#046
The system window continued to pop up periodically, embarrassing Jung Hwi-kyung. The fortunate thing was that Gyo-ha no longer mentioned the “personal feelings.”
Surprisingly, Lee Gyo-ha was also feeling embarrassed. In his life, which was long in some ways and short in others, it was the first time he had discovered someone’s affection for him in this manner, so he found it difficult to decide how to react.
Moreover, Hwi-kyung’s ears would turn bright red every time the system window appeared. Although his entire face no longer turned tomato-red like the first time, his embarrassment was palpable.
Because of this, Gyo-ha couldn’t casually ask, “Is this mutual?” While he had glimpsed Hwi-kyung’s affection through the system window, he had never heard Hwi-kyung say “I like you too” with his own mouth.
In fact, hadn’t Jung Hwi-kyung said he disliked Gyo-ha? To Gyo-ha, it seemed like Hwi-kyung was just poor at expressing emotions and was saying the opposite of what he meant, but he was cautious about even uttering a word to correct this, fearing that Hwi-kyung might truly come to dislike him.
Gyo-ha, being what Hwi-kyung would call “Americanized,” was at a loss for how to deal with the Confucian Korean Hwi-kyung, who didn’t think favorably of aggressive advances.
And there wasn’t much time to dwell on this “personal feelings” issue. Not long after rejecting Lee Jung-hye’s offer to arrange a position for him, Jung Hwi-kyung decided to join BK International as a specially recruited new employee.
Hwi-kyung muttered to Gyo-ha, as if brainwashing him, that he shouldn’t dissolve the corporation even if Hwi-kyung quit his housekeeper job. Gyo-ha readily promised to maintain the corporation for Marcia’s sake until the National Tax Service audit.
That was at least fortunate. Hwi-kyung recalled Marcia, who was visibly disappointed upon hearing that he was returning to a company job. While it was actually a return to where he should have been, to Marcia it felt like her employer’s boyfriend, whom she had just gotten close to, was leaving to find his own way.
Given Jung Hwi-kyung’s tendency to be weak against middle-aged women, parting with Marcia was a tearful affair. But there was no choice. There was someone whose situation had become much worse than Marcia’s.
Jung Hwi-kyung’s decision to rejoin BK International was solely because of Kang Moon-chul.
Until now, Hwi-kyung hadn’t been very interested in what happened to his former colleagues. No matter how well he did his job, it was the way of the world that a company destined to fail would inevitably fail.
The idea that an individual could save or ruin an organization was just an illusion. Although Hwi-kyung had impressive qualifications and the ability to handle tasks efficiently and sensibly on his own, he was always at the bottom of the ladder.
Considering that the highest position he had ever held was TF team leader, it wouldn’t have been strange for a company that would fail without Jung Hwi-kyung to fail at any time. So Hwi-kyung was indifferent to his past colleagues. They would have all found a way to survive on their own. Survival in a black company was always about fending for oneself.
It might sound cold, but Hwi-kyung was in a position where he could barely take care of himself. He wasn’t adventurous enough to voluntarily enter a place that had failed once due to misplaced sympathy. While Lee Gyo-ha might have done so, Jung Hwi-kyung was already too tired to waste an iteration for the sake of others.
But even the most callous person would be moved upon hearing about the unfair dismissal of a former colleague.
“BK International… Kang Moon-chul must be having a hard time because of Lee Sung-ha.”
“Why? Would a Human Resources manager have anything to do with the Executive Director?”
“Wouldn’t they? Kang Moon-chul always gets… unfairly dismissed.”
“…He gets dismissed?”
“Didn’t you know that when you went to HR?”
“Me?”
“That person frequently gets unfairly dismissed.”
Gyo-ha looked curiously at Hwi-kyung, who seemed to know nothing about this.
“I thought you already knew, since you said you’d take Kang Moon-chul with you if he changed jobs.”
“…”
“When Team Leader Park Bong-joon got caught up in a big hiring corruption case, Kang Moon-chul was made a scapegoat and fired.”
“…How do you know that?”
“Well, the BK Group belongs to my father, after all?”
“…”
“So he filed a civil lawsuit over it, but you know, when it’s a corporation against an individual, usually the individual loses, right?”
“That’s true.”
“The outcome wasn’t good. I think that was during the 4th iteration… I don’t know exactly what happened after that, but seeing that something similar happened in the 6th iteration, I think this might be some kind of predetermined event.”
Is this for real? Hwi-kyung felt his teeth chatter at the injustice of the world. The face of Kang Moon-chul, who used to laugh heartily like a bear, flashed through his mind like a panorama. “Hwi-kyung, you look happy with your new supervisor? While I’m dying here with the team leader…”
“That’s why I was trying to fire Park Bong-joon first. As long as Park Bong-joon is there, Kang Moon-chul will be unfairly dismissed no matter how many iterations pass. Kang Moon-chul was your supervisor, wasn’t he?”
The fact that Kang Moon-chul’s unfair dismissal was a fixed event was quite shocking to Hwi-kyung. He wondered what Park Bong-joon was thinking, making such a decision when the HR department couldn’t handle any of the miscellaneous tasks without Kang Moon-chul.
How could it make sense to cut out a working-level employee just to protect oneself? No matter how much more important one’s own life is than the company’s, it was because Park Bong-joon was holding on like this that there was no progress in the HR department.
Jung Hwi-kyung was sometimes amazed that yes-men like Park Bong-joon could play the role of team leader solely based on their ability to suck up to superiors. He wasn’t even good at his job, but the fact that he wasn’t fired and kept sticking around seemed to indicate that in Korea, social skills were valued more highly than work ability.
Even more surprising was the fact that Lee Gyo-ha had been thinking and acting all this time. Until now, Hwi-kyung had believed that Gyo-ha, true to his image as the embodiment of emptiness, had been doing things with a thoughtless and indifferent attitude.
But Gyo-ha, being more intimately involved with the BK Group than Hwi-kyung, had a different set of basic information. He even had a better memory than Hwi-kyung. Unlike Hwi-kyung, who only vaguely remembered when certain events occurred, Gyo-ha could recall the circumstances and dates of events quite accurately.
Hwi-kyung belatedly admitted that he had been underestimating Gyo-ha all this time. After all, if he truly lacked intelligence, it would have been impossible to graduate from graduate school more than 10 times. Having attended the integrated master’s and doctoral program more than ten times, he must have developed some intelligence even if he didn’t have it before.
“Are you surprised that I know these things?”
“No, not necessarily…”
“It’s okay. I hear that I seem stupid a lot.”
“…”
“I’ve acted based on my own judgment, but it rarely goes as I intend.”
Lee Jung-hye, who tries to use every situation as a business element, or Lee Sung-ha, who only thinks in ways that benefit himself, wouldn’t be evaluated as foolish like Lee Gyo-ha. In a capitalist society, pursuing one’s interests is considered natural, and modern people acting selfishly is often dressed up as being smart.
However, acting for the benefit of others even at one’s own expense was often called “stupid.” Before getting close to Gyo-ha, Hwi-kyung also felt that such people were foolish. In a world where kind people were easy targets for exploitation, acting like Gyo-ha was always a minus.
This was especially true in corporate life. If you showed your full worth, you’d be swamped with excessive work. People who boasted about their own achievements while joking around received incentives more easily than those who quietly did their share of work.
After experiencing such situations multiple times, it felt like something in your head was breaking. The idea that living kindly meant losing out, and that good intentions couldn’t produce valuable results, began to feel like the truth.
Hwi-kyung reflected on how much he had changed during his fourteen regressions. Now, he had become quite accustomed to staying silent to avoid being in a disadvantageous position. With each iteration, instead of finding himself, he was losing himself.
The appearance of Lee Gyo-ha provided Hwi-kyung with an opportunity to look back on his past iterations. Honestly, apart from emotional stability, Gyo-ha wasn’t very helpful with the regression system, but Hwi-kyung belatedly decided to admit that this “emotional stability” was what he needed most.
“Anyway, Manager Kang Moon-chul will be unfairly dismissed this time too.”
“…”
“Park Bong-joon and Lee Sung-ha don’t… get along very well.”
“How so?”
“Park Bong-joon wants to suck up, and Lee Sung-ha likes people who grovel to him.”
“…”
“It’s essentially a combination of a tyrant and a sycophant.”
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“Since this iteration is ruined anyway, should I give BK International a try?”
“What?”
“It’ll all be undone when I regress, but I want to kick out Park Bong-joon just once.”
This was something the thirteenth Jung Hwi-kyung would never have said. At that point, Hwi-kyung would have been too busy trying to save his own life to care about Kang Moon-chul or Park Bong-joon.
But now he was the fourteenth Jung Hwi-kyung. Beside him was Lee Gyo-ha, who was helping him in every way possible. So Hwi-kyung didn’t want to pretend not to know about the injustice and despair that Kang Moon-chul would face.
Even if that was considered social etiquette and virtue, even if Park Bong-joon would still be there and Kang Moon-chul would get caught up in unfair dismissal again when everything reset… Sometimes, things might change with someone’s intervention.
“I feel like I’m about to be forced to regress soon, so let’s try one more time before that.”
“Will it be okay?”
“You said it yourself. To not give up and just try.”
“…”
“You won’t resent me when the fifteenth iteration starts, right?”
Gyo-ha met Hwi-kyung’s gaze as he looked straight at him. So this is his true personality. This Hwi-kyung, who was willing to do his best without causing trouble, seemed more like himself than the one who acted docile and maintained an aloof face.
“Of course not.”
I’ll stay with you from now on. Gyo-ha muttered those words only to himself. No matter how many times this present repeated, even if it sometimes became unbearably tedious… Until Jung Hwi-kyung succeeded, Lee Gyo-ha was willing to be his secondary regressor. Even if it was a bit foolish, he would do so devotedly.
