[Montage (2)]
Although it lacked the precision of a photograph, it was certainly detailed enough to identify a person. The lessons he had learned from Fernandez were clearly paying off.
“Alright, next one.”
“Got it. First, the eyebrows are…”
Yoon-gi drew incessantly, and Choi Deok-bae ate hongsi (ripe persimmons) just as incessantly. The work, which had begun at sunrise, only paused when the first light of dawn broke the next day. Yoon-gi lay on his bed, watching Choi Deok-bae, who was still busy devouring the fruit.
“Is it that good?”
For a moment, Yoon-gi’s expression turned deeply puzzled.
“Pardon?”
“You’ve been eating them all day…”
“I don’t really get it. If you have money, you can eat all the delicious fruit you want. Why are you eating hongsi in the middle of summer?”
Choi Deok-bae wagged his index finger left and right, giving Yoon-gi a look of pity.
“Let’s see, the jujubes are…”
“Aren’t the top-quality ones incredibly expensive? I love seasonal fruit, so I know.”
“…So that was the reason.”
Hongsi were notoriously difficult to find in the summer. Yoon-gi had wondered why Choi Deok-bae had requested them as his payment for this job, but he finally understood.
“I was under the impression you weren’t that poor…”
Choi Deok-bae’s family had made their living in the past by taking exams on behalf of others. At the very least, they had lived much better than the impoverished scholars of Namsangol.
“Jeju tangerines?”
“Have you never been to Jeju Island?”
Yoon-gi asked, struck by how Choi Deok-bae’s words sounded like something a 21st-century person would say.
“Isn’t international travel expensive, too?”
“…Somehow, it would have been quite a sight if you had become a high-ranking official, Grandfather.”
“Sometimes, when I hear your stories, they sound truly tragic, but for some reason, they don’t feel sad when I hear them from you.”
Yoon-gi watched Choi Deok-bae shrug his shoulders, smiled, and soon drifted off to sleep. Even with his exceptional stamina, he had been drawing for nearly 20 hours, so it was only natural. The sound didn’t reach the sleeping Yoon-gi, who fell into a deep, dreamless slumber for several hours.
“Ugh…”
“It’s better to give work assignments in the morning.”
Yoon-gi called Choi Chul-kyu to his study. Choi Chul-kyu rushed to the mansion and opened the door.
“You called?”
“Yes. I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it?”
Yoon-gi handed a document to Choi Chul-kyu, who had just taken a seat.
“Information on Seth known by Im Si-chan and his subordinates. Please collect, organize, and classify all of it.”
***
Im Si-chan, who had become significantly healthier thanks to Cha Pil-gyu’s brutal training, sat politely in front of Choi Chul-kyu. They were sitting across from each other at the office reception table. He had been polite enough back when they met at the tea house, but now, his politeness was rooted in a clearly defined master-servant relationship.
“Is office life manageable?”
“Oh, ‘office life,’ you say? You provide housing, food, and exercise. Honestly, the training is a bit intense, but everyone is satisfied. We’ve all gotten healthier, too.”
Im Si-chan, who had been sturdy to begin with, had transformed into a physique with well-defined muscles through this training. Of course, he still had a long way to go compared to Cha Pil-gyu.
“I’m glad to hear you’re adapting well. I’ve received orders for you to start your duties.”
“Ah, is that so?”
Im Si-chan’s eyes lit up as he bowed slightly. The Choi Chul-kyu he knew was the number two in YK. He believed the only person who could give him orders was his benefactor, the number one, Ryu Geun-tae. Of course, these were actually orders from the number zero, Yoon-gi.
“We’ll be taking action soon, but before that, we need as much information on Seth as possible. Can you compile the information you and your men have?”
Im Si-chan, who had been kicked out of his original security firm, was now called ‘Section Chief’ at YK. However, he replied to Choi Chul-kyu without a hint of dissatisfaction.
“It’s true that we handled a lot of Seth’s dirty work, but that doesn’t mean we had much contact with the higher-ups. In fact, I only had direct contact with one person. I’m not sure if our information will be of any help. Will that be alright?”
Having spent a few months at YK, Im Si-chan knew that the company didn’t have a ‘Just do as you’re told, don’t ask questions!’ attitude, so he felt comfortable expressing his opinion clearly.
“I’m not asking for an analysis. Just write down everything you saw, heard, and did while working at Seth. You’ll have to rely on your memory, but since you’ve all worked in this field, your memories should be at least decent, right?”
“My subordinates’ memories are quite good, at least. I fired all the ones who weren’t. If they’re not sharp enough to remember a target’s face, they’re useless for this kind of work.”
“True. Someone like Section Chief Im would know exactly who to hire. By the way, I heard one of your men recently had a son?”
At Choi Chul-kyu’s words, Im Si-chan scratched the back of his head with a bashful expression.
“You even knew that?”
“Chief Cha told me. Give that employee three months of vacation.”
“Pardon?”
Im Si-chan was shocked by the unexpected command.
“His child was just born; it’s the time he’d want to be with them most. Let him take a proper three-month break. He’ll work even harder afterward. Just have him finish compiling this data first.”
“Three months is a bit much…”
Thinking it might be a test, Im Si-chan tried to decline, but Choi Chul-kyu was even more firm.
“I said let him rest. All other employees will get three months of leave when they have children. We do dangerous work; shouldn’t they at least be there when their children are born? Or is the vacancy of one person in your team that significant?”
Im Si-chan hurriedly shook his head.
“No. That’s absolutely not it. It’s just that I’ve never heard of such an order before…”
“If you do difficult and dangerous work, you should be rewarded properly. Do you not understand what I’m saying?”
Im Si-chan shook his head.
“No. I understand perfectly. It’s just… this kind of treatment… I will work hard.”
“Good. Then you may go. Give this to the employee who had the son.”
“Yes!”
Watching Im Si-chan leave, Choi Chul-kyu shrugged.
‘If I can get 19 people to work overtime voluntarily for a while at the cost of one person’s three-month salary, it’s a bargain.’
***
“Pardon? Three months of paid leave?”
The subordinate who had recently become a father jumped up from his seat in surprise, then looked at Im Si-chan with a suspicious expression.
“Hey, you’re lying to me right now, aren’t you?”
Parental leave was introduced in Korea in 1988. Even as of 2018, it hadn’t been long since women started using it comfortably, let alone a man in the 80s taking parental leave for his wife’s childbirth. The rest of the staff also looked at the new father with expressions that said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought.’
“No, it’s real. The Chief gave it to you.”
Im Si-chan handed a thick envelope to the employee, who dropped it on the floor in shock as soon as he saw what was inside.
Ten-thousand-won bills scattered across the floor.
“It’s three months of paid leave.”
“My god…”
Watching the employee who couldn’t easily pick up the money, Im Si-chan spoke again with a stern expression.
“Ten seconds.”
In an instant, the employee picked up the money with incredible speed and stood at attention.
“You’ve been talking back more lately because I haven’t been saying much, haven’t you?”
“No, sir!”
It was a scene reminiscent of the military, and the other employees stood at attention, unable to even move their eyes.
“You come back in three months.”
“…Yes!”
“I’m letting it slide this once because of the baby.”
The employee broke into a cold sweat while maintaining his posture, and Im Si-chan looked around at his other subordinates.
“Guys, are you going to be in big trouble if this guy is gone for three months?”
Unless they were idiots, they could predict that they would receive similar treatment later on. Therefore, none of the employees were jealous of their colleague’s three months of paid leave.
“Good. And we have good news, too. The higher-ups finally gave us some work.”
There was genuine excitement on the cheering employees’ faces. For an office worker, a company not giving them work is a significant source of anxiety. That anxiety was about to be resolved.
“You, go home after a few hours.”
“Yes!”
Hearing the employee’s booming reply, Im Si-chan handed out paper and pens to the staff.
***
People are very weak to visual rewards. Just as Moses couldn’t convince people to stop worshiping idols even after promising them a land flowing with milk and honey, an uncertain future doesn’t have much of an impact. On the other hand, Im Si-chan’s subordinates, having seen the three months of paid leave their colleague received, began to rack their brains with renewed courage.
Based on Im Si-chan, it was up to 17 years of memories. Recalling such a long period of time was by no means an easy task, but Im Si-chan and his men were pulling it off. Although there were parts they had forgotten or misremembered, Im Si-chan was creating a vast database by cross-verifying the information.
It was a task that would never be finished in a single day. The employee on paid leave, seeing that the work wouldn’t end in a few hours, voluntarily came in for a few hours every day to help.
The employee who voluntarily participated in the work became a source of vitality for his colleagues, and thanks to that, although it took weeks, the progress of the work became visible.
‘Even though I barely had any contact with the higher-ups, collecting 17 years’ worth of data makes it clear how the top is running things…’
Im Si-chan realized once again that he had been spared from being discarded, and he also understood why Choi Chul-kyu had given such an order.
‘Another reason to pledge my loyalty to this place has been added.’
It took six weeks for the dirt on Seth, handled by Im Si-chan’s group, to be gathered in one place. As the season entered late summer, Yoon-gi, having reviewed the classified information, spoke to Choi Chul-kyu in his study.
“Can you guess what order I’m about to give?”