Real Man

Nadoha just wanted to check something.

-This is the right direction. I can’t stand watching those selfish bastards trample on good people for their own benefit.

He smirked as he recalled what Yoo-hyun had said.

“Well, I guess he’s not wrong. Then let’s do the job I was hired for.”

Click.

That was all it took to send the command he had entered beforehand. It was enough to completely destroy the complex system of the data center.

Nadoha watched the screen filled with jumbled characters and sent a completion message to Yoo-hyun.

This job felt strangely satisfying, unlike the ones he had done before.

Nadoha was smiling happily when he saw the message.

His face crumpled when he saw the name that popped up on the screen.

“Why now of all times…”

He hesitated for a moment, but he had no choice but to answer the phone.

At the same time.

Yoo-hyun was sitting at his office desk, grinning from ear to ear.

It was because of the message he had received from Nadoha a few minutes ago.

-Mission Complete. The data center is hard to recover unless they replace the equipment.

“Just write in Korean.”

Yoo-hyun suppressed his laughter and sent a sincere thank you reply.

Kwon Se-jung, the assistant manager sitting across from him, asked curiously.

“What’s so funny?”

“Just, something very good happened.”

He felt so relieved that he wanted to shout out loud, but he held back because of Jeong Hyun-woo, who was preparing for the presentation.

Kwon Se-jung looked at him with a suspicious gaze.

“Something’s fishy. You’re not usually this happy. Could it be…”

“Could it be what?”

“Da-hye came back to Korea, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

Yoo-hyun was dumbfounded, but Jeong Hyun-woo was not.

He had finished preparing for the presentation and his eyes widened.

“Hyung, is she your girlfriend? What does she look like?”

“I’ve seen her. She’s a consultant, and she’s very beautiful.”

“Wow! Really? Hyung, show me a picture.”

Jeong Hyun-woo reached out his hand as soon as he heard Jang Jun-sik’s answer, but Yoo-hyun cut him off.

“Stop messing around and let’s start the presentation.”

“I’m really curious.”

“It’s almost time to leave. Do you know what time it is?”

“Wow! Then we can’t do that. I’ll proceed like a bullet.”

Jeong Hyun-woo checked the clock on the wall and straightened his posture.

He had a rule to stick to the leaving time on the days he had a company dinner, even if he had a knife on his neck.

Of course, that didn’t mean he neglected his report.

He delivered the results of the ‘Mobile Display Development Direction Workshop’ that he had attended a while ago.

“OLED will be differentiated from LCD by emphasizing the flexible feature and will respond to additional customers besides Hansung Electronics…”

Yoo-hyun summarized it briefly after listening to him.

“They did a win-win deal.”

“Yes. Thanks to the management innovation team, they gave us a lot of support.”

“Really?”

“It’s also because Kwon assistant manager got a promise of supply from Electronics.”

Jeong Hyun-woo gave credit to others at every important point, which was typical of him.

Kwon Se-jung felt embarrassed.

“Why are you bringing that up?”

“You did a great job. We even got a reward because of you.”

It wasn’t just Yoo-hyun who thought so.

Jeong In-wook, the team leader who had gone to Yeouido Center, also gave credit to the Future Technology TF for the smooth progress of the work.

-I didn’t expect the semiconductor display issue to come up at the decision meeting. You guys made a good case with Electronics and we got a good deal. I don’t have anything to give you, so just eat a lot of snacks.

Thanks to him, there was a pile of snacks that Jeong In-wook had sent as a gift on the table.

Yoo-hyun nibbled on a fish cake and gestured.

“Is the presentation over?”

“The workshop summary part is over.”

“Are you sure?”

“Additionally, we prepared our response plan according to the changed development direction.”

“Really? Let’s hear it.”

Yoo-hyun was skeptical, to be honest.

Jeong Hyun-woo was good at managing things, but he was clumsy at planning. He thought it would take some time for him to overcome his weakness in technology.

But what do you know?

As soon as he heard the next part of the presentation, Yoo-hyun had to change his mind.

“The strategy group is currently divided into OLED and semiconductor display. In this structure, semiconductor display needs to diversify its customers to compete with OLED and…”

“Did you already look for other customers?”

Yoo-hyun asked in surprise, and Jeong Hyun-woo calmly answered.

“Yes. I’m working on it with Jun-sik.”

“Se-jung, did you know that too?”

Jeong Hyun-woo answered the question that followed.

He gave credit to others at every important point.

“Kwon assistant manager set the overall direction. He said we need to reduce our dependence on Hansung Electronics to grow the market.”

“What do you think, Hyun-woo?”

“I agree. I think we should do as much as we can with semiconductor display while we have the attention.”

Jang Jun-sik added a more realistic solution to Jeong Hyun-woo’s answer.

“The Future Leading Technology Team is also moving. If we connect the technology development and the customers, the project will go more smoothly.”

“What are you guys?”

Yoo-hyun asked incredulously, and Kwon Se-jung blinked.

“What? Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s just that the media is talking about Google News every day, and you’re not excited?”

“Excited? What for? We got a reward, but we have to earn it.”

“That’s why it’s more absurd. You’ve already achieved your goals, why are you so proactive?”

“So what? We’re just doing what we want. We have the environment to do that.”

It was not easy to do more than the set goals, even if the environment was good.

If he borrowed the words of Kim Ho-geol, the senior executive who had left, the only person who did that in the company was the president.

But Kwon Se-jung and the two staff members acted as if it was natural.

Yoo-hyun clapped his hands as he watched his amazing colleagues.

Clap clap clap clap.

“You did so well. You all deserve to go to dinner.”

“Thank you!”

No one was happier than Junghyunwoo, who had finished his first presentation without any trouble.

He looked calm on the outside, but his hands were full of sweat from the nervousness.

The dinner place was decided as usual by Junghyunwoo’s report.

As he checked each one, he realized that he had been to more places than he hadn’t.

It was proof that he had been to many places.

The restaurant he chose this time was a lamb skewer place, not far from the company.

Yoo-hyun chatted with his good colleagues in the restaurant that smelled strongly of seasoning.

“I found out that there was a company called Semi Electronics among the clients I looked into, and there was a senior from my school there…”

“Besides Director Lim Hanseop, there is a guy named Kang Jun-ki in the development team who is my friend…”

The conversation that started with work naturally moved on to everyday life.

Yoo-hyun enjoyed this time when he could open up his heart with a glass of beer.

The others seemed to feel the same way, as there was no pause in the conversation.

“Hahaha!”

As he laughed heartily, Yoo-hyun remembered what Director Lee Jun-il had said.

-People don’t change. The ones who will be used as parts and the ones who will be touched are already decided when they are born.

To Director Lee Jun-il, the employees were just parts, but Yoo-hyun knew that it was not true.

There were many people who would grow endlessly if they had the right environment, like the colleagues he saw in front of him.

It was not decided when they were born.

He only calculated his subordinates by their hourly efficiency, something he would never understand.

Deputy Kwon Se-jung waved his hand in front of Yoo-hyun’s face, who was lost in thought.

“What are you thinking about? You look spaced out.”

“Just. Someone annoying came to mind.”

“Oh, the sociopath from the Group Strategy Office you mentioned before?”

“Sociopath. Well, that’s not a wrong word.”

Yoo-hyun smiled faintly.

It was a fitting analogy for someone who did not care about the means and methods for success.

Yoo-hyun nodded his head and Deputy Kwon Se-jung asked.

“But why? What happened?”

“Today, everything he believed in collapsed. I wonder how he feels.”

“What happened?”

“It’s a long story. And not a very good one.”

Understanding Yoo-hyun’s deep feelings, Deputy Kwon Se-jung did not say much.

Instead, Junghyunwoo brought up his own experience.

“There were a lot of crazy people who only thought about themselves in Ulsan too.”

“Oh?”

“They had something in common when they realized something was wrong.”

“What was it?”

“First, they never admitted that they were wrong.”

As he heard Junghyunwoo’s words, Yoo-hyun imagined Director Lee Jun-il’s behavior.

He must have denied the reality with a blank face.

-I built countless firewalls. How can the data center system collapse completely?

-Do you know how long it took to set up the system? It’s a data center with my blood and sweat. It can’t possibly collapse. Check it again.

“Next, they blame others. 100 percent.”

Junghyunwoo said with a confident expression.

Yoo-hyun agreed with that too.

He could almost hear Director Lee Jun-il’s angry voice.

He might be yelling at his subordinates who were working hard in the data center full of computers and IT security equipment.

What would his true face look like, unlike his usual arrogance?

-I knew something was wrong when the Innovation Strategy Office guys stabbed me in the back. Who the hell is behind this? Tell me right now!

-It’s all because of you idiots! It’s your fault!

“Lastly, they try to find the cause somewhere else. This kind of people never admit their own mistakes.”

As Junghyunwoo said, the logical Director Lee Jun-il would have gathered all the remaining data and analyzed the cause.

-That’s it! Joo Jaeo, he said he got rid of the bug too! He’s a fool, but he must have had some reason. Track him down quickly.

-It was weird since the day you went to Gwacheon. Who did you meet then?

He might even mention Yoo-hyun’s name in the process of chasing.

This was something Yoo-hyun had been aware of from the beginning.

Beep.

And the result was now on Yoo-hyun’s phone screen.

-Come see me for a moment tomorrow morning. Come to Hansung Tower.

Yoo-hyun snorted at Director Lee Jun-il’s message.

“Who do you think you are, telling me to come and go?”

“Huh? Did I say something wrong?”

Junghyunwoo looked puzzled, and Yoo-hyun explained the situation clearly.

“No. You know a lot. Are you a sociopath expert?”

“I’ve met all kinds of people. So I know a little.”

“Then a question. What kind of reaction would that person have when he finds out the cause?”

“His eyes would roll back.”

Junghyunwoo’s words sparked Yoo-hyun’s curiosity.

“What about next?”

“I don’t know. I stopped talking to them after that.”

“Right. That’s the right thing to do, but I’m curious.”

Yoo-hyun was planning to torment Director Lee Jun-il for a while.

But the sudden curiosity made him choose a different option.

It was not often that he had a chance to see the face of a toothless tiger, was it?