WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Potter

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regressed Assistant Manager Kim Can Read Minds ◈

Chapter 6

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The sting of asking for someone’s number for the first time and failing was worse than I’d expected.

The next morning, even after I’d sobered up, I lay in bed staring at the pamphlet Han Ara had given me.

[Weekend Beginner Barista Class.]

[Instructor: Han Ara.]

I couldn’t tell whether asking me to call the café meant I should sign up for the class or that I could call Ara for personal reasons.

Since I’d heard Ara’s thoughts, I knew it hadn’t been a rejection.

But apparently, being able to hear people’s thoughts didn’t make you good at dating.

‘We really hit it off, though.’

“Seongjun, come and eat.”

Mom’s voice came through the bedroom door.

I put the pamphlet in my desk drawer and went out to the living room.

Suyeon had a sketchbook open on the dining table and was painting.

My much younger sister was in her second year of high school.

People with umbrellas walked down an alley beneath orange streetlights.

Each time her brush moved across the paper, it left another blue streak of rain.

She must have been too focused on painting to notice the blue paint on the cuff of her school uniform.

“That’s the street outside our house.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s good.”

Suyeon stopped her brush and looked up.

“What’s with the compliment? You’re always telling me off for doing nothing but painting.”

“That’s because it’s all you do. Study a little. You won’t get into the art college you want with bad grades.”

“I’m getting in through the practical exam, you know.”

I ruffled my prickly little sister’s hair.

“Mom! Seongjun’s picking on me!”

“Enough noise! Both of you, eat!”

The reply came straight from the kitchen.

Suyeon pouted and dipped her brush in the water jar.

With a chuckle, I took a TOEIC book from the living room bookshelf.

I’d barely opened it since buying it.

I handed it to Suyeon.

“Paint, but study English, too.”

“Why should I?”

“Who knows? You might become a famous artist and give interviews in English.”

Suyeon looked up at me as if I were being ridiculous.

“Hmph. You’re not even good at English.”

“Give me a question.”

“No, thanks.”

“If I get it wrong, I’ll give you fifty thousand won. But if I get it right, you have to study hard without complaining.”

“Really? You promised!”

Suyeon snorted and opened the TOEIC book.

She knew I’d only looked through a few pages before giving up.

But that was the me of this time.

The future Department Manager Kim had eventually scored 875 on the TOEIC and become fairly good at speaking English, too.

Suyeon held the book upright to hide the pages from me and chose a question.

“‘The shipment must arrive blank Friday.’ One, ‘at.’ Two, ‘by.’ Three, ‘from.’ Four, ‘with.’ What’s the answer?”

“Two.”

Suyeon checked the answer key.

“Huh? That’s right.”

“Study hard.”

“You guessed, didn’t you? Try one more.”

She flipped through several more pages.

After taking her time choosing another question, she read it out. When I answered, she looked back and forth between the answer key and my face.

“Uh... That can’t be right.”

[What? Was he always this good at English? I’ve never seen him study.]

“How dare you doubt your great and mighty big brother? Study hard from now on. Ask me if you don’t understand something.”

“...Okay.”

The sight of her looking so defeated made me smile.

She’d been just as cheerful in my previous life. She was always saying she’d hold an exhibition of her own work once she got to college.

But after Dad collapsed and Mom became ill, too, Suyeon’s dream had slowly faded.

She’d given up painting and joined a company close to home. Not because it made her commute easier, but because it meant she could get to the hospital quickly.

At some point, she’d stopped wearing her painting clothes and started wearing nothing but gray suits.

I’d thought it meant she’d grown up.

When I went into her room after Mom’s funeral, there were no art books or paintings in sight.

I asked whether she still painted, and she smiled as if it were nothing.

“That was ages ago.”

“You’ve grown up.”

“...Have I?”

Her smile had been awkward.

I sent money for the hospital bills, and Suyeon took care of our parents.

The dreams of her youth, once as vivid as her paintings, had withered into shades of gray.

This time, I was going to keep that from happening.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Can’t I look at my own little sister?”

“You’re being way too intense today.”

Dad had finished eating and was reading the newspaper.

My quiet father was always in the same seat, and Mom made delicious soybean paste stew. Whenever Suyeon had something to say, she blurted it all out without worrying about anyone’s reaction.

Back then, I’d thought mornings like this would last forever.

Only after those seats had emptied one by one did I realize how little time we’d had.

Before picking up my spoon, I brought up what I’d prepared to say.

“You should both get health checkups.”

“What for? There’s nothing wrong with us. We’re still fit and healthy.”

“You’re supposed to get checkups before you get sick.”

Dad was just as uninterested.

He folded his newspaper.

“Count me out. Hospitals will find something wrong with you even when you’re perfectly healthy.”

“Hmph. That’s ridiculous. You’re just scared of needles, Dad.”

Dad raised his eyebrows at Suyeon.

“Why would I be scared of needles? I served in the Marine Corps.”

“That was thirty years ago. These days, you keep asking us to rub the back of your neck because it feels tight. If you’re not scared, get a checkup like Seongjun said.”

“I heard full checkups are expensive,” Mom said. “You still have the final payment on your house to make. We can do it later, when you have more money to spare.”

Dad didn’t say anything, but he was thinking the same thing.

[We can’t put that burden on him for no reason.]

In my previous life, I’d taken those words at face value.

When they said we could do it later, I really had put it off.

But for the two of them, later had never come.

“Don’t worry about the money. Just get the checkups. I can afford that much.”

“Still...”

“If that’s how you feel, should I leave Dad out and just book one for you, Mom?”

“Who said I wasn’t going?”

Dad opened his newspaper again.

“Ahem. Just set a date.”

“Dad, if you get scared of the needle, I’ll hold your hand.”

“Quiet, you.”

Suyeon laughed silently.

* * *

The next morning.

Not long after I arrived at work, the fax machine rang.

Kang Minho brought the still-warm fax paper to my desk.

“Assistant Manager Kim, the purchase order from Gwangjin Precision is here.”

It was the first official order since I’d signed the contract with Yun Gwangho.

The purchase order listed the number of sensor modules and the required delivery date.

It matched the first shipment we’d discussed when signing the contract.

“Call the supplier and check their stock and the earliest shipping date.”

“Can I do that?”

“Of course. You’re only checking the date, so it shouldn’t be difficult.”

Kang Minho immediately opened a notebook.

“Write down the contact person’s name, too. If their story changes later, we need to know who confirmed it.”

“Yes.”

Minho wrote down my instructions and called the supplier.

In the past, I would have made that call myself.

I’d thought it was faster to do it than spend time explaining.

But I had no intention of taking everything on alone when the work could easily be shared.

[My first call to a business contact. Let’s not make any mistakes.]

Especially when I had a junior employee working this hard to prepare.

Minho rewrote the notes several times before picking up the receiver.

After the call, Minho returned with the notebook.

“Assistant Manager Kim, I checked the supplier’s stock.”

“And?”

“Well... They said the Purchasing Team hasn’t sent a shipping request for Gwangjin Precision. It’s not on this week’s shipping list, either.”

The problem wasn’t with the supplier.

Someone inside our company hadn’t allocated the stock.

Mistakes like this happened occasionally.

What mattered was how you handled them afterward.

I took Gwangjin Precision’s purchase order to the Purchasing Team.

Walking past the busy employees, I approached Manager Lee Jaehun.

“Manager Lee. I’m Assistant Manager Kim Seongjun from Overseas Sales Team 2.”

“Oh, right. What is it?”

“The shipping request for Gwangjin Precision is missing.”

“Gwangjin Precision?”

Lee Jaehun took the purchase order.

“Oh, that. Stock’s a little tight right now. I’ll put it in the next shipment, so give it a little time.”

[I took it out to rush some stock over to Team 1, and he’s already here.]

It hadn’t been a mistake.

The Purchasing Team had prioritized Team 1 over our poorly performing Team 2 and moved our stock around without asking.

Normally, I would have accepted that nothing could be done and walked away.

“Manager Lee. Team 1 has some spare stock allocated, doesn’t it?”

Lee Jaehun looked up.

“Where did you hear that?”

“I just had a feeling.”

“Ahem. Team 1 has a lot of major clients. If we don’t fill their urgent requests, it causes problems.”

“But you can’t take Team 2’s stock for that.”

“Come on, don’t put it like that. I’ll place the order right away. Just give me three days. Let’s be reasonable and let it slide this once.”

I firmly shook my head.

This was a habit.

Team 2 was looked down on, and the purchase order had come from a mere assistant manager. That made it easy to think a few days’ delay wouldn’t matter.

The first time was the hardest. If I backed down now, the second and third times would only get easier.

‘But picking a fight with a manager in Purchasing would be stupid, too.’

Fortunately, our team had a resident problem child who came in handy at times like this.

“Hmm. Department Manager Oh is bound to make a scene. Will you be all right with that?”

“Department Manager Oh? Why?”

“This is a new client for us, so the department manager’s paying close attention. I was specifically told to take extra care with this order...”

“Oh, really?”

“Well, it can’t be helped. I’ll explain things properly to Department Manager Oh.”

Manager Lee’s expression darkened.

I added the finishing blow.

“I’ll say Purchasing couldn’t secure the stock for our first order.”

Department Manager Oh might have been incompetent, but there was one thing our team leader did well: making a scene.

Once someone became a target, Oh would hound them until they were sick of it.

[Oh Sangcheol, that petty bald pain in the neck. They’ll come right to my desk and nag me all day.]

“Who said we couldn’t secure it? You’re too impatient, Assistant Manager Kim. Let’s check the canceled orders first.”

Lee Jaehun examined the shipping schedule, pulled stock from here and there, and secured enough for Gwangjin Precision.

Something that might have been delayed for days was settled in minutes.

“Thank you, Manager Lee.”

“Right. Keep up the good work. Next time something like this happens, just call. No need to come all the way over.”

“Yes.”

I took the revised shipping schedule back to the office.

Minho stared at it blankly.

[They clearly said it couldn’t be done, but he got it right away. I should’ve gone with him. What on earth did he say?]

After confirming the arrangements with the Logistics Team, I called Yun Gwangho.

“President Yun, this is Kim Seongjun. Your first order will ship today at three in the afternoon. You should receive it tomorrow morning.”

“That’s faster than I expected.”

“Since it’s your first order, I hurried things along a little. I’ll keep checking until it arrives.”

“Yes, please do.”

When I hung up, Minho asked cautiously.

“Aren’t you going to mention that the stock was taken out of the shipment?”

“It worked out in the end. All the client needs is to get the goods on time.”

I took out Gwangjin Precision’s contract and first purchase order.

Attaching both documents to an application for a new client bonus, I handed it to Oh Sangcheol.

“You’ll get two million won for this. You’re not going to let it pass without celebrating, are you?”

“Let’s have a team dinner.”

“That’s our Assistant Manager Kim. You should treat us to beef.”

“Pick whichever day works for you.”

“Okay.”

The bonus was deposited that very afternoon.

As soon as I checked the text message, I went into the hallway and called a health screening center.

I booked comprehensive checkups for my parents on the same day.

Then I wrote the date and time in my notebook.

[Parents’ comprehensive health checkups. 8 a.m.]

After hanging up, I transferred the fee to the account they’d given me.

More than half the bonus was gone, but I didn’t regret a penny.

This could protect everything from my sister’s dream to my family’s future.

* * *

On my way back to the office after making the appointment, I saw Deputy General Manager Seo Jeonguk from Overseas Sales Team 1 approaching from the other end of the hallway.

Tall, with sharp eyes.

That unsmiling face was as neat and cold as the way Seo worked.

Seo believed firmly in judging people by ability.

Employees who lacked skill didn’t even get a glance.

But anyone Seo judged capable would be brought close and put to work, whatever it took.

Seo was just as strict with themself and had reached deputy general manager at thirty-seven.

In the future, Seo would become the youngest executive at Taeseong Trading.

But even Seo Jeonguk had suffered one major failure, big enough to turn the company upside down.

[Long-Term Overseas Coffee Bean Supply Project.]

Hadn’t that happened around this time?

An overseas supplier had won the contract with good samples, then mixed rotten green coffee beans into the actual shipments.

By the time the problem came to light, the supplier had already taken the money and disappeared.

The company sent someone out there, but the office was empty.

It had been a fraudulent business that approached Taeseong Trading intending to make one big score and vanish.

The losses were enormous, and Seo Jeonguk, who had led the project, suffered a serious blow.

It took years to recover.

‘Couldn’t I change that outcome?’

I knew why it would fail and what tricks the supplier had used.

But in my previous life, I’d never caught Seo Jeonguk’s attention, and I’d had nothing to do with that project.

With those thoughts in mind, I gave my usual slight bow.

“Good morning, Deputy General Manager Seo.”

Just when I thought we would pass each other, Seo Jeonguk stopped in front of me.

“Assistant Manager Kim Seongjun.”

I raised my head, and our eyes met.

It was the first time Seo had called me by name in the eight years since I’d joined the company.

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