“He really did a good job.

“…Ung?”

A blank expression appeared on the team leader’s face, and it was the same for the other employees in the office. It looked as if they felt that their brains had become bleached.

Oh Sangho stopped moving, apparently unable to understand what Yonggu had just said.

Then, he suddenly dropped his shoulder as if he clearly understood the situation, letting out a sigh dejectedly.

Haaah, I’m done for.

On the other hand, Min Suji was happy. Folding both hands onto her heart, she, wearing a relieved expression, looked at Hyunwoo. Her eyes, bent like crescent moons, were pure and beautiful.

“Step aside. Let me do it.”

The team leader pushed Yonggu aside and sat down. He then began reviewing the profit and loss statement by himself. As a matter of fact, he was good at it but didn’t do it anymore as he grew older. He didn’t review it as carefully as Yonggu. What really mattered to him was to verify whether Hyunwoo had produced the calculation by himself than to check its accuracy.

While checking the numbers on the files and the Excel spreadsheet, the team leader suddenly stopped moving, and he looked at Hyunwoo. Then, he glanced at Yonggu this time.

“Come and see me for a minute.”

The team leader called Yonggu into a conference room, and he asked generously, “You said that you’re from the same high school, right?”

Yonggu could figure out what he was going to say after hearing that.

“Yes, correct.”

“Did you help him?”

If Hyunwoo were his best friend, Yonggu might have helped him. Even if he were just a good friend of his, Yonggu still could’ve helped him. However, he had an ill-fated relationship with Hyunwoo, and their relationship was still the same.

“How could I do that?” Yonggu retorted.

“It’s okay. That is possible between friends. What just bothers me is I might overestimate Hyunwoo from now on. However, that could ruin his future, too.”

“I know that. That’s why I didn’t help him at all. He did it by himself.”

“Are you sure?”

The team leader still seemed suspicious, and Yonggu was the same. However, it was true. It was the outcome of Hyunwoo’s own efforts from start to finish. What was more surprising was that parts of the formula he used to get the value of certain items were even more refined than his. He even felt threatened while reviewing Hyunwoo’s work.

Hiding his bitterness on purpose, Yonggu nodded his head.

“Yes, sir.”

At his reply, the team leader’s face suddenly turned bright.

“Oh, Jang Hyunwoo. What an outstanding guy!”

The more he praised Hyunwoo, the more bitter Yonggu felt. He felt some sort of vague fear that he could be compared with Hyunwoo again.

The team leader headed back to the office, and his dynamic gait made him look like a person who had discovered a hidden treasure.

When he entered the office, however, the team leader changed his attitude suddenly. Hiding his real expression, he patted Hyunwoo on the shoulder a couple of times and said,

“Nice job!”

However, Hyunwoo was happy about the team leader’s attitude more than his praise, for he quickly sensed the team leader’s attitude change. He was treating Hyunwoo with comfortable ease. Having experienced working at various companies, he knew what it mean very well. This indicated that the team leader formally recognized him as a full member of his team.

Hyunwoo glanced at Yonggu slightly.

His expression was more than blank, and he was neither happy nor upset. His attitude was kind of artificial, which meant that he was hiding his real expression.

‘He wanted me to fail. He still hates me. What the hell is the reason?’

“Mr. Kim, why don’t you check out the other guys’ outcomes?”

“Yes, sir.”

Yonggu examined the outcomes produced by Min Suji and Oh Sangho.

Min Suji’s calculation was just terrible. It looked as if she had done it upside down when she had to find the appropriate value of the raw material based on the costs of labor and materials on the files.

“I’m sorry. I never learned how to draw up the profit and loss statement, so I calculated it upside down.”

“It’s alright. It’s good to see that you tried anyway.”

The team leader forgave her generously. He praised her unwavering attitude.

Oh Sangho produced relatively good results. Though there were several errors, it was commendable for his first try.

The team leader patted Oh on the shoulder with a bright smile.

“You did a job befitting someone who graduated from a famous college. Your calculation seems better than Hyunwoo’s. Nice job, everybody!”

Nonetheless, Oh couldn’t smile. He felt as he had been shamefully defeated by Hyunwoo.

Damn it! How can I be compared with a high-school graduate!

He felt that he couldn’t raise his head because of shame.

If Park Minhey, the president’s daughter, knew this, she would certainly taunt him with something like ‘Did you really get your college diploma?’

This humiliated Oh. He couldn’t afford to get disgraced like that.

Let me take revenge by all means. Let me show you how able I am.

Oh clenched his fist silently.

In the meantime, the team leader didn’t feel relaxed. It was okay for Hyunwoo to have shown such a striking performance, but the thing was the penalty he had promised to the loser.

He wanted to assign Hyunwoo to materials management, but Min Suji was the one who had to take care of that because she was the worst performer out of the three.

“I think I have to choose the worst performer, right? If you think you’re, please raise your hand.”

Min cautiously raised her hand, but Hyunwoo raised his hand at the same time too.

The team leader giggled at him because he knew that Hyunwoo was showing the spirit of chivalry.

Though he appreciated Hyunwoo’s consideration, he couldn’t choose him because that would make the penalty meaningless.”

She could be replaced later, but she had to take on the task according to the penalty.

Hyunwoo said seriously, “The purchasing department doesn’t deal with profit and loss statements, right? It’s true that I’m the least qualified in terms of expertise in the field out of the three new hires, so I’m the worst performer. Give me the penalty.”

After some hard thinking, the team leader made the decision by saying, “The worst performer is Min Suji, but since you want it, I’ll let you do what you want. Since your expertise is in trade, why don’t you teach Hyunwoo on trade-related work? Okay?”

There was no reason for both of them to be dissatisfied with the decision.

They answered brightly, “Yes, sir.”

“Okay, then. We’re going to have a group dinner tomorrow. Anybody have an appointment? If any of you have an appointment, let me host it today.”

Nobody came forward.

“Okay, dinner tomorrow. Go to your desk and get down to work then. I’ll have to see the president for a meeting.”

The team leader left the office.

Then, everyone in the office came to Hyunwoo in droves.

“What happened? You already know how to do that?”

“Wow! What matters is experience, not an academic degree.”

“I came to think about you differently.”

Suji was happy about it, and it was as if she had won a game.

“You’re really awesome! Where did you learn it?”

Scratching his head, Hyunwoo said, “As a matter of fact, I learned it after I reported to work here. Fortunately, I know someone who is very good at this.”

“After you reported to work? That means you mastered it in about two weeks. Great!”

“No way. I’m far from mastering it. Because I heard that it was one of the most important parts of this department, I had a private lesson focusing on how to find out profit and loss statements. I still don’t know anything about anything else in this field. Please teach me a lot.”

“Of course, you can ask me anytime when you’re in doubt. Instead, you should teach me how to make a profit and loss statement in return.”

Everyone was chatting and joking around Hyunwoo, making it noisy inside the office.

However, there was one person who didn’t take part in that.

It was Yonggu.

“Congrats!”

With that simple congratulatory word, he went back to his desk and got down to work, taking out some files.

There was another one who wasn’t happy. Oh Sangho, the guy who got hired with Hyunwoo.

Yonggu could manage his expression, but Oh couldn’t. His face became rigid, showing clear self-reproach that he had been defeated by a high-school graduate.

Though Hyunwoo could easily notice it, he didn’t care at all. Looked as if he couldn’t hide his expression even if he wanted to.

Hyunwoo just pretended not to have noticed it.

After a while, the team leader came back to the office after the meeting with a gloomy face.

“Come here, everybody!”

The team members gathered around him, and he then handed out a company status report to them.

“Perhaps all of you are aware that our company has been expanding very aggressively. That’s why our purchasing department was created, and due to the business expansion, our financial situation isn’t good.”

Listening to him, the team members read the handout, which contained something surprising.

<A certain portion of the money saved from an idea that cuts costs will be awarded to the employee>

The award itself wasn’t that surprising, but the proportion of the award was beyond their imagination. It was 10% of the saved money.

Every team member was aghast at the company’s proposal.

Even the team leader offered one more incentive.

“If our team produces the winner, I will give him the top score at this year’s job performance review.”

The team members couldn’t hide their excitement, for they would get not just money but also grade promotions. As employees, it wasn’t that easy for them to grab this kind of opportunity.

“I’m determined to be the winner.”

“Hummm, I’ll have to think about cutting costs even when I’m sleeping.”

Everybody was burning with enthusiasm about it. Some of them already began to think of any potential waste of money, and they pondered about various things.

Oh was no exception. Though he had been soundly beaten by Hyunwoo in the first round, he was determined to win this time. Given the choice, he wanted to bring about the largest cost-cutting outcome so that he could prove how capable he was.

Then, Park Minhye and the company president could be certain that he was the right fit to be the next CEO of the company.

Of course, Hyunwoo couldn’t be idle. Once he got hired like this, he wanted to hear his co-workers at the company praise him for his work.