Chapter 152
Chapter 152
Episode 152. Vault Keeper GET!
As morning arrived, Shinwoo headed not to MH Group Headquarters but to MH Distribution.
As they neared the building, he saw the newly changed signboard.
【MH FUTURE SECURITY & MH DISTRIBUTION】
People heading to work streamed into the building under the large signboard.
Jang Man-soo, who was watching the scene beside him, wore a proud expression.
“It turned out well.”
“It did. They made it look so clean. Is the new office ready without any issues?”
“It’s been cleaned and set up perfectly~”
Today was the first official day of work in the relocated office.
The car they were in arrived at the underground parking lot. Upon entering the elevator and reaching the top floor, the secretariat staff who had moved with them all rushed out.
“CEO, you’ve arrived!”
It was Jang Jin-ho, who had become the Chief Secretary.
“Have a good day today. And from now on, please focus on your work without such greetings.”
“Understood!”
Everyone dispersed and returned to their respective seats.
Only Jang Jin-ho approached Shinwoo and recited the day’s schedule.
Then, Shinwoo stopped as he was about to follow Jang Man-soo.
“Why are you coming in?”
Jang Man-soo, who had stopped ahead, asked.
“Huh?”
“Your office isn’t here; it’s next door.”
“Ah—!”
He remembered Jang Man-soo mentioning last time that he was separating the offices.
“Go in and work hard.”
“You too.”
Shinwoo walked a few more steps with Jang Jin-ho and opened a door.
“…Why did this guy make it so unnecessarily large?”
The CEO’s office was about 30 pyeong (approx. 100 sq meters). It wasn’t significantly different from before, but that was when he shared it with colleagues.
Now, in the large space, only Shinwoo’s desk, a table, and a sofa were placed sparsely.
“It seems comfortable and nice. And it’s a fitting size for the CEO of two affiliates.”
“Are you teasing me?”
“Of course not.”
As Shinwoo sat at his desk, Jang Jin-ho placed the documents he was holding on it.
“These are approval documents from before the computerization. Urgent fund disbursement requests are marked with red sticky notes, so you can check those first.”
Shinwoo let out an exclamation of admiration.
“Wow, maybe secretarial work suits you better than being a bodyguard.”
“It’s not about aptitude, but the salary that suits me.”
Jang Jin-ho had been promoted from Assistant Manager to Deputy General Manager in charge of the secretariat. His workload had increased significantly as he was now responsible for all reports from MH Future Security, MH Distribution, and KITE.
Naturally, his salary more than doubled.
“Was the amount satisfactory?”
“Of course. Besides, my parents worried a lot about bodyguard work being dangerous.”
“That’s good then.”
Shinwoo signed the documents he reviewed and moved them aside one by one.
“Honestly, being a Deputy General Manager at thirty is incredible. Especially in a large corporation like this. My friends are all so envious.”
“…You had friends? I only ever see you at the office, so I thought you didn’t.”
At that moment, Jang Jin-ho’s eyes widened slightly.
“…Am I the CEO?”
“Are you trying to get cheeky? And why wouldn’t I have friends?”
“If you mean Director Lillian, Director Wei, and Manager Jang Man-soo, aren’t they more like family than friends? You all live in the same villa, too.”
Since it wasn’t entirely untrue, Shinwoo couldn’t reply for a moment.
“Enough. What’s the report on the logistics center’s processing speed and sorting error rate?”
“It’s here.”
Jang Jin-ho professionally picked out a file from the stack and handed it over.
“You handle tasks efficiently.”
“My past efforts weren’t in vain.”
Shinwoo checked the contents of the document in response to his retort.
“An error rate of 15.2% and a processing speed of 132%? It’s improved from before, but there still seem to be many problems. What about the personnel evaluation for the logistics center?”
“That’s here as well.”
Again, Jang Jin-ho quickly found the document.
“Hmm… It seems like they’re still forming cliques and engaging in favoritism when assigning evaluations.”
“…You can see that?”
“It’s no different from the fourth quarter of last year.”
“You remember all of that?”
To Jang Jin-ho’s surprised question, Shinwoo nodded as if it were obvious.
“I remember because I saw it. The promotion candidates are the same people who received good scores in the third quarter.”
“……”
At Shinwoo’s explanation, Jang Jin-ho looked even more astonished and said,
“I’ve felt this way before. CEO, you must have a truly brilliant mind.”
“Me? My grades in high school were just average. I went into the military because I thought finding a job would be difficult.”
“You memorize most of the documents you look at. And you don’t even see them that often.”
Shinwoo, who had been answering casually, suddenly felt a pang of doubt.
‘Come to think of it, things have gotten progressively easier since the early days of learning the job.’
Lost in thought for a moment, he met Jang Jin-ho’s steady gaze.
“Ah, it must be because I’ve gotten used to the work.”
“When you speak so humbly about having a good mind, it sounds even more like bragging.”
Shinwoo finished signing the urgent documents and handed them over.
“Let’s set aside unnecessary talk and focus on work. Also, announce that the performance evaluations will have a new system, so the data from the third quarter of last year is on hold.”
“If it’s the third quarter of last year, the selection of candidates for promotion at the logistics center this year will be problematic.”
“The problematic employees were going to be replaced anyway, so it doesn’t matter. The evaluation-based data will be set up differently, so keep that in mind.”
With those instructions, Jang Jin-ho gathered the completed documents and left.
Afterward, Shinwoo finished processing the items that came through electronic approval and walked towards a different door than the one he had entered through.
He quietly entered to find Jang Man-soo and other colleagues working in their office.
‘If my memory has improved… has Man-soo’s senses become as sharp as ours?’
Shinwoo, suppressing his presence, uncapped his fountain pen from his chest pocket and threw it towards the back of Jang Man-soo’s head.
Clack—
“Aargh—!”
Jang Man-soo’s scream echoed through the office.
Shinwoo, startled himself, found Jang Man-soo’s reaction absurd.
“Ah……”
“What the? Boss! Did you throw this, Boss?!”
He had found the pen cap that had fallen to the floor after hitting his head.
“Sorry, sorry. I was just testing something.”
“Testing? If you test it twice more, I’ll get a hole in my head! What is it?”
With a retort, Jang Man-soo threw the pen cap back with all his might.
But Shinwoo easily caught it and returned it to its original place.
“Lately, my memory seems to have improved compared to before. I thought maybe your reflexes and senses had become sharper like ours.”
“Even so, do you have to aim for a moment of distraction? That hurt like hell.”
Jang Man-soo kept rubbing one side of his head with his palm.
“The others can catch something like that easily.”
“Even so!”
“By the way, are Lillian and Wei still not here?”
The two hadn’t been seen since they arrived at work.
“Lillian said she’d be back from her business trip later. Wei is doing an unannounced inspection of the facility security contract companies, so he might not be able to come in today.”
“I see.”
“The data sent by the Ministry of National Defense has been reviewed. It’s identical to the files I recovered. It’s completely damaged.”
He was referring to the data sent by Yoon Tae-in, the Commander of the Army Special Warfare Command.
“So, the data Yoo Dong-shik copied is the same?”
“Right. The discarded original is so severely damaged that recovery is impossible. Even my grandfather couldn’t do it.”
“What did your grandfather do?”
“He ran a junk shop in Taebaek. I used to play by assembling computer parts my grandfather collected back then.”
For a moment, Shinwoo wondered if he had brought up an unnecessary topic.
“Have you visited your grandfather here since you returned?”
“…Not yet. The last memory I have is visiting him before I returned to the past, but I haven’t been able to since then.”
Jang Man-soo had lost both his parents in an accident when he was young. He was raised by his grandfather, but his grandfather suddenly passed away from illness when Jang Man-soo was in his second year of high school.
“Take some time to visit him later.”
“Is now the same as before? I returned with nothing but blood on my hands.”
Even if he had become desensitized through the familiarity of survival, he couldn’t think lightly of a situation where a person’s life was at stake with a single gesture. This was true for Shinwoo, and also for Jang Man-soo, who spent most of his operations sitting in front of a computer.
“I feel bad for bringing it up.”
“Then why did you try to put a hole in my head with a fountain pen cap?”
“I’m sorry for that too.”
As they were chatting about various things, Jang Jin-ho appeared standing outside the transparent office door.
Jang Man-soo opened the door for him, and he entered, saying,
“CEO. We have a visitor.”
“Who?”
As he asked, Shinwoo could see the person standing behind Jang Jin-ho.
“Greetings. CEO Baek Shin-woo.”
“You’ve finally come. Accountant Joo Ho-yeon.”
It was Joo Ho-yeon, a senior manager at Kwangho Accounting Firm, who had recently handled the accounting audit for MH Distribution.
“Send the kids’ data in a reply. I don’t know how much more we can dig out from there, but the other side will be a little tense too.”
“Ok—!”
Shinwoo stepped outside and entered the CEO’s office with Joo Ho-yeon, taking a seat.
“You’ve made your decision, I see.”
“It could be a casual visit while passing by, aren’t you being too simplistic?”
“You don’t like pleasantries, do you, Accountant?”
As if Shinwoo had hit the nail on the head, Joo Ho-yeon let out a dry laugh.
At that moment, Joo Ho-yeon saw a slight overlap between Shinwoo and the image of his cousin he had seen in Baek Juseon’s office.
However, thinking he was just a very similar-looking person, he focused on the conversation.
“…You seem to know quite a lot about me.”
“It’s out of interest because I want to make you my person. So, when can you start working?”
As Shinwoo tried to move forward as if he had already decided, Joo Ho-yeon put on the brakes.
“Are you really going to proceed without even asking me what decision I made?”
“You’ve made your decision.”
“I have. But I thought you’d at least ask me the reason.”
Shinwoo offered a smile at his question.
“You wanted me to be curious. I apologize. I was too unobservant.”
At that moment, Joo Ho-yeon was filled with a lingering sense of unease, wondering if he had come for nothing.
“That’s fine. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve made my decision. You are truly giving me full authority as the Chief Financial Officer, right?”
“The Accounting Department and the Treasury Department will be under the Financial Department. The positions of department heads are currently vacant, so Chief Financial Officer Joo Ho-yeon can appoint whomever you wish.”
“Even that is up to me?”
“You can also recruit talent from outside.”
From the salary to the personnel authority according to his needs… these were still exceptionally generous terms for Joo Ho-yeon.
“Have we met before?”
“We met during the accounting audit.”
“I know that. But you’re treating me like someone you’ve known for a long time.”
It was someone Jang Man-soo knew, not Shinwoo.
Of course, he couldn’t explain it that way.
“I conduct a little research on people I want to bring in.”
“I’ll take that as an expression that you liked me.”
“I would be grateful if you did.”
“I look forward to working with you. However, I have many rigid aspects, so you might find me troublesome, CEO.”
Shinwoo shook hands with Joo Ho-yeon and stood up.
“I’m not one to leave things as they are either. And Secretary Jang Jin-ho will provide you with an office tour and further explanations. You can also hire your own secretary later.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing what that will be like.”
Joo Ho-yeon then stepped outside and went to the assigned office with Jang Jin-ho.
The basic furniture was already in place.
“This is the room you will be using from now on. If you tell us the desk, chair, sofa, and table you desire, we can replace them within a week at the latest.”
Jang Jin-ho’s explanation was met with a shake of Joo Ho-yeon’s head.
“No. Let’s not waste money on unnecessary things. By the way, is this how the CEO usually works?”
“What do you mean, ‘how’?”
“Pushing forward relentlessly.”
At this, Jang Jin-ho’s lips stretched into a long smile.
“That’s not really pushing forward. You’ll be truly surprised when you see the real thing.”
“Is that so?”
“You can look forward to it. Shall I guide you to the Financial Department, Accounting Department, and Treasury Department as well?”
“No. I’ll head there myself.”
“If you think you might get lost with the office rearrangement, please contact me.”
Jang Jin-ho handed over his business card and left.
Meanwhile, Joo Ho-yeon, left alone, looked out the window at the surrounding scenery. He had recently resigned from Kwangho Accounting Firm and moved here.
Of course, there had been strong opposition from Kwangho, but Joo Ho-yeon’s decision, once made, could not be changed.