Season 2: Chapter 32. Kim Ju-Hyeoks Accomplishments (1)
The article posted on All-Line wasn't about Sang-Hyeon. It was posted because of Sang-Hyeon, but it was an article about Director Park. Moreover, the article accused him of abusing his power.
[I am reporting that Director Park suggested that Yu Sang-Hyeon was in the company through connections and not the disabled quota.
Yu Sang-Hyeon might have thought he chose it himself, but the director knew he had no other choice but to pick the former.
Director Park used that to his advantage and even calculated how to give a hard time to those he disliked. Not only that, he caused trouble in various ways for the company...]
"...!?"
"!"
One could easily infer the public sentiment just by looking at the comments on the online article.
— Director Park is famous, lol!
— I know who spread this story lol~
— That person really lololol
— One never knows when things will go wrong for someone.
— Look at him dismissing the disabled quota and now it has come back to bite him.
Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok knew better than anyone not to trust online rumors. Ju-Hyeok even witnessed firsthand how a rumor he started spread.
"It's true."
However, the current post about Director Park was true. Ju-Hyeok knew all these facts already. A few facts he didn't know were added, but about eighty percent were based on actual events.
"But who wrote this?" Ju-Hyeok pondered.
Even an assistant manager wouldn't know some of these facts, so it couldn't have been Ju-Hyeok's peers.
Ju-Hyeok continued scrolling and concluded, "It's Shin Sang-Hoon."
He precisely identified the whistleblower as Team Leader Shin Sang-Hoon.
Sang-Hyeon was surprised by the unexpected name and asked, "Team Leader Shin?"
"Yes."
"But how do you know?"
"Only someone with his seniority would know all those details. At least someone with ten years of experience wrote it."
"But there are a lot of people with ten years of experience..."
"Yes, many have ten years of experience, but not many would accuse Director Park. You might not know since you don't keep in touch with the company people much, but I still hear the news."
"What news...?"
"Their discord has gotten worse. It seems Shin confronted the director after you left."
Sang-Hyeon's eyes widened. He always thought Shin similarly overlooked him. However, it seemed like he didn't wish for Sang-Hyeon to leave.
"You know, the restructuring isn't actually decided by the director."
Sang-Hyeon also knew that Director Park didn't have that authority. He could have endured, but he didn't want to anymore. The director wanted him gone and eighty percent of the company disliked him because they saw him as a spoiled child.
The only reason he stayed was because of his grandmother, but she passed away a year ago. It would have been easier for Sang-Hyeon to do manual labor outside.
"It seems Director Park forcefully let you go and that caused the discord. You know that our team has a lot of work to be done."
Roughly speaking, Director Park distributed more work to Team Leader Shin in a strange manner. This was a common occurrence. For countless reasons, work-life became difficult when one was defiant to their superiors. This was probably the most gentlemanly reason.
"Ever since then, their team is always working overtime. The director always does his team’s approvals last and sends them unfinalized approvals every Friday night, which means their entire team has to wait late at night."
Beyond giving undesirable tasks, the director made it almost impossible for subordinates to do their jobs. Such behavior could even directly harm the company, but the crafty Director Park prevented such occurrences. In this regard, he was quite clever.
Of course, he probably didn't foresee this current situation on All-Line. Who would have known that Sang-Hyeon's candid interview would become an arrow to pierce him?
"He really fired a shot..." Sang-Hyeon murmured and reminisced about his old feelings.
What he only thought in the past finally became reality.
"Huh? What did you say?"
"No, nothing."
"Man, the comments are brutal."
— Director Park often hits on female employees. It’s disgusting.
— Finally, it’s exploded. He's trash who forced himself on others sexually.
— They needed to expose such people when the timing is right and public opinion is expressed. It's a shame that reality doesn't work this way all the time.
Honestly, the comments spoke of even more stories that Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok didn't know about. They only knew the contents of the post.
The comments harshly criticized the director and some probably weren’t even factual. Would Director Park feel wronged or would he regret it?
Sang-Hyeon didn’t empathize with him. After all, Director Park's specialty was deceitfully pitting people against each other. Even if those comments were false, it was the karma he deserved. Regardless of the truth, Director Park had to bear even these repercussions.
"We hadn't intended it, but things have escalated."
"Sigh."
Sang-Hyeon took his eyes off the screen. All he wanted to clarify was that he wasn't hired through connections.
"There's nothing to be done about it."
He wasn't responsible for what would happen to Director Park. Sang-Hyeon already lost interest in what was happening at Ahsung and didn't want to think about it. Nor did he wish for them to fail. The company was a place of love and hate for him. He met allies like Ju-Hyeok there, but also had to endure people like Director Park.
He felt mixed feelings toward that place and had loathsome and nostalgic memories there. He wished he could completely hate it. Unlike in comics, there weren’t any clear-cut villains in reality.
He still had mixed feelings after leaving. Most office workers probably felt the same about their workplaces, but...
"Kekekekeke," stifled laughter escaped.
"Hey, why are you so bothered? It's refreshing, isn't it?"
Ju-Hyeok laughed heartily and slapped his back. Sang-Hyeon also laughed in response.
Yeah, it felt somewhat refreshing in multiple ways.
***
Almond’s stream began at 3 P.M. regardless of what was happening at Ahsung.
[Almond has started streaming!]
— It’s starting!!!
— The thief who stole Raina’s lips shamelessly went live on streaming!
— HiHi~
— Wow!! I was dying for almost a year...
— Can I breathe now? Huh, huh!
Almond returned to streaming after a while and the viewers welcomed him rougher than he expected.
[DamienCEO has donated 4,000 won.]
[Yu Sang-Hyeon. I forgive you once, but the second time is a declaration of war.]
— His real name was mentioned, lol.
— Hahaha, what the heck! Hahaha!
— Haha "Yu Sang-Hyeon" hahaha.
Uploading Ran's story mode on YouTube left quite the aftermath. Not many viewers had watched the live stream of Ran's story mode, so the reactions were only just coming in now.
[Raina'sLipPolice has donated 10,000 won!]
[You are now the thief who stole Raina’s lips!]
— Now you're also a Raina's Lip Gangster.
— Raina's Lip Gang, hahaha!
— Raina's Lip Gang! Raina's Lip Gang!
— Lip Police, hahaha!
— I have a strong belief that they'll pay the nickname price!
[Raina'sLipLawyer has donated 10,000 won!]
[STFU to all who don’t have face ID!]
— Hahaha, Raina'sLipLawyer appeared.
— If you're sassy, come equipped with your profile and face ID, hahaha.
— A lawyer, police, and gangster... Is this a courtroom, hahaha?
— Now, if only the judge comes out. The local court will be complete, hahaha.
— Come on, Lip Judge, please come out!
[Raina'sLipJudge has donated 10,000 won!]
[It is difficult to see the defendant as a lip gangster as it has been inferred that they were the original owner of Raina's lips for about 28 years. Thud!]
— Almond is the native, and they’re the colonizers~~~
— Raina's Lip Native, wow.
— There's no talk about Zombie School at all, hahaha.
Almond summarized the incoming support in a frenzied manner.
"Ah. Thank you very much for all your support."
— He thanked "everyone" at once, hahaha.
— It’s not worth it when you donate at times like this, hahaha.
— LOL.
— But still, thank goodness no Kingdom fanboys came out.
— This is the impact of a major channel.
After that, viewers from Evening Wide also flowed in to support Almond.
"Ah, yes. Thank you, BlossomFan. Yes, it was my first talk show. The most entertaining person was probably Lil Grass...? Just her existence itself was funny. Archery... It's okay now. Thank you."
Many donors asked him questions, as expected from newcomers to Almond’s stream.
— So many newcomers, wow.
— Oh, Almond... you seem like a different person, :(
— Why do you call newbies by their names!?
[King~dom has donated 10,000 won!]
[Bro! You've become a real celebrity now!? Huh?! Is there no more soul in your arrow!?"]
"Thank you, King~Dom."
— Ignored, lool!
— Info: Originally, the arrow was for taking the opponent's soul.
— Thank you. That’s it, lol.
The brief moment to catch up passed by. Now, it was time to start the game.
"I’m starting Zombie School. We’ll continue from where we left off last time."
[RubySword has donated 10,000 won!]
[Wow! But where did you end last time? Lol]
— I Really forgot Lol
— Oh, how can we remember after taking a one year break from the stream? Lol
— No more stream breaks allowed.
The viewers joked that the one-day break felt like a year. However, Almond felt the need to explain to the viewers that genuinely didn’t know or remember.
"Ah... we ended here last time."
He scratched his head and thought of how to refresh their memory.
Then he pointed a finger gun toward the camera and said, "Chikicha."
It was a reenactment of when he chikicha'ed Kim Woo-Jung.
— I immediately remembered everything, Lol
— Ah-ha, from the part where Kim Woo-Jung got "chikicha" Lol!
— LOL
The viewers suddenly recalled that moment in Zombie School that had been buried away in their daily lives.
—Wow, heart fluttering...!
— A sudden chikicha Lol.
— Love you, Almond ???
The game began.
***
"How is it?! Huh?! How is it? Call me General Hyun-Ah!"
Upon entering the game, the snack bar clerk Hyun-Ah held onto Pizza Bread Soo-Hyun and insisted on changing her surname to General. They had just defeated Baek Joon-Soo’s gang a moment ago.
— LOL
— She's been like that for two days. Lol
— Seems like a fan of Three Kingdoms, Lol
It had been two days for the viewers, but Hyun-Ah had probably only been showing off for about thirty minutes from her perspective. It wasn't too strange.
Almond spoke into his stream microphone channel, "Um. The current situation is... that Baek Joon-Soo killed Kim Woo-Jung and retreated, right?"
— Yep
— Yes
— That's correct.
"But the coward Kim Ju-Hyeok gets paralyzed with fear and can’t fight Baek Joon-Soo... I already told my teammates about it."
— True
— Walnut spinning quickly, intense
— True, nothing has changed lol
"And, I actually watched Bubblegum’s stream..."
He only said up to there, but the chat became flooded with "Lol" and turned into a sea of laughter.
— LOL
— Ah... he opened that box...
— He saw something he shouldn't have. Lol
— LOL
— Oh, too bad. Almond has to keep struggling, Lol
— LOL
"Yes, I already know that the nurse's office is nice. It seems like Baek Joon-Soo and his gang are in power due to taking control of the infirmary."
Based on what Almond saw in Bubblegum’s stream, he planned on going to the infirmary next.
"I’ll try going to the infirmary, but... the bullies will be there... um..."
— No way
—The infirmary is indeed a great idea, but not now.
— Wouldn't it be another fear scenario if you go?
Almond scratched his head. They needed to go to the infirmary, but that place was the enemy's main base. It wouldn’t be easy to take over.
Before that, they needed to establish some kind of plan.
"Or just go back to the restroom again?"
Almond peered outside through the door handle hole. Life would become easier if they secured up to the restroom again.
However, Baek Joon-Soo didn't simply retreat. Maybe he didn't want to push back the front lines they worked so hard for, so he left one person to stand guard.
The student standing guard looked tense and only stared at his phone. Beside him, a rather fierce-looking sledgehammer leaned against the wall.
"Huh?"
Almond gripped his steel pipe tighter.
'I won’t get scared of that one.'
In his eyes, Baek Joon-Soo hadn’t left someone to watch them.
"He’s given me a weapon."
Baek Joon-Soo had left him a sledgehammer.