My Company Is Black

#006

Because finding a good workplace was harder than finding a good person, Hwi-kyung had no interest in even the ‘ㅇ’ of romance during the past iterations.

It had been like that even before becoming an unfortunate body that regressed after getting a job at a black company. Taking care of a sick grandmother, focusing on studies… Romance also requires time and leisure, but Hwi-kyung lacked money, time, and leisure equally.

The time left after work was spent playing Go-Stop with grandmother in the hospital ward, and the bank account was always in the red. Even in this situation, if Hwi-kyung had been the type to feel lonely, he might have reluctantly sought new love. However, Jung Hwi-kyung, fortunately or unfortunately, didn’t feel very lonely. To be precise, there was no time to feel lonely.

How could one feel lonely when there were so many bastards running rampant in the workplace? Especially after rolling around in sales positions a few times, he just came to dislike the human species itself. Can you believe that the peak of his misanthropy was reached when he was doing field sales rather than when he was handling CS phone consultations?

For such a Hwi-kyung, excessive attention from a workplace superior was poison. Hwi-kyung’s heart started racing. Not because he was fluttered by Gyo-ha’s kindness or affection, but because of the thought, “What if I’m forced to regress because of this bastard?”

When company life in a black company headed towards catastrophe, Hwi-kyung’s shoddy regression system would force a regression without even asking its owner’s opinion.

Hwi-kyung thought the regression system was too weak. Damn it! Just endure and go on! While the first few forced regressions felt justified as they were truly black companies, regressing for something like being asked to go hiking, as in the 12th iteration, was an excessive measure.

Couldn’t a TF team leader gather team members on the weekend after successfully completing a project? Hwi-kyung, 27 years old physically but mentally in his 50s, held his forehead. It seemed that he had been a better superior than the Executive Director before him at that point.

“I thought you liked it since you drank a cup of coffee every day.”

“I don’t drink it because I like it.”

“Is that so?”

Morning coffee is something I drink to survive…. But Hwi-kyung couldn’t easily tell Gyo-ha that morning coffee was essential to stay awake at work. After all, Hwi-kyung was a deputy manager, and Gyo-ha was an Executive Director.

The company was a highly developed modern class society. The one who pays is the king, and those below are untouchables. Needless to say, there were classes even among these untouchables. Lee Gyo-ha was the chairman’s son, so he was a prince, and Jung Hwi-kyung, who had been employed for just over a year, was the untouchable of untouchables.

Unless you’re going to start a revolution right now to abolish capitalism, keeping your words to yourself is the right answer. Hwi-kyung cursed only inwardly. The chairman’s son probably doesn’t need coffee to do his job! Because the underlings will take care of everything!

“Then next time, I’ll buy you lunch instead of coffee.”

“……”

“Since we’re on the subject, why don’t we have lunch today?”

“I’m afraid I have plans with someone else today.”

“Ah, then shall we eat together tomorrow? What do you like?”

“……”

“How about Korean set meals?”

Suboptimal condition: The parachute Executive Director shows personal interest in a deputy manager.

The notification window popped up tirelessly, covering Lee Gyo-ha’s face. Hwi-kyung inwardly drew about ninety-eight patience characters. If you endure a hundred times, you can avoid regression.

“You have an external schedule planned for lunch tomorrow, sir.”

“I can postpone that.”

“It’s an important appointment.”

“Is that so? Then help me choose a tie this time too.”

“……”

“……”

“…Understood.”

“Good.”

Damn tie. What a life, having to stay sharp not to strangle a superior with the tie you personally chose. Even after regressing thirteen times, there wasn’t an easy iteration.

As Gyo-ha went up to the director’s office in time for work hours, Manager Kang, who had said he was going for a smoke, hurriedly came into the office. After checking the mood of other team members, Manager Kang quickly approached Hwi-kyung.

“Is the Executive Director perhaps interested in Deputy Manager Jung?”

So it looks that way to others too. Hwi-kyung felt a bit dizzy. Gyo-ha might have an open mind after being influenced by American culture, but Korea was still conservative.

It’s perfect for creating all sorts of rumors and getting called a black company just because a male Executive Director shows interest in a male deputy manager! The possibility of being forced to regress due to insufficient LGBT-friendly policies couldn’t be ignored either.

“No. I just think it’s a new form of harassment.”

“Bringing coffee every morning?”

“He’s trying to crush my spirit.”

“…Coming down to the office every morning to see your face?”

Manager Kang looked confused. But Hwi-kyung drove the point home regardless of whether Kang Moon-chul was confused or not.

“The Executive Director just wants to harass me.”

“……”

“If someone with genuine interest is rejected, they know when to back off. This is just… I think it’s more accurate to say I’ve been targeted.”

To some extent, it seems like rational interest, but he can’t simply acknowledge it. It’s an issue tied to forced regression. Even if the regression system wouldn’t activate for harassment like buying coffee, it was impossible to know how far a superior’s romantic interest would be safe.

Throughout the past regressions, many superiors had shown interest in Hwi-kyung, but they were mostly old enough to be his parents. Even the parachute hires were mostly in their late thirties.

It was a first for Hwi-kyung to have a 20-something Executive Director only two years older showing interest in him. All the parent-aged superiors had approached Hwi-kyung saying, “Want to meet our daughter?”

Suboptimal condition: The parachute Executive Director shows personal interest in a deputy manager.

Moreover, there was something oddly disconcerting about Lee Gyo-ha’s behavior. Hwi-kyung glared at the notification window that still hadn’t disappeared.

It felt more like he was testing how far Hwi-kyung would endure rather than genuinely trying to seduce him. The electric current that flowed when he grabbed his hand for a handshake, and the way he always turned his gaze towards the notification window when it appeared were both disturbing.

…Can he see it?

No way. Hwi-kyung immediately shook his head. The suspicion that he could see the notification window was too far-fetched. If he really could see it, he would have asked what it was long ago. But Lee Gyo-ha never once asked Hwi-kyung what “suboptimal condition” meant.

When he first regressed, Jung Hwi-kyung suspected there might be others who had traveled back in time besides him. It was a reasonable suspicion. He wasn’t certain that he was the only one who had helped the Bodhisattva grandmother, and Hwi-kyung wasn’t that special to become a regressor.

Just a fresh graduate who had mistakenly joined an evil company and suffered for a month before leaving. That was all there was to Hwi-kyung’s identity. Poor, having to support a sick grandmother, graduated from a decent university but difficult to enter a large corporation due to lack of certifications or external activities – a young job seeker.

If you sorted within the South Korean category with those conditions, thousands besides Hwi-kyung would be found. How many fresh graduates are there who worked without pay in some shitty company and ran out? Not to mention how many young people have poor family backgrounds.

Hwi-kyung was quick to self-objectify, so he quickly suspected the possibility of other regressors besides himself. That’s why he couldn’t easily invest in stocks at first. If there were others who knew the future, who knows what might change.

However, as the iterations continued, the assumption that there were other regressors gradually faded. Although the endings differed depending on which company he joined, everything flowed similarly before employment.

No matter what he did, Hwi-kyung’s grandmother always passed away from stomach cancer. The TOEIC and HSK exam questions were always the same. Hwi-kyung’s parents always remained silent to his requests for help when his grandmother fell ill.

The stock market was the same. Although there was some margin of error, it was all predetermined what would rise and fall. The TV programs airing at that time and the incidents reported on the 9 o’clock news were also more or less the same every time.

Those who embezzled continued to embezzle with only the amounts changing, and executives who habitually sexually harassed in the company always ended up on the 9 o’clock news after a few years. Things that were supposed to happen always happened repeatedly, even if Hwi-kyung didn’t join the company.

Jung Hwi-kyung was too ordinary a person to have a significant impact on others even after traveling back in time. Just look at how his grandmother passed away from the same illness around the same time in every iteration. All Hwi-kyung could change was his workplace.

It would probably be the same even if there were other regressors. If they were ordinary people, they wouldn’t be able to do anything extraordinary even if they came back in time.

Memorizing all the lottery numbers and regressing? That only works once or twice. If the same person claims the first prize more than three times, investigators would come after them. Hwi-kyung didn’t particularly want to know this fact.

Except for the lottery, where you could make money by memorizing numbers and claiming prizes, everything else had to be earned through one’s own efforts. No matter what new actions an ordinary human takes, the world doesn’t change. A butterfly’s wing flap is just a butterfly’s wing flap after all. It means that a person standing next to a butterfly doesn’t get blown away by the wind just because the butterfly flaps its wings.

Still, Hwi-kyung suspected the possibility of other regressors until just before the 6th iteration. But even after Hwi-kyung became as familiar with regression as he could be, no other regressors appeared.

By that point, Hwi-kyung had to admit it. He was the only regressor. There were many idiots writing online that they were regressors, but they were obviously not real.

Then what on earth was Lee Gyo-ha?

In the twelfth regression, when Hwi-kyung was working at BK International until his 30s, there was no parachute Executive Director like Lee Gyo-ha. Even then, the chairman’s youngest son was Lee Gyo-ha, but unlike the other children who directly participated in the business, the youngest Lee Gyo-ha was said to have no interest in company life.

Was he a model back then too? Hwi-kyung held his forehead, trying to recall the Lee Gyo-ha from the previous iteration.