Chapter 12 – Factory
Kim Ain’s reaction was completely different from when she thought I was going to ask to borrow money.
Her face was full of excitement and anticipation, like a kid about to do something naughty.
“You just want to be my slave, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t!”
“Don’t shout so loud. It makes me even more sure. In that case, how about we do it today? As thanks for the meal I cooked.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why?”
“Because it makes me look too cheap if I do it just for a meal.”
Yeah. There’s no way I could fully understand Kim Ain.
I just let it go.
“Fine. Then let’s go with the conditions you mentioned.”
“Oppa. But… I have one question.”
“What is it?”
“What if we make a profit but I don’t give you the money?”
“I thought it was something serious. Then we’re done. That’s it.”
“That’s it? Are you stupid? You should feel wronged.”
“You’re the one who should feel wronged. Do you really think that’s the only information I have?”
“Ah!”
“You know the goose that lays golden eggs, right? If you don’t give me the money, you lose that goose.”
If Kim Ain betrayed me, our relationship would end.
Losing Kim Ain would be a shame, but if she was the type of person who would throw someone away for money, then it was better to not have her in the first place.
When I spoke coldly — which was unlike me — Kim Ain flinched.
“You really are confident, huh?”
“Yeah. This is the moment your life changes.”
“My life won’t change with just that much money, though?”
“It will. Ten times is more than you think. And there’s more after that.”
“Okay.”
We had just finished eating. It was time to hear her decision.
“I can get about 400 million won.”
“That’s all? Your level isn’t that different from mine.”
“It’s not my money, it’s my parents’ money. This house isn’t even in my name. It’s my parents’ house. Do you know how much I fought with them just to install CCTV?”
“I suddenly want to help you. Alright, 400 million it is. Ten times makes it 4 billion. We can still make at least 2 billion.”
(Of course, the actual profit would be fifteen times, making it 6 billion, which split in half would be 3 billion. But I hid that for dramatic effect.)
“Do you have it right now?”
“No, it’ll take about a week.”
“Then I’ll tell you what it is once you have it. You absolutely cannot tell anyone else.”
“Isn’t that the kind of line that gets people killed in movies? Like ‘I’ll be right back’?”
“Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Anyway, don’t tell anyone.”
“I don’t have anyone to tell besides you, Oppa. I’m not even close with my fellow trainees.”
“Ah. Right, you were an outcast.”
“It’s not that I’m an outcast. They just don’t match me.”
“Yeah, yeah. Got it. Now that we’ve eaten and finished talking, I’ll head out.”
“You’re really not staying over?”
Kim Ain looked at me with slightly regretful eyes.
A yellow light appeared in my head.
A situation where I could do it or not.
I didn’t cling.
“I’ll go home today.”
I wanted to, but I refused to look pathetic.
I learned something after doing it once.
I shouldn’t be the one clinging — I needed to become the one others cling to.
I left Kim Ain’s house.
***
Monday arrived.
Just like last week, I took the bus from Gyodae and headed to the training center.
When I arrived, today’s training didn’t take place in the auditorium. It started in a classroom instead.
It was boring.
Just like university students, Kim Ain and I sat side by side, dozing off.
I wasn’t the only one. In just one week, everyone had adapted and become lazy like me.
Then on Wednesday, something happened to break that laziness.
Wednesday, 10 AM.
We were on a short break when an HR team member urgently called us.
“Everyone needs to head to the factory right now.”
Everyone tilted their heads in confusion.
Everyone except me.
‘Ah… So this event is starting.’
A troublesome matter had begun.
***
We arrived at the factory in Hwaseong.
Sekyung Foods Factory No. 1.
It was an old, ordinary factory.
We got off the bus.
The factory manager greeted us with an anxious but welcoming face.
“Sorry for calling you all so suddenly.”
We lined up in front of him like soldiers.
The factory manager — precisely, Assistant Manager Lee Inkyu — continued with an awkward expression.
“I’ll be in charge of your factory training today. I was supposed to greet you at the training center, but things turned out this way.”
He scratched the back of his head.
“Something big came up at the factory, so I couldn’t go to the training center.”
Everyone’s expressions darkened.
They instinctively realized they had to do something.
“Even though it was sudden, just think of it as factory experience and help out a bit.”
Perhaps annoyed by his slow speech, someone cut in.
Team Leader Jang Jiseung.
A hot-tempered man.
“Why are you explaining everything one by one? It’s company work anyway.”
He stood in front of us and spoke rudely and loudly.
“What you guys have to do is simple. You see those beverages over there?”
The warehouse Jang Jiseung pointed at was stacked endlessly with beverage cases taller than a person.
“There’s foreign matter inside some of them. Your job is to find it.”
A command with no proper explanation or context.
Some people looked displeased. Among them, one person responded.
Han Jia. However, she didn’t argue. With an eager face like someone trying to seize an opportunity, she raised her hand.
“What kind of foreign matter is it? If you tell us, we can find it faster.”
She was probably trying to look good, but she shouldn’t have. That kind of person doesn’t respond well to that.
Jang Jiseung answered with an unpleasant expression.
“Name?”
“Han Jia!”
“Are you older than me?”
“Pardon? Ah… No.”
“Then are you higher in rank?”
“No!”
“So where do you get the nerve to cut in and speak? What’s wrong with this batch of new hires? Did you all eat politeness for breakfast? Don’t try to overdo it and act smart. Just do what you’re told. Stay stuck inside that material warehouse and don’t come out!!!”
At his harsh words, Han Jia’s face turned bright red.
“I’m sorry.”
“Tsk tsk. How did such dim-witted kids get into the company?”
The trainees started getting angry.
The one who got the angriest was Kim Ain.
‘How dare a mere servant speak to me like that?’
She was trembling with fury, so I grabbed the back of her neck.
“Stay still.”
“What? Are you scared?”
“No. Because he’s not wrong.”
His way of speaking was rough, but what he said wasn’t incorrect.
It was a factory in 2017.
Although it was less than when I worked here before, robots were installed here and there.
The robots were fenced off with barriers, but new hires who didn’t know any better could accidentally — or out of curiosity — step inside. They had no idea what was what.
If you got caught in a robot’s range of motion?
It was an immediate industrial accident.
And it wasn’t just the robots. The same applied to everything else.
Being an old factory, there were many disorganized areas. In the worst case, just banging your shin on a pallet would hurt as much as getting kicked with soccer cleats.
New hires were literally no different from children. Rather than leaving them be and risking injury, it was better to scare them as Team Leader Jang Jiseung intended so they wouldn’t do anything reckless.
I nodded in agreement with his words, but—
‘Then why are you glaring at me?’
Team Leader Jang Jiseung walked toward me after seeing me grab Kim Ain by the back of her neck.
“Huh? Looks like we’ve even got someone dating here.”
“Pardon? Ah, we’re not dating.”
“Then why are you holding her neck so affectionately?”
“I was stopping a crazy wild boar before it charged.”
“Who was it trying to charge at?”
“Just… someone here and there.”
He seemed to have caught on from my tone that the person Kim Ain wanted to charge at was him.
He stood in front of me with furious eyes.
“Wow, the world really has changed. New hires are now talking back and joking in front of their team leader.”
“I was just telling the truth.”
“Hahaha. Unbelievable. Hey!!!”
He let out a lion-like roar and continued.
“Hey, new hire. What’s your name?”
“Min Juchan.”
“Alright. Does our Min Juchan know what we’re supposed to be looking for today?”
“Are you talking about the foreign matter?”
“Yes. You! Instead of stopping your crazy colleague from charging in, you should have asked what we’re looking for. So you’d know what you need to find from now on. Tsk tsk tsk. Why are there so many kids who don’t even know the basics of work?”
“Isn’t the problem that the factory lacks basics, not me?”
The atmosphere instantly turned to Siberia.
Team Leader Jang Jiseung’s face turned red and blue.
“What did you just say?”
“I think having foreign matter in the beverages in the first place is something that shouldn’t happen.”
“It’s not common, but it does happen occasionally.”
“This doesn’t seem like an occasional case. You even called us in.”
“Hey! Do you even know what got in there?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I can make a guess.”
“Hah. Really now. Fine. Go ahead and try.”
“What will you give me if I get it right?”
Team Leader Jang Jiseung made a dumbfounded face.
“Are you seriously trying to bet with me right now?”
“There’s nothing bad about it.”
“Fine. Sure. Let’s do it. If you guess correctly…”
“Please treat all of us trainees to a meat party today!”
There was a cafeteria at the training center. The problem was that the food was terrible.
After eating nothing but grass roots, we were on the verge of starting an Imo Incident.
Just thinking about a meat party made my mouth water.
Team Leader Jang Jiseung smirked. It wasn’t a kind smile. He had been planning to make an example out of one person to scare the rest, but now he looked like he’d caught a good one. He sneered.
“Alright. If our dear new hire guesses correctly, I’ll throw you all a meat party. So, what’s the foreign matter?”
We were arguing over something that wasn’t even that important.
But I needed this. This man was going to be my superior.
I decided to put him in his place before department assignments. For the sake of my future.
“The foreign matter we can find won’t be liquid. It’ll be something solid or in chunks.”
Jang Jiseung flinched. Satisfied, I continued.
“Given the nature of the automated beverage line, it’s impossible for something to accidentally get in. This wasn’t a mistake — it was intentional. Meaning a worker put something in.”
“Do you even realize how dangerous that statement is? If the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety comes in, we’ll have to write an explanation report immediately.”
“If it was truly a mistake, the entire process would need to be changed to prevent foreign matter from entering. If that’s the case, there’s no reason for us to be here.”
“……Keep talking.”
“Continuing, that means one of the workers put something into the beverage cans. In my opinion, there’s only one possibility. During the hot water cleaning process, someone put something in to warm it up for eating.”
No more riddles. I decided to give the correct answer.
“Isn’t it an egg?”
It was one of the dumbest incidents that ever happened at Sekyung Foods.
A worker had put eggs into the can-washing hot water to boil them, then forgot about them and went to the bathroom. The automated line quickly pushed the cans containing the eggs forward, and that’s why we were called in.
It was something that couldn’t happen in a new factory, but this was an old factory with a couple of outdated lines.
It was so ridiculously stupid that I never forgot it, so I gave the answer straight away.
Team Leader Jang Jiseung looked at me like he’d seen a ghost.
“How…?”
“Looks like my guess was right.”
“Hahaha…… HR Manager. Did you tell him?”
“No, sir. I didn’t know either.”
“Look at this guy. You’re an interesting one. How did you know?”
“My uncle used to work at a beverage company. I heard something similar happened there before, so I made a guess.”
“Where did your uncle work?”
“Do I really need to tell you that?”
He didn’t like long conversations. As expected, he didn’t ask any more.
“Yeah, you don’t need to. Hahaha. Fine! I lost the bet. HR Manager!”
“Yes.”
“Here, take this card. Buy these kids some meat with it.”
It was a familiar-looking card. A corporate card.
Jang Jiseung handed over the card, but Assistant Manager Lee Inkyu’s face darkened.
There was a decent amount of company dinner budget saved up on that card. It must hurt to see it fly away. Especially since they wouldn’t be able to go to karaoke now.
I, on the other hand, was happy. I was glad we wouldn’t have to suffer through one of those awkward company dinners where only the seniors enjoyed themselves.
“Alright. Now go find it! Lee Inkyu, lead the kids.”
“Yes, understood.”
After handing over the card, Team Leader Jang Jiseung turned around.
Assistant Manager Lee Inkyu sighed and stood in front of us.
“Wait a moment.”
I stopped the two of them.
The bet wasn’t over yet.
Since we were already using the corporate card, I might as well push for more.
“If we find it within one hour, could you let us rest without any more training for the day and treat us to beef instead of pork for dinner?”
Jang Jiseung whipped back around.
He glared at me again.
“This kid’s really pushing it now. Hey!!!”
“How much money does the factory lose if it stops for a day? We’re saving you that money. Giving beef to thirty of us is actually cheap.”
“What if you can’t find it?”
“I’ll take full responsibility for the loss of all the beverages over there.”
“Responsibility? A new hire taking responsibility?”
It was definitely crossing the line.
But I wanted to. In my previous life, these people had worked me like a slave just because I was young and a newbie.
The memories made me act aggressively.
“Yes. I’ll take full responsibility for the entire loss amount.”
My sudden outburst left my fellow trainees, the HR Manager, and Assistant Manager Lee Inkyu pale with shock.
I was probably the first one to charge at him this hard.
However, Jang Jiseung laughed.
“Ahahaha! Good, good! You’re still better than those soft, pale bastards behind you. Fine. If you find it within one hour, I’ll talk to the factory director and bring another card. I’ll buy everyone beef.”
“Great. Guys! The team leader said he’s buying us beef!”
- Waaaaah~~~
A weak cheer rang out.
Because if we failed, we were fucked.
But it didn’t matter.
In my previous life, the person who found the beverage cans with eggs in them…
Was me.