NLFSD Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The bus drove smoothly and arrived in Gapyeong in no time. Once the employees arrived at the resort, they were each handed a key and dispersed to unpack their belongings. Most of the employees were assigned rooms between the second and fifth floors, but Lee Jiwoon was placed on the sixth floor, same as Seo Taecheon.

Still, since their rooms were different, it didn’t matter. I’m satisfied.

Lee Jiwoon took the VIP elevator that went directly to the sixth floor with Seo Taecheon.

“What did you pack so much of?”

Seo Taecheon asked as he looked at Lee Jiwoon’s about-to-burst suitcase.

“Delicious things. Just so you know, I’m not sharing.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

Seo Taecheon replied indifferently.

In fact, a significant portion of the suitcase was filled with chocolate cookies, and Lee Jiwoon had absolutely no intention of sharing these delicious treats with Seo Taecheon.

Ding-dong. The elevator announced its arrival on the sixth floor. The two of them silently stepped out and entered their respective rooms facing each other across the hallway.

“Ah, finally some relief.”

Lee Jiwoon threw himself onto the bed and stretched his whole body out. Sitting next to an unpleasant seatmate during the ride had stressed him out so much that his shoulders and neck were all stiff.

“Gotta eat something sweet to lift my mood.”

He got off the bed, opened his suitcase, and rummaged through the pile of clothes. Just as he pulled out the cookies and took a crunchy bite with a humming tune, he realized that the white container that should have been next to the cookies was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh…?”

There’s no way I forgot to pack it, so what happened?

With a hand full of panic, Lee Jiwoon frantically searched through the suitcase. He even turned it upside down and emptied out all its contents. But the pheromone suppressant container was nowhere to be found.

“This is insane. Completely insane…!”

As a recessive omega, he couldn’t control his pheromones at will. Dominants had regular heat cycles and could regulate their pheromones even in emergencies, but recessives had significantly lower ability to do so.

“Ah… what do I do. I bet no one else brought omega pheromone suppressants.”

As far as he knew, he was the only omega attending this workshop. And since genotype-based suppressants required a prescription from a primary physician, it was nearly impossible to obtain them on short notice.

In other words, he had to survive the night completely bare.

“Hey… let’s not think so negatively. What could possibly happen overnight?”

Since becoming an adult, he had never once missed a dose of his suppressant, so truthfully, Lee Jiwoon had no idea what would happen to his body if he didn’t take it. Still, he figured a body that had consistently taken the meds wouldn’t suddenly fall apart from skipping one day.

“What’s done is done. Let’s just have fun. Nothing’s going to happen.”

He decided to forget about the problem that had no solution anyway and headed out wearing a comfortable shirt and summer slacks.

In the seminar room, bundles of paper booklets were placed in front of the employees.

“We’re going to do a personality type test. These questions were created using a much more precise and accurate method than what’s commonly available.”

The instructor explained that this session was to examine their own personalities and figure out which colleagues they would be most compatible with.

“Oh. Sounds fun.”

“Right? It’s cool that you can even figure out compatibility with this. Don’t you think it’ll say you and I are a perfect match?”

Ki Hyunjin, sitting next to Lee Jiwoon, showed curiosity.

“Yes. I think Assistant Manager and I would be an ideal match.”

In Lee Jiwoon’s opinion, the person he clicked with the most in the company was Ki Hyunjin, so it was only natural to expect a good compatibility result with her.

The worst match? Of course, BBG.

Lee Jiwoon rolled his eyes toward Seo Taecheon, who was sitting in the front row listening intently to the instructor.

“Okay. Please fill out the answer sheet in front of you carefully. Score yourself across the four areas: A, B, C, and D.”

Following the instructor’s guidance, the employees, including Seo Taecheon and Lee Jiwoon, completed the personality type assessment. Answer sheets were neatly collected and brought to the instructor. As she read through the submissions, her eyes sparkled.

“Oh my. We’ve got a very interesting result. There’s a pair in this group with 99% compatibility.”

“Really? That’s amazing.”

“Who is it?”

The employees were surprised. Lee Jiwoon perked up his ears.

“These two would work well together no matter what they do. To put it bluntly, even if they were robbing a bank, they’d be in perfect sync, like telepathy without speaking. If they did a project together, it would probably be a massive success.”

The instructor, visibly amused, pulled out two answer sheets. The employees’ anticipation rose.

“I’ll tell you who they are. One of them is Lee Jiwoon, Assistant Manager!”

“M-me?”

At the unexpected mention of his name, Lee Jiwoon opened his eyes wide. Who could be the one with perfect compatibility with me? Assistant Manager Ki?

“And the match is Director Seo Taecheon.”

“What?”

“Excuse me, what did you just say?”

As soon as the instructor finished speaking, both Lee Jiwoon and Seo Taecheon responded in a deadpan voice.

“Yes. You two are a perfect match. Your results show perfectly complementary traits in all four areas: A, B, C, and D.”

That’s ridiculous. Lee Jiwoon fought hard to suppress a hollow laugh at the absurdity. Seo Taecheon also looked quite flustered.

“You sat together on the bus, and now your personality types are the perfect pair. Haha!”

Manager Park clapped his hands with delight. Lee Jiwoon forced a smile and gave a fake eye-smile.

“Ha…ha…”

While Lee Jiwoon faintly smiled and tried to compose himself, the personality analysis class came to an end.

After a simple lunch, the teams spent the afternoon playing a business simulation game. The Marketing Team 1, which included Lee Jiwoon, lost badly due to poor strategy and had to take on the punishment task of preparing the evening barbecue.

“Ugh… we have to grill meat, wash lettuce, this is insane.”

Of course, since there was a restaurant attached to the resort, ingredients were readily provided, but lighting the charcoal, grilling the meat, and setting the side dishes all had to be done by Marketing Team 1 themselves.

Among them, Lee Jiwoon was assigned to washing vegetables. He turned on the tap at the water spout behind the resort garden and started washing a basket full of lettuce.

“Washing lettuce for sixty people… I’ve really seen it all now.”

It wasn’t easy to wash the lettuce thoroughly while awkwardly bending his back and getting splashed all over. Still, since there was no one else to blame, he continued working in a secluded spot without asking anyone for help.

“You think you can be done by six washing like that?”

Just then, an annoying voice rang out nearby. When he turned his head, Seo Taecheon was standing there blankly.

“Did you come just to nag me?”

“If there’s an inefficient employee, someone has to be willing to say harsh things.”

With that, Seo Taecheon approached the water spout and stood next to Lee Jiwoon. Jiwoon waved his hands to keep him from getting any closer.

“You’re going to get splashed.”

“I’m here to provide support for the inefficient employee.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll take care of the perilla leaves and chili peppers.”

“You’re helping me?”

“Helping? I’m only doing this so the other employees don’t miss their meal because of you, Lee Jiwoon.”

Seo Taecheon rinsed the perilla leaves under the water with a swoosh, then shook off the moisture. His hand movements were incredibly fast and precise.

“Huh? You’re really good at washing perilla leaves.”

“I’m not just good with perilla leaves. I’m even better with chili peppers.”

He lined up the randomly piled chili peppers and gave them a refreshing rinse. In the blink of an eye, he washed both the perilla leaves and the chili peppers, then even reached for the lettuce. In just five minutes, he cleared all the work, handed the basket to Lee Jiwoon, and left without a word.

“What the… I didn’t know he had a skill like that.”

Lee Jiwoon gave a hollow laugh and headed to the barbecue area.

The barbecue party was full of fun and laughter. Like-minded people shared drinks, and escaping the higher-ups to gather among staff and assistant managers made it even more enjoyable.

“Pour it!”

“Drink up!”

Lee Jiwoon downed three consecutive soju-beer bombs, his face turning bright red.

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”

Ki Hyunjin placed the back of her hand on Jiwoon’s cheek.

“No, I can still drink more.”

“You’re drinking a lot… Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, I said.”

Lee Jiwoon giggled as he looked at Ki Hyunjin. The tips of Hyunjin’s ears were flushed red.

“Why are your ears red, Deputy Manager?”

“Uh… it’s nothing.”

“Let’s drink!”

Jiwoon raised another soju-beer glass. But just then, his colleagues suddenly covered their mouths in shock.

“Director!”

Seo Taecheon was standing right behind Lee Jiwoon.

“Hiccup!”

Jiwoon hiccupped and widened his eyes.

“Looks like you’re quite drunk, Mr. Lee.”

“I’m not drunk.”

“Hmm… from what I can see, you are.”

“I said I’m not. I can drink more.”

Just as Jiwoon raised his glass to his lips again, Seo Taecheon snatched it away. The female staff let out small gasps.

Seo Taecheon downed the drink in one shot, then placed the glass down on the table with a thud.

“If you’re going to keep drinking, I’ll do it for you.”

Then he stood Jiwoon up and naturally pulled him away. The rest of the employees were stunned and couldn’t grasp what had just happened.

“What the… we just lost the life of the party.”

“Come back, Mr. Lee!”

Seo Taecheon brought Lee Jiwoon to the resort lobby.

“Why are you dragging me like thisss.”

“We’ve got something important to do.”

“Oh, and what is that.”

“The supervisor contacted us saying today’s selfie upload is late.”

“Gasp.”

Only then did Jiwoon realize that he hadn’t uploaded today’s bed selfie to Please Consider Again. You had to post daily to avoid deductions, and if you were late, you’d lose one point per hour.

The scary thing about point deductions was that if they accumulated past a certain point, your reconsideration period could be extended. Instead of six months, it could become seven, eight, or even a year.

To avoid that, he had been frantically cooking, taking bed selfies, and writing his reconsideration journal. And now he was going to miss it because he got drunk? Even in his dazed state, Jiwoon was horrified.

“Hurry. Hurry and lie down with me. On the bed! Hurry!”

“I was heading up anyway.”

“Let’s lie on the same bed!”

“You don’t have to say it so loudly.”

The front desk employee deliberately pretended not to hear their conversation and stared into space. Fortunately, the elevator soon arrived and the two were able to quickly get up to the sixth floor.