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Branch Manager Park's face twisted with discomfort.
"That matter... Team Leader Kim Dong-su already took care of all of it. Didn't you hear?"
"Aw, come on, Branch Manager. 'Took care of it'? Please."
Lee Seok-woo waved his hands dismissively and lowered his voice.
"Honestly? I laid all the groundwork myself. Manager Kim just got lucky with the timing and stuck his spoon in."
"Really?"
"Of course. What would Manager Kim know? A guy who only ever pushed papers at the Head Office has no idea how things actually work out in the field."
But Branch Manager Park still didn't look convinced.
The results Kim Dong-su had delivered were simply too solid.
"Still... the numbers he brought in this time were enormous. If I replace him right now, the Head Office is going to start asking questions."
As Branch Manager Park hesitated, Lee Seok-woo's expression crumpled all at once.
He glanced around the room, then rose from his chair and leaned in close—far too close—to Branch Manager Park.
And then he dropped his voice. No—more than that, he dropped the very way he addressed him.
"Hyung."
"...Huh?"
"Tae-jin, hyung! You're really going to do this to me?"
Lee Seok-woo abruptly started whining.
I was watching the whole spectacle from directly beside them, and I barely managed to hold back the laugh that threatened to burst out of me.
Being on-site made it all the more outrageous.
"Hey, Team Leader. Your manner of address is—"
Branch Manager Park flailed his hands in a panic, but Lee Seok-woo bulldozed right over him.
"Come on, hyung! Are we strangers? How much did I prop you up behind the scenes when you got promoted? That time you nearly screwed the pooch and I covered for you—did you forget that?"
"Hey! Lower your voice! What if someone outside hears you?"
"I can't lower it! Nobody's out there anyway! Why should I get pushed aside for some random pebble that rolled in out of nowhere? Hyung... I'll do well, I swear. When I come back from leave, I'll funnel all my performance numbers straight to you. Okay? If I'm shoved out this time, I genuinely have nowhere else to go."
Lee Seok-woo, nearly sobbing, grabbed Branch Manager Park's arm and shook it.
All pretense of a professional relationship had evaporated, leaving behind nothing but a clinging, sordid tangle of personal debt and desperation.
He was even leaning on Park's hidden weaknesses, pressing him with veiled threats.
"Hyung. Please... we've known each other over ten years. Have I ever once betrayed you? That Kim Dong-su kid is a Head Office man. Who knows when he'll stab you in the back? Trust me instead."
Branch Manager Park's eyes wavered violently.
His weakness was in another's hands, old affection still lingered—and now, on top of it all, an oath of loyalty.
Branch Manager Park's lips twitched.
"...Fine. Just calm down. I'll talk to HR and..."
So he was going to cave.
In the end, Branch Manager Park Tae-jin intended to discard me—the man who had proven himself through results—in order to protect his own hide, and to strike a bargain with the man who held his weaknesses in his fist.
I forced down a hollow laugh that threatened to escape my lips.
Right in front of me, right next to the single-seat sofa, stood the branch manager's desk.
And on that desk sat a telephone equipped with a broadcast function capable of transmitting to every corner of the branch.
I quietly moved toward the phone.
Thanks to Stealth Mode, they detected none of my movement.
I extended my index finger and pressed the red button at the base of the phone, hard.
Beep—
A small mechanical tone sounded, but the two men were far too worked up to hear it.
From that moment, however, every sound in the branch manager's office began streaming live through the dozens of speakers mounted in the ceiling of the main lobby.
Lee Seok-woo scooted up right against Branch Manager Park and spoke in a hushed, conspiratorial voice—crystal clear, loud enough for the entire lobby to hear.
"Hyung, thank you. Honestly, what a relief. I swear, once I'm back on the job, I'll make sure nothing ever hurts you. And you know that incident, right?"
"Yeah, yeah. Keep your voice down."
"Three years ago, when Taekwang Trading went under—you took kickbacks and approved the loan. If the Audit Department catches wind of that, we're both done for, you know that? I'm the one who forged the documents and saved your butt back then. Would Kim Dong-su have done that for you? No. It's me, because it's me, that covered it up."
In that instant, the murmuring outside the branch manager's office cut off mid-syllable.
Dead silence fell.
But inside the soundproofed office, the two men noticed nothing of the hush beyond their walls.
"Hey! We agreed that story goes with us to the grave!"
Branch Manager Park shouted in a panic.
"So get me reinstated! Cancel Kim Dong-su's dispatch right now and ship him back to the Head Office. I'm sick to death of watching you play favorites just because the kid pulled in some numbers. Come on, he's just a disposable tool to be used and thrown away anyway, isn't he?"
"Okay, okay! I'll meet the HR Director tomorrow and report that Kim Dong-su has problems and get him transferred back—so shut your mouth already!"
"Heh heh. You really are the only one, hyung. Once I kick Kim Dong-su out and take his seat, let's rake in some under-the-table money together like the old days. Mirae Construction's in a crunch right now, isn't it? Plenty to skim off that one, eh?"
"Quiet, you son of a bitch! What if someone outside hears?"
"Relax. The door's locked, remember? Who's listening?"
That was the moment.
From outside came the sound of something shattering to pieces.
Simultaneously, someone began pounding on the branch manager's door like a lunatic.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Branch Manager!! The broadcast!! The broadcast is ON!!"
Senior Associate Choi's desperate, scream-like cry came through the door.
Branch Manager Park and Lee Seok-woo both froze mid-motion.
"...What?"
Branch Manager Park's gaze drifted—slowly, so very slowly—toward the phone on his desk.
There, a red lamp glowed with a chill-inducing light.
"Uh...? Wh-why is that..."
Branch Manager Park's face turned the color of ash.
Lee Seok-woo sat frozen, mouth agape, unable even to breathe.
Loan kickbacks, document forgery, the conspiracy to oust Kim Dong-su, the pact to skim illicit money.
Every last word—without a single syllable omitted—had been broadcast live to the employees, the customers, and the entire lobby, all under the gaze of the security cameras.
"Ah... ahhh..."
Branch Manager Park fumbled with trembling hands and hastily switched off the broadcast.
But what was spilled could not be gathered again.
While the two of them were busy having their minds blown, I slipped soundlessly toward the branch manager's door.
And there, right in front of it, I deactivated Stealth Mode.
The door burst open!
I unlocked it from the inside and walked out.
The door flew open so suddenly that the eyes of every employee and customer gathered outside snapped to me in a rush.
And behind them, the ghastly-white faces of Branch Manager Park and Lee Seok-woo came into view.
"Huh...? Team Leader Kim?"
Senior Associate Choi stared at me in astonishment.
I deliberately put on a face of total ignorance—but with eyes cold as ice—and turned back toward the office.
"Branch Manager. Team Leader Lee."
"K-Manager Kim... why are you in there of all places..."
Branch Manager Park called out to me, shaking like a leaf.
I straightened my tie and spoke calmly, loud enough for everyone in the lobby to hear.
"I just caught the broadcast. Very illuminating. The Taekwang Trading kickback affair, the forged documents... and the plan to drive me out while you rake in money under the table."
"O-oh, it's a misunderstanding! This was a broadcast accident! Manager Kim, just listen to me!"
"No. I've heard everything I needed to hear. I'm only a dispatched employee—I can simply return to the Head Office. But what did our branch employees and customers ever do to deserve this? Having to sit here and listen to criminal conspiracies out loud?"
The naked conspiracy talk and profanity had poured through the speakers not only into the branch lobby, but into the elevator halls, the corridors of every floor, and all the way up to the President's office and the executive suites on the twentieth floor.
The entire head of Daehan Bank—the Head Office itself—froze solid in an instant.
In the President's office on the 20th floor, the bank president looked up at his speaker as he removed his glasses mid-signature.
In the Audit Department office on the 15th floor, the head of audit stopped mid-coffee-sip and shot to his feet.
"What is this...? Where is that sound coming from?"
"It's the branch manager's office line, Main Branch Business Department!"
"Get down there NOW! Deploy the audit team immediately!"
The entire Head Office building erupted.
Offices that had been drowsy in the lull before lunch turned, in a heartbeat, into a marketplace on fire.
Everyone strained their ears toward the speakers—reality was proving far more sensational than any trashy melodrama.
And at the very eye of that storm, I stood.
"Th-this is... what..."
Branch Manager Park Tae-jin collapsed where he stood, drained of all color, while Lee Seok-woo's legs trembled as though he were about to wet himself.
The customers and employees in the lobby stared at them with faces a mixture of shock and contempt.
That was when it happened.
The automatic doors at the branch entrance flew open as though they might shatter off their rails, and a crowd of men in black suits poured in.
Instead of the blue staff badges around their necks, they wore red-striped ID passes reading AUDIT DEPARTMENT.
The grim reapers of the bank—the Audit Team.
"Audit Department! Nobody move!"
The lead audit director barked in a voice like frost.
Behind him, the auditors surged toward the branch manager's office.
"Branch Manager Park Tae-jin. Team Leader Lee Seok-woo. You two are hereby placed on immediate standby suspension."
"O-oh, it's a misunderstanding! This is... malicious editing... no, it's like a hidden camera prank!"
Branch Manager Park scrambled backward, spouting excuses that made no sense whatsoever.
"A hidden camera? Every employee in the Head Office heard it live. Save your excuses for the interrogation room. Given the risk of evidence destruction, we're confiscating all phones and PCs—now!"
At the audit director's command, the staff moved with flawless precision.
Lee Seok-woo dropped to his knees and wailed.
"I only did what I was told! Branch Manager Park Tae-jin ordered all of it! I'm innocent! I'm the victim here!"
"Y-you... y-crazy son of a bitch!"
Branch Manager Park lunged at Lee Seok-woo's collar, but the audit team's staff held him back.
Like dogs, the two of them were dragged out.