Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 135

“Hey, have you ever thought about doing a part-time job?”

Among Woo-jin’s acquaintances, there were a few people who lived in the Seongdong area, the same district as Woo-jin.

“Huh? What part-time job? You’re already working me hard as a model intern.”

One of them was Soyeon, who lived nearby in Seongsu-dong.

“Not that, something different. Something you can do lightly whenever you have time.”

“What is it?”

“Have you ever filed a complaint?”

“A complaint…?”

Seongsu-dong, where WJ Studio was located and where Soyeon lived, was also in Seongdong-gu.

“You have two younger siblings, right?”

“Y-yes, I do…”

“Don’t you have a sibling who just finished the university entrance exam recently?”

“That’s right.”

“Do me a favor.”

“……”

“Isn’t this a boring time for them?”

“They seem to be having fun going out with friends, though.”

“Tell them I’ll give them pocket money. Generously.”

“Pocket money? You said it was a part-time job earlier.”

“The part-time pay is what I give you, and the pocket money is what you give your sibling.”

It wasn’t just Soyeon. Even some employees who moved closer to WJ Studio in Seongsu-dong for an easier life were asked to help.

“Hyung, Jin-tae. You do it too.”

Jin-tae and about half a dozen other employees were also helping with the complaints.

“Complaints? Why all of a sudden? I’ve never done that before.”

“Think of it as your salary increasing a little each time you file a complaint.”

“That’s a little tempting…”

“Just once before eating. Let’s file complaints just three times a day. How about it?”

“Hmm.”

“I’ll raise this month’s incentive by 10 percent.”

“Deal.”

In that way, Woo-jin was able to get quite a few people who lived in the Seongdong area to help.

“Manager, please take care of it.”

[Alright. You said the contest deadline is in a week, right?]

Lastly, he told Kyung-wan, the person who came up with this plan, how it was going.

“Yes.”

[Then the judging will take about a month?]

“That’s right. Around that time?”

[That should be enough. I’ll talk to my wife about it.]

“Hehe, Sister-in-law. I trust you.”

[Don’t worry. There’s class even in complaints, you know.]

“Class?”

[Originally, the people who have suffered from complaints are better at filing them.]

“……”

[Blindly throwing a lot of complaints isn’t always the answer. You shouldn’t make the public officials feel too bad. This is all done by people in the end, right?]

“Is this an introduction to the study of complaints…?”

[Hehe, something like that.]

Woo-jin, who had hung up the phone with Kyung-wan, shook his head. He didn’t know why, but Kyung-wan seemed excited about something.

‘Is it because I’m giving his wife a good part-time pay?’

Click- Click-

Woo-jin, sitting at the computer in his office, sent out the first complaint according to the guide Kyung-wan had given him. He offered a silent prayer, with a bit of apology, to someone he didn’t know.

‘Maybe a little. No, maybe a lot annoying, but… Please take good care of it. Fighting!’

With the complaint design(?) that had begun, a week passed by quickly.

Yoon Jung-yeol, the managing director of Taeho Construction, had been in a very good mood recently. The company had been doing poorly for three years, but was now starting to improve.

That was because they had won the construction rights for the Wangsimni private investment project. They had spent quite a lot on lobbying, but it wasn’t much compared to the total construction cost.

With just this one project, they were able to secure more than last year’s sales in the first half of the year alone.

‘Hehe, if this goes well, I might even be able to aim for executive director next year.’

Yoon Jung-yeol had become a managing director just last year. He had been appointed to the position of his predecessor, who had resigned a year ago because of the worst sales performance.

However, despite being promoted, he had felt like he was walking on thin ice until three months ago. In fact, the managing director appointment itself felt like a death sentence.

Until then, the company was not doing much better than the previous year, so if things continued like this, he would have to leave as well.

But then, an opportunity appeared like a savior, and that was the company called Paramount. Jung-yeol’s junior from school, who worked at Paramount, connected the business TF team with Jung-yeol, and Jung-yeol seized the opportunity.

Of course, in the beginning, Paramount’s executives also seemed unsure. Even if it was a company introduced through personal connections, Taeho Construction’s financial status and construction ability weren’t great.

But that minor(?) problem could be solved with money.

‘Giving them cash worth about twice their annual salary… How could they not take it.’

The scraps left over from the lobbying process went straight into Jung-yeol’s pocket. He didn’t feel any guilt.

Wasn’t it enough as long as the result was good? Jung-yeol had secured a major project that Taeho Construction would never have been able to attempt, so he thought it was only right to take that much.

‘I saved a company that was going bankrupt, so this much is nothing.’

His treatment within the company was completely different from before. Other executives were watching Jung-yeol’s every move, and the CEO praised him whenever he saw him in the company.

It was such a smooth road that he wondered if his company life could be this good. However, problems started this week. To be exact, it was from the time he received a call from his junior who was the head of Paramount.

“Huh? What are you talking about all of a sudden? You said you’d unconditionally push for A&C?”

[Th-that’s… I’m sorry, senior. The district office has started an audit.]

“What?”

[They’re telling us to show the entire design contest judging process on the district office’s website….]

“Why all of a sudden?”

[It seems like a complaint came in. They’re saying it doesn’t make sense to proceed with a public project secretly.]

“What kind of nonsense is that? How can a complaint come in when construction hasn’t even started?”

[That’s what I’m saying. I don’t know why, but a complaint came in, and our headquarters TF team is having a headache.]

Jung-yeol couldn’t help but be flustered by the unexpected situation. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought that there would be some pushback.

Even if other companies couldn’t interfere until the construction company was selected, there would be enough backlash after the design contest results were announced. But once the contest results were out, they could just push through with it smoothly.

He had thought of all the countermeasures. But this pushback at this point was something he had never imagined.

‘This is ridiculous.’

For a pushback to happen, there had to be a real incident that would be dissatisfying to someone, but Taeho hadn’t done anything publicly yet.

‘Did the internal plan leak to a competitor? That doesn’t make sense.’

He thought that a complaint could come in after the construction had started. Construction sites and complaints were inseparable.

But he didn’t care at that time. Once the construction had started, it was hard to overturn it. Overturning a construction project that had already started was a greater loss for the public than for the construction company.

‘Ha, damn it. What should I do?’

No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t come up with a good solution.

“The district office isn’t going to directly interfere with the contest judging, are they?”

[Fortunately, they haven’t said anything like that… The problem is just posting it publicly.]

“Ugh… So, in the end, we have to show all the designs that were submitted, right?”

[That’s right.]

“Should we somehow insist that A&C’s design was the best?”

[Actually, if a design that is good enough to be chosen comes up, it’ll be fine. But it won’t be easy.]

“Why?”

[Bruno Sanchez participated in this contest.]

“That old man who designed the Glacial Tower in Yongsan?”

[Yes. That person.]

“I’m going crazy, really.”

Jung-yeol’s face turned even darker when he heard Bruno’s name. The problem wasn’t so much Bruno’s actual design skills, but the fame that his name carried.

Regardless of the design, A&C’s design was going to include a design that could greatly increase the construction cost. If it became known that they had chosen such a design even though a world-renowned architect had participated in the contest, the media would likely focus on it.

As Jung-yeol was speechless, he heard his junior’s voice again.

[I’ll talk to the staff and get back to you.]

“We can’t just ignore the district office’s recommendation, can we?”

[I’m going to look into that. I’ll try to see what they want, and if it doesn’t seem like it’ll work….]

“If it doesn’t seem like it’ll work, what?”

[We can’t help it either, senior.]

Hearing his junior’s answer, Jung-yeol felt angry. He thought he had heard irresponsible words from his junior, even though there was no way to get back the money that had already been given in cash.

“Hey, how can you be so irresponsible! How much money did we give you guys!”

But even so, all that came back was a cold answer, of course.

[Why are you saying such disappointing things, senior? We’ve done our best, and we’ve already given you the construction rights, right?]

“Hoo…”

[The design cost is actually less than 10% of the total… You shouldn’t say we’re being irresponsible with that.]

Jung-yeol apologized first because there was nothing wrong with what his junior said. Getting angry wouldn’t help solve the problem at all.

He needed to calm down for now.

“Okay, I’m sorry. I was too excited.”

[Anyway, I’ll contact you again when the results come out.]

“Thanks. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

[Yes, senior.]

Click-

Jung-yeol, who had hung up the phone with his junior, froze. From his junior’s point of view, it was natural to think that the construction rights were much more important than the design contest, but that wasn’t the case in reality.

The reason why Taeho Construction, including Jung-yeol, was so focused on A&C Factory’s design rights was because if A&C failed, they would lose everything.

The billions of won that Taeho Construction had given to Paramount, and the plan to inflate the design cost and embezzle materials to make even more money, was in danger of disappearing.

Jung-yeol’s share in that alone was at least hundreds of millions of won, so it was enough to make him go crazy.

‘Is there no way? Is this really the end?’

He felt like finding the person who filed the complaint and yelling at them, but such thoughts were useless. So, Jung-yeol had no choice but to think of something more dangerous.

Thud-

Jung-yeol, who picked up his phone again, called someone else.

“Hey, Jung-soo. It’s me.”

[Haha, Jung-yeol. It’s been a while. What’s up?]

“Do you happen to know anyone in the Seongdong-gu office?”

[Seongdong-gu office? Why that way?]

“I have something urgent to do….”

[I don’t know. I don’t think anyone has been assigned there recently.]

“The situation is very urgent, so please find a good person and introduce them to me.”

[A good person, what kind of person?]

“Do I have to say it directly?”

[Hehe. What’s the level?]

“I think it should be at least a bureau director level… A section chief in the Urban Management Bureau would be fine too.”

[Okay. I’ll look into it and get back to you.]

“Okay, thanks!”

The solution that Jung-yeol came up with was, in the end, to bribe more people with more money.

‘Even if there’s a little less left, it can’t be helped. It’s better than losing money, right?’

But at this moment, there was one thing that he didn’t know: his choice right now was truly the worst thing he could do.