Episode 6: The Welfare Program
Returning to Daehan Corporation was strange. The building was the same—the grey hallways, the fluorescent lights, the smell of stale coffee—but everything else had changed.
Seo‑ah walked through the lobby with her head high, a badge that said "Strategic Consultant" clipped to her blazer. People whispered as she passed. Some pointed. One woman she had worked with for three years stopped her in the elevator.
"Yoon Seo‑ah," she said, her voice low. "You're the one who took down Director Cha."
"I was part of it," Seo‑ah said.
"Everyone thought you were crazy. Pouring coffee on your laptop." The woman shook her head. "Now they're calling you a hero."
Seo‑ah didn't feel like a hero. She felt like someone who had finally stopped being afraid.
Her project was simple: rebuild the employee welfare program from scratch. Director Cha had slashed it year after year, diverting funds to his own projects. There was no budget for mental health support, no overtime compensation, no childcare assistance. The people who worked the hardest were punished the most.
Ju‑hyuk had given her carte blanche to design the new program. But she quickly realized that the problem wasn't just money—it was culture.
Her first proposal was rejected by the interim CEO. "Too expensive," he said. "We're in a transitional period."
Her second proposal was rejected. "We need to focus on profits, not perks."
Her third proposal—a scaled‑down version that still addressed the core issues—was put on hold indefinitely.
Seo‑ah sat in her office, staring at the rejection emails, and felt the old frustration building. The old Seo‑ah would have accepted it. The old Seo‑ah would have gone back to her desk and kept her head down.
But the old Seo‑ah was dead.
She walked into the interim CEO's office without knocking.
"My proposals keep getting rejected," she said.
The CEO, a man named Park who had been Director Cha's deputy, looked up with annoyance. "Ms. Yoon, this is highly irregular—"
"You rejected the first proposal because it was too expensive. But the cost of doing nothing is higher. Turnover in the last year has increased by 40%. Recruitment costs are up 25%. And the lawsuits—there are three active lawsuits from former employees regarding unpaid overtime. All of which would have been prevented if the welfare program was functional."
She pulled out a folder and dropped it on his desk.
"This is a cost‑benefit analysis showing that implementing my full proposal would save the company 2.3 billion won over the next three years. If you reject it again, I will present this analysis to the board myself."
Park's face reddened. "You're a consultant. You don't have the authority—"
"I have the authority of someone who isn't afraid to pour coffee on a laptop." She smiled. "Do we have an understanding?"
He stared at her for a long moment. Then he picked up the folder.
"I'll review it," he said quietly.
She nodded and walked out.
The counter in her vision flickered: OBSERVING pulsed once, gold, then settled back to grey.
Someone was watching. She didn't care.