“General manager Park, it’s been a while.”

“Director Kim, you look good these days.”

“Not at all. I’m tired to death.”

“Aren’t you going to start shooting a film soon?”

“It’s usually harder before the shoot. You know it too, don’t you? It’s a pain in the ass to flesh out the project.”

Director Kim Chiho sat down after shaking hands with general manager Park.

“It’s cold outside, isn’t it?”

“Don’t even start. I drove my car here, and it was so damn slippery. The snow that fell yesterday froze up. You should be careful when you drive too.”

“It’s not me who should be careful; it’s the chauffeur. Here, have some of this. It’ll warm you up.”

It was sake contained in a white ceramic pot. General manager Park put a sake glass in a square box made of hinoki wood^[1] and poured the sake so that it overflowed from the glass. Kim Chiho picked up the glass along with the box and brought it in front of him.

“First, drink from the glass and then you should drink what has pooled up in the wooden frame. It tastes great when there’s a scent of cypress in it.”

Chiho lifted up the glass, that was wet on the surface due to the alcohol, and gulped it down at once. The smell of the heated alcohol as well as the heat from drinking it rushed down his throat. It was sweet, but his throat hurt as the alcohol content was pretty hi...