Deputy General Manager Cho Quits
Sunday.
Young-hoon had decided that today, no matter what, he was going to rest at home. He woke up late in the morning and turned on the TV, curious about how the EPL matches from the night before had turned out — his hometown junior, Song Heung-min, played for Tottenham, and they'd gone up against Liverpool. He flipped through the sports channels and, luckily, caught the highlights playing.
It was Song Heung-min, all right. He was flying down both flanks and ended up with a goal and an assist, earning Man of the Match. His hometown junior really was the best.
A little while later, Su-jin got up and told him they were having lunch with Hee-joo's household today. There was still plenty of time to kill, so he was lazing around when a call came in from Chairman Choi.
"Chairman, what brings you calling on a Sunday morning?"
[CEO Kim, got a minute to talk?]
"Go ahead. I've got all the time in the world."
[Well, here's the thing. Those hogu fellows who went back to China yesterday called me first thing this morning. They were bragging about how they shipped their mistresses off to Hong Kong last night.]
"And?"
[And now these bastards are getting greedy, asking if they can get more of the elixir. What do you think, CEO Kim?]
Young-hoon suddenly remembered the elixir he'd brewed just last night.
"As it happens, the Taebaek Mountain Taoist Master finished up twenty bottles of elixir and three kilos of the magic herb powder last night, and I was about to call you to send them over. Even after setting aside four bottles for you and Chairman Jang, we can sell fifteen. You two took responsibility for elixir distribution, so feel free to sell them at your discretion."
[Is that right? CEO Kim, you and I and that old fox Jang are going to have to make a trip over to China one of these days. I'll put together the plan, so keep that in mind.]
"Chairman, not on a weekday, right?"
[I know, I know. When are you going to quit that damned company of yours?]
"I'll take care of that myself. Oh, and please set up a meeting with the beverage team sometime around Tuesday of next week. It's about time we started moving on a proper plan."
[Got it. I'll prepare.]
"Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, Chairman."
On a related note, he'd like to have a meeting about the drama tomorrow or so, but it being Sunday made calling Chairman Jang feel awkward. Just then, Secretary Byun called.
"Hello, Secretary Byun."
[One moment, please. I'll put the Chairman on.]
He could hear Secretary Byun handing the phone over, and then Chairman Jang's voice came through.
[CEO Kim, it's me.]
"Yes, Chairman."
[You just got off the phone with that old Choi bastard, didn't you? The hogu boys over in China are going out of their minds. They say they want to buy ten bottles or so… Well? Can you manage it?]
"I told Chairman Choi we could stretch to fifteen. But I'll need to make a trip out to the countryside to fetch them."
[Understood. That'll be more than enough to peel these Chinese hogus right out of their skins. Hehehehe.]
"Chairman Choi was talking about visiting China, though?"
[Ah, the ones doing the begging should be the ones making the trip, not us. I'll sort that out with old Choi. Oh — I'd nearly forgotten. A car gets delivered to you today. It took a while because I had it imported directly from Italy, so cut me some slack.]
"I'll enjoy the ride, Chairman. And please set up that meeting with the drama production team for tomorrow."
[Already on it. I'll book it somewhere between two and three tomorrow afternoon. That work for you?]
"Perfect. Have a good one, Chairman."
Just like that, noon rolled around. Su-jin's cousin had invited them to lunch, and it felt wrong to show up empty-handed — so Young-hoon resolved to go down empty-handed anyway, catch the hint, and then "grudgingly" pop open a bottle or two of wine.
He pressed the doorbell at the third-floor apartment, and the kids greeted him first. His cousin looked busy, apparently still preparing lunch.
"There's Young-hoon and Su-jin! Su-jin, come give me a hand in the kitchen. Young-hoon, go wake up your brother-in-law."
Young-hoon headed into the master bedroom to rouse Ki-jin — and there he was, sprawled out flat on his back, utterly wiped.
"Brother-in-law, get up. Did you run another match last night?"
Ki-jin made a show of hauling himself upright, then dissolved into whining.
"Brother-in-law, we've got a disaster. Your sister's gotten stronger than me now. The elixir kick has completely worn off, and I'm getting worked over every single night. Bring me some elixir. I need to take my revenge on your sister."
"Let's see how things go first. She wants you at lunch."
The cousin fed the kids first, and then the couple's little theatrical performance played out right before Young-hoon's eyes. It had only been last Sunday that Ki-jin had the elixir — there was no way the effects had worn off already.
"Brother-in-law, your sister scares me half to death these days. The way she pounces every night, I can't even function the next day."
"Excuse me? When did I ever pounce? The one who conked out before things even started — who was that, exactly?"
"All right, all right. Brother-in-law, noona — enough with the theater. I can see right through both of you. Just hold on a moment, I'll go get it."
"Hohohoho! Was our performance that sloppy?"
"Ahem. Brother-in-law — I'm not doing this on purpose. You understand, right?"
Young-hoon pretended to cave and brought over two bottles of wine from his apartment, and the drinking party that began in broad daylight didn't wrap up until evening. At some point Secretary Byun personally drove the new car over, but since everyone was deep in their cups, they simply took the keys and left it parked.
He went back upstairs, slept like a log, got up, ate the late dinner Su-jin had made for him — and promptly passed out again. And so their golden Sunday slipped away.
Monday.
Maybe it was the early night, or maybe the lingering elixir, but his body felt wonderfully limber. He ate the breakfast Su-jin had made, and they headed off to work together.
The first thing Young-hoon did upon arriving at the office every Monday morning was organize his work notes. The Supply Audit was scheduled to begin today. The audit team would have already run the electronic supply records through their filters; they'd come down and audit only the suspicious cases that exceeded the audit thresholds. He and the other team members — everyone except Deputy Hong — had finished their perfect audit prep the previous Friday.
He was curious how that bastard Deputy Hong had arranged his paperwork, but he decided not to waste any energy on it. In his heart, he'd already said goodbye to LK Electronics.
Today was the day Park Dae-ri would be back at work like normal, so Young-hoon was waiting for the coffee run — and right on schedule, a text arrived from President Lee Jae-man. As always, it was perfectly ordinary stuff: event requests for Five Girls were piling up; the Chinese buyers' tips from last week would be split among the members; and the staff would each receive a ten-million-won performance bonus. Finally, he asked when Director Kim and Team Leader Park would be joining.
Young-hoon replied that they shouldn't book any events that would strain the Five Girls, told him to distribute the bonuses as planned, and explained that Director Kim and Team Leader Park couldn't shuttle back and forth freely until their resignations at LK Electronics were processed.
While he was texting back and forth with President Lee, Park Dae-ri arrived at the office and handed Young-hoon a coffee.
"Your coffee, sir. And might I humbly request that you extend your grace to my cup as well."
"Watch your mouth. What if someone hears you? No harm in being careful."
"Ugh, fine, fine. Worrying is your lot in life, huh. Anyway, what are we doing about Jin-man?"
"Set up a talk with him — you and Manager Kim. We need capable people, and lots of them. If he wants to come, take him."
"Got it. So how much salary are we talking?"
"He'd need at least a manager-level package at our company, wouldn't you say? He's giving up the big-corporation premium to come over."
"At that level, Jin-man will come for sure. No question."
By the time Young-hoon and Park Dae-ri had finished their coffee-and-chat, most of the staff had clocked in. But Deputy General Manager Cho — a man who was normally punctual to the minute — still hadn't shown. His training had definitely ended over the weekend. That bastard Deputy Hong being late or absent was only expected, but Cho being late was genuinely unusual. Something might have happened.
"Manager Kim, did you happen to hear anything from him?"
"If it were you, would you call and tell me? You know how I get chewed out."
"Then maybe Lee Ji-young knows something?"
Young-hoon called Lee Ji-young over and asked why Deputy General Manager Cho hadn't come in, but she seemed just as much in the dark.
A little later, Assistant Manager Hwang from Marketing Team 2 fired off a KakaoTalk message.
The moment Young-hoon got up to head for the break room, Park Dae-ri tagged along. There, Assistant Manager Hwang filled them in on what had happened in the office last week.
"Deputy General Manager Cho submitted his resignation on Friday."
Young-hoon and Park Dae-ri blurted out in unison, startled.
"What?! Why?"
"The second you two left on your business trip, that son of a bitch Deputy Hong threw a tantrum and stormed out of the office too. A little while later, Deputy General Manager Cho came out of the conference room with this gloomy look, sat down at his desk, and sat there for the longest time like he was thinking something over. Then he got a phone call from somebody and went out — came back in the afternoon… and by then he looked a bit better."
"And then?"
"He scribbled something at his desk, then went to see Department Head Yoon. After that he announced at the top of his lungs that he'd take full responsibility, handed over his resignation, and walked out. That was the end of it."
"What do you think, Hwang? There's clearly something more to this."
"Park Dae-ri, you still have such a long way to go."
"What is it then? Out with it."
"Isn't this the textbook case of cutting off the tail? Managing Director Kim will slip away somehow, and Deputy Hong and Deputy General Manager Cho staged the whole show. The deal is, Cho takes the fall for everything, and in exchange he gets moved over to the distribution group that Deputy Hong's mother runs. You see the picture forming?"
"So that bastard Deputy Hong comes out of this completely untouched?"
"The group manages the careers of the Royal Family at the corporate level. You think they'd let him get so much as a scratch?"
Assistant Manager Hwang mulled it over for a while, then asked Young-hoon,
"Deputy Hong has plenty of cushy departments he could've picked, so why on earth is he building his career in marketing? Any of you know the reason?"
"Detective Park here will explain it in detail."
"That bastard used to work in LK Group's strategy office and assaulted a female employee. The group's women employees rose up in arms, so they had no choice but to exile him to our company. Deputy Hong pushed hard to get into the marketing team, and that's how he ended up here."
"I'm guessing there's something that requires him to make manager rank, no matter what. Like, becoming a manager is the qualification he needs to inherit something."
"Really? Then it's absolutely critical that bastard never makes manager."
"Exactly. Somehow, some way, we've got to shove a giant 'screw you' down his throat."
"Couldn't agree more."
"Come on, let's head back. We've been gone too long."
As the break room started filling up, the three of them called it quits and returned to the office. Young-hoon and Park Dae-ri relayed everything they'd heard to Manager Kim, who seemed to have already gotten wind of the news. He gathered the team members in the conference room to discuss how to handle it.
"It sounds like HR fast-tracked the approval of Deputy General Manager Cho's resignation. Textual tail-cutting. So let's just focus on doing our own jobs properly."
At that, Jin-man asked Manager Kim, looking curious.
"Then does that mean you won't have to quit the company either, Manager Kim?"
Jin-man had apparently caught wind of Young-hoon and the others' plans to resign. But Manager Kim's resolve was firm — quitting the company had always been his own decision, entirely separate from Deputy General Manager Cho.
"No, it doesn't. Once things here are wrapped up, I'm leaving. Jin-man, think it over carefully and decide for yourself whether you'll come with us."
"I'm going with you. No question."
"Good. But when we do leave, let's see it through to a beautiful finish — no matter what we've left behind. Let's nail the ending. And Jin-man, go back and double-check the documents you prepared. If Deputy Hong leaned on the audit team, there's a good chance we're the ones they'll target."
"Yes, sir!"