Episode 3. A Strange Parachute Hire 2.
Hyeonu, who had slept soundly until the sun was high in the sky, got up scratching his backside and went to the kitchen.
He took a banana milk from the refrigerator, stuck in the straw, sucked it down, then gathered the laundry hanging on the drying rack and set it down in the living room.
He was folding the laundry while watching a TV variety show with an indifferent expression when his cell phone rang.
“Hello.”
[Is this Mr. Kim Hyeonu?]
“Yes, speaking.”
[This is the Personnel Adjustment Office of Mancheon Group.]
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
[Please go to the HR Office of Mancheon Mulsan by ten o’clock tomorrow morning.]
“Mancheon Mulsan?”
Mancheon Group had a total of eighty-two affiliates, among which there were eight core affiliates, and Mancheon Mulsan was one of those eight.
[It’s an open recruitment position. For now, you’ll be working as an intern for three months. Whether or not you’re hired as a full-time employee will be determined based on your work performance and character evaluation during the internship period.]
“I know. That’s what I discussed with the chairman.”
There was silence for a moment, then his voice came through again.
[Then I’ll send you an email address through chat, so please send us a clear photo of your face sometime today. We need to make your employee ID.]
“Understood. But could you possibly tell me which department I’ve been assigned to? I had an agreement with the chairman that it would be sales.”
The words cut off briefly again before his voice returned.
[The HR Office at Mancheon Mulsan will inform you of that.]
“Ah, yes……”
[And the chairman gave a special instruction.]
“What is it?”
[He said not to tell other people that you dropped out of high school and lived at prayer centers, meditation centers, um…… and various religious organizations. Nor that you did so because you couldn’t adapt to society. Mr. Kim Hyeonu, you may not think anything of it, but it could make others uncomfortable. Given your background, your coworkers may find it strange.]
“I wasn’t planning on bringing it up unless someone asked.”
[Don’t say it even if they ask.]
“Understood.”
[Then congratulations on joining the company.]
“Thank you.”
The call ended.
He had said congratulations on joining the company, but it did not feel as if he was congratulating him at all.
If they had met face-to-face, Hyeonu would have been able to hear what he truly thought, but since it had been over the phone, he could not hear his real feelings.
Still, he knew very well that in situations like this, people usually looked at him unfavorably.
Well, Hyeonu did not care in the slightest.
He had heard countless cold inner thoughts from people, so he had built up enough fortitude to remain calm no matter what anyone said.
* * *
The rooftop of Mancheon Mulsan……
HR Director Gu Hyeongjun was smoking on the roof.
With one hand shoved into his pocket, he quietly looked up at the sky and exhaled cigarette smoke when someone approached and stood beside him.
It was Yang Gyeonghun, the manager of Sales Team 9.
The two had joined the company in the same year.
“Does that cigarette taste good?”
“What taste does a cigarette have? I came up to the roof, and it feels empty if I don’t smoke, so I’m just smoking.”
“Why’d you call me? I doubt you called me during work hours for no reason.”
“You’ve got one empty desk on your team, right?”
Mancheon Mulsan’s sales teams were small-scale teams made up of a total of four people including the team manager, but there were as many as thirteen such teams, making the organization resemble a swarm of bees.
Mancheon Mulsan was a company that had grown during the military regime era in step with the nation’s major directive of exports.
Then, as time passed and the other major affiliates began to form their own import-export departments, its position within the group grew ambiguous, and it gradually transformed into an organization that took on the odd jobs of each affiliate, resulting in its current form.
An affiliate that handled numerous small-scale businesses quickly and flexibly with a lightweight organizational structure.
That was Mancheon Mulsan’s current position within Mancheon Group.
“You found someone for us already?”
“Yeah, he’ll be here tomorrow.”
“That’s good. Last time it took a whole month…… What kind of guy is he?”
Gu Hyeongjun answered while flicking the ash from his cigarette with his index finger.
“A parachute hire.”
“What? Whose parachute?”
“Looks like the chairman’s.”
There was no organization anywhere that liked parachute hires.
That was because, to ordinary salarymen who built up all kinds of qualifications and even took exams to get in, nothing was as unfair as a parachute hire.
On top of that, with these parachute hires, you never knew what kind of influence their background might have, so having them nearby was unbearably uncomfortable.
And this one was on another level—a chairman’s parachute hire.
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
“Fuuuck……”
“I just got a call from the director of the Personnel Adjustment Office at headquarters, and he told me to treat him without any prejudice. And to evaluate him as an intern according to my own convictions as the team manager.”
“Goddammit…… Why, did he say we could fire him if his evaluation’s bad?”
“I don’t know. I’m confused too. It’s my first time hearing someone tell me to fairly evaluate a parachute hire with the chairman’s label on him…… But there was one more thing I saw for the first time since joining HR. Want me to tell you?”
“Don’t. I don’t want to hear it.”
“Heh, that bastard’s résumé—I’ve never seen a résumé like that before.”
“Is his dad a National Assembly member or something?”
“I’ve seen plenty whose dads were National Assembly members.”
“Then is he maybe related to the chairman?”
“No. He’s a guy without even a mother or father. The family relations section is blank. And his education is high school graduate equivalency. His normal public education only went up to middle school, and he passed the high school qualification exam. On top of that, he’s never even taken the TOEIC. A guy coming into the sales team of a major corporation’s trading affiliate doesn’t even have a TOEIC score report.”
Yang Gyeonghun blinked and thought for a moment, then raised his hand and made as if to smack him.
“Come on, damn it. You’re joking right now, aren’t you? We’re already busy as hell because we’re one man short, and you’re fooling around with useless jokes.”
Gu Hyeongjun met Yang Gyeonghun’s eyes with a serious expression.
“Do I look like I’m joking right now?”
It was not the face of someone joking.
Apparently, this absurd situation was real.
“Th-then everything you just said is true?”
“Yeah. And in the self-introduction section, it says, ‘Good at grasping situations.’ I’m starting to think this guy is the one playing a joke.”
Yang Gyeonghun stood there blankly thinking for a while, then asked.
“What kind of guy do you think he is?”
“I told you I don’t know. He’s got no mother or father, didn’t graduate high school, and has no TOEIC score. It’s not like he has work experience either, and he scribbled nonsense in his self-introduction. How the hell could a guy like that be connected to the chairman? That’s what I want to ask.”
Yang Gyeonghun summed up the answer to that question simply.
“So doesn’t that mean he’s definitely connected to the chairman? Other than the chairman, no one could parachute in a guy like this.”
“Tch, true. Anyway, handle it well. That’s why I called you. Don’t ride him like crazy just because the kid seems a bit dim.”
“……Yeah. Thanks. In the end, only a fellow recruit looks out for you. If you hear anything else, tell me right away.”
“Sure. I’m going to smoke one more before I go down, so you go ahead.”
Yang Gyeonghun turned and walked away with his face full of worry, and Gu Hyeongjun looked up at the sky and let out a long breath of cigarette smoke mixed with a sigh.
* * *
Hyeonu was staring upward with his mouth hanging open, his neck bent back at a ninety-degree angle.
His gaze was fixed on the top of a twenty-story building.
When he lowered his head, he saw a standing sign that read “Mancheon Mulsan.”
At last, it was his first day at work.
Hyeonu had no great greed or ambition.
All he wanted was to live an ordinary company life, receive a decent salary, and someday build a family and live together happily.
Because this was the version of himself his father had hoped for.
His mother would have wanted the same as well.
Since this was the beginning of that life plan, Hyeonu, with a blunt expression, resolved that he would truly do well in his company life.
* * *
With an employee ID hanging around his neck, Hyeonu entered the sales team office under the guidance of an HR staff member.
The very large office was densely divided into work teams by chest-high partitions, and signs hanging from cords descending from the ceiling bore team names such as Sales Team 1 and Sales Team 2.
The sight of an office like this somehow seemed old-fashioned, but with so many teams gathered in one space, Hyunwoo thought that doing things this way might actually be efficient.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and follow me.”
He followed the HR employee along the path between the desks.
People staring at their monitors with tense faces as they hammered at their keyboards, a female employee scurrying along with both arms full of files, a middle-aged man with a receiver pressed to his ear, shouting until his face turned red······.
As he walked, taking in the distinctive scenery of a general trading company, the HR employee stopped beneath a sign that read “Sales Team 9.”
“Good morning. I’ve brought the new recruit.”
At the HR employee’s voice, the man seated in the place of honor who appeared to be the team leader, a male employee working on documents with his back turned, and a female employee drinking coffee all turned their heads at once.
Hyunwoo bowed at the waist.
“Good morning. I’m intern employee Kim Hyunwoo. I look forward to working with you.”
“You heard him, right? Intern employee Kim Hyunwoo. Then, keep up the good work.”
The HR employee gave a brief greeting and left without another word.
A somewhat awkward atmosphere drifted through the air, until the female employee greeted him first with a bright smile.
Hyunwoo was indifferent when it came to the opposite sex, but she was beautiful enough to make even him look twice.
“I’m Song Gaeun. Nice to meet you.”
What she was saying on the inside, however, was this.
[So this is the chairman’s parachute hire the team leader was talking about yesterday. I’d better not make trouble for no reason, right? People like this make me uncomfortable······.]
It seemed everyone on the team knew he had been hired through the chairman’s connections.
The tone of the person who had called from headquarters’ personnel adjustment office yesterday hadn’t been friendly either, so he had more or less expected rumors to spread and people to be wary of him.
She immediately continued.
“This is the team leader of our Sales Team 9. Team Leader Yang Gyeonghun.”
“I look forward to working with you. I’m Kim Hyunwoo.”
“Right. Welcome to our team. Let’s do our best.”
He spoke calmly, without any emotion, but his true feelings were the complete opposite.
[Ugh, how am I supposed to take this guy on? A guy without even a TOEIC score, who doesn’t have the basics down······. If it weren’t for the chairman’s connections, I’d just—!]
Even after hearing Yang Gyeonghun’s inner thoughts, Hyunwoo did not so much as blink.
He simply thought that he would have to learn the work quickly so he wouldn’t hear people say he was an incompetent parachute hire. And since he was now a salesperson at a general trading company, he also thought he should sign up for an English academy today and start preparing for the TOEIC.
This time, Song Gaeun introduced the man working on the documents.
“This is Assistant Manager Kim Byeongjun.”
Kim Byeongjun spun around in his swivel chair, waved, then turned back again.
“Nice to meet you. Let’s get along.”
“Nice to meet you. I look forward to working with you.”
“Huh.”
Hyunwoo, who had been listening for Kim Byeongjun’s inner thoughts, was slightly surprised.
Because he had not said anything inwardly at all.
Judging from the fact that even Song Gaeun, a senior staff member, knew he was the chairman’s parachute hire, there was no way Kim Byeongjun, an assistant manager, didn’t know. So the fact that he had no thoughts about it was extremely unexpected.
For some reason, he seemed like someone worth paying attention to.