Real Man

A middle-aged man and woman sat across from each other at a luxurious table in complete silence. 

With one glance, anyone could easily discern the tense atmosphere between them.

Untouched steak and empty glasses sat on the table like useless decorations.

Drip. 

As the wine was poured and filled the glass halfway, the woman’s brows furrowed.

That was a sign that he should stop filling the glass.

When the man stopped, the woman’s gaze immediately turned downward.

Tap. Tap.

She was repeatedly tapping the table with her index and middle fingers.

That was his wife’s habit before she said something important.

To be honest, right now, he wanted to avoid discussing anything serious.

The moment the woman lifted her gaze and tilted her head, the man raised his glass and forced a smile.

“Aren’t you going to congratulate me?”

“…”

Tap.

What he heard next was not a toast, but a dull sound. 

At the same time, the back of his wife’s hand was placed on the table.

For the first time, he saw that she wasn’t wearing the ring which was usually placed on the fourth finger of her left hand.

The man bit his lower lip.

“There’s no turning back the moment you take that ring off.”

“I’ve already made up my mind.”

As the woman lifted her hand, the ring on the table glinted in front of his eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“Han Yoo-hyun, did you ever even think of me as your wife? Aren’t you the type of person who only cares about your own success?”

At those words, Yoo-hyun’s brows furrowed.

But it was not the time to be angry.

Ring. Ring.

At that time, Yoo-hyun’s cell phone rang on the table.

He glanced at the caller’s ID. It was a call that he could not ignore.

Yoo-hyun held the phone in his right hand and signaled for his wife to wait a moment with his left hand.

“Yes, Chairman. This is Han Yoo-hyun. Yes. Yes.” 

Skrrr.

The sound of a chair sliding echoed through the room. His wife had stood up from her seat.

Before he realized it, a cold smile was all that remained on his face again.

He should’ve stopped her.

But, the person on the call was not someone he could ever ignore.

“No, it’s possible. Yes, Chairman.”

Clack. Clack.

The sound of his wife’s heels grew fainter and fainter. 

She walked away without even looking back.

By the time Yoo-hyun was done hanging up the phone, his wife had already disappeared.

“Damn it.”

The taste of wine when drunk alone was exceptionally bitter.

The next day.

Yoo-hyun closed his eyes and lay on the soft backseat of his car.

The gentle sound of classical music calmed his mind.

The ride was so comfortable that he couldn’t even hear the wheels rolling.

Thanks to this, it was a good time to quietly picture his daily routine in his head.

Click. 

Before he knew it, the car had arrived in front of Hansung Tower.

The security guard, who had been waiting, ran quickly with a nervous expression on his face and carefully opened the door.

“Greetings, boss”

“Yes. Good morning.”

After Yoo-hyun got off his seat with a light smile, a line of people followed him.

The large front door of the tall building opened, and the people standing in a line to greet him bowed their heads towards Yoo-hyun.

With a light smile, Yoo-hyun walked slowly.

He heard a woman’s voice from behind him.

“CEO, we are scheduled to tour an institute, a meeting with the executives, and lunch with the Chairman today.”

Yoo-hyun nodded at the female secretary and walked into the lobby.

As soon as he became the CEO, more responsibilities and work followed.

The position of CEO of Hansung Electronics, a leading company, was that heavy.

It was then.

Grrng.

The front door opened and a man with a haggard face approached Yoo-hyun.

The guards reflexively jumped forward.

“Get out of the way.”

“I have to talk to him about something.”

“He’s not someone you can meet. Get out of the way. Hey, pull him out.”

“It won’t take long.”

Although the situation was tense, the man’s voice remained calm.

It was at that moment that Yoo-hyun glanced at the man talking.

It was a familiar face, so he quickly opened his mouth.

“Stop that.”

“…”

At Yoo-hyun’s words, the surrounding air stopped as if it had frozen.

“Senior Kim Young-gil, what brings you here?”

“Am I a senior?”

“If you don’t mind, shall we talk about it somewhere else? That’s if you don’t mind.”

He heard the sarcasm in the senior’s tone, but he didn’t mind. Instead, he pointed one hand towards the company’s building.

Kim Young-gil shook his head.

“No, I can just say it here. Do you remember the name Kwon Se-joong?

“Se-joong? What about him?”

Kwon Se-joong was Yoo-hyun’s motivation for joining the company, and he worked under Kim Young-gil, who was the manager then.

There’s no way he wouldn’t remember him.

At that time, Kim Young-gil’s voice came down like thunder.

“Kwon Se-joong is dead.”

“What?”

Yoo-hyun was greatly surprised, but Kim Young-gil calmly continued to speak.

“It’s surprising. You may not care, but I think it would be right for you to stop by.”

“Senior, what do you mean?”

Yoo-hyun hurriedly approached and asked.

However, Kim Young-gil, who grabbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger, raised his head and sighed.

“Hah! I’m here just to say this. Please understand that I wouldn’t want to come if not for him.”

“…”

Yoo-hyun had no choice but to look at his retreating back after saying those things.

The senior’s eyes full of resentment were stuck in Yoo-hyun’s mind.

The day’s schedule went by even with Yoo-hyun’s complicated mood. Then, he went to the funeral home located on the outskirts of Seoul.

It was a difficult place to come to, but he had to.

The mortuary was not very crowded.

Yoo-hyun, who first greeted the deceased, bowed in front of Se-joong.

In front of him, he saw Se-joong’s young son and Se-joong’s wife crying.

After barely meeting each other, Yoo-hyun took a heavy step.

“Hey, he was fired in the end. He couldn’t get a job, so he decided to jump off a building.”

“Hansung is way too much. They used them up as much as they could and simply threw them away. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it have been better to go somewhere else?”

“That’s right. The higher-ups are the main problem. The person who decided that then was…”

“Hey! Shh!”

The murmuring of people in the hallway ceased as soon as Yoo-hyun appeared. 

After stopping briefly, Yoo-hyun started walking again, leaving the people behind.

There were situations where he could gauge the atmosphere even without looking at it.

Yoo-hyun, who was quick to assess the situation, thought that Kwon Se-joong’s suicide was directly related to the large-scale staff layoffs in Hansung Group.

‘I’m the one who made that choice.’

The company needed to revert back and make the profits somehow.

If left as it was, it could’ve caused damage and put the entire group into financial difficulty.

Someone had to take the lead, and Yoo-hyun, who was the group’s strategic director at the time, raised the agenda.

At that time, it was believed that it was an inevitable choice for the company’s survival.

“Anybody would’ve needed to do that if they were in my place.”

Yoo-hyun struggled to convince himself.

He finished paying his condolences and slowly moved towards his car.

At that moment, familiar faces entered Yoo-hyun’s sight.

These were the people who worked with Yoo-hyun in the past.

Of course, they don’t work there now.

Rather than feeling happy with this reunion, he felt sorry instead.

He knew that facing them head-on wouldn’t be good for him.

If he could, he wanted to just get out of there.

However, Yoo-hyun’s path led him into the reception room where they were located.

As Yoo-hyun entered, a startled man quickly straightened up and started to speak.

Like Kim Young-gil, he also spoke with a cynical tone.

“Oh my, what brought a big boss all the way here?”

“I’ve come late, senior.”

“Hey, are you even qualified to say that?”

“Stop, stop. Can’t you see where we’re chatting? CEO Han, we’re not at the company so I can talk casually, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

Yoo-hyun nodded his head.

These were the people that he had worked with before. He considered them as Hansung employees that were once his seniors.

Although now, Yoo-hyun’s rank is higher than anyone else’s, but only within the company.

Now that they were unrelated to Hansung, there was no need for formalities.

One senior picked up a bottle.

“Come here. Take a drink.”

“You just put your mouth on it.”

“You punk, you’re still unsociable.”

Those who were already drunk began to whine in front of Yoo-hyun.

“Man, honestly, didn’t you run away just because you’re good? We could’ve done well if we did it together.”

He blamed Yoo-hyun for abandoning a sinking team all alone and moving to another team.

“Yoo-hyun, you did something wrong then. If I went somewhere else, I would’ve just lived well alone. But why are you hitting us behind our backs?”

He also blamed Yoo-hyun upon recalling the trouble they were put in after Yoo-hyun worked in another team.

“Do you know how troubled we were because of how many people we lost? Have you ever thought of someone who lost their job overnight?”

“…”

Yoo-hyun remained silent.

The biggest resentment came from the mass layoffs.

Because they were facing each other, the senior didn’t say harsh words directly, but his eyes were full of resentment.

There were plenty of excuses that Yoo-hyun had from his point of view, but he didn’t voice them out.

That was because it was clearly a fact that they were the victims of Yoo-hyun, who only looked in front of himself and ran forward.

As he listened to every single story, he understood why he had no choice but to do what he did.

It was a really tough place to be in.

Still, Yoo-hyun held out firmly.

After staying at the mortuary for a long time, Yoo-hyun finally caught sight of Kwon Se-joong’s portrait.

Do you know what the consequences of your choices will be? Many innocent people would be shunned and deemed incompetent.

The eyes of justice from Se-joong’s portrait continued to bore into Yoo-hyun.

Kwon Se-joong, whom he thought was a friend, colleague, and even a rival for a while, passed away just like that.

Yoo-hyun quietly asked towards the portrait’s smiling face.

‘Did I get it wrong?’

His words won’t reach him now.

Some time passed.

After finishing his final condolences, Yoo-hyun, who was laying in the backseat of his car, was immersed in deep thought.

The car was upgraded to a bigger and more comfortable one, and even his annual salary was doubled.

That was the result of being in the highest position that one can climb.

However, there was still an unfilled emptiness in his heart.

Instead, guilt always occupied an empty corner of his heart.

“Whoo…”

Yoo-hyun exhaled for a long time and then slowly turned his eyes to the side.

He looked at the night view of Seoul passing through the window while he lay on the soft backseat.

Along the Han River, the street lights stretched on for so long that the end could not be seen.

It was similar to the life Yoo-hyun had led as he just looked ahead and ran.

Each light represented what had been thrown away to achieve this success.

“Did you live a proper life?”

He spat out the question that he tightly wrapped around himself.

The answer may have been obvious for a long time now.