Chapter 5: The Appearance of Choi Moon-young

“Well, aren’t you something.”

A single speed bump on the road to my promotion.

That would be my competitor, Choi Moon-young, and the hyenas surrounding him.

They say that when you talk about a tiger, the tiger appears.

This was exactly that.

Dressed in a formal suit and wearing the same respectable social mask as me, he ignored the greeting of Kim Anna, the new Staff member beside me, and directed his gaze solely at me.

I didn’t particularly want to, but there was no choice.

I gave him a slight bow.

“Oh, Lee Jin-ho. Good morning.”

“Yes, Senior. But… don’t you think you’re being a little selfish, scattering seaweed flakes all over the place?”

The practice of calling one another “Teacher” had only become established within the firm a few years ago.

Rather than calling him Teacher, I chose to call him Senior.

To put it kindly, he was my rival and senior.

To put it less kindly, he was a gossip, aggressively career-oriented, and a textbook example of a certain type of person.

This man interpreted the meaning of fair competition according to his own tastes.

In other words, rather than pursuing superiority through work performance, he sought to gain control through backroom maneuvering.

And the fact that there were still higher-ups who responded well to that kind of behavior bothered me somewhat.

He really is good at gathering people onto his side.

At our firm, where bottom-up performance evaluations were established, building a power base also had a considerable influence on promotion.

One person skilled at taking sides could have a greater impact than ten quiet, competent employees.

“Hey, hey. I didn’t even get breakfast before I came out. Cut me some slack, okay?”

That damn breakfast.

A small laugh escaped me.

“You have a full stomach, don’t you?”

“Yes. Very full. Finish your meal, Senior. If you have to, eat something in the pantry. What are you doing, anyway?”

There hadn’t been any tension between us from the very beginning.

But a few years ago, rumors had reached my ears that he had been talking behind my back.

Naturally, it had become difficult for me to treat him warmly as well.

So the silent battle between us was still ongoing.

After being criticized by his junior, Choi Moon-young smiled with an air of composure.

“By the way, you’re a little late today, aren’t you? So is Ms. Anna here. Don’t tell me… you two have something going on? How else could you both arrive this late together?”

It would have been disappointing if I simply let that pass.

His disgusting attack had begun.

“Yes, I was a little late. But don’t drag her into it for no reason. What are you doing, acting so disgracefully toward a young woman?”

“You never know what goes on between a man and a woman. Getting all worked up, huh?”

The followers standing behind Choi Moon-young giggled and whispered among themselves.

They really were birds of a feather.

“You aren’t thinking about your junior’s reputation at all. In my case, I just ran into a little trouble on my way to work, so leave Anna out of it.”

“Hm? What kind of trouble?”

“I had a minor collision.”

He had joined the firm two years before me, and I’d heard that before I arrived, he had been the firm’s most prominent rising star.

Needless to say, he was also being managed as a Top Talent, just like me.

Academic credentials?

Excellent.

Work ability?

Excellent.

And then there was his extraordinary sociability, which he displayed at company dinners and client-entertainment events.

His overall ability was exceptional.

He was considered the sort of man who could become a Partner in the minimum possible number of years.

Now that he might have his title stolen by his junior, I could understand his snide attitude to some degree.

“What? A collision? But you managed not to be late?”

He looked at me with genuine surprise.

He really wasn’t an ordinary person.

A normal person wouldn’t first react to hearing that a coworker had been involved in an accident by saying, “But you weren’t late?”

For a moment, his eyes seemed to glitter as though he wished I had been late.

Nothing but a hyena.

I suppressed my true feelings, put on the mask of a smiling expression, and answered.

“Yes. Should I have been late?”

“No, why are you putting it like that? You’re hurting my feelings. And you should be wearing your badge, shouldn’t you?”

He reached out and grabbed the lapel of my jacket between his thumb and index finger.

Then he squeezed and rubbed it.

He was applying enough force that the veins on the back of his hand visibly bulged.

I don’t like this.

I was thoroughly uncomfortable.

My instinct was to immediately brush his hand away in irritation.

But there were too many eyes watching.

I couldn’t do that.

Besides, organizationally speaking, this man practically treated everyone above him like royalty, which meant he had considerable support among the upper ranks.

The Managing Director might be another matter, but I suspected the Senior Managing Director preferred his style.

So I needed to be a little more patient.

“Ah, you’re going to get seaweed flakes on your clothes…”

“What?”

There had always been one or two people like this wherever you went.

Perhaps I could call it a history of loyal dogs.

Be a dog to those below you.

Treat those above you like kings.

Wasn’t that a slogan every Korean who had served in the military had heard at least once?

Strangely enough, quite a few powerful people at the top actually liked people like this.

More than that, they sometimes even praised them as “aces” and pushed them upward.

And most of the ordinary people outside that minority simply stood by and watched.

Why?

The answer to both questions was the same.

Because supporting or ignoring them benefited them personally.

It was the dramatic effect of having someone else handle the unpleasant and petty things for you.

Someone else picks your nose while you keep your hands clean.

That was why people like him were undeniably useful to those above them.

To some extent, I acknowledged that.

Even so, I didn’t like him.

My head acknowledged him.

My heart rejected him.

In any case, there was no reason to create gossip over something like this.

Even a minor disturbance would only put me at a disadvantage.

“What did you just say, Teacher?”

“Haha. I was joking, Senior. And the badge is where it belongs, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“A joke? Haha. Fine, jokes are good. Sorry about getting seaweed flakes on you.”

Choi Moon-young made a mocking sound with his tongue as he asked whether I was joking.

His tone was clearly sarcastic.

I wasn’t offended.

I’d been sarcastic toward him too.

I glanced around.

Quite a few people were watching us.

Perhaps because he became aware of the atmosphere around him, he finally began asking after my condition.

“You didn’t get hurt anywhere?”

“No. I’m fine, thanks to you. The meeting’s about to start, so I’ll see you there, Senior.”

“Yeah. You prepared properly, right?”

“Haha. More or less. Our work isn’t exactly complicated.”

He and I were on different teams, but we would be attending today’s meeting together.

The client was such a large company that our teams had been brought together for the assignment.

But he had no business asking whether I’d prepared properly.

No doubt he had ordered the Staff and Seniors under him to prepare the plate for him, given them a few vague instructions, and then checked the results without actually reviewing anything.

A “plate” referred to the framework used to handle a job—in simple terms, last year’s work papers or the procedures used for a similar engagement in the past.

“Not complicated, huh… You’ll learn later just how exhausting our work can be. Being good at practical work? Anyone can do that.”

“Hmm… I suppose that’s possible. In the end, sales are what matter…”

Choi Moon-young spoke condescendingly as he offered his advice.

But in the future, he would clearly spend his time saying “Yes, yes” to whatever the Managing Directors and Senior Managing Directors wanted to hear.

We hadn’t only known each other for a day or two.

I knew him well enough to know without even looking.

“All right, see you later.”

After saying what he wanted to say, he turned around to leave.

Kim Anna bowed politely to him.

Once again, he ignored her greeting.

He only returned greetings from people at least at the Senior level.

You had to be a Manager before he would actually respond to what you said.

Of course, there were exceptions for new hires from wealthy families or privileged backgrounds.

In those cases, you could talk to him from the moment you joined the firm.

I really didn’t like him.

“Oh, you’ve got seaweed stuck to your mouth, Senior.”

I pointed toward one corner of his mouth.

He ran his tongue around his lips once and glared at me.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Choi Moon-young walked away without even looking back.

A cold wind blew.

And I comforted Kim Anna, who was clearly feeling upset.

“Anna. Don’t take it too personally…”

“I’m… I’m okay, Teacher Lee Jin-ho.”

“You look a little down. Senior Choi doesn’t return greetings in general. It’s not just you, so don’t worry too much about it. I’ll see you at the meeting.”

After reassuring her and turning away, I heard that vitamin-like voice once again.

“Teacher Lee Jin-ho!”

“Yes?”

“You have to win! Fighting!”

I wondered what she was suddenly talking about.

But that was her way of cheering me on.

“Ah, of course.”

I turned around and answered, making a fist near my solar plexus.

Then I thought:

Damn… I don’t know.

What does Senior Managing Director Choi think of him and me…?

Senior Managing Director Choi was the key man in this promotion battle.

“Key man” was a term commonly used in sales.

It referred to someone at a client company—or at an organization that could connect you to a client—who had enough influence to make a decisive difference in business performance.

Senior Managing Director Choi Pil-yong.

If he chose me, it would have a major influence on the Senior Managing Director’s evaluation.

And I would finally be able to move from Senior Manager to Director.

How… I need to do something.

Should I make him some dumplings or something?

We didn’t come to work to play house.

We came to make money for the company.

And in return, we received a certain amount of compensation.

Beyond simply doing your assigned work faithfully, there was always that little something extra.

It could take the form of well-intentioned flattery toward your superior.

After all, human beings generally found it difficult to push away someone who genuinely liked them.

But I don’t want to do that.

Sales positions at other companies were cleaner by comparison.

They let their performance speak for everything.

Isn’t it ridiculous that you actually have to start doing sales after getting promoted?

That was both the tragedy and the natural order of this profession—something that would make an outsider doubt his own ears.

Those who wear the crown must endure its weight.

At my current level, Senior Manager, sales ability wasn’t particularly important.

Only once you became a Director could you actually play golf with clients and sit down at the same table with them.

So perhaps the correct answer was that you simply had few opportunities to demonstrate your sales ability.

They say you have to see the sky before you can pluck a star from it.

How could you win a star when you didn’t even have an opportunity to negotiate?

A practitioner’s responsibility was simple.

Do the work entrusted to you carefully and competently.

Find potential risks that might befall the client in advance.

Advise them accordingly and provide appropriate recommendations.

That was the job.

Afterward, once you wore the crown of Director, the first prerequisite was client management.

You oversaw the work of your subordinates and prevented clients from leaving.

In other words, defensive sales ability.

The second prerequisite, naturally, was aggressive sales ability—the ability to bring in new clients.

Someone who excelled at both offense and defense could aim even higher.

Or perhaps they could become extraordinarily skilled at riding the right organizational line.

It would be nice if I knew someone at the Financial Supervisory Service.

Having someone to whom you could appeal—or simply having the right connections—would obviously be an enormous advantage.

China wasn’t the only place where guanxi mattered.

Relationships mattered in Korea too.

“Okay. Thank you, Anna. I’ll definitely win. And prepare the meeting materials and be in the conference room thirty minutes beforehand, okay?”

“Yes, Teacher.”

“Send out another notice about that part through Messenger.”

After our brief exchange, I took a seat wherever I pleased in the office.

For an ordinary office worker, that might have felt somewhat awkward.

But we used a hoteling system to assign seats.

In other words, you simply sat wherever you wanted.

“Whew…”

Even so, the seat beside the window had been left open for me.

“Nice sunlight…”

Leaning deeply back into his chair, Lee Jin-ho casually looked out the window.

“For some reason, today feels more special.”

The scene beyond his interlocked fingers.

On this morning, everything before his eyes somehow felt as though it belonged to him.

“Senior Managing Director Choi Pil-yong, regarding this year’s audit results for Dow Electronics… I thought it would be appropriate to issue a qualified opinion here.”

I spoke while looking at Choi Moon-young, who was attending the meeting.

Senior Managing Director Choi Pil-yong frowned.

As an old veteran standing at the very top of the firm’s pyramid, he possessed an air that was anything but lighthearted.

I had known Senior Managing Director Choi for a long time.

When I had interviewed for a position at the firm as a new hire, he had been a Senior Manager like me and had served as one of my interviewers.

I also remembered watching him rise through the ranks and eventually put on the crown of Partner himself.

“Really?”

Senior Managing Director Choi replied as though slightly displeased.

His brief response froze the atmosphere in the conference room.

Kim Anna and the other employees visibly shrank back.

The only two people who didn’t become intimidated were me and my rival, Choi Moon-young.

Senior Managing Director Choi rubbed his temple and spoke.

“Why do you think that?”