Young-hoon's Company

Like a shy star peeking through parting clouds, a lone white sailboat drifted across the deep blue sea—

The moment the song spilled from Young-hoon's lips, every mouth in the office hung wide open.

Su-min, ever the sensitive soul, was even sniffling back tears.

Even Lee Jae-man, the company's president, had never been so moved by a song in all his life.

Young-hoon's voice was admittedly nothing exceptional, and yet something in the corner of his listeners' hearts ached with a strange, hollow longing. Manager Kyeong-hwan and the rest of the Five Girls members were no exception.

"See! Isn't it really good?"

"Hmm, even by my standards as president, it's a genuinely great song—honestly, I've never heard anything like it. It's just… it would've been even better if the ones singing it were you girls instead of Young-hoon here."

Ugh, you really didn't have to add that last part, sir.

Young-hoon turned his head away, trying to shake off the embarrassment of having just sung in front of all these people—singers, no less. But as if that hardly mattered, the reaction from the Five Girls members was explosive.

"Unnie, can we really sing that song?"

"Wow, the song is so good!"

"Hye-in unnie, don't let this slip away…"

Lee Jae-man reined in the chaotically building excitement, then fixed Young-hoon with the gleaming eyes of a beast staring down its prey.

"Alright, girls, save the tears for later… You said there were other songs, right? Could you sing us another one?"

"Of course. Though I'm really not much of a singer…"

"What are you talking about, oppa! That was plenty good. Right, girls?"

"Yes!"

"I think so too!"

"……"

"Okay, Hye-in. Just give me a moment."

Carried along on some inexplicable, groundless conviction, Young-hoon cleared his throat and let the next song rise in his mind.

In that instant, tears slipped unbidden down Lee Jae-man's cheeks.

No—this is not the work of a mortal. Who is this man? Did he make some kind of pact with the devil? How can a song like this even exist…

Even in this voice, it wrenches my heart and makes me happy. But if our girls could sing this song—if they could just sing it…

I have to land this, no matter what! I'll take out loans, sell my apartment if I have to! These songs WILL be sung by my girls!

Manager Kyeong-hwan and the members felt exactly the same.

We have to sing these, whatever it takes! Then our suffering ends and the good life begins!

Heesh, Young-hoon oppa is no joke. I've got to beg him until he lets us sing them.

Hye-in unnie, fighting! We can't let that oppa get away!

After singing a few more songs, Young-hoon quietly asked Lee Jae-man:

"What do you think? Are the songs I wrote any good?"

Lee Jae-man barely managed to steady his surging emotions before answering.

"Of every song I've heard in my forty-odd years of living, these are the best. If these are properly produced and released into the world, the landscape of the global music market will change. They're so good I honestly can't decide which one should be the title track. If you could make it possible for our girls to sing these songs, I would be truly, deeply grateful."

"Young-hoon oppa, right? I'm Su-min, the maknae. We can sing these songs, can't we?"

"Oppa~ I'm Joo-yeon, the second oldest. You'll give these songs to us, won't you?"

Even Ha-yeon, the quiet third member who rarely said a word, chimed in.

"…Please."

"Oppa, I'm Ga-eun, the fourth. I don't even need to say it, do I? Please, really—please!"

Young-hoon was just as dazed by the whole situation as they were. He'd only half-jokingly sung a song for Hye-in at first, and things had ballooned into this. On top of that, the sight of everyone gazing up at him with wide, sparkling eyes was more than a little intimidating.

"Okay, fine. If any of my songs get released, they'll be sung by Five Girls. But I've never formally studied lyric writing or composition, so I'll need someone to help me finish them properly."

"Then Hye-in's the one for the job. She majored in music composition at university. Hye-in, you can do it, right?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

President Lee Jae-man jumped in hastily, determined not to let the opportunity slip.

"Arranging a song oppa's already written shouldn't be a problem… So we'd just register the lyrics and composition under your name with the Korea Music Copyright Association, right?"

"We can figure that out when the time comes. What's the rush?" Young-hoon replied breezily.

"Young-hoon, so how should we handle the contract?"

"For now, I'll work with Hye-in on the ten songs for the album. Once the songs are all finished, can't we discuss the contract then? I'm still a salaried ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠employee, after all—it's not like I can just quit my job."

"Young-hoon, forgive me for overstepping, but couldn't you finish one or two songs quickly and release them as a single? Our company's finances aren't in great shape, and the girls need to be performing."

"Then do it however you like, President. Just make sure the revenue split is airtight. Besides, it all hinges on how fast Hye-in can help me finish the songs, doesn't it?"

"You heard that, Hye-in? Why don't you go straight to Young-hoon's place tonight and work on the songs together with him?"

Young-hoon nearly jumped out of his skin at Lee Jae-man's words.

"Excuse me? What are you even saying! Why would she— my place doesn't even have a piano. Not even a guitar. The songs are all in my head, so all she'd need to do is transcribe them and arrange. Let's just work on two songs here first, me and Hye-in."

"You're sure it's all right to work here? You have work tomorrow…"

"Yeah, oppa. I don't mind. When we were kids we even slept over at each other's places, remember?"

"No, Hye-in. You're a singer first. People might get the wrong idea."

"It's fine, though…"

"President, what work would I even be doing here anyway? The lyrics are in my head, and all Hye-in has to do is listen to my songs and write them out on staff paper. Then we just arrange them to suit Five Girls' voices—that's it, right? So working here is more than doable."

That day, it was only after finishing work on two of the songs in his head alongside Hye-in that Young-hoon finally made it home in the wee hours of the morning.

Getting back so late left him utterly exhausted—but that was working life for you. No such thing as skipping the office. Dragging his leaden body along, Young-hoon reported to work like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠every other day.

Young-hoon belonged to Marketing Team 3 of the Seoul Marketing Division, which covered LK Electronics' capital-region accounts. The head of the Seoul Marketing Division was Yoon Seok-gu, a capable man and graduate of K University's law school who, whether due to friction with the executive directly above him or simple old-fashioned stubbornness, had languished as a department head for what felt like an eternity.

Yoon showed little interest in an executive promotion and paid scant attention to hitting sales targets—a complacent pacifist who wanted nothing more than for nothing to go wrong. He was from Yangyang in Gangwon Province, and on the grounds of being Young-hoon's hometown senior, he looked after him, at least a little. The Taebaek mountain range stood between Inje and Yangyang, so calling them "hometown" connections was a stretch—but with so few Gangwon natives in the company to begin with, Young-hoon played along and treated him as one.

The leader of Marketing Team 3, Young-hoon's own team, was Deputy General Manager Cho Jae-ho—an ambitious opportunist gunning for the head of the Marketing Division's seat. An SNU graduate with genuine talent, he was locked in a cutthroat promotion battle with the other two team leaders.

First thing in the morning, Cho called a meeting. In the conference room gathered six people in all: team leader Cho, the good-natured senior Section Chief Kim Jong-seok, Assistant Manager Hong Ji-sam (one year Young-hoon's senior and three years into the rank), Assistant Manager Park Sung-ho (Young-hoon's classmate and one year into the rank), and the team's youngest, junior staff member Kim Jin-man.

The moment the conference room door closed, Cho began breathing fire.

"September has barely a week left, and our sales progress is sitting at just 75 percent. Each of you will submit a plan to close the remaining 25 percent before you leave work today. Got it?!"

The team members knew better than to talk back when the team leader was throwing his weight around, so they simply bowed their heads in silence.

And so, after raging around the room for a good thirty minutes, Cho took a phone call and stormed out of the conference room.

The moment Cho left, senior Section Chief Kim Jong-seok took over the meeting.

"As you've probably all heard through the grapevine, Department Head Yoon is applying for honorary retirement this year. Which means our team leader wants that seat—but so do the other team leaders. A team leader's evaluation covers many things, but the single most important metric is hitting sales targets. So unless our team exceeds its sales goal, a promotion to department head looks unlikely. I'm asking everyone to give it your best."

The moment Kim finished, Deputy Hong picked up right where he left off—and made a point of picking on Young-hoon.

"Look at the sales figures—everyone else is pushing close to 80 percent, but Kim Dae-ri alone is stuck in the low 70s, dragging the whole team average down. So tell me, Kim Dae-ri, why exactly are your numbers so pathetic?"

Just as the old saying goes—the meddling sister-in-law is more hated than the hitting mother-in-law—this Deputy Hong never missed a chance to nitpick and torment him. Whether because his family was loaded or because of some physical deficiency, the man had never even done his military service, and he'd never repeated the job-hunting gauntlet more than the once everyone usually does. As a result, he was three years younger than Young-hoon, yet had joined the company first and got to lord seniority over him. Usually, even among peers of the same rank, people extended some courtesy for age. But this guy threw around informal speech and personal insults without a shred of shame. Young-hoon was burning up inside, but he couldn't get a single word out—a frog in front of a snake, as they say.

Emboldened by Young-hoon's silence, Deputy Hong escalated his barrage.

"Why are the sales at the retail branches you manage so pathetic, Kim Dae-ri? You're supposed to push the phones onto those branch owners! I'm at 85 percent, you know. You're barely at 70. If you can't hack it, quit the company! Why should you get to eat into everyone else's numbers!"

Young-hoon tuned out Deputy Hong's barking altogether, but his pride still stung. It wasn't as though he was genuinely bad at his job. But there was no way to say that out loud and make it stick.

He's hoarding all the well-funded retail branches for himself. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Meanwhile I'm stuck with a handful of small-time shops—and why are my sales targets set so high anyway?! There's no way I'm hitting 100 percent like this!

In the end, all Young-hoon could do was grind his teeth and mutter inwardly.

"Why aren't you answering? What did you learn in six years at this company? When your senior asks you a question, you answer. A country bumpkin from Gangwon who scraped through some third-rate dump of a university—no wonder you're what you are."

"Deputy Hong, that's enough. I'm sure Kim Dae-ri has heard plenty."

Deputy Park, Young-hoon's fellow classmate, finally spoke up from the side, unable to watch any longer.

"Take a page out of Deputy Park's book, then. You two joined the same year—so what's your excuse, Kim Dae-ri? If you've got no skills, quit! Your salary's a waste. Do everyone a favor and resign while you're at it."

Something bad must have happened at home over the Chuseok holiday, because Deputy Hong unloaded all his fury on Young-hoon for the better part of half an hour before the morning meeting finally, mercifully, came to an end.

Afterward, Deputy Park pulled Young-hoon into the break room.

"That punk Deputy Hong—I don't get it. He's a kid, for crying out loud. He shows up late one or two days a week, ditches work every single day, and takes a day or two off entirely. How the hell does his sales performance keep looking that good? It makes no sense."

"Wait—you didn't know?"

"Know what?"

"Every bulk-order sale that comes through our team gets funneled straight to Deputy Hong. You seriously didn't know that?"

"What?! Then—doesn't that mean Cho is playing favorites for him? No wonder. I thought something was off the moment those two started hanging around together!"

"He's got all the fat, cash-rich branches assigned to him, AND Cho is shoving deals his way. Good numbers are just the natural result."

"Ahh, so that's how it is. Tch. Still, Young-hoon, what can you do but put up with it? He IS your senior by hire date."

"Ugh, damn it all. Maybe I should just quit this place."

Young-hoon's first day back after the holiday was, in a word, the worst.