031. Who Wants to Go to Graduate School?
I called TA Medical’s main developers into the conference room.
Choi Yeonghun, Jeong Hyeonwoo, and Seo Jeongwon.
They were the kind of team that made the phrase “three people, three colors” feel apt.
“I’m thinking of assigning someone to handle research for the company. We’d be building a research team.”
Their reactions alone made it clear how different they were.
“Wow. That’s basically the same as telling us to go to graduate school.”
“I hate English~”
Jeong Hyeonwoo and Seo Jeongwon rejected the idea in their own ways, one long-winded and one brutally short.
“Oh. Then can I do it?”
And Choi Yeonghun, who immediately looked at me with sparkling eyes.
Right. He really was different.
“What exactly would the research team be doing? Would that mean I’d get to work with Professor Hwang Junhak too, write papers and all that? Review papers in the field? What else would I need to do?”
At Yeonghun’s reaction, Hyeonwoo and Jeongwon both looked impressed.
My own expression probably wasn’t all that different.
The moment I mentioned forming a research team, he started rattling off the R&R he wanted to take on.
Wasn’t this the real definition of a work-obsessed maniac?
“For now, write down everything you want to do. Then we’ll figure out how to divide the work.”
“Sounds good. By what time do you want me to have it?”
Even the way he asked “by what time” instead of “by what day” showed how badly he wanted the job.
A precious talent who even loved coding from an academic perspective.
He had always chased after professors who had “a lot to teach,” and even while taking nothing but brutal classes, he had still managed to hold on to second place in his class.
And in my previous life, the reason Yeonghun had stayed with our company so long was simple: he wanted to be at the forefront of the AI industry.
That said enough.
“How many hours do you need?”
“I can just sit down and type it up.”
“Then should we talk again in ten minutes? I’ll go grab coffee.”
“Okay.”
Yeonghun went straight to get his laptop, and Hyeonwoo and Jeongwon quietly got up and followed me out toward the cafe.
“Why are you following me?”
“This is when you’re allowed a legal break.”
“Agreed.”
The two of them really were cut from the same cloth.
Compared to how they practically lived with the word “too much trouble” hanging off them, they delivered excellent results for the time they put in, thanks to their innate talent and focus.
They also had a weird streak of competitiveness, which meant that if you put the two together, their productivity shot through the roof.
“Don’t you two want to specialize a little more?”
“I like things the way they are now.”
“There’s no point splitting into front end and back end. We can both do everything anyway.”
They were both the sort of people who, once let loose, just grew on their own.
“Boss, what’s the most expensive thing here? Both drinks and desserts.”
Which made them perfect, aside from the fact that reimbursing meetings was a little painful.
“Anyway, I’ll give Yeonghun everything he wants to do and take the leftovers. The stuff he wants to do is probably all the stuff I don’t feel like doing anyway.”
“Same. If I had to choose one thing, I’d pick making fewer PPTs. That’s it.”
They were such reasonable people.
All the way back to the conference room with our drinks, I could feel just how much of a yes-man type they both were.
Ordinary, but good at absolutely everything.
“Ah. You’re all back fast.”
By comparison, Choi Yeonghun was, well, a little more, just a little more, in need of care.
“Guys, I drafted what I think the research team’s R&R should be. Want to take a look?”
The work he had listed out in Excel.
The file showed his personality perfectly, with detailed notes on how much weight each task should carry and what parts would be needed from whom in future collaborations.
“He’s definitely the developer who likes paperwork the most.”
“Sunghoon hyung is in our department too.”
“Sunghoon hyung is a businessman who knows how to code.”
“Yeah, that’s true~”
His meticulous nature and even his slight obsession with structure were reassuring from the CEO’s perspective.
And because he cared about the whole project instead of just wanting to stand out himself, he was exactly the kind of person you wanted in management.
That was why, in my previous life too, he had been the first person I hired into the team, and the first to be given the title of research division head.
“But can someone like me really handle this? As an undergrad? And alone?”
The problem started there.
Yeonghun had the skill, the personality, and the diligence.
But his final academic background was the issue.
The research division was one of those departments in which academic pedigree mattered quite a bit, even among people called developers.
It was a difficult environment for an undergrad with no real research background to lead.
That was why, in my previous life, Yeonghun had struggled so much with managing the team.
An undergrad couldn’t talk research down to someone with a doctorate, and it was hard to grow a research team out of nothing but other undergrads who knew nothing at all.
“Ask Professor Hwang Junhak. You like Professor Hwang Junhak, don’t you?”
“He was our capstone advisor too, so I bet he’d help you out.”
So I set aside the realistic advice Hyeonwoo and Jeongwon were giving and made a fairly radical proposal.
“Choi Yeonghun. Do you want to go into Professor Hwang Junhak’s lab and enter graduate school?”
At my words, everyone went quiet.
No one reacted except by widening their eyes.
“Do you two want to go to graduate school too, by any chance?”
“Huh? No. Graduate school is where people go after committing crimes at university. No thanks.”
“I don’t particularly want to go either.”
So I led the conversation carefully, making it clear that this wasn’t a special favor for just one person, and then I asked Yeonghun again, properly this time.
“What about you? Don’t you want to go to graduate school?”
From my question, Yeonghun seemed genuinely flustered.
With Yeonghun, I had expected an immediate yes, but the fact that no answer came out at all was unusual.
“Then let’s split the R&R first, and talk about this a little more after that.”
“Oh. O-okay.”
We went ahead and divided up the developers’ tasks first.
The awkwardness was so blatant it was almost painful.
Feeling uneasy about the atmosphere, I checked the time on my phone, and Badugi had popped up with a very angry expression in a speech bubble.
You know if you blurt out “go to graduate school” like that, it can sound like you’re telling him to quit and go to grad school instead!!!
Ah. Was that how it sounded?
“Guys. For the record, telling him to go to graduate school does not mean I’m telling him to quit. It means absolutely nothing like that, so don’t misunderstand.”
I immediately cleared that up.
But Badugi seemed to sigh, then disappeared from the screen.
“It’s acting weird in every possible way today.”
“Maybe it’s overloaded. Let’s just let it slide.”
Everyone still looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but the tension in the room had definitely eased.
Maybe because of that, the work discussion moved faster than before.
“So, more or less, everything’s sorted?”
“Seems like it.”
“We’re heading out first then? You two will keep talking and come later, right?”
“Yeah. Go ahead.”
“Okay~”
The two of them left the conference room with impressive efficiency.
It made all my earlier worry about whether they might actually be thinking about graduate school feel pointless.
“All right. Want to go over what we said earlier?”
Now I could focus entirely on my conversation with Yeonghun.
“Like I said before, my suggestion isn’t me pressuring you to quit. Let’s get that straight first.”
“Got it. Go on.”
Yeonghun looked nervous, but also oddly excited.
At this point the conclusion of the conversation was almost visible.
Still, we had to go through the motions.
“Do you know what a research team does at an IT company?”
“Not exactly. But I think they do research, write papers, that sort of thing.”
“I’m asking because I’m not sure myself, but have you ever written a paper directly?”
“No. I wanted to do independent research, but I planned to try after taking a course on thesis writing.”
I nodded a couple of times, then got straight to the point.
“Professor Hwang Junhak’s lab is planning to take on one last undergrad as the youngest member. Interested?”
“Yeah.”
“Then apply.”
At my words, Yeonghun hesitated and glanced at me carefully.
“I don’t mind. Our company has flexible hours anyway.”
“What if I’m not good at the work?”
“Then you’ll have to take responsibility for that yourself.”
It might have sounded blunt and cold, but from my perspective, it was the best answer I could give Yeonghun.
I was telling him I trusted him.
So go ahead and do what you want, and produce results while you’re at it.
“If I do well, are you really willing to send me to graduate school?”
Yeonghun had not twisted my words the wrong way; instead, he looked at me with desperate eyes.
I nodded, and he let out a huge sigh of relief.
“But won’t this raise fairness issues?”
“As you saw earlier, the other developers aren’t interested in graduate school. If we ever have a talent who seems like they should get an MBA, I’ll think about whether to invest in that too.”
“Ahh.”
Yeonghun nodded and fell into his own thoughts for a while.
I didn’t rush him.
He was someone with real attachment to this company and a strong sense of responsibility, so I waited for him to calmly work out his own plan and tell me when he was ready.
“Then, Siwon.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s write up a contract.”
So after I gave him a little time, Yeonghun suddenly brought up a contract.
“We already have a contract. The one the founders signed.”
“Not that one. Let’s make a contract about an employee going to graduate school. We can’t leave a messy precedent behind, can we?”
Even then, I just looked at Yeonghun in silence.
I was telling him I trusted him, and he wanted to draw up a contract that would actually limit his own actions?
“You want us to make a contract to control the variables around you?”
“Yeah. Why? Are you going to graduate school too?”
I laughed awkwardly and shook my head.
I just found him fascinating.
“Yeah. I’ll boot up my laptop too. Let’s discuss the essential clauses.”
As soon as I opened my laptop, Badugi popped up again.
Judging by how frantic it looked, I had definitely messed something up again.
You really would’ve ended up on a hard road if the other side hadn’t been Choi Yeonghun.
You think I don’t know him? He’s not the kind of guy who’ll go to grad school and stab you in the back.
How would a human know another human? Keep your eyes on the screen. If he suggests any weird clauses, I’ll shoot them down. If there are any clauses he doesn’t mention, I’ll add them all. Got it?!
“Yep.”
Before I could get soaked in complaints, I looked up and watched Yeonghun typing furiously into his laptop.
He looked so dependable I could hardly breathe.
“How did you know there was an opening in Professor Hwang Junhak’s lab?”
“The professor asked me to check whether anyone from our company wanted to come over.”
“That’s insane. Seriously insane. It was already huge that he agreed to be our capstone advisor.”
Yeonghun looked genuinely ecstatic, like a fan at an idol’s concert.
Even I was already feeling proud, just thinking about how we’d nurture someone like this inside our company.
“Let’s draw up a serious plan. Win-win for all of us.”