New Employee Kim Chul-soo

Chapter 2

The breakfast was delicious.

Although it was just aged kimchi, seaweed seasoned with sesame oil and grilled by Mother herself, a fried egg, pickled plums, and tofu doenjang soup.

I remembered.

How she saved some of the money she earned serving at the charcoal barbecue restaurant, put it into a savings plan, and then broke that plan to buy me a nice suit when I got a job.

I didn’t know it at the time.

“My son looks handsome! It’s your first day, so greet everyone you see. The lower you bow, the more recognition you’ll get. You’re going to be late. Hurry up and go.”

Kim Chul-soo, swept away by the sentiment of seeing his mother again, was rushed out of the house by Yoon Jin-sook.

I’ll dream again.

Kim Chul-soo turned around and looked back at the path he had come down.

A slum.

A rented house at the very top of it.

After his father passed away, they had survived on the money his mother earned working at the barbecue restaurant.

Even in his mid-20s, his prime, just going up and down those stairs once would leave him breathless, yet his mother would go up and down those stairs more than three times a day.

As a result, by the time she was around 60, her knees were worn out, and she always had difficulty moving.

If you go up a little further from here, you’ll reach the bus terminal.

Sure enough, he saw the terminal with many buses parked.

It took almost an hour to get to work by bus, but he didn’t have to transfer and could always get a seat.

He had truly returned to the past.

He opened his wallet to pay the bus fare and saw 25,000 won inside.

Was this his weekly allowance back then?

His memory was hazy.

Kim Chul-soo got on the bus to work, sat in the window seat at the very back, and looked outside as he slowly pondered.

His memories weren’t clear enough to justify taking out a loan to invest in something.

However, the insights he had gained from his long years of working at the company remained.

Job proficiency, understanding of the work, foreign languages, the characteristics of numerous clients, the tendencies of buyers, the specifics of each country… the colleagues he had encountered fleetingly or had to continuously interact with.

And five foreign languages.

English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Russian.

He had already acquired knowledge that couldn’t be learned without being assigned related tasks at the company.

And his dream.

To become the president of the company.

Perhaps….

‘Could it be possible?’

His life, spent running for 18 years looking only ahead, had been a ruin, but now, things would definitely be different.

He could meet a good person, build a happy family, earn more money to live a comfortable life, and achieve the dream he held in his heart. His confidence grew.

When he knew nothing, he had overcome everything with sheer grit and determination….

Kim Chul-soo found himself clenching his fists.

For some, going to work wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Most of the office workers on the bus hung their heads, eyes closed, clinging to the handrails like sick chickens.

When he first started working, his mind had been so full of anticipation, excitement, and apprehension that he hadn’t paid any attention to his surroundings. Now, he could grasp the entire picture inside the bus at a glance.

Kim Chul-soo got off the bus and headed to a convenience store.

He spent 10,000 won on a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and a hangover drink.

He looked at his watch. It was 7:08 AM.

He had quite a bit of time left before 9:00 AM, his starting time.

When he lived in the slums, he always took the first bus that departed from the terminal.

He would arrive at work earlier than others and always made up for his shortcomings.

He would leave work when the last bus passed.

If he missed it, he would spend the night at the company studying.

Those were truly the days when he lived like a workaholic.

Kim Chul-soo looked at the nearly deserted entrance of the building and then raised his eyes to the 24-story structure.

[Han-Young Corporation]

It was one of the top ten general trading companies in Korea.

And Kim Chul-soo’s gleaming eyes were fixed on the top of the building.

******

Lee Jun-hak, who had been down in the countryside for three days to resolve an issue with imported corn, saw Manager Pyo Il-soo getting on the subway and bowed deeply.

“How have you been?”

“Are we in the Joseon Dynasty?”

“You smell strongly of alcohol.”

“Really? I sprayed Febreze before coming out, those damn bastards.”

Manager Pyo chuckled as he said this.

For some reason, the subway was less crowded than usual today, allowing him to move around a bit more freely in the cramped space.

“Oh my, it’s a bit less crowded today. So, how did the corn issue go?”

“There was a problem with the devanning operation (the process of unloading cargo from containers). Corn kernels break easily and generate more dust than other grains. The buyer’s representative didn’t understand this situation, leading to a complaint.”

“As expected! There’s nothing our Assistant Manager Lee Jun-hak can’t do.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s all thanks to what you told me, Manager Pyo.”

“Did I? Hahaha.”

Pyo Il-soo, with his protruding belly, let out a good-natured laugh.

Lee Jun-hak carefully observed Pyo Il-soo’s expression and asked the question he was most curious about.

“I heard they assigned new employees this time.”

At Lee Jun-hak’s words, Pyo Il-soo’s expression twitched.

“They said they’re coming today.”

That expression on Pyo Il-soo’s face was a subconscious indication of displeasure.

He had heard from his colleagues in the HR department.

This batch of new employees was the worst ever.

Except for one.

“Surely it’s not that guy, is it?”

“That guy?”

“The one who recited the entire HYMS (Han-Young Management System) during the interview.”

Pyo Il-soo let out a deep sigh.

“Ugh….. Yes, that’s him.”

Lee Jun-hak’s face contorted into an expression resembling a rotten pollack, but he quickly composed himself.

“Isn’t HR going too far?”

“What can we do?”

Pyo Il-soo expressed his difficulty.

Assistant Manager Ahn Jeong-gyu, the head of Sales Team 5, and Manager Park Joon-hyung of the HR department were rivals despite having joined the company in the same year.

Both Park Joon-hyung and Ahn Jeong-gyu had joined as new employees in Sales Team 5, but Park Joon-hyung had caught the eye of the Han-Young Group chairman and began a rapid ascent through the ranks.

Feeling a sense of rivalry, Ahn Jeong-gyu had exposed Park Joon-hyung’s extramarital affair within the company, turning them into sworn enemies.

Despite these moral issues, Park Joon-hyung continued to thrive under the chairman’s protection, while Ahn Jeong-gyu was repeatedly rejected during promotion reviews.

And after Park Joon-hyung secured his position in the HR department, Sales Team 5 was always assigned the new employee with the lowest scores from the training center.

Pyo Il-soo patted Lee Jun-hak’s shoulder.

“Don’t push him too hard. Take it easy on him.”

“Yes, Manager Pyo. I’ll try to take it easy.”

As Lee Jun-hak obediently lowered his head, Pyo Il-soo’s mood brightened again.

However, Lee Jun-hak was thinking something completely different.

‘If he can’t do the job, he should quit the company.’

******

Kim Chul-soo stood gazing at the company’s main entrance, which resembled the gaping maw of a monster, lost in thought.

He possessed the ability to surpass new employees and even outshine managers, but if he were to fully display that ability, he wouldn’t be able to survive within this building.

This was because, contrary to the democratic ideals of the modern era, the inside of this building operated under an absolute monarchy.

This wasn’t limited to Korea.

It was the standard for companies worldwide.

The CEO was the king, the executives were the lords, the general managers and deputy general managers were the senior knights, the managers were the knights, the assistant managers were the captains of the militia, and the employees were the militia. Among them, new employees were naturally at the very bottom.

Unless they were the sons or daughters of the group owner or related to them, they could never escape this hierarchical structure.

This was a place where, the moment you acted out of line, you could be struck down by a mace wielded by someone above you.

For now, he had to follow orders from above.

He had to perform only to their expectations.

He had to control his abilities so that the militia captains wouldn’t feel threatened.

Kim Chul-soo quickly erased the third item from his mind.

Assistant Manager Lee Jun-hak, whom he would meet as his mentor.

He was a thorough meritocrat.

The thought of meeting him again in his younger days was exciting.

He was someone Kim Chul-soo had once wanted to kill out of frustration, but after working tirelessly to rise through the ranks, he had become someone who offered a helping hand.

Someone who stayed with him until the end of a drinking party.

Someone he was grateful for.

But Kim Chul-soo shook his head again.

Only he knew that, and Lee Jun-hak didn’t.

If he displayed exceptional abilities, he might get kicked aside by Lee Jun-hak, who was always striving for the top.

Moderation.

Yes, moderation.

A concept that was easy to say but the most difficult to put into practice.

Moderation.

Kim Chul-soo entered the building and walked around every accessible area, committing the entire interior to memory.

The interior of the building 18 years later was vastly different from how it was now.

******

The 16 new employees assigned to the head office exchanged greetings in the building lobby.

Four of them had been hired through internships and were being specially managed by the HR department as key personnel.

From the starting line, everything was essentially disadvantageous for those hired through the open recruitment process.

“So you’ve been assigned to the head office.”

Kim Chul-soo observed Hwang Dae-hoon shaking hands with a friendly expression.

Kim Chul-soo returned the handshake with a smile.

“It’s been a while.”

It really had been a while. They were in the same group during the training program.

“This is unexpected. I thought you’d be going to a regional branch.”

An uncontrollable smirk played on Hwang Dae-hoon’s lips, and Kim Chul-soo noticed it clearly.

“It’s a bit unexpected for me too.”

“You must be a lucky person.”

“I hope it continues that way.”

“You’ll need it to survive.”

Hwang Dae-hoon was quite direct in his speech, subtly boasting of his superiority, and Kim Chul-soo accepted it calmly.

“I suppose so.”

“Well then, if you’ll excuse me.”

Hwang Dae-hoon moved on to greet new faces, and Kim Chul-soo quietly observed the new employees exchanging greetings.

If things followed the course of the past, only one of these colleagues would still be with the group 12 years later.

In fact, calling them colleagues felt a bit off.

Kim Chul-soo looked towards the area where most of the new employees were gathered.

Jang Yoo-mi, hired through an internship.

Her outstanding beauty shone like a flower in full bloom.

The confidence with which she received greetings from the men surrounding her.

She was the new employee who would grace the cover of the next year’s company magazine, but…

Her true uniqueness lay elsewhere.

Assistant Manager Go Dong-jin from the HR department called out to the new employees gathered in the lobby.

“All new employees of the 21st intake, please gather here. We will have a brief orientation before you move to your assigned departments.”