Episode 10. It’s Not My Fault You Fell Flat on Your Face 3.
Kim Byeongjun and Hyeonu stood by the window at the end of the hallway, drinking coffee.
Leaning his backside against the windowsill, Kim Byeongjun asked,
“Is that true?”
“Yes, Assistant Manager.”
“If what you’re saying is true, then it really means there’s something going on...”
Kim Byeongjun lowered his head and thought for a moment, then raised it again.
“I can’t believe it.”
His face rippled like an amoeba.
[To think he’d dig up information like this... What the hell kind of guy is he? I was worried I might be expecting too much from a new hire, but this is beyond expectations... Well, it was luck, but still...]
Hyeonu pretended not to notice.
“Believe what?”
“Nothing. Good work. Let’s go back in. We need to move quickly. Before they stamp the contract.”
* * *
The door to the Sales Department 3 manager’s office flew wide open, and Yang Gyeonghun walked in.
Kim Inseop, the manager of Sales Department 3, who had been looking at his monitor, spoke with an indifferent expression.
“You don’t knock, you bastard?”
Yang Gyeonghun belatedly knocked on the open door.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Happy now?”
“Huh... this bastard... You think this is your own damn bedroom?”
Yang Gyeonghun closed the door, walked over, and asked bluntly,
“Did you approve the SHS matter?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Did you approve it?”
“Huh... this bastard’s really lost it now. Did you decide to quit the company in a fit of anger?”
“Oh, come on. Did you approve it or not?”
“I didn’t. Why?”
Yang Gyeonghun let out a sigh of relief.
“Whew... thank God...”
“Crazy bastard... What a load of bullshit. Hey, Yang Gyeonghun. Are you going to keep this up? Are you doing this because you really want to take off that suit and go fry chicken?”
“What chicken... I’ll make an official report as soon as possible, so until then, absolutely do not approve it.”
“Hey, you bastard. You have to at least tell me why before I can decide whether to approve it or not!”
“That’s why I’m saying I’ll make an official report as soon as possible. Is it that hard to put the approval on hold? It’s not like you’ve ever approved anything quickly before.”
“What did you say, you bastard?”
“Anyway, if you sign the approval request that bastard Jin Seonghun brought in, just know that you’ll be going off to fry chicken along with him, Manager. I’ll find evidence somehow, so please wait until then.”
After finishing his words, Yang Gyeonghun immediately left the office.
Kim Inseop was simply dumbfounded.
When he opened the door, he saw Jin Seonghun flinch.
It seemed he had been about to come in and was startled when the door suddenly opened.
It was the reverse of yesterday morning’s scene.
It looked like he had only now finished coordinating with Horsehead and had come to get approval.
After all, he would have needed to submit an approval request with the person in charge’s signature on it.
“You here to get approval?”
Jin Seonghun smiled nastily.
“What’s it to you... whether I get approval or not...”
Yang Gyeonghun gave a snort of laughter, threw out a remark, and walked past him.
“Son of a bitch. Look at that filthy smirk on your face...”
As Yang Gyeonghun walked down the hallway, a nasty smile like Jin Seonghun’s hung on his own face as well.
To be honest, he had been a little uneasy.
Because all he had to go on was what the new hire had said.
The content was something a new hire could never have thought of on his own without seeing it in person, so he had gone ahead and done this, but even so, he couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
If things went wrong, yesterday’s cursing would be reported to the president along with it, and then it would affect his already precarious performance evaluation.
If the year ended like that, pressure to resign would be a foregone conclusion.
But after seeing Jin Seonghun’s face just now, his uneasiness vanished completely.
Because the bastard looked far too relaxed.
Could a guy who had cut their sales performance in half really look like that?
As a sales team leader, absolutely not.
Especially not if it was Jin Seonghun, who cared about nothing but climbing the ladder.
The new hire had not been wrong.
It was certain that, within an official company-to-company transaction, he had made a private deal to satisfy his own selfish interests.
* * *
Last evening...
Kim Yeongho, head of Management Support at SHS Holdings, was sitting in a Japanese restaurant in Gangnam.
Just as he thought he heard someone approaching, the door opened, and Jin Seonghun entered.
Unlike the panic on his face earlier that day, Jin Seonghun somehow seemed composed.
“I’m sorry, Director Kim. I’m a bit late.”
“Not at all. Please, have a seat.”
Once Jin Seonghun sat down, Kim Yeongho said,
“As I said during the day, I don’t think a contract with Mancheon will be possible, so being asked to meet in a place like this is a bit burdensome.”
“This isn’t an official meeting, so please don’t feel too burdened.”
Not an official meeting?
“What do you mean by that...?”
“I mean this is a personal matter, unrelated to the company.”
“...”
“This year marks exactly fifteen years since I joined Mancheon Corporation. You’re about the same, aren’t you, Director Kim?”
“...”
“After devoting our lives to the company like this, I still haven’t even paid off the loan I took out when I bought my home. If things keep going like this and I don’t get promoted, I’ll be pressured to hand in my resignation, suffer all kinds of filthy, humiliating treatment, and end up either scrubbing grills stained with pork grease or frying chicken. They say during the IMF crisis, everyone opened grilled clam restaurants, ha. Anyway... Isn’t that what life is really like for salaried workers at large corporations?”
Kim Yeongho, who had merely been staring at him in silence, asked,
“What are you trying to say?”
Just then, the door opened, and liquor and some simple side dishes were brought in.
It seemed he had ordered on his way in.
Jin Seonghun poured him a drink, then filled his own glass as well.
“Director Kim.”
“...”
“Shall we make ourselves a secret?”
“A secret?”
“Yes, a secret... I’ll tell you first, so regardless of whether you accept or refuse, I hope you’ll keep it secret. As a fellow salaried worker.”
“...”
“Then... may I tell you?”
At this point, it was impossible not to sense that there was something going on.
At times like this, it was better to hear someone out first.
Just listening wasn’t going to cause any problems.
Kim Yeongho took a sip of liquor and set down his glass.
“Well, go ahead, then...”
With a nasty hint of a smile, Jin Seonghun took a sip of liquor.
His moistened lips reflected the light and gleamed.
“After parting with you, Director, I looked into some vendors. As you mentioned, one that’s been in this industry for a long time, and of a suitable size.”
“Are you asking me to sign a contract with that vendor?”
“Yes.”
Kim Yeongho could roughly guess what Jin Seonghun was proposing.
They would take a rebate.
It was so absurd that irritation surged up inside him.
“Are you seriously proposing that as a secret? To me?”
“I’m not finished yet...”
Kim Yeongho cut him off with a displeased expression.
“You’re saying we take a few pennies from the vendor and push their business for them! And if I sign the contract, you’ll toss me a few pennies too. I have no idea what you’re thinking. With this huge mess going on, you’re going to risk your position for a few lousy coins? Honestly, I’m speechless.”
As Kim Yeongho said, this was insanity.
To try to pocket a paltry bribe in a matter that had broken on the news and even drawn attention from the higher-ups.
Besides, taking a measly rebate was something he could do on his own if he really wanted.
He could take it all himself without needing to split it with anyone.
It was just that now was not the time or place for such a thing.
“I’m not interested, so go look somewhere else.”
He spoke coldly and was getting up from his seat when Jin Seonghun’s voice came from behind him.
“Come on, I told you I wasn’t finished... Just what kind of person do you take me for...?”
“……”
“Please, sit down first.”
“……”
“Ah, I’m telling you to sit. It’s not some half-baked plan.”
For some reason, overwhelmed, he sat down.
“That company’s annual net profit is roughly around four hundred million won. The year before last, there was an accident and they took about a three hundred million won loss. If nothing happens, the owner makes enough to keep his pockets full, and if an accident happens, it’s hard even to pay the employees’ wages…… It’s the kind of small or medium-sized business you see everywhere.”
Jin Seonghun tossed back his drink in one gulp and spoke bluntly.
“You and I are each getting three percent equity there. You can do the math, right?”
Kim Yeongho went rigid.
Not exactly, but he could make a rough calculation.
The SHS Group had around twenty thousand employees.
Including the three-shift system, late-night meals, and outsourced workers, that meant an average of 2.5 meals per person per day.
The factories ran every single day, all 365 days of the year.
If they made just 500 won per meal, that was 9.1 billion won.
And if they received three percent of that, it would be 270 million won…….
It meant that as long as the contract stayed alive, around three hundred million won would flow into their back pockets every year.
“Quite a lot, isn’t it?”
“……”
“It’ll probably be more than you’re thinking, Chief. Mancheon Food Distribution will supply the ingredients cheaper than anywhere else, so the margins will improve. If an accident happens or the higher-ups pressure them to cut the unit price, things might change a bit. Well, even so, the fact that our lives will change doesn’t. What do you think? This…… is worth keeping secret, isn’t it?”
A drop of cold sweat slid down Kim Yeongho’s forehead and vanished into his eyebrow.
“I-It seems so.”
“Then let’s clink glasses. As business partners……”
* * *
Jin Seonghun held out an approval folder.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the proposal for the Mancheon Food Distribution ingredient supply deal.”
“Ingredient supply deal?”
Kim Inseop, head of Sales Department Three, opened the approval folder.
The client was not SHS, but a company called “Dami Food.”
“Dami Food? What is this? Why did it turn out like this?”
“They said an order came down from the higher-ups at SHS to exclude large corporations and only consider small and medium-sized businesses. Something about win-win management and all that.”
“Why are you only telling me that now?”
“I didn’t have time to tell you. I only heard it yesterday in their consultation room. They called me in and suddenly said that—what was I supposed to do?”
“Those crazy bastards. Are they looking down on us or what? Why would they call you in just to say that? They could’ve done it over the phone. Are we just some subcontractor? We’re Mancheon, Mancheon! We’re a Mancheon far bigger than them!”
“They said it was an order that suddenly came down from above, and they were sorry too. You know how it is. They’re a large corporation too, and if the higher-ups give an order, there’s nothing they can do.”
Kim Inseop understood, since he knew full well how large corporate organizations worked, but he could not help feeling offended.
“Ahem……”
“So what I came up with on the spot was to introduce an outsourced contractor and at least supply ingredients to them. I spent the entire day doing legwork, found a possible company, and finished consulting with the person in charge at SHS late last night. Maybe because they felt sorry, they accepted the proposal I gave them.”
It seemed he had worked quite hard under unfavorable circumstances, but Kim Inseop still found it regrettable.
A fairly large achievement had been cut in half.
In terms of margin, it had been cut to a quarter.
“Is there no other way besides this?”
“What can we do when they say it’s management policy? Still, as Mancheon Food Distribution’s first external sales result, it’s not bad. We’ll let it pass like this this time and aim properly next time.”
After thinking for a moment, Kim Inseop said,
“Fine, you can go.”
“What about the approval?”
“I’ll think about it and sign later.”
One of Jin Seonghun’s eyebrows slid upward.
“What’s the matter, Manager? You know this is urgent.”
“Hmm……”
He could have simply signed it, but for some reason, Kim Inseop seemed to hesitate.
Was it because he was dissatisfied with the result?
At that moment, the face of Yang Gyeonghun, who had passed by him, flashed into his mind.
“Did Team Leader Yang say something to you, by any chance?”
“There’s nothing like that, so don’t misunderstand for no reason.”
He said that, but his face revealed that it was because of Yang Gyeonghun.
“Honestly, letting yourself be swayed by someone like him…… Then do as you like. Whether this works out or not, it’s no longer my concern from here on.”
As he turned and walked away, Kim Inseop’s voice reached him.
“By when do I need to give a definite answer?”
As if he had been waiting for it, Jin Seonghun slightly raised the corner of his mouth, then straightened his expression and turned back.
“By three at the latest, I’d say. We can’t have them sign with Dami Food for no reason. They have to turn down a company they already know to do this……”
Kim Inseop’s gaze went to the clock.
2:42.
After thinking for a moment, he took a marker from the pen holder.
“Come here and get the signature.”
Kim Inseop had no choice but to ignore Yang Gyeonghun’s words.
It was a matter that had to be decided right now, and he could not wait around indefinitely with no end in sight.
But he could not help feeling uneasy.
“There really isn’t any problem with this, right?”
“What problem could there be? We’re supplying ingredients.”
Yes, there was nothing that could be a problem.
They were not receiving products; they were simply supplying them. What problem could there be?
The sales result had fallen short of expectations and the achievement had shrunk, but that was not a problem.