Rewriting mistakes, A Man's Man

A Man's Man - Dogado

I personally believe that the most perfect person is one who can remove his mistakes from history. Although Yuhyeon, the main character of A Man's Man, is not able to erase all of his mistakes, he knows what mistakes he needs to remove if he is to maintain his friendships and relationships in the future.

A middle aged man named Yuhyeon Han, previously the CEO of Hansung Electronics, is now the president of a sinking enterprise. His superiors have handed him the bloody knife, and everyone he previously trusted no longer trusts him, considering him to be a heartless man. He has just been asked to reduce the workforce at Hansung again, and his bitter wife left him alone during dinner. The Hansung building is picketted by protesters who are fighting for their jobs back, and security guards who are pushing them away so that Yuhyeon can get through the doors. Each day, Hansung's reputation deteriorates more and more.

A member of the protesters named Younggil breaks through the security and asks Yuhyeon to pay his respects to a deceased employee named Sejung Gwon, who was hired at the same time as Yuhyeon. A man dead because of Yuhyeon's irresponsible actions. Yuhyeon asks his event planner what his evening will look like. "There is nothing on the schedule yet," she tells him. Yuhyeon tells her to keep it open.

Yuhyeon asks his driver to take him to Sejung's funeral at Hanse hospital after he's spent most of the day at Hansung. The death of Sejung keeps coming up in conversation after conversation. Due to restructuring, he couldn't find a job after being laid off. At the time, Yuhyeon was responsible for restructuring. As soon as his team started sinking, he jumped ship leaving everyone behind. The restructure constantly makes him feel guilty, and he dislikes what he did.

After attending the funeral, Yuhyeon dismisses the driver and drives home by himself.

In Yuhyeon's mind, he keeps thinking of himself. "Today was supposed to be the day I was congratulated by everyone-- The best day of my life. Yet... right now, I have no parents, family, friends.. no one to be proud of me." As a result of losing everyone who trusted, him, he has made it to the top alone and confused. A bitter milestone.

Yuhyeon, lost in thought that he has nobody to trust, runs over something in the road, and he is surprised to see Sejung's ghost when he sees what he has run over. Leaving his car, Yuhyeon starts chasing Sejung into the fog-filled oasis that surrounds him. He comes across a strange bar called the Holy Moly. A bartender is cleaning glasses and welcomes him in. Yuhyeon asks for something strong and begins to ask the bartender why everyone blames him and have become unhappy because of him? Yuhyeon fails to realize that there is a darkness surrounding the bar as everything including the sign outside begins to fade away until only the the bartender remains. The bartender asks him, "Would you change it if you could? All the moments in life you regret?" Yuhyeon is then given one more drink.

Yuhyeon cheers glasses with the bartender and gulps down the shot glass. When he opens his eyes, he's surprised to see a younger version of Sejung alive. A glance of his window reflection makes him realize that he became younger as well. He also realizes that this is the moment he passed the written portion of his job application and in a few days, he would have to take an interview to work with Hansung Electronics.

after trying to pinch himself awake, Yuhyeon realizes this is not a dream. It is 2007 and he is in his twenties talking to Sejung, who is still alive. With a handshake, he asks Sejung not to be his friend in the future. Yuhyeon accepts that this is the truth and has actually gone back in time. To begin with, he calls his mother and tells her "thank you." These two words have been on his lips since childhood.

Having forgotten his apartment's code, Yuhyeon calls his mother to ask for it again. The textbooks stained in his blood in the apartment are the remnants of when he realized he was an idiot after studying too hard.

Three strangers knock on Yuhyeon's door saying that he injured one of their friends. They break into his apartment asking him for compensation for their friend's medical bills. A man that he accidently knocked over in the past while running to the written test. They followed him home in his past life and were the reason he never trusted anyone. He never wanted to get manipulated by strangers ever again.

Doing things differently he decides to call the police to sort things out. One of the strangers gets angry and tries to jump at him to take his phone. Yuhyeon dodges with ease. I think this is because his body moved slower when he was older, but has all the memory to move now that he's younger. He instead beats up the strangers and forces them to sign a contract to live a good life and to stay out of Mr. Yuhyeon's life. As the strangers run away, Yuhyeon realizes that one of the shameful events of his past has been changed. He begins to do what he can to change his future outcome.

His mom's cooking is the first thing he eats again. After eating it again, he cried because he missed her cooking. He remembers his old room, and he realizes he needs to talk to his father. Yuhyeon's family will go bankrupt in the future, and he could never forgive his father for bankrupting the family. He invites his father for a few drinks, and after finally convincing him they go to a bar.

Before Yuhyeon was about to have a conversation with his father, his dad's co-workers barge into the conversation uninvited. Yuhyeon realizes why his father will sell the land the factory workers were using. It was to save his second family of co-workers who couldn't support themselves. Yuhyeon realizes the difference between himself and his father. His father would rather save his co-workers, while Yuhyeon would save himself. Yuhyeon decides to be more like his father and internally forgives what his dad will do in the future.

Yuhyeon hears a girl yelling and trying to flee from her date. It's his sister Jaehui. Yuhyeon remembers Jongcheol, Jaehui's jerk boyfriend who destroyed her life. He's a loser who hits his girlfriends and even caused a miscarriage. In this way, his sister can run away and hopefully remain away from Jongcheol. Within one night, he started helping his family and could move forward without anything holding him back.

On the day of the interview, Yuhyeon runs into Hyeowu, a person he has met many times while working in a library. He's extremely stressed about his interview. Yuhyeon trains Hyeowu how to speak to everyone 20-30 minutes before his interview starts by removing voice ticks that make him sound unconfident, such as "Honestly". During Yuhyon's interview, each applicant in his group was given 30 seconds to introduce themselves. The applicants were told on the application guidelines they had 1 minute. During this time, Yuhyeon realizes the applicants are only allowed 20 seconds to introduce themselves or make a point of interest about their strengths.

Using electronic displays as an example, he creates interest by saying they will have even more potential in the future than now. That "Hansung's LCD division will grow with an eye on OLED to become the next pioneer of the future display industry." The pannel judges are blown away by his explanations. Next, he flexes/brown-noses about how much he enjoys playing golf. The sport is popular among his superiors. With that, he has secured a job at Hansung Electronics.

His new friend Hyeowu wants to thank him for training him by treating him with Lunch. Yuhyeon declines and asks that Hyeowu treats him to a nicer restaurant when he gets an offer. His father calls to let him know that after looking at a contract he was about to sign, his father decided not to sign with a company that would bankrupt his father's company. Avoiding future bankruptcy. He changed 2 more outcomes in the same day. Due to the way things have gone, his heart is beating, and he is very satisfied.

So far, my favorite chapter is the one that follows. Yuhyeon's family is delighted to hear about Yuhyeon's new job after calling. Yuhyeon's mother is delighted for him, while his father and sister knew that he would succeed. After the phone call, he hangs up and prepares to brush his teeth that night. He starts to put toothpaste on his toothbrush when some of his high school buddies call to congratulate him on getting the job and to say hello if he is in his hometown. Trying to brush his teeth again, he hangs up the phone again, but gets interrupted a second time when his father's friend calls to see how Yuhyeon is doing.

Almost at the end of brushing his teeth, Yuhyeon gets another phone call while he is in the middle of it. Yuhyeon never imagined brushing his teeth would be so challenging. This time, it was Hyeonwu calling. He wanted to tell Yuhyeon that he had received an offer and asked if Yuhyeon had received an offer yet? Yuhyeon congratulated Hyeonwu on getting hired and told him that he had as well. Hyeonwu wants to treat Yuhyeon out properly. Yuhyeon doesn't care about the treat and just wants to brush his teeth in peace. However, he realizes that all of those well wishes just for landing a job at Hansung is a better experience than becoming CEO.

I think this is my favorite chapter because the previous ones focused on Yuhyeon's attempts to apologize to those he caused trouble with in the future and how he changes them going forward. He has started a groundwork of trust amongst his friends and has begun to also create a family within his business by making connections formed by helping each other out and trust. In this chapter, Dogado shows how trust is built from the previous chapters, and how all those efforts are rewarded as he enjoys those feelings.

This story keeps me intrigued, and every week, I look forward to seeing how it plays out. I highly recommend checking out this amazing story.