Why Did You Do That, CEO?
"Why are you hospitalized, sir? It's best to observe the progress for the next three days, okay?"
"No. I'll be discharged today, Doctor."
"Haaah... People in our country really don't listen to doctors, huh~?"
"I'm sorry, Doctor. There was something I had to do."
"Jong-seok is so lucky... He's an employee who thinks this much about the company."
The doctor sighed deeply as he wrote out the discharge form for the CEO. He was an old friend of Lee Jong-seok's.
One of the people who had carried the late CEO's coffin at the funeral.
His wrinkled old face from that distant memory still felt sharp even now.
Of course, he had straightened up now...
"Hurry and grow the company so your hyung... I mean, the CEO smiles. This time..."
"This time...?"
"Ah... I spoke without thinking. I'm still a newbie, so I have to run hard. Please take care of me."
"Why do young people push themselves so hard? You'll burn out."
"...Even if I have to push myself, there's something I have to finish quickly."
He ended up writing the discharge form with a heavy sigh.
I knew that too.
By rolling my body like this without restraint, I'd get hit in one shot...
But I couldn't rest for a full day or two right now, the most important time.
For my actor and to grow the company, I had to run right now.
'Then, shall I go?'
I put on the tailored suit brought by the doctor and slipped on the gleaming dress shoes.
Of course, it was more comfortable to wear sneakers and casual clothes for work, but as a newbie I couldn't dress like that...
As a newbie, I had to show that I'm new and tense... since everyone said they'd like it...
"Oh my, Chief! You're already at work?"
The female desk employee looked at me with eyes wide in shock, staring like I was some kind of monster.
"Hehe... If I don't work hard I won't get fired. I'm a newbie after all..."
"Still, you were bleeding yesterday... you didn't even take a break..."
"No problem! I've been exercising steadily, you know."
I lifted my arm and showed off my muscle posture with a smooth motion.
She laughed brightly and patted my shoulder.
If things were normal, we wouldn't have even known each other, and I'd have treated her purely professionally.
But after going through the Kim Director incident together, it felt like we were like old friends.
"What is it~ Hey, newbie. You're already at work?"
"Wow! You've got fighting spirit! You have more guts than those kids nowadays?"
"Hehe... You're overpraising me, senior."
The managers who kept dropping random compliments as they passed by strangely felt familiar.
'That's why Jong-seok hyung loved this place so much.'
Being friendly with the company people in a different way from the past wasn't bad at all.
If only that bastard Jeong Man-sik division chief wasn't around...
"You need to exercise more. A skinny guy like you, what's that got to do with the Kim Director?"
That guy had been unlucky from the interview.
'No... he was unlucky from the beginning. Just like me?'
The reason I couldn't run like this now was that guy.
Soon he was going to take our company's top actress Lee Sa-rang and run off to a Chinese company.
That's when JS would shake badly.
Until Crack, the male idol who had just debuted, blew up...
'I really suffered for a whole year...'
That's why I had to train Sia-noona for that day.
Of course, if I could catch Sa-rang, that would be best...
But I had to prepare for it failing.
If that happened, Crack could go even bigger...
And I could progress with what I wanted to do much faster.
"Look at you, all puffed up and covered in sweat."
"Hehe..."
"You're laughing? Haa... this bastard... what are you all doing? Not working?"
The herbivores that had gathered around the predator hid their bodies, taking cover with a wary look.
When you worked in society, you always ran into guys like that.
Those bastards who bullied subordinates with lower positions in front of people to assert their authority...
The division chief was exactly that type.
"Hey. Newbie... don't you know how to know your place?"
"Yes...?"
"You can't even solve it... why are you trying to make a big deal out of it?"
"..."
He spoke while poking my chest with his fingers, click click.
"And if you caused trouble, huh! Even if you take a few days off as penance..."
"Why are you acting like you're hot shit? Do you have no sense of place? Why? Because you became Si-a's dedicated manager, you think you're something?"
This bastard... he wasn't just annoyed about the Kim Director incident.
He was annoyed that he had been pushed out of his own line Kim Young-cheol and I was sitting in his place.
"If there's something you don't like, please tell me. I'll fix it."
I had to be even more polite.
The more I did that, the higher my reputation would rise and his would fall.
And guys like this sensed it instinctively and got even more irritated.
"Haa... look at this bastard talking back, click click~"
His finger poking my chest was starting to get stronger.
What should I do...? This bastard...
Something inside me was bubbling up.
"Look at your clothes, all messed up. Why? Are you a celebrity now?"
'Anyway, he's the guy who's going to hit me from behind... is there any reason I should hold back?'
There was no reason I should endure this ridiculous behavior.
Reputation or not, I should just act crazy and slam him in?
Just as I was about to clench my fist with force...
A loud clap echoed through the lobby.
-Clap, clap, clap, clap... It was the appearance of the CEO, the head of this company.
"Wow~ Division Chief! You said something well. Why couldn't I have thought of that?"
"Ah... You're here, CEO...?"
The division chief stumbled at the sudden appearance of the CEO and bowed his head.
The CEO patted the division chief's back with tuk tuk.
"Kang Minhyuk! You want to try acting like the division chief said? What do you think, division chief? Looks like he'll succeed?"
"Um... CEO, that..."
The hand that had been patting the back suddenly grabbed his shoulder hard.
"Why? Not good? Tell me... our division chief... we brought you in with a lot of money... let's take a look at your standards."
His eyes burned with anger as he glared at the division chief.
He looked like a good-natured person, but his true nature was a beast.
A beast wearing a shiny golden spoon in his mouth...
Even though he had been chased out of the house and was doing this at JS Entertainment...
'What... I didn't know until my hyung died...'
The CEO's hyung... sister... and his family.
The CEO's hyung, who had inherited the company, was very happy on the day he died.
He called me over and asked endless questions about the CEO with those cold eyes...
I still get chills thinking about it even in dreams.
And his sister cried a lot...
If only she had known in advance.
If only she had inherited the company, none of this would have happened.
'Myeongdong Chairman Lee...'
The person in Korea with the most cash, the Myeongdong loan shark who had built a proper company called Myeongdong Financial.
The CEO's true identity was that chairman's illegitimate son.
Also, the tragic son who cut off ties with the family the moment his father died.
There was no way the division chief could accept his gaze.
"Tell me, division chief... does our newbie look like he could act?"
"I'm sorry, CEO."
"Division chief... I didn't bring you here to ruin the company atmosphere, did I?"
"..."
"Division chief, let's just do our jobs. Just our jobs!
Line up, unnecessarily tighten the rules... I hate that stuff.
Because I don't like seeing that kind of thing, I started this company... do I have to see this face here too?"
"I'm sorry!"
Sorry my ass... You think you should be sorry?
In Jong-seok hyung's eyes it wasn't visible, but in my eyes beside him it was everything.
His face with a deeply furrowed brow, spitting curses...
"Yes... let's do well, division chief."
The CEO patted his back again with tuk tuk as he bowed his head.
The division chief's face was flushed red like it would burst.
This guy was the one who gave others the most humiliation, but when he was the one humiliated, he never forgot it.
'Tsk... does this mean I'm no different from the hyung in my previous life?'
No, maybe the division chief's betrayal would happen even faster than before.
"Okay, okay! Now let's do our jobs~ Don't watch the mood..."
Only after the CEO's big shout did the herbivores hidden behind the partitions show themselves, one by one.
'Yeah... that's why I liked this hyung.'
When superiors assert their authority, they have to do it coolly to earn respect from inferiors.
If you try to do it unnecessarily like that guy, you'll only get scolded...
"And newbie! You come here and see~"
"Ah... yes, CEO."
So we walked toward the jangsaeng gookbap shop in front of the company, leaving the blushing division chief behind.
*
*
*
Yeah... back then I hated this place so much, but after a long time it feels refreshing...
In the past I didn't like this gookbap at all.
Why was there such a thing?
It was my struggle to fill the inferiority complex about poverty in another way...
Since I never had money, I couldn't splurge like the rich, so I splurged at these small places that served food.
Just because I ate fancy food didn't make my life fancy.
"Sit. What's with the looking around?"
"Ah, yes... CEO."
"Did you come here before?"
"Yes?"
"That's what you said back then. If I sell ten million won of Grace, I'll have a drink of soju here..."
"Ah... actually, I just said it on the way to the interview."
"Really? Well, that's not important... let me see your wrist."
The CEO took off the watch on his wrist, put it on my empty wrist, and patted my shoulder.
"Ten million won of Grace... you sold it in three days?"
"Yes?"
"You won, man!"
Even though he gave me the expensive watch, he smiled happily and called his auntie.
"Auntie, here, two bowls of sundae gookbap~"
Soon our ordered sundae gookbap came out.
The CEO poured soju while looking at the steaming sundae gookbap with somewhat satisfied eyes.
"Actually... I hate this sundae gookbap so much..."
Then why did you keep feeding me this gookbap all the time?
Even though I said I hated it, hated it... you forced me to eat it!
"Ah... is that so? But why?"
"Why did I order it? Because our late father loved this so much..."
"Ah... I see..."
Kang Minhyuk, you bad guy...
Defaming the gookbap full of memories with my father...
I apologized inside and downed the cup of alcohol he offered.
So, passing the cup back and forth a few times...
He started looking at me seriously.
"But Minhyuk... there's one thing my hyung is curious about..."
"Please speak, CEO."
"Why did you do that...?"
"Yes?"
"The Kim Director... why did you do that... I clearly said to watch him, didn't I?"
In an instant, cold chill spread through the eyes that were staring directly at me.