Corporate Villain
Copyright© 2025 by K.W
Chapter 13
Bang!
“Are you telling me to quit the company now?”
Son Jae-kyu, manager of Team 1 in the European Division (Italy, France, Germany).
With a single swing of the newly appointed director Yoon Tae-sik’s blade, three key figures were simultaneously beheaded.
Director Park Je-dong, Deputy Manager Jung Chang-ho, and Manager Choi Moon-ho of Spain’s Team 3.
Originally, Deputy Manager Jung Chang-ho was scheduled for a promotion to director, and Manager Choi Moon-ho had a confirmed appointment as deputy manager of an overseas branch.
Manager Son Jae-kyu was the top candidate for the soon-to-be-vacant deputy manager position.
It was enough to turn his stomach inside out when he just found out through the intranet announcement by HR that Oh Ji-won, the assistant, was promoted to first deputy manager of the European Division.
Slamming his hands down on the desk, Manager Son Jae-kyu stood up abruptly.
“Manager.”
“Let go of this!”
A colleague from the same team tried to calm him down, but was soon swept up in the atmosphere.
“Does this make any sense?”
“Sense ... Ha, it doesn’t. It just doesn’t.”
“Right after receiving the director’s appointment, the office atmosphere, the progress of projects, the billing amount hanging in the balance!”
Manager Son’s voice, filled with rage, was making the European Division office ring.
“Without even trying to grasp all that, just promoting himself to deputy manager on a whim? Does he think he’s a god? Does he think he’s the chairman? Is this his playground to show off his power? Does this make any sense at all?”
His tirade was not just a sign of excitement, but rather, it was akin to the desperate struggle of someone prepared to give up their position.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible for the entire office, where Deputy Manager Oh Ji-won, the star of this special promotion, breathes, to create such an uproar.
Even going so far as to disparage the presence of the new head of department, a direct line from the owner’s family...
Deputy Manager Oh Ji-won, more flustered by this personnel change than anyone, thus unable to utter a single word.
Even though the newly appointed head of department had instructed her to move her seat the day before, she still buried her head at her assistant’s spot within the ETC team partition.
“Am I a shrimp? Why should my back be broken in a fight between whales, why! What have I done? What did I do to deserve being dragged into their fight, to be drenched in this mess? I’m in my seventh year as a manager. I’ve worked hard. In this game of favoritism, where they pull and push each other to get ahead. Even enduring the sight of Manager Jung getting promoted first, I congratulated him, thinking my turn would come next ... What more am I supposed to do here!”
No one in this office space could deny the efforts Manager Son had made for his promotion to deputy manager.
Today, the silent director seemed even more incompetent.
Deputy Manager Oh Ji-won took a deep breath, opened the top drawer of her desk, and took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, tucking them into her shirt pocket.
Then, with her head hung low, she left the office.
“Ah? Deputy Oh!”
The elevator doors opened.
Inside were a few employees from the second-floor office who had pressed the smoking floor button to enjoy a cigarette break.
Hesitant, Deputy Manager Oh Ji-won reluctantly entered the elevator.
“Oh, Manager Kim.”
“No, no. It’s Deputy Manager now. I just saw the notice sent out by HR. Wow ... indeed, life is a one-shot deal.”
Deputy Manager Oh Ji-won had a fairly good relationship with people from other departments.
Her workplace life of over three years, doing things her own way.
The office atmosphere that forced her to walk her own path.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that her only outlet for communication, which allowed her to continue this lonely and nauseating job, was the cigarette breaks with people from other departments.
Such was her joyless work life.
“It’s something that was bound to happen, isn’t it? Congratulations, truly.”
“ ... Thanks, I appreciate it.”
Was it just her feeling?
The well-meaning greetings from people in other departments sounded strangely mocking, and felt overwhelmingly burdensome.
“Smoke break? Our telepathy is spot on, isn’t it? We were just talking about your meteoric promotion.”
“Ah, no. I was just...”
Deputy Oh quickly pressed the button for the floor just below the smoking area.
“I need to pick something up from the store.”
“Come on, have one with us.”
“I really need something urgently. Go ahead and have one, I’ll see you later.”
Deputy Chief Oh, who unexpectedly got off at the snack bar floor.
He took a moment to catch his breath before heading to the bathroom.
Entering a stall, he tries to light a cigarette that won’t ignite.
Then, he pulls out his phone.
In his phone, Yoon Tae-sik is still listed not as a director, but even less, as an assistant.
It’s still lunchtime.
Should he make a call?
The anxiety of starting a new job life, more uncomfortable and burdensome than the ‘my way’ period he had endured.
But he couldn’t bring himself to press the call button.
On the other hand, the creeping greed, desire ... such raw, honest emotions made him hesitate to press the call button.
“Do you really want to do this? What kind of passive answer is that? Are you being forced into this marriage against your will?”
The chairman’s response was not very favorable.
The moment a carefully considered answer turns into a wrong one.
Was I too cautious?
I thought I had pondered deeply before answering, but it feels like unexpected friction is happening somewhere I’m not aware of.
The executive also seemed momentarily flustered.
Whether that fluster was because of the answer I gave, or like me, because of the chairman’s reaction, there was no time to tell.
“When I went to the trouble of arranging this meeting to ask about the marriage, I wasn’t expecting to hear such a noncommittal answer.”
Of course, I never expected to get an easy approval for this marriage.
But the responsibility for that approval ... sorry to say, is not mine but the executive’s.
With that thought, I try to calm myself down.
“Of course, given Moon-jung’s personality, it’s likely she dragged you around and drove you crazy, Yun. She must have done that. But even so, you’ve been house hunting together ... and I’ve even promoted you to director. And yet, the best assurance you can give me here is ‘I really want to do this’? That’s all?”
“Dad...”
It seems clear that the executive’s current panic is not because of the answer I gave, but because of the chairman’s reaction.
But why?
Why do I suddenly get the feeling that the chairman is ... in a hurry?
“Executive Yoon Tae-sik.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“I didn’t go through the trouble of arranging a lobby welcome ceremony through President Min on your first day at Mulsan just to hear such a tepid response.”
Eventually, Executive Director Yoon stepped in.
“Again, and again, and again ... you prepare to nitpick every word. ‘I would like to do it.’ That means you will do it, doesn’t it? From Executive Director Yoon’s perspective, how difficult must this moment be? With all the tension. Why do you have to pick apart even the tone? The context has already been fully understood.”
At that, the Chairman looked at me piercingly once more.
I had a vague feeling I knew what this was about.
He mentioned that Executive Director Yoon and I had gone to look at houses together.
Furthermore, he emphasized my promotion to head of the department at Mulsan and the fact that he had arranged the lobby welcome ceremony through President Min.
Desperation.
Was he trying to confirm my desperation for this marriage?
Despite thinking it childish, I couldn’t help but consider the Chairman’s heart, allowing this faltering marriage.
“The best answer I can give right now is, ‘I would like to do it.’”
Executive Director Yoon glared at me as if to say this answer was the perfect wrong one, even furrowing his brow this time.
But I had to continue.
“I really would like to do it. However, I cannot rush or pressure Executive Director Kang Moon-jung regarding meeting my mother.”
“What?”
It’s highly unlikely, but I imagined this marriage not as a contract marriage, but as a real one, developed from genuine emotions that both Executive Director Yoon and I came to share.
Considering our positions in such a marriage realistically.
I concluded that I could make suggestions to Executive Director Yoon, but I couldn’t be in a position to rush him.
“I’m someone who needs to be more cautious and attentive to our relationship than you. And regardless of my feelings, I’m someone who must wait until Executive Director Kang Moon-jung says it’s enough, and make a precise judgment and decision.”
The wrong answers were slowly being refined towards the right ones.
“My position and title have changed with my assignment to Mulsan, but my duty to assist Executive Director Yoon at the closest range remains unchanged. Even though I’ve moved to Mulsan, my direct superior within Daeyoung Group has always been, is now, and will continue to be Executive Director Kang Moon-jung.”
The Chairman asked me again.
“Does that mean you’ll push through with this marriage even if I oppose it?”
I paused, making eye contact with Executive Director Yoon first.
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