Zero Base: The Uninvited Guests
“Hey~ Vice President, hello?”
- Hey, you bastard! Why the hell are you picking up now?
- Huh? What?
- What do you mean? Didn’t you know? I quit yesterday. I thought you’d signed my resignation letter, Vice President.
- What the hell are you talking about? Only Kim Junseok received a resignation recommendation from HR.
- Huh? You didn’t know? I quit yesterday. I assumed you’d signed the letter I submitted.
- What kind of nonsense is that? Only Kim Junseok got a resignation recommendation from HR?
- So that’s why Han Se-ah was so happy and told me to process it all myself, huh?
- Doesn’t matter if Lee Jungwan knew or not. It’s no longer my concern.
- No, wait a second.
- Has Han Se-ah even called for me yet?
- I figured she’d drag me in the moment I left and start causing a scene. What the hell is going on?
- Did she develop patience while I was gone? That’s surprising.
- Enough. How’s my sister doing? Why isn’t she answering? How much payment do I have to make right now?
“Ah, that’s actually why I was about to call. A while ago, when my sister was alone in the office, some scary-looking men came to the company.”
- What? Who the hell?
“I don’t know exactly, but they said the debt had changed hands and started yelling why I wasn’t paying interest. Three big guys surrounded her, and she was terrified. She told me to turn off my phone and go stay at a friend’s place. But the account’s frozen? Why?”
- Haa...
I answered with a completely innocent voice.
Lee Jungwan let out a deep sigh.
- I’ll look into it and call you back. Answer calls quickly.
“Yes~ Team Leader. I mean, Vice President!”
After hanging up, Han Ha-jin entered the office a short while later.
“The delivery service called. Should I tell them to come here?”
“No.”
I wrote the address of a nearby café near Daeheung Planning on a memo and handed it to him.
“Tell them to be there by ten. Three big, imposing men, first come first served.”
“Imposing men? Earlier you said scary-looking guys.”
- Haa... How do I correct this naive kid?
I asked with the same eyes but a sinister smile.
“Do I look like I’m smiling right now? Do I look angry?”
“Um...”
Han Ha-jin flinched when he saw the piercing look in my eyes.
“Don’t focus on the words. Understand the context. I told you I was going to collect debt. If it’s really imposing, consider the double meaning in Korean. Think about the ambiguity.”
“Ah!”
Han Ha-jin bowed deeply and left the office, promising to take immediate action.
He always acted so smart, but...
Did he really live without reading the room? Complete idiot.
I was worried about the son of a chaebol heir who didn’t consult his parents before making such a bold move in the middle of the Iljin Group succession battle.
I was also worried he might mess up an important negotiation by not reading the room.
“Still, the kid’s not bad.”
I watched him leave the room and made a silent vow.
I would increase the training intensity.
***
Just past noon, Lee Jungwan hurried to Daeheung Planning after receiving Choi Chi-soo’s call.
The moment he opened the office door, the acrid smell of stale cigarette smoke hit his nose.
Choi Chi-soo sat alone in the dark office, staring blankly at the smoke rising from his cigarette.
Lee Jungwan rushed over and scolded him.
“Hey, Team Leader! You quit suddenly? What the hell is this all about?”
Choi Chi-soo flicked the cigarette butt to the floor and crushed it with his shoe.
Flat cigarette butts littered the floor around him.
Choi Chi-soo muttered with a dazed look.
“That woman who said she was a friend of the CEO came to work with me. She suddenly changed the main transaction account, paid all the employees’ back wages and severance right after the contract deposit arrived, and handled the long-term arrears. Like a restructuring expert...”
“What are you talking about? The lawyer woman who came with us when we signed the contract was with Kang Minkyung? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t say anything! You told me to keep operating normally until I got the final payment! Don’t make a scene.”
Now that I think about it, I remember.
At the time, I was distracted with the Healthy launch and told her to play it safe.
I figured if Healthy succeeded, a bigger payoff would come, so I needed to keep Kang Minhyuk’s mouth shut.
But Lee Jungwan later regretted that decision.
When I visited Director Koo Jung-moo to express gratitude for the promotion, he seemed to avoid me subtly.
At first I thought it was because he was upset about Han Se-ah’s line, but when Lee Jungwan tried to leave the office, he stopped me.
“Don’t come here anymore.”
It was clearly cutting ties.
I grew curious and quietly asked around. It turned out Iljin had filed a patent lawsuit after the Healthy launch.
The upper management was quietly covering it up.
They wanted to avoid media exposure, and if it leaked, they planned to blame it on the employees’ personal misconduct and cut ties.
Probably to protect the granddaughter of the chairman, Han Se-ah, who drove this business.
I couldn’t just sit here waiting for the decision to be made.
So I poured even more energy into promoting Healthy.
I wanted to make a big score before leaving.
But a bomb exploded in an unexpected place.
Daeheung Planning.
“Damn it! I told you to run the moment the contract deposit arrived! Now look at this mess because I dragged my feet!”
“I told you. Two billion isn’t anything. With Healthy’s sales right now, it’s basically two hundred billion. Then you and I split it.”
Choi Chi-soo’s eyes sparkled as he countered.
“So, should we just throw this away?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Lee Jungwan’s greedy eyes flashed with displeasure.
“Hah! Fuck. Today’s debt collectors came and said they won’t release the account unless I pay the loan and interest first!”
“Pay it? How much?”
“Twenty-two million five hundred thousand! If that’s all, it’s good. Somehow they knew. The model agency for Cha Eun-yu called too. They asked if I really tried to divert the money meant for their company to another company. They said if I don’t deposit the model fee balance immediately, they’d take legal action!”
“What? How the hell did they find out?”
Lee Jungwan asked with a dumbfounded expression.
Only Lee Jungwan and Choi Chi-soo knew about diverting Cha Eun-yu’s model fees to another account.
How could Kang Minkyung, who had no way of knowing the situation, call and ask?
Unless...
“Doesn’t matter. I’m out of here. Do whatever you want with it—kill it or eat it. You handle it.”
Before Lee Jungwan could protest, Choi Chi-soo grabbed his coat and bag.
Lee Jungwan grabbed the bag strap and glared.
“Out? What do you mean out? How much did we invest? We need to take at least ten billion.”
Choi Chi-soo sneered at the words.
“What can you do with an account that’s frozen? If you can, go ahead!”
While the two bickered, noisy commotion erupted outside. A group of people of various ages rushed into the office.
“He’s here!”
A crowd of people surrounded the two men.
Everyone had terrifying expressions.
Among them, a round-faced man in his fifties looked back and forth between Lee Jungwan and Choi Chi-soo, then pointed at the more flamboyant Lee Jungwan.
“Are you the CEO here?”
“No!”
Lee Jungwan flinched at the firm answer.
“Then you two came because you heard the CEO here was trying to embezzle subcontractor funds?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
The man made a pitiful expression.
“Tsk tsk. You didn’t know? The CEO here owes almost a hundred billion, and they got caught trying to divert company funds. We rushed over after hearing that! But where did all the employees go?”
“First, the CEO’s office! Let’s check the CEO’s office first!”
“They might be hiding in the bathroom, so let’s search separately!”
“I’ll find all the employees’ contact info! If I call, maybe I can hear the ringtone.”
Choi Chi-soo’s face turned pale and he slowly backed away.
After one round of being terrorized by big guys, he no longer wanted to be swept up in this.
Lee Jungwan watched the people ransacking the office in confusion.
When he realized Choi Chi-soo had fled, he lamented.
“How did things get like this?”
The final payment arrived yesterday afternoon.
I planned to gradually withdraw to safe accounts.
But how did they know the exact timing and raid the place?
Without an internal leak, it was impossible.
At first I suspected Kang Minhyuk after hearing Choi Chi-soo’s words.
But when I called in the morning, he didn’t even know the account was frozen.
Then...
Did Hwang Dae-heung feel betrayed after I took his commission?
While I was thinking that far,
The phone rang.
Our eyes met.
It was the man who said he was looking for employee contact info.
Lee Jungwan made a desperate move to pretend he wasn’t the one being called and left the office.
“Hah! Who the hell calls at this timing?”
When I checked the phone screen still ringing, it was Han Se-ah.
My upper body instinctively shrank.
“Yes. Director.”
Han Se-ah asked in a sweet voice.
- I heard you weren’t in the office.
“Ah, I had some business with a partner company.”
- Come in. I need to see you for a moment.
“Is there... something I can help with?”
- It’s nothing special. I wanted to discuss Healthy.
“Ah, yes. Understood. I’ll be there within thirty minutes.”
After hanging up, Lee Jungwan glanced at the busy Daeheung Planning and turned around.
“All right. I should cleanly give up on this. Right now, Healthy comes first.”
***
I confirmed Lee Jungwan’s car leaving the parking lot of the café opposite Daeheung Planning and headed to the office with Han Ha-jin.
When I entered the office, the bustling footsteps suddenly stopped.
The faces that had been tense and wrinkled relaxed, and the hurried hands flipping through documents became polite.
Han Ha-jin approached the leader among them and handed over envelopes prepared for the number of people.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
The round-faced man peeked inside the envelope and his eyes turned into crescents.
“Aigoo~ What are you talking about? It wasn’t that difficult. But we got so caught up in the performance that the office...”
Was a complete mess.
Perfect!
These people really know how to work.
“We’ll handle the cleaning.”
“Haha. Then we’ll be going. Please contact us again.”
They bowed and quickly left the office.
The people who left were the part-time actors I hired an hour earlier.
High-priced personnel at fifty thousand won per hour.
I originally planned to pressure only the general affairs team leader to cut Lee Jungwan’s limbs.
Thanks to Lee Jungwan’s perfect timing, the show was even better.
So I raised the compensation to one hundred thousand won.
“I knew corporate employees were involved in corruption, but I didn’t think they’d be this blatant. Is something strange? It seems too bold for just a vice president-level scandal.”
Han Ha-jin asked with a serious face, but I pretended not to know.
Corruption happened inside Iljin Group.
The relationship between Daeheung Planning and Iljin Group was settled with the final payment.
So it was no longer my concern.
The only targets I wanted to take revenge on were Lee Jungwan and Han Se-ah.
I called Cha Eun-yu, who was waiting for my call, to update him on the situation.
“Thank you. Thanks to the support from the company, it worked out well.”
- No thanks needed. If you hadn’t told us, we would have been hit from behind too.
“You’ll need to wait about two weeks for the final payment.”
- Understood. Finish the situation well and send it slowly. I’ll handle it with the company.
“All right. Let’s meet sometime soon.”
- Yes, brother.
I told Han Ha-jin to inform the other partner companies that all outstanding payments would be settled within a month.
One problem solved, a new problem arose.
After processing model fees, outstanding payments, and loan collection, about two billion would remain.
It was a significant amount, but
In the advertising industry, two billion was pocket change that vanished in an instant.
I didn’t know how much I would need to pour into new hires and settling in.
Even with one competent PR expert, it wouldn’t be this troublesome.
“This was the data Kang Minkyung made for me at the beginning. I really want to call her properly.”
Whether to keep maintaining Daeheung Planning or just settle the debt and dispose of it was a fierce battle in my mind.