99 - What Does Your Father Do for a Living?
After finishing his apology, his phone rang. He stepped a respectful distance away from the two women to answer the call.
"Executive Director, this is Ham Juhyun. Are you available to talk, even though it's the weekend?"
"Yes, please go ahead!"
It was a call from Ham Juhyun, the president of the Heavy Industries division. Perhaps because he had spent his entire career—from his very first job until now—working in the coastal regions of Geoje, Ulsan, and Busan, his voice was incredibly booming, even at fifty years old. It hadn't been like that last time, but then again, he had been woken from his sleep. Regardless, feeling a sense of lingering gratitude for his help, Suhyun wiped away his fatigue and kept the conversation going.
"Is there... are we going somewhere this time? Is something the matter?"
"Eh? I haven't heard anything. Did some kind of accident happen..."
"Ah... I see. No, it's just that... I wasn't sure if this came down from headquarters or what..."
As he spoke, the president, perhaps because he hadn't heard anything either, asked, "Did we send something?"
"An official document arrived regarding the rescue of the Yellow Sea oil tanker. I came into the office today for some work, and I saw mail from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, so I was wondering why it was sent to us."
The president began to read the contents aloud.
"Eh... 'In accordance with the Decorations and Awards Act and the Enforcement Decree of the Decorations and Awards Act...'"
That was the gist of it. According to the South Korean Decorations and Awards Act, they were requesting detailed personal information and a breakdown of the rescue activities for all personnel and staff who had participated in the recent oil tanker incident, including specific roles and a chronological account of their actions.
"The Decorations and Awards Act... I hadn't heard anything about us receiving an award."
"I haven't heard anything either. I don't even know why it was sent to me. To be honest... I didn't really do anything. Haha. It feels a bit strange."
"Not at all. You were the one who took my call in the middle of the night and sent over all those supplies, weren't you?"
"Even so, I didn't really know what you were doing, Executive Director. I just did it because you told me to, and I never imagined things would turn out like this."
Suhyun pondered for a moment. He considered writing down the personal information of all the employees who had participated at the time, and even asking to include Eunbyul, but he held back, assuming the relevant documents must have been sent to headquarters as well. Then, he said,
"...Yes, I will do that..."
"You should include yourself as well, President."
"...? Executive Director, that would be shameless of me."
"No." He made his voice clearer and more forceful. "It makes no sense to say you only did it because I told you to. I believe it is correct to say that you thought of me, trusted that I had a plan, and sent the supplies accordingly. I even saw that you sent several tools I hadn't specifically requested."
"...Haha, that..."
"If you had just taken the call half-heartedly and gone back to sleep that night, honestly, I don't think we could have performed the rescue."
That wasn't just empty talk. They had recovered a significant portion of the crude oil using the items brought over by the tugboats and barges. On top of that, sending the passenger ship at the right time had been a stroke of genius. The ship they were on was unstable, and for people who had spent nearly ten hours clinging to a tilting vessel after the accident, thinking they were all going to die, the psychological distress would have only been compounded if they were told to board a bobbing, swaying tugboat.
"..."
"You should write it down. Otherwise, I'll assume the relevant documents have arrived at headquarters and I will write it down there."
"I'm sorry."
Ever since GPL failed, shipbuilders around the world, especially in the Middle East, had barely wanted to buy their vessels. They had even brought up things unrelated to fuel, like questioning if they were trying to use strange oil and ruin the structure, or if the ships would explode, all to drive down the price. There had been a time when they had to sell ships while biting the bullet, and those naturally led to poor performance for the heavy industry subsidiaries. At the time, President Ham Juhyun had been the vice president, so he must have felt the massive losses firsthand.
"The employees, and to be honest, I also thought poorly of you, Executive Director."
"..."
"I saw what you did on the news and was quite surprised. I wondered if you were even the same person."
"Well, I just did it because I wanted to..."
"I misinterpreted your intentions and thought you were incompetent. I was wrong... and that's why it's even harder for me to put my name on this. It would be like me taking credit for what you did..."
Listening to the president, Suhyun once again realized how much impact a single mistake or a single failure could have. Even the employees who had boarded the tugboat at the time had looked at him with disdain, unlike when they were heading home. But he often found strength in the memory of the employees looking at him positively as they returned home, rather than that look of contempt.
"Thank you for seeing me in a better light now."
"..."
"Then I will write up the report regarding you, President. Thank you for your help."
He watched as the call ended. The president seemed hesitant, unable to hang up easily, before the phone screen eventually showed the background image. As soon as he placed the phone on the table, the two women slowly grabbed his arms again.
"Suhyun, what happened?"
"Senior, is it something bad?"
"No..."
He told them the story. Then he added,
"I'm going to go get some fresh air for a moment. You two stay put."
"Yes, please do. Master... I mean, Suhyun."
"Come back soon, Senior."
And as soon as he left the house, the expressions of the two women who had heard the story were completely opposite. Seo Jia, who was filled with regret, thinking about how much he had struggled because of that failure and how he still had a bad image, and how she had tormented him like a loan shark demanding money instead of helping him—wondering how much he must have wanted to die. Meanwhile, Eunbyul, who felt joy and relief that what she had pushed for had now brought him benefit, thought, *'Yes, this is what I have to do. This is how I'll capture him.'* Eunbyul turned her head, looked at Jia's regretful expression, and lashed out.
"...Don't pretend to regret it now. It's disgusting to watch."
"...I have nothing to say to you."
"Hey, what do you mean you have nothing to say? What if the Senior had committed suicide because of you? What would you have done if he hadn't been able to take it and just died?"
"..."
Jia, unable to refute it because it was true, wiped away her flowing tears in silence. Eunbyul spoke of what she had seen and heard.
"When I was a new hire, I came into the office and found the Senior sitting on the stairs in the lobby on the first floor. With a look like he was about to die."
"..."
"You didn't look down on the Senior because he was immature; you looked down on him because your own thinking is immature. You only see what's in your own eyes. He told me everything. He said no one in the company would talk to him, and as soon as he opened the front door after work, he heard voices demanding he pay back his debts. He said he wanted to jump."
As expected, Jia turned her head away without a word, trying to ignore her. Unlike the regret she felt listening to her ex-husband, this situation—where she felt resentful and annoyed even while regretting her actions—was almost too much for Jia to bear.
"So, you drank so much with that vixen that you caused all this?"
"..."
Returning the exact words Jia had said when Eunbyul first entered the house, Eunbyul continued, "Hey, you're the one who made it that way. The Senior never drank alcohol. Never with people from the company. But you made him that way, you drove your husband out so he couldn't rest even when he came home."
"You call him 'Master' even now, but you glare at him and hit him—is that how you act? Pretending to regret it now, that's what's disgusting, you."
"What, then you want me to serve him like a lord? That's patriarchal, and strictly speaking..."
"HEY!!!!!!!!"
Hearing Eunbyul's shout, which had finally exploded after she held back, Jia was startled and dropped her head, clutching a cushion tightly.
"I hate women who are brainwashed by feminism like you the most."
"Fe, femi... what, feminist, that kind of...?"
"Yes, I hate them the most. Women like you. Hey, you stupid fleshlight."
"A lord? Patriarchal? Hey, that's about respecting each other as human beings, you ill-mannered bitch."
"You can only think of two things: groveling to a man or climbing over him? Are you a computer? Can you only think in 0s and 1s? Why is there no middle ground? Hey, he was your husband. Your husband was struggling to the point of death, and you pressured him to pay back money, and you say the house was the only place he could rest, but you pushed him away because he was annoying? You just had to love and respect him. Was that money really so urgent? Is it to the point where you want to kill him if he doesn't pay it back quickly?"
"...It's not that, I was trying to grow that money quickly..."
"Grow what, what!!! What were you going to do by growing it? You have no money. You said you lent the Senior 70 billion won. Make him pay it all back. What can you do with 70 billion won? Who do you think you are?"
Jia, who had been listening, couldn't understand why she was being insulted like this by this vixen who was two years younger than her, so she retorted, "Who, who do you think you are... You're just an office worker too. You're just sticking to Suhyun's side to get some scraps..."
"Are you done talking? Do you even know who I am..."
"...Do you have the right to say that to me? You don't have as much money as the Master either. And you're just pretending to be clean after desperately trying to climb to the top by threatening him..."
Finally, at Jia's resistance, Eunbyul glared at her with rage reaching the top of her head and said,
"My dad is the chairman, you know."