- CHAPTER 1 -

As lunch time rolled, Choi Seungcheol found himself reclining on his rolling chair and unable to stop thinking about something.

Or rather, someone.

Usually, he was the first one to dash out of the room—at unbelievable speed, mind you—and ate a three-day worth of meal at the office cafeteria, which left pretty much everyone there agape at first. How did he stay lean? Nobody knew. “What’s with that new guy? After only a month, he got first place in sales!” He pouted. Lee Jihoon, his best friend since elementary school and now also his workmate, seemed uninterested in their conversation as he focused on his cellphone.

Seungcheol glanced a bit, and he could swear he caught a familiar name flash on Jihoon’s cellphone screen; it was ‘Kwon Soonyoung’ (that bubbly and slightly whacky kid from human resources division).  What was possibly happening between them? Not that he would judge Jihoon for that or anything. He would embrace differences; he was open-minded like that. But he would not bug Jihoon about it now. Some other time, perhaps.

After Seungcheol nudged him not so softly in the ribs, Jihoon finally looked up from his cellphone only to glare at Seungcheol for a second. “What’s his name again?” He asked, more to himself. “I think it is Yoon Jeong-something…” Seungcheol answered quickly. “Oh, that Yoon guy? I couldn’t care less about him. I don’t know about you, but he seems awkward to me. Sleepy eyes and too skinny!” For my taste. Clearly, Jihoon paid quite an attention to this Yoon guy than he cared to admit.

“Yeah, him.” Seungcheol decided to leave out the bits about Yoon’s physical appearance for now. “I’ve worked here for three years, and the best I got was fourth place.” He folded his arms and sat straight before adding, proudly, “Plus, my face is better than him!” Seungcheol had only met the man at their division’s year-end party, roughly a month ago, when Yoon was introduced by their general manager.

Jihoon rolled his eyes in blatant annoyance. “Oh please, Cheolie,” He snorted, “Everyone in marketing division is good-looking. We practically charm our way out with our faces! And for your information, your face isn’t that handsome either.” No, he was not angry at Seungcheol; it was just in his nature to sound perpetually pissed off and spit venom every time he talked. Well, for lack of a better word, he was just mean but harmless. Every now and then people would question his choice of career, though.

Hearing that, it reminded Seungcheol of the door-to-door marketing training he had to undergo two years ago, which could basically, really, translate to acquainting yourselves with the company’s marketing division’s (unofficial) motto: ‘if you can’t make customers buy our products using your verbal persuasion skills, resort to your attractive faces’. The motto was sort of absurd but proven effective sometimes, so he was not complaining.

“Oh and, genius~” Jihoon called in a sickeningly sweet tone that Seungcheol flinched, “Did you forget that Yoon’s from telemarketing? Customers can’t even see his face!” Jihoon delivered his final blow. Seungcheol frowned and pursed his lips a little. “Then how the hell did he manage to sell so many products in a month!?” He sounded as if he was desperate, and at some point, he was. His sales records were not bad, per se, but he was always keen on improving himself. Or he was just flabbergasted by the fact that some new guy could rise to the top spot in merely a month.

“Does he have such a God-like voice or what?” He added as he slid back into his chair. Jihoon looked at him as if he was some kind of idiot and then sighed. “Just call him, and perhaps you will find out why.” He shrugged; he was so against prolonging their unimportant, and apparently uninteresting, dialogue. Seungcheol stared incredulously at his best friend but slowly reached the VoIP phone. “Not now, Cheolie.” Jihoon slapped his hand, startling him. “I’m not gonna wasting my lunch time listening to your conversation with the new kid!”

With that, Jihoon dragged a somehow reluctant Seungcheol by the arm. Despite his smaller figure, Jihoon was strong enough to even take Seungcheol down. “Besides, I’m sure he already went off somewhere. Who knows you will meet him at the cafeteria?” He tried to persuade Seungcheol, who perked up his ears at the possibility. “You’re right. Let’s go!” Now Seungcheol was the one eagerly leading the way to the cafeteria.

However, Lady Luck was not on his side because Yoon was nowhere to be seen there. So… Jihoon spent the whole