Episode 17. A Line Rising from Below Is Still a Line 1.
All the events at the Sokcho training center had come to an end.
Lee Minju, utterly reduced to a squid, got into the foreign car with Seok Jiyeol.
The new employees’ gazes were the complete opposite of yesterday’s, and the HR staff didn’t even glance at her.
They treated her as if she didn’t exist.
Yesterday, after dinner with President Min Byeongsu and before going to the sashimi restaurant, I had heard Gu Hyeongjun’s inner thoughts.
[I’ll drive you out of the company with my own hands. You think I can’t do anything because you’re a National Assemblyman’s daughter? Fuck, I’ll show you what kind of place a company is. Bitch who’s going to get people killed······.]
After what President Min Byeongsu had done to him, I had expected he wouldn’t just let it slide, but the way he tormented her was more systematic and cruel than I’d imagined.
The HR staff treated her like she didn’t exist, while at the same time spreading strange rumors among the new hires.
That she had gotten in through corruption as the daughter of a National Assemblyman, and that she had come alone in a foreign car and enraged President Min Byeongsu by spouting clueless nonsense.
Since she was a National Assemblyman’s daughter and they couldn’t torment her directly, this was what they did instead.
Taking all of that together, along with what HR Office Chief Gu Hyeongjun had said on the bench yesterday, he seemed to have a great deal of cold-bloodedness, ruthlessness, cruelty, and opportunism, unlike his colleague Yang Gyeonghun.
But seeing as he maintained a close friendship with Yang Gyeonghun, who offered him no particular benefit, and looked after him, perhaps that wasn’t all there was to him.
It was just a thought that occurred to me.
As I watched Lee Minju’s foreign car disappear as if fleeing and walked toward the bus standing in the training center parking lot, someone called me from behind.
“Hey, Kim Hyeonu.”
It was Gu Hyeongjun.
“Yes, Chief.”
“You were going to ride back with the new hires?”
“Yes. I thought that would be more convenient.”
“You all right after drinking yesterday?”
I had drunk quite a lot yesterday.
But I had a strong constitution for alcohol, so I didn’t have a hangover.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Then ride in my car. I drank so much yesterday I can’t possibly get behind the wheel. Drive for me.”
That wasn’t bad.
I needed to know more about him.
His position as HR Office Chief.
His being a colleague of my direct superior, Yang Gyeonghun.
His favorable attitude toward me.
It felt like things would keep moving in a direction where I became entangled with him.
“Understood, Chief. I’ll drive you.”
He raised the corners of his mouth slightly and tossed me the car key.
“Here. The car key.”
* * *
Gu Hyeongjun, who had been slumped for a while with a hangover, opened his mouth in a languid voice.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Family? Your résumé didn’t list any family details.”
“Both my parents have passed away.”
“I see······. Siblings?”
“None.”
“Hmm······.”
Gu Hyeongjun, who had been looking out the window without speaking for a while, opened his mouth again.
“How’s company life? Manageable?”
“Yes. The team leader and my seniors treat me well, so I’m satisfied.”
“Mm······.”
Gu Hyeongjun, who had kept looking out the window, turned his head.
“I don’t know what your relationship with the Chairman is, but even putting that aside, do you realize you’re riding one hell of a line right now?”
The president of Mancheon Trading had personally intervened in personnel affairs, and the president of Mancheon Chemical and Oil Refining had personally written a ten-million-won check as a reward.
I had never seen a new employee stand out like this in just a week.
No, there probably wasn’t one anywhere.
“I’ve never really thought of it as a line.”
He gave a snort of laughter.
“Heh. Other people are desperate to grab even a rotten straw rope. Damn······ only the ones who are meant to make it, make it. What a shitty world.”
“······.”
“What do you think company life is to a salaryman?”
I had always thought I should do well at company life, but when asked what company life was, an answer didn’t come to me right away.
[It’s everything, punk. What’s left for a salaryman if you take away company life?]
Since I heard his inner thoughts, I knew the answer he wanted, but I didn’t want to borrow his answer to respond.
“I’m not sure yet.”
He smirked and asked again.
“Heh. Then do you at least have a goal for company life?”
“I do.”
“What is it?”
“To survive until the end without getting fired.”
“That’s your goal?”
“Yes.”
“Unbelievable. And you’re supposed to be in Sales······.”
“May I ask what your goal for company life is, Chief?”
“My goal?”
“Yes, Chief.”
“Obviously Noh Hyeoncheol. Becoming president. Starting from the bottom and climbing all the way to the top. What else would there be for a salaryman?”
Hyeonu thought for a moment as he drove, then asked.
“But there’s only one president, isn’t there?”
“So? Are you saying that makes the goal too absurd?”
“Rather than that, it just seems like a goal that’s too difficult to achieve.”
“Do you think achieving a goal is everything?”
If anything, it was the opposite.
I had never once thought about a life spent chasing goals.
Because I had strayed so far from the path of an ordinary life for so long, an ordinary life itself had simply been the goal I could see.
Gu Hyeongjun, who had been speaking while looking at Hyeonu, faced forward again and said in a calm voice.
“The time you spend after achieving a goal in life isn’t long. There are only a few moments like that. Life is the process. A continuation of processes. That’s what life is. And as you go through it, you grow······. So isn’t it boring to have too ordinary a goal? You only live once······. Since you only live once, it’s not so bad to run like mad, cool and stylish, is it?”
“······.”
“What are you afraid of? Just plant one flag in your head and run toward it.”
Because I was driving, I couldn’t hear Gu Hyeongjun’s inner thoughts, but it was good advice that deserved some thought.
“Thank you for the good words, Chief.”
* * *
After dropping Hyeonu off and returning to the company, Gu Hyeongjun sent a Talk message around the time he was leaving work.
-Wanna grab a drink?
A reply came from Yang Gyeonghun immediately.
-Okay
-Offcuts barbecue place, twelve o’clock
Twelve o’clock was their code word for meeting up.
It was a phrase unique to friends that had formed naturally over a long period of going through countless things together.
* * *
Just as the meat finished cooking, Yang Gyeonghun came in.
“Your timing’s fucking perfect.”
“Sorry. Department Head Kim suddenly called me in.”
As soon as Yang Gyeonghun sat down, he immediately knocked back a glass of soju and picked up a well-grilled piece of heart.
“Did our new hire cause some kind of trouble?”
He thought being called out right after the training was over had something to do with Hyeonu.
Gu Hyeongjun put a perilla leaf wrap into his mouth and answered briefly, one cheek bulging out.
“Yeah. That bastard caused trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“President Min Byeongsu of Mancheon Chemical wrote that bastard a ten-million-won check.”
Yang Gyeonghun’s eyes went round.
“Why?”
“Because that bastard gave an answer President Min Byeongsu liked.”
“What did he say?”
“There’s something. That’s not what matters······. What matters is that Kim Hyeonu is running forward at an incredible pace. And it’s only been a week.”
Gu Hyeongjun continued speaking as he neatly piled meat, seasoned scallions, garlic, chili, and salted shrimp onto a perilla leaf.
“I don’t know to what extent, but it’s true that he has some connection with the chairman. On top of that, the president is interested enough to personally get involved in personnel matters. Not only that, he’s already produced results above assistant manager level. How many days has it even been······? Of course, he’s not in charge of performance numbers, but since the department head and the president know the inside story, the practical effect is probably far greater than the figures written down. And he’s even caught the eye of President Min Byeongsu. Even I, the head of HR, am acting like this.”
Yang Gyeonghun’s hand trembled faintly as he picked up a piece of meat.
When it was laid out point by point like this, it was simply too incredible.
“You’re right······. I just thought he was some parachute hire who came down holding the chairman’s line, but this is······.”
“Exactly. He’s practically royal-family level. He might even really be royal family and just hiding it.”
“······.”
Gu Hyeongjun folded up his ssam, put it into his mouth, then immediately took a sip of soju.
“Khh. You think you can handle it?”
“H-handle what······? What am I supposed to do?”
Yang Gyeonghun, who truly knew nothing about office politics, made him let out a hollow laugh.
“Honestly, you······. That guy Kim Hyunwoo, I don’t know if it’s family or luck or what, but one thing’s certain—he’s charging ahead at a historic pace. Watch him closely, and if it really looks like he’s going to make it, help him run even faster. Since your own steps are slow, think of it as climbing onto a running horse. Then I’ll actively back you too. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”
Yang Gyeonghun, who had been holding his soju glass and chewing over Gu Hyeongjun’s words, widened his eyes.
“You, don’t tell me······.”
Gu Hyeongjun’s eyes had become bloodshot before he knew it.
He was the type to turn red quickly whenever he drank, but this felt different from usual.
It was a little frightening.
He lowered his voice and spoke in a rough, growling tone.
“Yeah. Since we couldn’t grab hold from above, let’s try grabbing hold from below. Our lives······.”
“······.”
Gu Hyeongjun’s terrifying glare returned to normal as if it had never happened.
Then, with a faint smile at the corners of his mouth, he raised his soju glass.
“Enough. Official business ends here. Let’s just drink.”
“Y-yeah.”
The two classmates clinked glasses and tossed the soju into their mouths.
Yang Gyeonghun was afraid.
But strangely, one corner deep in his chest felt itchy.
It was so itchy that, while eating meat and drinking, he had to scratch at it hard every now and then.
It was a very strange feeling.
As if the rhythm had suddenly changed in the middle of a melody that had been flowing peacefully.
He couldn’t say exactly what it was, but he had an eerie feeling that something was about to happen.
Ever since that guy Kim Hyunwoo appeared, that is.
* * *
After returning home, Hyunwoo kept hearing Gu Hyeongjun’s words echo in his mind.
For an office worker, company life is everything.
The goal is to run toward the very top.
You grow in that process, and that, in itself, is life······.
He even asked James Wang, his one-on-one English conversation partner, about the words that kept circling in his head.
Since James had said he used to work at an international trading company, he had to have that much experience behind him.
“Mr. James Wang, what was your goal in company life?”
He answered immediately, without thinking for even a second.
[To become CEO, of course.]
“Did you achieve that goal?”
[No. I didn’t. Every office worker starts from the bottom, but for me, that bottom was far too deep. Look at my skin. But because my goal was big, I made it close to CEO. I slipped at the very end, unfortunately······. Still, I have no regrets. I did my best, I learned a lot, and it was pretty fun.]
“······.”
He smiled deeply and opened his mouth again.
[I’m dying of envy that you’re worrying about things like that right now, Mr. Hyunwoo. You’re only just starting. What kind of exciting journey you’ll have from here on······ I envy you so much.]
It was a night that gave rise to many thoughts.
His goal of living an ordinary life.
Back then, he had thought that would be enough if he could just manage it······.
All of a sudden, the world seemed to have grown a little larger.
It was probably because his field of vision had broadened a little, and his mind had grown a little.