Real Man

The senior instructor left his seat after giving them a stern warning: if they didn’t pass by midnight, they would face a penalty. 

At the same time, complaints started to leak out from here and there.

“This is crazy.”

“They might as well kill us.”

“I know, right?”

Yoo-hyun felt the same way.

He had to pass the first round in order to keep his promise with Chief Choi Kang-won.

But Yoo-hyun’s expression was not that serious.

It was just a cutline.

It was impossible for the new recruits who had not yet grasped each other’s abilities to write a great business plan on their first day.

It was already a challenge to come up with an idea in such a short time.

And what were the chances of finding a good idea among them?

Even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to concretize it.

The only thing they expected here was how well they could pretend.

They didn’t have time to gather concrete data, so the key was how plausible they could make their materials in a short period of time.

Yoo-hyun could easily do it by himself in just an hour.

Of course, he had no intention of doing so.

He judged that it would be enough to pass with just a little bit of meddling.

He used his break time to tell Kwon Se-jung his plan and returned to his seat.

At the same time, he saw Kang Chang-seok, who was leading the team meeting with a feverish enthusiasm.

“This assignment is…”

“…”

The team members were silent.

His characteristic mumbling at the end of his sentences was very annoying, but he could laugh it off.

Yoo-hyun, who was living a new life, was not a sensitive person who would get angry at such things.

Kang Chang-seok claimed that he was a self-proclaimed talent who had confidence in various fields, having worked for three years at Shinwha Electronics and experienced everything there was to experience.

Of course, this was not verified by anyone but himself.

He had some rough edges in his personality, but as long as he did his part in the middle, there seemed to be no big problem in getting along with him.

He also volunteered to do the presentation, so he thought there would be no big problem in passing at once if he just supported him from below.

But it took less than 10 minutes for Yoo-hyun to completely change his mind.

“What if we make a phone that can be used like a computer? We can make it search the internet and stuff.”

“That already exists. There’s mobile web, you know. Davin’s idea might work too. But the communication fee is so ridiculously high that no one uses it.”

With his ‘that already exists’ skill that he spat out from the beginning, Jeong Davin rolled his eyes back and forth and eventually leaned back his upper body that he had tilted forward.

Next was Oh Min-jae’s turn.

“It seems like it would be fine if the communication fee was cheaper. These days touch phones are coming out too. We can just press them with that.”

“Hey, Min-jae. Even if it’s cheaper, it’s too slow. I worked at Shinwha Electronics’ communication department before, you know. I know because I tried it. To use the internet freely enough, we have to wait at least 10 years.”

And then came his ‘I know because I tried it’ skill.

This magical skill cut off all the ideas that could be seeds.

It was 2007 now.

Next year, Hansung would release a phone that could do full-browsing on the internet.

And across the ocean, Apple had unveiled an iPhone that was called a computer in your hand.

He asked them to come up with ideas and then evaluated them one by one. 

He could give him some leeway for that, but the direction itself was completely wrong.

There was no way better ideas would come out like this.

His mouth twitched, but as soon as Yoo-hyun spoke, it seemed like it would be decided in that direction again, so he had no choice but to postpone it.

“A stick that lets you take pictures? Come on, that’s ridiculous. Why would people carry around such an inconvenient thing? They would only be embarrassed.”

“How can you wash without detergent? Can you live without eating rice? That’s nonsense.”

“A coffee machine? Have you seen the one in the lobby? What are you going to do with such a big thing at home? That’s nonsense too. Don’t you have any more creative ideas?”

“…”

With his ‘that’s nonsense’ skill that followed, the team members who had been throwing out ideas closed their mouths completely.

Yoo-hyun also lost his words.

It wasn’t just because of Kang Chang-seok, who was leading the idea meeting recklessly.

The team members also had a problem.

It wasn’t just because of the quality of their ideas.

There were actually some ideas that could be the basis for products that would be commercialized in the future.

But they should have tried to go further even if their ideas were rejected.

But they shut their mouths as soon as Kang Chang-seok said something.

Didn’t they know that if they did poorly here, they would all suffer?

They looked like they wanted to do well, but they seemed to be avoiding responsibility by blaming others.

If it had been under the old regime of Han Yu-hyun, this would never have happened.

They would have been too busy following his orders.

He thought it would be a hundred times better to do it alone.

‘Just clean them up?’

Yoo-hyun shook his head.

He could do it alone if it came to that, but that was going back to his wrong past.

Yoo-hyun once thought that his way was right.

He was very clear when he ordered them.

The deadline was tight, but the goal was clear too.

If they couldn’t do it, he did it himself.

Or he replaced them with other resources and got it done anyway.

His team always came in first, received many awards, and got recognized for their performance.

But,

-It’s suffocating to work under you, sir. I feel like I’ve become a robot that just does what I’m told, and I feel like I’m a stupid idiot who doesn’t know anything.

He realized it when he saw many of his team members quit later.

The moment he did everything by himself, the members were doomed to become obsolete.

He scolded and blamed them for not being able to do it, but he had to admit that he was the one who made them that way by trying to do everything by himself.

He didn’t want to do that anymore.

He wanted to help them so that they could do it themselves.

He wanted to check if that was really the right direction.

What should he do?

In this atmosphere, nothing would start properly.

It took a long time to select an idea, and even if they did, things wouldn’t go well under Kang Chang-seok’s regime.

He needed to make the team members feel that it was their own idea.

He had to make them move on their own.

So?

Yoo-hyun quickly scanned the team members and opened his mouth.

“The instructor is from the electronic appliance division, right? How about we focus our ideas on that area?”

He barely finished his sentence and looked at Kang Chang-seok.

His blinking stopped and his shoulders rose, and at the same time, his Adam’s apple moved. 

In other words, just before Kang Chang-seok was about to speak, Yoo-hyun stole the timing and continued.

“Of course, I know this is nothing new. We need a concrete idea. That’s what Chang-seok has been insisting on all this time. Right?”

“Uh, yes…”

He stole the timing right before he was about to speak, and then preempted what he was going to say.

And he even subtly praised him, so Kang Chang-seok had no choice but to hesitate.

Yoo-hyun was not the one who waited for his next words.

“What I thought was to revive Min-jae’s idea of a one-piece computer with a design.”

“That…”

“To be honest, I agree with Chang-seok’s opinion that a one-piece computer would be too expensive for people to buy if they made it thinner. It’s a good opinion. But there is a way.”

He didn’t really agree.

He deliberately threw a bait that he could tackle and cut it off sharply when he bit it.

It was 2007. 

Apple’s one-piece computer was gaining popularity among a few people.

The operating system was different and the cost-effectiveness was poor, but it was used as an interior decoration in places like cafes because of its luxurious design.

And this would become a big trend later.

What mattered was not whether it was right or wrong.

What mattered was how convincing it was.

And how well the ideas they had thrown out were combined.

No one came here to play.

Everyone came here wanting to contribute something.

They all wanted to do well, come in first, and be at the center of it all.

It was natural that Kang Chang-seok’s eyebrows twitched as the atmosphere heated up.

He must have felt that he was being ignored.

He should have shut up at this point, but he seemed to be way below normal standards when he watched him.

He needed to be appeased at this point.

Did he have to do this much?

He used to be someone who didn’t have to care about anyone but the chairman, but now he had no choice.

He felt ashamed that he had to rub his hands even for a brat who ran around without knowing his place, but what could he do?

“In my opinion, I wish we could try out an idea as soon as possible like Chang-seok said earlier. I think it wouldn’t be bad to change the idea after testing it once today. Actually…”

That wasn’t what Kang Chang-seok meant, but it wasn’t very important now.

The important thing was that he couldn’t say anything else in this situation.

Thanks to that, the team members’ mood got better.

They must have pictured what kind of concept it was as soon as they said their ideas.

They could also think of it as their own idea since they all contributed a spoonful.

He had done this much for them, so if they didn’t move, Yoo-hyun would step in at the end.

He looked at Kang Chang-seok when everyone’s eyes were focused on him.

If he resisted now, he would be ignoring the first-place team and also become a coward.

And he would also go against the instructor’s opinion, so Kang Chang-seok had nothing to say.

“Ugh…”

“Let’s make some good materials so that the presenter can do well.”

And with one more praise, he finally nodded his head.

Anyway, the atmosphere was set.

They had some ideas for an all-in-one computer with a cute character design.

Jeong Davin seemed excited about drawing some sketches.

Choi Seul-gi suggested making the design easy to change by using different clothes for the characters.

Oh Min-jae mentioned touch phones as an inspiration for the interface.

Yoo-hyun thought it would be enough to pass with this level of creativity and plausibility.