Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 138

The deadline for the Wangsimni private investment project proposal was here.

A total of eight companies participated in the competition.

Paramount’s planning team received drawings from eight architectural firms in their email.

And then, several days later, on a Friday.

Yoon Su-yeop, the head of Paramount’s planning department, was personally opening emails to check the drawing files.

To be precise, he was reviewing each company’s design proposal PPTs, which included dozens of drawings, perspective views, and design proposals.

Maybe I should just open them one by one?

Even though there were dozens of drawings, the review didn’t take that long.

The design team would handle the detailed drawings. Yoon Su-yeop, as the head of planning, only needed to roughly review the perspective views and proposals.

In fact, Su-yeop hadn’t originally intended to review the designs at all.

As it was, no matter which design arrived by email, A&C Factory’s design was going to be chosen anyway.

That’s why he was only opening the files now, several days after the proposal emails had arrived.

But then a complaint arose, and a state institution got involved.

It was a very difficult situation.

Ha. Of all the things to go wrong, it had to be this.

The district office put pressure on him this morning, which is why Su-yeop was now opening the emails himself.

They had sent an official notice about the design competition, but Paramount hadn’t responded yet, so they even called to urge him.

The reason Yoon Su-yeop had been delaying his response was simple.

In these cases, if you pretended not to see the official notice from the institution and stalled for a few days, sometimes it would just fade away.

But now that they had called to urge him, he couldn’t stall any longer.

If he delayed any further, even more troublesome things would probably happen.

Hoo. I hope A&C sent a decent design….

Reviewing the designs, Yoon Su-yeop racked his brain about how to respond.

Now that the institution had gone this far, there was virtually no way to avoid the public announcement.

So there were two possible scenarios.

First, the best-case scenario, of course, was if A&C’s design was good enough.

Then he could just coolly announce it as requested by the district office.

The problem, of course, was if A&C’s design was bad. In that case, he thought he should talk to Taeho Construction first.

After all, at this point, Taeho Construction was in the same boat as Yoon Su-yeop.

Even if I have to cut ties, it’s not now. I need to see how the situation unfolds a bit more.

Su-yeop wanted to cleanly hand over the design rights to Taeho Construction in this project, as originally promised, if at all possible.

If he didn’t accurately deliver on his promise after receiving so much money, there was a very high chance of trouble down the line.

Of course, he couldn’t side with Taeho Construction to the point of going against the opinions of those higher up, though.

Click, click—

So, with a complicated heart, Su-yeop downloaded the attachments from the email and reviewed all the design proposals right there in his seat.

After about an hour and a half had passed, Su-yeop couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

Hoo…

As expected, the entry that showed an overwhelmingly superior design was Bruno Sanchez’s.

And after sighing, anger exploded.

“Damn it. Send this kind of garbage and expect me to choose it? This is a bit much, isn’t it?”

Even if Bruno’s design was excluded, A&C’s design was still among the lowest-ranked.

The proposal sent by A&C was so shoddy that even Su-yeop, who wasn’t a professional, felt embarrassed to compare it to the works of other architectural firms.

It was probably because A&C thought it was a design competition they were guaranteed to win, so they just worked on it carelessly and sent it in, rather than their capabilities being normally this poor.

If he chose this work and announced all the designs as they were, Paramount would definitely become a laughingstock.

This was too much.

What should I do? There’s no answer…. Should I really cut ties?

While Su-yeop was lost in thought, his phone rang.

[Class of ’38, Yoon Jung-ryeol]

Upon confirming the caller, Su-yeop shook his head and muttered.

“This senior can’t be a gentleman either.”

Having just checked A&C’s design, Su-yeop didn’t even want to answer the phone, but he had no choice.

Once you’re in the same boat in this kind of situation, it’s not easy to get off first.

[Are you free to talk, Su-yeop?]

“Yes, Senior.”

[Did you take a look at the entries that came in on Monday?]

At Jung-ryeol’s words, Su-yeop almost got angry for a moment.

But he suppressed the rising annoyance and lied.

“Ah, no. I’ve been swamped with work this week…. I haven’t seen them yet.”

If he said he had seen the designs, he would surely be asked what he thought.

And Su-yeop wasn’t confident that he could say anything good about them.

And whether Jung-ryeol knew what Su-yeop was thinking or not, he continued.

[Good, you did well. You didn’t even need to see them, right? Hee hee.]

Su-yeop almost choked on another curse, but he barely managed to hold it back.

“Hoo. So, what did you call about?”

[Always so impatient.]

“…I have a lot of work today. Sorry.”

[I’ve got good news, so cheer up.]

“I’m not upset, though?”

[I know you were upset because I misspoke last time. I know everything, you rascal.]

“No, it’s not that. Anyway… what’s the good news?”

Su-yeop was annoyed by the conversation with Jung-ryeol, but he was also a little curious about what the good news was.

The only thing he could consider good news from him was related to this lobbying, after all.

He was upset by A&C’s insincere design, but it would still be a relief if things were concluded as initially planned.

So Su-yeop listened intently to Jung-ryeol’s voice.

His voice began to be heard again from the other side of the receiver.

[I’m on my way back from Seongdong District Office today, junior.]

“Seongdong… District Office?”

[I dropped off a box at the Urban Management Bureau.]

……!

[So, don’t worry and just push ahead.]

The moment Jung-ryeol’s words ended, silence flowed.

This was something Su-yeop hadn’t even imagined.

“So, Senior… you’re saying you greased palms at the… district office too?”

[Do I really have to explain it one more time?]

In fact, Su-yeop was receiving such a large bribe for the first time in his decades of company life.

He had taken a few hundred to a few thousand dollars here and there, but this was his first time with a bribe exceeding hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So, when Jung-ryeol extended his hand to a public institution, Su-yeop couldn’t help but feel scared.

The bottomless cliff that had been invisible due to his greed was now beginning to come into view.

Because lobbying is ultimately all connected.

If the public institution side got caught, Su-yeop would surely be implicated like dominoes falling.

So Su-yeop’s voice was trembling slightly, though he wasn’t aware of it.

“It’s not… dangerous, is it, Senior?”

[Are civil servants any different? People are the same everywhere, you idiot.]

“Hoo…”

[I made sure to feed them properly, so don’t worry. If they do anything stupid… they’ll be wearing handcuffs too.]

Jung-ryeol talked about this and that before hanging up.

But even after the call ended, Su-yeop couldn’t put down the receiver he was holding.

The thing he had lightly thought of as just handing over the rights to the private investment project and the design rights and pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars felt like it was becoming much bigger than he had initially thought.

Hoo… what should I do? It’s not easy to cut ties now.

Su-yeop slowly placed his phone on the desk, his hand trembling slightly.

It seemed he had gotten in too deep.

Seo Young-taek, the director of the Urban Management Bureau of Seongdong District Office, received a strange phone call as soon as he arrived at work and sat down at his desk today.

The caller wasn’t a strange person.

The phone number itself was the district office’s internal extension.

However, the caller was the head of the audit and integrity team of the audit department, whom he rarely saw even though they worked in the same building, and the things he said were just bewildering.

“So, Team Leader. You’re saying that someone will be coming to lobby soon… and that I should receive the money and keep it for a while?”

[That’s right, Director. Keep it, and then bring it to the audit team.]

“No, not reject the bribe, but receive it and bring it in?”

[These are instructions from above. Nothing will happen to you, Director… so you don’t have to worry.]

Seo Young-taek was confused, but he said he understood and hung up.

Since all calls made on internal lines were recorded, he thought the audit team wouldn’t be able to say anything different later.

‘Before that, someone’s coming to lobby soon? Is this some kind of prophecy?’

So, although he was a little puzzled, he soon forgot about the call with the audit team and began to focus on his work.

Due to the recent increase in complaints to the Urban Management Bureau, he had quite a bit of work piled up.

But, as he was finishing his morning work and getting up from his seat for lunch, he received a phone call on his cell phone this time.

“Hmm? Who is it at this hour?”

The caller was Young-taek’s former superior, who had been transferred to another institution, one class ahead of him.

[Young-taek, how have you been lately?]

“Ah, Senior. Well, I’m just living day to day. What brings you here?”

He was puzzled as to why he had called, as they weren’t particularly close, but even at this point, Young-taek had no idea that this call was related to the audit team’s call.

[Anyway, so, would you like to have lunch together today?]

“Well, that’s not difficult. I was just about to head out. You’re at Wangsimni Station now?”

[Yeah. I’m almost there. I’ll park in the district office parking lot, so come out in five minutes.]

“Yes, Senior.”

Even though they weren’t particularly close, and their relationship wasn’t bad either, Young-taek went out to have lunch with him without any particular thoughts.

But there, Young-taek received a box, like a small tangerine box.

“I’m not giving this to you, but someone I know asked me to.”

“What is this, Senior?”

“I don’t know, you rascal. There should be a business card inside, so open it later and give them a call.”

The senior delivered the box, saying he didn’t know anything about it, and then disappeared.

But if you weren’t an idiot, you couldn’t not know what was in this box.

The senior’s stories during lunch were lobbying, no matter who heard them.

‘Hoo. I can’t believe this kind of thing is actually happening.’

Young-taek didn’t even open the box he received and took it straight to the audit team.

Thinking about the voice of the audit team leader from this morning, he didn’t want to keep this ominous object with him even for a moment.

‘But still, it’s creepy. How did they know?’

Seo Young-taek got goosebumps all over his body at the audit team’s unparalleled (?) ability to audit corruption.

“Oh, you’ve come so quickly.”

“Anyway, I’ve definitely delivered it!”

“Haha. I understand.”

“Then, I’ll be going……!”

He left the box in the audit team’s office and quickly returned to his seat.

It seemed that Young-taek would never be able to dream of lobbying for the rest of his life.

Golden Print

END