5
# Chapter 5. Conclusive Evidence
A restaurant near the company that I considered quite upscale.
There was no way I could feel comfortable sitting here.
He was Yura's older brother and an executive director at the company where I was working as an intern.
I was in a position where I had to somehow make a good impression on him.
And from his perspective, there was no way I could be anything but an eyesore.
Not only had I gotten his precious younger sister pregnant the moment she became an adult,
but I was also practically interfering with his workplace.
"I introduced myself to you last time, so I suppose we can speak comfortably now?"
"Of course."
"Calling you my brother-in-law seems a little difficult since we're not married yet and there hasn't been any official
announcement…. Hmm…."
"You can just call me by my name."
"That would be better for now. Otherwise, I might get used to another title and accidentally use it in front of other
people."
Our families hadn't properly met each other yet, and we hadn't had the wedding either.
So we'd decided to postpone making our marriage public for as long as possible.
My family was one thing, but I'd heard that relationships within chaebol families could be quite complicated.
I'd also been told that even someone like me, who hadn't established himself yet, would suddenly be subjected to an
enormous amount of scrutiny.
It was also a consideration for me.
"All right, Dojin. Why do you think I asked you to have lunch with me?"
"…I assume you wanted to implicitly inform the team members that I have a special relationship with you."
"Oh, you're quick on the uptake. I guess a perfect CSAT scorer really is different. Exactly."
"…"
I couldn't make too many assumptions yet.
But fortunately, he seemed friendly toward me for the time being.
Perhaps ours would become one of those relationships where he disliked me but couldn't bring himself to hate me.
After all, I'd gotten his beloved younger sister pregnant, but whether he liked it or not, he would have to keep seeing
me.
"I heard you have ambition."
"…I won't deny it. At the very least, I want to prove that Yura's judgment wasn't wrong."
"Hmm…."
Perhaps trying to understand the intention behind my words, he crossed his arms and studied me carefully.
Honestly, he was frightening.
Even for a man, meeting his future in-laws before getting married was intimidating.
And I'd shown up after getting their daughter pregnant without any warning.
How terrifying must this have been for me?
Even so, I had to overcome it.
"Good. It's a good thing for a man to have ambition. But…. You do know that anyone can make promises with words alone,
right?"
"Of course."
"That team you joined. Produce results somehow. It's a team that was created for you, after all. If you can produce
results by whatever means necessary, I'll acknowledge you."
"…"
"Your senior is a capable person. The team leader is someone who can act as a shield for you rather than someone
obsessed with his own ambitions. Employee Yoon will handle the tedious miscellaneous work. Don't let yourself get
distracted by trivial matters. Absorb everything you can and prove yourself with numbers at least once."
Gulp.
I nodded.
"Understood."
"Good confidence."
"…"
"I don't know what you think of me. But at least I have no intention of interfering with you. If you have enough
ability, I'm even willing to hand over the CEO position to you."
"…"
I swallowed again.
It was such an outrageous proposal.
And it didn't feel like empty words either.
Humility was good, but—
"I'll show you."
Right now, I wanted to show him my ambition and determination.
Even if this was all intended as a test of me.
---
After lunch, Jin Taekyung returned to Changseong Investment & Securities and met with the company's CEO.
The CEO's expression was full of questions.
"I suppose you've heard. That I went to see the intern today."
"…Yes."
"I can only tell you so much for now, so please be patient."
"Of course, Executive Director."
"Hmm…. Still, I think I can tell you this much. Depending on how hard that intern works, he might even become the next
CEO around the time you retire."
"…"
What he'd said earlier had absolutely not been an empty promise.
Of course, several conditions had to be met.
He had to be qualified to become the CEO of Changseong Investment & Securities.
He also needed to have built a good family life by then.
And he couldn't leave for another company.
"If that's the case, then Executive Director…."
"I have no ambition for it. You know that."
"…"
"Changseong Investment & Securities is certainly a good company. But its limitations are also clear. Compared to other
securities firms, it's not easy for us to recruit talent. There's a limit to what we can do, and growth isn't easy
either…."
"…"
"We grew to this size because we're the group's source of funding. In reality, though, our independent authority is
fairly limited. And it's not as if I'm obsessed with the company because I have great ambitions."
He genuinely had no great desire to take control of the company.
What good would it do him if he did?
It would only bring enormous responsibility and restrict his actions.
At that point, he wouldn't be responsible merely as an executive director. He'd have to carry the responsibility of
being the CEO.
And could he even spend money freely? Or casually hand out his business card wherever he went?
Even if he handed out his card, it wasn't a card he'd earned through his own abilities.
What kind of recognition would he receive from that?
Ordinary people would certainly recognize him.
But he could receive that recognition simply by being the third son of Changseong Group. He didn't need a Changseong
Investment & Securities business card.
As for earning recognition from other chaebol families….
To them, being the CEO of Changseong Investment & Securities wasn't exactly an impressive title.
Would he only be contacted when they genuinely needed money?
Rather than stubbornly holding onto such a company himself, it would be better for someone ambitious to run it.
"I originally planned to subtly dump it on Yura…."
"Could it be that your relationship with Miss…."
"It's a secret. In any case, please keep it a secret as well. Father is watching with interest, too. If he sees the
young man struggling to adapt to the company and becoming exhausted, Chairman will probably be quite worried."
"…"
Father was probably more concerned than anyone.
After all, they'd placed such a heavy burden on someone who had only just become an adult.
If he ran away,
who would be able to handle that younger sister?
He couldn't handle her himself, either.
That's why he had shown himself at the company today.
He didn't want anyone making things unnecessarily difficult for the kid.
He wanted people to help him adjust properly.
He had subtly passed some of that burden on to the CEO as well.
At this point, he felt that was enough for now.
He took out his phone and searched for the movie he'd invested in.
Then scratched his head.
"Damn it…. Why is this movie getting reviews like this? Have you seen this movie, CEO?"
"…I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to apologize for…. Ha. It's genuinely a good movie. Can't you feel the philosophy behind it?"
"…"
"If I had more time, I'd get actively involved myself…. With the results being like this, I can't persuade Father for
now."
Sigh.
Yura or anyone else.
He just wanted someone to get him out of this company as soon as possible.
So he could focus on the content industry.
Grow up quickly.
Brother-in-law.
---
Lunch break.
The hastily assembled Special Strategy Team at Changseong Investment & Securities.
The three team members were eating while staring blankly ahead.
They still hadn't recovered from the shock they'd received earlier.
The executive director, who normally didn't get deeply involved in office politics,
had personally come to invite an intern to lunch.
How were they supposed to interpret this…?
"Um…. Team Leader. What exactly happened earlier?"
"Hmm…. Employee Yoon, as it happens, I was just pondering that myself. Assistant Manager Choi, didn't you at least have
a brief conversation with him?"
"…My spine is still tingling."
"D-Don't tell me he said something strange about maintaining discipline?"
"…It's ambiguous, but I'd say we're still within the safe zone."
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
Everything was still a mystery.
But one thing was certain.
The newly arrived intern was close enough to the executive director that they could have lunch together.
And there was a high probability that this was the reason the Special Strategy Team had been created in the first place.
"Ha-ha. At least one mystery has been solved."
The team leader was right.
Several new questions had arisen, but one question had been answered at the same time.
"There were rumors that our Special Strategy Team was basically a forced-resignation team or an exile…. At least now we
know it's a team the executive director is personally paying attention to."
"…"
Assistant Manager Choi Kangwoo immediately understood what the team leader meant.
It was a question he'd had himself, and one that had been answered by what happened earlier.
It was just that the incident had been so shocking that he hadn't been able to speak.
Once they'd assessed the situation,
and he'd rationalized away the chill running down his spine by telling himself everything would be fine,
he gave strict instructions to Employee Yoon, who was sitting beside them with an interested expression, clearly having
no idea what was going on.
"Yoon Ayoung."
"Yes?"
"Don't dump that coffee-running errand on the intern just because the youngest member has joined us. Don't casually
shove your work onto him."
"…Yes, Assistant Manager."
"Team Leader, I think our team was created around that intern."
The Special Strategy Team had been created.
And he'd had plenty of questions about it himself.
The team leader was one thing.
Since he prioritized safety over performance, it was possible the company had placed him in charge as a kind of
forced-resignation arrangement.
Employee Yoon was similar.
Although she'd been hired as a full-time employee, perhaps she'd gotten on the wrong side of someone important and they
were trying to push her out this way.
Firing people was extremely difficult these days, after all.
But his own performance evaluations had been quite good, and his results weren't bad either.
He couldn't understand why the three of them had been put together in one team.
Only now did the puzzle finally fit together.
"The team leader seems to be acting as a shield. To make sure the intern isn't interfered with by employees from other
departments."
"Is that so…?"
"And I think my role is to help the intern adapt to actual work as quickly as possible."
"You? You're one of the aces in our company…."
"I don't know if I'd call myself an ace, but apparently I'm special enough that I need to provide dedicated support from
right beside him. And you seem to be here to take care of the annoying tasks the intern would otherwise have to handle."
"Ah…."
In other words,
everything about this team had been built around that intern.
"Don't be disappointed. At least this could become an opportunity rather than the crisis we expected. If our team
performs well with the intern at the center…. We may achieve results we've never seen before."
"Wow…."
"Don't get too excited. If that intern becomes dissatisfied or fails to adapt properly…. We'll be the ones who have to
take full responsibility."
"…"
Whether this lifeline would turn out to be a rotten rope or a golden one
depended entirely on that intern.
The next thing they were curious about was—
‘Just who the hell is he…?’
Who exactly was this intern?
---
I returned to the company after lunch.
‘Ah….’
The atmosphere in the office was completely different from earlier.
Well….
It was awkward.
I needed to earn these people's recognition.
My senior had even warned me on the rooftop.
I had absolutely no desire to act recklessly simply because I had Changseong Group backing me.
In the end, I needed these people's help to produce results….
My senior sent word that I should follow him to the rooftop.
What should I say?
My relationship with Yura was still a secret.
"About the executive director…. No. Never mind. I won't ask."
"…You can speak comfortably with me. I only happened to get acquainted with the executive director…."
"Sh-Shall I?"
He looked at me cautiously.
I was experiencing my first taste of working life too, so the situation was awkward for me as well.
Of course, even if I'd had work experience, this situation would have been awkward.
I couldn't answer the questions my senior clearly wanted to ask.
It was a secret.
And I didn't want to use it as leverage.
My senior asked me several questions first, trying to break the awkward atmosphere.
"I heard you're twenty…."
"Yes, that's right."
"Ahem. Really…? Then you just graduated high school?"
"I took a leave of absence from university."
"Well, I suppose you went to university. Which university, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Seoul National University."
"…"
His eyes changed once more.
I couldn't lie.
"What department…."
"Department of Economics."
"…Early admission?"
"No, regular admission."
"Do you mind telling me your CSAT score…."
"…There was nothing wrong with it."
"…Meaning you got a perfect score."
My senior thought for a long time.
"…Why did you come here?"
"Pardon?"
"Did you deploy your parachute wrong?"
"…"
"No, I'm not saying our company is bad, but with credentials like that, you could probably get into a Tier-1 financial
company without any trouble…. Were you short on money?"
"…"
He'd accidentally insulted his own company.
My senior collected himself.
Then tried another icebreaker.
"Ahem. What about your girlfriend?"
"I have one. We're planning to get married."
"…Romantic. Whoever she is, she really hit the jackpot. A perfect CSAT score and what seems to be a pretty good family
background."
"…"
I think I'm the one who hit the jackpot….
My senior put out his cigarette.
"Looking at how things are unfolding, this really is both a crisis and an opportunity."
"Pardon?"
"At least you don't seem completely clueless. If anything, you're a high-quality blank canvas…."
"…"
"Let's work well together. I don't know who you are, but I want you to make the most of me and produce as much as you
can. Don't hesitate to ask me anything. I'll teach you like a private tutor."
"…Thank you."
Just like that,
I'd acquired a private tutor.
My sixth sense sent me a signal.
Hold onto this man's hand tightly.
At the very least,
there was one thing I could say with certainty.
He was someone who would be a tremendous help to my success.