resemblance to that Buddhist grandmother, he felt a strange sense of déjà vu.