After pressing the up button, Jinyoung waited in front of the elevator. After a while, he was already inside the elevator and going to close the door but had to stop his hand when he saw Mark coming towards the elevator.
Mark entered it right away and Jinyoung gave him a subtle bow before turning his eyes off Mark and occupying the spot as far away from Mark as the elevator allowed.
Mark took a look at Jinyoung who was obviously avoiding him, before turning his face away as well facing the front.
'Not even a good-morning?'
It was only the start of a day and for no clear reason, Mark was beginning to be pissed off. There was the utter silence in the whole elevator with both of them trying to look usual and normal although they both knew there was the intense tension between them.
Mark would not spare a look at Jinyoung and neither did Jinyoung. It was only a matter of minutes before the elevator door opened but it felt like hours.
As soon as the door was opened, Mark went out first but what had taken possession of him, he did not know; yet he was here, stopping in front of the elevator, pretending to be searching for something in his briefcase, when in fact he was waiting for Jinyoung to get out of the elevator and say something to him, at least, a greeting or something.
What was he actually hoping for? Perhaps, the point was he only wanted to erase the uncomfortable tension between them. A greeting would help.
Then he heard Jinyoung's footsteps behind him getting out of the elevator, and not stopping for a bit, and instead going straight away to the direction where his place was.
'So, that was it? No word or greeting?'
Hell, what was he really hoping for? Mark repeated that question to himself. Shaking his head and after trying to regain some composure, Mark continued his way as well to his office room.
As soon as he was inside the room, Mark sat down on the chair not so gently, and then his mind wandered again to what had just happened. What actually irritated him? For sure, it was the way Jinyoung treated him and the fact that despite their different positions, Jinyoung had not bothered even to greet him.
"Sir, here are the reports."
Mark looked at the files the secretary placed on the table. He had not even noticed when the secretary had come in.
"You can leave them."
Mark grabbed the file on the top and opened it.
"What're you still doing here?"
For a moment, Mark could not control his frustration and almost raised his voice at the secretary, who was still standing near him.
"I-I was waiting to tell you the added schedules."
Mark waved the startled secretary off, saying, "If it's for the evening schedules, you can tell me later. It'll take time to check these."
She nodded and went to her room, which was adjacent to Mark's.
As soon as Mark was seated at the top of the long table in the meeting room, his eyes wandered around the people there until they spotted the HR manager, who was quite far from him and looking at a file.
The meeting started at two, and this was also the very first meeting since Mark had taken the place as the CEO.
The report started from the manager from the production team. As being a car company, production and manufacturing was the most important area, and Mark paid careful attention to the manager proposing the new design and the current difficulties in the production.
"The problem is we can't meet the customers' demands. They want a new design although they are really satisfied with the quality. Also, I feel that we should increase the speed of our production. It is an important matter when competing with the other brands."
Mark nodded and the manager sat down.
Jinyoung checked the file of the workforce in the production field, and then stood up to give a suggestion.
"If we take the matter from the workforce view, the solution would be the recruitment of more employees for production. Because we also should maintain the quality and at the same time, increase the speed," said Jinyoung.
Some nodded in agreement; Jinyoung looked at the CEO, whose eyes were set on him unwaveringly, and waited for an answer.
"The company has already too many new staff and only one HR manager for the training program. Are you saying that you can take responsibility for more new staff as well? The better solution would be that there should be another HR manager for training. Postpone the recruitment. Think of another solution."
Mark's words left no room for arguement, and Jinyoung had to sit down.
What was that? Jinyoung thought. As if he could not deal with the new staff and could not take his full responsibility. He felt like whatever he did, it was never satisfying in the eyes of the CEO.
The meeting went on with more reports and suggestions; and Jinyoung only listened to them and took notes.
When Jinyoung was back to his desk, he was already in anger with what happened in the meeting room. He just had proposed the most suitable suggestion to deal with the problem but it was rejected at once for the reason that he could not perform his position well; and even another HR manager for training was needed?
"Really! How low does he think of me? Have I not been doing all the best I can do?" Jinyoung muttered, half in misery and half in anger.
"What's the matter, hyung?" asked Minhyuk, who was sitting near Jinyoung.
"Nothing. Not of importance."
Minhyuk nodded and turned back to the computer.
Shaking his head, Jinyoung tried to forget whatever had happened and focused on work again.
