By Zephyria 
I missed Min-gyu’s text because I was in a consultation. It seemed like an apology for teasing me so harshly this morning. Although he did swap my drink at the end, perhaps because he’d hit a nerve.
Sigh… if I’d known this, I would have gone to the consultation around three or four. Min-gyu and I usually grabbed food or drinks together; we rarely drank coffee. Lamenting the missed opportunity to sit across from Cha Min-gyu in a cafe—especially since he was wearing a particularly sharp suit today—I took another sip of the swamp-colored drink. My tongue stung, as if punishing me for my mistake.
As Yi-ho kept drinking, Min-gyu looked over. Even as he grimaced at the cloying sweetness flooding his mouth, Yi-ho kept drinking without taking his lips off the straw.
Having known each other for fifteen years, they didn’t need cringeworthy dialogue like, I’m sorry about earlier, or It’s okay, let’s make up. This was enough to end the morning’s prank and the brief sulking. After work, they would probably open some chicken and beer as if nothing had happened.
However, for some reason, contrary to expectations, Min-gyu’s expression remained prickly.
“Oh, right, Mr. Yi-ho. Ms. Chae-yeon from the Planning Team stopped by.”
“Why?”
“She said she was handing out wedding rice cakes. Since you weren’t at your desk, she said she’d come back later. I already got mine.”
Deputy General Manager Yoon held up a palm-sized assortment of thank-you rice cakes. One square seolgi with a heart drawn on it, three honey cakes, and two wind cakes.
Numbers began to scroll before Yi-ho’s eyes like a panel from a sci-fi movie. The estimation skills of the son of a rice cake shop owner—who had practically been born holding a rice cake—started running whether he wanted them to or not.
No, the seolgi isn’t fluffy; it’s waterlogged. The coloring of the honey cakes had also bled slightly into the cakes next to them. It was definitely some unscrupulous company that sold mass-produced cakes made only to look pretty. If President Kim of the Mok-dong Rice Cake Shop had seen this, he would have been shouting until the veins in his neck popped. Just then, a slightly loud voice drifted from beside him.
“Thank you for thinking of me. Congratulations on your wedding. By the way, would it be alright if I shared these rice cakes with my team members? A close friend of mine since childhood runs a rice cake shop, and I’ve been spoiled by that mother’s handmade taste. I have a hard time eating rice cakes from other places.”
Yi-ho’s head instinctively turned to the side. Even though he looked at him with a gaze that said What are you doing?, Min-gyu didn’t even look back. To be precise, he only gave a fleeting sidelong glance and then pretended not to notice.
“Seriously, what is wrong with him…?”
“Ah, Mr. Yi-ho! You’re back. Here’s your rice cake.”
“Yes… thank…”
Deputy General Manager Lee walked straight from Min-gyu’s desk to Yi-ho’s. Yi-ho received the rice cake with both hands.
“Thank you.”
Fearing that the estimate would pop up again if he looked at the rice cake up close, Yi-ho quickly set it down on his desk. Deputy General Manager Lee didn’t leave immediately but lingered for a moment to bring up a matter.
“About the coding class on the internal lecture list. You’re the one in charge of that, right?”
“Yes.”
“Should I apply through you?”
“No… there will probably be a notice later stating where to apply.”
Yi-ho was the lecturer, not the organizer. If he were told to handle that as well, he might actually lie down in the middle of the hallway.
“Aha, I’ve always wanted to take a coding class. I’ll be sure to apply then. Enjoy the rice cakes.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
After Deputy General Manager Lee left, Yi-ho put the rice cake in his desk drawer. Then, feeling a gaze, he turned his head to find Min-gyu looking at him with raised eyebrows. When Yi-ho mouthed Why? What?, Min-gyu snapped his head away. Then, he began to aggressively suck on his Americano.
Now he’s suddenly sulking again?
Choi A-ri (Deputy General Manager)
[Team Leader Song Yi-ho, hello. This is Choi A-ri from the HR Team. The reason I’m messaging is…]
“Oh…”
Whenever a call came from another team, Yi-ho tended to tremble. Internally, he would humbly ask, What kind of error has occurred this time…? But today, he bolted upright from his seat. A message from the HR Team saying Shall we meet for a moment…? in March, the season of blooming flowers. His heart couldn’t have beaten faster.
“Among those who listed the DL Division as their first choice after training, this person seems to have the best experience. Since Team Leader Song’s team has been requesting new recruits…”
“!”
A rain of flowers fell and festival fireworks exploded in Yi-ho’s mind.
Tae-kyung, I said I’d bring you here no matter what, but I didn’t think the HR team would just accept it. But now I can bring you here without having to lie down on the floor.
Deputy General Manager Choi of the HR Team held out a document. It contained the information of the new recruit Yi-ho was to receive. A 27-year-old male. Oh, he was even younger than Tae-kyung.
“I see he’s an alumnus of the same university as you, Team Leader Song. Do you happen to know him?”
“Ah, I see. I don’t know him. There’s too big a gap in our class years…”
Bachelor’s and Master’s in Computer Science from Hankuk University. That information also entered Yi-ho’s eyes. Even if he was a hubae, it wasn’t a department with great solidarity, so there was no particular feeling of affection. Still, the HR team mentioning the school connection was a way of asking if he wanted a chance to cross-check.
Since they were giving him the chance, there was no need to refuse.
“Then… just a moment.”
“Sure.”
Yi-ho stepped into the hallway and looked for the number of a Hyung he had spent his lab days with. He was still at the university, preparing to become a professor. The phone didn’t ring long before the other party answered.
Hello. Song Yi-ho, what’s up?
It was a voice as saturated as the stale air of a research lab. It seemed he was doing well.
“Hyung, I have something to ask. Do you know someone named Song Jun-seo? Class of XX.”
Song Jun-seo…? I’ve heard the name. Hold on, let me ask the guys.
He heard a commotion. Two or three voices over the receiver were familiar, while the others were strange.
If Yi-ho had chosen to stay in the lab instead of joining a company, he would probably have been among them. With dark circles under his eyes, proactively leading some research project while digging through papers. He didn’t regret working at a company, dressed more neatly than during his lab days, but the desire for pure research—rather than performance-oriented projects—occasionally surfaced like a lingering regret.
Ah, that guy? Yeah. I’ve met him. His skills are decent. Since his freshman year, he’s been bragging about being a contributor here and there.
“Oh…”
Seeing as you’re asking out of the blue, did he end up at Taejang? They say he lacks social skills, but as long as he’s good at his job, that’s all that matters.
That was mostly true in a lab, but in a company, being good at your job wasn’t everything. However, the development department was the place that required the least amount of social skills. Song Yi-ho himself was likely just a socially awkward engineer in someone’s eyes.
“Anyway, I got it. Thanks for letting me know.”
Yeah. Hey, he’ll get better as he works. He’s a hubae, so look upon him kindly. You’re coming to see the professor on Teacher’s Day, right?
“Yes. I should. See you then.”
Holding the turned-off phone, Yi-ho racked his brain over the sudden dilemma. If the answer from the lab had been more positive, he could have reached a conclusion more decisively.
“Team Leader Song, what will you do?”
But since he had already guaranteed that he would take the new recruit just a few hours ago…
“Yes. Please assign him to our team.”
“Understood.”
As Yi-ho returned to the development team’s area, the gazes of seven team members converged on him. Somehow knowing the news, Tae-kyung looked at Yi-ho with absolute desperation, even clasping his hands together. Yi-ho had to nod before he could even sit down.
“…Yes. A new recruit is coming. He’s at the training center now, and he’ll start his apprenticeship around next Wednesday or Thursday.”
In that moment, Yi-ho saw it. Kwon Tae-kyung clenching both fists like a soccer player who had just scored a game-winning goal…
“Wow, then how about we have a team dinner next Friday? As a welcome party. If we feed him something delicious as soon as he arrives, he won’t run away.”
“No, Mr. Yi-ho. Rather, if he finds out we’re a team with a dinner culture, he might run away, so we should just do one clean round.”
Even the usually quiet Manager Jeong added his opinion, pushing up his glasses.
The relatively gloomy development team became more harmonious than the neighboring marketing team for the first time in a long while.
Yes, it was a good decision to take the new recruit. Yi-ho nodded and said, “Sure, let’s have a dinner next week,” before returning to his seat.
∗ ∗ ∗
After work, Yi-ho’s hand paused as he opened the door lock. The door was open just a tiny bit, allowing sounds from inside to be heard. Song Yi-ho’s dull intuition flared up like a storm. The data accumulated in his head from the moment of birth surged. A crisis had arrived.
Every second counted. Yi-ho took out his phone and quickly typed a message.
[Come home slowl]
Even with the typo, the meaning would be roughly understood. Without confirming if the message was sent, Yi-ho opened the door the rest of the way. As expected, a pair of unfamiliar women’s shoes—intruding without permission—were placed in the entryway. The owner of the shoes appeared with long strides, sensing a presence at the door.
“Yi-ho! When was the last time you mopped! I told you the baseboards need to be wiped by hand once in a while! How many days do you go between vacuuming?”
Ah… as expected.
“Why do you mix the black laundry and white laundry even though I bought you two laundry baskets? You’re over thirty and you still can’t do that one thing, huh? Huh?”
“No… why are you cleaning my house, Mother? Just… leave it. I’m living just fine.”
“Fine, my foot! You’re a guy who hasn’t even gotten married, and you’re just letting the smell of a widower waft through the house.”
Hey, I shower and do laundry regularly because I work… I’m a gentleman compared to when I was in the lab. If he said that one sentence, ten would come back, so Yi-ho chose to quietly enter the house.
“The only place that was actually clean was inside the refrigerator.”
“Because dust doesn’t pile up in there…”
“Which means you haven’t cooked anything!”
“……”
What was the point of graduating with a Master’s and PhD and getting promoted at work? In Mother’s eyes, he was just a brat for life.
In the past, President Kim of the Mok-dong Rice Cake Shop had closed the shop that had bent her back for a lifetime after her business partner, President Song, passed away, and she had gained a new title as Deaconess Kim at the neighborhood church. Her hobby was showing off her still-excellent cooking skills at church, and her specialty was surprise inspections of her son’s house.
Yi-ho looked around the house as he put down his bag. The house was noticeably sparklier than when he had left in the morning. If she had given him a warning, he would have rushed to clean the night before, but Mother’s appearances were always sudden. Recalling the computer science department’s student room and the lab—which were like slums at Hankuk University—Yi-ho had prided himself on living quite cleanly, but…
Regardless, today again, Mother seemed to have finished cleaning her clumsy son’s house before he could stop her. At times like this, he felt very much like an unfilial son.
“Mother, what about dinner?”
“I had a late lunch.”
“Still, you’ve been cleaning and moving around here, so you must be hungry. Let’s go out and eat.”
“Oh, you just got home, why go back out. Forget it. It’s too tiring.”
“Then let’s order delivery. Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Just order some of that chicken you like.”
“Not what I like, but what you like, Mother.”
“Then order Jajangmyeon. Jajangmyeon.”
“Okay.”
Since both his father and Yi-ho, who resembled him, had personalities that weren’t strongly assertive, President Kim had become accustomed to deciding things firmly for the men of the house before their hesitation lasted more than two sentences.
Yi-ho sat his mother on the sofa and handed her the remote, pleading with her to please just rest and not do anything else. However, when he came out after a quick wash in the master bedroom bathroom and changing his clothes, his mother was wiping the top of the TV with a wet wipe. Fortunately, the delivery arrived before his mother could discover the state of the rest of the household items.
“Why did you order so much for just the two of us?”
“Ah.”
Out of habit, Yi-ho had ordered the set he always got. The set consisting of Jajangmyeon, Jjamppong, fried rice, and Tangsuyuk was an amount that was plenty for him and the gluttonous Cha Min-gyu.