T/L note: I will start the unlocked chapters to 214, but dont worry about the free chapters (139-213), I will still translate it.
Yoo-hyun nodded his head with a smile.
-You don’t have to do this. You should focus on other things, Yoo-hyun.
Kim Seondong, the team leader, always tried to take over the tasks that were assigned to Yoo-hyun.
He was the type of person who was willing to sacrifice himself for others.
He endured all kinds of unpleasant work without complaining.
He had a lot of ideas and was smart, but he was too busy with trivial tasks that he couldn’t concentrate on his own work.
Despite that, he played a crucial role in the development of the ultra-high-resolution panel.
Looking back, he was an amazing person.
Yoo-hyun sat down and touched the soldering iron.
It felt very unfamiliar.
It was even more so because he hadn’t used it for a long time.
Then, someone passed behind Yoo-hyun.
He glanced and saw that it was Kim Hogul, the senior engineer.
He seemed to have checked what Yoo-hyun was doing, but he didn’t show any reaction.
His expression was as grim as yesterday.
He looked at Yoo-hyun as if he was testing him.
-The product planning guys should do this too. Then they would understand the difficulties of the engineers.
Yoo-hyun recalled what he had said in the past and smiled.
Back then, he wasn’t a timid team leader who only cared about others’ opinions.
Under his professional guidance, Yoo-hyun gained a lot of experience.
It became a great foundation for Yoo-hyun’s growth later.
With that memory in mind, Yoo-hyun turned on the soldering iron.
There were countless components on a yellow film that was slightly smaller than his palm.
They were so close together that it required a lot of skill to detach one of them.
Yoo-hyun removed them one by one by applying solder on both sides of the small components.
It had been a long time ago, but his hands still remembered the experience.
And since he had good concentration, it was quick after he got used to it.
After detaching them, he also enjoyed attaching them with solder using tweezers.
It felt natural to repeat the same task over and over again.
It was like disassembling and reassembling a gun in the army.
Kim Seondong, the team leader, and Maeng Giyong, the senior engineer, came back after finishing their conversation.
There was a box containing touch PCBs on Kim Seondong’s seat.
They were neatly packed as if they were new products.
Maeng Giyong was surprised and asked Kim Seondong.
“What? You’re done already?”
Maeng Giyong looked around and quickly said to Kim Seondong.
“Check it with the measuring device. Hurry up.”
Kim Seondong brought the measuring device and checked the resistance at the position where it needed to be changed.
He checked several devices, but the values were all the same.
The connections were also neatly done.
After confirming everything, Kim Seondong said to Maeng Giyong.
“Senior engineer, I think it’s all done.”
“There’s not a single mistake. Wow…”
Maeng Giyong felt a bit awkward.
He had asked the team leader to make Yoo-hyun do some hard work, but he finished it in no time.
That’s how Yoo-hyun accomplished something every day.
Even if it was a small thing, he always left a good impression.
As he did so, the evaluation of others around him gradually changed.
From a shameless guy, a rude guy to a necessary guy.
Thanks to the halo effect that Kim Hyunmin, the director, had given him, his speed accelerated even more.
It was Friday, the first week since Yoo-hyun came to work here.
That morning, Maeng Giyong and Lee Jinmok, the team leaders, were at the smoking area next to the fourth factory building.
They were smoking when Maeng Giyong suddenly said:
“That guy Yoo-hyun has something special.”
“Yes, senior engineer. I thought he was just a rude guy, but he’s not.”
“Me too. You know that IC company thing he mentioned?”
“Yes. At the weekly meeting?”
“Yeah. He was right about everything. Geez.”
Maeng Giyong exhaled smoke and chuckled bitterly.
Lee Jinmok nodded in agreement and asked with a worried expression:
“What about Yoon senior engineer? He seems to be really after him. What should we do?”
“What can we do? In my opinion, Yoon senior engineer can’t stop Yoo-hyun.”
“You’re starting to worry about him too? If you do, you should at least buy him a drink.”
“Hey, I’m not that close to him yet.”
Lee Jinmok shook his head at Maeng Giyong’s suggestion.
He still had some resentment in his heart.
It was the same for Maeng Giyong.
He threw away the cigarette butt and muttered to himself.
“But I think we should get along with him soon.”
Yoo-hyun, who was sitting in the office, turned his head at the gaze he felt from the water dispenser.
There was Yoon Gichun, the senior engineer.
He was grinding his teeth and glaring at Yoo-hyun.
Yoo-hyun snickered and he crumpled the paper cup and threw it into the trash can.
Then he walked back to his seat with a sulky face.
“How long is he going to act like that?”
Yoo-hyun laughed mockingly and shook his head.
He looked ridiculous with his negative emotions.
Did he know that the more he acted like that, the more he helped Yoo-hyun?
If it weren’t for him, Yoo-hyun would have stayed as an outsider for a long time.
‘He seems to be a nice person after all…’
Even if Yoo-hyun showed his hard work, people would have thought that way.
But thanks to Yoon Gichun’s excessive gossiping, the situation changed.
‘No, I didn’t see him wrong. It was Yoon Gichun who slandered him and made me misunderstand.’
That’s how he gave people a chance to rationalize themselves.
Of course, the atmosphere wasn’t completely reversed yet, but it was definitely improving.
Yoo-hyun felt somewhat grateful to Yoon Gichun.
But he couldn’t let him be a childish brat forever.
A project checklist appeared on Yoo-hyun’s monitor.
It listed all the items that were necessary for the progress of the project.
It was what Go Junho, the executive director, had ordered the team leader to report by next Tuesday.
Yoo-hyun had collected the team data and made a new report.
The reason why he made a new one was simple.
The content they presented last week was terrible.
Each individual in the advanced product team had professional knowledge and rich experience.
But they had a weakness in drawing a big picture.
The team leader should have done that role, but Kim Hogul, the senior engineer, still couldn’t read Go Junho’s mind.
Yoo-hyun checked the schedule on the checklist and picked up the phone.
There were some things he had to prepare in advance for the future.
After a few rings, he heard Kim Younggil, the section chief’s voice.
-Oh? Yoo-hyun, what’s up?
“Are you doing well?”
-Thanks to you, I’m doing well.
They exchanged simple greetings and Yoo-hyun got to the point.
“Section chief, did you register the trademark as I told you?”
-What? Retina display?
“Yes. You said you would do it.”
-Ah, I did it because you pushed me. But I did it.
-But will it work? We’re not good at patents, let alone trademarks.
Kim Younggil answered with uncertainty, but Yoo-hyun assured him.
“It will work. It’s a unique name.”
-Okay. Well, it would be nice to advertise our ultra-high-resolution panel. The name is cool.
He didn’t know in the past and missed it, but not anymore.
He didn’t want to let others take away what he had done.
The name had a great power.
Yoo-hyun hung up and called Semi Electronics’ Kang Junki right away.
He greeted him with a friendly voice.
-Hey, Ulsan boy, what’s going on?
“Just checking. Did you check the mockup schedule?”
-Ah. You asked me a few days ago, dude.
“Stop stalling and tell me. I’m busy.”
Yoo-hyun asked Kang Junki, who was sighing.
He was having fun with his work and he must have checked it already.
As expected, he got the answer he wanted.
-We still have time, don’t we? If we customize it as you said, we have enough room.
-But why do you need another mockup?
“No. Not me. There’s someone called Lee Jinmok, the team leader.”
Yoo-hyun lifted his head and looked at Lee Jinmok, who was next to Kim Seondong, the team leader.
He was organizing data without knowing anything.
Kang Junki asked him:
-Really? When are you going to contact him?
“I’ll do it later. Anyway, I got it. Let me know if there’s any change.”
Yoo-hyun looked at the phone that was hung up.
No one cared about it now, but there would be a time when they needed a mockup for Apple’s demo.
He had to prepare from now on to make a big impact then.
What would be good to demo the ultra-high-resolution panel?
Realistic images were essential.
But that wasn’t enough.
He had to make a UI that felt like a next-generation Apple phone to convince them for sure.
Yoo-hyun knew someone who could help him with this kind of thing.
He picked up his phone and called his sister.
“Hey, Jaehui, how are you?”
-What’s up, bro? You never call me these days.
“Just wondering how your studies are going.”
-I almost died because of the midterm exams.
“Did you finish them?”
He had checked his sister’s midterm schedule before calling her.
It was his brotherly heart to give her some consideration before asking for a favor.
Yoo-hyun said with a pleasant voice:
-What? You sound suspicious.
As Yoo-hyun was explaining, he heard a sharp voice from the other side of the phone.
-No way. I don’t want to do it.
“What? What’s wrong?”
When Yoo-hyun asked her, Han Jaehui pretended that nothing happened.
But that wasn’t true.
He clearly heard a man’s voice nagging her.
-Hey, I’m on the phone. Stop it. Ugh. Why are you ? Ugh, really.
“Jaehui, what’s going on?”
-No, it’s just that a senior keeps talking to me.
Yoo-hyun felt it intuitively.
He had a name in his mind.
“Is it Yang Woochan?”
-…No. Just continue what you were saying.
When Han Jaehui avoided the question, his suspicion turned into certainty.
She was definitely involved with Yang Woochan.
And not in a good way.
Yoo-hyun said with determination:
“No. I have to see you in person. Are you okay now?”
“Okay. I’ll be there today.”
Yoo-hyun ignored Han Jaehui’s surprise and hung up the phone.
He immediately looked for a bus ticket.
There wasn’t much time left until the end of work, so he had to check it now to catch it on time.
As he was searching the internet site, Maeng Giyong, the senior engineer, glanced at him as if he was aware of him.
He licked his lips as if he had something to say.
He felt like asking him for a drink.
He could reach out and grab him, but he couldn’t do that now.
He had an urgent matter to solve.
In the end, Maeng Giyong wandered around and returned to his seat.