Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Chapter 34 Newcomer (4)

The next morning.

I left the coffeehouse a little earlier than my usual commuting time.

I wanted to avoid running into people as much as possible.

But as with any busy company, there were always people who started their day earlier than everyone else.

“Hey! Assistant Manager Kim! I heard you run a coffeehouse?”

“Manager Kim got promoted to manager last month. How long are you going to keep calling him assistant manager?”

“Really? I only heard there was a raccoon dog at his coffeehouse.”

“Huh? I heard about Manager Kim. You opened a raccoon café? Is that going well? My wife wants to open a café too, so if you have time later, I was hoping I could ask you for some advice.”

I knew this would happen.

There were no secrets in a company, and one day was more than enough time for a rumor to spread.

When Sani had climbed down the window last night, there had been more than five people visible on the video conference feed alone, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the rumor had already spread through most departments.

Though I hadn't expected the coffeehouse where a raccoon dog had appeared to somehow turn into a raccoon café.

After enduring that barrage of awkward questions, I arrived at my desk to find it covered in colorful sticky notes.

“Well, figures.”

『Send Aju Trading smart factory project materials to Sales Team 1.』

『Manager Bae Seongho from Media asked to speak with you regarding a request to change the project management document format.』

『Manager Yoon Heesook from Content Development stopped by regarding corrupted scan data from the security checklist.』

...

Company work was handled through email and groupware.

Because there needed to be records of the materials and messages exchanged.

But there were not many worlds that ran strictly according to principles and rules.

For various reasons, there were occasionally requests that had no choice but to be delivered verbally. Since I worked from home, sticky notes had been left for me instead.

But something felt strange.

Even though it had been a while since I'd been here, everything apart from the sticky notes on my monitor was exactly as before, yet something felt out of place.

“Huh?”

There was another desk beside mine.

And it looked fairly expensive.

“Good morning!”

“Good morning. Manager, what is this desk?”

“Huh? What desk is that?”

Apparently even the manager, who had just arrived, didn't know.

“Well, look who it is. I'm starting to forget your face.”

“Good morning, Department Head.”

“Department Head, what's with this desk?”

“Desk? Huh? Is someone coming?”

“If you don't know, who does?”

An empty desk meant only one thing.

Someone was going to sit there.

“We've been begging for a junior employee forever and nobody listened. Looks like they're finally sending us one.”

Our chronic manpower shortage was due to the nature of our team.

The name Strategic Planning Team sounded impressive, but in reality, it was difficult for us to prove our accomplishments.

Even when we contributed to major projects, our role was ultimately only support.

The credit usually went to the department head overseeing the project or to the sales team.

Even so, the reason we remained in this department without much complaint was that regardless of tangible work results, our personnel evaluations for promotion were fairly good.

You could call it a privilege of being a department with connections everywhere.

But it certainly wasn't a department anyone wanted to join.

The company wasn't especially flexible about departmental transfers, either.

For all those reasons, our team hadn't had a new employee in quite a long time.

“But if someone's being sent this suddenly, they probably aren't a regular recruit, right?”

“That's probably true...”

“I just hope we aren't getting some walking disaster who caused trouble somewhere else.”

“Come now, Manager Lee. Of all the ways to put it.”

“If they're arriving this suddenly without even the Department Head knowing, what else could it be? This isn't some neighborhood shop. If they're being transferred overnight like this, it's obvious.”

The possibility was high.

No supervisor would send a smart subordinate who worked well to another department over a minor mistake.

The owner of that empty desk was probably someone considered a persistent problem in their department.

Someone they wanted gone badly enough to accept losing an extra pair of hands.

And so, after working for quite some time with equal parts anticipation and concern, the Department Head finally couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.

“I'll call Human Resources. Let's just hope the hierarchy doesn't get tangled up. Hello? Hey, Department Head Ma. You at work? A new desk showed up in our team. Who's it for? What? Who? Seriously?”

The Department Head's expression froze.

He was someone who normally didn't change his expression unless something truly serious happened.

“It's a disaster transfer, right? Damn it, I knew it. Is it that guy who got into a collar-grabbing fight with the TF team?”

“No...”

“Then who is it? Come on, this is frustrating!”

“Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok.”

“Joo Dohyeok? Which department is he from? I've never heard...”

It wasn't a name I had never heard before.

In the first place, he wasn't even an employee of our affiliate.

“Oh my! The Chairman's son?”

“Shh! Shh!”

“What are you telling me to be quiet for if he's coming today?”

While the three of us were gathered in a serious discussion, a booming voice suddenly sounded from beyond the partition.

“Hellooo. I'm Joo Dohyeok. Is this my seat? Ugh, I'm dying.”

Speak of the tiger, and it appears.

Quite the first impression.

The hulking newcomer in a leather jacket gave a halfhearted greeting, then practically collapsed into the empty chair.

The current time was 11:16 a.m.

According to company regulations, work started at 9:00 a.m.

Was it because I already had preconceived notions about a chaebol heir?

Being only two hours late almost made him seem diligent.

____________

-Snore.

Even though the conference room where we had gathered was a fair distance from the department, the sound of snoring echoed as though it were right beside us.

“He sure sleeps well. The Director hasn't said anything yet, has he?”

“No. He's not even answering his phone.”

“Just pretend he isn't there. He's going to another department soon anyway. Let's just do our own work. I asked around a little, and apparently he barely shows up for work.”

“Won't that come back to bite us later?”

“Well, if we give him work, do you think he'll even do it? He's too precious for that.”

“That's true. He'll probably disappear right after the first-half performance announcement.”

Having a chaebol heir join the team did not mean anything would change in particular.

Because I'd been promoted at just the right time, our hierarchy hadn't become tangled, and according to what Manager Lee had found out, Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok was completely unrelated to actual company work.

If anything, it was fortunate that he had arrived at such a low rank.

Hadn't we seen too many cases where someone parachuted into a high position, failed to understand the work, harassed the actual employees, and ruined perfectly good projects?

At least we didn't have to worry about that.

No matter how much of a chaebol heir and the Chairman's son he might be, the position of assistant manager and status of the youngest member of the team offered surprisingly little authority.

Workplaces did not operate like chaebol dramas.

“What do you think, Manager Kim?”

“Well, I don't come into the office very often anyway.”

“Still, twice a week is almost half the week. You okay with it?”

“To be honest, I'm not sure. If he's always like that, it might be somewhat distracting, but I don't think it'll cause any major problems.”

“Then we have our answer. Pretend to hand over some work appropriately, and you know the rest.”

A decision was made on how to handle the stone that had suddenly rolled into our group.

The optimal answer for office workers.

Everyone had families and colleagues who couldn't simply leave this company, so it was an unavoidable choice.

But this plan had one fatal flaw.

Every single member of our team was the sort of person who couldn't stand seeing something wrong in front of them.

By the time we returned to the office, our patience ran out right along with the workday.

“Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok.”

-Snore.

“Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok!”

“Whoa! W-What?”

“You must've been tired. First day here and you fell asleep before we even properly introduced ourselves. We're having a small welcome party nearby today, so grab your things and get up. We can introduce ourselves there.”

“A welcome party? I'm fine, so the three of you can go.”

“Oh, you can't drink?”

“Don't you know you're not supposed to pressure employees to drink these days? Looks like he can't handle alcohol, so let's just eat and maybe go to a café afterward. Sound good?”

“Manager Lee, there's that much coffee in the break room. What café? Let's just drink.”

“Things are different from our time. There are plenty of employees who can't drink these days.”

A provocation wrapped in friendly smiles and excessive consideration.

For a man who came to work wearing a leather jacket, asking whether he couldn't drink was practically the same as mocking him for running away with his tail between his legs.

“Fine. Let's go. Where?”

“That's the spirit! Then let's go to the pork rind place right out front.”

_______________

‘Look at these bastards. They want to have a little power struggle with me? With the great Joo Dohyeok? Ha! Fine, I'll give them a proper initiation ceremony.’

Following the three with a swaggering gait, Joo Dohyeok repeatedly snorted in disbelief.

He was the heir to Daechun Group.

These people were, at most, servants who did whatever work they were told, weren't they?

Everyone in his previous department knew that, so they had always treated him carefully while breaking out in cold sweats.

But these bastards must have left their guts outside their bodies.

Not only were they casually mixing polite and informal speech with him, they had even forced him to attend a drinking party.

‘Actually, this is better. I need to crush their spirit now so they can't start talking about rank or hierarchy later.’

The place they arrived at was a bar Joo Dohyeok had never seen in his life.

A filthy, rundown old establishment where he didn't even want to spend a moment.

The tables, the chairs, even the cracked floor.

It was difficult to find a single thing in decent condition.

“Auntie, we're here!”

With a cheerful greeting, the three entered the nearly collapsing bar and immediately scattered.

The Department Head went into the room and set out the cutlery, the female manager went to bring the alcohol, and the handsome male manager who looked around Dohyeok's age came back carrying a tray piled with side dishes.

‘Are they employees here or what?’

Their movements were so natural that his suspicion that they had deliberately chosen this place to mess with him disappeared.

In no time, a spread slightly rougher than what you'd see at an ordinary barbecue restaurant was prepared.

“Now that the food's here, we should have a drink, right? Manager Kim, show us how it's done. Assistant Manager Joo needs to learn too. Joo Dohyeok learning the drinking way, the *joodo*! Get it?”

“Department Head, that's seriously not funny.”

‘That was supposed to be a joke?’

He couldn't even get angry at the cheap joke made with his name.

He had been too distracted watching a clear bomb shot, probably mixed eight parts soju to two parts beer, perhaps even nine to one, being poured until the beer glass was full.

-Glug glug glug.

“All right, first glass is bottoms up!”

“Bottoms up!”

Just as he hesitated to reach for the glass filled almost to overflowing,

“Oh, we don't pressure people to drink here, so Assistant Manager Joo, just sip at your own pace.”

‘Damn it!’

It might have been different if it were expensive whiskey.

But to a chaebol heir, diluted chemical soju gave off an unbearable smell no matter how much beer was mixed into it.

‘Fine. It just tastes bad. I can endure it and drink!’

-Clack.

“Ghk.”

“Whoa, you drink well! All right, now I'll mix the next one.”

‘Don't tell me we're drinking again immediately?’

Office drinking parties revolved around the last subway train.

After work, people needed to get drunk as quickly as possible and at relatively little expense, so the pace was unlike anything else.

‘Fine. I may not beat all of them, but I'm taking at least you down today.’

Through countless drinking parties, Dohyeok had become a master of reading faces and had already determined that Department Head Cha Jaehun and Manager Lee Seollan were no ordinary opponents.

The only one who looked beatable was Jinseong, who seemed far removed from alcohol.

Unaware that Jinseong was the best drinker among the three team members, Joo Dohyeok silently began a competition that no one else knew existed.