#060
Park Bong-joon was fired.
Jung Hwi-kyung tried his best to put on a sad expression as he watched Park Bong-joon’s back while he cleared his desk. With consecutive unfortunate events, even a large corporation that typically avoided firing people resorted to the drastic measure of “termination.”
The USB Hwi-kyung gave to Sung-ha contained information about the amounts Park Bong-joon had received and details of personnel corruption. Because Park Bong-joon was deeply involved in personnel corruption, his downfall would lead to many others falling like dominoes.
How many people were employed at BK International because of whose child they were is left to individual imagination. Having parents working for a large corporation was a spec in itself. Anyway, there was a difference from the hiring stage between those with connections and those without.
Although he himself was hired through corrupt means, Hwi-kyung thought that the culture of blood ties, regional connections, and school ties in Korean companies ruined everything. Even if they weren’t someone’s child, Park Bong-joon tended to give extra points to graduates from his alma mater, S University.
This was something Hwi-kyung learned for the first time in this iteration. No wonder he kept harping on about S University; it seemed he wanted to keep people with the same educational background close since that was all he had to boast about.
People who had received preferential treatment through blood ties and school connections kept their mouths shut when Park Bong-joon’s corruption was revealed. With Lee Sung-ha pinning even his arbitrary personnel adjustments on Park Bong-joon, it was difficult for them to take his side. Staying quiet was the best option unless they wanted to lose their heads too.
Even Kang Moon-chul, who had trusted and followed Park Bong-joon, turned his back on him when he was cornered. In fact, Moon-chul’s abandonment was Park Bong-joon’s karma. If Park Bong-joon hadn’t tried to cut Moon-chul’s throat first, Moon-chul might have at least offered some words of encouragement to Park Bong-joon as he packed up.
“Let’s see how well you all do without me.”
Those were Park Bong-joon’s last words. Even team members who had been exchanging perfunctory greetings couldn’t respond to that. Why wouldn’t the team function just because one person left? Unfortunately, individual office workers were easily replaceable parts.
This was especially true for Park Bong-joon. While people with his level of social skills might be rare, there were plenty who could take over his work. If Kang Moon-chul left, they might need to hire two or three people, but one person was enough to replace Park Bong-joon.
The entire HR team knew this fact. Some were reorganized along with Park Bong-joon or moved to different teams, but no one felt a sense of crisis due to Park Bong-joon’s absence.
With Kang Moon-chul still there, the team would function fine even without a team leader. Perhaps Moon-chul might even quickly get promoted to HR team leader, escaping the risk of unfair dismissal.
“Team Leader Park, was he fired because of me?”
“Ah, no. It’s just… he was that kind of person to begin with.”
“Are you okay, Manager?”
“I feel a bit unsettled.”
“But you’ve been doing most of the work anyway, so it should be fine.”
Hwi-kyung headed to the smoking area with Moon-chul. Even in the thirteenth iteration, he couldn’t gossip about Kang Moon-chul and Park Bong-joon, but in this chaotic fourteenth iteration, Moon-chul was the first to bring up Park Bong-joon.
“Come to think of it, I was just being taken advantage of.”
It was somewhat fortunate that Moon-chul had realized his situation. Hwi-kyung was about to put a cigarette in his mouth following Moon-chul but stopped his hand abruptly.
“Hwi-kyung, don’t you have cigarettes?”
“Ah, no… I just thought I should quit smoking.”
“Suddenly, after coming all the way to the smoking area? If you don’t have any, I can give you one of mine.”
“It’s okay.”
The cigarettes that should have been in his jacket pocket weren’t there. It was because he hadn’t bought new ones due to Gyo-ha’s constant nagging about quitting.
“Making a resolution to quit smoking when it’s not even the New Year.”
“Yeah.”
“Why, did your lover tell you to stop?”
“It’s not that…”
“I used to smoke less when my girlfriend nagged me about quitting too.”
Even without smoking, just standing in the smoking area naturally made his clothes smell of cigarettes. Hwi-kyung thought of Gyo-ha as he watched the faint smoke rising.
He wouldn’t run into him today anyway. It wasn’t just today. Since Hwi-kyung quit working as Gyo-ha’s housekeeper, the two had become difficult to meet face-to-face unless they made a deliberate effort.
Hwi-kyung had been preoccupied with the turmoil at BK International. Gyo-ha was also noticeably busier as the program he invested in became a huge success.
Although they kept in touch via messenger, the last time they met in person and had a conversation was a few days ago. Meeting every day except weekends now felt like a distant memory.
“You shouldn’t neglect your lover because you’re caught up in work.”
Interpreting Hwi-kyung’s silence in his own way, Moon-chul spoke with an expression that suggested he had his own story. It was the first time in this iteration that he had spoken about something so personal.
Hwi-kyung was suddenly reminded of his past days when he lived cautiously, determined not to be forced to regress. As much as Hwi-kyung had been defensive, the people around him also didn’t easily share their stories with him.
He had thought that was comfortable and safe, but looking back now, it wasn’t necessarily so. Because Hwi-kyung couldn’t open up to anyone, others had no choice but to treat him formally.
“Manager.”
“Yes?”
“Just speak comfortably to me in private settings.”
“Oh… is that okay?”
“Of course.”
The fourteenth iteration is a failed one. Jung Hwi-kyung will be forced to regress in the near future. Lee Sung-ha was still the vice president of BK International, and the HR team was operating without a team leader.
But Hwi-kyung liked this iteration. Although everything was a mess and nothing went according to plan, he finally felt alive.
This world felt real again. All because of one variable named Lee Gyo-ha.
* * *
“The No. 1 in Trot” ended successfully. It was miraculous for a cable channel, not even a public broadcast, to achieve such ratings.
For Gyo-ha, who had repeated regressions, the success of that program was expected, but for BK Entertainment employees, it was unexpected.
“You know, the Executive Director is surprisingly good at investing, isn’t he?”
“Yeah. I wondered what he was thinking when he picked up shows with terrible initial ratings…”
Lee Gyo-ha was now properly enjoying the benefits of being a regression.
Although he was living without much thought, because Gyo-ha had preemptive access to future information, people in the company saw him as a goose that laid golden eggs. When Lee Gyo-ha recruited Kim Tae-pung, who won “The No. 1 in Trot,” with persistent efforts, people even whispered that he might know the future.
It was inevitable. “The No. 1 in Trot” was a program that had been rejected several times at the planning stage. Fitting for a program that barely made it out into the world, finding participants wasn’t easy either. The prize money was meager until Gyo-ha decided to sponsor the program.
As a result, “The No. 1 in Trot” was scheduled close to midnight. Although people watched YouTube clips or reruns, it was true that it was a time slot difficult to achieve high live ratings.
In the early episodes, the program was on the verge of failure due to sluggish progress. So at first, everyone opposed Lee Gyo-ha’s desire to sponsor that program.
But Gyo-ha was very persistent regardless of the employees’ opposition. He didn’t stop splurging money, bringing in several more lackluster variety programs in addition to “The No. 1 in Trot.”
Everyone clicked their tongues, saying he was doing exactly the same thing as his brother. They didn’t hesitate to say that Lee Jung-hye was the only one to trust since Baek-gyeong’s sons were ruining the business.
However, Lee Gyo-ha was a regression. In the hundreds of fantasy novels he had read, a regression was someone who said “it’s possible” when others said “it’s impossible.”
While Jung Hwi-kyung had completely deviated from regression clichés, Lee Gyo-ha was still within those clichés.
“Hey, don’t I seem like a proper regression now?”
“What do you mean by seeming like a regression?”
“Anyway, I’m taking advantage by having preemptive information.”
“……”
“In any case, I’m achieving great success with small investments.”
“Please stop reading those novels.”
“But they’re fun…”
Hwi-kyung listened to Gyo-ha’s nonsense with one ear and let it out the other after meeting him for the first time in a while. Thanks to the sharp rise in BK Entertainment’s stock price, Hwi-kyung had also profited from stock gains.
Making money was much easier with Gyo-ha by his side. Although Hwi-kyung’s salary was lower than when he was a housekeeper, the side income he got through Gyo-ha was surprisingly substantial.
“But don’t work too hard.”
“Why?”
“Because I think we’ll regress soon…”
“……”
“We’re barely holding on right now.”
The system window still displayed the message [Do you want to regress?]. Since Gyo-ha could also see Hwi-kyung’s system window, he had a humble expression about the fifteenth iteration that was approaching.
“I think I’ll go back to sales in the next one.”
“Have you already decided where to work?”
“I haven’t decided on a company yet, but I lasted 10 years in sales, so…”
A brief discussion about the fifteenth iteration followed. Gyo-ha said that when the next iteration starts, he would return to Korea and get those tiresome master’s and doctoral degrees again.
Hwi-kyung didn’t oppose Gyo-ha getting his degrees either. It didn’t sit well with Hwi-kyung that Gyo-ha was falling behind Sung-ha just because of degrees.
“Ah, I have something to give you, Hwi-kyung.”
“What is it?”
“Tickets.”
Gyo-ha handed Hwi-kyung tickets he had brought separately.
“In this iteration, let’s take grandmother with us.”
“…But why are there three tickets?”
“Because I need to go too?”
“……”
“Should I not go?”
“…No, you should.”
A smile formed unconsciously. Hwi-kyung was able to smile brightly for the first time in a very long while. Finally, this time, he could fulfill what grandmother wished for. Fulfilling grandmother’s wish was something Hwi-kyung had been wanting to do for a very long time.
“Let’s go together.”
Gyo-ha stared at Hwi-kyung’s brightly smiling face as if mesmerized. How wonderful would it be if he could smile like this from now on? If he could keep making him smile…
If only he could do that, Gyo-ha was willing to make any vow over and over again.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
