Episode 18. A Connection from Below Is Still a Connection 2.
As usual, Hyeonu came to work early and immersed himself in studying for the TOEIC, and before he knew it, the office had begun to fill with people.
It seemed it was already time for work to start.
He closed his book and was preparing for the day when Kim Byeongjun came in.
“Bad morning, Assistant Manager.”
Perhaps because Hyeonu had used the greeting they usually exchanged among themselves, he gave a small laugh.
“Yeah, bad morning. Studying hard again today, I see.”
“I want to take the test soon.”
“Right, the sooner you get it done, the better. What score are you aiming for?”
He had never aimed for a particular score. However,
“To be in the top one percent.”
“One percent?”
[Huh, look at how greedy this bastard is.]
Hyeonu did not think being in the top one percent was greedy.
Because whenever he had done anything, he had never failed to rank within the top one percent.
“Yes.”
Kim Byeongjun’s lips curved gently upward.
“All right. Work hard. Make sure you really get into that one percent.”
“Yes, Assistant Manager. I’ll work hard.”
A straightforward person without ulterior motives, with high self-esteem, and with nothing hidden inside.
The thought that had occurred to him several times while looking at Kim Byeongjun suddenly came to mind again.
As he was thinking this, Yang Gyeonghun and Song Gaeun came in together.
“Bad morning, Team Leader, Senior Associate.”
They, too, gave a small laugh just like Kim Byeongjun had.
“Yeah, bad morning.”
“Bad morning, Hyeonu. Did training go well?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get a little closer to your fellow new hires? From what I saw back then, the atmosphere didn’t look great.”
“Well, it’s just so-so.”
Yang Gyeonghun cut in.
“I heard you pulled off something at this training?”
It seemed he had heard from Gu Hyeongjun, who had joined the company in the same intake as Hyeonu.
“Well, a little…”
“Pulled off what?”
“He got a ten-million-won bonus.”
Song Gaeun’s eyes widened, and even Kim Byeongjun, who rarely blinked at anything, seemed a little surprised.
“Why?”
“CEO Min Byeongsu showed up at the dinner with the executives, and I guess he gave an answer the man liked.”
“What on earth did you say to get ten million won…? What did you answer?”
“It wasn’t anything special. It was just a business problem, and I think he happened to like my answer.”
Kim Byeongjun shook his head with a laugh, as if dumbfounded, when Yang Gyeonghun suddenly entered his view.
His expression looked bitter, somehow complicated.
Yang Gyeonghun’s mood stayed that way all morning.
It was like that whenever he looked at Hyeonu, and from time to time he would glance at him.
Since it was not the Yang Gyeonghun Kim Byeongjun had seen all this time, he tilted his head in puzzlement.
* * *
Kim Byeongjun had a separate lunch appointment, so Hyeonu went to the company cafeteria with Yang Gyeonghun and Song Gaeun, the three of them together.
He had piled his tray high with rice and was eating when someone approached and plopped down beside Yang Gyeonghun.
“Oh! Team Leader Kang.”
It was Kang Jihyeok, the team leader of Planning Team Two and Yang Gyeonghun’s fellow intake.
Song Gaeun smiled brightly as she greeted him.
“Hello, Team Leader Kang.”
“Oh, right. Senior Associate Song, you still don’t have a boyfriend, do you?”
Song Gaeun looked strangely flustered, and Yang Gyeonghun and Hyeonu subtly averted their eyes.
Because all three of them had thought of the horse-head.
Even that morning, when he saw Song Gaeun, that guy’s mug had suddenly come to mind. The bastard had certainly left a proper impression.
Sensing the odd atmosphere in Sales Team Nine, Team Leader Kang asked,
“What is it? Did you get a boyfriend, maybe?”
“She almost did.”
Song Gaeun bristled.
“Team Leader!”
“Ah, sorry.”
Kang Jihyeok tilted his head.
“Almost? Then you don’t have one.”
“Please stop. I’m not interested in men.”
“Hey, Senior Associate Song. Don’t be like that and just meet my youngest brother once. He’s doing a doctorate at Yeonje University. Once that guy graduates, women who want to marry him will be lining up.”
“I told you, he’s not my type.”
“What’s wrong with my brother’s type? Isn’t he totally nice enough?”
“Ah, I said I don’t want to.”
“Huh, honestly.”
Kang Jihyeok’s gaze met Hyeonu’s.
“You’re that new hire who came in this time?”
“Yes, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Kim Hyeonu.”
“Hmm…”
He took out his phone and held it up in front of Hyeonu’s eyes.
“Look at this. Is he ugly?”
It was a photo taken at the gym, and with a handsome face and a well-maintained body, he was quite good-looking.
“I don’t think he’s ugly.”
“You don’t think he’s ugly?”
[That’s not how you say it! You should say he’s handsome, you idiot.]
“He’s handsome.”
“See? He says he’s handsome.”
“When did I say he was ugly? I said he’s not my type.”
Yang Gyeonghun cut in with a wry smile.
“She has her own unique type. She’s got firm standards. Hmm… His forehead has to be narrower than your brother’s, his philtrum has to be about thirty percent longer, and his jaw…”
“Team Leader!”
At Song Gaeun’s indignant outburst, Yang Gyeonghun quickly shut his mouth.
Kang Jihyeok, who had been constructing an image from the description while looking at the photo, tilted his head.
“Oh! If you do that, he’d be a complete horse-face.”
Yang Gyeonghun burst out laughing, and Hyeonu laughed as well.
It was the first time Hyeonu had laughed enough to show his teeth in the ten days since joining the company.
“What is this? Do you really like horse-faced guys?”
“I said I don’t! Team Leader, why do you keep making me sound weird?”
“Heh heh, I’m joking, joking.”
Yang Gyeonghun asked Kang Jihyeok with a smile.
“Did you eat?”
“Yeah, I just ate and was on my way out. I had something to tell you, and then I happened to see you.”
“What is it?”
Kang Jihyeok looked around as if he were about to share some secret.
They were sitting in a corner, and the seats around them were empty, so there had been no one to eavesdrop in the first place.
Still, when telling a story like this, this was what gave it flavor.
“You know Executive Director Choe Jeonggeun is pushing the bio business like his life depends on it, right?”
Originally, Mancheon had not touched the bio or pharmaceutical sectors, but lately Executive Director Choe Jeonggeun had been relentlessly pushing the bio side.
“Don’t even get me started. At every department head meeting, he raises hell telling us to submit proposals for the bio side. I had a drink with the department head last time, and it looked like he was being squeezed to death by Executive Director Choe too.”
“Our planning team is the same. He nags us every chance he gets, and it’s killing me, seriously. Mancheon Corporation isn’t only running one or two businesses, so how are we supposed to focus only on bio?”
He hunched his shoulders as if sharing another secret and whispered.
“But you see. Our team found something really damn good.”
“What is it?”
“It’s called Yangwoo Bio. It looks like their Phase III clinical trial is going to pass this time.”
“Phase III for what?”
“Cancer. An anti-cancer drug. It seems to have almost no side effects, and it looks like it’ll be a breakthrough treatment, especially for brain tumors.”
Hyeonu, who had been eating and listening without much thought, stopped his spoon and turned his gaze to Kang Jihyeok.
Because he had heard the words brain tumor, which had taken his father’s life.
“This’ll be coming down to the sales teams before long, so don’t let another team take it. Make sure you grab it. It looks like it’ll become a pretty big business.”
Yang Gyeonghun swallowed hard.
“When do you think it’ll drop?”
“We submitted the report this morning, so soon.”
“…”
“If you want to get promoted, make sure you grab it. Don’t let it get stolen like last time.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Then I’m off.”
Kang Jihyeok rose from his seat and, with a pleased look on his face, turned to Song Gaeun and opened his mouth.
“Senior Associate Song.”
“What is it?”
“Just meet him once. Then I won’t bother you anymore.”
“…I’ll think about it.”
“Right, right. Take your time thinking it over. Eat up, everyone.”
After Gang Jihyeok left, Yang Gyeonghun, who had been quietly thinking about something while eating, ground his teeth.
He had remembered that Gang Jihyeok had given him information on a bio company last time too, and he had missed it.
Executive Director Choe Jeonggeun had pushed it to the head of Sales Department 2, and the head of Sales Department 2 had pushed it again to the head of Sales Team 6.
The three of them were alumni of the same university.
More than anything, he felt wronged that he always had to bow his head to these connections and political fights.
His stubborn pride flared up.
With those thoughts in mind, Yang Gyeonghun’s gaze shifted to Hyeonu, who was eating with an indifferent expression.
‘Should I try using that guy?’
For some reason, a sigh escaped him.
“Haah······.”
Hyeonu glanced over at the sound of Yang Gyeonghun’s sigh, then went back to eating.
Hyeonu was thinking that the Yonggari pork cutlet served as a side dish was extremely delicious.
* * *
After returning to the office, Yang Gyeonghun immediately searched for Yangwoo Bio.
A KOSDAQ-listed company.
Like any other bio company, it was a company maintained by attracting investments on expectations alone, without any remarkable performance.
Its stock price, true to a bio company, fluctuated wildly, and overall, it was scraping along the bottom.
It was the exact same picture as MBiotech, the company Gang Jihyeok had told him to secure not long ago.
But MBiotech had passed over to Sales Department 2, then gone to Sales Team 6, and not long after, news broke that it was on the verge of commercializing a groundbreaking dementia treatment. Its stock price had soared about twentyfold.
Twenty times in just a few months.
It had truly shot up like mad.
Even so, securities firm analysts were putting out reports saying it would rise even further from here.
The global dementia treatment market, which had been worth 3.5 trillion won, had grown to 13.5 trillion won in ten years due to the increase in dementia patients.
If a groundbreaking treatment were to come out, a company with less than two billion won in annual sales could become a major corporation in an instant, so the analysts’ reports were not mere speculation.
Yang Gyeonghun had had no choice but to watch this entire process silently.
Because it had been something he had almost held in his own hands, his regret had been immense. And because he did not want to repeat that experience again, he wanted to seize this case no matter what.
Thinking this, Yang Gyeonghun raised his head and looked around the office.
Gim Byeongjun’s desk was empty because he was out on fieldwork.
Considering the importance of the work, it would be right to do it together with Gim Byeongjun, but Gim Byeongjun already had too much on his plate.
He turned his head again.
Song Gaeun was on the phone in English.
Song Gaeun was also extremely busy.
That was because once Gim Byeongjun and he opened up the main line of work, all the remaining miscellaneous tasks had to be handled by Song Gaeun, the assistant manager, on her own.
He could not hand a project to her when she had already taken on the work of the employee who used to be under him, on top of training the new hire.
When he turned his head once more, he saw the new hire muttering to himself, apparently memorizing what he had learned that morning.
At times like that, he seemed no different from any other new recruit.
If anything, he looked even more naive······.
Looking at that guy brought back what Gu Hyeongjun had said yesterday.
“Since those above failed to grab it, let’s try grabbing it from below. Our lives······.”
‘Should I try doing this one with him?’
For some reason, he felt that if he did it with that guy, things would go well. And if, by any chance, politics came down from above like last time, he felt he might be able to use him to do something about it.
Because politics would surely come into play in this matter too, one way or another.
But then a thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘Am I trying to use a new recruit?’
He soon shook his head.
‘No. How is this using him?’
Honestly, this could not be called using him.
It was merely making use of what was available.
What was wrong with having a smart guy use his head, having a guy with quick hands handle work, and having a guy with strong backing use that backing?
It was the same principle as using a sword if you had one at your waist when you met bandits, or using an axe if you had an axe.
It was just that Chief Gu had said something unnecessary and made him think strange thoughts.
Even so, he somehow felt uneasy.
Pushing that uneasy feeling aside, he called Hyeonu.
“Hey, rookie.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
“Do you know anything about bio?”
“Not much, but I do drink probiotics in the morning.”
He said it because he had thought of the Bio-something probiotic drink he drank every morning.
“What? Probiotics?”
“Yes. My intestines aren’t in good shape, but drinking probiotics has been good for me.”
Song Gaeun, who had ended her call, chimed in.
“I drink probiotics every morning too. I suffered because of constipation, but exactly a week after I started drinking probiotics, the old stool cleared out, and after twenty-seven days, it came pouring out like turning on a faucet.”
Hyeonu stared steadily at Song Gaeun as she said this.
She wiped her mouth with a handkerchief she had blown her nose on, reeked of alcohol from her mouth, and even talked about poop.
On top of that, she liked horse-faced men.
She really did seem like a rather strange woman.
As he was thinking this, Song Gaeun met his eyes, smiled brightly, and clenched her fist.
“Probiotics, fighting!”
What in the world was this out of nowhere······.
Her eyes were asking him to clench his fist too and say, “Probiotics, fighting!” with her.
If he had not had a steel mentality that did not waver in any situation, he might have been in real trouble.
That woman was seriously strange.
Watching Hyeonu smile awkwardly, then turn his head sharply in an extremely unnatural way, Yang Gyeonghun’s lips twitched.
‘What’s wrong with that punk? Why is the mood like this? I was trying to talk about Yangwoo Bio, but it drifted to probiotics and then somehow slipped into constipation······.’
“Hey, not that kind of bio. I’m asking if you know anything about the bio industry.”
“MBiotech?”
At Song Gaeun’s thoughtless, reflexive answer, Yang Gyeonghun exploded.
“Hey! Why are you bringing up that damned company? I don’t even want to think about it.”
“I’m sorry, Team Leader. The only bio company I know is MBiotech.”
“I have some shares in that company······.”
At Hyeonu’s muttered words, spoken as if he were just letting them slip, Yang Gyeonghun was startled, and Song Gaeun also whipped her head around with her eyes wide.
MBiotech, the jackpot company they had missed last time!
The stock that had risen twentyfold after Mancheon Corporation invested in it.
When Yang Gyeonghun had first brought up the topic, his mind had been complicated and his feelings in turmoil, but thanks to Hyeonu and Song Gaeun’s nonsense, he had forgotten all of that before he knew it.
“How much did you invest in it?”
Hyeonu’s father, worried about his son’s future, had bought stocks under Hyeonu’s name, and MBiotech was among them.
“I didn’t buy it. My father bought it under my name, and it turned out he bought twenty million won’s worth.”
“Twenty million won? So how much is it now?”
“Eight hundred forty million won. Who would’ve known it would go up this much?”
At Hyeonu’s indifferent words, Yang Gyeonghun and Song Gaeun’s mouths fell wide open.