Even the Grandkids' Names?
"Manager Juuung..."
"Yes?"
"Nothing giving you a hard time?"
"Uh, no, not really..."
A chill crawled up Jung Jinwoo's spine. President Choi Tae-min had sidled over out of nowhere, humming through his nose, and started kneading Jinwoo's shoulders.
"If anything's bothering you, just tell me... anything at all..."
"Nothing's bothering me. Wait... something just started bothering me..."
"What? What's bothering you?"
"P-President, do you... like men? Because I'm not that way..."
"What? Puhahaha! This guy and his jokes..."
"Guhhhh..."
It was clearly meant as a playful slap on the back, but it knocked the wind clean out of him. His spine felt like it might snap.
"I was just worried you might be having a hard time, you idiot... If my wife heard that, I'd be a dead man... hahaha..."
A forced, unnatural laugh, and that nasal drawl on top of it. And why was his face turning that shade of red?
Everyone in the office was staring at Choi Tae-min in abject terror.
Jinwoo spotted Director Ki Dong-chan standing at the edge of the office with his arms crossed. Ki Dong-chan locked eyes with him and gave a small nod — a silent message to just go along with it.
"Please don't worry. I'm doing just fine here."
"Good, good... I trust you completely, so don't you worry about a thing... If any bastard so much as lays a finger on you, you come tell me! I'll crush them into the dirt."
"Who's laying a finger on me?"
"Right... anyway, if anyone pisses you off, don't hesitate to say so... I'll protect you even if it costs me everything I own."
"Yes, sir. I appreciate the thought, at least."
"Good... now get back to work!"
Who's protecting whom? Last I checked, his entire fortune wouldn't buy much...
But Choi Tae-min's heart was genuinely, movingly sincere. Thirty years of dragging an IT company through bankruptcy after bankruptcy, through every kind of hell on land, sea, and air — that kind of grit didn't just vanish. It was that loyalty that had made Oh Gong-tae and the rest of the staff scramble so desperately to keep Kiseong IT alive.
"What happened?"
Once Choi Tae-min left the office, Jinwoo asked Team Leader Ji Jeong-eun.
"A visitor came by while you were out, Manager. He was shouting about how he'd kill anyone who touched his kid... that's why he's acting like this."
"A visitor? Who?"
"Director Hwang Seong-sik from JW Development, I think it was..."
"Haa..."
He could guess what had happened. Jo Seong-gi hadn't just made verbal threats — he'd actually moved to get Jung Jinwoo fired. Even more pathetic than he'd thought. Getting a perfectly good employee canned just because his feelings were hurt.
"We'll have to let Director Hwang go. I'll issue a stern warning to the other directors as well."
"Please do."
So that was why Choi Tae-min had shown up with that unnerving grin, massaging his shoulders. Apparently Director Hwang Seong-sik had visited Choi Tae-min while Jinwoo was out. Choi Tae-min had bellowed from the president's office, "You touch my kid and you're dead," loud enough for the whole floor to hear — and then Hwang Seong-sik had fled. So he'd been trying to get Jinwoo fired. Which explained the creepy smile and the shoulder rub.
"I don't like letting people go if I can help it... but he crossed far too many lines."
Ko Yoon-seok shook his head.
"People are so cheap. They get a scrap of power and they just have to swing it around..."
When Jinwoo had run into Jo Seong-gi, the man had said, "A word from me and you're out!" He must have told Director Hwang Seong-sik to fire Jinwoo. And Hwang, who'd already soured on Jinwoo after a few elevator encounters, must have jumped at the chance.
But that supposed titan among titans... was just Director Hwang Seong-sik?
Jinwoo snorted. This was what they meant by laughable. It was absurd, really. Both Jo Seong-gi and Hwang Seong-sik struck him as utterly pathetic — wielding that paper-thin authority of theirs without even knowing who they were dealing with.
On top of that, Hwang Seong-sik had taken money from Jo Seong-gi in exchange for handing over a share of the gold mine. A clear case of breach of fiduciary duty against the company's interests — there was no escaping punishment. Jinwoo already knew that. What was even more ridiculous was that the person who'd snitched was Noh Gyeong-se — Jinwoo's former father-in-law, and the president of Bando Jewelry. They'd paid the bribe together, and then Noh had figured that if he ratted the other guy out, he could keep the whole pie for himself.
"Then Bando Jewelry as well..."
"We'll shut it down."
"Looks like they paid a bribe. He thought that if he turned informant, it'd work out in his favor — that's him using his head, apparently... quite the character."
"He just made up a story in his own head and ran with it."
"That's about the size of it."
Like father, like daughter.
What do you even do? Huh? You call that money? You go to work for that salary?
Uncomfortable memories of being openly dismissed by Noh Gyeong-se surfaced, and Jinwoo shook his head to clear them. Every time these messy old connections cropped up, it irritated him.
"I shouldn't have brought this up. It's something I could have handled on my own. I seem to have made you uncomfortable, Chairman."
"Not at all. I need to know. It's my past... it's just that these messy old ties get on my nerves a little. But I've already let it go."
Jinwoo made a point of smiling brightly.
"The past doesn't disappear. I just don't intend to let it hold me back."
"That's right."
Ko Yoon-seok smiled with the satisfied look of a man proud of his protégé.
"Weren't you even a little worried?"
"Worried about what... I figured you'd tough it out and come through just fine... okay, maybe I was a little worried."
He saw Oh Se-eun's expression twist mid-sentence and quickly changed course. Why did a kid seven years younger than him make him walk on eggshells like this?
He'd come out to meet Oh Se-eun after receiving that text. He had no intention of apologizing, but he was curious. And he wanted to see her, too.
"Dad chewed me out... said there are so many great guys in the world, why was I hanging around a divorced man. Said it's not like I don't have guys chasing after me..."
"So what did you tell him?"
"I told him I'm an adult now, so stay out of it."
"Whoa... and you lived to tell the tale?"
He'd met Oh Se-eun's father, Oh Jang-seok. He knew exactly what kind of man he was. When that mountain bandit blew up, he was the type who'd beat a man to death with his bare fists.
"People get the wrong idea, but my dad can't do a thing to me! If I dig my heels in, I win. I'm his one and only daughter, the one he had such a hard time having. Hehehe."
Oh Se-eun was grinning with her fangs showing, like a kindergartener who'd just gotten her way. When she just sat still, she looked like a model who'd stepped off a Fashion Week runway — a perfect woman. But moments like this, she was just a kid. Then again, everyone was a kid at heart. Men especially.
"From now on, none of that 'little girl' stuff!"
"But it's fun. As long as your heart stays the same... living as all kinds of different characters makes life richer."
"I don't care, just don't. I thought I was going to die of secondhand embarrassment."
"That bad? No butterflies or anything?"
"When you said 'Take me!'... yeah, that made my heart skip a little."
"Then you should've taken me. I was actually going to let you..."
Oh Se-eun's big eyes crinkled at the corners as she beamed. Cute, and so much like a child in moments like this.
"Se-eun, please..."
"You're so weird, mister... sometimes it really seems like you like me... and then other times I wonder, can a guy even hold back like that? It's strange. Those books are total garbage. They said if you do that, the game's over... they called it a finishing move... unless..."
Oh Se-eun narrowed her eyes at Jinwoo.
"You're not, like... impotent or something, are you?"
"Wha—"
A twenty-three-year-old kid with no filter whatsoever. Not like he could demonstrate that he was perfectly normal — more than normal, actually.
"Well, I can always check later... hehehe. Impotence is a no-go! I'm going to have lots of babies, you know."
"Khack!"
She was talking as if marrying Jung Jinwoo was already a done deal.
"Oh, right! This time... I got calls from a bunch of companies. Wall Street investment firms offering to work together."
Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok had said something about that. That scaling the stable management of capital was just as important as making successful investments. That Oh Se-eun was someone who'd go far.
"Why didn't you pick a good one and join?"
"Why would I? I've got seed money now. I've got a global network. I can just build it with those guys. Oh, and..."
Oh Se-eun grinned with a sly glint in her eyes.
"Want me to let you in too, mister?"
"Me? I don't have any money!"
"Just borrow from Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok."
"Pass."
"Hmmm..."
Oh Se-eun tilted her head, her eyes sparkling.
"Something interesting happened this time... an investment firm called Morris Venture made the exact same investments we did... a few Korean funds piled in too... that wasn't you, was it?"
Morris Venture — the firm Guillaume managed. The kid was definitely going to be huge. And she'd already picked up on it. If she just added information networks and capital on top of that... she'd become an investor who could mold the world in her hands.
"I told you! I don't have any money."
"Seems like you got a proper paycheck this time, though..."
"Where did you even hear that?"
"There's a new hire at Kiseong IT who got a fifty-million-won salary after just one month, and the community boards went crazy... that's you, isn't it?"
The girl was downright psychic. So the employees had been gossiping. Was it Ji Jeong-eun?
"Forty-eight million five hundred thousand won."
"Ooooh... that's impressive! That's my boyfriend. Very well done. There, there."
He never thought he'd be this happy getting praised by a girl seven years younger. He'd earned close to a quadrillion won, and somehow getting complimented for a 48.5-million-won paycheck made his shoulders swell more.
"Want me to manage your bank account? Hand it over and I'll double it, triple it, quadruple it for you."
"Why would I hand my bank account over to you? And isn't that the classic con artist pitch?"
"Hah! What did you just say? Con artist? Don't you know what a couple's account is?"
"If it's a couple's account... you'd have to put money in too. And besides... why would we even have a couple's account..."
Jinwoo froze mid-sentence. Oh Se-eun was biting her lower lip. Danger signal.
"Calling it a couple's account is a bit much. Let's just call it an investment account. I'll put in two million won a month."
"Make it twenty million! At two million a month, when are we ever going to buy a house?"
"The bonus made it a big deposit this time. My actual salary is minimum wage."
"Fine, then put in twenty million this time and ten million a month after that. That's my bottom line."
He wanted to shout, There's an unarmed robber over here!
The kid had some ambitious dreams. Trying to set up a newlywed home already? Don't tell me she'd already picked out names for the kids?
It was absurd and ridiculous, but the problem was... he didn't hate it. Jung Jinwoo couldn't even understand himself. He liked her that much, missed her when she wasn't around, and found even her rude remarks adorable. It was a strange feeling. And yet, the moment he thought about getting physical or taking things further, why did he freeze up with fear?
"Oh, right, mister! What's your family's generational name character?"
What was the generational character again? Was it "Woo"?
"I think it's the 'Woo' character..."
"Not yours. The one for the generation below you."
"That's..."
He couldn't quite remember. Right — it was "Seo."
"I think it was 'Seo'."
"Seo? Jung Seo-jun, Jung Seo-min, Jung Seo-hyung... Jung Seo-chang..."
"What are you doing?"
"Picking names for the kids... you have to prepare in advance if you want pretty names."
Yep. She was trying to name the kids already. At this rate she'd be naming the grandchildren too.
"What's the generational character after 'Seo'? The one below that?"
"Khack!"
He was too stunned to speak. She was actually thinking about the grandchildren's names.
"It's 'Yu'."
Oh Se-eun tossed her gaze into the air, murmuring as if deep in thought.
"Jung Eun-yu... ah, that's ugly — sounds like 'metaphor.' Jung On-yu, no... Jung Seo-yu... that sounds like Chungcheong dialect..."
After thinking for a while, she looked at Jinwoo and flashed a bright smile.
"I'll think about it slowly when I have time later."
She was an entertaining character. Talking about wedding prep, wanting to open a couple's account, and even pondering grandchildren's names. A twenty-three-year-old kid, no less. He was going along with it in a daze, which was pretty absurd in its own right.
"Oh! I'm going to invest in futures this time... tell Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok to deposit in advance if he wants in."
"Futures? Of what?"
"Copper."
"Copper? That's a common metal..."
"It used to be common... but production can't keep up now."
He knew copper had become scarce. There were even occasional news stories about people overseas dying of electrocution while cutting power lines to sell to scrap yards. But was the price swinging enough to warrant a futures investment?
"Just wait a bit! Some interesting news will be coming soon..."
Oh Se-eun was grinning so wide her molars showed. She was definitely cooking something up again...