Help Me Out
“Corporal Kim Seung-wook! Congratulations on your discharge!”
“Seung-wook! Don't forget my number! I'll hit you up when I'm out too!”
Watching the entire garrison's soldiers see him off, Kim Seung-wook felt his chest tighten. A long, long military service. So I wasn't such a bad senior after all. I'll get to live on in the memories of these guys I sweated alongside as one of the good ones.
His nose stung, but he smiled.
“Alright. All of you, keep humping those rucksacks!”
Anything long-winded from a discharged man was just going to bore everyone, and the driver of the Starex waiting to shuttle him to the regimental HQ—along with the officer riding shotgun—were standing by. So he kept his farewell remarks short and climbed into the van.
Rattle. Rattle.
The road to the regimental HQ—where he'd been stuck shoveling snow until just days ago, a road he'd come to despise with every fiber of his being—felt strangely different today.
“Sergeant Kim Seung-wook. You've done well.”
“SIR, YES, SIR!”
He came down from the garrison, received his discharge certificate at the regimental headquarters, and walked out the gates.
“I'm really… discharged….”
All that ambivalence he'd carried—part relief, part wistfulness—meant nothing the moment he stepped outside clutching that certificate. The frigid winter sky somehow felt warm.
He took the subway home to Gyeonggi Province.
“Mom, I'm back!”
He announced his discharge when he got home. No answer came back. He waited, half hoping, and when it became truly clear that no one was there to welcome him, he let out a sigh.
*Of all the times to go on a trip, it has to be the exact window her son gets discharged….*
On his first leave, his mother had wept like she was welcoming her son back from a war zone. But after a few long stretches of leave late in his service, she didn't even bother to greet him anymore—couldn't be bothered to show a shred of interest.
“Sigh.”
He went into his room, stripped off his combat uniform, and emerged into the living room wearing nothing but short-sleeved boxer shorts—the ultimate civilian uniform—then flopped naturally onto the sofa.
Then, TV time. He'd expected television to feel different now that he was back in society, but it was no different from what he'd been watching lying in the barracks in his final months.
*This is boring….*
He picked up the phone he'd tossed carelessly onto the sofa and scrolled through his contacts.
“Sang-jin's in the army. Seung-su… army too. Gwang-hoon… that bastard said he was going on a working holiday, right? Pass. Hye-jung is… ah, finals season, she's busy?”
His guy friends were nearly all in the military, and his girl friends were buried in their studies—nobody was available right now. He scrolled his contact list all the way to the bottom and came up empty.
“I've wasted my life….”
It wasn't his fault, but the fact that he had no one to meet on his discharge day left Kim Seung-wook feeling hollow.
“Ah!”
He put the phone down and resolved to kill time watching the boring TV again—when his eye caught *Dot Hero*, a friend's game he'd installed and played on one of his leaves.
He was thinking, *might as well play this since I'm bored*, when his thoughts drifted to Cho Yihan.
*He'll be at work, though….*
They'd already made plans to meet after work yesterday, but he hated the thought of wasting his discharge day like this, so on the off chance, he sent a text.
No reply.
Well, it was 11 a.m. on a weekday. Of course he was working.
And yet, he felt an inexplicable pang of disappointment.
*Damn it. Your nutjob best friend is getting discharged—can't he use one day of annual leave?*
He was the owner and CEO of his own company. Who was going to say anything if he took a day off? If Kim Seung-wook had been the CEO and a friend who was practically a brother had been getting discharged, he'd have taken the day off without a second thought.
Of course, that was just his own thinking—his friend Cho Yihan hadn't even bothered to reply.
“Ugh, whatever. Guess I'll just sleep. He'll text me in the evening—”
*Ding.*
Kim Seung-wook, sprawled flat on the sofa with his phone tossed aside, shot upright at the sound of the notification. It was a text from Cho Yihan.
Figures. He was about to just accept it and meet in the evening as planned, but he decided to cling a little.
He'd only asked if the guy was working, yet somehow the friend had already read his exact situation like he was seeing it with his own eyes. The corner of Kim Seung-wook's mouth curled up.
Just texting back and forth with his friend, nothing special, yet it was so much fun. On the way home he'd only thought *I'm discharged* in his head without it really sinking in—but now, at last, it hit him in the chest.
Kim Seung-wook gave up and was about to settle for a nap as originally planned when an unexpected text arrived from his friend.
He had once asked if he could come take a look around, but had dropped the idea—figured it'd be a distraction while his friend was working. Now that Cho Yihan was personally inviting him, though, his curiosity stirred.
*Why on earth does a company have a nap room AND a game room?*
He was dying to know what the place looked like.
The moment he received the address, Kim Seung-wook hurried to change his clothes. This wasn't some jaunt around the neighborhood—this was a visit to his friend's company, and showing up looking shabby would embarrass Cho Yihan in front of his people.
*It's a company, after all… should I actually put on a suit?*
A suit he hadn't worn once since his cousin's wedding. His parents had given it to him to mark his coming of age, but with no occasion to wear it, it had been gathering dust in the closet. This seemed like the moment.
He had no tie to go with it, so he went without one and headed out. He took the subway to Pangyo and hailed a taxi to the address his friend had given him.
“So this is the place…?”
It wasn't lavish or anything, but for the office building of a startup founded less than a year ago, it was a surprisingly nice six-story little building—more than it deserved, honestly.
*Well….*
He found himself recalling, yet again, just how much money his friend had made. Black Monday that summer was the kind of memory he couldn't forget even if he came down with Alzheimer's—the worst disease on any top-5 list for aging men.
Rattle. Rattle.
He tried the front door to get inside, but without a security card, it wouldn't open.
*You bastard. You invite me over and don't even think ahead?*
He made the call.
“Hello?”
“Yo. I'm here but I can't get in.”
“Ah, right. Wait a sec.”
The call ended, and after a short wait, a man who looked slightly older than Kim Seung-wook came down to the entrance.
“You're a friend of the Director's, yes?”
“Uh… if you mean Cho Yihan's friend, that's me.”
“How do you do! I'm Namgung Ung of the QA Team! I've heard so much about you being the Director's dearest friend! It is an honor to meet you!”
Taken aback by such an excessively formal greeting, Kim Seung-wook floundered.
“Whoa, please, speak comfortably. I'm the younger one here, and I'm an outsider—you really don't have to—”
“Not at all! How could I ever be casual with the friend of Director Cho Yihan, the man I respect most in this world!”
It was far too much pressure.
“S-shall we head in?”
“Oh dear, my reverence got the better of me! My apologies! I'll escort you right in!”
Tapping his card and stepping inside, Kim Seung-wook marveled at how spotless the interior was. Apparently they took building maintenance seriously too.
The two of them rode up to the sixth floor.
Just before entering the office area, Namgung Ung of the QA Team seemed to remember something and spoke up.
“Ah! There's a team leaders' meeting in progress in the office right now, so you'll need to wait a little!”
“I heard about a meeting… will it take long?”
“No, sir! It should be ending soon. The Director asked me to tell you to wait quietly inside for a moment!”
“Ah. I'll keep quiet then.”
“Thank you!”
*Keep my mouth shut and wait a bit. Easy.*
Kim Seung-wook nodded and stepped into the office.
A fairly spacious workspace.
From beyond the space screened off by partitions came the voice of his friend, Cho Yihan.
“No. This isn't a story-driven game—the story is merely one component of the game. So that users can keep enjoying it even after the story concludes, we're adding sandbox-style elements—”
Kim Seung-wook poked his head slightly past the partition for a peek and saw his friend passionately presenting a slideshow projected from a beam projector.
*You bastard. You're a real adult now….*
A presentation so polished it could've come from someone with fifteen years in the industry. Seeing Cho Yihan projecting a professional presence so unlike the side of him he showed in private, Kim Seung-wook felt a little deflated.
*He's busy—maybe it was stupid of me to say I'd come.*
The friend he used to roll around the playground with as a kid, fight with, sneak under the covers with to game all night behind their parents' backs, had suddenly grown up into a successful adult—and by comparison, Kim Seung-wook felt like nothing but a big-bodied child.
“And with that, I conclude the planning presentation for our next project. Everyone got the general feel of it, right?”
“Yesss….”
“Why so listless? I'm giving you all a week of vacation starting tomorrow, you know.”
“You're the one who said we wouldn't jump straight into developing the next project…!”
“The planning wrapped up faster than expected—what can I say? The *Dot Hero* updates also wrapped up with pretty solid reviews.”
“Liar! You said it'd start at least a month from now!”
“Tsk tsk. I said development would begin *soon*. And besides—what kind of CEO leaves his employees lazing around for a whole month? Do you have any idea how much the monthly payroll is?”
“Grrk…!”
A beauty with a face that blended puppy-like and rabbit-like features shot Cho Yihan a withering glare. Kim Seung-wook, who hadn't known his friend employed a woman that gorgeous, stole a glance at him.
*Did he hire her for her face?*
From anyone else's perspective, it looked like a surefire case of romance-goggles fast-tracking. He almost believed his friend—who was hopeless and a little dorky despite pretending otherwise—had hired her out of personal bias. But having grown up alongside him all these years, Kim Seung-wook could see not a trace of that in his friend's expression.
“Understood. Then, for today, everyone grab lunch and head home. I already gave you a full week of vacation, so I'll toss in an extra half day.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Go let your team members know. Everyone, dismissed.”
“Half-day off, yee-haw!”
Employees leapt up from their seats.
The staff filing out of the small meeting room spotted Kim Seung-wook, who'd been eavesdropping on the meeting.
“Intruder! A SPY! Director, fall back! I will subdue him!”
The enthusiastic Hwang Seok-ho, believing an outsider had secretly been snooping on the meeting, lunged to tackle him.
“No, no! I'm Cho Yihan's friend!”
Waving his hands frantically in panic, Kim Seung-wook shot a desperate look at his friend.
“Yo! Stop zoning out and say something already!”
“Director? Is this man truly your friend?”
“Yes. He is. I invited him.”
“Ah…! My deepest apologies. What a blunder. I am Hwang Seok-ho, Senior Developer of the Programming Team!”
Kim Seung-wook shook the man's hand in a daze and sighed inwardly. Maybe because these were people his friend had personally picked, but they were anything but ordinary.
“You'll all be seeing this face often, so remember it—and shouldn't you be hurrying downstairs to share the good news with your teams? Off you go.”
“Ah! Right!”
As the employees streamed out, Cho Yihan beckoned to Kim Seung-wook.
“Follow me.”
“You have your own director's office?”
“Of course. I'm called a Director, but I'm the owner and CEO. Imagine how uncomfortable it'd be for the staff if we all shared one office.”
He'd never actually worked at a company, but even he could imagine it'd be awkward working in the same room as your division commander.
“Huh?”
The moment he stepped into the Director's Office, his eyes met those of a cat looking down at him from a cat tower.
“Where'd a cat come from? You keep a cat?”
“Ah. Did I never mention it? Been a while now. Her name's Som-mungchi—she's my little sister.”
“I didn't know you liked cats.”
“Neither did I. Honestly, I don't care about other cats at all. I keep her around for her sake alone.”
His friend had been feeling like a changed person for a while now, but he hadn't expected the change to extend even here.
“So. Anyway—what was that about me being a face they'll see often?”
“Oh, that? It's nothing. Out of all the people I'd actually call friends, how many do I see as much as you? You'll probably be dropping by now and then, so I just told them to remember your face.”
“Ah, gotcha. Fair enough.”
He doubted he'd have much occasion to visit his friend's company going forward, but then again, life had a way of throwing those moments at you.
Cho Yihan sat naturally on the reception sofa and gestured to the seat across from him.
“Have a seat.”
“Okay.”
*Oof.*
The moment he sat down, the cushion swallowed his hips and lower back—clearly expensive furniture.
“I heard you earlier—everyone grabs lunch and clocks out. So are we doing a late lunch too? You really don't have to go that far because of me.”
“Why would I send my employees home to meet you? They're only working the morning and heading home because their vacation starts tomorrow.”
“What? That was the plan all along? Then why did you set our meeting for the evening when you scheduled it?”
“Because the employees clock out. I don't.”
Cho Yihan pointed at the mountain of document bundles stacked on his work desk.
“I have to get through all of that by end of day.”
“Whoa. Damn. All of that is today's workload? That's like laying ten encyclopedias flat with the font cranked down to minimum.”
It was a volume that made the textbooks he'd studied in college look like pamphlets.
“Encyclopedias are packed dense with content, while those are spaced out for easy reading—so the encyclopedias actually contain way more.”
“Yeah, I get it, I'm talking about the volume….”
The sheer quantity of paperwork was overwhelming.
“Hey. You sure you can actually get through all of that today?”
“Hm… honestly, no idea.”
“Is it urgent?”
“Urgent enough. If I don't finish today, it rolls to tomorrow—and tomorrow has tomorrow's work.”
“Yikes. Now I'm curious. Can I take a look at the documents?”
“Sure. Have a peek if you want.”
He went through the papers on the desk methodically.
Schedulers logging the employees' clock-in times, clock-out times, and development journals.
A thick stack of receipt copies for office supplies the company had purchased and meal allowances paid out to staff.
Documents itemizing electricity bills and maintenance costs run up by the PCs and the HVAC system.
Contracts with the agencies entrusted with marketing.
HR support, general affairs, finance, accounting, sales support.
Looking at all these documents jumbled together, Kim Seung-wook was flabbergasted.
“Hey! Why are YOU doing all this? These are things employees could handle. You're the CEO and you're doing every single one of these chores yourself? Don't tell me… you've got paranoia? You're one of those 'can't trust an employee unless I check everything myself' types?”
“Screw the paranoia talk. It's not like that. You need staff to delegate to before you can just sign off.”
“What? Then who were those people earlier? You said you staffed up—your company's got almost 50 employees!”
“Fifty development staff.”
“Hey, you lunatic!”
Kim Seung-wook simply could not believe it. Call him a rookie CEO all he wanted—never in his wildest imagination had it occurred to him that, in the process of hiring fifty people, his friend hadn't brought on a single employee to handle anything besides development.
“Which brings me to… give me a hand, would you?”
“What?”
“If we're going to finish all this before clocking out and going to dinner, then it needs to get done.”
At his friend's shameless request, Kim Seung-wook—who was already flabbergasted—was rendered speechless.
“Me? I'm an outsider to this company? And you're asking me to help process THIS?”
“Yep. You. An outsider. That's the thing.”
“Hey! What do I even know about this stuff!”
“Aw, come on. It's easy. It's nothing. You just cross-check documents against other documents to make sure the numbers match. Then organize it in Excel.”
“Not doing it!”
Kim Seung-wook refused in an irritated huff—but then, for an instant, the way his friend's face fell gave him pause.
*Damn it. How miserable must he be, begging a guy who just got discharged and hasn't even finished college….*
He wanted to ignore it, but he just couldn't look away.
“Haaah… fine. So where do I start?”
“Knew I could count on you. That's my friend right there.”
“Shut up. Just tell me what needs processing first.”
And so, he ended up helping Cho Yihan.
Exactly as Cho Yihan had anticipated.