Seated opposite Seong-ho Kim, Managing Director Un-ho Jeong still wore a worried expression.

"What do we do if the yes-or-no vote returns more votes rejecting your proposal? As Branch Chairman Kang said, a general-strike vote would follow immediately…"

"That won't happen. They aren't going to reject my proposal."

"What makes you think so?"

"Because it's the wage system people have wanted."

"The one they've wanted?"

Un-ho Jeong looked at him for a moment with an uncomprehending face.

Then he looked back and forth between him and President Pyeong-chil Guk, who sat saying nothing.

President Pyeong-chil Guk gazed quietly at Seong-ho Kim and then put a question.

"Why is it the one people have wanted?"

"Ilhyeon Electronics is the finest company in the Republic of Korea. That's a fact no one can deny."

Both Pyeong-chil Guk and Un-ho Jeong agreed.

"So what are the employees at such a place? The finest talent in the country, naturally."

"The finest talent gathering at the finest company is only to be expected. What has that to do with the wage system?"

Seong-ho Kim looked at the puzzled Un-ho Jeong and said:

"The finest talent carries its own pride in being the finest. And to draw the same salary as someone who works less well and produces less? Setting aside the question of pride, that's a situation difficult to accept."

Managing Director Un-ho Jeong felt he dimly grasped what Seong-ho Kim was saying.

Because he had thought the same thing himself.

Un-ho Jeong had risen faster than anyone in his intake.

And even that had not been a satisfying situation for him.

Being paid the same salary according to rank was harder still to understand.

"And the problem doesn't stop there."

And then Seong-ho Kim said the thing that pierced straight through Un-ho Jeong's mind.

"In that case at least they're colleagues, so it can be endured — but drawing the same salary as someone in another department, particularly a department responsible for the company's losses, when I am the one earning the company money? That is a part no one can accept."

"Ah!"

A…