Chapter 43. At a Crossroads (1)
“Department Head Kim, what is this?”
The team leader’s irritated voice echoed through the office again first thing in the morning.
Kim Jongseok hurried over as fast as he could.
“What’s wrong?”
Lee Hyeonuk, head of the Materials Management Team.
Forty-three years old.
A junior far younger than Kim Jongseok, who was fifty-two this year.
“Are you sure the cement inventory is being managed properly?”
“Yes, it is...”
“Then why don’t the numbers from last quarter and this quarter match? The increases and decreases are listed right here, but the final figures are completely different.”
The moment he finished speaking, Lee Hyeonuk threw the report onto the floor.
He might be the team leader, but he was still a much younger junior.
Kim Jongseok was almost old enough to be his eldest brother.
This was crossing the line.
Yet Kim Jongseok bent down and picked the report back up as though he were already used to this kind of treatment.
Suppressing his anger, he spoke quietly.
“The basic assumptions for last quarter and this quarter are different. Purchasing changed the standard starting this quarter.”
Anyone could see that Lee Hyeonuk had made the mistake.
And he had just embarrassed himself in front of the entire team.
Lee Hyeonuk was already well aware that people whispered behind his back about how young he had been when promoted to team leader.
His face flushed red.
“So you’re saying this is my fault?”
“N-No, that’s not what I meant...”
Kim Jongseok had plenty he wanted to say, but swallowed it all.
Getting him to talk back was exactly what the other man wanted.
He had long since become numb to this kind of harassment.
There was only one reason Kim Jongseok continued enduring the humiliation and staying at the company.
His younger daughter had entered university this year.
He needed to hold on to his job until she graduated.
“I’ll revise the report so it’s easier for you to understand.”
Lee Hyeonuk’s expression twisted even further.
“Forget it. Just leave it there.”
Kim Jongseok returned to his desk with his shoulders slumped.
Where did my life start going wrong?
Two years ago, when the Safety Management TF was created, everything had looked bright.
He had been with Handong Construction for twenty years.
He had worked in safety-related positions almost the entire time, but had never received much recognition.
Then society’s view of industrial accidents changed dramatically.
The media began branding companies as “murder corporations.”
Handong Construction needed to show visible efforts to reduce workplace accidents.
That was how the company-wide Safety Management TF was created.
Executive Director Ahn Changwan, who was highly trusted inside the company, became its head.
Kim Jongseok joined as one of the TF members.
If they produced strong results, he might even have had a shot at becoming an executive afterward.
He worked day and night.
Then, overnight, the TF was dismantled.
Everyone who had been part of it was scattered.
Most were effectively demoted into departments unrelated to their expertise, where they were treated like remnants of a disgraced faction.
Ahn Changwan, the TF leader, suffered every humiliation imaginable before being driven out of the company.
On the day Ahn left, Kim Jongseok drank with him and cried openly.
Kim Jongseok himself had been assigned to the Materials Management Team.
After spending his entire career in safety, he decided he would resign.
When Ahn Changwan heard, he desperately stopped him.
He told Kim Jongseok to think about his family.
In the end, Kim Jongseok never submitted his resignation and continued living this humiliating life.
“Department Head Kim, want to go have a cigarette?”
It was Deputy Chief Ahn Jinwoo.
He was the only colleague who had treated Kim Jongseok kindly after his transfer to Materials Management.
“Have one of mine.”
Only after entering the smoking room did Kim Jongseok realize his cigarette pack was empty.
He accepted the cigarette Ahn Jinwoo offered.
“Do you still keep in touch with Executive Director Ahn Changwan?”
“Not often.”
“Did you contact him after the Daehan Daily interview?”
“No.”
“Executive Director Ahn must be having a hard time.”
“...”
Kim Jongseok had deliberately avoided contacting Ahn after the Daehan Daily interview was published.
The company already had Kim Jongseok marked.
If he contacted Ahn now, it might only make things worse for him.
So he had pretended not to know anything.
“I never thought the company would dig up the old corporate-card issue again. They’re even bringing up the sexual harassment case.”
Kim Jongseok knew exactly what was happening.
The company, furious over Ahn’s interview, was trying to destroy him socially.
And that frightened Kim Jongseok.
Sometimes he wondered whether a corporation was just a legally recognized gang.
“The sexual harassment claim is ridiculous.”
“I know. It makes no sense.”
Ahn Jinwoo assumed Kim Jongseok was defending Ahn Changwan out of loyalty.
A matter of courtesy toward a former superior.
“I mean it. I was the person standing right beside him when it happened.”
“Really?”
“I know Deputy Chief Choi Hyewon well too. I feel bad for her, but...”
Ahn Jinwoo still looked doubtful.
After all, workplace sexual harassment cases were often buried in exactly that way.
“Executive Director Ahn really was falsely accused. That’s why I personally testified for him.”
“Didn’t all the TF members testify at the time?”
“No one saw it as clearly as I did. I was right beside them. My testimony was the most decisive.”
“Ah...”
Ring, ring.
Just then, Kim Jongseok’s phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
“Hello?”
“Department Head Kim Jongseok?”
“Yes.”
“This is the Audit Office. Please come to the Purchasing Division Head’s office for a moment.”
The Audit Office?
Why do they want me?
“Please sit here.”
When Kim Jongseok entered the division head’s office, two men in black suits were already waiting.
Audit Office employees.
If there were people you never wanted to meet during corporate life, these were probably at the top of the list.
Manager Na Seunghyeop, the senior of the two, did most of the talking.
“You were very close with Executive Director Ahn Changwan, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Have you seen how much harm Executive Director Ahn has caused the company recently?”
“Harm?”
Kim Jongseok bristled.
What harm had Ahn possibly caused?
“He told the media things that weren’t true, and the company is suffering badly because of it.”
Not the company.
Vice President Kwon Jaegwan is suffering.
Kim Jongseok scoffed inwardly.
“What exactly did he say that wasn’t true? I worked on the TF with him at the time.”
Na Seunghyeop’s eyes sharpened.
“Are you defending Executive Director Ahn right now?”
“No. I’m not defending him. I’m saying...”
Na Seunghyeop suddenly spread a set of documents across the table.
They contained the statement Kim Jongseok had given two years ago when the sexual harassment complaint was filed.
