The Secret Behind the Secretary
"Why are you here?"
"Just... you should be the General Manager. No, wait, just General Manager? No, you should be promoted to Senior Managing Director..."
"You shouldn't use casual speech at the office. Senior. No... I mean, General Manager."
"You do it too, so why are you being like that?"
He had walked into the office and said that, and Eunbyul, having straightened herself up, sat in his chair. She logged in on his behalf, sifted through the pending approval documents and tasks, and organized them onto sticky notes. As soon as he placed his briefcase on the desk, Eunbyul quickly stood up and moved to her own seat.
"...I feel like that table is slowly creeping closer to my desk every day."
"It's because this office is too small. I want to move to a bigger one..."
However, Eunbyul pondered the words she had just uttered and immediately shook her head.
"...Ah, no. That won't do."
"What? Why all of a sudden?"
"If your position changes, your secretary changes too."
Two years as an Executive Director meant it was certainly time to aim for Senior Managing Director. Of course, that usually only applied to executives in their 40s who had started as entry-level staff.
"If an executive wishes, they can keep their secretary."
"...? Oh, really?"
"Yeah, but it depends on how you perform, Secretary Eun. Seeing how you write up contracts, threaten people... barge into an executive's home unannounced... seeing things like that..."
"Aaah... I already apologized for that, Senior. No, General Manager."
"And seeing how you use whatever title you feel like whenever you want..."
"Aaaaaah!"
The conversation was cut short as Eunbyul slowly approached his side, her cheeks flushing red.
"...That aside, the video from yesterday... did you really save it?"
"What vid—ah. Hmm. ...Well, you, or rather, Secretary Eun, personally asked me to."
"You saved it and watched all of that, so why didn't you reply to my KakaoTalk in the middle of it?"
That was because...
"After you left yesterday, I had things to discuss with Seo Jia."
"You didn't say anything bad, did you? Like badmouthing me..."
"No. Just... how we ended up getting divorced, and how she's been living since. I realized I'd never asked her about those things before. And even during our marriage, I never asked what her complaints were or why she was dissatisfied. We had that kind of conversation."
"Oh. I see."
If you're wondering why I'm telling Eunbyul all this, I figured it was the kind of thing I could share. I'd already bitten and sucked on her breasts, so that much was nothing. Plus, it would serve as a tool to keep Jia in check at home — though the rope talk this morning was a bit chilling.
And then, something that felt important to Eunbyul came up.
"...So, is your father really Chairman Eun..."
"Otherwise, how could a female secretary be assigned to a male executive?"
"What do you mean, ah."
Right. She said the Chairman had requested it...
"No, even so, my father... The Chairman doesn't know I'm divorced, right? If he just suddenly assigned a female secretary, he would have opposed it..."
"My dad went all the way to the Chairman's office to ask. He said he wanted me to watch and learn by your side. So he gave his permission."
"Ah..."
Right, I was wondering why a female secretary was suddenly shoved onto me. So that was the reason. Not that it matters, but I knew Chairman Eun Seongmin loved his daughter dearly, but I didn't know it went this far.
Then, he looked at the monitor.
"That aside, Secretary Eun, you've certainly uploaded the approvals very well."
"I tried to imagine the General Manager's tone of voice while writing them. Did I do well?"
Hey, it's not about whether it's good or not; you're overstepping your bounds by doing this, and you expect to be praised for it?
"Still, I have to review these before they're uploaded."
"Geez, you did it so well there's nothing to even correct."
...Yeah, that's true. It feels like my doppelgänger came in at dawn and finished the work.
"Instead, from now on, get confirmation from me before you draft the approval comments."
"Ah... well, that's fine. In any case, my role is to make sure the General Manager isn't tired."
"Yeah. That part is good, but you never know. I'm used to this work, so I'm fine, but... this is your first time. Isn't it only been a week?"
"That's right."
Should I praise her for this? To have this level of growth after only a week.
Curious about what Eunbyul had done in the past, he searched for her name on the intranet and opened her personnel file.
"Looking at your personnel record, it's about time for you to be promoted to Assistant Manager. Where were you originally planning to go?"
"I was just going to stay in the Purchasing Team."
"Aha."
"Ah! That's right. Was it a month ago? Some department sent an internal email. They asked me to come work with them... but they said I had to use a foreign language, so I was reluctant to go."
A foreign language? Ah, maybe some overseas branch...
"Which country? European branch? Or the American branch?"
"Uh... no!"
"Eh? Then where is this place that requires a foreign language?"
"I don't remember the name. The department name is in English, too."
English... I didn't think it was an important place. Since Eunbyul had faked her personnel record to make it look like she had no father, listing only her mother and younger sibling, the interviewers must have thought she wasn't anyone of importance. And since she had the highest score in the entrance interview, I assumed she was placed in the Purchasing Team, which was at least a core department...
...Highest interview score, department in English?
"Hey, Eunbyul, you... are you, by any chance, ISG?"
"...Oh! That's right! That's the one!"
"What?"
"They told me to come, but they said they only use English there. Even among employees, everyone speaks English, and they said meetings are all in English. I barely passed the TOEIC with a 900, so my English is really terrible... You know that, General Manager, from back in college when you interpreted those English textbooks for me and I still couldn't understand them. Ah! That's right. It's ISG!"
"...Wait a second..."
"Ah, I'm so glad I didn't go there. I was curious, so I replied to the email, and they said we'd discuss the salary later. I mean, since it's Doowon, a major conglomerate, I expected them to pay properly, but they were talking about 'future negotiations' like some flimsy small business. And what's with starting at 11 AM and leaving at midnight? Is that even reasonable? I was truly dumbfounded..."
Eunbyul... that is, you see...
"You... you were going to work at ISG?"
"That's what I'm saying. The employee there told me to start working together next month, and the sub-teams were all named in English..."
"By any chance, Oversea JV...? Or SIR,"
"Oh... that's right. I don't know the first part, but I know the JV part at the end."
"Ah....."
He stared blankly at Eunbyul for a long time without saying a word.
"You... why don't you... go now...?"
"Wow, are you trying to cut me off entirely because I threatened you over that contract? I really—! ...I told you I'd give you everything if I get pregnant."
Her cheerful tone, mindful of the eyes outside, turned into a whisper at the end.
"....That's not it, you idiot..."
ISG stands for International Strategy Group. It wasn't just any ordinary department. It served as a control tower between subsidiaries, with a staff of approximately 300. It was a place where 200 people were filled with personnel from Africa, Asia, the US, Europe, and Oceania, and the remaining 100 were Koreans. It was true that the workload was murderous. To put it mildly, it was common to start at 11 AM and leave at 3 AM. Also, every document was based in English, and each person used the languages they were capable of—Japanese, French, Chinese, Russian, Arabic—all sorts of languages were used in that department. It was so intense that the 71st to 75th floors of the group headquarters building were called the "furnace." That's how many foreigners there were and how diverse their nationalities were.
"Why didn't you... go there...?"
"I don't want to use English, and I don't want to leave work in the middle of the night. Um, work-life balance?"
"Crazy, what work-life balance... Eunbyul, please stop saying such nonsense..."
"Ah, well, I don't know."
Why are 300 people shoved into a department like this? They become the future executives. This is guaranteed by the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman group. That's not all. Every employee has a Vice President, President, or Vice-Chairman as their direct superior. They have separate managers for work-related matters. They even have the authority to visit executive offices without formality and discuss ongoing work on equal footing. If an executive didn't look favorably upon a staff member just because they offered an opinion contrary to the executive's will, the Chairman could discipline that executive. They could even request direct support for the projects they were running. That's not all. Their authority is overflowing. First, each department member has the right to audit all projects, whether related to them or not. After drafting an audit opinion on a project and submitting it to that department, if it isn't carried out according to the opinion, they can hand the matter over to the headquarters audit office.
'If the audit office receives a significant audit opinion from ISG, it must immediately suspend the progress of that project and initiate a precise audit without delay.'
This is written into the bylaws. It's a completely independent department. What if they clash with CRM or the Finance Team? They can't clash in the first place. They don't even fight. If someone flaunted their power and caught the eye of employees whose executive promotion was guaranteed, their company life wouldn't be smooth sailing.