Real Man

Chapter 66

“Even so, you should have come and asked me. Do you think the problem will be solved if you just sit there and do nothing?”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Sorry is not enough. Get it done right away. Submit the approval and make sure the goods arrive by this week!”

“Yes, sir.”

Jung Hyun-woo looked dejected.

He said yes, but his face showed that he had no clue.

He sat down and buried his head in his hands.

A deep sigh was heard.

‘That poor guy.’

Yoo-hyun approached him and tapped his shoulder.

“Why don’t you take a break if your head hurts?”

Jung Hyun-woo lifted his head and was startled to see him.

“Oh? Hyung! You came early.”

“Are you free now?”

“Yes. Of course. I’ll show you around.”

Jung Hyun-woo quickly got up from his seat.

Yoo-hyun went with him to the lounge on the first floor.

There was a lounge on the second floor too, but he wanted to avoid running into Jung Hyun-woo’s senior.

It would be awkward to be in the lounge during work hours.

Yoo-hyun greeted him lightly.

“How have you been?”

“Ugh, I’m dying.”

“Is it hard?”

Jung Hyun-woo seemed to have become a company employee now.

He always had the word ‘dying’ on his lips.

“But I get paid a lot for what I do. It’s all thanks to you, hyung.”

“What was that about earlier?”

“Did you hear?”

“I heard some of it.”

“It’s just… It’s all my fault.”

He listened quietly and found out that Jung Hyun-woo was in charge of buying office supplies for the team from this month.

There was a problem in the middle and the approval was delayed by a week.

The team leader found out about it and asked the previous office supply manager, and the situation got worse.

“There was a laptop stand that the team leader ordered among the office supplies.”

“That’s it?”

“He’s a bit narrow-minded.”

Jung Hyun-woo looked around and whispered in a low voice.

A bit narrow-minded was an understatement.

He was very narrow-minded.

“Isn’t the approval done by the team leader?”

“Yes. But the problem is…”

“Is it because of the approval from the MRO (purchasing agency) staff?”

“Huh? Have you ever bought office supplies before?”

“I know a little bit.”

It was just office supplies, but there were many steps to go through to buy them with the team budget.

The first step was the team leader’s approval, and the second step was the MRO staff’s approval.

Once approved, the MRO company would review the quotation and then ship the goods.

Since it was not personal money but team money, the process was complicated.

There needed to be a person in charge of collecting and verifying the approval amount and validity in between.

The problem was that there were not many MRO staffs.

There were so many teams that they had a lot of work, and they had no reason to hurry up, so their approval was slow.

Jung Hyun-woo almost complained as he spoke.

“It takes a week for them to approve. But they said they need it by this week, so it’s difficult.”

“Is your name on the approval?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on.”

Yoo-hyun took out his phone and Jung Hyun-woo hurriedly stopped him.

“Hyung, you don’t have to help me. I called them several times, but they didn’t listen.”

“Just wait and see.”

He knew well.

Even if the team leader contacted them directly, it was common for them to delay their approval.

But Yoo-hyun had someone who could solve this problem easily.

The phone rang and soon a young woman’s voice answered.

It was Kim Eun-young, who was in charge of office supplies in Yoo-hyun’s team.

“This is Han Yu-hyun.”

-I heard you went to Ulsan. What’s up?

“Senior, actually…”

After hearing Yoo-hyun’s story, Kim Eun-young replied.

-Okay. I’ll call them right away. This is how I pay back my debt from last time.

“Thank you. I’ll buy you dinner.”

-That would be even better. Hohoho.

After hanging up, Jung Hyun-woo blinked his eyes and asked.

“Who was that?”

“My team senior.”

“What’s her rank…”

“Employee.”

“What?”

It was unbelievable.

How could an employee call an MRO staff who wouldn’t budge even for a team leader and make them speed up the approval?

If he was in the opposite position, Yoo-hyun would have had a hard time understanding it too.

If he didn’t know Kim Eun-young well, that is.

-If you need any office supplies, just let me know. I’ll make them buy it for you right away.

-How? Doesn’t it take a long time for the approval?

-Hoho, don’t worry. The staff is my ‘classmate’.

It would sound ridiculous to anyone who heard it, but sometimes that ridiculous connection was more powerful than an executive.

Like right now.

Beep.

It was not even five minutes later.

Yoo-hyun showed the text message he received to Jung Hyun-woo.

Jung Hyun-woo exclaimed with a shocked expression.

“What? The approval is already done?”

“Go up and check.”

“Okay, just a moment.”

He was so surprised that he acted right away.

If not, he would have said it was a lie, because it was such an absurd situation.

Thump thump.

Yoo-hyun slowly went up to the second floor.

“What? The approval is already done? How is that possible?”

Next to him was a senior who was dumbfounded after hearing the story.

“Well, what happened was…”

Jung Hyun-woo explained and the senior still looked confused.

It seemed that they needed some time, so Yoo-hyun gave them some space.

-I’ll go ahead and see you later.

As soon as Yoo-hyun sent the message, Jung Hyun-woo replied.

-Hyung, thank you so much. I’ll see you before you leave♥

He felt a bit burdened by the heart emoji.

But he felt good to see him happy.

Yoo-hyun sent a thank-you message to Kim Eun-young.

-Senior, you were awesome.

-You know you still have to buy me a meal, right?

He chuckled at the quick reply.

He suddenly thought.

What if he was his past self in this situation?

He wouldn’t have been able to solve it easily no matter how capable he was.

But this time, the problem was resolved in an unbelievably simple way.

Thanks to the connected relationships around him that made the answer naturally flow like water.

“How did this happen?”

It was amazing.

He met Park Seung-woo again and his face didn’t look very bright.

He had been going around greeting people and got more scolding than he expected.

Not because he did anything wrong, but because he was from the product planning team and his rank was assistant manager.

“Are you okay?”

“What? Why? I’m fine. I’m in great condition. Hahaha.”

“…”

Then why did he slump his shoulders?

“Let’s eat.”

He forced a smile and then walked ahead with a serious face. 

He still seemed to have some energy left.

That’s how lunchtime passed, and Yoo-hyun followed Park Seung-woo to the conference room.

It was a fairly large conference room, as the team leaders from each team were attending.

Maybe that’s why there were wired microphones connected to each table.

Yoo-hyun sat at the front right seat and set up his laptop.

30 minutes before the meeting.

Park Seung-woo was nervous and kept drinking the water that was placed in the conference room.

He had already emptied almost a bottle of water.

He checked his speech nervously and Yoo-hyun asked him.

“Should I send a notice by text?”

“Yeah, do that. Send it to everyone on the email list.”

“Are the circuit team leader and the panel team leader also attending?”

“Yeah. They said they would come in person. Sigh.”

Park Seung-woo sighed.

He could see what was going to happen by looking at the list of attendees.

Why did the circuit and panel development team leaders decide to attend without notice?

It meant that they wanted to lead the meeting in their direction.

How could Park Seung-woo’s proposal be accepted in front of them?

He would be lucky if they didn’t pressure him too much.

Yoo-hyun opened his laptop and connected it to the projector, then opened the file he received by email.

Then, a report appeared on the large screen on the wall.

It listed the issues of the LCD panel for HDPA3, which was currently developed.

Darkness on the top of the panel, screen flickering, circuit component overheating, etc.

These were all issues that occurred during the product suitability verification process, which was the development event.

They had to be solved in order for the product to be produced properly, so it was a sensitive matter.

The problem was who would take responsibility for them.

Yoo-hyun pretended not to know and asked an irrelevant question.

“Do I just summarize the meeting content?”

“Yeah. See this summary page?”

“Yes.”

“Just check the person in charge and the schedule from this part after the meeting. I’ll handle the progress, so just summarize it for me.”

Yoo-hyun nodded at Park Seung-woo’s words.

“What if there is any additional content?”

“Just add it to this item below and fill in the content. It probably won’t happen though.”

Really? It seems like there will be a lot of additional content.

Yoo-hyun asked casually.

“By the way, will this be reported to the group leader later?”

“It might be necessary. Don’t worry. I’ll polish it up before I go.”

He nodded and looked at the table he had summarized on the last page.

It listed each problem item that had come up so far.

There were also columns for countermeasures, responsible departments, and deadlines.

Park Seung-woo’s job today was simple.

He had to come up with countermeasures for the issues that had been raised so far and fill in the blanks accordingly.

Of course, it wouldn’t be smooth sailing.

‘The two development teams are blaming product planning.’

The reason for this sudden trip request was because of that.

How could he make them take responsibility in this situation?

It was not an easy task.

Yoo-hyun glanced at Park Seung-woo.

He tried to calm himself down while repeating his presentation content.

He deserved praise for doing his best without giving up.

If it had been like before, he would have been scolded a lot even after mediating.

Yoo-hyun raised his hand over his laptop and his eyes sparkled.

3 p.m.

Around when the time hit exactly, people started coming into the conference room one by one.

Park Seung-woo and Yoo-hyun stood up and greeted them, but those who came in just nodded their heads briefly.

The circuit and panel development team leaders and part leaders.

The quality department staff and production line staff.

People with at least assistant manager rank filled up the conference room.

“Everyone is busy, so let’s start right away.”

The circuit team leader didn’t seem to care about Yoo-hyun, who he saw for the first time, and didn’t even look at him.

Park Seung-woo turned on the microphone button on his desk and spoke.

“Thank you for coming despite your busy schedule. HDPA3 is currently undergoing a development event to meet the production schedule of next March, and there are seven issues that have been identified so far. I will collect the opinions from the field and finalize the countermeasures. And…”

He was nervous, but he tried to stay composed.

His voice tone was stable and his eye contact was not bad.

But the problem was the listener.

The circuit team leader, who was fiddling with his crossed legs, interrupted him.

“So? What’s the product planning team’s opinion?”

“I’ll tell you after I confirm the issues accurately.”

“You should have seen it after I sent you the data. The planning is a mess, that’s why this is happening. You guys only know how to hold a pen. Tsk tsk.”

The conference room’s atmosphere became heavy with his deliberate sarcasm and insults.