Série: The All-Rounder Employee Becomes a Legend
Título: The All-Rounder Employee Becomes a Legend Chapter 1
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01: The All-Rounder Employee Becomes a Legend
Kim Tae-seok, a 25-year-old Dirt Spoon from South Korea, currently working as a day laborer, received a text message.
『Thank you for applying to the Jinseong Group 2018 first-half recruitment for new general staff. Despite your excellent qualifications confirmed through the selection process, we regret to inform you that you have not been accepted due to the limited number of positions. We sincerely wish you the best in your future job search.
- Sincerely, The Jinseong Group Human Resources Development Team-』
‘Rejected again…?’
Just then, a nagging voice called out.
“Hey! Kid! You slacking off again?”
“Ah, sir, I’ve already finished.”
“Finished what? Don’t lie to me… oh, you’re not lying?”
The paint was applied flawlessly.
The entire wall looked pristine, with no spots painted too thickly.
The place where Kim Tae-seok worked.
The Elseong Group Engineering new construction site.
His job was painting.
Applying paint.
“Cheol-seong, sir, are you finished with your part?”
“Ah, not even close, Punk. How are you so good with only a year of experience?”
“I’ve been doing this since right after high school. I told you that when we were drinking.”
“Oh, did you? My mind’s a bit hazy.”
“Come on, it’s not that your mind is hazy, it’s because you get blackout drunk every time, isn’t it?”
“You little brat! That’s no way to talk to your elder, punk.”
“Hehe, sir, why don’t you take a smoke break? I’ll finish up.”
Kim Tae-seok picked up the paint tray with its roller and climbed the ladder.
With a flick of his wrist, the roller began to make a satisfying *swish-swish* sound, leaving behind a perfectly coated white wall in its wake.
Tae-seok could finish in one hour what took others three.
But the problem was?
“Ack!”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. I’m fine, sir.”
He claimed he was fine, but Tae-seok was already clutching his lower back.
His chronic ailment is back pain.
It had persisted for over six months after he’d pulled it while lifting a sandwich panel.
‘The painkillers are wearing off already…’
He was at a point where he couldn’t work without them.
His doctor told him to quit immediately, but he couldn’t.
Thinking of his mother in the hospital, he couldn’t afford to take a single day off.
He wanted a respectable job and sent out applications everywhere, but Tae-seok, who had graduated through the academic credit bank system via the National Institute for Lifelong Education, had never once passed the document screening stage.
Of course, it was also because all the positions Tae-seok applied for were in administration.
But he felt he couldn’t survive otherwise.
A chronic herniated disc.
He couldn’t do physical labor.
He himself knew all too well how irresponsible it was to keep going on painkillers.
5 PM. The day’s work was done.
“Cheol-seong, you carry Tae-seok’s stuff.”
“Team Leader?”
“Didn’t you hear me? Tae-seok did your work for you today. So you carry it.”
“Aish, Team Leader, you always play favorites with Tae-seok.”
“You just try pulling your own weight for once. Of course, I’d like you then. Now stop whining and carry it!”
“Yeees, yeees, I get it.”
The equipment was loaded onto the bed of a blue truck.
Paint cans and rollers, a broom, and a mop.
“Tae-seok, is your back okay?”
“Yes. Thanks to your consideration, I’m managing.”
“No thoughts of switching back to carpentry?”
“…That might be difficult. Even now… to be honest, it’s quite….”
“Right. Understood.”
The Team Leader nodded at Tae-seok’s words and said.
“Alright, everyone! Head home if you're heading home, stay if you're up for a drink. Mr. Kim, what about you?”
“Ah, I’ve got plans with the wife today.”
“Then, Mr. Kim, you head on home. Cheol-seong! You're in for a drink, right?”
“Of course, Team Leader! Have you ever seen me miss a drinking session?”
“Tae-seok, what about you?”
“…I think I need to go to the hospital. I’m out of medicine…”
“Alright. Understood. Go on.”
After work, Kim Tae-seok immediately hailed a taxi.
He was still in his work clothes.
Clothes stained with paint.
But if he didn’t leave right now, in these clothes, the clinic would close.
6 PM, Kim Han-ul Orthopedics.
The nurse frowned upon seeing Tae-seok, but when their eyes met, she put on a professional face and spoke.
“Are you here to check in? I’ll need your ID card, please.”
“Yes.”
The consultation began, and the doctor pressed here and there on Tae-seok’s back.
“Ugh-aaaaaah!”
“Looks like a nerve is protruding between the L5 and S1. This is serious. You can’t work anymore.”
“…Doctor, if I don’t do this work, I can’t eat.”
“I told you to look for other work. Tae-seok, you Punk, do you want to end up like your father?”
He knew what the doctor meant.
His father had died 13 years ago in a fall at a construction site.
The compensation… a mere 25 million won.
Because it was a subcontractor, the company’s president immediately closed the business and vanished without a trace. The primary contractor blamed the subcontractor.
Thankfully, the 25 million won was what they managed to get with the help of a civic group.
It was a hopelessly insufficient amount to live on, but for the two of them who had nothing, it was like the water of life.
Tae-seok said.
“No, I don’t.”
“Then quit right now. What are you going to do if your mother finds out about this?”
“……”
“Think again. Taking painkillers is just a temporary fix. It does absolutely nothing to help your herniated disc!”
“I understand. I’ve been looking hard for a job lately. But there aren’t many places that pay as well as this line of work….”
“I’m speechless. You! If you’re going to keep acting like this, don’t ever come back to my clinic again. Understand?”
“Sir….”
Kim Han-ul shouted at the nurse.
“Nurse Kim, show this patient out.”
“What?”
“I said show him out!”
“But I haven’t received payment for the consultation yet.”
“Don’t take it. I told him not to come back! Hey! Kim Tae-seok! If you’re going to keep doing manual labor, don’t come back here. Understand?”
“……I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”
After Kim Tae-seok left….
The doctor, Kim Han-ul, accessed his online banking on his smartphone.
And initiated a wire transfer.
Amount Transferred: 2,000,000 won.
Recipient: Kang Hye-jeong
Sender: Kim Tae-seok
The recipient was Kim Tae-seok’s mother. The woman he had once loved.
After completing the transfer with the sender’s name changed, he tried to brush off his aching heart.
‘Hye-jeong, why did you go to that man, only to live so unhappily? You can be so foolish.’
With a bitter expression, the orthopedic specialist Kim Han-ul shook his head and spoke to the nurse.
"Well, let's call it a day.”
“Yes, Doctor!”
* * *
That evening, Tae-seok went home and changed his clothes.
Into a sleek, tailored suit.
A suit he’d had custom-made at a local tailor shop for 150,000 won.
Of course, he wore this suit for his mother.
The hospital has a 6-person room.
“Mom, I’m here.”
“Oh, my son is here? You must be busy. Why did you come?”
“I’m not busy. Mom, are you in a lot of pain?”
“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt as much as my son worries it does.”
“……”
His mother’s head was bald.
Her hair had begun to fall out one by one due to chemotherapy, and as if displeased by it, she had shaved it all off at once.
‘Stay strong, Mom.’
She asked how her son was doing.
“So. Is your work hard?”
“No, it’s not bad. The seniors at the company treat me well.”
A white lie.
But Tae-seok’s reality was that he could never tell her he worked on a construction site.
After losing his father on one, his mother was dead set against Tae-seok working at a construction site.
But having neither excelled in his studies nor learned any particular skills, the only thing Tae-seok could do was physical labor.
He had endured it for years, hoping he could pay off his mother’s debts and that their lives would slowly get better.
His mother believed he worked at a small construction company, and the site Director had played along, telling her he only did office work. But keeping up the lie was becoming difficult.
“Son….”
“Yes?”
“Why did you send the money?”
“Money?”
“Don’t play dumb. Two million won was deposited today.”
Tae-seok hid his expression and thought.
‘Who was it? The Director? The Team Leader? Or maybe… Mr. Kim Han-ul?’
Seeing his mother’s bright smile, he felt better.
“Hehe, looks like Mom’s in a good mood today.”
“Of course. My son is working so hard, so his mom has to beat this illness.”
But perhaps due to the chemotherapy, she quickly grew tired, and her eyes began to flutter shut.
“You’re tired, aren’t you? Lie down, Mom.”
“Ah, I’ve been so tired lately. My son came all this way, I feel so bad.”
“It’s okay. I’ll stay here with you today, so get some rest, and we can talk.”
“Okay. Let’s do that.”
Tae-seok pulled out the cot from under his mother's bed.
He spread a blue blanket over it and sat down.
After confirming his mother had closed her eyes, he leaned his head against the side of her hospital bed.
His body was exhausted from working all day, and sleepiness washed over him.
He closed his eyes and whispered to his mother in his heart.
‘Please, beat this illness. So our family can live happily.’
Ten minutes after Tae-seok closed his eyes.
His mother opened hers.
She knew why her son was so exhausted.
She looked at her son, tears streaming down her face.
Her foolish son.
Putting on an act, working at a construction site for her sake.
She had known from the very beginning what kind of work her son was doing.
The smell her husband carried when he was alive.
That same grimy smell, ingrained in men who work at construction sites, now clung to her son.
She covered her son with a blanket and thought.
‘My son! Don't try to carry it all on your own. Mom will beat this illness, I promise. I'm always so grateful. You know how I feel, don't you?’
Kang Hye-jeong bit her lip hard.
And she resolved.
That she would fight this illness and win, no matter what. And that she would make a spectacular recovery and live a good life, for all to see.
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