Episode 9. It’s Not My Fault You Fell Flat 2.
According to what Horsehead had said—and what he had thought—the head of Sales Team 11 had gone to the meeting with SHS alone and come back after a consultation that fell far short of expectations.
And judging by how angry he was about it, the performance seemed to be credited to Horsehead.
If it wasn’t his own performance, Horsehead wouldn’t have any need to get this furious.
But why had they only managed to secure food ingredient supplies? It had been a fairly good opportunity.
For now, he had obtained the first bit of information through Horsehead.
Now it was time to confirm the next piece.
The person who would provide that next piece of information was the head of Sales Team 11, who was standing in the back, quietly watching with a cold smile around his eyes.
Song Gaeun, who had no way of knowing Hyeonu’s thoughts, flared up herself when Horsehead snapped at her.
“Oh my! Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my! Did you just get angry at me?”
“It’s because you keep clinging to me. Please, just get lost. Stop hanging all over me!”
“Oh my! Oh my, oh my, oh my……”
For some reason, it felt as if this was turning into a sordid fight between a broken-up couple.
He had to stop it.
“Please calm down, Supervisor.”
“No, let go. Hey, you horseheaded bastard! What did you just say? Stop clinging?”
“What? Horsehead? Hey! You, come here.”
“Why should I? If you’ve got business with me, you come here, you horseheaded jerk!”
“Why, you little—!”
Just as Horsehead was about to step forward, the voice of the Sales Team 11 leader, who had been watching silently with a chilly smile around his eyes, rang out.
“What are you doing, Assistant Manager Park?”
“No, she was……”
“Are you not going to stop?”
When Horsehead halted, the Sales Team 11 leader’s gaze turned toward Hyeonu and Song Gaeun.
“Did you learn to act without knowing your place from your team leader?”
Song Gaeun was about to flare up again, but Hyeonu stepped in front of her.
“We merely came to find out what happened with the Mancheon Food Distribution matter.”
“And what are you going to do with that information?”
Hyeonu quietly looked into the Sales Team 11 leader’s eyes.
Then he considered what he should say.
Should he say something moderate that left himself an escape route, or should he throw out something sharper that might draw out a definite inner thought?
If he considered his life at the company, words that let him watch his back were far better.
But if he considered the goal of taking back Kim Byeongjun’s proposal, choosing the latter was the right call.
Judging by the situation and the nature of the problem, it was something that had to be decided urgently.
In the end, Hyeonu chose the latter.
Because he thought there was no greater fool than someone who missed what was right in front of him while worrying about what was behind him.
“I was wondering if you took someone else’s proposal and ruined it.”
A fishy smile hung around the man’s coldly staring eyes.
“You brats eavesdropped on us talking?”
As expected, what Horsehead had thought was right.
The head of Sales Team 11 had come back yesterday after a sales pitch that fell below expectations.
And just now, he had thought this.
[Why are they clinging so hard? First Yang Gyeonghun, and now even these little brats…… I need to be careful. If that gets revealed, it really is over.]
He had obtained major information.
The bastard had committed some fairly serious misconduct—or made a serious mistake.
The fact that he had come back from an underwhelming sales pitch was probably related to that as well.
If so, there was no need to watch his back.
He just had to uncover it and, as the bastard’s inner thought had said, end him.
“Your subordinate would be the one doing the eavesdropping, Team Leader. I was simply asking because I was worried how someone who steals another person’s work could possibly be competent.”
In that instant, the fishy smile hanging around the man’s eyes vanished completely.
“A new hire dares to call me incompetent? This is really beyond the pale. Just like your team leader…… Enough. Get lost. When I report to the president, I may drag you into it too.”
After briefly meeting Jin Seonghun’s eyes, Hyeonu turned around.
Because the Sales Team 11 leader’s inner thoughts just now had allowed him to figure out the entire story.
“Let’s go, Supervisor.”
Song Gaeun did not seem inclined to turn around.
Still unable to cool her anger, she was glaring back and forth between Horsehead and Jin Seonghun.
She was a more spirited and combative woman than he had expected.
To her, who seemed reluctant to leave like this, he whispered into her ear.
“Let’s go. We said we were just going to probe them.”
After glaring for a little while longer, Song Gaeun finally moved her feet.
Then, after taking a few steps, she suddenly turned back.
“Horsehead, you really do have one unlucky-looking face.”
“What? Hey, you, stand right there. Hey!”
Watching her whirl around and walk away, Horsehead threw a fit, but he did not follow them all the way to Sales Team 9.
It seemed he was afraid to follow them to Sales Team 9, where Yang Gyeonghun and Kim Byeongjun were standing firm and glaring.
After all, a mutt only barks in front of its own house; once it leaves home, it tucks its tail.
In any case, following yesterday, curses rang through the sales office again today.
Given the nature of the sales department, voices were often raised, and work-related clashes between people were common, so everyone had let yesterday’s fight between the team leaders pass as one of those things.
But when even Song Gaeun caused a scene today, everyone took interest.
And they whispered among themselves.
Is there really something going on over there? Even those green rookies are acting up like that.
Hyeonu and Song Gaeun slowly walked toward Sales Team 9, where Yang Gyeonghun and Kim Byeongjun had come out and were standing.
From Jin Seonghun’s inner thoughts just now, Hyeonu had figured out everything about how the situation was unfolding.
Behind the food ingredient supply deal, something completely unexpected was taking place.
The issue from here on out was how to relay this information to the members of Sales Team 9, and how to resolve it.
While he was thinking this, they arrived at Sales Team 9, where Yang Gyeonghun and Kim Byeongjun were standing.
Yang Gyeonghun asked Song Gaeun,
“Are you all right, Supervisor Song?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Seeing Song Gaeun’s stiff expression, Yang Gyeonghun’s face twisted.
He seemed to think she had been hurt by Horsehead.
“That bastard, I ought to—!”
As Yang Gyeonghun was about to step toward Sales Team 11, Song Gaeun grabbed his arm.
“Don’t, Team Leader. If you go now, what else will happen besides another fight? The president saw it yesterday too. You can’t do that again.”
“……”
Whether for appearances or not, Song Gaeun smiled brightly.
“Still, now that I cursed him out to my heart’s content, I feel a bit better.”
“……Good work. Have a cup of coffee and settle yourself down a bit.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
Yang Gyeonghun’s gaze immediately turned to Hyeonu.
Looking at Hyeonu, he thought this.
They had come back after creating only a useless quarrel, with no results at all.
A few days later, when he reported to the president, if today’s incident was reported as well, then even if the parachuted-in new hire might be fine, Song Gaeun could suffer disadvantages.
But the new hire was not at fault.
It was his own fault.
Out of a desire to see how he would handle it, and out of a faint hope, he had made the new hire do something far too excessive.
He had lost his center as a team leader.
From the very beginning, it had been unavoidable.
If it had been something that could be solved, then eight years ago, he would not have simply sat there and taken it either.
He had to put things back in place. As the team leader……
But the new hire spoke first.
“I apologize for causing a disturbance, even if I didn’t intend to, Team Leader.”
“Forget it. I was the one who failed to control you……”
“Um, but there is one thing I need to tell you.”
He deliberately cut off Yang Gyeonghun and diverted his attention.
Because he knew what Yang Gyeonghun was about to say.
“New hire, from now on, stop stepping forward……”
He could not allow that.
If things ended vaguely like this, he would end up being nothing more than a bold new hire who had acted up without knowing his place.
On top of that, what the head of Sales Team 11 was plotting was too big.
It was something that absolutely could not be let slide.
“What is it now?”
Instead of answering, Hyeonu swept his eyes over their surroundings, then turned them back to Yang Gyeonghun.
Given the situation, it meant it would be difficult to talk here, since people from other teams might be listening in.
Seeing that look in Hyeonu’s eyes, Yang Gyeonghun furrowed his brow.
He had been about to rein Hyeonu in, but the atmosphere around him suggested he had discovered something.
After thinking for a moment, he turned and walked away.
“Follow me.”
Yang Gyeonghun and Hyeonu opened the rooftop door and stepped outside.
“What is it?”
“About the SHS matter, sir. It seems we didn’t win the operating rights for the company cafeteria and are only proceeding with supplying food ingredients.”
“What?”
Startled, Yang Gyeonghun soon tilted his head.
“How did you know?”
“When Assistant Manager Park and Chief Song were arguing, I caught a glimpse of what was written on the memo.”
“Is that so?”
He wondered how Hyeonu had managed to see such a memo, but he did not seem particularly concerned about it.
In any case, he had at least drawn his attention.
Now it was time to pass the information to him naturally.
“Yes, Team Leader. But there’s one thing I’d like to ask.”
“What?”
“For this matter, Assistant Manager Park was listed as the person in charge, but it seemed like the head of Sales Team 11 went to the meeting alone and handled it on his own. I’m still not very familiar with the work system, so I was wondering if that’s allowed.”
It was not common.
If the other party’s contact was not of a matching rank, a team leader might go in the person-in-charge’s stead, but in such cases, they would usually sit in on the meeting together with the person in charge.
But he went alone without the person in charge, did not even ask for their opinion, and handled it independently?
That was truly uncommon.
However, that did not mean it was not allowed.
When consulting with buyers, there were situations where one had no choice but to do so.
There was no need to suspect every little thing to this extent.
The person in charge’s results were also the team leader’s results, so there was no reason for a team leader to forcibly reduce their performance.
“It’s not as if it’s forbidden.”
Hyeonu nodded.
He did not nod because he had received an answer to his question.
Even Yang Gyeonghun, who had been through all sorts of hardships in the sales team, had not sensed even the slightest hint of what the problem was here.
He nodded because his own thought—that if this had simply been overlooked, it would have become a perfect crime—had been correct.
“But there’s one more thing I don’t understand.”
“What is it this time?”
“Didn’t you say SHS doesn’t have an organization that operates a company cafeteria?”
“And?”
“Then where are we supplying the food ingredients?”
Yang Gyeonghun seemed to find something strange as well. He frowned and muttered as if talking to himself.
“What the hell······ Are you saying SHS brought in a separate company that only handles cafeteria operations? In a situation this urgent, there’s no way they’d create an organization to run the cafeteria themselves······.”
He was almost there.
But this was not enough.
Hyeonu could have driven the point home, but he kept silent.
If he exceeded the limits of being a new hire too much, it could instead backfire.
At least until he shed the label of a new hire, it was far better to give only hints at an appropriate level and let the team members solve it.
Yang Gyeonghun, who had been frowning and thinking quietly, let out a short exclamation.
“Ah!”
[How did that bastard Jin Seonghun manage to get a contract to supply food ingredients to the company cafeteria operator? And why did that company make such a promise to him? They must have had a food ingredient supplier they were already dealing with······. No, if it’s a company big enough to sign a contract with SHS, shouldn’t it be able to procure something like food ingredients on its own? Then why······. It’s strange. There’s something here. What is it—wait, could it be!]
It seemed he had finally grasped how the situation was unfolding.
Yang Gyeonghun’s eyes wavered rapidly, and he strode off as he spoke.
“Tell Assistant Manager Kim what you just told me.”
“What should I tell him?”
“What you told me. Then Assistant Manager Kim will understand too.”
“Yes. Understood, Team Leader.”
Watching Yang Gyeonghun disappear after slamming the rooftop door shut, Hyeonu set off with an impassive expression.