An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 227

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 226
Part 7. A Plea to the Heavens and Earth (4)
The next day.
“Good morning.”
Surprised glances followed Kang Hyung-seok as he arrived at the office.
“Huh? You’re here already?”
Namgoong Min-ah checked her watch in shock, and Lee Jin-pyung wore a similarly bewildered expression.
Shin Jung-ah was nowhere to be seen—apparently on a business trip—but Gwak Young-ho occupied her desk instead.
“Wait, Kang! Why did you come in so early? I told you it was fine to come in late.”
Kang Hyung-seok laughed sheepishly and bowed his head toward Gwak Young-ho.
“No, sir. I have work to do anyway.”
“Ugh, geez.”
It was 9:30 in the morning.
The text about the contract being drawn up had come late last night, so Gwak Young-ho had sent word that it was fine to come in even at lunchtime.
“This makes me uncomfortable. And if you do this, won’t the other team members feel pressured to follow suit later?”
Namgoong Min-ah blinked, her eyes asking “What are you talking about?” when Kang Hyung-seok laughed awkwardly.
“My apologies.”
“I just want you to take care of yourself.”
Gwak Young-ho clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
Thunk.
Kang Hyung-seok set his bag on the desk and pulled out the contract he’d obtained from Jo Un-su the night before.
Then he handed it to Gwak Young-ho.
“Ah! That’s right. Good work.”
Gwak Young-ho accepted the contract with a pleased expression, but his smile faded quickly.
“What is this?”
“He said he’d give it to us at a price much lower than market rate.”
“No, wait, hold on.”
“What’s wrong, sir?”
Namgoong Min-ah leaned forward and asked, but Gwak Young-ho simply stared at the contract in confusion.
Yet no amount of rereading would change what was written.
“Even if you’re discounting, there’s a reasonable baseline. You’re saying he’ll match this price?”
“Yes. Jo Un-su said he specifically wanted to do it this way.”
All goods have an appropriate price.
While prices fluctuate based on market conditions, they remain within reasonable bounds.
However, the price written in the contract was thirty percent below the standard rate.
“No, no, no.”
Gwak Young-ho, flustered, could barely string words together.
“Oh, and I brought some samples.”
“Huh? Yes! Show me.”
It was rare for Gwak Young-ho to gesture so eagerly.
So Kang Hyung-seok quickly retrieved the wooden box containing the samples from his bag and handed it over.
Click.
The moment Gwak Young-ho opened the wooden box, Namgoong Min-ah and Lee Jin-pyung’s eyes widened.
The potent aroma of medicinal herbs spread throughout the office in an instant.
“Ha! Hahahaha.”
It was unmistakably premium quality, so a hollow laugh escaped Gwak Young-ho’s lips, and Kang Hyung-seok spoke with a faint smile.
“Do you like it?”
“Like it? How could I not—”
Though called a sample, it was packaged in a gift-quality case.
Gwak Young-ho carefully set the box down and withdrew a medicinal herb resembling ginseng, surrounded by moss.
It was wild ginseng with large, plump roots.
“At first, I thought you only had a vinyl greenhouse and dealt in things like bellflower root or astragalus. But I heard you handle these as well.”
“Wow! Do you, do you cultivate a lot of it?”
“You’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Jo Un-su had left his life as a Monk when he was young.
Since then, he had consistently cultivated medicinal herbs, so he also possessed a considerable stock of wild ginseng and notoginseng.
“So, so you’re saying you’ll provide this, this at the price written in the contract?”
“Yes.”
Gwak Young-ho set down the wild ginseng and approached silently.
Then he pulled Kang Hyung-seok into a tight embrace and patted his back firmly.
“Excellent work. Manager Kang, truly excellent work.”
Startled by the sudden gesture, Kang Hyung-seok froze, and Namgoong Min-ah whispered a question to Lee Jin-pyung.
“Deputy Manager, is this expensive?”
“This is wild ginseng.”
“What’s that?”
“Mountain ginseng.”
“Gasp!”
Namgoong Min-ah’s mouth fell open in shock, and Gwak Young-ho released Kang Hyung-seok, fixing him with an intense gaze.
“Manager Kang, I’m going to report this right away, understand?”
“…Yes.”
The gravity of his tone made Kang Hyung-seok respond stiffly, and Gwak Young-ho hastily closed the lid of the case containing the wild ginseng, his movements tense with urgency.
“No matter what happens today, I’ll make sure to get the corporate card, so just decide what you want to eat. Got it?”
“Pardon?”
“We’re having a company dinner today!”
Gwak Young-ho clutched the box to his chest and rushed out of the office.
I hadn’t expected him to be this pleased.
When Kang Hyung-seok turned from the closed office door with a satisfied expression, Lee Jin-pyung suddenly spoke up.
“It seems the Manager’s expectations were exceeded.”
“Expectations?”
“Yes. He mentioned something like ginseng chicken soup.”
It was a restaurant he’d planned to open near the Company once Gwak Young-ho retired.
I had only been thinking about medicinal herbs for samgyetang, but Kang Hyung-seok had brought something far beyond my expectations.
“Ah… but is everyone okay with having the company dinner today?”
For a moment, both Namgoong Min-ah and Lee Jin-pyung seemed to be reading the atmosphere.
Last night, without Kang Hyung-seok, we’d held a modest dinner at an inexpensive Hof Bar—a gathering that wasn’t quite an official company dinner.
“If it’s not convenient, I can speak to the Manager about postponing it.”
“Oh, no! It’s fine!”
Namgoong Min-ah stood up from her seat and waved her hands dismissively.
“We should do it while you’re here, Manager! Let’s eat something nice! Whatever you’d like to have!”
“Deputy Manager Lee…?”
“I’m fine with it too.”
Kang Hyung-seok smiled faintly and nodded.
“Then let me ask Shin Manager later, and we’ll all choose the menu together.”
“Anything you’d like is perfect for us!”
“Even so.”
Kang Hyung-seok sat down and reached toward the monitor.
The screen powered on, and he pulled the keyboard and notepad toward himself.
‘I’m glad I came in early.’
Because I’d missed work yesterday, there was a mountain of tasks waiting to be processed.
Releasing a silent, small sigh, I rested my fingers on the keyboard.
Then, in good spirits, I began tapping away at the keys and started my work.
***
Crrrunch!
The excavator dumped a pile of stones.
Straight into the well.
Jo Un-su stood at a distance, smoking a cigarette as he watched the well gradually fill.
Beep, beep, beep.
A dump truck laden with stones and sand approached, then unloaded everything around the excavator.
Whoosh! Crash!
Watching the excavator pour stones and sand into the well, Jo Un-su smiled bitterly.
It was a well I had watched since childhood.
If any sorrow lingered in that well, it would be mine.
Throughout my life, I had to think many thoughts whenever I saw that well.
Crrrunch!
That well was being filled.
Strangely, I felt something like regret.
It made no sense, but it was truly so.
Why was that?
Every time I looked at that well, I remembered my dead brother.
Crrrunch!
“Factory Owner, you said to demolish all of this completely, right?”
Jo Un-su nodded in response to the operator who poked his head out of the excavator.
“Yes!”
“Understood!”
The operator manipulated the excavator again.
He continued filling the well with soil, then demolished the pile of stones that formed the well itself.
Deep wrinkles formed around Jo Un-su’s eyes as he watched the well collapse.
“Sigh…”
Jo Un-su exhaled cigarette smoke like a sigh, his expression tinged with melancholy as he smiled wryly.
Watching the well crumble, I finally understood the reason for my regret.
Every time I saw that well, I thought of my brother.
Now I was truly saying goodbye to him.
That was the thought that came to me.
Thud! Thud!
The excavator, having demolished the well completely, tamped the ground with its bucket.
“Factory Owner, is this enough?”
“…Please tamp it down a bit more.”
“Yes.”
The operator scattered the remaining soil around the area and tamped down the spot where the well had been with the bucket.
Then he drove back and forth over it several times, making it completely level.
“All finished, Factory Owner.”
“Yes. Thank you for your work.”
It was all over.
Jo Un-su withdrew a white envelope filled with money from his pocket and handed it to the driver.
“Oh, no—is it really this much?”
“You’ve worked hard for me.”
“No, but I’m so grateful….”
“You’ve labored well, so please accept this much at least.”
The driver expressed his gratitude to Jo Un-su repeatedly before disappearing with the excavator.
Left alone, Jo Un-su finished his cigarette and made his way to where the well had been.
The breeze was cool and refreshing.
Summer would soon fade, and autumn would arrive.
Whoosh.
Crouching before the well, now buried beneath earth, Jo Un-su withdrew a fragment of bone from his pocket.
It was his younger brother’s bone, which Kang Hyung-seok had retrieved from the bottom of the well.
Tap, tap.
After burying the bone fragment in the soil, Jo Un-su broke his silence and spoke.
“I’ve finally laid you to rest.”
Jo Un-su forced the corners of his mouth upward, his brow furrowed.
“I wish it had happened sooner. I wish I had done it sooner.”
Grasping the earth with his weathered hands, Jo Un-su bowed his head.
His lips trembled, and he pressed his prosthetic eye with his palm.
“I’m sorry. For not protecting you.”
If only my body had been larger.
If only my strength had been greater.
You were the one who left, yet it was I who failed to protect you.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I, your brother, am truly sorry.”
Thud!
Jo Un-su struck the earth with his fist.
His younger brother had been given a proper Buddhist funeral by Kang Hyung-seok, and everything bound to this well had departed from the world.
The well had returned to being merely a well, now buried beneath the ground.
“When I die later, let us meet again then. Let us surely meet again at that time.”
Yet the guilt that Jo Un-su could not bury along with the well caused him to swallow his tears as he spoke.
“Hnngh! Ahhhhh!”
Unable to hold back, Jo Un-su wept openly, clutching his chest.
With his other hand, he continued to caress the ground.
It was resolution—the dissolution of anguish.
The process of the living bidding farewell to the dead.
“Hnngh! Hnnnngh!”
Jo Un-su wept as though pouring out everything within him.
For a very, very long time, at the abandoned well where no one would come.
As though expelling the guilt he had carried his entire life.
He wept profusely above the well that had vanished long ago.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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