Real Man

Yoo-hyun smiled faintly at his distorted face.

It was nothing for him to turn the tables in this situation.

But he held back, because he wanted to see Kim Hyun-min’s manager’s actions.

He also had a reason to thank Lee Bon-seok, the team leader who gave him a rather unfamiliar experience.

He offered him a snack with gratitude.

Swoosh.

It was a snack that Yoo-hyun didn’t like, so he didn’t even tear the wrapper.

“Have some while you work. It feels like we’re the only ones eating.”

“What are you doing right now?”

Lee Bon-seok, the team leader, snorted in disbelief as Yoo-hyun clapped his hands.

“Oh, a drink.”

Then he reached out to Lee Chan Ho, the deputy who was two steps away.

“Deputy Lee, can you give me a drink over there?”

“Huh? Oh.”

“…”

People tend to lose their words when they encounter a situation that is out of their expectations.

Lee Bon-seok, the team leader, was exactly that case.

Chirp.

As Lee Chan Ho, the deputy, poured a drink into a paper cup, Yoo-hyun quickly tore the snack and returned to his seat gracefully.

“That kid.”

Lee Bon-seok, the team leader, snapped belatedly, and Choi Min-hee, the team leader, stepped in.

He looked somewhat relieved.

“Team Leader, please continue what you were saying. You talked about the snack regulations.”

“Huh. Are you kidding me right now? Is it because Team Leader Choi is too nice that this is happening?”

“Yes. I’ll make it clear. Han, did you hear that?”

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

As Yoo-hyun matched Choi Min-hee’s tempo, Lee Bon-seok had nothing to say.

It wasn’t a situation where he could yell right away, so he just suppressed his anger and endured it.

“Hoof.”

Lee Bon-seok sighed roughly, and Jang Jun Hong, the team leader, also frowned as things didn’t go as planned.

It was annoying and troublesome to resume the interrupted flow.

Lee Bon-seok, who was determined, started to say harsher words than before.

“Frankly speaking, what did you mobile guys do? You just made some useless logos or something…”

His words didn’t even end.

Bang.

The door opened and a man with a rough breath appeared.

“Manager.”

Ignoring Choi Min-hee, the team leader who was surprised, Kim Hyun-min, the manager, walked in slowly.

His expression, which always smiled, looked quite heavy.

“Team Leader Lee, what are you doing right now?”

As Kim Hyun-min growled lowly, Lee Bon-seok stood up from his seat and shrugged his shoulders.

“I was giving some advice to the mobile team because they seemed lacking. Is there a problem?”

“Manager, look at this. Is this a cafeteria? It’s all snacks, snacks.”

Jang Jun Hong also chimed in with Lee Bon-seok.

Kim Hyun-min sneered at the two of them.

“Do you two think you’re managers? What are you teaching other teams?”

“No, aren’t you being too harsh? Should we just ignore them?”

As Lee Bon-seok didn’t back down, Kim Hyun-min took another step closer.

“Didn’t you ignore them from the start? If you want to help them, help them when they work. Why are you overdoing it in the wrong place?”

“No, that’s…”

Their tones became rougher.

It was a situation of imminent clash.

When the atmosphere in the conference room froze completely, Yoo-hyun whispered to the people very quietly.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“What?”

Yoo-hyun said to Kim Young-gil, the manager who asked in surprise.

“Don’t stay here and get burned. Let’s go.”

“Should we?”

“Hurry up.”

As Yoo-hyun led the way, the people who were watching followed one by one.

It’s like when one person crosses when the crosswalk light is red, others follow suit.

Of course there was one exception who followed the rules well.

“Deputy Kwon, bring Joon Shik with you.”

“Uh, uh.”

At Yoo-hyun’s words, Deputy Kwon Se-jung dragged Jang Jun-sik out of the room.

Yoo-hyun turned back to the conference room, where most of the people had left.

“So, you got lucky and became a manager, and now you’re acting all high and mighty? Who has more work experience here, huh?”

“TV Group doesn’t care about rank or position, right? Let’s take off our badges and see who’s better, then.”

Manager Kim Hyun-min and two other team leaders were having a heated argument.

“Hey, Manager Kim, calm down. And you too, Team Leader.”

The men were too proud to back down, even when Team Leader Choi Min-hee tried to intervene.

Yoo-hyun pulled Choi Min-hee’s arm.

“Let them be. They’ll get tired soon.”

“Deputy Han, this is too much.”

Choi Min-hee looked troubled, but Yoo-hyun said.

“It’s okay. They’re not kids. They won’t fight physically.”

“Really?”

“Probably.”

Their voices were barely audible, but the three men who were confronting each other glanced at them.

Then they raised their voices again and resumed their quarrel.

“What do you mean by that?”

“What do you mean by that? He’s a manager, a manager.”

Choi Min-hee gave up and followed Yoo-hyun out of the room.

A few minutes later, at the coffee shop on the first floor.

The team members who had left the conference room sat at a table.

Choi Min-hee took a sip of cold coffee and opened her mouth.

“I don’t know if this is okay.”

“It’s fine. They’ll appreciate some cool coffee.”

Yoo-hyun pointed to the iced americano on the table, and Choi Min-hee gave a hollow laugh.

“Deputy Han, you’re something else.”

“I’m just a good subordinate who knows your preferences well, right?”

Yoo-hyun made a playful expression, even in this serious situation.

Choi Min-hee shook her head as if she couldn’t stand it.

“Manager Kim likes sweet things.”

“This is better for your stomach right now.”

“Oh well. Ha ha.”

Choi Min-hee chuckled at Yoo-hyun’s quick response.

Yoo-hyun smiled at her relaxed leader.

“You look good, don’t you?”

“I feel better. But I don’t know what will happen.”

Choi Min-hee leaned back on her chair with resignation.

Then her phone on the table rang.

She checked the message and looked around at her team members.

“Let’s go back up.”

The team members’ faces hardened as they drank their coffee.

When they returned to the conference room, the situation was settled.

Manager Kim Hyun-min was sitting alone in his seat, which explained everything.josei

Fortunately, there was no extreme incident like his shirt being torn or his nose bleeding.

He just looked serious.

When the team members sat down, Manager Kim Hyun-min opened his mouth with his chin resting on his clenched hand.

“Team Leader Choi, you said this happened before. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t a big deal. It’s not like they cursed or anything.”

Choi Min-hee acted nonchalant, but Manager Kim Hyun-min became more stern.

“You should have told me anyway. They keep looking down on us because we’re quiet.”

“Do you think Manager Kim is someone who stays quiet?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at what happened. You fought with them and ruined everything we’ve worked hard for.”

Choi Min-hee didn’t back down either.

It was impossible to keep the TF alive without their cooperation.

Fighting in a situation where they had to persuade and appease them?

That was foolish.

Manager Kim Hyun-min lowered his head, knowing her sincerity.

“Don’t worry. We agreed to cover up this issue for now.”

“Do you think they’ll keep their word?”

Manager Kim Hyun-min couldn’t refute her when Yoo-hyun spoke firmly.

“No. It’ll be fine. Don’t worry too much.”

Manager Kim Hyun-min laughed bitterly at his unfounded confidence.

It was a sarcastic remark that hinted at his displeasure.

“Sure. You must be happy, Mr. Han, right?”

“Yes. Of course. You did a great job.”

Kim Hyun-min, the manager, laughed louder as Yoo-hyun gave him a thumbs up.

“Hahaha. Thank you for the compliment. In that case, let’s wrap up everything today and go for a dinner.”

“Shall we?”

“Geez, I’m craving for some alcohol after a long time.”

Kim Hyun-min, who was mechanically shrugging his shoulders, dropped himself down.

His forced smile revealed traces of worry on his face.

Choi Min-hee, the team leader who knew Kim Hyun-min’s mind better than anyone, immediately agreed with him.

“Let’s do that.”

The other team members also chimed in one by one.

“Yes. Let’s do that. We haven’t had a dinner for a long time.”

“Let’s go. Let’s release the stress that piled up today.”

“Let’s go. Let’s forget about the whole meeting today and go all out.”

It was like they had returned to their old team atmosphere after a long time.

When everyone was longing for a dinner, Yoo-hyun raised his hand and voiced his opposition.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll skip this time.”

“What? Why are you skipping? You never skipped a dinner before, Mr. Han.”

Not only Kim Hyun-min, but also the others looked curious.

Yoo-hyun had never refused a dinner before, and today seemed like a day when he should please Kim Hyun-min’s mood.

But Yoo-hyun was firm.

“I have something important to do.”

“Well, don’t feel bad. You’re not missing much.”

“Okay. Let’s have a drink next time.”

Yoo-hyun smiled with his eyes and turned his head.

That was when Kwon Se-jung, the deputy manager, looked at him with a suspicious gaze.

“Yoo-hyun, don’t tell me you’re skipping because of some martial arts novel that came out or something like that?”

He had a good sense of things.

Yoo-hyun blushed at Kwon Se-jung’s remark that hit the nail on the head and shook his head.

“No, man. I have a really important thing to do.”

“Wow. Really?”

“Don’t you believe me?”

Even though he emphasized that it wasn’t true, Kwon Se-jung didn’t seem to buy it.

As Kwon Se-jung guessed, Yoo-hyun’s destination was a comic cafe.

But his reason was wrong.

He did get a new martial arts novel, but that was just a bonus, not his real purpose.

Yoo-hyun had someone to meet here.

A little later.

A newly opened comic cafe near the company.

Yoo-hyun took a seat in one of the booths with partitions.

He leaned forward to the ramen that the part-timer brought him on the soft sofa seat for couples.

The steaming egg floating on top looked delicious.

“This ramen is really good here. You should try it.”

“Just a moment. Let me finish this first.”

The man sitting next to him pushed away the ramen bowl and scanned the newspaper.

Yoo-hyun put the ramen noodles in his mouth after blowing on them and looked at the three newspapers that he stacked on the table.

His name was neatly aligned in the headlines that popped up.

<Owner management issue triggered by the appearance of Shin Kyung-wook, an unverified executive director. Hansung Group’s stock price wobbles.>

<Hansung Group’s crown prince’s “succession” trick? What is the reason for Shin Kyung-wook’s suspicious return to Korea?>

<Shin Kyung-wook of Hansung who showed nothing. Is it fair for him to become a chairman of a large company just because he is the eldest son?>

Shin Kyung-wook, the executive director, looked at the newspaper with a serious expression with his fingers crossed on his chin.

Yoo-hyun waved his hand as he paused while picking up his chopsticks.

“What’s so serious? You’ll ruin your ramen like that.”

“I don’t like any of these pictures.”

Yoo-hyun chuckled at Shin Kyung-wook’s ridiculous answer that came out of nowhere.

“Do you expect good pictures in negative news? It’s fine as long as your eyes, nose, and mouth are normal in the pictures.”

“No. These are just what they had in their media outlets. Next time, I’ll have to distribute some decent pictures.”

Shin Kyung-wook nodded to himself and pulled the ramen bowl closer.

He seemed to be enjoying himself completely by now.