Real Man

He tried his best to clear up the misunderstanding, knowing that they had to work together from now on.

“I won’t ask you to do anything bad. I won’t even break any minor laws.”

“Ha! You don’t have to say that. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“No, I’m telling you the truth. I want to make Double Y a respectable financial company…”

That was when Park Young-hoon was explaining his ambition to his first employee.

Bang.

The door opened and a hearty voice rang out.

It was Kang Dong-shik, whose face had a distinct scar.

“Hey! Park President.”

“Hey! Park President, you’re doing well… Oh? You-hyun is here too.”

Next to him was Oh Jung-wook, who had a threatening physique.

Nado-ha’s face hardened in an instant.

“See? I knew this would happen.”

“No, no, that’s not…”

Park Young-hoon stretched out his hands and tried to explain, but Nado-ha pushed them away and got up from his seat.

Then he sneered at Park Young-hoon.

“President, I signed the contract, so I’ll do the work. But don’t pretend to be nice, don’t be hypocritical.”

“Nado-ha, that’s not…”

“Let me explain.”

Yoo-hyun stepped forward, feeling that something had gone terribly wrong.

Kang Dong-shik frowned, sensing the tense atmosphere.

“Who’s this kid? Huh? He looks like a newbie, but he doesn’t know his place?”

“Hyung-nim, it’s not like that.”

Yoo-hyun tried to stop him, but it was already too late.

“Hyung-nim? Tsk tsk.”

Nado-ha clicked his tongue and opened the office door and left. Park Young-hoon reached out and shouted.

“Nado-ha!”

“Look at that rude newbie! Hey!”

Kang Dong-shik’s yell was followed by Park Young-hoon’s cry.

“Hyung-nim, why are you doing this, really?”

“What did I do? Don’t we have any hierarchy in our gym?”

Kang Dong-shik stood up to him with his belly out. Yoo-hyun put his hand on his forehead.

“Sigh… This is crazy.”

He had nothing to say about this.

If it was a misunderstanding about the company’s business, time would have solved it naturally.

But a misunderstanding about a person was a different story.

He quickly went out of the building and caught up with Nado-ha.

“Nado-ha, I really misunderstood earlier.”

“Oh, yes. It’s okay. It’s not the first or second time I’ve been fooled by such lies.”

Nado-ha walked away without even looking at Yoo-hyun’s face.

He tried to calm him down and look forward to the next opportunity, but Nado-ha’s indifferent expression provoked Yoo-hyun.

“It’s not a lie. The two who came earlier were seniors from the gym on the third floor. They didn’t know we had set up an office…”

Yoo-hyun explained as he walked.

Even if Nado-ha didn’t react, he clumsily followed him to the end.

“So that’s what happened. They thought you were a new gym member.”

“Are you done?”

“Did you hear everything?”

“Yes. It sounds very plausible when you package the thugs as gym members. As expected, you’re different from the big company employees.”

Nado-ha sarcastically said as he stopped at the crosswalk.

Yoo-hyun answered in a low voice.

He couldn’t stand it when he said something bad about the gym people.

“They’re all good people. They’re not the kind of people who get mistaken for thugs because of their appearance or speech.”

“They all say that. But when money is involved, they become enemies. Aren’t they the same as the adults who pretend to be better than they are?”

“There are many different kinds of adults.”

“Well, I’ll give you that. You’re an adult who pays a lot of money.”

What kind of experience did he have at such a young age?

He wanted to say something stronger, but it was only the first day.

Yoo-hyun decided not to waste his emotions and backed off for now.

“Let’s call it a day. See you next time.”

“…”

As Yoo-hyun turned to leave without hesitation, Nado-ha stopped him.

“Are you going to just throw me away like this again?”

“What do you mean?”

“You came out of nowhere and gave me money, told me to come for an interview, told me to work. Why are you so selfish?”

Nado-ha asked accusingly. Yoo-hyun told him the truth.

He thought Nado-ha was a valuable person who deserved to be sought out and given a chance.

“I told you. I appreciate your skills.”

“I’ve heard that a lot. When I start working, they all praise me and make me feel good. But do you know how it always ended?”

“I don’t know, but it will be different.”

“No. You’re the same. You’ll use me, dump me, and threaten me if it doesn’t work out. Because you’re an adult who only thinks about yourself.”

What kind of hardships did he go through in his life?

Yoo-hyun was speechless at the sight of Nado-ha, who was spitting out thorns with a wounded expression.

He realized that he had lived a harder life than he had thought.

So he spoke more carefully and sincerely.

“That will never happen. I promise.”

“Don’t lie. Can you really say that you have no other ulterior motive?”

“No. I don’t.”

Yoo-hyun didn’t avoid the somewhat misleading statement.

He didn’t want to lie even a little bit.

On the other hand, Nado-ha glared at him as if to prove him wrong.

“See? You have something up your sleeve. But why do you keep hiding it? Just stop pretending and use me like the others.”

“I have no intention of using you.”

“Are you playing with me right now? What do you want me to do?”

Nado-ha raised his voice when the traffic light turned green.

Among the many people who came and went, Yoo-hyun faced Nado-ha head-on.

“…”

He didn’t back down for a long time, staring at him with bloodshot eyes.

Yoo-hyun said one word to him.

“Then will you listen to my story for a moment?”

“I took your money, so I guess I have to.”

Nado-ha tried to keep his face stiff, but Yoo-hyun smiled faintly.

He remembered the old memories he had with him.

He didn’t mind this kind of thing, having grown up in the slums and sticking his head into shady places for money. If he had met a decent adult back then, he wouldn’t have ended up like this.

Nado-ha smirked bitterly, knowing that the data center he had upgraded was used to oppress the employees.

Yoo-hyun, who was the team leader at the time, couldn’t comfort his discontent.

He just compensated him with money, hoping that Nado-ha wouldn’t change his mind.

But not anymore.

Yoo-hyun wanted to approach Nado-ha more sincerely, so that he could open his heart.

He met Nado-ha at a nearby coffee shop and opened his mouth.

“Actually, I was going to tell you this story much later. If the situation wasn’t favorable, I would have just buried it.”

“But?”

“I want to tell you now, because I think you’ll keep misunderstanding me. Just remember that this is not the real reason why I came to you.”

“Oh, you’re really beating around the bush. What is it?”

How should he start? How should he explain?

Nado-ha, who had never experienced a proper social life, wouldn’t fully understand the complicated company story.

Yoo-hyun tried his best to match the level of the young college student.

“There’s a very selfish person in our company who tramples on the good employees for his own benefit. He’s not only harming the company, but also the country.”

“What does he do?”

Yoo-hyun was about to complain, but Nado-ha waved his hand as if he knew everything.

“Of course, there’s a separate internal network in a big company. Just go on. I’ll understand.”

“Okay. That selfish person set up a separate data center on the network…”

Yoo-hyun revealed the misdeeds that Lee Jun-il, the head of the data center, had done.

CCTV, email, internet history, location tracking, phone tapping, etc.

He indiscriminately monitored the employees’ private lives with the information he collected illegally, and crushed the opposing forces.

This became a means of control for the Royal Family, who were corrupting the company.

Nado-ha snorted at the story that seemed to come out of a drama.

“Wow. Big companies are really something.”

“I agree. I’m ashamed of that part too.”

“Okay. So what do you want to do?”

“I want to stop him from spying. But I don’t want any other employees to get hurt in the process.”

Nado-ha caught the point before Yoo-hyun mentioned the specific details.

“You want to hit the data center only. You want to leave the internal network intact.”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“And you don’t want to just erase the data, but completely destroy the system. So that it can’t be easily restored.”

“That’s also correct. And it’s harder to break in because it’s an independent network.”

“You have to get past the security team of the big company, and the security staff of the data center. It won’t be easy.”

The difficulty of the task was evident from the questions and answers between Nado-ha and Yoo-hyun.

The target, the method, and the aftermath were all tricky.

Yoo-hyun had visited several security companies to find a way, but he couldn’t find a satisfactory answer.

So he decided to use a completely different method.

“I decided that it was impossible to break in. So I went to the server equipment company and the security system company…”

Yoo-hyun was about to tell his backup plan.

Nado-ha stretched out his palm and stopped him.

“Who says it’s impossible?”

“Is it possible?”

“Well, I can do anything. But I have one question first.”

“What is it?”

“What’s in it for you if you stop him from doing bad things? You’re not making any money from it.”

Yoo-hyun didn’t hesitate to answer the question that came out of the blue.

He said everything that had been behind his actions.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

“The right thing to do. Oh, are you playing hero?”

“You could say that. I want to correct what’s wrong.”

“Hmph.”

Nado-ha scoffed, but Yoo-hyun continued calmly.

“I can’t stand by and watch the selfish bastards exploit the good people for their own gain.”

“…”

Nado-ha was silent for a moment, rolling his eyes and thinking.

He tilted his head and said.

“It’s a strange motive, but also kind of intriguing.”

“You might think it’s weird, but it’s important to me.”

“No. It’s not weird, it’s just the first time I’ve seen something like this. You’re too righteous.”

“…”

Nado-ha muttered to himself, as if talking to himself.

Then one corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

“So I want to check it out for myself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind. Fine, I’ll help you out.”

Nado-ha said it casually, but Yoo-hyun was worried.

He knew very well that the process wouldn’t be easy.

“You don’t have to feel pressured. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. I just want you to…”

Yoo-hyun was about to express his concern, but Nado-ha looked annoyed.

“Ha! You talk too much. I said I’ll do it.”

“You don’t have to rush it.”

“Don’t you complain when I say I’ll do it. I’ve never seen a customer like you in my life.”

Yoo-hyun had never seen an applicant like Nado-ha either.

He didn’t bother to say that, but instead spoke sincerely.

“You’re not a customer, you’re a person I’m working with now.”

“A good colleague, something like that?”

“Of course.”

Yoo-hyun answered confidently, and Nado-ha looked away and mumbled.

“Even if it’s pretense, it’s not a bad thing to hear.”

He pretended not to, but there was a smile on his lips.

Nado-ha started to come to the office after the Double Y office was somewhat organized.

It was like Park Young-hoon and Nado-ha were sharing a large office.

Of course, the process wasn’t smooth.

Yoo-hyun was able to hear this story through his phone in the hallway of the Yeouido Center on the seventh floor.