Chapter 14. Deadlock
“Assistant Manager Lee Soo-min. Please come with us for a moment.”
Director Yoo-uk rushed over from his seat and glared at the security team.
“Who says they reported this? We’re only hearing about it just now. And that… it’s not like the PPT was leaked.”
“We can’t tell you who reported it. We captured evidence first, so you’ll need to come with us for now.”
“No, I’m saying nothing was physically leaked. Ugh, this is maddening.”
“We also have the President’s consent. There’s nothing more to discuss here. Please come with us.”
“What? You’re saying you already got the President’s approval before coming?”
As Director Yoo-uk grew more agitated, Assistant Manager Soo-min managed to calm him and spoke.
“Director. In the end, the keywords did leak from me. I’ll go for now.”
“No, Soo-min. Volunteering it first and getting taken in on a report are different things. Who the hell did this? Damn it! Do you really drag it this far over a single phone call.”
Team Leader Seung-jin, who had gone to the restroom, came back to a noisy office.
“What’s going on?”
“Seung-jin. They’re taking Soo-min to Security. Of all things, they say a report of an internal-document leak came in first. And they’ve already brought her computer. For an investigation.”
Team Leader Seung-jin started to say, “There’s no way procedure works like that,” and then closed his mouth. He remembered storming straight in and chewing out Director Park Seong-gi.
Hearing the circumstances, it wasn’t as if she had directly leaked a document; she’d only mentioned the concept roughly over the phone…
From Director Park Seong-gi’s perspective, having watched Team Leader Seung-jin raging in Subdivision 1, it would certainly have felt like something was going wrong.
In that mood, even if a report about an internal document leak had come in first, it wouldn’t be strange.
As a result, it now looked as if Assistant Manager Soo-min had deliberately leaked the document.
Damn it.
Team Leader Seung-jin squeezed his eyes shut. It was a project they’d already succeeded in winning. If they’d just glossed over it as a title that slipped out by mistake over the landline, Security might have considered extenuating circumstances. This was clearly a miss born of Seung-jin’s charging in without context.
Park Seong-gi, you son of a… Never any help…
“Soo-min. Go along to Security for now. You haven’t leaked any internal data, so just tell it exactly as it was. I’ll take responsibility somehow. Don’t worry.”
Team Leader Seung-jin bolted out of the office. Watching him, Director Yoo-uk worried he might cause an incident.
“Hey, Geonshin. Go stop Team Leader Mo. If he causes trouble on top of this, our team is finished. Hurry. He’s so fast on his feet I can’t keep up…”
“Yes, sir!”
Team Leader Seung-jin burst into Subdivision 1 and went to Director Park Seong-gi’s desk. But he wasn’t there. A senior team leader, no longer finding this sort of scene strange, spoke as if giving up.
“What now? Got more to nitpick? The Director’s in a meeting in the President’s office. How long are you going to keep this up… Hey! Mo Seung-jin! You really see your seniors as nothing now, huh.”
Of all places, the President’s office. Or maybe that’s better. They said they already got the President’s consent, anyway.
Team Leader Seung-jin headed quickly to the President’s office. Through the transparent glass door, Division 1 President and Director Park Seong-gi were chatting and laughing.
Seeing Team Leader Seung-jin standing outside in an unusual posture, the President raised his eyebrows, puzzled. He gestured for him to come in.
Team Leader Seung-jin took a light breath, then heaved the heavy glass door open and stepped inside.
“Mo Seung-jin. What is it? You know we’re in a meeting.”
Director Park Seong-gi looked at him and shook his head with a mocking smile. It was obvious why he’d come.
“President. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have something to say.”
“What?”
Thus, Team Leader Mo Seung-jin began speaking as if stepping onto thin ice.
Arriving late, Geonshin saw it and groaned.
Damn it. Too late.
Just as Director Yoo-uk had worried, it seemed something big had already started.
“Assistant Manager Soo-min has never leaked a restricted document.”
At Team Leader Seung-jin’s words, Director Park Seong-gi snorted.
“They brought the same proposal, that Samin did. If not from her, then where did it leak from, huh? And if there was no leak, why did you barge in on me asking what I’d done?”
“We won that project anyway. Then isn’t it not that big of a problem?”
“The fact remains that something got handed out externally. Regardless of the award, that’s a clear infraction. Isn’t this the kind of thing you should be strict about?”
“That’s…”
And it was pointless to say she had only talked about the concept over the phone. Whatever he said, they’d surely make an issue of it.
Just as Team Leader Mo’s insides were starting to boil…
Division 1 President, sitting opposite Director Park, looked past him at Geonshin and spoke.
“That one. He’s here for the same matter?”
Team Leader Mo turned and, seeing Geonshin, wore a puzzled expression. Why had that punk followed him all the way here? But with that out-of-place look on his face, Division 1 President Kang In-seong spoke to Geonshin first.
“You come in too. Seems like you’re here for the same reason.”
“…Excuse me.”
Na Geonshin opened the glass door, came in, and stood beside Team Leader Mo.
Good.
For the moment, Geonshin felt a bit of relief.
It wouldn’t have been strange to be stopped at the threshold of the President’s office. What company lets a temp into an executive’s room? Especially with director-level people growling at each other inside.
But since the Division 1 President invited him first and let him in, the first hurdle was cleared.
In any case, even the same words can rile people up when spoken by Team Leader Mo Seung-jin, who has a knack for provoking. He couldn’t leave him to go off in front of the President like that.
From Geonshin’s point of view, this was his last week at this company anyway. And since he’d be working with the help of skills and the system regardless, he was confident he’d be fine wherever he went. He knew the trends to come, he was versed in all the incidents and issues of this field, and with twenty years of seasoning… Where couldn’t he go?
But at least for the human warmth he’d felt here, he wanted to repay it.
“If you check Assistant Manager Soo-min’s computer, you’ll definitely find no trace of a leak. Then there’s no problem, is there?”
“Hey, Mo Seung-jin… Are you the one who gets to pass judgment like that, huh? The temp beside you will learn a lot from that, I’m sure.”
Listening, the President turned to Geonshin.
“Could you close the door?”
“Ah. Yes.”
Division 1 President Kang In-seong.
A legendary figure who rose from new hire to president. He pinned on the youngest Director badge and, in his mid-forties, became the President’s right-hand man. He had won numerous projects and held up one pillar of Yeongjo Architects. He stood slightly above the other division presidents and was being mentioned as the next CEO.
But he often drew rumors due to alcohol, and his freewheeling personality caused friction with the CEO. Team Leader Seung-jin had just barged into such a man’s office and thrown a fit.
“Mo Seung-jin.”
At President Kang In-seong’s single word, a chill blew through the office.
He lifted the hair that fell over his forehead. A scar showed on one side.
“Know how I got this?”
“N-no.”
“Of course you don’t. I’ve never told anyone the story of this badge of honor.”
A badge of honor?
President Kang took out a cigarette and lit it. Perhaps the memory of the scar surfaced; he drew in deep and exhaled a long stream into the air.
This was still a time when it was normal to smoke inside one’s office.
“When I’d just become a team leader. We entered the design competition for Dongmyeong University’s College of Life Sciences. It was a huge project back then. For two months, none of my team went home. We laid blankets in a corner of the office and ate and slept there. For the company’s finances, we absolutely had to win. You know Team Leader Kim Hyun-ji in Subdivision 3 now? She even postponed her honeymoon. Because of this. That says it all, doesn’t it?
Our proposal was incredible. Like we knew the trend of buildings to come. The late Second President Jang Bin was very pleased with the work. But on the day of submission, the document sets we had to deliver didn’t arrive. Back then, you had to bind all the drawings into books. Of all times, the printer at the print house broke the day before, so we ended up two hours behind the planned departure. You know it too. If you’re even one second late delivering, they won’t accept it. At a time like that, do you think taking the company car would be late or not? Know what I did?”
President Kang stubbed out his cigarette and spoke.
“I rammed my forehead into a wall.”
“Sir?”
Everyone in the office stared at President Kang in shock. Geonshin felt chilled watching him speak so matter-of-factly, as if wearing a poker face.
“I rammed my head over and over until it bled. Until blood spurted from my forehead like a fountain. Then I called an ambulance. To fly to Dongmyeong University Hospital’s ER.”
…!
Geonshin didn’t know whether to regard this as a builder’s passion or interpret it as obsession and mania. He could respect the passion, but in any case, it was clearly against the law.
“Heh, my shirt got stained with blood. What a mess. Still, I got on the ambulance holding the heavy box of submission documents. We arrived in thirteen minutes. Exactly thirteen. I pushed past the doctor insisting we go to the ER, grabbed the box, and ran to the Facilities Department. Blood was dripping on the floor, and people looked at me like I was insane. Wouldn’t you have done the same?”
President Kang, the memory still vivid, lightly thumped the desk and stood up.
“I managed to submit the documents with one minute to spare. Huhu… The look on the client’s face when I thrust forward a blood-stained box. Then I passed out on the spot. After that I don’t even remember how I ended up in a hospital room.”
Director Park Seong-gi clapped, wearing a face of unreserved admiration.
“President. That’s amazing. I don’t think I could’ve done that.”
Even now he was fawning. Team Leader Mo Seung-jin’s temple vein bulged again, and President Kang continued.
He sat back down and lit another cigarette before the smoke from the last had even cleared.
“One day. I was knocked out in the hospital for exactly one day. I’d barely slept for two months. When I opened my eyes, there was the ceiling, people like in a drama. And then, ah, we submitted. Thank god. Only after a day did I feel that relief. And do you know the first thing I heard?”
Geonshin, and the rest, could guess the rest. The College of Life Sciences building at Dongmyeong University today… was built not by Yeongjo Architects, but by rival Mirim Architects.
“They said we lost. Before the judging had even finished. That our Yeongjo proposal was already out. I pulled the IV from my arm and ran to Facilities. Turned out there was a proposal identical to ours. Some no-name architectural office had submitted the same plan. When I saw the drawings, the rage rose to the top of my head. I thought my stitched forehead would burst open again.”
On the President’s face, Geonshin sensed mixed emotions. The twitch under his eye made it seem he still felt the anger of that time.
“Later we found out that the no-name office was a subcontractor to Mirim Architects.”
“What!? And you just let it go? That’s rigged from the start! Those Mirim bastards!”
Director Park Seong-gi was the one to explode in anger.
“But the problem was with us. Our junior at the time said the proposal was so cool that he’d described it in detail over the phone to a school senior who worked at Mirim. The massing and the concept and all that. Purely, without the slightest suspicion. Mirim passed that on to a subcontractor.”
Team Leader Seung-jin lowered his head.
“Know what that junior said? He didn’t know. He never imagined the same proposal would come out. Of course he hadn’t done it on purpose to ruin the project. Right? Just a single phone call. Heh… how about that. It’s beyond words, right? There was nothing to contest, nothing to do. Back then, if something like that happened, there was no way to resolve it.”
In President Kang In-seong’s quiet tone, a certain resolve could be heard.
“Mo Seung-jin. Motive is an excuse. If it had been on purpose, at least you could get angry. But when it’s a mistake cloaked in innocence, you can’t even do that. If we don’t forgive them like sages, we become the bad guys. Are you going to keep ending it like that? Like a fool?”
Then he glared at Team Leader Seung-jin. Seung-jin, who had been bowing his head, raised it.
Geonshin thought: if Team Leader Seung-jin simply gives up and walks out now, what horrible end awaits Assistant Manager Soo-min and Subdivision 7…?
Will Team Leader Seung-jin be able to overcome this deadlock?
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