Real Man

Chapter 789

The employees exclaimed in unison as they ate the kimbap.

“Wow, amazing!”

“Really delicious.”

“Jang team leader, this is awesome.”

“Hehe. Eat as much as you want. I’ll pay for this.”

Buzzing.

Leaving the noisy employees behind, Yoo-hyun faced the kimbap shop owner, Oh Jeongwook.

He whispered, looking at Jang Manbok who was sitting far away.

“That guy eats here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He even checks the rice condition now.”

“Really?”

“It’s very burdensome. Well, I’m grateful that he sells well, though.”

Oh Jeongwook shrugged his shoulders and Jeong Da-hye, who was next to Yoo-hyun, smiled with her eyes.

“Jang team leader is a real gourmet, you know. You should be proud that you satisfied him. That’s a proof of your skill.”

“Haha. I feel proud when I hear what Jesu says... Oh, excuse me.”

He was smiling, but he paused and went to the customer with the food in his hand.

“Yes! Here you go, sir.”

He walked fast, waving his apron. He looked very well suited for the job.

After lunch, they went up to the lobby on the first floor, and the security guard who was standing near the entrance turned his head.

The Reeber employees flinched and he greeted them with an awkward smile.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

The employees cautiously returned the greeting and whispered.

“He looks very fierce.”

“But thanks to him, the people who were causing trouble in front of the building are all gone.”

“He also subdued the people who had a quarrel in the lounge the other day.”

Yoo-hyun heard the murmuring and looked at Kang Dongshik.

He met his eyes and slightly raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t act like he knew him and entered the alert mode.

He looked very dignified as he straightened his posture.

Jeong Da-hye said, looking at him.

“Dongshik passed the Aiwon internal test with the first rank, right? It’s the first time a newbie did that.”

“That’s right. He seems to be well recognized.”

“He looks good. But Jeongwook and Dongshik don’t have any regrets about quitting martial arts?”

Yoo-hyun recalled what Kang Dongshik had said, at Jeong Da-hye’s question.

-I was thinking of quitting someday. It’s a nuisance to keep fighting while the juniors are coming up. I tried building management and security work seemed to suit me well.

Kang Dongshik could have become a professional coach if he wanted to, but he chose a different path.

Oh Jeongwook also took over the kimbap shop with the same idea.

“As long as they exercise occasionally, it’s fine. They probably wanted to do something new.”

“That’s good. I hope both of them do well.”

“They’re good people. They deserve to do well.”

Yoo-hyun stopped for a moment and sincerely cheered for the two who were starting anew.

Kang Dongshik’s back looked very sturdy.

Thud thud.

As Yoo-hyun was about to walk again, a man who was dragging a large carrier recognized him.

“Huh? President Han.”

He had thin eyebrows, round glasses, and a gentle impression that was familiar.

Yoo-hyun greeted the man who looked a little older than him.

“Hello, President Lee.”

“You remember me.”

“Yes. You gave me your card on the rooftop before. You said let’s have a cup of tea.”

Lee Seunghyuk, the president of Seowon Tech.

Was it about two months ago?

He came up to Yoo-hyun first and handed him his card, thanking him for ringing the golden bell.

Park Young-hoon, who mistook him for recognizing him, kept grumbling, so he still couldn’t forget the information recorded on the card.

Lee Seunghyuk scratched his head and said regretfully.

“That’s right. I really wanted to have a cup of tea with you.”

“You can do it when you have time.”

“I’m leaving today.”

Tap tap.

He tapped the large carrier and Yoo-hyun recalled.

‘I think they said the 8th floor office was vacant...’

It seemed that it was Seowon Tech that he had heard from Aiwon.

But he didn’t look happy for someone who was leaving after finishing the contract.

Was there a problem in the middle?

Yoo-hyun had no intention of driving out small companies with the landlord’s tyranny.

Except for Nice Media, which left abruptly on the 20th floor, he had supported other companies to some extent when they left due to contract expiration.

Aiwon must have known this, but it seemed that there was a misunderstanding.

Yoo-hyun gestured to Jeong Da-hye to go ahead and smiled.

“Then how are you doing now?”

“You must be busy. You don’t have to waste your time because of me.”

“No. I just wanted to have a cup of tea. Let’s go.”

“Then... Okay.”

Lee Seunghyuk, who hesitated for a moment, nodded his head.

Yoo-hyun faced Lee Seunghyuk at a corner seat in the lounge on the first floor.

As they exchanged a few words over coffee, Yoo-hyun casually asked.

“Where are you moving your office to?”

“I’m not moving.”

“Then?”

“I’m packing up and leaving because I went bankrupt. Haha.”

He shrugged his shoulders and his expression looked somewhat bitter.

Did he have trouble with his business?

It didn’t seem to be the rental contract problem he had expected.

Yoo-hyun was curious about his story and took a step closer.

“Your business didn’t go well, I guess.”

“That’s the result. Actually, the competitor of the project I ordered a while ago was too strong.”

“Competitor?”

“I thought there wouldn’t be much difference in the level because we were similar in size, but it wasn’t. It turned out to be a really capable company. They could even beat the big companies.”

“It’s not easy to beat the big companies.”

“It’s amazing. I’m sure the representative of that company doesn’t even know we exist.”

He smiled faintly, even though he was driven out of business by the competitor.

There was no sign of resentment in him.

Rather, he seemed to genuinely acknowledge the other.

‘Is that his personality?’

Yoo-hyun hid his curiosity and sipped his coffee.

Thud.

He put down his cup after taking a sip of coffee, and leaned forward hesitantly. President Lee Seung-hyuk asked, “Do you know what kind of work we did, sir?”

“Hmm, didn’t you do internet business?”

“Huh? How did you know? It wasn’t well-known.”

“I’ve heard the name before. I don’t know much about it.”

He didn’t learn about Seowon Tech through work or news articles.

When he first bid for the building, he had received a brief briefing from his agent about the companies that were moving in, so he only remembered the nature of their work.

President Lee Seung-hyuk smiled.

“It’s strange how I feel when you know about us. Actually, we are a company that develops web-related algorithms. We mainly worked with Japanese companies.”

“Japan doesn’t use Korean companies much, do they?”

“We drank a lot of bitter water. We eventually gave up and turned our attention to domestic companies and worked with them.”

“Domestic companies, you mean...”

“We developed a price comparison algorithm for Yurim Fashion as a subcontractor. That was our last job.”

“...”

Yoo-hyun lost his words for a moment.

If Yurim Fashion had commissioned them to do online shopping mall work, then their competitor was River.

In other words, Seowon Tech had gone bankrupt because of River.

‘I’m drinking tea with the person who ruined their company.’

It turned out differently from what he intended.

Seeing Yoo-hyun’s awkwardness, President Lee Seung-hyuk raised his hand.

“I’m just telling you this in case you might think so, but I have no hard feelings towards River. Rather, I resent Yurim Fashion for unilaterally terminating the contract.”

“Unilaterally?”

“Well, isn’t that how big companies bully? We were just one of them, but the company that revamped the entire web to meet Yurim Fashion’s unreasonable demands suffered more damage and collapsed.”

“...”

Collaboration with big companies might seem like a lifeline for small companies, but that was just an illusion.

Since the power imbalance was clear, there were many cases where they collapsed without being able to say anything about unfair contracts, like now.

It must have been hard in this hopeless situation, but President Lee Seung-hyuk asked with a forced smile.

“But I was really surprised. Double Y was helping River.”

“Yes. We are in charge of River’s development.”

“What a great company. You made a better version of what we struggled to develop in Japan for over a year in no time. Haha.”

As he shrugged his shoulders, Yoo-hyun recalled what Nadoha had said.

-Hyung, there are a lot of features that can be used for Yurim Fashion’s shopping mall. But they outsourced to different places and they all play separately.

Yurim Fashion had outsourced to various companies to lower the development cost.

On the other hand, Nadoha, who operated the whole system, made the lowest price purchase button automatically linked to the photo tag according to Ee Ji-hyun’s plan.

It was possible because of his genius skills and the integrated system.

As they talked about this and that, President Lee Seung-hyuk exclaimed.

“Oh. I think I took too much time with useless talk.”

“No. It was interesting. Very intriguing, too.”

“I thought it was over, but I guess I still have some regrets. I have to shake it off now.”

“Why don’t you get back on your feet? You seem like you can do well.”

It wasn’t a flattering remark.

He could tell by looking at President Lee Seung-hyuk’s humble attitude that he accepted reality.

He was not a person who would repeat his mistakes.

He would surely do better by filling in the gaps in his own company, as much as he acknowledged the other company.

But he shook his hand.

“No. That won’t happen.”

“Why?”

“There is no place that gives a chance to a failed startup. There is also a limit to asking for help from people around me.”

President Lee Seung-hyuk’s words pointed out the problem of the venture ecosystem in Korea.

The political circles claimed to encourage venture companies and poured out support measures, but in reality, it was hard for failed companies to revive.

Many people looked at them with colored glasses once they failed, so it was difficult to get support in the first place.

Then, there should be a safety net to prevent them from collapsing in the first place.

But there were countless cases where they were bullied or robbed of their technology by contract problems, like President Lee Seung-hyuk.

Yoo-hyun nodded his head, recalling the things he had experienced at Hansung.

“That’s right. It’s not easy without money.”

“I thought it was money, but it seems like it’s skill. Like River beat Yurim Fashion.”

“That’s...”

River beat Yurim Fashion thanks to its stable system based on its solid financial power, and the fact that it had a big newspaper, Uri Ilbo, as its ally.

He couldn’t say this in front of the person who was leaving.

Creak.

President Lee Seung-hyuk, who got up from his seat, reached out his hand with a smile on his face.

“It was an honor to see you before I leave. I will cheer for River’s future from afar.”

“Thank you. I hope your work goes well, too.”

Squeeze.

Yoo-hyun shook hands and quietly watched him leave with his carrier.

Time passed a little more and the Lunar New Year holiday approached.

Yoo-hyun, who had cleared his schedule before the holiday, went down to his hometown with Jeong Da-hye.

Vroom.

As he was driving, the navigation screen flashed and the caller popped up.

Jeong Da-hye, who saw Nadoha’s name, asked.

“Do you want me to check the message?”

“Yeah. He probably contacted me because of Jang-woo’s movie premiere.”

“Right. He’s been wanting to attend the preview since last time. Um... Seowon?”

She looked at the phone in the middle storage space of the car and tilted her head.

“What is it?”

“He said he looked into what Seowon Tech did in Japan. He said they were a pretty interesting company that did a lot of things.”

“Oh, it’s because of what I asked him to look into before.”

Yoo-hyun wanted to know objectively about Seowon Tech, so he asked Nadoha for a favor.

He believed that Nadoha could figure out their skills in no time.

He contacted him now.