My call with Chu Min-jeong lasted until sunrise.
It felt like barely an hour had passed, but the sun was already up before I knew it.
[Oh? It's already this late. I need to get ready for work.]
"Don't go in today—just work from home. I'll inform your department."
[No, it's fine! I should still go in. I'll hang up now.]
I could hear a commotion on the other end of the phone as she hurried to get ready.
I quietly pressed the end call button.
The moment I did, a wave of exhaustion crashed over me.
"Seven hours on the phone… unbelievable."
With no sleep, I had no choice but to head straight to work.
I caught a few minutes of sleep in the car, but it wasn't enough.
Once at the office, I collapsed onto my desk for a quick nap.
"Vice Chairman, are you alright? Should I call a doctor? I can take you to the hospital right now!"
"No need to make a fuss. I just didn't sleep well last night."
"Then why not leave early today? Sleeping at your desk won't help. I could book a hotel nearby—"
"No need. I'll rest after work. Just get me a coffee."
A dose of caffeine in my bloodstream jolted me awake.
Then, I went back to scanning personnel files, searching for the perfect candidate.
I kept clicking through profiles, my eyes burning with dryness.
And then—
"Found one!"
I had finally discovered the talent I'd been searching for.
An executive-level employee, no less.
I immediately summoned my chief of planning and asked to arrange a meeting.
"Bring me Seo Jeong-jun, the Senior Financial Strategy Advisor."
"Understood. I'll call him now."
As the chief made the call, I turned to him with a few questions.
"He's only in his early 30s, yet he's already an executive?"
"He used to work at Samsung Group. He's incredibly sharp—our chairman personally recruited him."
"I can't believe I didn't know about him."
The chief hesitated before adding, "To be honest… he doesn't quite fit in."
A polite way of saying he was on the verge of quitting.
At 34, already an executive? No wonder he was getting side-eyed.
Despite Taewoo Group's push for innovation, its corporate culture was still steeped in hierarchy.
Even if you were right, all it took was one phrase to shut you down—
"How old are you, anyway?"
And with that, logic no longer mattered.
It was no surprise that he wanted to leave.
Still, I had to acknowledge my grandfather's sharp eye for talent once again.
Unlike me, he didn't have the ability to see a person's true potential, yet he had managed to recruit someone with S-tier business acumen.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Seo Jeong-jun, Senior Financial Strategy Advisor."
"Welcome. Please, have a seat."
Seo Jeong-jun stepped into the Vice Chairman's office, and I gestured for him to take a comfortable seat.
"This is our first time speaking, isn't it?"
"Yes. I've seen you from a distance, but this is our first conversation."
A completely new face—or so I thought.
Yet, there was something eerily familiar about him.
Was it from this life? Or had I seen him before my regression?
Determined to find the answer, I kept the conversation going.
"It must have been tough. Climbing to an executive position at such a young age invites jealousy and resentment. I know exactly how that feels."
"You, Vice Chairman? I can't imagine it."
"Even as the Chairman's grandson, becoming an executive in my early 20s came with its fair share of scrutiny."
"But unlike you, Vice Chairman, I don't have a powerful family backing me."
His disillusionment was clear.
I had finally found an S-tier talent, yet he was already halfway out the door.
I couldn't just let him go.
"Then let me be your backing from now on."
"I appreciate the offer, but I'm afraid I must decline. Please accept this."
Seo Jeong-jun suddenly pulled an envelope from his inner pocket.
The bold letters on the front read:
"Resignation Letter."
This wasn't good.
It was clear—he had no intention of staying.
"Are you planning to start your own business?"
"Yes. I'm venturing into biotech. South Korea has thriving industries like manufacturing, but biotech remains largely untapped."
And just like that—
It all came back to me.
The moment he mentioned biotech, I finally remembered who he was.
Before my regression, he founded the company that became the #1 market-cap biotech firm on KOSDAQ.
And he had been right here, within Taewoo Group all along.
It was frustrating to think that Taewoo Group couldn't hold on to someone with such exceptional talent.
"It seems you've already made up your mind. Even if I were to offer you a higher position and a bigger salary, I doubt it would change anything."
"I'm sorry. If I had met you earlier, perhaps my decision would have been different. But I've already laid out all my plans, and I have colleagues waiting for me. I have to leave."
A pioneer in the untapped biotech industry.
The man who would one day build a company into a corporate giant.
I couldn't just let him walk away.
"So you've already gathered your team. That means there's no point in trying to persuade you otherwise. But having colleagues alone isn't enough to start a business. Have you secured investors as well?"
"...I haven't finalized an investment plan yet. My first step is to travel to various countries, meet biotech experts, and conduct interviews before I proceed with funding."
"Traveling to multiple countries will cost you billions of won just in airfare. Within a year, you could burn through all your savings and severance pay."
"It doesn't matter. I have absolute confidence that I will succeed in the biotech industry!"
His confidence wasn't arrogance.
And I knew better than anyone just how successful he would become.
"I have no doubt that you will succeed, Seo Jeong-jun. I just feel bad thinking about the struggles you'll have to endure along the way. That's why I'd like to make you an offer."
"What kind of offer?"
"Taewoo Group will invest in your future company. If you find corporate investment burdensome, I'm willing to invest personally."
"But I haven't even established the company yet."
"I'm not investing in a company. I'm investing in you, Seo Jeong-jun."
"That's too much money!"
If anything, it was far too little.
The biotech company he would build would eventually be worth 25 trillion won.
40% of that would be 10 trillion won, meaning I'd be making a 1,000x return on a mere 10 billion won investment.
"Discuss it thoroughly with your team before making a decision. And to be clear, my stake in the company will always support you. I'm willing to include that in the contract."
"Can you give me a week to think about it?"
"I can give you a month if you need it. I won't process your resignation in the meantime. You don't even have to come to the office—I'll mark it as a business trip so you can take your time and decide carefully."
"Thank you. Just knowing that someone believes in me like this… it means the world."
Seo Jeong-jun bowed several times to express his gratitude.
I maintained my smile until the very end, making sure to leave a positive impression.
"I never imagined someone like him would be in Taewoo Group."
Because of my return to the past, Seo Jeong-jun's life had also changed slightly.
In my previous life, Taewoo Group collapsed during the foreign exchange crisis. He must have left the company around that time.
But this time, my intervention ensured that Taewoo Group didn't just survive—it became stronger than ever. And as a result, Seo Jeong-jun had remained here a few years longer.
"Call the Planning Director."
Through my secretary, I summoned the Planning Director to my office.
When he arrived, I immediately asked for details about why Seo Jeong-jun was leaving the company.
"Do you know who was behind making Seo Jeong-jun's time here difficult?"
"I wouldn't say he was harassed, but there was someone he frequently clashed with—Executive Director Ahn Sang-su from the Management Support Department."
"Hold on a moment."
I pulled up Ahn Sang-su's personnel file.
On the surface, he was presented as a highly capable individual—but upon closer inspection, it was clear that his rise was due more to politics than actual ability.
Of course, he wasn't completely incompetent.
But he was nowhere near Seo Jeong-jun's level.
"Taewoo Group still has a long way to go. Young talents are being pushed out just because of their age. In the end, they leave the company altogether."
"All companies are like that. It's a pyramid structure—if you want to climb to the top, you have to outcompete others."
"If the competition was fair, that would be fine. But the problem is when people use politics and factions to crush talent before it even has a chance to bloom."
"Still, things have improved since you took over, Vice Chairman. There are fewer political battles now, and factions can't openly operate like they used to."
No matter how many times you pull out weeds, new ones always grow.
That's why constant weeding was necessary for Taewoo Group to truly evolve.
"Bring me the names of those who sided with Ahn Sang-su and helped push Seo Jeong-jun out."
"I'll have the list ready before work tomorrow. But… will there be disciplinary action?"
"We can't impose penalties without just cause. That's why I plan to reward them instead."
"Reward…?"
"A promotion and a department transfer. Who would complain about that?"
"By 'department transfer'… do you mean overseas assignments?"
"Since Grandfather is so invested in Vietnam, why not send them there as corporate heads? No executive would dare refuse an assignment where the Chairman himself resides."
Taewoo Group had been pouring resources into expanding into Vietnam.
With the Chairman—my grandfather—personally residing there, no one could afford to take Vietnam lightly.
However, Vietnam was vast, and some regions were so remote that even cars struggled to pass through.
"I'll ensure there's no room for complaints."
"Also, we need to start executive training. Make it clear that those who choose politics over competition to secure their positions will be sent to places where competition is no longer necessary."
"Understood. I'll make sure this serves as a lesson so that such behavior doesn't happen again."
My mind was a tangled mess.
I had spent years trying to reform Taewoo Group, but it still hadn't changed significantly.
Was Grandfather right? Did I really need to become Chairman?
Would I have to sweep out the self-serving executives all at once for the company to truly change?
But was the problem really the people?
No—it was the system itself.
Once someone reached an executive position, they inevitably became selfish in order to protect their seat.
Radically overhauling this structure was nearly impossible—the only option was to gradually shift the company's culture, step by step.