A Bluff and a Cup of Coffee
Bang—!
"Aish, damn it. You scared me half to death."
Research Center Director Baek Daegwan looked up at Cheon Doa, who had come barging in with the door slamming behind her. Her face was absolutely livid.
"What's got you so prickly? It's barely morning."
"I know everything. That's why I'm here."
"Know... know what?"
"I hear you blocked it. My transfer to the Special Strategy Operations Team."
The Director let out a short sigh.
"And here I was wondering what this could be about."
"Director!"
"Hey. After everything I did to raise you—hmm? I made you the youngest team leader this firm has ever had, and now you forget that debt and run off to another department?"
...
It wasn't an unfair point. Cheon Doa had climbed to team leader in the first place because the Director had pushed her hard.
"So you're telling me to just bury my bones here for good, is that it?"
"You know what they call the Research Center in this business—a training camp. The moment someone shows a spark of talent, the other departments swoop in and poach them clean. That's exactly why I put you in that seat. Before some other vulture carried you off."
Losing talent to other departments was an everyday occurrence for the Research Center.
"Associate Kang... no, Team Leader Kang was one of ours at the Research Center too, remember? And look how quickly he went off elsewhere and grew into what he is now."
"He plays on a different scale entirely. He'd have ended up like that no matter which department he sat in."
The Director's eyes widened almost imperceptibly. This was Cheon Doa, after all—a woman who never gave anyone an inch and was notoriously stingy even with a single word of praise. People within the center went so far as to call her an ice block that wouldn't bleed a single drop no matter where you stabbed it.
Yet with Kang Suho alone, she was different. When he'd first walked in as a parachute hire, she hadn't spared him so much as a glance; now she was ready to tear the team leader's badge from her own chest and gladly throw it away.
"Well, I can understand your reaction, Team Leader Cheon. I've been rolling around this industry a long time, and I've never seen anyone like him."
Where else in the world would you find an employee who had delivered results like that in so short a time? It was no whim that they had gone so far as to create an entirely new department just to put it in Kang Suho's hands.
"Still, no. You're the face of our Research Center. There are employees who look up to you and build their dreams on you. If you just walk out on them, what then? The whole mood of this center goes to pieces, that's what."
"Who looks up to me? Every pair of eyes in this company is fixed on Team Leader Kang right now."
"Ahem. Regardless, you are not leaving the Research Center. If you truly want out, write a resignation letter."
At that, Cheon Doa—waiting for exactly those words—drew a white envelope from inside her jacket and laid it on the desk.
"You mean this?"
"Hey. This is really... aigoo."
Both hands and both feet raised, the Director shook his head as if surrendering on all counts.
"But this isn't my decision alone. The CEO is against you moving over to the Special Strategy Operations Team outright, too."
"Even the CEO?"
"That's right. Haven't I told you time and again? I'm a man about to retire. You may not sit in this chair right away, but your turn will come faster than you think. The CEO knows that too—that's why he wants to keep you tied up here."
Research Center Director. The highest seat one could reach while working in this place.
Naturally, the proper path was to wait for that seat... yet strangely, Cheon Doa felt no appetite for it. There had been a time when becoming Director was her one and only goal, but now the uncharted territory of the Special Strategy Operations Team pulled at her hard enough that she'd have gladly thrown away the career she'd built.
"That said, it's not that the CEO is entirely against your joining."
"What is that supposed to mean? You just told me he opposed it."
"He did. Your post stays with the Research Center, but you're to hold a concurrent role in the Special Strategy Operations Team as well. So... day to day you work out of the Research Center, and when the operations team has a major meeting or a big issue on the table, you join and play a supporting role. Something like that."
"Meaning I'd be a core member with a say in the key decisions?"
"Exactly. This Special Strategy Operations Team is, for all intents and purposes, the company's super team built around Team Leader Kang. Your abilities are more than enough for it. From what I hear, Team Leader Song from Delta One is joining the same way—keeping his original post, just like you."
This time it was Cheon Doa's turn to widen her eyes in surprise.
"Senior Song... no, Team Leader Song?"
"Seems he filed an application just like you did. You kids pin those team leader badges on so young that the position starts looking like a joke to you, doesn't it? Hm?"
...
To think even Senior Song had put in an application, just as she had.
"Well, in the end this is all Team Leader Kang's will, too. According to the CEO, he handpicked every single employee joining his department."
"Every single one?"
"Every one. Isn't that a special kind of madness? I assumed he'd shortlist a few core members and leave the rest to HR."
He was a meticulous, thorough man in everything he did. He must have already finished designing his team perfectly inside his head.
"So Team Leader Kang chose me personally as well?"
"He did. The CEO and I stepped in and arranged the concurrent arrangement for you—but the fact remains that he marked you down as a core member of that team."
Kang Suho had chosen her, personally. Once she confirmed it, the corners of her mouth curled up despite herself. Transferring outright would have been cleaner, but the concurrent arrangement didn't sound half bad anymore.
"That said, I'm still against it. You planting your feet in that place."
"The resignation letter was just a bluff. I'll take the concurrent role and bury my bones here, so don't worry."
"Honestly—you bluffed it? Anyway... that's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying this because I'm afraid you'll get hurt."
"What?"
"You have some idea, don't you? Team Leader Kang drove a straight punch right into headquarters, out in the open."
Team Leader Cheon had ears that heard and eyes that saw. She had known for a long while that the currents running through the company were anything but ordinary.
"The success of the Rare Earth DLS investment is a colossal windfall for our securities firm—but a disastrous blow to headquarters. It's as good as firing the signal flare announcing Director Geum Gaho's return. Under normal circumstances, this investment's failure should have sent Director Geum and Team Leader Kang flying out the door side by side. Instead, the two of them are standing on firmer ground than ever."
And in the fallout, hadn't it been Managing Director Park—the man who dug the trap—alone who ended up stripped of his post?
"The problem is that headquarters won't simply sit back and watch this unfold in silence."
"You mean they'll move to check the Special Strategy Operations Team, openly?"
"Naturally. There's no telling what filthy tricks they'll use to leash it. If headquarters draws the knife in earnest, even Team Leader Kang will find it hard to hold the line. And if the sparks fly onto you, standing right beside him—then any chance of you taking the Director's seat someday goes straight out the window."
She had thrown in her application prepared to leave the Research Center in the first place, so losing a shot at the Director's seat didn't sting in the least. The situation only drew a hollow laugh out of her.
They couldn't even bring themselves to throw their weight behind the person who had proven abilities beyond anyone else—instead they were wrangling in the shadows to protect their petty little power.
"What can you do? Honestly, if the Chairman were well, none of this would be happening. But he can't leave the hospital right now. And with things as they are, Director Geum—holed up in seclusion all this time—suddenly fired off his return flare, so of course the other side is reacting like a nest of hornets."
She had no wish to get tangled up in the company's tangled, filthy politics. And she believed.
...
The Director stared at Cheon Doa for a long moment. A curious suspicion lingered in his eyes.
"You there. This all-out drive to get into that team—is it purely because of Team Leader Kang?"
"Of course."
"No, what I mean is... I'm asking whether there's something personal behind it."
"Excuse me?"
Cheon Doa scrunched her brow, wondering what on earth he was getting at. The Director flinched and coughed out an awkward dry cough.
"Ahem. Forget it, then. But honestly—here I am, your direct superior in name, so why on earth should I have to tiptoe around and cower before a mere team leader?"
"Because you're retiring soon. The twilight years are always the weakest—didn't you know?"
"Tsk. This is so outrageous I might just rescind my retirement altogether."
"Says the man with his entire retirement plan already mapped out. Just yesterday you were bragging to me about your world tour—'While you're breaking your back at work, I'll be living it up overseas.'"
"Ugh."
At the sound of his groaning, Cheon Doa finally let her sharp expression soften.
...Was it showing too much on my face?
She'd thought she was hiding it rather well. She would have to be a little more careful.
The day I first walked into Daeseong Securities as an intern, I remember how my heart hammered like it would burst from my chest.
Today, a tension much like that day's—no, perhaps something even greater—was tingling through every nerve in my body. Because today was the first day I would face as Team Leader Kang Suho.
The Special Strategy Operations Team. On this enormous floor now entrusted to me, this was the moment I took my first new step.
...
The newly renovated office was, quite simply, jaw-dropping in scale. They'd said an entire floor had been cleared out to build it, and sure enough, cutting-edge equipment rarely found anywhere else in the company and a wide-open lounge were there to greet me.
Ding—.
The glass door slid open, and the moment I stepped inside, the gazes of the employees already at their desks swung toward me all at once.
"You're here, Team Leader!"
"Ah, yes. Good morning."
"Good morning, Team Leader~!"
"Yes. Good to see you all."
We had finalized the team roster a few days ago and exchanged brief greetings at a preliminary assembly, but today was the first time we were meeting properly, with me reporting to the office in an official capacity. I returned their bows, a touch awkwardly, as I made my way toward the team leader's office.
"Team Leader! You're here?!"
A familiar voice, bright and bouncy. It was Associate Kim Sujin, who had joined our team.
"You haven't had breakfast yet, have you? Give me your bag—I'll set it down in your office. And your coffee, the usual blend you always drink..."
Just as she reached naturally for my briefcase—
"Team Leader. Good morning."
Secretary Lee Eunji, immaculate in her suit, glided over and snatched the bag half a beat ahead of her.
"Oh—I was, I was going to take care of that..."
Leaving the flustered associate behind, Secretary Lee flowed smoothly on, accepting my overcoat as well without missing a beat.
"I'll hang this in your office. And Associate Kim—you can leave the Team Leader's protocol to me. Having a dedicated secretary handle things properly is far better for the Team Leader's work efficiency than having someone else attend to them haphazardly."
Eunji wore a courteous, graceful smile at the corner of her mouth, but there was a curiously firm line drawn through her voice.
"Then... at least this coffee..."
Cowed by that knife-sharp line, the associate held out the coffee, her voice shrinking.
"I know the Team Leader's coffee preferences very well."
"That he prefers a mild coffee without any acidity is something I have already noted as well. Which is why I've set his desk with bellflower root tea—good for maintaining his condition—along with everything else, in advance."
...
When on earth had she looked all that up? And judging by the look on the associate's face, she seemed about two seconds from bursting into tears.
"So, Associate Kim, you're relieved of these burdens from now on. And, Team Leader—we have the morning meeting shortly. There are a few things I need to brief you on beforehand, so please, this way."
"Ah... yes. Just a moment."
I walked over to the associate, who stood clutching her now-homeless coffee, utterly at a loss.
"I'll enjoy the coffee, Associate Kim."
Only then did the color return to her face.
"Yes! Enjoy it. Next time let's drink together at the café. Like old times."
"Sounds good."
Secretary Lee's eyes, on the other hand, cooled by the faintest degree. In that brief instant—how should I put it—their gazes crossed, and I could almost see invisible sparks crackling between them.
...Why does this feel so vicious?
Somehow it felt more cutthroat than reading the tells across a ruthless stock market. Doing my best to look as though I'd noticed nothing, I quickened my steps.
From the very first day as team leader, it was shaping up to be one extraordinary ordeal after another.