Episode 22. A Line Coming Up from Below Is Still a Line 6.
Yang Gyeonghun brought over two cups of coffee, set them down in front of Kim Inseop, and took a seat.
Kim Inseop took a sip of coffee and went straight to the point.
“Sales Department 2 took Yangwoo Bio.”
Yang Gyeonghun, who had been bringing his coffee cup to his mouth, froze.
“And we got M Biotech instead.”
For a few seconds, as if time had stopped, neither of them moved.
They were bewildered.
Kim Inseop, who had said it, and Yang Gyeonghun, who had heard it.
Yang Gyeonghun set down the coffee he had been about to drink without even touching it to his lips.
“Why did it turn out that way?”
“They say we don’t have experience in bio, so Yangwoo Bio has to be left to that side. Executive Director Choi said so... I suppose that means Yangwoo Bio is that big of a deal.”
“Even so...”
“Even so, getting M Biotech isn’t bad. From your position, I’m sure it feels shitty to take over something someone else already worked on.”
Yang Gyeonghun let out a sigh without answering.
“Hoo...”
Regardless of performance, it somehow felt unfair.
He had been pushed aside last time, and now he had been pushed aside again.
On top of that, now it looked as though he was cleaning up after someone else.
As if he understood how Yang Gyeonghun felt, Kim Inseop added,
“It’s not cleanup. Development on the dementia treatment is almost finished, and the results will come to us. In a way, this might be more realistic.”
“...”
“Why? You don’t want it? If you don’t, then forget it. There are plenty of people who’d snap it up, thinking it fell right into their laps.”
“...No, General Manager. I just... I’ll take it.”
After the conversation ended, Yang Gyeonghun left with his shoulders drooping.
Kim Inseop looked terribly sorry for him and felt apologetic.
But there was nothing he could do.
If he did not accept Executive Director Choi Jeonggeun’s proposal, they were in a situation where they would get nothing at all.
It truly felt as if his guts were twisting, but he held it in.
Like a wild dog bringing even half-eaten scraps back to feed its cub.
* * *
“I’m back.”
Hyeonu entered the Sales Team 9 partition, bowed deeply like the rookie he was, and went over to Yang Gyeonghun, who was sitting at his desk.
“I’m back, Team Leader. Here are the car keys.”
“Mm, right.”
For some reason, his expression was not good.
“Um, I asked Dr. Go Hwi-geun, whom I mentioned earlier, to introduce us to a cancer specialist.”
“Good work. You did well, but...”
He sighed and continued.
“Haa... I think we’ll have to cancel that request to him.”
Hyeonu’s eyes deepened.
It was because he had heard his inner voice saying that Yangwoo Bio had ultimately gone over to another side.
He needed to hear the more precise reason.
“May I ask why?”
“There are reasons.”
Yang Gyeonghun gave a vague answer because he did not want to pathetically explain it even to a new hire, but of course, Hyeonu heard his inner voice.
After all, when people did not want to speak the words aloud, they tended to talk more to themselves inside.
[What do you think? That old fox Executive Director Choi pushed it to his own people. This is so fucking dirty I ought to quit this company, damn it.]
“We received M Biotech instead, so let’s forget Yangwoo Bio and focus on this.”
He was truly shocked.
Hyeonu’s mind was always like a clear, still mirror of water, but just now, he had even felt a sharp sting deep in his chest.
The inner voice the Sales Team 6 leader had let slip at the rest stop earlier.
[What am I going to do about M Biotech? First, I need to dispose of the shares I bought under borrowed names. My wife’s sixth cousin, a college classmate... And then I need to get out fast. I can’t go down with them.]
‘So this was what he meant by getting out fast—dumping it on our team?’
Hyeonu’s face turned cold.
He did not care whether that side did well or not, or what sort of things they did, but he could not tolerate them laying hands on him.
On top of that, although he was only assisting, they were trying to splash filth on his first project, the first one that would even have his name on the documents.
This was no different from a declaration of war.
Unlike Hyeonu, whose chest was quietly beginning to burn with flames, Yang Gyeonghun already seemed drained.
“You can go now.”
When Hyeonu remained still, he raised his head.
“What? Do you have something to say?”
“There’s one thing I’d like to ask.”
“What is it?”
“From their perspective, is there any reason they would give us M Biotech just because they took Yangwoo Bio? I don’t understand.”
“That’s because we made the first move by saying we had touched Yangwoo Bio first. From their perspective, they didn’t want to lose Yangwoo Bio, which they thought would produce bigger results than M Biotech, so they made that choice with no choice but to swallow it. It’s a kind of justification. Things like that matter in an organization. It looks bad to gobble everything up alone.”
Swallow it, my ass.
They had simply handed over a bomb.
“Even so, I still can’t really understand going that far as to hand over results they’d already built to someone else.”
Yang Gyeonghun looked for a moment at Hyeonu’s unwavering, straight gaze, then turned his eyes away with a bitter expression and answered.
“...It must be because they want Yangwoo Bio that badly.”
He said that, but inwardly, Yang Gyeonghun also felt extremely uneasy.
However, since the negotiations were already over, he was trying to proceed with the work as it stood, burying that uneasy feeling in a corner of his heart.
That work, which would lead them to their deaths.
He had to stop it somehow.
But the other person was his team leader.
He had to question him carefully so as not to rub him the wrong way.
So that it absolutely would not feel like he was pressing him.
“But, Team Leader.”
“What now?”
“Is the brain tumor treatment market perhaps larger than the dementia treatment market?”
He could not answer.
Because he probably had not looked into it.
And because he did not want to give himself a headache over a game that was already over.
So he said something else.
In a state where he had already submitted to the office politics battle that had tilted against him.
“Rookie.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
“There’s such a thing as politics in a company too. Wherever there’s good prey, there are bound to be enemies.”
It was a roundabout way of saying they had lost in politics and had no choice but to choose this.
His bitter inner voice reached Hyeonu.
[Fuck, what are we supposed to do when we’re weak? We have a general manager, and the other side has an executive director.]
After letting out that inner voice, he said in a drained tone,
“There isn’t only the best option in this world. There’s also the next best. M Biotech isn’t bad either, so I think it would be better to let this matter pass like that.”
That way of thinking was the problem.
Yang Gyeonghun was mistaking two uncertain things for the truth.
Hyeonu quietly opened his mouth.
“I don’t have experience carrying out projects, so I don’t know much yet, but I do think I’m fairly good at assessing situations.”
At Hyeonu’s words, Yang Gyeonghun’s eyes widened slightly.
Assessing situations?
He was reminded of what HR Director Gu Hyeongjun had said, that on Hyeonu’s résumé, which had looked as if it had been scribbled down like a joke, there had been the words, “Good at assessing situations.”
And with the SHS matter as well, after Hyeonu had said something similar, the situation had suddenly reversed.
“I don’t know much about work-related matters, so I don’t know if it’s possible, but I believe I understand people’s psychology well.”
As that memory suddenly came to mind, Hyeonu’s voice continued in Yang Gyeonghun’s ears.
“My father once said this to me. People don’t dig themselves into a hole because they don’t know something. They do it because they mistakenly think they know something.”
It was truly an homage to the SHS matter.
Wondering what on earth he would say this time, Yang Gyeonghun naturally found himself listening.
“M Biotech is good. But Yangwoo Bio is an even bigger jackpot. I simply cannot find what evidence there is for that.”
Those were the two things they were mistakenly believing to be the truth.
M Biotech’s CEO was on the verge of going to prison, while Yangwoo Bio’s head of development didn’t even know how the experiments were progressing.
Silence fell.
In that silence, Hyunwoo spoke in a dry, quiet voice.
“What would you do if there’s a problem with M Biotech and they’re trying to dump it on us?”
“What did you say?”
“We don’t know, do we? Whether something’s happened inside M Biotech and they’re trying to push it onto us.”
“······.”
“I think the first order of business is to investigate urgently. As quickly as possible.”
Silence fell again.
It lasted only a few seconds, but felt much longer. Yang Gyeonghun was the one who broke it.
“And what if, while we’re doing that, both Yangwoo Bio and M Biotech end up going over to them?”
“Then there’s nothing we can do.”
Yang Gyeonghun stared straight into Hyunwoo’s eyes, then let out a sigh.
“Haa······ This is really driving me insane······. Say we do investigate. Then how are we going to do it?”
It was simple.
All he had to do was listen to the CEO’s inner thoughts.
“I think it would be best to go in person, like with Yangwoo Bio.”
“Will we know anything just by going? You said yourself that even after looking at the experiment details in the business plan, you couldn’t tell—ah!”
An exclamation burst from Yang Gyeonghun’s mouth, as if something had occurred to him.
It seemed he had only just remembered such a huge option.
“Dr. Go Hwegeun······. Neuropsychiatry at Seoul National University Hospital······. If it’s a dementia treatment, that falls under neuropsychiatry.”
Bingo.
That was the correct answer.
“Can you bring him with us right now?”
“Yes, Team Leader. I’ll make sure he comes with us no matter what.”
Yang Gyeonghun shot to his feet in a hurry.
“Assistant Manager Kim.”
Kim Byeongjun and Song Gaeun had been listening intently to Yang Gyeonghun and Hyunwoo’s conversation for a while now.
“Yes, Team Leader.”
“I’m going to M Biotech with the newbie, so drag out the handover as long as you can.”
“You want me to delay the handover? That’s impossible with just my authority······.”
There was no way a mere assistant manager could defy an order that had come down from above.
“Hold out as long as you can.”
“Haa······ All right. I’ll do what I can.”
Yang Gyeonghun strode quickly past Hyunwoo.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and come on.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
Watching Hyunwoo hurry around the partition and disappear, Song Gaeun turned to Kim Byeongjun with a worried expression.
“M Biotech couldn’t really have a problem, could it?”
If there was a problem, then Executive Director Choi Jeonggeun, Head of Sales Department 2 Lee Taehyeong, and Sales Team 6 Manager O Jaegwon were truly trash.
“Surely not······. There are eyes watching. Would they really go that far?”
“Right?”
He kept thinking, surely not, surely not, but Kim Byeongjun knew very well that those “surely nots” happened far more often in this world than one might think.
But even if that “surely not” did happen, he didn’t think he would be all that surprised.
Because he had just witnessed an even harder-to-believe “surely not.”
The newbie······.
He was only a rookie, and yet he had suspected and checked on something like that, even persuading the team leader.
It was a scene he never would have believed if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.
It was a moment that made him suddenly realize the world was wide, and full of incredible people.
For some reason, his heart was pounding.
Since the newbie had arrived, how many times had this happened now? His heart pounding like this······.
‘Did I get scared and give up too soon? Did I lay down my heart too quickly and force my passion to cool?’
Lately, Kim Byeongjun kept finding himself thinking such things.
* * *
Less than five minutes after Hyunwoo and Yang Gyeonghun left, Sales Team 6 Manager O Jaegwon came by with a subordinate carrying an armful of files.
Seeing Yang Gyeonghun’s empty desk, he looked around and asked.
“Where’s Team Leader Yang?”
“He stepped out for a moment.”
“For crying out loud. We were supposed to do the handover······. You heard, right? About M Biotech.”
Kim Byeongjun smiled slyly, in a way unlike his usual self.
“Yes, Team Leader. He said he felt sorry, like we were taking a spoon to a meal you’d already cooked.”
A disgusting, petty smile briefly crossed O Jaegwon’s face.
“It’s a shame for me too, but what can I do? It’s the executive director’s orders.”
“Exactly. It would’ve been nice if he’d just let us handle Yangwoo Bio. Then neither side would feel uncomfortable.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Then why don’t you go with our team leader and talk to him? Say your side will keep handling what you were originally handling, and we’ll take Yangwoo Bio. If the working-level people on both sides say that, wouldn’t he listen?”
O Jaegwon gave a snort of laughter.
“Come on, just do it. I already brought all this over for the handover.”
Just as the newbie had said, it was clear that they wanted to dump M Biotech and take Yangwoo Bio.
“Sigh, then I guess there’s nothing we can do.”
Kim Byeongjun turned his head toward the employee who was still groaning under the weight of the files.
“Are you still standing there like that? Are you a cow? A bear? Put the files on the table.”
The employee set the files down and began entering them into the checklist.
There was quite a large amount of files.
“I’ll send the PC files separately through the intranet.”
“Yes, please do it quickly.”
“Sure. Then sign here.”
It was the work handover form.
With an innocent-looking expression, Kim Byeongjun pushed the document back.
“Why would I sign already? We haven’t even received all the materials yet.”
“······.”
O Jaegwon stared at Kim Byeongjun for a moment, then chuckled and turned around.
“Fine. I’ll send the PC files and come back.”
A short while later, O Jaegwon returned.
“I just sent all the materials related to M Biotech through the intranet.”
“Really? One moment.”
Kim Byeongjun went to his seat and checked.
It should have taken one or two minutes, but he dragged it out long enough that O Jaegwon gradually began to seethe.
“Are you still not done?”
“I’m almost done. There are quite a lot of files.”
After dragging it out for several more minutes, Kim Byeongjun walked back from his desk.
“Whew—why are there so many documents?”
O Jaegwon held out the handover form again.
“Here. Sign it now.”
“What’s this?”
For an instant, O Jaegwon’s face twisted.
It was because Kim Byeongjun was pretending not to know the document he had shown him only a few minutes ago.
“You wanna die? It’s the work handover form.”
“Ah~ that?”
Kim Byeongjun took a pen from the pen holder and was about to sign, then simply put it back down.
Then he looked back at Song Gaeun and asked.
“Aren’t we not supposed to do this right now?”
Over Song Gaeun’s face, struck dumb after suddenly being asked, O Jaegwon’s voice rang out.
“Why not?”
“We haven’t taken it over yet.”
“You just received the files!”
“That was Sales Team 6 handing them over. We haven’t finished taking them over, have we? We have to confirm whether all the files on the checklist have come in, and also whether there are any problems with M Biotech. Only then is the takeover properly complete.”
O Jaegwon’s face flushed bright red.
“What are you trying to pull right now?”
“I’m taking over the work. Since the team leader isn’t here, I have no choice but to do it by the book.”
In the end, O Jaegwon raised his voice.
“What the hell is this, you bastard?”
At O Jaegwon’s curse, Kim Byeongjun changed his expression completely, as if he had been waiting for it.
“No, why are you swearing at me? The team leader isn’t even here, so what am I supposed to do? If something goes wrong, I’m the one who has to take responsibility. Are you going to take responsibility for it, Team Leader O?”
“You little bastard! Do you really want to die?”
“Ah, I told you not to swear! Why are you taking it out on me? I’m not even the person in charge.”
Kim Byeongjun stormed out with a thoroughly angry expression.
He had used it as a forced excuse to slip away.
“Hey, Assistant Manager Kim! Hey, you punk! Where are you going? Where are you going, you bastard!”
Kim Byeongjun had already disappeared.
“Fucking hell······.”
What the hell was this······.
O Jaegwon was dumbfounded.
For some reason, a wave of reality hit me and I stood there blankly, when I noticed Song Gaeun standing awkwardly.
“Hey.”
“Should I call the assistant manager? Or the team leader······.”
“······Call Team Leader Yang.”