The Chairman Who Wants to Play and Eat

Chapter 40. What to do? You just do it.

I got promoted.

‘Ha, no wonder I had such a restless dream.’

As expected.

It goes without saying that I hadn’t actually been promoted to chairman like in my dream; I had merely moved up one rank from an intern to a supervisor after shedding the intern label.

If there was one uncomfortable point,

it was that the appointment ceremony was ‘needlessly’ held in the chairman’s office.

So,

“Mr. Sang-ki has consistently led by example, greatly contributing to the unity and development of the organization, and has become a role model for all employees. Therefore, we hereby commend and promote him. Im Doo-won, CEO of Seonghyeon Electronics Co., Ltd.”

I suddenly found myself called upon to read the commendation and appointment letter in front of CEO Im.

Formally, he was the one with the authority.

We shook hands.

“Congratulations. I look forward to working well with you, Supervisor Hyun Sang-yoon.”

“Thank you, sir. Those words should be mine.”

That wasn’t all.

Could they really just hand me a single piece of paper as an appointment letter? The chairman was watching from behind, after all.

So, they had prepared a grand plaque and a bouquet of flowers as well.

It was Assistant Manager Lee Beom-seok who handed them to me.

Afterward, we all took a cozy commemorative photo together.

“Smile! Kimchi!”

Click—

At first, I wondered if it was really necessary to go this far.

However, seeing even my grandfather, who rarely shows his emotions, smiling broadly made me think it might be worth it.

Looking at the promotion itself, it was a promotion I wasn’t particularly keen on.

There was one reason for that.

‘It’s uncomfortable.’

The fact that I was promoted after just a little over half a year of internship might raise concerns among other employees that it was a privilege granted by the chairman’s family.

But more than that, this promotion felt like some sort of device to coerce me and keep me tied to the company.

Ah, so maybe it’s both?

In any case,

Fortunately, no one in the company viewed it as a privilege.

I received heartfelt congratulations everywhere I went.

“Congratulations on your promotion.”

“Mr. Hyun, or should I say now, Supervisor Hyun, you’ve finally taken off your intern badge! Truly, congratulations.”

It became more uncomfortable as the days went by.

If anything, it was a relief that I had fewer reasons to go to the office with the exams coming up soon.

Ah, and,

the most important celebration for the promotion was held all at once with everyone from the old semiconductor task force and the current computer communications task force.

We ate and drank with great enthusiasm.

“Manager So, you worked hard, but how could you not come here?”

“How is it, young master? You went to America, right? Does it look fun? If it does, I might apply for the second half of the year too.”

Everyone was lively, laughing and chatting.

Time passed, and before I knew it, it was the night before the midterm exams.

“Young master!”

The next morning’s exam was Constitutional Law, and I was still engrossed in programming studies late into the night.

As I stepped out to stretch my back, Assistant Lee was waiting for me.

“No matter how much of a genius you are, you still need to study for the exam the next day.”

He followed me into the room and said.

“But when did you start being here?”

“Well, I always tutored you before the exams…”

“Tutored?”

I scoffed.

“Don’t you think it sounds a bit strange, even after saying it yourself?”

“…It’s because this is my job.”

He scratched his head, at a loss for words.

Well, he must realize that it now feels odd to say he tutored someone who aced the first round of the bar exam right after the first semester of freshman year.

“So is that why you only do computer work?”

He asked, looking at the monitor screen.

“I’m studying programming. It’s fun.”

Being from the liberal arts background, he seemed overwhelmed by the black and blue dots on the Hercules monitor.

“What are you doing right now?”

“I’m practicing making something called a DOS shell.”

“Shell, you say?”

I explained it step by step.

Starting with the operating system.

The X-DOS I bought from Bill Gates in the U.S. was further improved by Seonghyeon Electronics and renamed SH-DOS.

SH, of course, stands for Seonghyeon.

The DOS installed on my workstation is that very one.

However, the prompt interface, which requires knowing all the commands to use, only became more inconvenient the more I used it.

‘Isn’t there a way to make this easier?’

So, I created it. The DOS shell.

In simple terms, it’s a utility program that makes file management much more convenient.

“Take a look for yourself.”

I demonstrated it in front of Assistant Lee Beom-seok.

“You can navigate to the desired location just by moving the keyboard arrow keys, without having to type out each directory name. It’s intuitive and looks convenient, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

“I named it SH-DIR.”

“Ah, yes.”

He continued to respond absentmindedly.

He seemed to have no idea what I was talking about.

Still,

“Even if I don’t fully understand, I think it would be easier to learn than a screen filled with just letters if you asked me to do something on the computer right now.”

His ability to infer was impressive. He was indeed a graduate of our Korean university.

I encouraged him.

“Why don’t you learn a bit about computers too, Assistant?”

“Me? My mind is set in its ways; how could I learn now?”

“I’ve already distributed this SH-DIR across all the computers in the secretary’s office. I’ll copy one for you too, so you can learn. Got it?”

Assistant Lee, who had come for tutoring, looked like he had just been handed an extra burden.

I added,

“Learning is something you do until you die.”

“I’m sorry. With you saying that, how could I possibly argue back?”

He scratched his head again.

“Then how on earth do you do this? Haven’t you just started?”

“How do I do it? I just do it.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Why don’t you head home? I’ll stay a bit longer and then get some sleep.”

“Yes!”

The last response was a bit louder.

*

America.

After returning home and starting work again, Stephen Jackson had to endure a bout of homesickness for a while.

The brief visit to Korea had completely captured his heart.

Who would have thought,

‘That it would be more than the countries I visited in my youth, like India and Tibet.’

He thought to himself.

It was all because of one person.

A friend who had been etched deepest in his heart the moment he saw him. It was Hyun-sang Yoon, whom he met when he visited Seong-hyun.

In an instant, he realized.

This person is of the same kind as me.

A person who has embraced the creator’s fate of always being ahead of others through innovation and destruction.

“Please study programming. It’s a skill that will be essential for the future that’s coming. I believe leaders should know even more.”

And so he unconsciously encouraged him.

Even though he himself didn’t know how to do it.

“It doesn’t matter if it works out or not. Our Apple engineers have dedicated their lives to it, and how could a single suggestion make it happen?”

It was then.

“Stephen, Stephen!”

James Curley, whom he had disparaged as a sugar-water salesman, burst through the door.

“James, what’s wrong? What’s the matter this time?”

“Stephen. It’s about BisCalc, you know? Our powerful bundle program for Apple 2.”

“So, what about BisCalc?”

“It’s just that the developers said they can’t offer an exclusive license at such a low price for the new Apple computer lineup.”

Jackson jumped to his feet.

Of course, the new lineup had to include BizCalc.

“Why? What’s the reason?”

James replied.

“I think they believe they’ve been losing out by offering it at such a low price until now. They’re saying that the new version of BizCalc should be priced at least three times higher. What should we do? Could you go and talk to Steven?”

At that moment, in Korea.

The exam was already at its midpoint.

The next day was the corporate law exam. So, I was sitting in front of my computer, engrossed in programming once again.

There were so many things I wanted to do.

“I’ve created SH-DIR, so what should I try making next for practice?”

Jackson was right.

The computer was a machine with endless possibilities.

Perhaps among those possibilities was the chance that my grandfather would scold me for neglecting my main work while I got lost in studying programming.

I needed something stronger.

They say you should row when the tide comes in.

“Next, a business program? Something like BizCalc?”

An idea popped into my head.

Tap, tap.

My fingers began to move busily over the keyboard. It goes without saying, but this wasn’t studying for the exam.

*

Time passed.

The midterm exams of the second semester were over.

Korea University Administration Building.

In the conference room, the deans of each college were gathering one by one. It was for the upcoming dean’s meeting.

The appointed time arrived.

“The president is entering.”

With the host’s words, President Cheon Jong-tae entered with a solemn expression and took his place in the center.

And,

“I hereby declare the meeting open. Please maintain silence.”

With a tap of the gavel, the meeting began.

“First, I will address the first agenda item.”

His mouth opened.

“This is what came up in the recent faculty meeting; it’s about the second round of the bar exam results. According to the data received from the Ministry of General Affairs, out of a total of 300 successful candidates, 112 are from Korea University…”

“I have an objection.”

Someone raised their hand.

“Dean Lee Jae-bong from the College of Engineering, please speak.”

“I don’t understand why a matter concerning the exam results, which are predominantly passed by law students, is being brought up in a meeting of deans.”

“Well, that’s because…”

Before President Cheon could explain, another hand was raised from the other side.

“This is Oh Seong-gwon from the College of Law. I will explain this on behalf of the president.”

“Please go ahead.”

“First of all, the notion that the bar exam is solely the domain of law students is a misconception. If you look at the materials provided, you’ll see that many students from other universities have also passed the bar exam. The College of Engineering has five successful candidates as well.”

“But the law school has over fifty.”

“That’s because it’s the bar exam. Wouldn’t it look a bit odd if only five students from the law school passed?”

At that remark, everyone chimed in.

President Cheon struck the gavel once more.

“Quiet, quiet.”

He said.

“This is a meeting, so please keep it down. The matter at hand is regarding scholarships. The Seonghyeon Foundation has proposed to cover part of the funding for the full scholarships awarded to the successful candidates. This is the first agenda item.”

Whispers filled the room.

“Why is a chaebol giving scholarships to bar exam passers?”

“Isn’t this just a blatant way of asking for favors?”

From noble mtl dot com

The voices were not loud.

And it was understandable, as the professors making those remarks were not free from the influence of chaebols themselves.

The president spoke.

“Has everyone had enough time to think? We will proceed to a vote.”

It was unanimous.

Just then, Dean Oh raised his hand.

“Mr. President, since we’re on the topic of Seonghyeon, I believe our College of Law should also say a word. It seems that the College of Engineering has been eyeing one of our first-year students, and I think we need to issue a warning.”

“Eyeing?”

This time, it was Dean Lee Jae-bong from the College of Engineering’s turn to scoff.

“Mr. Hyun Sang-yoon is speaking!”

“Why is Mr. Hyun Sang-yoon being mentioned?”

“Do you think I wouldn’t know that you’ve been buried in the engineering lab almost every day during this midterm exam period, except on the days of the tests?”

“Isn’t it surprising that the dean is tracking the movements of a single student so closely?”

“That’s not just one student.”

Dean Lee Jae-bong said.

“You’re mistaken, Dean Oh. It’s true that Hyun visits our computer science lab often, but that’s solely because of industry-academia collaboration. It’s not because he’s drooling over something.”

He even went so far as to say that it was unreasonable for a talented student in computer science to be stuck in the law school just because of his major.

“Just a major?”

At that remark, President Cheon couldn’t help but feel irritated.

“Dean!”

“Yes, President.”

“That statement is incorrect.”

“In what way do you mean?”

But President Cheon had his own convictions.

“I need to revisit the topic of the bar exam I mentioned earlier. One of our law professors once asked Hyun to create answers for the second exam questions as practice. He brought me those answers. Do you know what I did with them?”

“You’ll have to tell me to know, won’t you?”

“That’s exactly what I’m about to do, Dean.”

Ahem, President Cheon cleared his throat, seemingly displeased.

“The administration office separately obtained the answers from this year’s top bar exam candidate. Ah, this must not be disclosed externally, but anyway, I took both that answer sheet and Hyun’s answer sheet to some senior members of the legal community. I intended to ask them which one seemed like the real top candidate’s answer. It was a sort of blind test.”

The story was becoming increasingly intriguing.

“And?”

Dean Lee Jae-bong, curious, urged him to continue.

“17 to 3.”

“Pardon?”

“Out of twenty people, only three chose the other answer over Hyun’s.”

Everyone was taken aback. President Cheon spoke proudly.

“That just shows how remarkable this young man is. That’s what I’m saying.”

In that moment, Dean Lee Jae-bong was left speechless, and Dean Oh from the law school teasingly asked him,

“Are you now willing to acknowledge that it’s no longer just a matter of a major?”

“No, that’s not it.”

He had his own reasons to believe.

“I can’t show you because I can’t bring a computer here, but there’s a program called BizCalc among the business applications. It’s a powerful spreadsheet program that runs only on the Apple II.”

Of course, very few people here understood terms like BizCalc or spreadsheet.

But Dean Lee Jae-bong didn’t mind.

He continued his speech.

“There’s even a saying that the Apple II achieved unprecedented success worldwide all thanks to this one program. It’s killer content.”

“So? What does that matter?”

“Do you know what program was created by Hyun-gun while he was coming in and out of our lab during the exam period?”

He asserted one last time.

“Accel.”

“······?”

“It’s a program that’s much improved and faster than BizCalc, which was developed by experts in the United States. It’s a shame I can’t show it to you here.”

At that moment,

In the chairman’s office at Seonghyeon.

“Hmm, what’s going on?”

Chairman Hyun Byeong-geon furrowed his brow slightly while having a light conversation with Director Joo.

“What’s wrong, Chairman? Are you feeling unwell?”

“No, it’s not that serious, but I suddenly felt a chill run down my back, and I was wondering what was going on.”

“Should I call your doctor, Dr. Seol, right away?”

Chairman Hyun waved his hand.

“No need for that. I must have said something unnecessary.”

“You are the pillar of our Seonghyeon. If there’s even a slight issue with your health, you must get checked······.”

“Alright, I get it. Just leave it at that.”

He felt he had said something unnecessary.

‘What is this feeling? It feels like I’m forgetting something very important. It’s as if everyone wants to take down the pillar of our Seonghyeon, just like the saying goes.’

He was thinking that way.