A New Beginning
A New Beginning
"Hey, you fucking bastard. Are you even human after all that?"
"Huh?"
CEO Lee Hyun-cheol looked flustered, as if he hadn't expected me to suddenly lose my temper.
But I had already decided not to think about the consequences, so I let out everything I'd been thinking about him in one go.
"You're a fucking loser who probably got bullied all through school because you're a short dick, and now that you've got a little bit of power, you think you're something? Wake up, you bastard. It seems like you can't come to your senses because only ass-kissers surround you, but keep acting like that and you'll really end up fucked. And evidence? You think the court will just let it slide if they find out you faked it? What the fuck kind of dramas have you been watching, you so-called CEO, to think money can solve everything? Do you think conglomerate chairmen go to jail because they don't have money? From the way you act, anyone would think you're a billionaire."
"You, you... you!!"
CEO Lee Hyun-cheol, who had walked an elite path all his life, seemed to have never heard such verbal abuse, and his face flushed red and purple as he pointed a finger at me.
But I was no longer afraid.
And a person with nothing to lose is invincible.
"What are you going to do by pointing fingers? What can you possibly do to me now? Or are you going to sue? Like you said, it'll take a while for the results to come out, right? Let's see if your legal team can do anything about this."
"Kim Tae-min, you bastard! Do you really want to die?!"
As I kept openly provoking him, CEO Lee Hyun-cheol eventually couldn't contain his anger and threw the water bottle that was on the conference table at me.
Chak!
But thanks to my experience playing baseball in middle school, I caught the water bottle naturally, and placed it back on the desk as I said.
"And watch your mouth. I'm also a precious child at home. I have no reason to hear that kind of talk from a piece of trash like you."
But CEO Lee Hyun-cheol didn't even listen to my words.
Probably, he was also completely hot-headed.
"Do you think you can get a job at another company after acting like this?! I can make a few calls and make sure you never set foot in this industry again!"
Flinch-
Honestly, I hadn't thought that far.
Well, if I had thought about the aftermath, I wouldn't have done it in the first place.
But showing weakness here would let him get cocky again, so I immediately sneered.
"By what right? Is the game industry your personal backyard? How are you going to stop me when I try to get a job?"
"I'll spread rumors! I'll spread everything you did and didn't do throughout the entire industry!"
"......"
The more I hear, the more pissed I get?
Even though things had come to this, that bastard Lee Hyun-cheol still showed no sign of remorse.
If anything, he was scheming, like a rat, for a chance to trample me.
So I pulled out my final hidden card.
"Can you take responsibility for what you just said?"
"What?"
"I asked if you can take responsibility."
As I said that, I pulled out a thin, stick-shaped voice recorder from the pocket of my suit jacket.
I originally bought it to record meetings, but I never thought I'd use it like this.
"Everything you've said up until now is recorded here. It was fun to chatter away thinking you'd already won, wasn't it?"
"!"
Finally realizing his mistake, CEO Lee Hyun-cheol quickly ordered the audit team leader beside him.
"Team Leader Choi! Take that! Hurry!"
As soon as he heard that, the audit team leader charged at me like it was do or die.
But that attempt was stopped by Saori, a third party who had been silently listening to all the conversation in the room.
"Stop."
The moment she muttered that in a low voice, the audit team leader's body stiffened as if he had turned to stone.
But CEO Lee Hyun-cheol, who didn't know anything, saw that and threw a fit.
"What the hell are you doing?! Team Leader Choi?! Are you messing with me?!"
"No, CEO-nim! My body suddenly won't move!"
Leaving the audit team leader, who was only able to speak, behind, I slowly approached CEO Lee Hyun-cheol, who was sitting at the head of the conference table, cracking my knuckles.
Udeuk- Udeudeuk-
"D-don't come near me!"
CEO Lee Hyun-cheol, probably thinking I was going to hit him, flinched and backed away in fright.
But I didn't stop walking.
"I was wrong! I'll apologize for everything I've done wrong to Assistant Manager Kim, so please forgive me just this once!"
His attitude, which had been so oppressive just moments ago, was now like a lie. Seeing him rub his hands together like a fly now that he was in the weaker position was utterly pathetic.
'It was because of a guy like this that my seniors...'
I could still vividly see the team members who had been caught up in office politics, forced to leave the company with boxes in their arms.
I stopped right in front of the trembling CEO Lee Hyun-cheol and took out the paper envelope I had been keeping close to my chest.
It was my resignation letter, which I had written last night.
"If it could have ended with an apology, I wouldn't have started this in the first place."
Kkugit!
I crumpled it tightly in my fist and then threw a punch at CEO Lee Hyun-cheol, who was trembling in front of me.
When I came out of the conference room after finishing all my business, I saw people from my department gathered around, whispering instead of doing their work.
I tried to ignore their stares and head to my desk to pack my things, but then I noticed the junior guy standing among them.
"......"
I walked briskly over to him.
Usually, he would have greeted me with a smile, but today he subtly avoided my gaze.
I spoke to that junior bastard.
"Hey, Lee Seok-jin."
"...Yes."
"How could you do that to me? I thought of you like a younger brother."
Honestly, I didn't really feel that much hatred.
Even though he was a puppet of CEO Lee Hyun-cheol, I knew his family was struggling, and he had only recently become a full-time employee from an intern, so he must have had a lot of unspeakable worries.
Of course, that didn't erase the sense of betrayal I felt, but compared to that fucking bastard Lee Hyun-cheol, who was absolutely unforgivable, there were at least extenuating circumstances.
Peok!
"Keoheuk!"
I punched the caught-off-guard Seokjin hard in the stomach, and as he doubled over in pain, I scattered two 50,000 won bills from my wallet over his head and said.
"This is for the trouble. Use it to buy something nice for your younger siblings at home, and don't do bad things again. This is advice from me, not just as your senior but as a hyung who knows you."
Well, I doubt we'll see each other again.
Muttering that to myself, I ignored the stares of those around me and headed to my desk to pack.
It was a desk I had used for five years, but since I didn't keep many personal items at work, even when I gathered all my belongings, it didn't fill even one box.
As I left the office carrying a cardboard box with all my belongings and boarded the elevator, Saori, who had watched the whole incident without saying a word as if she were invisible, followed me in and spoke.
"In the end, from beginning to end, seonsaeng-nim never asked me for help."
Now that she mentioned it, it was true, so I awkwardly scratched my cheek.
Yesterday, I had been begging pathetically for help, but somehow I ended up resolving it myself.
"Honestly, I didn't have the chance to."
After I heard that Seokjin bastard was a traitor and lost my temper, swearing, I was like a runaway train.
My eyes were already rolling back, and CEO Lee Hyun-cheol was furious and spewing abusive language.
If I hadn't prepared the recorder just in case, the situation might have been reversed in the end.
"But still, thanks to you coming all the way to the company, I was able to get courage."
If I had been alone, I wouldn't have even dared to get angry.
But because I had a reliable ally like her by my side, the moment I started fighting back with a feeling of resignation, a path I hadn't seen before began to appear.
In a way, I could say she became my goddess of victory.
"Huhu, empty words."
Saori said that, but she didn't seem to be in a bad mood.
Ttingdong!
Anyway, since the elevator arrived at the first floor while we were talking, I took off my employee ID card that was hanging around my neck and asked.
"Is there anything you want to eat? I'll buy it all for you as a farewell treat."
"I'm fine with anything as long as I eat with seonsaeng-nim."
"Don't say that, tell me quickly if there's something you want to eat. 'Seonsaeng-nim' has this."
When I showed her the Adult's Card I had just pulled out of my wallet, Saori looked taken aback, then chuckled and said.
"Then I want something sweet."
Because I always need sugar after using my ability.
"Okay. Then after we eat, I'll take you to a cafe I know well. It's a famous cake place that's often mentioned on SNS."
Having decided what to do in the afternoon, I left the company building with Saori, feeling somehow relieved.
It was summer.