Chapter 1: A Resume That Shouldn’t Be – A Sudden Blow
Go Jungseok’s life, which had been flowing smoothly without any issues, began to veer off track during his drive home from work.
It wasn’t even the start of summer yet, but the rain poured down like a monsoon.
Normally sensitive, Jungseok became even more on edge when he was behind the wheel. Distracted by the rush to get home, he grew increasingly irritated as he navigated between reckless drivers.
He understood the urge to get as far away from the office as possible after work, but accidents on wet roads have triple the fatality rate. Surely everyone studied at least that much when getting their driver’s license.
It was astonishing how many people seemed to forget what they’d learned.
When the pedestrian light turned green, Jungseok stopped his car just behind the safety line. It annoyed him that cars in the adjacent lanes were jutting forward over the crosswalk.
At that moment, his phone rang, and Jungseok looked at the screen with a hint of irritation.
Grandpa collapsed. He’s in the hospital.
The short message flashing on his screen made him forget he was driving. He stared at the phone in shock.
He was jolted back to reality when the cars behind him started honking impatiently.
Still dazed, he stepped on the gas.
He wasn’t a child—he was thirty-two years old. It wasn’t that he thought his grandfather would live forever, but there’s a big difference between knowing something and facing it.
Jungseok found it hard to imagine his grandfather lying in a hospital bed. That’s how vigorous he had always been.
His grandfather had built a company from nothing in the ruins of post-war Korea and lifted the family out of poverty. Though he knew what aging meant, he acted like it didn’t apply to him.
Having endured liberation, the founding of Korea, and the war, his body had become like forged iron—stronger with each trial.
Even now, approaching eighty, he still went to the office daily and hiked famous mountains and visited temples on weekends. It wasn’t unreasonable to think he had defied age altogether.
Just last weekend, he had climbed Mount Cheonggye faster than Jungseok himself…
Jungseok, lost in thought, suddenly turned the steering wheel. It was an abrupt left turn—something he would never usually do.
The car behind him honked in annoyance, but Jungseok didn’t hear it.
He rushed through the rain, but by the time he arrived at the hospital, everything had already been taken care of.
Fortunately, it was a minor stroke. Secretary Han, who worked as both his grandfather’s secretary and personal nurse, had noticed the symptoms.
Having worked for years in a long-term care facility, she immediately recognized his slurred speech and facial droop, called a car, and arranged for the hospital transfer.
The fact that something like this had happened in the same building while his own family member was clueless and working away made Jungseok’s face burn with shame.
The hallway outside the hospital room was already filled with relatives and his parents, all wearing serious expressions.
Even relatives he barely recognized had gathered, clearly hoping for something. It was distasteful, but Jungseok cleared his throat and made his presence known.
As soon as his mother spotted him standing in the hallway, she shot his father a sharp glare as if to say, Why did you call him?
But Jungseok couldn’t accept being left out when his grandfather had collapsed.
Bracing himself for a scolding, he approached her.
“How is Grandpa?”
“There are already enough people here. Do you plan to skip work tomorrow too?”
Her tone was cold, but the slight tremble at the end betrayed her. Even she, who was always steel-hearted, was shaken. His father gently placed a hand on her narrow shoulders.
“Dear, Seok should at least know what’s going on with the family.”
“What are you saying to a man who’s working? If you’ve got nothing to do, go buy a paring knife. With all the fruit people will bring starting tomorrow, we’ll need something to peel it with.”
“All right, all right. Let’s sit for now.”
When his father gently helped her into a chair, she finally seemed to calm down and sighed, rubbing her forehead.
That was the cue for the crowd of relatives to quietly disperse. Seeing her usually razor-sharp parting in disarray, it was clear dealing with them had been no small ordeal.
“Your grandfather has a soft spot for you. Seeing your face might help him recover faster.”
“…Still.”
His mother trailed off, seemingly unconvinced, but eventually nodded.
Once he had her permission, Jungseok quickly turned to his father.
“Is Grandpa okay now?”
“The treatment went well. He’ll need monitoring, but they said he might need a few months of rehabilitation. It’s a cerebral issue, after all. But…”
His father’s voice trailed off. “But” was not a word one wanted to hear in a hospital.
Jungseok found himself pressing for answers, just like his mother would have. His father’s easygoing personality might work in arguments with her, but it was useless now.
“It’s strange. Ever since he woke up, he keeps saying weird things. Your mom thinks it’s just confusion, but he’s repeating the same story over and over…”
His heart sank.
Jungseok knew what strokes could lead to—especially in the elderly. Dementia was not out of the question.
“I’ll go see him myself.”
He needed to see with his own eyes. His mother didn’t stop him from doing so.
Inside the hospital room, where the humidifier was running furiously, his grandfather lay on a stark white bed in the center of the room.
Seeing the once-vigorous man looking so small made Jungseok bite his lip.
“Seok, you’re here.”
Even before he approached, his grandfather noticed him and opened his eyes. Hesitating briefly, Jungseok carefully sat beside him.
His grandfather’s speech was slurred, and he looked very tired, but thankfully, he didn’t seem too out of it.
“What about work?”
“I already left.”
“Oh, right… It’s that time already,” he muttered, his voice tinged with loneliness.
“Did Eun-ah tell you?”
He still called his daughter, who was over sixty, by her name—Eun-ah.
When Jungseok shook his head, his grandfather stared at the ceiling, then spoke softly.
“…I think it’s time to let go of the company.”
His words were clearer this time.
Jungseok was speechless. If it was a rash, emotional decision brought on by the illness and hospitalization, his grandfather’s firm expression didn’t show it.
He didn’t know all the hardships that had brought Dokgap Trading to where it was now.
The son of the Go family, who had sold buckwheat jelly and rice cakes before turning ten, had become Chairman Go. It couldn’t have been easy.
What Jungseok did know was that the company was like a trophy of his grandfather’s hard life.
To suddenly dispose of such a company—it made no sense. Jungseok looked at him in confusion.
But Chairman Go seemed entirely unaffected by Jungseok’s reaction.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. If I ever got to a point where I couldn’t move, I planned to let it go.”
Even if that was true, it still felt sudden—especially for someone who worked at the company.
Letting go of a company wasn’t something you could decide on a whim.
Even if his grandfather had started it alone, Dokgap Trading had grown into a huge enterprise, with not just a headquarters but multiple factories and branch offices.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of people’s livelihoods depended on it.
Jungseok sighed, facing his grandfather’s stubborn gaze.
“We’ll sell the headquarters building too. And the land.”
“Even if you want to, it’s not something you can decide on your own. There’s the board—”
“They’re a bunch of greedy fools who know nothing. No need to listen to them.”
Jungseok stared in disbelief.
His grandfather, of all people, should know that no matter how much of a founder he was, things didn’t work like that anymore.
“In any case, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear this. Just rest and think about it again.”
“What, are you treating me like some has-been just because I’m laid up in bed? Going to toss me out like trash next, huh?”
Chairman Go tried to raise his voice in anger but gave up in frustration as his body refused to cooperate.
That was the moment Jungseok realized where his mother’s fiery temper came from. He wondered if some of that fire lay dormant in him too.
“They said I’d need at least three months of rehabilitation… Three months! I can’t be away that long.”
His grandfather shook his head, muttering to himself.
Was he really thinking of selling the company because he couldn’t go to the office? As if only he could protect it?
Jungseok sighed as he watched his grandfather fret.
And just like that, Chairman Go narrowed his eyes.
“You brat—you just thought I was useless and didn’t do a damn thing, didn’t you?”
Go Jeongseok quickly denied it.
“No, of course not.”
But Go Chairman wasn’t one to be easily fooled.
“그래, 괜찮다. 나는 그럴 자격이 있는 놈이야.”
“Sure, it’s fine. I deserve that kind of judgment.”
His voice was calm, but the heaviness in it made Jeongseok’s heart sink even further.
“I only know how to run a company. That’s all I’ve done all my life. So now that I’m lying here like this, I’ve got nothing left. I can’t play golf like the other old men, I don’t know how to enjoy a hobby, and I don’t have friends to drink tea with. You know that too, don’t you?”
Jeongseok nodded silently.
The Chairman continued, his tone quieter than before.
“There’s a document in the top drawer of my desk. Take it and look it over. I wrote it a long time ago, thinking this might happen someday.”
“A document?”
“You’ll know when you see it. Anyway, the company’s future is something I can’t ignore, but there’s one more thing I need to confirm before I really let go.”
His gaze turned sharp again, and Jeongseok instinctively straightened his back.
“I need to know what kind of person you are, Jeongseok.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re going to turn thirty-three soon. You’ve lived long enough that I should know you well by now, but I honestly don’t.”
He paused, catching his breath.
“You always just follow what you’re told. You’ve never stepped out of line, and that’s made you trustworthy. But it also means I don’t know what you’re really like. What you truly want. What kind of man you are.”
Go Chairman let out a slow sigh.
“I don’t want to leave the company in the hands of a shadow I can’t define. If you want it, prove it. Show me who you are.”
Those words weighed heavily on Jeongseok’s chest.
He’d always thought he was doing fine—steady job, no scandals, no failures. But now, hearing those words from the person he respected the most, he felt like a child caught pretending to be an adult.
“Do you want me to take over the company?”
The Chairman didn’t answer. Instead, he closed his eyes, as if exhausted.
“I’ve said what I needed to say. Whether you listen or not, that’s up to you.”
It was clear the conversation was over.
Jeongseok quietly stood up and looked down at the old man who had always seemed like a mountain—immovable and eternal. Now, lying in that sterile white bed, he looked fragile for the first time.
The world he thought would always remain unchanged had started to shake. And Jeongseok, for the first time in a long time, felt something unfamiliar rising within him—responsibility.
A quirky, action-packed office exorcism comedy featuring a tiger-born rookie and a rabbit-born manager—plus a whole lot of ghosts!
When ‘Dokgab Mulsan,’ a massive corporation built on a goblin site, starts experiencing bizarre hauntings, it’s clear something’s gone wrong. With the original guardian goblin gone, supernatural chaos begins to affect the employees.
Enter *Kang Hae-young*, a fearless, tiger-born new hire in the Employee Satisfaction Center (a department of one), and *Go Jeong-seok*, a timid, rabbit-born manager (and also the chairman’s grandson). Together, this unlikely duo tackles ghostly encounters, soothes stressed-out office workers, and keeps the company in one piece.
But the spooky events aren’t random—there’s a dark force working behind the scenes, using evil spirits to try and take over the company.
From delicious cafeteria meals to full-on ghost battles, it’s a hilarious and heartwarming journey of unlikely heroes saving both spirits and spreadsheets.
“Let’s handle office complaints and exorcise spirits—all before lunch!”
