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n“Just quit from Space Design,” said Hyunwoo.

nYonggu’s eyes opened wider. How can Hyunwoo ask him to resign when he clearly knew his feelings toward Minhye?

nGiggling a bit, Hyunwoo cleared his misunderstanding, “What I mean is you don’t have to actually submit your resignation letter. What I mean is to make her feel how precious you are to her. If you tell her you’re going to resign, she will be nervous.”

nOnly then did Yonggu understand his genuine intention.

nRight now Yonggu was like a fish caught in Minhye’s net, which needed no more bait. It was only natural that she could cast an eye to catch another fish. So, Yonggu needed to get out of her net now. Then she couldn’t afford to look for someone else as her likely groom.

nYonggu said with a giggle, “You’re right. But I don’t think you’re in a position to advise me. Is your relationship with Suji going well?”

nHyunwoo became speechless. When it came to the matter of a woman, Yonggu was much more experienced and skillful than Hyunwoo.

nScratching his head, Hyunwoo said, “Well, I’d like to make her my woman, but don’t know how. And I don’t have time to date her.”

n“Hey, dude. Time doesn’t matter. Progress in your relationship with her is the thing.”

n“Though a woman pretends not to, she, deep inside, wants her partner to advance the relationship to a certain level. If he doesn’t at all, she could change her mind overnight. Even if you are slapped, try to get intimate with Suji,” said Yonggu.

nIn Hyunwoo’s mind, Yonggu’s advice made sense.

nIn fact, Suji seemed innocent, as she never dated a man, but the opposite could also be true. For a woman like Suji, lots of men might have tried to woo her, and she also must have dated a lot of men in the process, and she might be probably more skillful in dating than Hyunwoo.

nActually, that’s what Hyunwoo experienced recently at Namsan Tower. At that time, she didn’t move at all when he hugged her firmly behind. That suggested that she was accepting Hyunwoo as a man, or she might have been waiting for his action like that.

nAs Yonggu said, she might be disappointed unless Hyunwoo acted more aggressively.

nWhen Hyunwoo seemed lost in thought, Yonggu stopped him and said, “Hey, dude, don’t worry too much. Just act as you feel it. If you want to make her your woman, just pull her down on a bed.”

nHyunwoo giggled at that.

nHe felt that pulling a woman down on a bed several times for marriage might have worked in the old era, but having sex with a woman several times didn’t necessarily lead to marriage in modern times.

nHowever, he agreed with Yonggu’s advice that he needed to try harder to advance the relationship.

n“Okay, let me make one such occasion this weekend. By the way, how far should I advance? Kiss or going further than that?”

nAfter parting with Yonggu, he went down to Ansan. Instead of stopping by Aurum, he headed straight to Ani & Funny.

nIt was already 6 pm.

nThe office was quiet, and everybody was working hard at putting the finishing touches on ‘Tuti & Angelica’.

nWhen Hyunwoo came into the office, everyone paused for breath.

n“Sorry, I’m a bit late. Have I kept you waiting long?” said Hyunwoo.

n“No, sir. We’re supposed to work late into the evening until we finish the animation Tuti & Angelica.”

n“Really? Haha,” said Hyunwoo with a hearty laugh.

nMost of the staff couldn’t laugh brightly. Though some of them forced a smile, their faces hardened as if they were tense. It was natural that they did so. For they were waiting for the evaluation of their performance for the week. At least one contractor would be fired today.

nActually, Hyunwoo fired three contractors last week. Though he was kind and smiled often in the office, he was strict in applying the principle.

nOf course, there was some adverse effect, too. The three contractors who got fired left the office, hurling terrible curses at the remaining staff. Though they didn’t respond at that time, they thought the three of them were legitimately fired.

nAnd now the day of their evaluation came again. Hyunwoo could read the staff’s feelings.

n“Manager Kyungsu Han, can I see their performance results?”

n“Here you are.”

nKyungsu gave him an evaluation paper where the five managers combined their team members’ performance ratings and calculated the average. Hyunwoo accepted the performance outcomes.

n“This week two contractors will be dismissed. Unhee Pae and Myongan Soh. Sorry for you. You can work through the rest of today. And you will be paid for your workdays until today.”

nBoth of them were female staff. Fortunately, they didn’t resist. They didn’t use any harsh language. They roughly cleaned their desks and left the office.

nThe office atmosphere became icy instantly. Firing staff was not a pleasant thing, but that was what Hyunwoo expected of them: a sense of tension among them.

n“Are you worried?” asked Hyunwoo.

nEveryone was silent.

n“As a matter of fact, I initially thought of working with you all to the end. I mean, dismissal was not what I wanted. But as you know, I can’t stand the laziness of some of you, so I chose the extreme means of dismissal. I think you can understand that.”

nSome of the staff nodded. As he said, the three contractors fired last week had big problems with their working style.

n“I hope I won’t see anyone who gets fired next time. In other words, if you can show you’re working hard, I don’t have a reason to fire you.”

nThe staff’s eyes opened wider. They expected he would fire at least one next time, but he might not.

nLooking at Kyungsu, Hyunwoo said, “Please give the incentive money to the first and second winner team. And hire two more contractors. Let me leave it to you to form the teams anew.”

n“Got it.”

n“And if everybody survives at the next performance evaluation session, I’ll give 500,000 won to the third place team in incentives.”

nTheir atmosphere was still heavy, but Hyunwoo felt the staff became more relaxed and more motivated than before.

nAt that moment, someone knocked on the door.

nIt was Jinhon Kwak. As soon as school was over, he came running to the office.

n“How come you came here instead of going home to do something good for your parents?” asked Hyunwoo jokingly.

n“Finally I’m done with composing the background music!”

n“Really? Let me hear it.”

nWearing the headphones, Hyunwoo enjoyed the background music. Jinhon fleshed the previous one with more beautiful melodies. It was light and lively. It looked as if he intentionally made it soft and simple to please the children.

n“Wonderful. I think you have repaid my tickets for your Vietnam travel with this composition.”

n“Thanks! Haha,” said Jinhon with a sigh of relief.

nJungah reached out her hand and said, “Can I listen?”

nListening to it, she moved her body rhythmically, which suggested it was good enough.

n“Sounds like this is a professional composition.”

n“I’m flattered by that, sister. By the way, hear the next song. I’m going to make a music video with that,” said Jinhon with joy.

nIt was titled “Duckling Fly.”

nThis time Junga listened first.

nAs soon as she heard it, however, she opened her eyes wide as if she was shocked.

n“What’s wrong?”

nAt Hyunwoo’s asking, she put her finger on her lips gently and then listened, her eyes closed.

nHer expression was serious. As if not to miss any note she was intensely listening to it.

nAfter about four minutes, she opened her eyes suddenly and exclaimed, “Wow! This will hit the jackpot!”

n“You like it? Let me hear it.”

nHyunwoon reached out his hand, but Jungah replayed the song instead of giving it to Hyunwoo, and said charmingly, “Let me hear it once more”

nHyunwoo scratched his head, and other staff were casting their eyes at both of them, wondering what was happening.

nHyunwoo once again held out his hand and said, “Hey, let’s hear it together. Everybody is curious.”

n“Okay, then.”

nJungah took off the headphones and arranged for the music to play throughout the whole office. And then a little later Jinhon’s composition “Duckling Fly” was played.

nThe main instrument driving the melodies of the song was the milk bottle device made by Mingyu Kang. It was not heavy nor clear, but the feel of bouncing melodies was giving out a comic air. The same melodies were repeated with alternating strong and weak rhythms with piano, guitar and harmonica playing in between.

nThe more they listened to it, the more interesting they were. While listening with their eyes closed, they felt as if the milk bottle was bouncing on the floor here and there. Though they felt it played only one minute, the four-minute song was over already.

nHyunwoo felt he could know why Jungah wanted to replay it.

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