Taking Control
“The Deputy Mayor... ordered it...”
It did not take long for the Public Relations Director to confess.
“On the Deputy Mayor’s orders.”
Lee Yun-hyeok poured coffee and distributed it to the directors sitting around the table.
“You allowed malicious protesters to occupy the Mayor’s office on the Deputy Mayor’s orders?”
Naturally, it was madness. It was, quite literally, an administrative coup.
Yun-hyeok did not show the slightest hint of agitation, and his voice remained polite, but the atmosphere in the conference room was thick with terror.
“And did the Deputy Mayor make this decision alone?” Yun-hyeok asked.
“...H-He did it together with the Future Strategy Director, the Administrative Support Director, and the Public Relations Director.”
Cold sweat drenched the back of Deputy Mayor An Yong-dae’s neck.
“Everyone. To be honest, I don’t consider disloyalty to me to be such a grave sin.”
“...”
“It must be because my leadership was lacking. I believe I share some of the blame. However!”
Yun-hyeok slammed his hand on the desk. *Thud!*
Coffee spilled over the rims of the cups.
“Future Strategy Director!”
Startled by the sudden roar, Director Lee Do-hun jerked his head up.
“Y-Yes, sir!”
“The Future Strategy Bureau is the core institution that researches, develops, and operates the city’s mid-to-long-term plans! The Baekrok-san development plan was established five years ago, making it more than qualified as a mid-to-long-term plan. Why haven’t you managed it until now?!”
His expression, which had seemed so gentle and kind, completely transformed.
“Administrative Support Director!”
“...!”
“Isn’t the General Affairs Department under your bureau the agency that reviews and supports the working environment of the civil servants in this building? Aren’t you, as the director, responsible for administrative efficiency and personnel management?”
“T-That is correct...”
“Then why! Why did you stand by and watch while an organization like that urinated in the civil petition hall, pulled a hundred queue tickets at a time, and harassed our working-level staff?!”
“...”
“Public Relations Director!”
“Yes...” Seo Yeon-hwa replied in a terrified voice.
“While a group like that misleads the media under the absurd pretext of environmental protection, why did you fail to respond all this time?!”
“The, the former mayor told us not to stir up trouble for no reason...”
“Then you should have persuaded the former mayor!”
“...”
“If the head of the local government is wrong, it is your duty to correct him!”
His voice echoed loudly all the way down the hallway.
A heavy silence fell, like the aftermath of a bomb explosion.
The atmosphere in the conference room became suffocatingly heavy.
“Actually,” Yun-hyeok said, “even if you hadn’t summoned them yourself, I would have. I’m talking about the Baekrok-san Preservation Alliance.”
The Deputy Mayor’s faction gasped in shock. They must feel quite wronged. But what could they do?
“Because such a malicious petitioning group has been eating away too much of our city’s administrative power and budget. If compromise was impossible, I intended to eradicate them. That is only natural. Even if you chose to neglect them.”
“...”
“So, the problem isn’t disloyalty.”
Yun-hyeok drank the rest of his coffee.
“It’s incompetence.”
It was a humiliating remark, but none of the three could say a word.
“Furthermore, unlike the other directors, you didn’t even have the will to cooperate with me.”
“...”
“So why should I keep the three of you around?”
Yun-hyeok checked the wall clock.
“I’ll give you some time. Make your final statements now.”
Silence stretched.
Jang Seong-woo, the Administrative Support Director, felt as if he were dreaming. How on earth did things suddenly turn out like this? Not long ago, this mayor had no background, no political career, and no supporters within the main office other than Kim Min-cheol. How had this empty-handed mayor managed to seize complete control over both political affairs and administrative operations so quickly?
Just two weeks ago, if Lee Yun-hyeok had issued a personnel order, the three of them would have defied it and requested a review.
If they could paralyze the Lee Yun-hyeok administration and hold out for just two years, the local government would change hands.
But they couldn’t do that anymore. The other side held both the justification and the power with absolute certainty.
Ten seconds.
Twenty seconds.
In the hellish silence, only the ticking of the second hand echoed.
Thirty seconds.
Forty seconds.
One minute.
To the very end, none of the three could utter a word.
“If you cannot provide a reason,” Yun-hyeok said, “I will issue personnel orders. Out of consideration for your pride as long-serving directors, I will not convene a disciplinary committee as a final courtesy. Please cooperate quietly with the transfers.”
“...Yes, sir...”
Yun-hyeok pointed toward the door.
“The three of you may leave. You do not need to attend the next political affairs meeting.”
After kicking them out, it was the Deputy Mayor’s turn.
The mayor did not have the authority to appoint or dismiss the Deputy Mayor, as he was an official dispatched by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
But.
“I am going to request a replacement for the Deputy Mayor. Will you cooperate?”
“...Yes. I am sorry.”
Just two weeks ago, he would have laughed at the mention of a replacement request. He would have scoffed, asking how a greenhorn with no ties to the central government and no political party could possibly replace him. He would have fought back, demanding an administrative appeal, claiming it was a personnel request driven by personal malice.
But now, holding out was meaningless.
“I am sorry...”
If he fought any further, his political life would truly be over. Deputy Mayor An Yong-dae quickly tucked his tail.
“Very well. You may leave.”
Yun-hyeok finished sweeping out the political line.
Future Strategy Director Lee Do-hun was reassigned to the Information and Culture Center.
Once a man who drew up the mid-to-long-term administrative plans for Mir City—a city of 490,000—and even served as Baek Hyeong-guk’s policy advisor, he was now completely excluded from budget, planning, and political decision-making. Instead, he was relegated to scheduling instructors for smartphone literacy classes for senior citizens.
“He sent him packing in one fell swoop...”
“He’s terrifying, seriously.”
The brutal personnel orders of the newly inaugurated mayor became the talk of the town among the civil servants for quite some time.
Administrative Support Director Jang Seong-woo was demoted to the secretariat of the Culture and Arts Center.
On the surface, the pretext was that he was being sent to the “front lines of Mayor Lee Yun-hyeok’s citizen-centric administrative strategy!” But in reality, he had been expelled from the main office, and his political network was effectively severed.
And Public Relations Director Seo Yeon-hwa.
She was sent to the municipal library. While Mir City’s municipal library was large in scale, when it came to actual power, it possessed absolutely none.
“This is practically exile.”
“I thought he’d be a bit naive since he came from a civic activist background, but he’s not like that at all.”
“He’s definitely a politician through and through.”
“He gave us coffee coupons, but since the political line wasn’t doing their jobs, he just ground them to dust.”
“The mayor is so young, yet he has that kind of charisma...”
In the main office’s break rooms, elevators, and various department offices, the working-level staff whispered such things as they went about their duties.
Meanwhile, the Environmental Department was thrown into an uproar because of a certain someone.
“You want me to do what?!”
Jo Hyeon-seo was utterly flabbergasted by the shocking proposal brought by the head of the Environmental Department.
“How would you like to be the secretary in the Mayor’s office?”
This was a consensus reached among the directors and department heads. Yun-hyeok needed a secretary. Back during Baek Hyeong-guk’s tenure, there had been an entire secretariat.
Although Yun-hyeok was sweeping through all the work himself with superhuman energy, he still naturally needed someone by his side to handle the administrative chores.
“And you’re quick-witted, smart, and good at your job. Don’t stay in a place like the Environmental Department for too long. No matter how hard you work yourself to the bone here, nobody’s going to notice.”
“...Chief!”
Jo Hyeon-seo was on the verge of being touched, but—
“But make sure to drop by once in a while and help out with our department’s work too.”
“That is a terrible joke. You completely ruined the moment.”
“Heheh.”
The Environmental Department Chief patted his junior on the shoulder.
“I highly recommended you. Do you think a man like him will stay in Mir City for long? Serve him well while you have the chance. Don’t grow old in the Environmental Department like I did.”
“I heard you were short-handed, Mayor.”
Yun-hyeok was looking over the Doma-myeon development materials at his desk when he met Jo Hyeon-seo.
“The office is small, so I could actually manage on my own. But having an extra pair of hands would certainly make things easier.”
“The directors will probably prefer my coffee over yours anyway.”
“Is that so?”
“I even have a barista license.”
Yun-hyeok chuckled.
“But it’s a secretary position, not a Chief of Staff, Hyeon-seo. It’s a bit ambiguous to call it a promotion. And the workload will be murderous.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Would you like to try it?”
“Yes! I’ll do it! You’ve already solved my long-standing grievance, after all.”
“Good.”
Yun-hyeok gave Jo Hyeon-seo his first directive.
“Then, first of all, please post an announcement for all employees in the main office.”
“What kind of announcement?”
“We are going to operate an in-house daycare center within the main office. Any employee with a child aged five or under is eligible to apply. Please accept applications.”
“In our city hall...?”
Jo Hyeon-seo’s eyes narrowed.
“We have a daycare center in our city hall?”
It was the first he had ever heard of it.
“We do now. On the sixth floor.”
The Mayor’s office on the sixth floor, which had once resembled the inner courtyard of Baek Hyeong-guk’s fortress, was remodeled.
Into an in-house daycare center.
Thinking about it now, it possessed the absolute best environment for a daycare.
1. Is the security excellent?
It was easily in the top tier in all of Mir City. For starters, it could not be accessed via the public elevators; one had to use the emergency stairs or a separate, dedicated elevator to enter.
Install a few security cameras, reinforce the railings, and it was good to go.
2. Is the space large enough?
It was more than enough—there was space to spare. The combined area of the vacant rooms on the sixth floor was about 215 square meters, which was suitable for a daycare with a capacity of fifty to sixty children.
The Mayor’s office would become a playroom and classroom. The secretariat would serve as a sleeping room for naps. The small conference room would be the teachers’ lounge. The VIP waiting room would be the infant care room. The balcony was perfect to be converted into an outdoor playground.
3. Will it interfere with the work of the main office staff or visitors?
Since the sixth floor itself was spatially isolated and heavily outfitted with the soundproofing materials typical of a mayor’s office, children laughing, shouting, and crying would cause absolutely no disruption.
It was, in every sense, the ideal location for an in-house daycare.
To prepare for the unique challenges of being on a high floor, they only needed to adjust the emergency stairs to secure a fire escape route and establish an emergency evacuation plan.
“Oh my god!”
The reaction from the city hall civil servants was explosive.
“An in-house daycare in our city hall?!”
Under current law, local government offices are not legally obligated to install in-house daycares. Although an increasing number of local governments have been establishing them for their symbolic value in an era of low birth rates, they remain a minority.
While the installation rate is around fifty percent in metropolitan city halls like Seoul, it is less than twenty percent in small and medium-sized cities with populations under 500,000.
And yet!
Mir City, a leader among those medium-sized cities, had just established an in-house daycare!
“Sign me up, Hyeon-seo!”
Even the Environmental Department Chief rushed over to enroll his youngest child.
In an instant, applications from working mothers and fathers poured in from all directions.
“To think the victory of the Great Battle of Baekrok-san would return as a reward like this!”
The sixth floor, once a secret chamber for Baek Hyeong-guk and high-ranking officials, was suddenly bustling with infants and toddlers.
Yun-hyeok registered the fingerprints of the children’s guardians and daycare teachers in the security elevator leading to the sixth floor.
And while he had not held an inauguration ceremony, he did hold an opening ceremony for the daycare.
There was also a policy aspect that needed to be promoted.
Which was...
It is very common for parents raising children alone to visit government offices like city hall to submit documents, receive consultations, or apply for various allowances.
If there is no one to watch the child at that moment, they naturally have to bring them along. When the accompanying child is too young, crying and fussing, both the visitor and the civil servant struggle to focus on their work, causing difficulties for everyone.
That is when this new system comes into play!
Just like giving visitors a two-hour free parking pass, visitors can now receive a two-hour childcare coupon to temporarily leave their child at the sixth-floor daycare center.
A small but highly effective policy.
The response was explosive.
And another interesting thing happened.
“We will cooperate fully...”
The Yeokdong History Preservation Society waved the white flag the moment they met Yun-hyeok.
This was the group Yun-hyeok had contacted even before dealing with Baekrok-san.
They were an organization that had filed endless lawsuits against the Cultural Heritage Administration and private developers under the pretext of preserving Japanese-colonial-era houses near Mir Station. In reality, they had illegally converted residential properties for commercial use and were holding out to secure massive redevelopment compensation.
But they trembled in fear at the news of Baekrok-san’s total annihilation.
Negotiation complete.
Yun-hyeok made another call.
“Is this the Tanseo-cheon Ecological Preservation Group?”
The next group consisted of those holding out to defend their illegal fishing grounds near the stream and protect their operating rights.
Dissolution complete!
“Is this the Educational Living Zone Protection Association?”
They claimed that the redevelopment construction around the school district violated children’s right to education, but in reality, they were the owners of local adult entertainment bars.
Destruction complete!
Rumors spread like wildfire throughout Mir City.
That the new mayor was no ordinary psycho, and if anyone tried to throw a tantrum, they would be torn limb from limb just like the Baekrok-san group.