Riser
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🕑 Added 2025-03-13 02:12:20 +0000 UTCChapter 18: Seo Na-yeon's Incomplete Life
"Let's welcome our new employee, Seo Na-yeon!"
The welcome dinner for the new employee was held at a meat restaurant across from the office.
"Here, have a drink... I'm Deputy Manager Kim Cheol-ho!"
"Oh, feel free to speak casually, haha"
"Should I? But I heard you're an acquaintance of the boss"
"We're just middle school classmates"
The dinner atmosphere was lively with the boss Kwak Young-cheol, four dealers, and one accountant joining. The small male-dominated organization of five men and one woman seemed excited to have a new female employee join.
Though she wasn't great at work, Na-yeon had S-class looks and figure. The male employees, mostly in their 20s and early 30s, welcomed Na-yeon perhaps a bit excessively. Na-yeon's self-esteem, which had been crushed by her first workplace experience, slowly recovered with their kindness.
"Come on, Na-yeon, drink up!"
"Oh oppa. I've gotten weak with alcohol. More importantly, I'm sorry I'm so bad at work"
"No, it's fine! Da-hye is handling the work well. Don't worry about it too much"
Even the boss Kwak Young-cheol took care of Na-yeon like a close friend. As the alcohol flowed, Na-yeon's mood rapidly improved from rock bottom.
"As the new employee, I'll sing a song!"
"Ooh! Na-yeon, you sing really well!"
"Sing! Sing!"
Plus, though she only briefly attended middle school, she was originally a delinquent girl. Having been exposed to drinking and entertainment early on, she was practically a professional(?) in this area and knew how to liven up the drinking atmosphere.
Everyone was in high spirits.
Except for Oh Da-hye, who frowned silently while just eating side dishes.
"Boss, I need to use the restroom..."
"Oh, go ahead"
So when Oh Da-hye left for the bathroom, the drunk Na-yeon, remembering being scolded by Da-hye earlier, subtly tried some gossip.
"Oppa, why does that Da-hye keep making a face like she's eating poop?"
Middle school dropout-like crude vocabulary.
Kwak Young-cheol almost said 'It's because you're so fucking bad at work...' but having other motives, he played along with Na-yeon's gossip.
"That Oh Da-hye? She's just always like that. No matter what I tell her to do, she always has a rotten expression"
Kwak Young-cheol didn't like Oh Da-hye much. Why?
Honestly, it was just because she had below average looks and a chubby figure. Kwak Young-cheol had hired accountants based on how nice their butts were rather than ability. But due to issues like sexual harassment, accountants kept quitting in succession and it became known as an avoided workplace, so he reluctantly hired Oh Da-hye.
Though she worked well, he wanted to fire her soon because of her ugly face and grumpy expression. He planned to fire her immediately if Na-yeon did even a little bit of work well this time... but due to Na-yeon's disastrous work skills, Oh Da-hye's employment was likely to be extended.
"She usually speaks rudely too. I'm telling you this so you don't get hurt."
Deputy Manager Kim Cheol-ho also seemed to have some built-up resentment as he badmouthed Oh Da-hye.
"From what I know, I think she's a feminist?"
"A feminist?"
"She looks like a feminist haha"
"Hey hey, what if Oh Da-hye hears?"
The male employees' image of Oh Da-hye was so bad it surprised Na-yeon. Na-yeon inwardly thought she was winning them over as she joined in badmouthing Oh Da-hye and blended in with the existing employees.
A few days passed like that. Na-yeon was still terribly bad at work and slow to learn... but as she gradually adapted to the company atmosphere, she felt she wouldn't be fired even if she was bad at work. In other words, she became a bit shameless.
"Na-yeon, did you organize those documents I asked for earlier?"
"Huh? Oh sorry~ I was doing other work..."
"Other work?"
"Oh Da-hye. Don't tell Na-yeon to do that, you do it"
"What? But..."
"I told Na-yeon to run an errand earlier"
"..."
Though she came in as a new employee, Da-hye still handled 100% of the accounting work.
Na-yeon openly showed she was personally close with the boss Kwak Young-cheol, and since the boss blatantly protected her, in the end even though she was a new employee and Da-hye was senior, it was hard for Oh Da-hye to say anything. Though her work ability was good, she was no match for Na-yeon in office politics.
Most of what Na-yeon did was look at her phone while collecting a salary. The only work she did was occasionally chatting in the boss's office or sucking up to the other male employees.
"Na-yeon, make some coffee for the guest waiting room"
"Okay oppa~"
And when male guests came, she would make coffee and subtly use her beauty, that was all.
Of course, she always wore skirts short enough to show a bit of her lower buttocks, so when she made a round, the guests' eyes all went to Na-yeon's butt, so she was quite useful.
"Boss Kwak, the new accountant is hot!"
"Hehe, right?"
"I've been coming here often lately just to see her haha"
"If you've had your eye candy, why don't you buy a car? We just got some good inventory"
"Haha, oh my"
The reaction was especially enthusiastic from the middle-aged boss types who often came to hang out through Young-cheol's father's connections and occasionally boosted sales. Kwak Young-cheol intentionally had Na-yeon serve coffee to those bosses, and since Na-yeon was good with people, she actively entertained them and chatted. She had to be useful in other ways since she was incompetent at work.
And Seo Na-yeon was quite good at enduring this kind of work.
Of course, Oh Da-hye's gaze towards Na-yeon, who did such annoying things, grew colder with more contempt mixed in, but Na-yeon cared less and less and instead tried to get closer to the boss Kwak Young-cheol.
Her female-specific political ability activated, thinking there was no reason to get close to Oh Da-hye who was half-ostracized at the company anyway.
"Na-yeon, shall we get off work early and have a drink today? A new wine bar opened at the rotary and the food there is really good"
"Really? I'd love to... but what about Da-hye?"
"...I'm fine. You two go ahead"
"Will you be okay?"
"...Yes"
"Alright. Da-hye, stay a bit longer and wrap things up. Good work~"
So Na-yeon, who had gotten used to dumping daily work on her senior Oh Da-hye and slacking off despite being new, found it hard to refuse Kwak Young-cheol's daily drinking invitations.
Originally, Kwak Young-cheol was a burdensome presence to Na-yeon. Her husband's former delinquent senior became his work superior, and then her husband suddenly took the blame for the boss's crime and went to prison, acting like a loyal subject. What wife would like that?
But reality is reality. No matter how much of a mess her husband was, once he actually went to prison, their household finances became dire. Plus, Na-yeon had never had any job experience until now, so it was even more daunting.
To such a Na-yeon, Young-cheol's job offer was truly appreciated. Though his ulterior motives were too obvious... she couldn't quit either.
Because after working for a few days, she acutely felt how incompetent she was at work.
'Ah, I really can't work at a normal job'
For someone like her with no special skills and only a middle school education, getting an office job salary for just doing simple errands was an incredibly sweet deal.
Of course, his attempts to knock her down were becoming more and more blatant... but couldn't she just close her eyes and endure it?
"The atmosphere here is nice, right?"
"Yeah. I've never been to a place like this before"
So it wasn't difficult to play along and flatter Kwak Young-cheol as he bragged and showed off at the expensive wine bar that didn't match his appearance.
"Oppa, you got another business now?"
"Really? You do more than just used cars?"
"Of course. My old man's strength is failing so he's handing over about half to me now"
Kwak Young-cheol tried to show off that he had lots of money and was successful.
Though he just looked like an ugly toad... it wasn't just empty boasting of 'pretending to be successful', but he really was a genuine rich guy, so his words carried weight.
Does money create charm that wasn't there before? To Na-yeon's eyes as she got more drunk, even the toad-like puffy face started to look somewhat dignified and charming.
Hmm... thinking about it again, it just became tolerable to look at directly.
But compared to her husband Kang Tae-gu, who just looked clean-cut but was utterly useless, wouldn't the capable toad Kwak Young-cheol be a better choice as a man?
She kept having these thoughts.
"What kind of business is it?"
"You see that motel right across the street? There"
"Wow, really? It looks about 7 stories tall...?"
"Though it looks like that, land is cheap here so it wasn't much. About 3 billion won?"
Just from his tone, it sounded like he was bragging about buying a new toy, but a 3 billion won motel... it was an amount Na-yeon never thought she could touch in her lifetime in many ways.
Ah, so this is flirting with wads of cash.
The dazed Na-yeon suddenly felt thirsty and gulped down some wine.
Of course, even just the used car dealership was already an asset worth tens of billions... but she knew motels were also a cash cow with steady income.
'He really does have a lot of money...'
Kwak Young-cheol, who had an appearance that wasn't at all rationally attractive, but had wealth that couldn't help but be attractive. On the other hand, her husband Kang Tae-gu who was cleanly handsome to her taste but utterly incompetent.
She couldn't help but keep thinking 'If only I had gotten pregnant with Kwak Young-cheol's child, how different would my life have been?'
With a bitter taste in her mouth, Na-yeon drank excessively faster than usual. She gulped it down because her insides felt like they were burning, but to Kwak Young-cheol it looked like a signal.
Three hours later.
The drinking session that started with laughter and chatter was now winding down. Na-yeon, who had overdone it beyond her usual tolerance, kept drooping her head onto the table.
"Hey hey. You've been going too hard since earlier. Let's go home, Na-yeon"
"Aww... let's have just one more drink?"
"What more are you going to drink. Get up"
This was actually the situation Kwak Young-cheol had been hoping for.
Above all, he was getting heated up by Na-yeon's body clinging to him drunk...
"Then, shall we go have one more drink while inspecting our new business?"
"Huh? Business?"
"I told you earlier. That motel over there is oppa's. Let's go get a room and have just one more drink. Okay?"
"Mmm... but Hyeon-seong will be waiting... hic!"
That damn son. For the past few days, whenever he tried to make a move, she always used her son as an excuse and he couldn't go all the way.
"It's fine. He's a high school senior, he's already grown up"
"But still..."
"Didn't you say one more drink? Let's go wash up comfortably and finish our drink"
Kwak Young-cheol half-forcefully dragged the drunk Na-yeon into his motel across the street.
