An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 27

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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 26
Part 1. You Lay Down Some Ground (1)
The door swung open.
Returning to the Company, Kang Hyung-seok made his way to the Rooftop at Gwak Young-ho’s summons.
Whether it was because the business in Danyang had concluded smoothly, or simply because it was afternoon work hours, the atmosphere was decidedly pleasant.
“Come quick! Kang!”
Gwak Young-ho’s reaction as he waited on the Rooftop reflected that very sentiment.
“Manager Shin is here too, I see.”
As Kang Hyung-seok caught sight of Shin Jung-ah and gave a slight bow, she returned the gesture with an expression much like Gwak Young-ho’s.
“Have some coffee. Coffee.”
Gwak Young-ho, cigarette between his lips, handed over a fresh cup of coffee he’d set atop the Rooftop railing.
It wasn’t something drawn from the Break Room—it was packaged from a specialty café.
The thick paper cup with its plastic lid sat on the desks of other department members as well.
“Did the director buy this for us?”
“Ah, Kang! Are you lacking in perception, or just being modest?”
Gwak Young-ho laughed, creasing his face, and took a drag from his cigarette.
“Ha Jang-seo sent this with a gift card. We even talked on the phone. The hospital says there’s nothing wrong with his health.”
Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes widened, and a relieved smile spread across his face.
It was something I’d anticipated, given that the salt corpse had vanished.
Yet hearing the actual hospital results in person was a world apart from mere anticipation.
“Phew! I’m not religious, but this business trip can only be described as a miracle.”
“Ha ha, what a relief. Truly.”
“Manager Shin, see? Kang here is that kind of guy. Fortune favors him.”
Gwak Young-ho gave Kang Hyung-seok’s shoulder a hearty pat, then turned his gaze toward Shin Jung-ah.
Thus Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes followed suit.
I could see exactly what she was thinking.
So I shook my head as if to say not a word.
“Such modesty.”
Gwak Young-ho, misinterpreting, laughed it off, but Shin Jung-ah’s eyes held the clarity of someone who’d grasped that I’d done something.
‘Of course. He did something.’
Shin Jung-ah had witnessed me engaging in shamanic practices twice before.
So it wasn’t difficult for her to deduce that I’d done something in Danyang.
“It’s a shame, though.”
At Shin Jung-ah’s offhand remark, Gwak Young-ho’s eyes posed the question: ‘What is?’
“It’s not a trivial matter, but it’s also awkward to publicize.”
It certainly lacked the appearance of something presentable.
But it wasn’t something lacking in importance either.
One misstep could someday ensnare Kang Hyung-seok, and it could influence Namgoong Min-ah’s conversion to permanent status.
It was significant in its own right, yet there remained a certain reluctance to report it upward as something I’d handled well.
“Ah, I’ll handle that myself.”
Gwak Young-ho took a sip of his coffee and continued speaking.
“I have dinner plans with Director Shin tonight.”
“Which director?”
At Shin Jung-ah’s question, Gwak Young-ho didn’t answer verbally—he simply smirked.
That was answer enough.
“Well, that works out nicely then.”
Shin Chang-yong, the director.
He was the director Gwak Young-ho had mentioned, and Shin Jung-ah’s uncle.
As a founding member of the Company, he was the perfect person to inform upper management about this matter at an appropriate level.
“I’ll make sure to tell him that Ha Jang-seo was grateful to Kang Hyung-seok. What do you think? Not bad, right?”
“Should I add a word or two as well?”
“I’d appreciate it, but I think it’ll be fine. The director already has a favorable impression of Kang Hyung-seok.”
“Is that so?”
Gwak Young-ho smiled and lit a cigarette.
In the pleasant atmosphere, Gwak Young-ho smoked while Kang Hyung-seok and Shin Jung-ah sipped their coffee.
“Anyway, Kang Hyung-seok! You really went through a lot with this whole situation. Ha Jang-seo asked me to tell you how grateful he is.”
“No, I didn’t really do anything.”
Kang Hyung-seok deflected modestly, while Shin Jung-ah across from him silently shrugged once, still holding her coffee.
“That’s just how men are. When you feel like you’ve lost your strength, the person who’s simply there beside you becomes the one you’re most grateful for.”
Gwak Young-ho, a man of considerable years, smiled with a somewhat bittersweet expression.
“Anyway, I was thinking we should have a company dinner soon. Is it too much back-to-back?”
“How about we do it when something good happens next time?”
That was Kang Hyung-seok’s suggestion.
For a moment, Gwak Young-ho, not immediately understanding, furrowed his brow before his eyes widened. “Ah!”
“Right, right. Once Namgoong Min-ah gets converted to permanent status, we should celebrate everything at once.”
“Yes, I think so too.”
“You haven’t given Namgoong Min-ah any hints about this, have you?”
“No, I haven’t.”
At his firm answer, Gwak Young-ho nodded and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.
“Excellent. Really excellent.”
Gwak Young-ho rolled his shoulders to loosen up, then turned toward the door with a spark of vitality in his eyes.
“Then I’ll head down first. You two finish your coffee and come down. Kang Hyung-seok, you don’t have any urgent matters, so leave whenever you’re ready.”
“Yes!”
Gwak Young-ho descended the stairs first, presumably to prepare for his evening dinner with Director Shin Chang-yong.
Left alone on the rooftop, Shin Jung-ah pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
“You haven’t started smoking with the director yet?”
“It feels odd. He’s practically old enough to be my father.”
“He’s not the type to worry about such things.”
“I know.”
Shin Jung-ah lit her cigarette with one corner of her mouth raised.
“Phew! So how did this turn out?”
Shin Jung-ah’s eyes already gleamed with the knowledge that Kang Hyung-seok had done something.
Kang Hyung-seok simply smiled silently and sipped his coffee before her.
“I did what I’ve been doing before.”
“You really do have it rough.”
“Thanks to that, everything worked out well. That’s all that matters, right?”
“I don’t think I could live the way you do.”
Kang Hyung-seok looked at Shin Jung-ah and let out a hollow laugh.
“What? Why are you laughing?”
Shin Jung-ah furrowed her brow and asked, but Kang Hyung-seok didn’t respond.
From what he could see, Shin Jung-ah wasn’t destined to say such things.
Even if she wouldn’t become a Shaman, her constitution was far more susceptible to external influences than most.
“No, seriously, why are you laughing?”
“It’s nothing.”
No one knows what the future holds for anyone.
Kang Hyung-seok swallowed his unspoken words and tossed his empty coffee cup into the trash.
Then he pointed to the door with his thumb, and though Shin Jung-ah looked at him with displeasure, she extinguished her cigarette.
***
“Director, it’s here.”
Gwak Young-ho opened the door to a respectable sashimi restaurant.
It was a sashimi restaurant after work hours.
Still, because it was a weekday, there were empty tables scattered about, which wasn’t bad for having a conversation.
“What is it you wanted to talk about?”
Shin Chang-yong sat across from Gwak Young-ho after entering the restaurant.
“It’s about Kang, our associate.”
“Ah! That fellow.”
Shin Chang-yong nodded vigorously, and Gwak Young-ho smiled with satisfaction.
Then he ordered the A course for two and a bottle of blackberry wine from the server.
Glug, glug, glug, glug.
Gwak Young-ho carefully poured the blackberry wine that arrived first into Shin Chang-yong’s glass.
“You see, Kang went on a business trip with an intern named Namgoong Min-ah, and I thought you should know about it.”
“With an intern? Where to?”
“The destination was Danyang. A garlic farming area.”
“Ah, that place. I know it well.”
It was somewhere the company had been dealing with since Shin Chang-yong was young.
So even now that their clients had multiplied, it held a special place in his heart.
“Actually, this time there was talk of ending the business relationship.”
“What?”
Just as expected, Shin Chang-yong’s face hardened instantly.
Yet Gwak Young-ho continued speaking without losing his composure.
“You don’t need to worry. It’s been resolved.”
“What? How?”
“Apparently, he’d been thinking of quitting farming due to his health. But while Kang Hyung-seok was down there, his condition improved. He even received a clean bill of health from the hospital.”
Shin Chang-yong raised his glass with a relieved expression, though his eyes betrayed lingering doubt.
Gwak Young-ho hastily lifted his glass to toast, then turned away and downed the bokbunja wine in one gulp.
“Phew!”
As Gwak Young-ho exhaled sharply from the bokbunja’s unexpected burn down his throat, the first course arrived.
A salad dressed with black sesame sauce, steamed conch, and abalone served in its shell.
Swish, swish.
Gwak Young-ho tossed the salad with his chopsticks before speaking.
“Ha Jang-seo seemed quite grateful to Kang Hyung-seok. He even emphasized how rare such people are, making a point of it.”
“Is that so? What’s your take on it?”
“I think he’s a fortunate man.”
Shin Chang-yong rubbed his lips thoughtfully, then tilted his head slightly to the side.
“Can ‘fortunate’ really explain it? If that man was considering quitting farming, it must have been serious.”
“Kang Hyung-seok isn’t a doctor, after all. It must have been a coincidence of circumstances.”
“Well, regardless, it’s fortunate he’s continuing with farming.”
“It happens sometimes, doesn’t it, Director?”
Gwak Young-ho placed the well-tossed salad in front of Shin Chang-yong and brought the untossed one before himself.
“He’s an extraordinarily fortunate man.”
Shin Chang-yong, who had just reached for the salad with his chopsticks, furrowed his salt-and-pepper brows.
Before him, Gwak Young-ho continued with a faint smile.
“In the Sales Department, you see men like that from time to time.”
“Is that Kang Hyung-seok?”
“Yes. And since you work in a department that deals with people, you know better than anyone how crucial fortune truly is.”
“Hmm.”
Shin Chang-yong set down his chopsticks entirely and folded his arms, his expression heavy with thought.
Gwak Young-ho could only watch as the salad absorbed the sauce.
“Fortune is a skill in itself, I suppose.”
“Yes.”
“But that man—he didn’t have anything special before, did he?”
Gwak Young-ho smiled bitterly before answering.
“There are people who suppress fortune, aren’t there?”
“Ah, I see now.”
It was precisely after Noh Su-chul left.
Kang Hyung-seok’s momentum had mysteriously improved.
The force with which he handled his work, and the impression that matters connected to him were resolving favorably.
All of it had begun after Noh Su-chul’s departure.
“From what I can see, Kang Hyung-seok is finally coming into his own.”
Shin Chang-yong, who had been listening intently with his lips pressed together, nodded slowly.
“You know the saying ‘seven parts luck, three parts skill’?”
“Of course! It means that success requires seventy percent luck and thirty percent skill, right?”
“That saying is rather cruel, actually. When you think about it, it means that no matter how skilled you are, if luck doesn’t favor you, you won’t succeed.”
Gwak Young-ho lifted the bokbunja wine with an expression that seemed to ask, “Can you really interpret it that way?”
The wine poured with a soft splash.
As Gwak Young-ho poured, Shin Chang-yong exhaled heavily through his nose.
“If fortune smiles upon you, that’s good news. And from what I can see, you seem like a good person with solid character.”
“Yes, sir. He’s a subordinate I rely on quite a bit.”
“You said he’s been with the company for three years?”
Gwak Young-ho glanced around cautiously before nodding in response.
“Yes, sir.”
“This project is a bit weak, so have him put together something more convincing. If it goes well, I’ll see about creating a position for him.”
A broad smile spread across Gwak Young-ho’s face.
“Thank you so much, Director!”
“That’s enough. Keep it quiet since we’re near the office. By the way, there was an intern who went with you, wasn’t there? What do you think of that person?”
“I didn’t send Kang Hyung-seok on this business trip with them for no reason. It would be good if someone like that became a full-time employee.”
“Hmm, Namgoong Min-ah, was it? I’ll remember that.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Lower your voice. We’re near the office.”
Gwak Young-ho maintained his smile without making a sound.
He had no choice.
Director Shin Chang-yong had just said he would back Kang Hyung-seok.
And Gwak Young-ho wasn’t petty enough to resent his subordinate for being recognized.
“Director, please finish all this abalone. It’s very good for your health.”
“You, right now… stop it!”
“No, sir. You like abalone, don’t you? Please eat it, and if you need more, I’ll order it.”
“I said stop!”
Clatter, clatter.
At that moment, other dishes began to be placed between Gwak Young-ho and Shin Chang-yong.
Gwak Young-ho pushed all the eel and sushi toward Shin Chang-yong, while bringing the silkworm pupae soup and boiled beans in front of himself.
“This makes me uncomfortable!”
“It’s because I prefer these, Director.”
“Oh, come on! Stop that!”
The meal ended pleasantly in this atmosphere.

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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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