Chapter 6
“We need to make a toast for our Assistant Manager Choi Inwoo!”
“To Assistant Manager Choi!”
Clink!
The moment the supply contract with Shinwoo Department Store’s food hall was officially stamped, a WG Food company dinner began.
“Assistant Manager Choi, this is huge.”
“Seriously. Choi Inwoo, how did you manage to get our products into Shinwoo Department Store? Congratulations.”
One employee after another congratulated me.
“Thank you.”
I already knew how influential Shinwoo Department Store was.
But seeing CEO Jeong Seonghan more excited than anyone else reminded me of it all over again.
The sales themselves were important.
But simply having WG Food products stocked inside Shinwoo Department Store carried enormous symbolic value.
At present, the three major food companies in Korea were OI Food, Uddook Food, and Rohan Food.
It would not be an exaggeration to say those three conglomerates led Korea’s food industry.
OI Food in particular had become popular not only domestically, but overseas as well.
Compared to companies like those, WG Food was still considered a small or medium-sized Korean food company.
There were countless food companies in the country, and their numbers continued to grow.
Even so, WG Food had begun in Gwangju and the Honam region and had built a fairly solid position for itself.
If you asked ordinary people whether they knew WG Food, most probably would not.
But if you asked someone who worked in the food industry, it would probably be harder to find someone who had never heard of us.
That was how firmly WG Food had established itself in the industry.
Even a company like ours, however, could not easily enter a department-store food hall.
Unlike ordinary supermarkets, the products sold in department-store food halls carried a sense of being premium.
Both the products and their prices.
Because of that, department stores usually preferred products from large corporations and rarely handled products from smaller companies.
So the fact that WG Food, a small-to-medium-sized company, had managed to place its products inside such a food hall was more than enough reason to celebrate.
Manager Kwon Seunghun poured alcohol into his mouth before speaking.
“A few years ago, when we landed that corporate cafeteria supply contract, we had a company dinner like this too. It’s been a while.”
Manager Jang Woojin nodded in agreement.
“You’re right. It really has been years since we celebrated landing a deal this big.”
Company dinners were not exactly rare at WG Food.
We normally had a full-company dinner at the end of every month.
Departments also gathered separately, and employees who were close often went out together.
Because sales employees spent most of their working hours outside rather than in the office, there was not much time for casual conversations with coworkers.
So after work, those conversations often happened over drinks instead.
As time passed, empty bottles multiplied across the floor at an incredible rate.
With this many people, finishing a bottle took no time at all.
Everyone had originally been divided between several tables.
But as the night continued, people naturally moved around.
Before long, Assistant Manager Im Sanghyeon and Assistant Manager Baek Seoyeon were sitting across from me.
“Want to have a drink, just us?”
“Sounds good.”
Baek Seoyeon looked at me.
“Assistant Manager Choi, congratulations. Getting a supply contract with a department-store food hall is really difficult.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Im Sanghyeon quickly added his own words.
“Inwoo, seriously, you’re incredible. You better get an A rank next quarter. Got it?”
“This alone won’t be enough. I still need to keep working hard.”
At my answer, Im Sanghyeon glanced toward Lee Sejun, who was sitting farther away.
“Raise your sales so high that bastard can’t possibly catch you. I want to see him slip up for once.”
The Shinwoo Department Store deal alone did not guarantee me an A rank next quarter.
Still, that single account had already increased my chances dramatically.
And what I wanted was exactly what Im Sanghyeon had just said.
No matter what shortcut Lee Sejun used to suddenly raise his sales...
I wanted my own numbers to be so high that he could never catch me.
That was my goal.
“Yeah. I will.”
“Inwoo... you’re going to succeed. You have to.”
Im Sanghyeon poured me another drink.
“How many quarters has that bastard pushed you down to B rank now? You worked hard for this contract. Seriously, congratulations.”
“Come on. I was lucky too.”
He raised his thumb and smiled.
Seeing his expression and hearing his words made my chest feel strangely warm.
After securing the Shinwoo Department Store deal, I had received congratulations from many employees.
But most of them did not sound completely sincere.
Of course, I understood.
We worked for the same company.
We were all salespeople.
From their perspective, I had claimed a client that could have become theirs.
And it was a major account at that.
How many salespeople could sincerely congratulate another person for taking such a huge client?
There were only so many places in Gwangju where we could sell products.
And every quarter, we were ranked against each other.
In an industry built around relative evaluation, not many people could wholeheartedly applaud someone who was moving ahead of them.
I understood that feeling so well that even congratulations with hidden thorns did not bother me.
Perhaps sincerely congratulating another person was only possible when your own heart had enough room for it.
But Im Sanghyeon was always ranked below me, and yet he looked almost as proud and happy as I was.
If anything, it made me feel grateful.
I picked up the soju bottle and looked at Im Sanghyeon and Baek Seoyeon.
“Let’s have a drink, just the people who joined together!”
Baek Seoyeon smiled brightly and lifted her glass.
“It’s been forever since the three of us drank together.”
“Exactly. Even if we’re busy, we should get together more often.”
Just then, Lee Sejun happened to be walking by.
He stopped and spoke.
“If you mean everyone who joined together, doesn’t that include me?”
“...”
Im Sanghyeon, Baek Seoyeon, Lee Sejun, and I.
The four of us had joined WG Food at the same time.
Except for Baek Seoyeon, who was two years younger, the three of us were even the same age.
However, we had not been promoted to assistant manager at the same time.
I had been promoted first.
Then came Lee Sejun, Baek Seoyeon, and finally Im Sanghyeon.
Back when we first joined the company, the simple fact that we were in the same hiring group had been enough to make us close.
And Lee Sejun had been part of that group too.
We had different personalities and came from different backgrounds.
But being coworkers who started together was enough to create a bond.
We talked to one another about the difficulties of adapting to company life.
We helped each other through hard times.
I could not remember exactly when it started, but at some point Lee Sejun gradually began growing distant from the rest of us.
More accurately, he was the one who had started avoiding us.
At some point, Lee Sejun began using his family’s wealth to build his sales figures.
One by one, he surpassed the sales numbers of his peers.
Then, after me, he became the second among us to earn the title of assistant manager.
I think that was when things began changing.
When his mother started interfering and filling his sales numbers for him, we originally assumed Lee Sejun might be embarrassed about it around the rest of us.
But he felt no embarrassment or shame at all.
If anything, he seemed proud that he could use money to generate sales.
We continued to drift apart.
And none of us felt any need to become close to him again.
Everyone else ran around in the field and worked hard for their sales.
Then, shortly before the quarter ended and the figures were finalized, Lee Sejun always used his family’s wealth to claim first place.
What coworker would like someone who behaved that way?
Naturally, CEO Jeong Seonghan probably loved it because company revenue went up.
But to the rest of us...
Lee Sejun was hardly a good colleague.
Assistant Manager Lee Sejun raised his eyebrows and sat down in an empty seat.
Then he poured himself soju.
