#059
Lee Jung-hye was furious upon receiving Jung Hwi-kyung’s email. Not only had her younger brother taken over the business she had nurtured, but he was now also gearing up to ruin it completely.
It was like cooking porridge only to feed it to a dog – there was no reason to smile. Jung-hye immediately reported this to Lee Baek-gyeong. “Father! Sung-ha is trying to ruin another one!”
Moreover, Hwi-kyung hadn’t just reported the personnel corruption to Jung-hye. Jung Hwi-kyung, playing the pitiful victim, had also tattled about Lee Sung-ha’s advances.
Jung-hye was livid at the news that not only was he trying to ruin the business, but he was also showing interest in his brother’s lover. Her reason was that if a sibling feud erupted over a man, not even a woman, the aftermath would be incredibly difficult to manage.
Sure enough, BK International was once again thrown into turmoil over the issue of personnel authority. Jung-hye pressured Sung-ha to hand back the Vice President position, while Sung-ha was causing a fuss, asking what he had done wrong to deserve this.
In the midst of all this, the working-level employees were suffering. Kang Moon-chul was beside himself, and even Park Bong-joon was busy being summoned here and there. Only Hwi-kyung, who had been employed for just a few months, was calmly observing the whole situation.
Condition Not Met: Company internal personnel corruption has been exposed.
Condition Not Met: You have reported internal corruption.
Would you like to regress?
Due to the upheaval at BK International, the system window kept urging Hwi-kyung to regress. It was a miracle that he hadn’t been forcibly regressed yet, given the extent of the incidents that had occurred.
Park Bong-joon was already furious that Hwi-kyung had sent an email to Lee Jung-hye. With his usually friendly face now twisted like an evil spirit, Park Bong-joon raised his voice at Hwi-kyung.
“Do you know what you’ve done wrong?”
“…I’m truly sorry.”
“I asked if you know what you’ve done wrong!”
Who would have thought that he, who disliked conflicts with others, would be shouting like this in the middle of the office? Every time Park Bong-joon yelled, the system window frantically popped up notifications recommending regression. If Park Bong-joon had been a bit more hot-tempered, Hwi-kyung might have been hit on the head with a file folder.
However, instead of venting his frustration on Hwi-kyung, Park Bong-joon was busy running around trying to put out the fire that had fallen on his own feet. It seemed he was hurriedly trying to cut ties with Lee Sung-ha’s faction, as Lee Jung-hye was likely to return as Vice President.
Park Bong-joon repeatedly answered like a parrot that he wasn’t involved in anything and that he had only done what he was told from above. He also didn’t forget to mention that Kang Moon-chul had carried out the work in question.
If the art of living was about taking credit for achievements and blaming others for problems, Park Bong-joon’s art of living had reached a certain level.
“Hwi-kyung, are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m…”
“Actually, it wouldn’t be a big deal usually… but the timing was really bad. Don’t be too discouraged just because you sent an email wrongly.”
“…”
“The team leader will somehow smooth things over. Our team isn’t one to be swept up in these kinds of issues, after all.”
They will be swept up. Not Park Bong-joon, but Kang Moon-chul…
Seeing Kang Moon-chul still trusting Park Bong-joon, unaware of the future that awaited him, made Hwi-kyung’s chest feel tight. Even while shouldering all the work alone, Kang Moon-chul still thought positively of Park Bong-joon.
At this point, it wouldn’t be surprising if Kang Moon-chul was in love with Park Bong-joon. Hwi-kyung completely failed to immerse himself in the role of a frightened new employee who had made a big mistake.
“Manager Kang.”
“Yes?”
“From my perspective, I think the team leader might handle this… in a different way.”
“What way?”
Before he could answer, Park Bong-joon called for Kang Moon-chul. Hwi-kyung closed his eyes, thinking that the moment had finally come.
Muffled voices could be heard from the closed meeting room. Because the room wasn’t soundproof, everyone in the office knew that Park Bong-joon was in the process of shifting responsibility onto Kang Moon-chul.
Even if that wasn’t the case, anyone could easily guess the situation by looking at Kang Moon-chul’s pale face as he came out. Moon-chul’s face gradually turned ashen, as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have.
“Well, he’s only lasted this long because I’ve been supporting him…”
Park Bong-joon muttered such words loud enough for others to hear. Hwi-kyung was impressed by this aspect of corporate life that lacked any loyalty. Black companies were indeed created by individual employees.
The system window frantically sent regression requests. If Kang Moon-chul ended up taking all the blame and leaving, Hwi-kyung would undoubtedly move on to the fifteenth iteration without looking back.
Needing more time, Hwi-kyung inwardly begged the system window for additional time. But the system window didn’t listen to Hwi-kyung at all.
Would you like to regress?
Now it had even removed the ‘X’ box from that notification. Hwi-kyung was completely astounded by this update unique to the 14th iteration. What more hadn’t been accumulated that it was urging him to make a choice like this instead of forcing regression?
Whether or not the opaque window blocked his view, Hwi-kyung completely ignored the system window after that. In response, the system window started to provoke him with all sorts of things, as if begging to be noticed.
Condition Not Met: The team’s internal atmosphere is in shambles.
Condition Not Met: The organizational culture is not horizontal.
Condition Not Met: Internal restructuring is scheduled.
Condition Not Met: You are a beneficiary of corrupt hiring practices.
Thanks to the system window popping up with sparkling effects, Park Bong-joon’s ranting show wasn’t boring. Hwi-kyung let Park Bong-joon’s words go in one ear and out the other as he stood in the middle of the office, repeatedly saying, “Don’t think you’ll be safe!”
After pretending to be so nice, his true nature came out when his position was threatened. Hwi-kyung did his best to put on a pitiful expression befitting a poor new employee who knew his mistake.
“Wow, what a mess.”
But that expression acting was of no use. What ended Park Bong-joon’s ranting show wasn’t Jung Hwi-kyung’s sincere pose of reflection, but Lee Sung-ha’s unexpected intervention.
“Team Leader Park. Stop picking on innocent people and get back to work.”
“…”
“What, now that it looks like the former Vice President might come back instead of me, do my words not carry weight anymore?”
“…No, that’s not it.”
“Jung Hwi-kyung, you come with me.”
Hwi-kyung wasn’t at all grateful that Sung-ha had saved him from Park Bong-joon. If it had gone on a little longer, he could have heard some verbal abuse and reported it – why was Sung-ha interfering?
However, Sung-ha thought Hwi-kyung would be grateful for this. He had saved Hwi-kyung from a crisis, so it was natural for him to feel favorably towards him. Lee Sung-ha’s thought process was extremely self-centered. It means he only thought in ways that benefited himself.
“Don’t be too grateful.”
“Pardon?”
“I just got you out of there when you were being scolded.”
“…”
“This is what happens when you do your job sloppily and cause trouble. You know how nasty Jung-hye’s personality is.”
No matter how nasty Jung-hye’s personality was, it couldn’t hold a candle to Sung-ha’s. Hwi-kyung was so dumbfounded he was at a loss for words. Why did he think I would naturally be grateful to him? Hwi-kyung, being somewhat reasonable, couldn’t understand Sung-ha.
All Hwi-kyung could gain from Sung-ha taking him out was Park Bong-joon’s high blood pressure and the possibility of forced regression. However, if he blurted out “What nonsense is this?” here, it would be a direct route to the fifteenth iteration.
Oust Park Bong-joon! Thinking only of that, Hwi-kyung decided to endure this situation. The moment Sung-ha spoke more nonsense to him, the system window would gleefully regress him, that much was certain.
“Vice President.”
So Jung Hwi-kyung decided to just use this opportunity.
“I have a favor to ask you.”
Condition Not Met: You have used your looks to manipulate your superior.
What the hell kind of using looks? Hwi-kyung had only put on the pitiful new employee expression he had been wearing in front of Park Bong-joon.
However, while it could be dismissed as nonsense from the system window, Hwi-kyung’s sorrowful face worked quite well on Sung-ha.
“…A favor? What is it?”
“I’m not sure if I should say this.”
“What is it? Just say it first.”
“Well… you know Team Leader Park.”
Jung Hwi-kyung had experienced enough office politics. To Park Bong-joon, Hwi-kyung might look like a naive and bold new employee, but in reality, Hwi-kyung had gone through more office politics than Park Bong-joon.
So it wasn’t difficult for him to suck up to a superior. What couldn’t he do if he could oust Park Bong-joon before forced regression?
Condition Not Met: You have used your looks to manipulate your superior.
Condition Not Met: Your superior shows favor towards you.
“I saw some things while looking through Outlook and Drive.”
“…”
“He received a lot from various places… in many ways…”
Sung-ha should have understood with this much explanation. At least Sung-ha was more perceptive about these things than Gyo-ha.
Sure enough, Sung-ha told Hwi-kyung to send the evidence via email. Hwi-kyung took out the USB he always carried and handed it to Sung-ha.
For Lee Sung-ha, too, having something on Park Bong-joon was quite beneficial. At least it gave him an opportunity to cover up his own problems by pinning them on someone else.
Hwi-kyung was mentally doing calculations. Originally, he had intended to give this to Jung-hye, but if he did that, not only Park Bong-joon but also Kang Moon-chul, who had participated in the document preparation, would certainly be fired under guilt by association.
Instead, it was better to hand it over to Lee Sung-ha and only dispose of Park Bong-joon. That was Jung Hwi-kyung’s sole purpose. It absolutely wasn’t because he had any favor towards Lee Sung-ha that he willingly handed over such data.
However, Sung-ha, who received the USB, interpreted this favor (disguised as a way to screw over Park Bong-joon) of Hwi-kyung’s in a completely different way.
“You, pretending not to…”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. We’ll talk about this later.”
At this point, Jung Hwi-kyung had no idea what kind of misunderstanding Lee Sung-ha had developed.
