The Final Days of Deputy Hong Ji-sam
November 30th.
November was finally drawing to a close.
If it had been like last month, he would have been frantic with the month-end closing, but this month was passing by in remarkable tranquility.
There didn't seem to be any problem hitting the baseline sales target of 3 billion won, either.
Good grief, why is a guy who's about to quit the company worrying about his sales numbers anyway? Is this what it feels like to be a daughter hoping her parents' home prospers?
Young-hoon expected the day he submitted his resignation to be the Friday when the audit results were announced.
Which meant that from this point on, no matter what happened, he must not stir up any trouble.
Fortunately, there was nothing pending inside the company today.
What remained was the month-end closing dinner, but Deputy General Manager Cho had resigned, and that Deputy Hong fellow would no doubt still be in a meltdown… so canceling it this month was the right call.
As for today's outside schedule, he was due to attend the preview screening and production announcement for Love After Separation.
Starting today, no more texts would be coming from President Lee Jae-man.
And so he was lounging around, waiting for Park Dae-ri to go fetch the coffee.
Today, as always, Park Dae-ri arrived at work carrying two cups of coffee.
The moment Young-hoon spotted him, he thrust out his hand without a word of greeting.
"I think you like coffee more than you like me."
"Why would I like an ugly male dog like you? Just hand over the coffee you brought. I'll mix in the magical herb powder for you."
"Isn't that a given? I seriously can't drink any other coffee anymore. I think I'm addicted."
"You wish. Hey, aren't you supposed to report to me starting today? Go ahead. Report."
"What kind of nonsense is that? I was with you all day yesterday. Nothing to report. Done."
"Ha. I need to think long and hard about whether I should keep this guy around as my lackey…"
Since Park Dae-ri ranked above Young-hoon on the Girin Entertainment side, he abruptly pivoted the conversation to their equal footing at LK Electronics.
"Kim Dae-ri, by the way, what's going to happen to Deputy Hong?"
"My guess? He'll resign voluntarily."
"Why do you think that?"
"Can you imagine how humiliating it'd be to quit after being formally disciplined? He probably won't even show up to the office starting today, right? Moving over to that distribution group his mother chairs is a done deal anyway, isn't it?"
"So both masterminds behind this whole mess end up quitting. What about Managing Director Kim?"
"The tail's been completely severed—surely he'll be fine. Unless that lunatic Deputy Hong does something crazy and starts gnawing on Managing Director Kim to drag things out, who knows."
"It's a shame we won't get to pay Deputy Hong back properly for everything."
"Won't the chance come around eventually? We're bound to cross paths again someday. And when we do, I'll chew him up nice and slow."
While Young-hoon and Park Dae-ri traded jokes, most of the staff finished arriving at the office.
Hwang Dae-ri of Marketing Team 2, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, sent Young-hoon a KakaoTalk message.
Quite a bit of time had passed, but sure enough, Deputy Hong failed to show up for work on time.
Looked like he was done for good.
At that very moment, a grave meeting was underway at the LK Group Audit Headquarters.
In attendance were five people: Section Chief Yoon Jung-sik and Assistant Manager Kang Myung-ho of LK Electronics' Audit Team 1, who had carried out the audit the previous day; Department Head Sung Kyung-il and Section Chief Kim Cheol-su of LK Group Audit Headquarters 1; and finally, Hong Ji-ho, the Group HR Team Leader and Deputy Hong's own older brother.
They were listening to a recording made during the dispute that broke out in the middle of yesterday's audit of Marketing Team 3.
First, Section Chief Yoon began his report.
"As you could tell from the conversation, Deputy Hong Ji-sam had made no preparation whatsoever for the supply audit, and his attitude while under audit was grossly negligent. He is also a key figure in the complaint filed with our audit team by the Seoul-area LK Electronics dealerships."
Section Chief Yoon glanced briefly at HR Team Leader Hong Ji-ho before continuing.
"Working in collusion with his direct superior Cho Jae-ho and the dealership Kyungin Distribution, he induced them to dump mobile phones into the electronics markets. Then, in order to compensate the dealership for its losses, he fabricated supply deliveries that never actually took place—and dumped those into the markets as well. Once that came to light, Deputy Hong Ji-sam and Cho Jae-ho shifted the blame onto Section Chief Kim Jong-seok of Marketing Team 3, who had nothing to do with any of it, in an apparent attempt to have him receive heavy disciplinary action."
Department Head Sung Kyung-il of the LK Group Audit Headquarters spoke with a grave expression.
"Inducing a dealership to dump products into the electronics markets at the cost of the company's own losses, and forging supply deliveries for products that were never delivered—no matter that Deputy Hong Ji-sam is the Chairman's nephew, this cannot be forgiven. Nor can his attempt to pin his own crimes on someone else. And finally, his insolent attitude and his insubordination toward a superior—those too are unforgivable."
Hong Ji-ho, HR Team Leader of the LK Group, felt his face burn so hot that he wanted to crawl into a mouse hole.
He may have been blameless himself, but the mere fact that this was his brother made it impossible to hold his head up.
"I sincerely apologize. I have nothing to say in defense of what my brother has done. Once again, I offer my deepest apologies."
"I dread to think what would happen if word of this reached the Chairman or President Hong Sang-gyu. Team Leader Hong, please share your opinion on how we should handle Deputy Hong Ji-sam."
"My recommendation is to settle this quietly with a resignation. The rumors have already spread through LK Electronics to the point that everyone knows, but still, I believe it's best to bury this as quickly as possible before President Hong Sang-gyu becomes Vice Chairman of LK Electronics."
"Then let us agree that this matter stays among the five of us. Team Leader Hong, please see to it that Deputy Hong Ji-sam resigns as quickly as possible. If there's nothing further, we'll conclude the meeting here."
Back in his own office, HR Team Leader Hong Ji-ho could not contain his fury—his head was about to explode.
The humiliation he'd suffered in that conference room because of his brother seemed destined to haunt him for the rest of his life.
And this was already the second time.
He had worn himself ragged cleaning up his brother's mess back in the Corporate Strategy Team days, and here it was again—the same circus, the same disaster. He had even sent his brother to LK Electronics on a hopeful hunch and kept watch over him meticulously, and it had all come to nothing.
They say a leaking bowl never holds water outside the house either, and true to form, in less than a year the fool had caused a colossal accident.
The man was simply beyond saving.
The right move was to quietly process the resignation, but somehow the idiot had caught wind of it and was now avoiding him.
He hadn't come home last night, and he wasn't answering his phone either.
Honestly, the man was impossible.
Meanwhile, the employees of Marketing Team 3 were enjoying a leisurely stretch of free time.
Then Park Dae-ri sent Kim Dae-ri a KakaoTalk message.
But as it turned out, fate had other plans—Young-hoon and Park Dae-ri were simply not meant to attend the preview together.
At that very moment, the phone rang. It was Chairman Choi.
"CEO Kim, if you've got nothing to do, hop over to my office."
It was only then that Young-hoon remembered he had never once set foot in Chairman Choi's office.
"Actually, Chairman, I've never seen your office before."
"I know. That's why you should take this chance to come. It's the 35th floor of Teheran Tower, right across from that old rascal Jang's building."
"Understood. If I leave now, it should take about an hour."
"Good. Hurry up and get here."
Young-hoon filed an outside-work report with Manager Kim and headed straight for Chairman Choi's executive office.
Chairman Choi's office on the 35th floor of the Teheran Building was almost identical in scale to Chairman Jang's, and the furniture carried the same antique elegance. It almost felt as though he had wandered back into Chairman Jang's office by mistake.
"Chairman, your office looks just like Chairman Jang's."
"Ah, that's because old Jang copies everything I do."
Chairman Choi had apparently given them advance notice, because a short while later Chairman Jang and Director Park arrived together.
Chairman Jang settled onto the sofa and opened his mouth in a brusque tone.
"Why call over a busy man? We're meeting tonight anyway."
"You rascal, I called you because of your China trip tomorrow, so sit still and listen. This morning my hogu little brother in China called—his private jet will be at Gimpo Airport by 2 PM tomorrow. So be at the airport by 1. The itinerary: tomorrow we rest up in Beijing with a drink with Xu Jiayin, then the day after that we head over to Shanghai in the afternoon."
"Hold on, Choi, how are you getting from Beijing to Shanghai?"
"Wang Chenchen's little brother is sending his private jet. Those men are absolutely burning up over the elixir—one phone call and they'd come running, wouldn't they? Hehehehe."
"And what about supplies?"
"CEO Kim, bring ten bottles of the elixir and some magical herb powder. The rest is personal items. Everyone knows the drill. Oh, and by this afternoon, a 200 billion won deposit will land in my account. I told them if they didn't send it, I wasn't going to China at all."
Director Park chimed in with a knowing remark.
"If you're going to ride the Chinese horse [馬] for a long time, you'd better take the elixir in advance tonight."
"Director Park, do you really like that stuff that much?"
"Of course. We're going abroad to glorify the nation, aren't we? Have those Chinese horses [馬] ever even run a race lasting five or six hours? This time, let's show them the true spirit of the great stallion of Korea. Hehehehe."
"Honestly, there's no reining you in either, Director Park."
"This time, CEO Kim is not exempt. You must run the race for at least six hours, no exceptions. Understood?"
"Don't worry. I'm confident I can last longer than the Director himself."
Once the business was more or less wrapped up, Chairman Choi looked at his watch and spoke with obvious relish, like a man who had been holding it in all day.
"Well then, shall we go earn ourselves some pocket money for China? Director Park, you've got time, don't you?"
"Of course. This time I need to win about 100,000 won. Kek kek."
"Hmph, do you have any idea how much I've been practicing at home and at the office? Unless old Jang takes it, CEO Kim will be the one losing. Come on, let's go."
"Where to?"
"One car for everyone. Departing for the Paldang Dam Spicy Fish Stew Restaurant~"
The moment Young-hoon and the three elders arrived at the stew restaurant, they laid out the game.
It was decided they would play the first half for an hour before lunch, then, after eating, run the second half for two hours.
The first half was Chairman Choi's solo stage.
The biggest losers were Young-hoon, Chairman Jang, and Director Park, in that order, while Chairman Choi appeared to have pocketed around 100,000 won.
But as the saying goes, the first strike is a dog's strike—the moment the second half began after lunch, the game turned on its head.
Chairman Choi steadily bled away his first-half winnings, and Chairman Jang charged into the lead. Young-hoon, for his part, landed a couple of upper-limit strokes and clawed his way back to nearly break even, while Chairman Choi, who had been hammered hard at his limit, watched his pot sink into the red.
And so, when the second half wrapped up and the game came to an end…
The bill for today's meal was decided: Director Park would pay.
Perhaps because he'd won last time, it felt as if he'd played a magnanimous game of hospitality Go-Stop, generously losing this round on purpose.
For Young-hoon, such a thing would have been absolutely unthinkable.
He lived by the philosophy that a game was a game—once a bet began, he would never throw a match, not even on purpose.
In any case, Young-hoon had recovered almost exactly what he'd lost, and judging by his expression, Chairman Choi seemed to have won a little as well.
Chairman Jang had probably come out roughly even, or perhaps slightly ahead…
And yet somehow, every single time they settled up, the numbers never matched. The losers inflated their losses and the winners shrank their winnings… The old saying that you could mirror-play until your eyes fell out and the money still wouldn't add up, it seemed, was absolutely true.