An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 235

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

Chapter 234
Part 3. The Tiger of Jangsan (1)
It was the following Monday.
“Wow!”
Gwak Young-ho arrived at the office checking his phone, his expression one of astonishment.
“Is something the matter?”
Lee Jin-pyung, who had arrived slightly earlier, asked while organizing his bag, but Gwak Young-ho couldn’t even respond, too focused on reading the article on his phone.
-Woof woof!
Baekseol barked as if to comfort Lee Jin-pyung, who had been inadvertently ignored.
The door swung open.
“Good morning.”
Gwak Young-ho’s gaze immediately fixed on Kang Hyung-seok as he arrived.
“Manager Kang!”
“Good morning, sir.”
“Did you see the article? The article.”
His expression and tone seemed so grave that Kang Hyung-seok narrowed his eyes and asked back.
“Has something serious happened somewhere?”
“You know Director Shin? An article came out about him.”
“…What?”
“Look, look. Everyone take a look. Really.”
Gwak Young-ho copied the news article’s link and shared it in the group chat.
Click.
As Kang Hyung-seok opened the link and read the article, his eyes narrowed with a sense of disbelief.
The article was definitely about Shin Yoseph.
There was even a photo of him shaking hands with someone who appeared to be a civil servant, and beneath it was written quite a heartwarming story.
Ding!
「What is this?」
「Wow, that’s amazing.」
Messages from Shin Jung-ah and Namgoong Min-ah appeared in the group chat, even though they hadn’t arrived at the office yet.
Gwak Young-ho moved his thumbs quickly with a grin, composing a reply.
「What do you mean? Director Shin saved someone—it made the news.」
「Wow, incredible.」
“I mean, Min-ah’s only response is ‘incredible.'”
Disappointed that the reaction was more lukewarm than expected, Gwak Young-ho furrowed his brow and turned his gaze to Kang Hyung-seok.
“Manager Kang, this is your first time seeing it, right?”
“I learned about it just now from you, sir.”
“I’ve lived a long time, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone I know make the news for something good.”
“Has it happened before for something bad?”
Lee Jin-pyung interjected at a somewhat oblivious moment, and Gwak Young-ho answered with a nod.
He worked in sales, after all.
I’d seen articles at least three times in my life about someone at a client company embezzling funds or getting caught up in some unsavory affair.
“Anyway, this week’s starting off pretty well. Maybe things will go smoothly for us too.”
“But Manager…”
“Hmm? What is it?”
Gwak Young-ho’s attention shifted to Lee Jin-pyung, who glanced briefly at me before continuing.
“The person that Director Shin rescued… isn’t he from our company?”
“…What?”
“I heard it in passing on the way to work, but apparently he’s our company’s security guard.”
“Really?”
“He should have come in today, so you could ask him about it.”
Gwak Young-ho stared blankly at Lee Jin-pyung, blinking rapidly before hurriedly making a phone call and heading toward the manager’s office.
In the meantime, I organized my bag on my desk.
‘The photos came out well.’
My gaze remained fixed on the article displayed on my phone sitting on the desk.
I could roughly guess what was happening.
The person being rescued was from Daejeong Materials, and since silencing everyone would be difficult, they were probably packaging it this way instead.
It was considerate of them to look out for me, but since Shin Yoseph had even broken a window to rescue Kim Sang-deok, it was ultimately an action for each other’s sake as well.
The door swung open.
“Manager, what’s this article about?”
Shin Jung-ah, who had just arrived, looked for Gwak Young-ho first.
Namgoong Min-ah standing beside her was staring intently at her phone, apparently reading the article.
“What? Where did the manager go?”
I pointed toward the manager’s office with my finger.
“He’s been incredibly busy since this morning.”
“It’s nothing bad, so that’s fine.”
“Manager Kang, have you seen this article?”
I nodded with a smile at Namgoong Min-ah who had spoken to me.
The door burst open!
Gwak Young-ho emerged with his eyes wide open.
“Hey! Manager Kang!”
“Yes?”
“I looked into it, and apparently it was you who gave Director Shin the tip?”
Lee Jin-pyung, Namgoong Min-ah, and even Shin Jung-ah all focused their attention on me.
“No, there was someone who came in as a substitute. Apparently you gave your business card to that person?”
“Ah… yes, that’s right.”
“You should have said something! Come on!”
Since I didn’t want things to blow up, I smiled awkwardly and sat down.
“No, it wasn’t anything special. I just handed over my card because I was concerned.”
“That’s not it! That’s why Director Shin ended up in the article. If you’d taken a photo together, how great would that have been.”
“Manager Kang would absolutely hate that.”
Even though Shin Jung-ah had perfectly articulated Kang Hyung-seok’s sentiments, Gwak Young-ho’s eyes still betrayed a hint of disappointment.
“Still! Do you know how significant this looks to the higher-ups?”
“What matters is what the person involved feels, Manager Gwak.”
“That’s… true, but still.”
When Gwak Young-ho continued to wear that disappointed expression, Shin Jung-ah added a remark with a wry smile.
“I’ll mention it to the Executive Director.”
“The Executive Director?”
“Yes.”
Shin Jung-ah raised her eyebrows as Gwak Young-ho’s eyes flickered with sudden uncertainty.
“Which Executive Director are you thinking of?”
Gwak Young-ho gestured vaguely toward the world outside the company.
“Shinjin Construction…?”
“No. Our Executive Director.”
Shin Chang-yong, Shin Jung-ah’s uncle, was also an Executive Director.
Since he held the position of Executive Director at Daejeong Materials, Gwak Young-ho’s eyes sparkled as he even clapped his hands together.
“Oh! Now that’s a brilliant idea.”
“Either way, it just needs to be made known, doesn’t it?”
“Right. Exactly right.”
After Gwak Young-ho sent a look toward Shin Jung-ah that seemed to say, ‘How clever of you to think of that?’, she responded calmly with her wry smile, as if it were nothing special.
She answered matter-of-factly, her expression unbothered.
“Manager Kang did something good, but if no one acknowledges it, that’s a shame, isn’t it?”
Snap!
Gwak Young-ho snapped his fingers and turned to Kang Hyung-seok with an expression of complete agreement.
“Manager Kang, you really did well. You saved someone’s life.”
“That’s not quite right, Manager Gwak.”
“What do you mean it’s not? Wait and see. I’ll definitely report this later. This is important.”
With no way to stop Gwak Young-ho’s momentum, Kang Hyung-seok could only respond with an embarrassed laugh and nod in agreement.
***
“I’ll head in first!”
It was time to leave work.
Namgoong Min-ah entered first, and Gwak Young-ho sent a text to Lee Jin-pyung, who hadn’t returned from his business trip.
In the meantime, Shin Jung-ah and Kang Hyung-seok gathered their belongings.
“I’ll head in now.”
“Yeah, go on.”
“Aren’t you heading in, Manager?”
Gwak Young-ho chuckled and made a gesture of breaking off a shot glass and drinking.
It seemed he’d planned to have a drink with Director Shin Chang-yong.
“Don’t stay out too late. I’ll head in too, Manager.”
“Be careful!”
Shin Jung-ah bowed her head and stood before the elevator with Kang Hyung-seok.
Then it happened.
“Manager Kang.”
“Yes?”
“Could you give me a ride today?”
It was a request she rarely made.
Kang Hyung-seok looked at her with surprise in his eyes, while Shin Jung-ah sighed, gazing at the ceiling with an expression of utter exasperation.
“Ha Yoon wanted to see me. She said she’s been having a rough time dealing with difficult customers and asked me to buy her a drink.”
“But why do you look like that?”
“Manager Kang hasn’t seen her drinking habits.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Yeah, it’s terrible.”
“…I see.”
As Kang Hyung-seok thought, “Tomorrow I should buy two bottles of hangover cure on the way to work,” the elevator arrived.
“Get in. I’ll drop you off on the way.”
“Thanks. But do you have somewhere you need to go?”
“There’s a place I need to stop by, but it’s on the way anyway.”
“Oh? Really? A friend?”
There was no one else in the elevator.
So Kang Hyung-seok answered her question with ease.
“No. I was thinking of visiting my teacher.”
“Ah…”
“You may have already sensed it, but something similar happened this time as well.”
Kang Hyung-seok and Shin Yoseph had moved together.
It didn’t seem to be simply a matter of rescuing someone who’d collapsed, as people had been told, and a bitter smile crossed Shin Jung-ah’s lips.
“I had a feeling. But why your teacher?”
“I just have some things I’d like to ask.”
Ding!
The elevator arrived at the Underground Parking Lot, and Kang Hyung-seok walked toward the car with Shin Jung-ah.
The two of them got into the car, and as Kang Hyung-seok set the destination and waypoint on the navigation app, he continued speaking.
“It’s nothing serious, so please don’t worry about it.”
“You said you were going to see a teacher. Doesn’t that mean it’s serious?”
Shin Jung-ah asked while fastening her seatbelt, and Kang Hyung-seok’s smile faded as he started the engine.
“It’s nothing major.”
Still, people tend to reveal their true feelings through their eyes, and those in sales are skilled at reading that gaze.
Even though Shin Jung-ah didn’t ask further, she nodded heavily with an expression that suggested there was some story behind it.
Vroom.
As I drove toward Lee Ha-yoon’s lawyer’s office, the air in the car grew heavy.
I found myself regretting that I’d mentioned going to Lee Geum-kyung.
But regret always comes too late, no matter how quickly.
And since I couldn’t take back words already spoken, I opened my mouth to forcibly lighten the oppressive atmosphere that was settling in.
“By the way, I can’t imagine Ha-yoon getting drunk.”
“You should definitely drink with me sometime.”
“No, thank you. I’ll just appreciate the offer.”
“You really should drink with me….”
I’d chosen the wrong topic.
That thought struck me the moment I saw Shin Jung-ah’s gloomy expression, like someone being dragged to a slaughterhouse.
‘You will arrive at the waypoint shortly.’
“Ah, we’re here.”
“Thanks for the ride.”
Shin Jung-ah waved with a smile, and before the car door closed, Kang Hyung-seok spoke to her with a smile.
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“That’s not something I can decide.”
She said it as if joking, but her eyes looked quite gloomy.
Still, when she said she’d see me tomorrow, her expression was similar to usual.
Thud.
The car door closed.
And as Kang Hyung-seok drove toward his destination—Lee Geum-kyung’s Shrine—the corners of his mouth fell.
My thoughts are heavy.
The air is heavy too.
And without anyone to talk to, it feels even worse.
‘Hong Kyung-soo.’
The ring that Kim Sang-deok wore had a curse placed on it.
Hong Kyung-soo, the shaman who was the source of that curse, kept flickering in my vision as if I couldn’t look away.
As if I’d been cursed by some malevolent spell.

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