“A man should...!”

Vrooooooom!

Jo Gyu-Min’s foot stomped even harder on the poor accelerator.

“Understand! What! Vacation time means!”

He was pouring his heart out in despair.

How long had it been since he last got a day off? He couldn't remember the last time he had the whole Sunday off and could rest without worrying about work. For the past few months, the concept of 'vacation' to Jo Gyu-Min morphed from resting at home to working from home instead!

He finally had the chance to escape from that horrifying cycle and become one with his living room couch, so why! That day had finally arrived for Jo Gyu-Min, so what kind of frustrating situation was this?!

“Is this your idea of payback, Mister Jin-Ho?!”

There was no doubt about it. This had to be revenge!

‘But! Was what I did worthy of revenge?!’

Any upstanding moral person wouldn’t hesitate to force a chronic workaholic to get some rest. Especially when said chronic workaholic’s condition had noticeably declined! Recommending a lengthy break would be the usual thing to do in such a case.

If you went to see a doctor in a hospital, it was pretty easy to predict what they might say, no? Stop smoking, reduce alcohol consumption, and get plenty of rest!

‘Who doesn’t know that!’

It was just that living like what the doctor ordered wasn’t possible for regular schmucks like Jo Gyu-Min!

‘That’s why, stop scaring me with tales of how my blood pressure is going up!’

A doctor's job should be helping his patients maintain robust health even if they smoked nonstop, drank every night, and worked themselves to the ground! So why…!

‘...! What the hell?! How did I end up thinking that? In any case!'

Jo Gyu-Min gnashed his teeth. He could sense strong malice in this situation.

That itinerary! It couldn't have been sent to him with innocent intentions. The sender must've calculated that today was Sunday, so Jo Gyu-Min must be relaxing at home!

‘Even though I had nothing to do at home and didn't want to suck on my thumb, so I was thinking about doing something! Even though I was seriously thinking about going back to the office and doing Monday's work to make the next week a bit more tolerable! Even though I had no one to meet or talk to and was wondering what to have for dinner!'

That was when Jo Gyu-Min was struck by a sudden realization.

‘...Hang on. With things like that, shouldn't I be... grateful that I have something to do now?'

Jo Gyu-Min dazedly stared outside the car’s window before hurriedly shaking his head.

‘That was too close!'

He almost started accepting his fate just now. No, that was a lie. He had already half-accepted it! And the evidence of that was him in his car, speedily heading back to his work right this moment!

‘Bloody hell! I'm actually going back to work?!'

‘Going back’ implied Jo Gyu-Min was merely heading to where he was supposed to be. If such a term had to be used somehow, maybe the best time would be when he was clocking off work and heading home for the day… And not when he was rushing back to work like this!

“Dammit. This is all wrong.”

A blurry layer of moisture quickly filled up the edges of Jo Gyu-Min’s eyes.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

He became someone who couldn’t live without his work. While everyone else was forming labor unions and whatnot to fight and struggle every day for their rights, here was Jo Gyu-Min, willingly becoming a slave and worrying about how to dedicate himself more to the company with zero benefits for himself!

Worrying about work should end at that—worrying, and not spilling into real life!

Jo Gyu-Min grew even more sorrowful at how he was rushing back to work on an idyllic Sunday without hesitation or opposition just because his boss had called him out of the blue.

However, what could he do about it now? Jo Gyu-Min’s body was already deeply stained by work. And work fueled his blood coursing through his veins.

In other words, Jo Gyu-Min was already beyond the point of no return.

Last week, he had a rare opportunity to meet up with his mother. And what she told him that day had been haunting him ever since.

“Son, I hear young people these days don’t get married early.”

“Do not worry, son. A good person for you will show up sooner or later. Don't be in a rush, okay?”

“Yes, son. Marriage isn’t all that important, now is it?”

If Jo Gyu-Min's mother pestered him like mothers of other families, he'd simply brush it aside as mere annoyance and move on with his life. However!

‘Damn it! To think mom would try to comfort me!’

It seemed even to the dear mother's eyes, Jo Gyu-Min… had zero prospects of getting hitched. However, she was right. Mother could tell her son was always at work through all the phone conversations they shared over the years!

They said you must look up at the sky first if you want to catch the stars. In that case, how could a man stuck in his office the whole day date someone and get married eventually? Unless he met an Office Fairy, that wasn't going to happen in his lifetime!

Jo Gyu-Min briefly squeezed his eyes shut.

If he was serious about getting married, there was the option of arranging meetings with prospective marriage partners. However, Jo Gyu-Min knew how foolish that was.

Even if he got lucky and met a good partner to get married, Jo Gyu-Min came home once every three days. And it’d be past midnight, too! Imagine leading a married life that way. In less than three months, he’d have to put his signature on the divorce papers and cough up all his money as alimony!

In that case, why should he care about getting married?

‘This can’t go on!’

One’s quality of life was incredibly crucial, wasn’t it! Yes, sky-high wages and social status were important, too. However, what was the point of all those things if the person earning them had no time to enjoy the fruits of his labor?

Even if he had money, he had no time to spend it. Even if he got famous, he couldn't meet anyone who recognized him. Jo Gyu-Min was already being treated like the legendary office poltergeist discussed only in hushed whispers within Jaegyeong's hallways!

“Yes! A life with relaxing evenings!”

Jo Gyu-Min’s eyes began burning fiercely in determination. He gritted his teeth after finally realizing the preciousness of one’s welfare after over a decade of working as a salaryman!

Yes, he'd fight! He'd resist this unfairness and fight for his rights! And he'd regain his life once more! Definitely!

With determination burning fiercely in his heart, Jo Gyu-Min stomped on the car’s accelerator. He swore to set things straight with his terrible, evil, vile boss today!

***

“I see. And?” Kang Jin-Ho asked.

With that, Jo Gyu-Min crumbled. His everything was unceremoniously crumbling down!

When he finally reached the destination and confronted his terrible, evil, vile boss, Jo Gyu-Min yelled out his grievances with as much emotion as possible. His logic was waterproof. His voice held the persuasive power.

People listening to Jo Gyu-Min's heroic speech would've broken down in tears or enthusiastically clapped and nodded away, even if they had no idea what was going on here. Even if they weren't willing to go that far with their response, anyone with morals would've still unhesitantly sided with Jo Gyu-Min's point of view.

Unfortunately, the man before Jo Gyu-Min’s eyes was not a normal, moral person. Either his emotions had completely dried up, or his personality was as rotten as it could be. If those weren’t the answers, something was undoubtedly still wrong with this man.

It was Jo Gyu-Min’s great misfortune to work under such a boss.

Kang Jin-Ho let Jo Gyu-Min's ardent crying enter one ear and slip out the other without much care. Not even a teenager sitting on a couch and staring at a phone would be this dismissive about all the uninteresting noises coming out of a TV!

Jo Gyu-Min despaired at this overwhelming disinterest and could barely squeeze his voice out. “M-Mister Jin-Ho, it’s not ‘you see’…”

“Yes, I get what you’re saying,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

However, if those words were to be translated into human language, Kang Jin-Ho was saying he didn't get any of what Jo Gyu-Min had said.

“That’s not important right now, you see?”

Jo Gyu-Min almost blurted out,

How the heck is that not important, you punk! How! It’s my time off we’re talking about here!

Even a squirrel would get tired of running in a wheel all day, so it'd climb down to drink water and munch on sunflower seeds! What kind of crime did Jo Gyu-Min commit that he was forbidden from leaving the bloody squirrel wheel?

“Yes, I get what you’re saying, Mister Gyu-Min,” said Kang Jin-Ho while sneakily turning his head away. “Today is your off day, and you gotta rest during your off day. So it’s difficult for you to do this on your off day. I get that.”

“In short, yes! That’s exactly it!”

The old Jo Gyu-Min would've bowed his head whenever Kang Jin-Ho responded this way and said something along the lines of, 'I'll make it happen no matter what.' That was how he operated until now, but not today. No, Jo Gyu-Min of today… was a changed man!

Jo Gyu-Min of yesterday was dead. That idiot who couldn't balance work and life was gone. Buried six feet under. And the man sitting here putting his foot down was Jo Gyu-Min Reborn!

He understood the meaning of resistance and fighting for his rights, that the quality of his life and general welfare mattered! He was the… New Jo Gyu-Min!

Jo Gyu-Min firmly voiced his rejection. “I can't do this today!”

Kang Jin-Ho nodded as if he understood. “I see. In that case, we’ll cancel the plan, then.”

“...Eh?” Jo Gyu-Min tilted his head.

‘That’s… weird?’

Kang Jin-Ho wasn’t the type to back off this easily, though.

Jo Gyu-Min knew the truth. Kang Jin-Ho pretended to respect other people's opinions and positions but in reality? He never compromised on his opinions, not even once. Once he set his mind on something, he'd resort to any means possible to make it happen!

Sometimes, Kang Jin-Ho would use logic. Some other times, he’d force his way through his power. Regardless of the method, he’d doggedly keep at it until he got the results he’d like to see!

In that regard, Kang Jin-Ho was similar to…

‘...Right. Similar to Chairman Hwang Jeong-Hu.’

Kang Jin-Ho was Hwang Jeong-Hu Jr.! Junior… No, wait, that wasn’t right. Kang Jin-Ho was older than Hwang Jeong-Hu mentally, after all!

The only difference between the two men was that Chairman Hwang was ready to brush aside his family and close friends to focus on work. Meanwhile, Kang Jin-Ho always prioritized them over his work.

‘Aaaand that’s about it, really!’

Other than where their priorities lay, the two men were eerily similar. If someone told them they couldn't do something, they wouldn't ask,

'Why not?'

like everyone else. No, they would nonchalantly ask,

'Have you even tried it before? How do you know you can't if you haven't?'

That should've been the case, so why was Kang Jin-Ho's response this time so out of character…?

“You heard the man. He says he can’t do it,” said Kang Jin-Ho while glancing behind him.

That was when Han Jin-Seong, who had been on standby until then, slowly nodded away in helpless acceptance.

“He said it’s not happening today,” said Han Jin-Seong. And then…

“It’s not happening, guys.”

“Yeah, Chief Jo said no.”

“...We aren’t going out today.”

“It's a no-go.”

Jo Gyu-Min’s eyes slowly widened.

All the kids ‘waiting’ outside the living room’s exit began entering one by one while making depressed faces and nodding in acceptance of their fate.

‘W-what is this?’

Something seemed wrong with this situation, somehow! Shouldn’t the kids go outside the room after being rejected? Wouldn’t that be the normal response?

So, why were they flooding inside this room? Why? What did they want from Jo Gyu-Min?!

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at them. “Chief Jo said no.”

“...Nnng.”

The depressed-looking children stood behind Kang Jin-Ho. One… by one.

Jo Gyu-Min reflexively pushed his chair back just a little and leaned back as much as possible after realizing the number of children was rapidly ballooning up.

‘You… You damn brats! Why couldn’t you curse at me or something instead?’

Jo Gyu-Min would've resolutely dealt with these children if they had thrown temper tantrums. After all, he lost count of how many times he had dealt with that kind of nonsense. The thing was, he started his career in Jaegyeong's protection and security office before settling down as the Chief Secretary.

Simply put, Jo Gyu-Min had a master’s degree in handling people who liked to argue about illogical nonsense. But this situation, it…!

“Urgh…”

Eyes with hints of tears were now staring back at him. And those eyes weren’t saying,

‘Can’t you make it happen, somehow?’

No, they were sorrowfully saying,

‘Although it’s too bad, we’re okay. We’re used to this sort of thing, anyway.’

Would anyone remain unyielding after being subjected to those eyes? Yes, some people might have. The world was vast, after all. However, Jo Gyu-Min wasn't one of them!

If you could remain unshaken even after receiving a barrage of those looks… Then, you weren't a human being!

“Since you heard him, go back to your rooms and resume whatever you were doing, okay?” Kang Jin-Ho addressed the children. “Chief Jo said today is a no, so let’s not put him in a difficult spot.”

‘That son of a…!’

Jo Gyu-Min felt his heart burn at the sight of Kang Jin-Ho relaxedly saying all those things.

“...Okay.”

The Seongsim Orphanage kids dejectedly nodded, then began trudging outside the room again. One of the little ones held in the arms of a bigger kid stared at Jo Gyu-Min with wide-open teary eyes.

He must endure this. Yes, he must endure! As long as he could endure this moment, he’d get to rest for…

‘...I’d rest for the whole day?’

While feeling like crap? Him not ripping up his couch in guilt would be a bloody miracle at this rate!

“...Fine. I’ll get things ready,” said Jo Gyu-Min.

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head. “Sorry?”

“I said, I’ll get things ready, Mister Jin-Ho! That’s gonna sort out everything, right! I’ll take care of everything, so don’t worry about a thing and get going! Okay?!” Jo Gyu-Min shouted while shooting up to his feet.

With that, the looks on the children’s faces instantly brightened.

Just as feelings of gratification and aggrieved unhappiness began filling him up, Jo Gyu-Min’s hearing picked up Kang Jin-Ho’s collected tone of voice.

“If you’ve changed your mind, that’s fine, but why are you getting angry at us?”

“…!”

This was the moment when ‘Kick Kang Jin-Ho in the shin’ got added to Jo Gyu-Min’s bucket list.