Yoo-hyun smiled at him.
It was a long time ago, but he must have still kept it in his mind.
His happy feeling came out as a playful answer.
“That was 500 won, you know.”
“But I gave it to you first…”
“I can feel your generosity.”
Yoo-hyun teased him, and he coughed and turned away.
“Ahem, well, good luck then.”
After he left, Yoo-hyun touched the can of coffee.
It felt cold, so he must have just bought it.
And it was the most expensive coffee in the store.
He felt the senior’s intention and smiled pleasantly.
He felt the changed atmosphere and worked.
That’s when he got a call from his friend Ha Jun-seok.
Yoo-hyun answered the phone with a glad feeling.
“Hey, Junseok, what’s up?”
-What’s up. You were so worried about me because of the Hansung factory site, so I called you.
“I wasn’t that worried, you know?”
-Anyway. Do you have time for a drink? I’m out on a business trip near your house.
“Okay. I’ll be right there when I’m done.”
He wanted to see him anyway, so Yoo-hyun agreed to his offer without hesitation.
Ha Jun-seok came to Yoo-hyun’s house.
Maybe it was because he was from Ulsan, but he was less worried than when Kang Junki came to his house.
This guy wouldn’t stay for days pretending to work like Kang Junki.
But his face was not very bright when he opened the door and came in.
He always had a smiling face, so it was obvious even if he changed a little.
“Why do you look so gloomy? Did you fight with someone?”
Yoo-hyun asked jokingly, and Ha Jun-seok said casually.
“No, nothing. Here, this.”
He handed over a black plastic bag.
“Why did you buy this?”
It was full of soju and snacks.
He clearly wanted to get drunk.
Ha Jun-seok avoided his obvious intention and said.
“Just. You like alcohol, don’t you?”
“Hey, you like it more.”
“Fine. Let’s sit down.”
Yoo-hyun gestured and Ha Jun-seok moved.
He knew where things were because he helped organize them when he moved in.
“Are we drinking downstairs? I’ll set the table.”
“Thanks. Oh, can you play some Girls’ Generation songs that you like?”
He wasn’t the type to refuse music, so it was strange.
He was definitely not in a good mood.
The table was half empty with Yoo-hyun’s cooking and Ha Jun-seok’s snacks.
He didn’t know how many bottles of soju were empty.
Yoo-hyun stopped Ha Jun-seok who was trying to drink another glass.
“Stop drinking. What’s bothering you so much?”
“Just… I don’t think I fit in at work.”
“Tell me. Don’t say you can’t because you’re embarrassed in front of me.”
Yoo-hyun looked quietly at his friend who sighed.
He had only seen him lively, so the sight in front of him was very surprising.
He heard that he was doing well at work lately.
But what was the problem?
Ha Jun-seok slowly opened his mouth.
“It’s not something I should tell you.”
“There you go again. I’m doing well at work too. I clash with my boss, I make a scene and all that.”
“It would be better if it was something like that.”
Ha Jun-seok answered Yoo-hyun’s question.
“Do you know what I do?”
“Construction sales, right?”
“Did you meet a bad customer or something?”
Yoo-hyun guessed and Ha Jun-seok nodded his head.
“I did. A very bad one.”
“Really? You should have told your boss.”
“My boss can’t handle him either.”
Yoo-hyun listened quietly to his friend’s story with the help of alcohol.
Ha Jun-seok worked for Shinil Construction, a small construction company.
He was working on an officetel contract recently.
The one who requested it was the bad customer he was talking about.
“He’s a big shot in Gangnam. He asked for an officetel site by himself.”
“That must be a lot of money.”
“It starts with hundreds of billions of won.”
“Why does he treat you like that?”
“I don’t know. He’s crazy. He doesn’t like my face or something.”
“Yeah. He said I look unlucky or something. Damn it.”
Yoo-hyun laughed at Ha Jun-seok’s words.
He remembered an unpleasant memory from the past as he heard his friend’s words.
The situation was completely different, but Yoo-hyun also had a customer like that.
He still couldn’t forget that name. It popped out of his mouth with the alcohol.
Ha Jun-seok’s eyes widened.
“Huh? Yoo-hyun, how do you know that name?”
“What? That bastard is Nam Jongbu?”
Yoo-hyun was surprised by Ha Jun-seok’s words and asked.
“Yeah, right. The big shot in Gangnam, Nam Jongbu.”
“No, he’s a jerk in Gangnam.”
“But how do you know? Oh, he has a lot of buildings in Seoul, is that why?”
Ha Jun-seok asked and Yoo-hyun shook his head.
“No. I just had some trouble with him.”
“Really? Then you know what kind of guy he is?”
Yoo-hyun clenched his teeth as he remembered the past.
-Hey, Han Manager, are you young or something? You have no manners. You should bow your head to the ground. Don’t you?
He endured the humiliation of entertaining him.
He followed his bosses and smiled at him.
He was blinded by money and couldn’t see an inch ahead.
He still got angry when he thought of the humiliation he suffered from him.
Yoo-hyun asked with determination.
“Junseok, can you let me meet him?”
“You don’t have to help me. Our boss gave up too.”
Ha Jun-seok shook his head as if he had no regrets.
He was just stressed by Nam Jongbu’s persistence.
Yoo-hyun said seriously to him.
“I’m not trying to help you. I just have something to pay back.”
Even though it hadn’t happened yet, Yoo-hyun vaguely told him what he had suffered from Nam Jongbu.
Ha Jun-seok was shocked.
“Is he really crazy?”
“Yeah. So help me out.”
Yoo-hyun told him a rough plan.
Ha Jun-seok’s eyes became as big as lanterns.
“What? Are you crazy?”
“You just pretend you don’t know. Got it?”
“…I can’t take responsibility for this.”
“Don’t worry at all.”
Ha Jun-seok, who had been talking endlessly, went back to his house to go to work.
Yoo-hyun, who was left alone, sat in front of the computer with a little bit of alcohol left.
He didn’t want to look at the remnants of the old memories that he didn’t want to remember.
He clicked on a name on the internet search site.
Then countless related articles poured out.
Yoo-hyun clicked on one of the articles that caught his eye.
It was about a descendant of a pro-Japanese who sued the state for land restitution.
This descendant was a person named Nam Byungjun, a dark hand in Gangnam.
He had already inherited land worth billions of won in Gangnam and Yongin from his father, who was a pro-Japanese.
He was not satisfied with that and tried to take away another 300 billion won land.
He inherited his wealth from his only son.
It was Nam Jongbu, the jerk in Gangnam.
He cursed as soon as he remembered his name again.
It wasn’t a rash word because of alcohol.
He was so disgusting that he wanted to beat him up.
Yoo-hyun tried to calm down his anger and followed Nam Jongbu’s traces with keywords.
At the same time, he recalled his past with him.
Why did he get involved with him when they weren’t even in the same company?
It was because of the work that Yoo-hyun, who was in the group strategy room at the time, was in charge of.
And it was also because of his bosses who were sucking up to Nam Jongbu.
-He wants my land in Hansung? Can I just give it to him? There has to be a deal.
The group wanted to build a research center strategically, and Nam Jongbu was the owner of that land.
Yoo-hyun had to cater to his whims because of his boss’s pressure.
Of course, he also had the ambition to rise quickly.
But he was a different kind of person from his bosses who Yoo-hyun had been following with his eyes.
He swore and even used violence if he didn’t like something.
-Hey, Manager Han, do you have no manners because you’re young? You should bow your head to the ground. Don’t you?
He endured the humiliation of serving him.
He followed his bosses and smiled at him.
He was blinded by money and couldn’t see an inch ahead.
All he got was more pain, even though he got what he wanted by catering to his dirty whims.
He swept away the nearby shops around Hansung Tower by raising him up.
The old lady at the rice soup restaurant lost her store because of him.
Yoo-hyun gritted his teeth and thought.
He wanted to catch him and kick him once anyway.
And that was several years earlier than expected.
Just then, the article he was looking for appeared on the monitor screen.
Yoo-hyun lifted his lips and muttered.
“You’re screwed, you are.”
Nam Jongbu’s work was separate from the company’s work.
The work went on as usual after the loose ends were cleared up.
Naturally, it started to speed up.
The results written in the weekly team report increased accordingly.
The direction was also set properly, so there was no need to do the work twice anymore.
Thanks to that, the work progress speed was much faster than before.
That’s when Yoo-hyun was checking the team’s work status.
Senior Minsujin handed him a paper and stood in front of him.
She said with a blunt face.
“It’s about making a video board with a super-high-resolution model.”
“What do you think is the best company for this?”
Why did she suddenly ask Yoo-hyun about this?
Yoo-hyun looked at her while holding the paper he handed over.
There were traces of considerable worry on her face.
He had a rough idea why, but he asked her intention just in case.
“Who knows? Did you ask Manager Jung?”
“He doesn’t care about this stuff.”
“I see. Well, I think this company is better.”
She asked and Yoo-hyun answered without hesitation.
It was something he had already checked from the report she had submitted, so the choice was quick.
“Schedule is more important than price, right? It says here that this company has a lot of experience.”
“Right? Okay. Thank you.”
“Yeah. I just wanted to confirm.”
Senior Minsujin left only those words and went back.
There was still some awkwardness left.
But it was amazing that she came this far when she used to be so prickly.