Chapter 3
The Sleeping Chairman of the Group (2)
"..."
Annual revenue of 18 trillion won.
Operating profit of 1.3 trillion won.
Total assets of 28 trillion won.
Ranked 21st among Korea's conglomerates.
A thirty-six-story building housing sixteen subsidiaries.
This was the headquarters of Choi sung Group.
And Chairman Kang—the owner of the building—stood in the lobby staring at the security gate, unable to figure out how to get inside.
As he did, he noticed two women in uniform and a man standing like a security agent watching him suspiciously.
The information desk.
These were the same employees who bowed ninety degrees every time he walked by.
Now they were glaring at him.
Then again, providing information was their job.
He could simply ask.
"What floor is the Trading Materials Team on?"
No matter what happened, the information desk staff were trained to smile.
But being spoken to informally by a young punk clearly irritated her.
Her lips still smiled, but her teeth were clenched.
"Do you have a meeting scheduled? Visitors are directed to the meeting rooms."
A visitor?
I own this place.
"Ah, I'm an employee here."
"...Excuse me?"
Chairman Kang pulled out his employee ID and placed it on the desk.
"An intern...?"
The smile vanished from the receptionist's face.
An intern was merely a rookie who hadn't even been around a year.
To someone who had already spent three years eating cafeteria meals in the company, he looked like a child.
Without another word, she pointed at the floor directory behind the desk.
"You have eyes and can read Korean, right?"
Her finger wagged dismissively, telling him to stop bothering her.
Looking up, he saw the floors packed with the names of subsidiaries and departments.
After some searching, he finally found it.
13th Floor.
Returning to the gate, he waved his ID around until the barrier finally opened.
Chairman Kang laughed.
Why did such a trivial thing make him feel like he'd accomplished something extraordinary?
***
The moment he arrived on the thirteenth floor, tension hit him.
While searching the wall signs for the Materials Team, a shout struck him from behind.
"HEY! HWANG JUNHYUN! YOU LITTLE BRAT! If you're here, get inside already! What are you doing?"
Turning around, he saw a man who looked like a department manager pointing at him.
"Manager, lower your voice. We should talk to him first, shouldn't we?"
The younger man beside him—perhaps an assistant manager?
"You. Follow me, asshole."
That voice.
The team manager who had cursed him over the phone.
Chairman Kang felt a surge of irritation at being sworn at by someone so young.
But gathering information was more important.
He followed the two men into the office.
Everyone inside whispered as they looked at him.
They entered a small meeting room and sat down.
The expressions on the department manager's and team manager's faces were a strange mixture of anger and sympathy.
"Hey. Why were you running without looking where you were going?"
How should I know?
I don't even know why this body's owner ran into me.
"You don't know you collided with the chairman, do you?"
Actually, I know very well.
I was the chairman.
But he shook his head.
"Because of you, the entire company has been turned upside down. Then you disappeared from the hospital. Where the hell were you?"
"Uh... at home..."
"Home? Good grief."
The department manager stared at him in disbelief.
"Why home? You should've come to the company!"
The team manager practically shouted.
"My memory..."
"What?"
"I don't remember."
The moment he said that, both men's expressions changed completely.
"Could it be because of the accident...?"
Ah.
There's a useful trick.
"That seems likely. To be honest, I couldn't even remember that the Materials Team was on the thirteenth floor. I spent quite a while wandering around."
Chairman Kang decided then and there that "memory loss" would be a useful card to play whenever he found himself in a difficult situation.
More importantly, it was time to verify something.
"So... was I the one who collided with the chairman?"
"Yeah, idiot. The chairman got rushed to the hospital. The whole group went into emergency mode."
"And the chairman...?"
Please don't tell me he's dead.
If he's dead, the possibility of returning to my original body disappears entirely.
"It's not confirmed, but they say it was only a minor shock. You're unbelievably lucky. If something serious had happened to the chairman, your life would've been over."
It's already over.
A conglomerate chairman might now be forced to live the life of a nobody drowning in loan payments.
"Has the chairman returned to work yet?"
"Hey! Do you think the chairman is some ordinary person? Do you think he's like you? Someone who gets discharged the moment they seem okay because hospital bills are expensive? Of course he'll undergo a full examination to check for aftereffects."
What do these fools know?
Until he saw his own body alive and moving, he couldn't know whether it was alive or dead.
Even if it had died, the company would announce he was alive until all the necessary arrangements had been completed.
"Anyway, what are you going to do now?"
"...Pardon?"
"I asked what you're going to do."
The department manager looked away while the team manager asked the strange question.
What am I going to do?
How should I know?
The team manager finally spelled it out.
"Can you even keep working here?"
"What?"
"Let's say you do. You only have three months left on your internship. When that's over, do you think they'll hire you as a full-time employee? You're the one who put the chairman in the hospital."
He emphasized the word you.
"Honestly, we don't care. But do you think the higher-ups in the group will just let it go?"
So they want me to quit voluntarily?
He hadn't considered that.
Chairman Kang imagined what he himself would've done under normal circumstances.
If he'd awakened in a hospital after a minor accident, he would've casually asked:
"What happened to the kid who ran into me?"
His subordinates would've explained the situation.
That would've been the end of it.
Meanwhile, President Choi would've probably said just one thing:
"Fire him."
That order would've filtered down until some team manager delivered the dismissal notice.
It was routine.
Something that happened all the time.
Yet suddenly Chairman Kang found himself surprised.
How many things happened without his knowledge every day?
The truth was, he didn't care about working here.
He only wanted to reclaim his body and return to the chairman's office on the thirty-sixth floor.
Not remain trapped on the thirteenth.
But if he lost access to the building, he couldn't even attempt that.
Rather than being fired and rotting away in that tiny studio apartment, he needed to keep entering the building and find a way to reach the thirty-sixth floor.
Unfortunately, this body belonged to a mere intern.
If they told him to leave, he'd have to leave.
Refusing would only get him dragged out by security.
What do I do...?
At that moment, a knock came at the door.
A young employee entered.
"Manager, Executive Director Kim is asking for you urgently."
The department manager's face immediately twisted.
"So we've been summoned after all."
Looking sympathetically at Chairman Kang, he said,
"Hwang Junhyun, Executive Director Kim oversees personnel, understand? The first thing he'll say when I get upstairs is that you need to be fired. There's nothing we can do anymore."
The department manager stood.
The team manager followed.
"Wait here. We'll be back soon."
Leaving the bewildered intern behind, the two men exited the meeting room.
***
"What?"
"Didn't you hear me? Leave that idiot alone! Not only until the internship ends—we're making him a full-time employee. That's final."
"What? Executive Director, he's the one who put the chairman in the hospital..."
"You little bastard! Just do as you're told! Stop arguing! It's the president's orders!"
"Y-Yes, sir."
Watching the department manager bow his head while cold sweat ran down his face, Executive Director Kim felt a little guilty for taking out his frustration on the wrong person.
"If that idiot writes online about unfair dismissal, we're screwed. He was busy working and happened to collide with the chairman in an elevator. That's it. Then he gets fired? People already hate conglomerate chairmen enough as it is. What do you think they'll say?"
The executive continued:
"Are chaebol chairmen emperors? Is it a capital offense to scratch their royal bodies? What crime did the hardworking employee commit?"
"You mean... because of the group's image?"
"I don't know. That's just my opinion. And one more thing."
"Yes, sir."
"Nobody in the department is to mention this incident again. No gossip. No strange looks. No bullying. Treat him exactly the same as before. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. I'll make sure everyone understands."
The department manager barely suppressed a sigh.
The truth was, people had already been gossiping about Hwang Junhyun for months.
He was considered incompetent.
He'd long since been excluded from meaningful work.
Most days he just organized supply inventories and ran errands.
Bullying?
That ship had sailed ages ago.
Now things had completely reversed.
He couldn't be excluded.
He definitely couldn't be bullied.
Everyone would have to look after him like a protected soldier in the military.
The kid had headbutted the chairman and somehow hit the jackpot.
"Go. It won't take long. He'll be made a full-time employee and gone within a year."
"Understood. I'll make sure it happens without causing any problems."
***
The department manager returned to the thirteenth floor and gathered everyone from Materials Teams One and Two in the large conference room.
"Listen carefully. What I'm about to say comes directly from the president."
The murmuring instantly stopped.
"Hwang Junhyun is staying."
The room erupted again.
"Quiet!"
The manager shouted.
Then he explained the concerns the executive director had raised.
The employees stared in disbelief.
"I'm not saying you have to coddle him. If he does bad work, criticize him. Give him proper assignments. But don't leave him out when you go to lunch. Bring him when you get coffee. Most importantly, today's incident is forbidden territory. Not one word linking him and the chairman. Understood?"
"Yes..."
The responses were weak.
"If he resigns on his own now, we're the ones who'll be in trouble. Not just me—you too. It would mean we ignored a direct order from the president. Got it?"
The responses became noticeably louder.
Now that it affected them personally, the manager's words finally hit home.
"Team Manager Park Jaewoo."
"Yes, Manager."
"You're going to have a rough time. Sorry."
"No problem. I'll make sure no issues arise."
"Good. Bring him back."
"Shouldn't we just send him home today? He probably needs to go back to the hospital."
"Ah, right. Give him tomorrow off as well. Tell him to return the day after."
"Understood."
***
Park Jaewoo hurried back to the meeting room where Hwang Junhyun was waiting.
The moment Chairman Kang saw him, he realized something had changed.
That smile.
He had seen it countless times.
The smile worn by people trying to curry favor with him.
A smile meant to hide servility.
He didn't know why, but something had definitely changed.
"You're a lucky man."
The team manager's opening words confirmed it.
"The president issued instructions. He said the chairman wasn't seriously injured, so firing someone over this would be unreasonable. You'll be allowed to continue working here."
Bullshit.
Who are you trying to fool?
Chairman Kang knew President Choi better than anyone.
The man wasn't nearly that generous.
If anything, he'd be terrified that the incident might somehow splash back onto him.
"You still don't seem completely recovered. Go back to the hospital. Take tomorrow off too. Then return to work the day after. Understood?"