Transfer to Group Headquarters (2)
Kim Chirok moved the next day. He had a fair number of books, so he hired a small moving truck. When the truck pulled up in Bongcheon-dong, his mother was overjoyed. Even with her aching knees, she helped carry the books.
That evening he ate the dinner she had prepared with real appetite. She didn't touch her own food. She just watched him eat.
"What are you doing? Aren't you going to eat? Why are you staring at me like that?"
"Hehe. They say the sweetest sound in the world is the sound of food going down your own kid's throat."
"So there are actually people who like the sound of swallowing. Come on, eat your dinner."
Kim Chirok wanted to get a house as soon as he could — a big one, for his mother. For now, though, that was a dream. If he managed to save 36 million won in a year, Gangnam housing prices would climb by 360 million.
The next day, Kim Chirok went to the Group headquarters building on Teheran-ro in Gangnam-gu.
At H Chemical in Incheon, there had been plenty of management staff, but just as many production workers. Here, everyone was in a suit.
Kim Chirok first sought out the team leader of the Strategic Planning Office.
"I've been transferred from H Chemical."
"You're Kim Chirok?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Let's see the Office Head first. He was already asking whether you'd arrived."
The Office Head held the rank of Senior Managing Director. Though technically a Senior Managing Director, he was treated almost on par with the presidents of the affiliate companies.
Kim Chirok went with the team leader to meet him.
The Office Head was a gaunt man in his mid-fifties with gold-rimmed glasses. He had the look of someone overflowing with schemes. If Cao Cao from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms had ever been reincarnated, Kim Chirok thought, this was precisely the face he would have worn.
Hmm. So this is the man who sets H Group's management strategy?
The Office Head crossed his legs.
"I heard about you from the president of H Chemical. Quite the hardworking talent, they said."
"That's too kind of you."
"Seoul National University, Business School. So you're my junior."
"Ah, is that so? I'll be counting on your guidance."
"The team leader will assign you work, but what we do here is mainly the Group's fund management and feasibility analysis for new ventures."
"I'll give it my all."
"And you'll need to coordinate the convertible bond issuances across the affiliates."
"Understood."
"It's not even regular personnel season, but pulling you up here was President Jeong-hee's order. You met her in Osaka, I hear?"
Kim Chirok realized that his transfer into the Strategic Planning Office was, as he'd suspected, because of President Jeong-hee.
Hmm. Asking my name that time must be why I ended up here. I guess having an unusual name pays off at times like this.
"Yes. President Jeong-hee asked me my name."
"It would be good to pay your respects to her as well, but she's out on business. I'll contact you again once she comes in this afternoon."
With that, the Office Head shrugged and smiled a meaningful smile.
There's something chilly about that smile.
Kim Chirok left the Office Head's room with the team leader.
"What's your impression of our Office Head?" the team leader asked.
"Well..."
"He's brilliant. That's why his nickname is Jang Zhuge."
"Jang Zhuge?"
"His name is Jang Gye-nam. So, Jang Zhuge."
"If he's that smart, that's good for the Group's development, isn't it?"
The team leader didn't answer. He just smiled. Apparently this was not the kind of intelligence that was put to good use.
The team leader called over a man with the title of Assistant Manager and told him to share some of the work now that a new person had arrived.
The Assistant Manager looked pleased.
"I've been working overtime like it was nothing. Having another pair of hands is a relief."
"Don't start whining about the workload anymore."
"That's because you keep piling work on me, Team Leader."
"You think that's up to me? Jang Zhuge keeps inventing new work."
"I heard this time H Construction couldn't issue convertible bonds, so he told H Transport to issue them instead?"
"They'll issue them through H Transport, whose financials make it relatively straightforward, then lend the funds to H Construction once they're in. That's all Jang Zhuge's idea."
"I'll start the new guy, Kim Chirok, on financial analysis of each affiliate."
"Good. You're his mentor, so take care of him. Though Kim Chirok really does have an unusual name. Sounds like some Joseon-era scholar."
With that, the team leader went back to his desk.
The Assistant Manager held out his hand.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Assistant Manager Song Yi-hwan."
"I look forward to working with you."
"Let's take the handover slowly. Food first. Since it's your first day, let's eat out."
As Kim Chirok looked around the office on his way out, he didn't see the face of his cohort, Jeong Chan-young. Jeong Chan-young had joined the company at the same time, but thanks to his father's connections he had skipped the affiliates and come straight into the Strategic Planning Office. He was also a high school classmate from Gangnam.
"Where does Jeong Chan-young work now?"
"Jeong Chan-young? Ah, that rude little shit?"
"Excuse me?"
"Right — Jeong Chan-young would be in your cohort. He's more on the protocol side than management analysis these days. Kid's got no manners, what with his father being an affiliate president."
"Is that so?"
"He spent a long time on a US training program, so he jabbers away in English pretty well. You're good at English too, right?"
"I-I'm not that good."
"Looking at your credentials, they're pretty impressive. Why the humility? You're a Seoul National University grad — of course you're good."
"But you don't really get a chance to use English doing management analysis, do you?"
"What are you talking about? If we issue convertible bonds overseas instead of domestically, you need it for presentations."
"Really?"
"And even without convertible bonds, when you're drafting new business plans you benchmark other countries. You're not going to go abroad and speak Korean, are you?"
"W-well, that's true."
"A lot of the people here are good at a second foreign language too. What's yours?"
"I started learning Japanese a bit, then stopped."
"Can you do consultations in Japanese? Not just daily conversation — product explanations, discussions, that kind of thing."
"Oh no, nowhere near that level."
"Come on. Let's eat. First day, so it's on me."
He went outside the building with Assistant Manager Song Yi-hwan and they had yukhoe bibimbap — seasoned raw beef over rice.
Over the meal, Song Yi-hwan went on.
"There's not a lot of routine work in the Strategic Planning Office. But when people like the Chairman or President Jeong-hee say, 'Look into this kind of business,' you have to produce a business plan fast."
"Doesn't sound easy."
"When the Chairman or President Jeong-hee says something like that, a guy like Jang Zhuge reacts instantly. 'Ah, excellent business. I've had a keen interest in this for some time now.'"
"Haha. Jang Zhuge — I mean, Office Head Jang — is a quick thinker, then."
"That man rose to the top on nothing but his reflexes. And the team leader is currently at Department Head rank, but he's a total yes-man. Never talks back to anyone above him."
"He seems like an easygoing type."
"Even if a project is risky or unprofitable, if the people upstairs tell him to draft a plan, he never objects."
"Is that so?"
"So sometimes we end up doing pointless work."
"I'm not sure I'll adapt well here."
"I think you'll do fine. You were handpicked outside of regular personnel season, after all."
At those words, Kim Chirok wondered if President Jeong-hee had really summoned him just because his name was unusual. If that was the reason, it seemed a little thin.
Around three in the afternoon, a call came from Office Head Jang. President Jeong-hee had arrived; he was to come up.
Kim Chirok went to President Jeong-hee's office with the Office Head.
H Group employees called Choi Jung-hee simply President Jeong-hee to distinguish her from the other presidents. It was a kind of nickname.
There weren't multiple secretaries — just two, a man and a woman. For the office of President Jeong-hee, the power behind the power at a conglomerate as large as H Group, it looked relatively sparse.
The Office Head knocked and went in. Then, with a fawning crinkle of his eyes, he said,
"Associate Kim Chirok from H Chemical has reported for duty today."
President Jeong-hee lifted her head and looked at the Office Head and Kim Chirok.
Kim Chirok bowed deeply at the waist.
"Kim Chirok, newly assigned to the Strategic Planning Office."
President Jeong-hee leaned back in her chair.
"Welcome. We met once in Osaka, didn't we?"
"Yes, President."
President Jeong-hee glanced at Office Head Jang's face and hesitated for a moment. Office Head Jang caught on at once, gave a slight bow, and said,
"Then I'll take my leave."
The sharp-eyed Office Head Jang had sensed that President Jeong-hee had something to say to Kim Chirok, and quickly made himself scarce. When it came to reading a room, the man was a hundredth-dan master.
Once Office Head Jang had left, President Jeong-hee moved to the table.
"Sit down."
Kim Chirok perched on the edge of the chair in front of her, looking thoroughly overwhelmed. Even for an open-recruitment employee, a private audience between a brand-new nobody and President Jeong-hee was a rare thing.
President Jeong-hee opened the approval folder on the table.
"Your interview ranking and training scores were excellent, but you were sent to an affiliate."
"I learned a great deal at Chemical as well."
"According to the Office Head, they sent you there to rotate capable people through positions as a priority."
"......."
"And I was told that a transfer order to Group headquarters had already been decided for the regular personnel season anyway."
"Ah, yes....."
That was a lie. Kim Chirok figured Office Head Jang had probably made it up on the spot.
They sent me to Chemical for a rotational posting? They sent me because I had no connections. Jang Zhuge really does suit Office Head Jang.
President Jeong-hee looked at the documents in the approval folder.
"According to your family records, both parents are living and you have no siblings."
His father wasn't at home at the moment; he was living as a nature recluse in a remote mountain valley in Gangwon Province. They lived apart, but on paper both parents were listed as living. Their registered addresses, however, were different. His father's current registered address was Gimhwa-eup, Cheorwon-gun, Gangwon Province. Whether for various government benefits or otherwise, his father had moved his registered residence to Gangwon on his own.
President Jeong-hee continued.
"Your parents' registered addresses appear to be different. Are they perhaps living separately?"
"Th-that's right. My father isn't well, so he's in the countryside for recuperation."
President Jeong-hee looked at another document.
"The property tax certificate of your financial guarantor at the time of hiring......"
She didn't finish the sentence. But Kim Chirok caught a faint smile flicker quickly across President Jeong-hee's face.