Episode 214
Many people misunderstand, but Lee Jae-heon was not a person who liked alcohol. What he liked was something conceptual that came with alcohol.
For example, when displaying expensive and famous brands of alcohol, you become absorbed in the delusion and euphoria that others will envy you. At a company dinner, you enjoy being served alcohol to others or handing them alcohol and seeing the other person in trouble, or pretending to recognize the alcohol when you see it. He showed off his knowledge… In general, he wanted things that could satisfy his vanity.
Lee Jae-heon was neither a good nor bad drinker. This is the average amount of alcohol consumed by an adult male, but the only time he drank more than that was when he wanted something.
“…Ugh….”
And today was the ‘time to have what you want.’
“Fuck you, you crazy drunkards…”
Shake it off.
Lee Jae-heon called the assistant manager and finally arrived home and sprawled out in front of the front door. It’s like laundry that was washed in a washing machine, spinning round and round for about two hours, but wasn’t washed in time, so it ended up crumpled and hanging on the floor.
Strictly speaking, Lee Jae-heon, who likes seeking people but not meeting people, was not pleased with this meeting between managers. When you become the manager of Ohseong, you may be clumsy, but everyone is somewhat sly and teasing, and like snakes, they are just waiting to see if they can rip something off from each other.
Jaeheon Lee staggered to his feet and threw a yellow milk carton with a blue, round character on it into the trash can. The chocolate milk I bought on the way was not enough, so I decided to drink honey water.
“Come out.”
Rattling.
A teaspoon of honey made a sound as it hit the glass.
‘I’m glad I got what I wanted.’
Somehow, I got the appointment of employee Kwon Yeon-hee. In the process, Jeong In-ho and Kwon Yeon-hee became romantically involved, and Manager Lee Jae-heon’s image fell into a downward spiral, but let’s omit those small details. Anyway, it seemed like the notice would go up within this month.
“It’s a good thing that the personnel change was delayed this year…”
Usually, notices of personnel changes are posted around December or January with the mindset of starting anew, but this year, the chairman was replaced, so there was a lot of noise for a while. Because time was delayed in the process and a new chairman took office, this time the overall personnel adjustments were made exceptionally late, in March.
Of course, just because the managers gathered together, it didn’t mean they could make personnel decisions at will. Even if this event was a dinner with the human resources team rather than a meeting of managers, the same would be true. Surprisingly, the human resources team does not have personnel authority. They are just people who advise the person in charge of personnel management or carry out work according to the decision.
‘But it is also true that the manager or human resources team is closer to personnel authority than other employees.’
And Lee Jae-heon tended to put effort into image management, even if he was not a subordinate.
‘I don’t carry a lighter around for no reason.’
Of course, it would be a headache if the subordinate later rose to a higher rank than Lee Jae-heon, but his backers were none other than the Lee family. The reason he is still holding down his position as manager despite being unable to bear the burden of handing over almost all of the work to his subordinates is thanks to his family.
Since Lee Jae-heon rarely interfered in personnel affairs and showed greed, those in authority over personnel affairs had no choice but to listen carefully. If you want to maintain a good connection with the company run by the Lee family.
“There were a lot of people who didn’t like that, but…”
I guess this is okay.
‘Anyway, the sooner the story gets into the family, the better for me.’
Lee Jae-heon held his dizzy head and turned on his cell phone with his other hand. It was a new cell phone that was not for business or personal use, but I had an extra hole in it just in case. It was an old-fashioned device that had long since gone out of fashion because it was purchased but not used, but it was useful for contacting corrupt police officers.
After checking the message that had arrived, he muttered in a dreamy voice.
“…As expected, you are good at what you ask.”
Hong Gyeong-jun was meeting other survivors one by one, taking into account the opinions of Kim Yeon-woo and Lee Jae-heon. Song In-myeong said that he had already dropped out and was unable to catch him, but that he had enough conversations with the other two students. Last time, he met conductor Kim Ki-jeong and teacher Lee Yun-byeol and said that the person they were going to visit this time was Munsan-gun.
“Let’s see…”
Recalling that gentle expression, Lee Jae-heon began rummaging through the pile of documents roughly placed on the table, but soon stopped at a single piece of paper. A photo of a man with a neat and good-natured appearance was hanging along with the clip.
“Why did Choi Min-hong call me teacher?”
He is currently unemployed after escaping from teaching, but he was a high school teacher until the unfortunate incident occurred. Lee Jae-heon clicked his tongue as he looked at the ‘incident’ section written in detail.
This is why sunfish cannot understand.
“Why do you step forward and make things bigger?”
Even as he said that, Lee Jae-heon kept his mouth shut because it was related to students who had not yet grown up. Even though I didn’t think much of it, it was because the author loved children. That being said, the children of this world are a bit tired, but still.
Lee Jae-heon, who was gently stroking the corner of his mouth, muttered softly.
“…I guess I’ll have to use this later too.”
A sunfish like Munsan-gun would not forget the favor it received.
These frustrating bastards, the more you treat them well, the more they get in return, so it was better to buy their favor for the future. To be honest, it would be hard to say that he was just caught up in the secret world and was consumed by the secret world, but since Munsan-gun also felt a kind of madness, he should be considered a regular member at this level.
‘If a person is too good, too much of it can make them crazy.’
Even though Munsan-gun, described in the report, was almost killed in the underworld, he was still gentle and worried. Recently, there was a story that he often showed restless behavior, wondering if he was worried about someone. I wonder if it was a sunfish like this, but it also seemed like he was worried about Jeong In-ho, the obvious perpetrator.
Anyway, there is no one who isn’t crazy.
“….”
…Well, it’s still a chick.
“hmm.”
Clearing his throat once, Jaeheon Lee put down his cell phone and took a sip of the cold honey water. The teaspoon I put in the glass rattled and touched my face, but I didn’t feel the need to take it out. It was because I was so out of it.
In the meantime, this thought occurred to me.
“…the material is good.”
Rattling.
He put down his glass and lightly ran his hand through the stack of documents.
‘If we had nothing in common, I thought I should follow Song In-myeong and talk nonsense about coincidences.’
After returning to reality, Jae-Heon Lee was able to determine where he should focus on these survivors after closely examining the documents that were delivered when first investigating their residence and the information that Hong Gyeong-Jun provided with the survivor’s permission.
“Family affairs.”
… is generally complicated.
‘We haven’t started a proper investigation yet, so we can’t be sure… but the probability is high.’
Well, it might be natural. Those who are preyed upon by the underworld are usually fixed members or people who get caught up next to the fixed members, but the fixed members referred to here are mostly mentally ill people. I’m not trying to say anything bad, but I’m talking about someone who is truly mentally ill.
‘Not to mention me and the main character.’
Even Kwon Yeon-hee, whom I trusted, had a dark past.
“I think I overcame it well, but I ended up becoming a regular member…”
Tuk.
Lee Jae-heon lightly tapped a stack of documents with his finger and touched the glass next to him.
“What should be the trigger?”
No matter how excited ‘Lee Jae-heon’ is right now, he still has a history of hiding his true nature. At least he wasn’t stupid and couldn’t gather the survivors together for no reason. Even if we all gather together, we need at least an opportunity to reach an understanding.
Lee Jae-heon’s brow slowly furrowed as he slowly blinked.
“…pseudo-religion…?”
This went too far.
“Hiking club?”
No, there are very few people who like hiking these days.
“Fishing….”
That’s not true, old man.
“Hah, what the fuck do you have?”
Jaeheon Lee grabbed his pounding head. I tried to think of an event system that could bring these unique people together in one place without feeling uncomfortable, but no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with anything more likely than a pseudo-religion.
Lee Jae-heon got up from his seat and went to the study, which he had not entered even after recalling his past life. To cool off, I went to the nearest room that didn’t have a boiler on.
“….”
A book caught his eye.
Lee Jae-heon, who had been watching for a while, looked at it with relaxed eyes.
“…oh.”
[Man with long legs]
“That’s right.”
He muttered in a hazy voice.
“If you don’t have it, you can make it.”
That night.
Detective Hong Gyeong-jun received a strange text message from Lee Jae-heon.
“…?”
The question was whether any of the survivors disliked money.
* * *
Even on weekdays, Jaeheon Lee contacted Choi and his wife whenever he had time.
“how are you? “Is there any problem?”
―Oh my, teacher! We are all doing well. No problem.
“I just contacted you to say hello.”
No matter how much work he passed on to his subordinates, there were things he had to do as a manager. I have to keep going to work. Nevertheless, since it was necessary to build a certain level of trust with the Choi family, the method chosen by Lee Jae-heon was this type of phone call.
“I wonder what Minhong is like…”
He used Choi Minhong’s child as an excuse.
-Minhong is doing well too. He said he made a new friend at kindergarten these days, but he didn’t tell me everything. Seeing the bright expression on the face of a boy who rarely smiles made me wonder if he had a girlfriend…
“Isn’t Minhong 6 years old?”
―Kids these days are fast, teacher. Of course, it’s not as serious as adults do, and it’s just a fresh emotion, but hey. How nice to see this.
“….”
―The child was doing origami, which he had never done before? Even when I asked who he was going to give it to, he didn’t answer and first of all he said it wasn’t his dad or aunt… Oh then who would it be? Of course she’s your girlfriend!
Lee Jae-heon, who had been listening quietly, clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘What a mess.’
I am still a person who is very interested in other people’s love lives. Even if it’s about my 6-year-old son. He’s a really nice person, but I wonder why he throws his head around like this whenever the story of love comes up.
‘But thanks to you, we became friends quickly.’
As expected, it was a good idea to choose Minhong Choi as the topic. Although Choi Jeong-man was interested in it, it was suitable as a topic that was not strange for Lee Jae-heon to talk about. Choi Jeong-man probably thought of Lee Jae-heon’s interest as the happy feeling of an uncle seeing his nephew.
Yes, how well I took care of those newborn chicks in the secret world.
―…If you think about it, even when I was there…
“Yes.”
– Seo-ah and Min-hong had a great time there. While doing origami. What can I say, she is picky about people, but I get along really well with Seo-ah. I was really grateful to Seo-ah. Our Minhong was also proud.
“They are both friendly kids.”
―…Well…
President Choi Jeong-man, who hesitated, continued speaking.
-You know Seo-ah, right? You dyed your hair. I wore a really shiny hair tie and a lot of fancy clothes.
“I remember.”
-But Seo-ah actually didn’t seem interested in such things. What’s pretty to adults and what’s pretty to kids are different, but no matter how you look at it, it’s something adults made up.
“Yes, I think so.”
―Even when I complimented her and said she looked like a princess, she was indifferent. Just stick your mouth out. When I saw it, it didn’t seem like he did it that way because he wanted to… But then again, you have to bleach your hair to get that color, right? Kids also have weak scalps. The body is also strangely delicate… there is no breast fat and it looks like a baby.
“Yes.”
―…I’m just… worried. How are you doing?
It was a slightly startling voice.
-If I lived nearby, I would give him pocket money, feed him delicious food, and take him to a game room. He got along well with our Minhong. It was really nice to see.
“Is that so.”
In the end, it turned out to be a story about my baby. Even though Choi Min-hong’s sociability was not very good, Choi Jeong-man must have been watching him closely because he was one of the few friends who played with him without any pressure. It must have all been part of his love for his children.
Choi Jeong-man suddenly raised his tone, perhaps sensing that the atmosphere was sagging.
―Ah… Are you planning on stopping by this week? Minhong was looking at his phone, wondering when the teacher would contact him. If you have time, I’ll buy you an expensive meal!
“Maybe… I’ll have time soon. I’ll stop by and see you then. “I will contact Minhong separately. It would be nice if I could talk to Minhong too.”
As expected, ‘adults who like children’ was a very convenient excuse.
Funny.
