Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Chapter 43 A Return Gift (3)

(Manager Kim, did you buy a new webcam? Why is your picture so clear?)

"Pardon? Oh, yes."

With the workday almost over, Manager Lee suddenly pointed at my image on the monitor and asked.

Apparently, now that the busy work was finished, she had finally noticed my screen.

The image quality was so sharp that, with a little exaggeration, you could even see a fly flying around.

Of course it was.

The all-in-one computer I'd received as a gift from the Chairman was not only the latest model but also the highest-specification version.

Most of my work involved processing documents, so my old laptop had been more than capable of handling it.

But the new computer, which cost more than three times as much, offered noticeable improvements in even the smallest details, quite apart from work efficiency.

(What? The miserly Manager Kim bought a webcam? Seriously?)

(Hey! It looks exactly the same on your computer too, Department Head!)

"Haha..."

Because I wasn't the sort of person who could casually lie when asked a question, I merely scratched my cheek and smiled awkwardly.

I couldn't exactly announce that the Chairman had given it to me as a present. But claiming I'd bought it myself didn't fit with my past behavior either.

At times like these, it was best to subtly shift the conversation toward work.

"By the way, have you heard anything about the business plans for the second half of this year?"

(Ah, right! They're gradually being narrowed down by department now. We should prepare whatever we can see coming so everything doesn't pile up at once like last time, right? Manager Kim, try contacting the departments when you come into the office next week.)

"How about letting Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok handle that?"

(Huh?)

"He's gone through quite a lot of the relevant documents, so he should be capable of it. It'll also give him a chance to visit the departments and get to know people's faces."

(Really? Well, if Manager Kim thinks so, that's what we'll do.)

"You can handle it, right?"

(Yeah, sure. Wait, me?)

"There's nothing difficult about it. Just go to the sales teams tomorrow and casually ask for the materials related to the projects they're likely to push forward. They'll appreciate us preparing things in advance, too."

Each team submitted at least three or four business plans.

Of those, only one was a project they genuinely intended to pursue. The rest were merely for show.

But it was difficult to take action before receiving a decision from the higher-ups, which was why we prepared in advance like this. If a major problem suddenly emerged while a project was already underway, all the effort invested up to that point could go to waste.

That was precisely the purpose of the feasibility assessment reports we produced by requesting and compiling information from the departments involved in each project.

Objective data that allowed a project to undergo independent third-party verification before it began.

Of course, some departments simply ignored these reports and proceeded without them, since they weren't strictly necessary.

If they did, we were actually grateful because it meant less work for us.

"Can you do it?"

(Might as well give it a try. I just have to ask them for the materials, right?)

"Yes. Once you receive the materials, organize them according to our file classification format. I'll be signing off now."

(All right, Manager Kim. See you.)

(Good work!)

-Beep.

Pressing a single button to turn off my webcam marked the end of my workday.

Wasn't that every office worker's dream?

Apart from losing a few minor allowances and having a slightly less favorable salary structure, it was an ideal working arrangement.

Simply not having to spend nearly two hours every day packed into a hellish subway train like bean sprouts in a crowded container had greatly improved my quality of life.

Of course, humans were creatures of adaptation, so even that had become something I took for granted.

-Creak.

"Are you finished with work?"

"Good work today!"

"Have you two been having fun?"

"We were reading a storybook!"

Sani held an old storybook high above his head with his forepaws so that I could see it clearly.

【Farts Go Poot-Poot, Diarrhea Goes Splatter-Splat】

Good heavens, a storybook like this actually exists?

It was probably intended to help children learn Hangul. Children did tend to enjoy crude words like "fart," after all.

I could understand the reasoning, but actually seeing such an explicit title and cover was another matter.

"It's fun!"

"Sani loves it. I've already read it to him more than ten times."

To make matters worse, Sani hadn't been reading to Lia. It was the other way around.

"I've already memorized it all! S! Singers' farts go poot-poot. B! Butterflies' farts go pooooot-pooooot."

Sani began turning phrases from the storybook into song lyrics of his own invention.

"C! Chipmunks' diarrhea goes..."

"All right, that's enough! We're about to eat, so stop singing about weird things!"

Teaching someone really was a difficult task.

There were so many storybooks in the coffeehouse, yet the result of reading them diligently was a song I absolutely did not want to hear before a meal.

Looking at Sani, I suddenly thought of my one and only student(?).

Still, he'd been working hard all this time, so surely nothing unusual would happen.

___________

The next morning, outside the Daechun Solutions Sales Team 1 office.

Work had started long ago, so the only people passing through the corridor were a few employees heading to the restroom.

And one other person: Joo Dohyeok, who repeatedly reached for the door-opening button, scratched his head vigorously, and turned away again.

'All I have to do is ask for the projects they've already decided to pursue in the second half of the year. It's nothing. They'll hand them over as soon as I ask, right? It's not like they'd refuse me. I'm Joo Dohyeok.'

But Joo Dohyeok still couldn't bring himself to enter the office.

It was because of the person who had assigned him the task.

Jinseong's working style, which always considered what would come next even with simple tasks, was so impressive that Dohyeok had mentally slapped his knee in admiration countless times.

Catching fatal numerical errors in documents was only the beginning. His ability to identify missing or unnecessary wording that could cause serious trouble later was far too valuable to dismiss as merely spending his days supporting other people's projects.

That was precisely why Dohyeok hesitated even more.

There had to be a reason Jinseong had specifically sent him to perform a task that could easily have been handled by phone or email.

But he couldn't keep loitering outside the door forever.

"I am Manager Kim Jinseong. I am Manager Kim Jinseong, with absolutely incredible professional abilities."

-Slap, slap.

After repeatedly slapping his own cheeks and reciting his mantra, Joo Dohyeok finally opened the office door with a determined expression.

"Good morning. I'm from the Strategic Planning Team."

"And you... are...?"

"I'm Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok."

"Joo Dohyeok? Ah! J-Just a moment! Division Director! Division Director!"

Only then did the employee who had been asking his business realize who Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok was and hurry into the division director's office.

A loud shout of "What?" came from the office. Then a skinny middle-aged man with deep wrinkles between his eyebrows emerged alongside the employee.

"Oh, welcome! It's a pleasure to meet you. I should have come to introduce myself first. I'm Jung Jiwon, the division director of Sales Team 2. Please, have a seat over here."

Jung Jiwon produced a business card and offered it with extraordinary deference before escorting Dohyeok into his office.

True to a sales department where titles served as credentials, the card prominently displayed the grand title of Division Director rather than Team Leader.

"What are you doing? Hurry up and bring some coffee! Good grief, you're hopeless."

"Um, what kind of coffee would you like...?"

"Ah, of course. How do you take your coffee? What would you like?"

"No, thank you. I don't usually drink coffee."

"But you've taken the trouble to visit us. Hey, hurry up and bring some tea, then."

Seeing him bow deeply to Dohyeok while irritably addressing his subordinate as "hey" and speaking down to him stirred an inexplicable sense of displeasure.

Only a few months earlier, Dohyeok had behaved in much the same way.

He hadn't been quite this blatant, but since he would soon be leaving his department anyway, he'd never felt any need to memorize his colleagues' names or positions.

And because their ranks were different, he'd naturally considered it acceptable to speak down to them.

But since joining the Strategic Planning Team, his thinking had changed somewhat.

The team members, who had initially treated him with awkward caution, had begun treating him as an ordinary colleague, maintaining just the right balance of familiarity and distance after a single company dinner.

'Hey, Assistant Manager Joo! How about some soju later? We won't give you a hard time if you only drink beer this time!'

'Mr. Dohyeok, don't you think these guys are insane? They sent an email at five on Friday and want everything done before Monday morning's meeting. I swear, I'd love to crack their skulls open and see what's inside.'

Even knowing that he was the Chairman's son, they never groveled before him. Instead, they constantly drew him into all manner of trivial conversations.

Before he knew it, Dohyeok had grown accustomed to that strange sense of belonging among ordinary office workers. Moments when he was simply called "Assistant Manager Joo" felt more comfortable than carrying the label of a chaebol heir. The minor complaints he exchanged with his teammates felt more sincere than the exaggerated praise his friends showered upon him at their gatherings.

And that went without saying for Jinseong, whom he'd adopted as his mentor after even sleeping at his place(?) and learning about his personal circumstances.

That was why he disliked Jung Jiwon even more.

'Wait, Jung Jiwon? Isn't this the bastard from those meeting minutes?'

Only then did Dohyeok feel as though he'd found the final piece of a puzzle that hadn't quite fit together.

It was him. The bastard who constantly raised objections to ongoing work and muddied the issues.

"May I ask what brings you here?"

"I was hoping to receive the files related to the business plans for the second half of this year in advance."

"Ah! So that's what you've come for! Hey! Hey! Are you going to spend all day making coffee? Bring the documents for the business plans we're submitting this time too! Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Young employees these days are all so slow."

Dohyeok had already learned everything he needed to know about Jung Jiwon from the meeting minutes he'd read until he was sick of them. The man wasn't worth addressing politely.

Nevertheless, Joo Dohyeok unconsciously added the polite ending to the informal speech that had almost escaped his lips.

Because Jinseong wouldn't have spoken that way.

And just as he was growing tired of Jung Jiwon's empty chatter, an employee entered the division director's office carrying coffee and a thick stack of documents.

"We should have sent these to you first. I'm sorry we made you go to all this trouble, haha."

"May I take a look?"

"Ah, yes! Of course!"

Dohyeok began turning through the documents that had been respectfully placed before him.

'Now I understand. I finally understand why he sent me personally. All these people were there inside those documents I kept reading until I was sick of them. He wanted me to realize that.'

They say an interpretation can surpass the dream itself.

At that moment, Dohyeok felt as though he'd attained enlightenment through a profound lesson.

He quietly closed his eyes. As he did, the things Jinseong had taught him flashed through his mind like a panorama.

'The documents produced during a single project contain far more information than you might think, Assistant Manager Joo. Even the personality and attitude of the person who wrote them.'

'Our job isn't to dress up promising projects and make them look attractive. We have to identify potential problems first. Preferably before the project begins.'

Having engraved Jinseong's teachings in his heart once again, Dohyeok finally opened his eyes.

"Is there some problem?"

"No. I'll be going now."

'A problem? Of course there's a problem. It's you, you cancerous bastard. Today, I'll go around finding and eliminating every bastard like you. Because that's what Manager Kim Jinseong wants.'

He was wrong.

Jinseong had sent him to collect the documents related to the second-half business plans in person because they were classified as confidential in other departments and couldn't be viewed or transmitted by email for security reasons.

Jinseong's thoughtful consideration, hoping he could introduce himself and become familiar with people's faces while he was there, had been completely distorted.

And so the Chairman's sole heir, who possessed virtually unchecked power, was reborn as a ruthless judge roaming the sales departments.

It didn't take long for employees to discover that behind him stood Jinseong, whom the Chairman valued enough to personally arrange gifts for.

The cause was a post that appeared the next day on an anonymous online community for employees.