This Is Where You'll Be Working From Now On

“Jinsu, this is where you’ll be working from now on.”

“Huh? This place…? By myself?”

“This is the D-dong Warehouse. It’s a bit of a mess, so you’ll need to clean it up yourself. If an order comes in, you’ll get a call on the intercom, so make sure you answer promptly. Got it?”

“Yes, yes. Wait, what?”

“There won’t be anything special for a while. If you have questions, just send me a message. I’ll check when I have time and get back to you.”

“Okay…”

“Then good luck. Whew. I don’t have time today, so I’ll give you a more detailed explanation next time. See you.”

It was my first day on the job. The man who introduced himself as Hwang Jeonghun was five years older than me, one of the benefactors who would make my long corporate life bearable, and one of the president’s secretaries. Always racing around to match the president’s hectic schedule, he had taken me to the warehouse that first day, then occasionally dropped by the isolated space where I worked alone just to make sure I was still breathing. He was the kind older brother who explained how the company operated and what was happening these days.

He was in charge of managing other parachute hires besides me, so he couldn’t spare me too much time. Still, he said our personalities clicked and spent quite a while talking with me, easing the loneliness of working by myself. Once we grew close enough to drop the formalities and treat each other like real brothers, he even showed consideration by occasionally asking the other female secretary to stop by and check on my survival.

Unlike Jeonghun-hyung, who followed the president on many external activities, the female secretary was in the office every day and wasn’t nearly as busy. Her duties usually involved greeting visitors, organizing calls for the president, and managing meetings and other schedules, making her one of the more relaxed people in the company.

An Sumin. The woman Jeonghun-hyung introduced me to felt incredibly awkward at first, but we gradually grew closer through conversation. We eventually became friendly enough to share coffee and have teatime together once a day. She was so beautiful—with a pretty face and great figure—that it made you wonder if she was really just a secretary. Two years older than me, she sometimes worked as a model wearing clothes she had designed herself for the company. During those extra hours, she would often complain to me about not receiving any incentives.

She was an incredibly attractive and beautiful woman, and I had once harbored special feelings for her. But I quickly gave up on the idea. I wasn’t particularly good-looking, and I figured there was no point in pursuing someone while working a menial warehouse job at a small company with a pathetic salary. I did take pride in having more personal assets than most people my age, but since I wasn’t desperate for a woman, I was able to let go of those feelings without regret.

Besides, I decided it was better not to ruin our good relationship and worked hard to erase any future visions of myself pathetically clinging to her. Thanks to that, I managed to preserve my friendship with Jeonghun-hyung. After all, the two of them were secretly dating within the company.

At first I was shocked when Sumin-noona accidentally let it slip, but now the three of us were close enough that I could naturally listen to her occasional complaints about Jeonghun-hyung and subtly pass the feedback along. My first company dinner, since I knew no one else, was with just the three of us. Feeling grateful to them for helping me settle into company life, I generously paid for everything with my card.

From my school days, I had sharpened my instincts by secretly reading light novels behind teachers’ backs. Those instincts told me these two were good people, and once I accepted them into my inner circle, I gave them a lot in return. The fact that I lasted so long at this company—when I had originally planned to quit after just a month out of consideration for my mother’s reputation—was largely thanks to Jeonghun-hyung and Sumin-noona’s help. That, and the fact that as a new graduate I had carelessly stamped my approval on the Naeil Chaeum Gongje without any proper explanation.

I still don’t understand why they created such a devilish benefit. Even though I had made a lot of money from Bitcoin, I couldn’t bear to lose that small government matching fund, so I became a slave mortgaging two years of my life. Every time I wanted to throw everything away and quit, that demonic voice would whisper: In this filthy world, you have to take the government subsidies that deduct taxes so diligently.

That’s how I endured the most difficult early days after joining the company. There was no desk, no chair—just an intercom sitting alone on a table in an environment that couldn’t even be called basic. The D-dong Warehouse assigned to me wasn’t without electricity or water, but the toilet was clogged, so I had to use the one in the neighboring warehouse. There was no one to clean the dust that piled up from the factory every day.

Sitting alone in the huge warehouse, I had to organize and classify goods that previous contractors had failed to fulfill and left behind—items that were practically waste. If I had known even a little, I would have kicked the ground a hundred times and left. But as a new graduate with no one to explain things to me, I knew nothing until Jeonghun-hyung told me and simply endured, quietly going to work.

“Don’t work too hard~ Just do it moderately. Moderately.”

“What? What does that mean, hyung?”

“Well, this place is…”

It took about six months before I became close with hyung. He was so busy that he only came by once every one or two weeks. Although our personalities matched, the limited time for conversation meant it took a long time to grow close. At that time, my social skills weren’t particularly great, so without Jeonghun-hyung and Sumin-noona, I had no one to talk to. Because of the negative perception of me as a parachute hire, I was a complete outcast who ate lunch alone in the cafeteria every time.

That’s why it took an incredibly long time to fully understand my situation, and I think I’m pretty impressive for having endured it. Six months that I don’t think I could repeat even if I went back to the past and tried again. Anyway, once I belatedly realized my circumstances, I began seriously changing the environment of the warehouse where I spent my days.

The D-dong Warehouse was a space for discarded waste that no one visited or cared about. When the company said there would be no support or interest for a parachute hire, I felt a slight rebellious spirit. With one year and six months left in my Naeil Chaeum Gongje period, I decided to do whatever I wanted and started bringing in items one by one to install in the warehouse.

I began creating my space centered around where the intercom was installed. To deal with the dust that accumulated daily, I installed a canopy. I blocked off all sides except the part used as a door to prevent dust from entering, creating an enclosed area. I cleaned the inside, brought in a desk and computer, and added some office supplies to fill the otherwise empty space. I secretly had construction done so I could use the toilet, and even installed a shower facility so I could wash off the sweat after cleaning. I found a water tap outside the toilet area and installed a sink where I could wash my hands or cups. Nearby, I placed a vacuum cleaner and mop for cleaning the warehouse.

For times when organizing the warehouse was tiring, or when Jeonghun-hyung visited, I prepared a kettle and cups. I bought coffee and tea to keep on hand. Once I had created my own work environment, it finally felt like a place where a person could live. Although I spent money, the feeling of working at this pathetic company eased considerably.

I connected the internet from the intercom to the computer, played music through the speakers connected to it, and gradually organized the warehouse. Thanks to that, I was able to continue my company life without being too bored. After that, Jeonghun-hyung, with whom I had grown even closer, introduced me to Sumin-noona and arranged for her to stop by once a day to look after me. Around the time we had become close enough to have teatime together and even have dinner as a trio, I reached my one-year anniversary with the company, and the organization of miscellaneous items in the warehouse was roughly complete.

Only after finishing the warehouse organization did I realize these were real waste products that couldn’t be organized. Occasionally, items from the neighboring warehouse were added—products judged unsellable that ultimately ended up here. The D-dong Warehouse truly deserved to be called the company’s trash dump. The warehouse, which hadn’t had a single shipment out in the past year, was slowly reaching saturation. When I asked Jeonghun-hyung what would happen to the products—whether they would be sold or thrown away—he replied:

“I don’t know. I asked the president once, but he showed no interest at all. The clothing business isn’t going as well as he thought, so he probably can’t pay much attention to it.”

“Then what happens to those things?”

“Who knows? They’ll work out somehow. For now, just organize them well. That’s the extent of your job, so even if problems arise later, no one will say much.”

“Understood. I’ll do that.”

After talking with Jeonghun-hyung, I continued my company life with a more relaxed mindset. Or to be precise, the work disappeared. After arriving at the company, looking around the warehouse once, cleaning up the accumulated dust, there was nothing left for me to do in the already-organized space. With nothing to do and feeling bored, what I focused on next was investment, including Bitcoin.

In the coin world, it wasn’t just Bitcoin. It was a time when countless altcoins were promoting themselves and enthusiastically conducting ICOs—issuing and selling new cryptocurrencies to raise initial investment funds for blockchain projects. I spent my time studying those altcoins using translators and occasionally enjoyed making pocket money through short-term trades while checking Bitcoin market conditions.

While I suffered through company life, Bitcoin also went through a difficult period but steadily rose and cruised along. The Bitcoin that had entered the 500,000 won range smoothly surpassed 1 million won, and around May 2017, not long after my one-year work anniversary, I sold all my Bitcoin at the 4 million won mark. Afterward, Bitcoin rose a bit more, which pained me, but I successfully realized nearly 700% profit. After subtracting what I had sold and used when I needed money in between, I once again had a substantial sum of 380 million won.

I used that money to leave the uncomfortable dormitory I had been living in. It was a 35-pyeong older apartment in a good location near a bustling area. Since it was in a provincial city, I was able to move in with 180 million won of my own money and a small loan, allowing me to leave the dormitory and start a new household. During this process, my parents finally found out I was doing coins. At first they said something like “What kind of gambling is that?” but when I showed them the money I had earned myself, they closed their mouths and praised me, leaving me with somewhat bittersweet memories.

Perhaps because of the clear results, my parents no longer interfered with me and respected my thoughts. Taking advantage of that, I called the woman I had been secretly sharing love with and began living together, perfectly completing my domestic setup. I was still using the car my parents had given me, so I didn’t consider buying one at the time. Thus, I came to own two houses, a car, and considerable assets, and my mind began to overflow with leisure.

Was it luck? Yes. I was lucky. I won’t deny it. Wasn’t it like Bitcoin or the lottery? I was by no means a forward-thinking genius who had predicted it would rise. And that luck didn’t end there but continued.

The foreman I contacted to remodel my newly purchased house was someone who had taken me along for manual labor jobs in the past. Through the foreman, I found contractors and proceeded with the remodeling. While talking with a Vietnamese plumber among the workers, I heard that one of his acquaintances did small-scale trading. The person bought scrap metal or goods discarded in Korea, repaired or reassembled them in Vietnam, and distributed and sold them.

When I heard there was such a person, an idea flashed through my mind. I got the contact information through the Vietnamese worker and planned to secretly invite that person to the company. Since no one at the company cared what I did anyway, I only asked Jeonghun-hyung about it, then set up an appointment and invited him to the company.

He looked around the D-dong Warehouse with me and showed a better reaction than I had expected. We decided to formally enter into a sales contract. Things had suddenly grown bigger. After sending him back, I contacted Jeonghun-hyung again and belatedly realized I had caused a major incident. Through hyung, a proper business plan was reported, approval was received, and new work began to proceed.

“Introduce yourselves to each other. You’ll probably see a lot of each other from now on. Jinsu, this is Kim Jiyeong from the management team’s accounting department. Jiyeong, this is Kim Jinsu… you know him, right? The D-dong Warehouse manager.”

The newly introduced woman was ordinarily pretty with an almost straight figure that made her chest somewhat disappointing. However, she possessed an attractive, large rear that more than compensated.

“Ah~ So you’re that person…. Hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Jiyeong. Um… since we’re the same rank, feel free to speak casually.”

“Ah, hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Jinsu.”

“You’ve done something really big this time. Really… impressive.”

The first time I met her, she glanced at me and spoke in a subtly sarcastic tone. I thought her manner of speaking was rather rude for a first meeting, but before I could feel displeased, Jeonghun-hyung laughed heartily and took control of the atmosphere.

“Haha. It’s good for the company, so why are you reacting like that, Jiyeong? Let’s all work hard together!”

“Seriously… do you know how big this is? The manager says it like it’s not his business, but our team leader and I feel like our feet are on fire!”

“Still, is that how you talk to someone who did a good job? Especially when it’s your first time meeting? And this friend does his work properly. You’ll like him, I’m telling you.”

“Sigh. I have to create the list of items to sell from scratch and calculate the prices one by one. Aack! I don’t want to work overtime…!”

“Haha. Jinsu, don’t take what Jiyeong said too personally. Everyone who works at a company feels the same way, right? This is a rather big matter, so she’s just being a bit cranky. Okay?”

“Yes, well. I understand. I didn’t realize it would become such a big deal when the thought first occurred to me…. Jiyeong, I actually have the list of items in the warehouse organized. I’ll send it to you.”

“Really?! Wow! Did you actually organize everything here?”

“Yes. Well, would you like to look around together later? I’ll show you how I organized and numbered everything.”

“Wow! Thank you! You really saved me!”

Jiyeong’s expression brightened immediately at my words. She seemed to have thought I had only organized the immediate area, because she looked around the neatly arranged warehouse with a very surprised face. She was surprised a second time upon realizing that the canopy space where they had been talking was an area I had created with my own money. After hearing about my situation from Jeonghun-hyung later, she apologized, saying she was sorry. That’s how ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we got off to a not-bad start.

After that, we formally invited the person doing the trading again. Until we finished setting the list and prices of items to sell in the warehouse and completed the contract, Jiyeong and I met frequently for work and grew close. Jiyeong-noona, who was one year older than me, often came to the warehouse under the pretext of work, drank tea, chatted, and rested before leaving. As we handled the subsequent second and third shipments together, we matched our rhythm and grew even closer.

As the large-scale clearance of the warehouse continued for a while, the space began to empty out. By the time we finished the final transaction, the warehouse had become completely empty, leaving only the truly problematic inventory and waste. The president, who realized through this opportunity that even these items could make money, actively began exporting goods to developing countries. At the same time, he opened his eyes to selling the company’s own products overseas. This became the catalyst for the sales team to expand its personnel and turn their eyes abroad.

Also, I, the number one contributor to this project, was called in.

“Jinsu. The president wants to see you.”

“Me?”

“You solved a big problem this time, so he wants to praise your achievement. He’s not usually the type to pay much attention to these things, but he seems really pleased this time.”

“Really? Is he giving me a bonus then?”

“No. The way the conversation went was…”

Since the achievement was significant, they had internally ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠decided to give a reward. After much consideration about what to do, they decided to move me out of the warehouse to the department I wanted.

“What? I actually really like living in the warehouse right now.”

“Right. You’ve suffered so much. And while it sounds good to move to the office, it would be much better to work here than to endure territoriality there, learn new tasks, and suffer stress. But now that you’ve emptied this place out, there’s nothing for you to do, is there? It’s a checkmate.”

“Sigh. Then what should I do? This isn’t a reward, it’s a punishment. When will I ever clean up my spot…”

“That’s why I’m telling you in advance. When you go in, say you’ll go to the management team. Jiyeong is there too, and that’s the only place with relatively comfortable work. And that place…”

I attended the meeting with the president, and thanks to speaking according to Jeonghun-hyung’s idea, I was able to keep my current warehouse position. Since there was no space to add another desk in the management team’s office, I had to continue staying in the warehouse I was currently using. However, while I kept my spot, I had to take on some of the management team’s work. If new products came into the warehouse, I would manage them. Finally, I was put in charge of the connection with the Vietnamese person we had traded with this time and told to manage it well. In my hand, they placed an envelope containing a 100,000 won achievement bonus.

“Wow. Fuck. Life.”

Doing a good job had only created more work. Why did I do that? I should have just stayed quietly hidden in the warehouse. Why did I bring disaster upon myself? I couldn’t tell if this situation was good luck or bad luck, but thinking that I had at least avoided the worst, I sighed and headed back to the warehouse.

With a firm resolution not to show off anymore, I received a few simple tasks through Jiyeong-noona and learned the management team’s work during my now-leisured time.

“Make this file like this, and write that one like that.”

“All of these one by one? How do you find them later…?”

“You have to look at the list. Our company doesn’t have any special programs. We’ve been doing it this way all along.”

“Sigh. I see.”

The document work I had thought would be easy. I had been fooled by Jiyeong-noona’s words that the volume was small and not difficult, but the tasks I received were truly annoying and cumbersome. This damn jeonso company barely used any special programs and demanded everything be made in Excel or Word. With my pathetic document skills that couldn’t even create a single calculating pivot table or write functions, I sighed and spent time organizing each file to look good, be easy to find, calculate automatically, and be understandable.

Now I understood why everyone’s work processing speed had been unsatisfying. While adapting to the management team’s tasks, a new person came to the warehouse.

“Hello, Jinsu. I’m Lee Eunhye, the Fashion Design Team Leader.”

A beautiful woman whose height reached my shoulders. Wearing a comfortable-looking green hoodie and a beige H-line skirt, she didn’t have a straight figure, but because of the hoodie’s characteristics, I couldn’t be sure about the top, but the volume the skirt couldn’t hide looked considerable. Following Sumin-noona, another beauty with a cold expression that seemed out of place in this company greeted me with a businesslike face devoid of smiles.

“Ah, yes. What brings you here…?”

“Didn’t you receive the notice? Hmm. Anyway, the work is really…. At the president’s direction, I brought catalogs of the inventory to hand over to the Vietnamese buyer. He also said to discuss new product transactions going forward. This is the new product catalog, so please deliver it. And if they want a specific design, please write it on this form and…”

“Ah. Yes, yes. Understood. Yes…”

With no time to appreciate her beauty, I frantically wrote down the rapid-fire work instructions in my notebook and looked at the newly created tasks with a dejected expression. Feeling an ominous premonition that such tasks would continue to increase in variety going forward, I sighed and walked to my spot.

Afterward, my prediction proved accurate without fail. Checks from the warehouse team and sales team, who seemed unable to stand seeing others succeed and had been indifferent. Unsystematic, haphazard tasks coming over from the management team. The Fashion Design Team that came under the president’s direction to give feedback and then disappeared. Having opened the gates of hell, I was in a state where I barely knew the existing tasks I was supposed to do, yet the things I had to learn kept increasing. At the same time, the work I was ordered to do increased as well.

With no direct superior to protect me, I was often mobilized for miscellaneous tasks from other departments that had nothing to do with my job. There were many times when stress piled up as I heard harsh words from others who looked down on me. But I quickly handled those tasks and endured the adaptation period. As I produced results accordingly and those around me acknowledged and recognized my abilities, other people gradually stopped disregarding me, and I was able to establish my position quickly.

That didn’t mean company life was satisfying. The small company salary was terrible, as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠expected. The stress of having to work with people I wondered how they were in the same company, the checks from other departments that would dump work on me at any moment, and the president who, despite not having been there long, kept making unreasonable demands to push goods onto the Vietnamese buyer—all of it was extremely dissatisfying.

What allowed me to endure was the steadily accumulating balance in my Naeil Chaeum Gongje account ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠each month, the monthly rent that came in regularly from the real estate I had purchased before joining the company, and the gradually rising property values. These three things. Of course, I didn’t tell the company that I had made a lot of money from coins. If rumors spread when I was already getting checked for receiving a small performance bonus… I couldn’t even imagine it, so I quietly went about my company life as if nothing was happening.

The company was already half a hobby for me, and I was thinking that once the Naeil Chaeum Gongje ended, I would quit and live like a freeloader again. It would be fine to become a full-time coin trader again, or to try running a small business. The reason I continued going to this uninteresting, stress-filled company, when I had been quietly watching for the right moment to quit, began with a small incident that occurred in early July 2017.

Receiving an invitation to a gathering that would become the decisive factor in my continued employment at this company.