Yokai Come to the Countryside Café

Chapter 44: Return Gift (4)

-Knock knock.

“What is it?”

Division Head Jeong Ji-won frowned beyond the transparent glass door and asked what the matter was.

“Um, Division Head. Here……”

The employee who knocked came in hunched over and cautiously handed something to Division Head Jeong Ji-won.

On the luxurious gold envelope, the phrase 『Merent Hotel Weekday Meal Voucher for 3』was printed.

“I was just joking, but you actually brought something like this?”

“I got it by chance, but I’ve been so busy lately I don’t have time to go.”

“Alright, I’ll use it well. You can go.”

“Yes.”

Though he explained the reason for the gift, it wasn’t lost on anyone that with a contract intern’s salary, dining at such a high-end hotel restaurant would be nearly impossible.

“Wait a moment.”

Division Head Jeong Ji-won called back the employee who had bowed and was about to leave.

“Yes?”

“Hey, are you mocking me? This is a weekday voucher. Are you telling me to use a day off to go?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it through.”

-Thud.

The thrown envelope fell at the employee’s feet.

“I was planning a family dinner this weekend, but of course, nothing ever goes right.”

“I’m sorry……”

“Are you just going to keep standing there saying you’re sorry? Either use it yourself or get it exchanged for a weekend one. You’re frustrating, really.”

“I’ll exchange it.”

“I’m going this Saturday. Get out.”

Division Head Jeong Ji-won waved his hand dismissively as if it was bothersome, then leaned back and put on a sleep mask.

But the presence at the door didn’t disappear easily.

“What are you doing? Not leaving?”

Division Head Jeong Ji-won issued another irritated dismissal. But the person standing there was no longer the subordinate from before.

“Division Head Jeong Ji-won, we’re from the audit team. We’ll need you to come with us.”

Office workers’ community Jikker

Trending Posts 〉 Company

Author: lliilli1i1l (Daecheon Group)

Title: A huge incident just exploded at our company. lololol

Content:

There’s this vague team in the Solutions division, you know?

They’re the kind that checks minor stuff when a business launches, so Sales Team managers liked them, but for us, it was just like, “Ugh, another coordination request?”

Then suddenly, the Chairman’s son got parachuted into that team, and not long after, he went around meeting some villains under the pretext of work, and boom—every single one got demoted. lolololol

Our team’s Division Head also used to be real slick, hoarding results to boost his own line, and he got caught taking kickbacks this time and ended up quitting. So satisfying lololol

And to top it off, there’s this one employee on that team who has a lot of contact points with other departments, and he’s acting as the parachute’s mentor—now the whole company’s in chaos.

Rumor has it the Chairman personally ordered a full set of office equipment to be sent to his house so he could work from home.

It’s like one regular employee took a sword dance on behalf of the Chairman’s parachute, and now all the shady folks are sitting on thorns lololol

└ wwee2f (Doctor): Is that even possible? He’s not even a director—just a regular employee? That’s too much cap.

└ SalaryGhost (Daecheon Distribution): I don’t know about the rest, but it’s true that the Chairman ordered furniture and a computer to be sent. Gangnam branch was in uproar because he showed up without warning twice in a month. Both times it was early morning and he’d been sleeping.

└ nanaki (New Company): That’s terrifying. Everyone probably thought he was just some grunt doing chores.

└ IWantSushi (Korea Air): That’s so strange. Isn’t someone like that usually in the secretary’s office?

└ Miiing (JQL Media): Wow, it’s like a drama built around internal audit! lolol

└ DreamOfHodori (Korea Water Resources Corporation): Then he’ll get a super-speed promotion to director, huh? Damn.

“Isn’t this about Manager Kim and Assistant Manager Joo?”

“Chairman’s son and his mentor, they say.”

“Geez, Manager Kim’s a celebrity now.”

“The intranet’s blowing up too.”

“Haha……”

Not just the intranet. Screenshots had already spread to various communities.

And the storm of rumors was converging entirely on me.

Even though the post didn’t name our team or my position, the details were so specific that anyone from our company could easily figure out who it was.

-Bzzz. Bzzz.

“Yes, this is Manager Kim Jinseong from the Strategic Planning Team.”

(Manager Kim, it’s me. How have you been? I was thinking it’s been a while—want to grab a meal sometime? I know a really good Japanese place.)

“I’m sorry. It’s a particularly busy period right now. Could I reach out later?”

(Yeah? Then definitely contact me when you get some time. You know I’m always grateful, right?)

“Yes, thank you.”

(Alright, take care!)

That made ten calls already.

Since this morning, I’d been getting calls from all kinds of departments.

Even the phone conversation patterns and the choice of a “good Japanese restaurant” were mostly the same.

“Another drinking invite call? Wow, Manager Kim, you don’t have to worry about dinner for a while.”

“Do you think they’re calling just to treat me to a meal? Their intentions are obvious.”

“Just ignore it and get a free meal. It’s a Japanese restaurant, right? You think they’ll just drink soju? If they order sake or something, it’ll cost at least 200,000 won per person.”

“It’s not about the meal! Can you imagine the gossip behind my back now? No matter what, our team and Manager Kim will be the most talked-about gossip in the head office pantry this year!”

“I’m fine. I don’t go to the office much these days anyway since I work from home.”

“I said you’re not fine!”

“Thinking about it, it’s not exactly a bad thing. Now I don’t have to beg other departments anymore.”

“Well, that’s true, but……”

Not everything turned out badly.

Whatever the process had been, the fact remained that our team member had demoted several employees in the same company.

At the very least, the next time we made a request to another department, the chances of getting a vague answer like “I’ll get back to you when I’m less busy” had significantly decreased.

Of course, if one had to list the upsides, that would be about it. The situation wasn’t exactly favorable.

“Did I mess up?”

“Someone had to do it, and Assistant Manager Joo Dohyuk was the most suited for it.”

“Yeah, they weren’t even human beings. Dohyuk did the right thing.”

The day after Assistant Manager Joo Dohyuk returned to the office burning with anger, we spent the entire day in a meeting on the matter.

It wasn’t as if we didn’t know what those people had done.

One guy lured innocent junior staff into a scam with the sweet talk that the project was already set and only needed execution, pocketing kickbacks. Another openly demanded lavish entertainment, using performance evaluations as leverage.

As the saying goes, a glimpse shows the whole—scum like them always left dirty traces in various projects, which is why Assistant Manager Joo Dohyuk caught on quickly.

And once those guys were flagged, of course problems would surface when the Audit Office dug into them.

The problem was, no organization welcomed whistleblowers. Especially when reporting employees from other teams—it was almost taboo.

But our situation did not justify a request to turn a blind eye.

Neither I, the General Manager, nor the other managers were the type to compromise with injustice.

It was just that the aftermath hit me harder than the others.

Luckily, I had the means to deal with that aftermath—even if it wasn’t by choice.

At the same time, in the President’s Office, as always, Chairman Joo Man-ho and Director Shin Ji-cheol were chatting.

“That Audit Office really knows how to get things done.”

“There has been some impact on the Sales side. Departments that relied on manager-level personal networks might see a drop in revenue for a while.”

“Those so-called networks were just parasites leeching off the company’s name, weren’t they? You’ll see—things will run just fine no matter who we put in those seats.”

“Are you referring to Assistant Manager Joo Dohyuk and Manager Kim Jinseong?”

“You said it yourself. It'll take about ten years. But with the Strategic Planning Team backing them from behind and those two handling major projects—what can’t they do? You’d better not disappear either—stay active till then.”

“You think it’ll work just because I want to stay? When you retire, I’ll be packing my bags too.”

“Hey now! You expect me to keep at it for ten more years? You want me working till I keel over in the middle of a golf course? When I head out to swing a club, you’d better find your new master and go be his tailor.”

It was too sharp to be called a pleasant joke.

Just like Jinseong, who had climbed the ladder at breakneck speed under Chairman Joo Man-ho’s protection, Director Shin Ji-cheol had walked a similar path.

The difference was, unlike Jinseong, he was full of ambition and thirst for power, never hesitating to flaunt his proximity to Chairman Joo Man-ho.

Naturally, that had earned him many enemies in the executive ranks who wished to bring him down.

Chairman Joo Man-ho knew this well. That’s why he had essentially asked him to support his son so he could grow into his role, if Shin wanted to hold on until retirement.

“But what about all those posts going around online? Even if people say it’s good they came out, letting family matters linger in public for too long always stirs up trouble.”

“They said it would take about two weeks for everything to be taken down. I’ll ask the secretary’s office again for updates.”

“It’s just next door, why bother calling? Just go check it yourself.”

Chairman Joo Man-ho, impatient by nature, put down his tea and headed straight to the secretary’s office.

“Chairman, you’re here.”

The secretary’s staff hurriedly stood up and bowed at his unexpected visit.

“I came by because I remembered the task I gave yesterday. How’s it going?”

“Well……”

“What? Still stuck with that foreign platform or whatever?”

“No, sir. Before we could even act, the deletions had already started. We’re still figuring out what happened and haven’t been able to report yet.”

“What?”

“You mean it wasn’t the secretary’s office deleting the posts related to Daecheon Group?”

“It was too fast. Almost everything disappeared within a day.”

“Who would do that? Any ideas?”

“We inquired, but were told it’s against policy to disclose that information.”

“Ha!”

“I’ll try contacting a media outlet for more information.”

“And what would that change? They’d deny it just the same.”

‘Who could it be? And why?’

It wasn’t a profitable endeavor. No one was even being harmed.

He had only made the deletion request because it didn’t look good to have internal matters exposed for too long.

But someone entirely unrelated was already deleting those posts—and they had completed in one day what even a top-10 conglomerate’s secretary office claimed would take two weeks.

Once their thoughts reached that point, both their faces stiffened. Only a few entities could pull off such a feat.

And unless the person who needed the posts gone immediately was the successor to Daecheon Group, only one person remained.

“Call Dohyuk to my office. Now.”

“Yes, Chairman.”